Not a Thing

AAAANNNNDDDD. . . .

I got nothing. Sorry!

I've been working super hard on my WIP (when I'm not watching Melissa and Joey reruns on Hulu).

(This, in between the day job and daydreaming about the two projects I want to start writing.)

In the meantime, if you haven't seen this . . . 

The Publishing Process in GIF Form (Thank you, Nathan Bransford!)

. . . it's *really* funny. 

But of course you've seen it. It's been all over Twitter and Facebook the last two days. 

Just do me a favor and watch it again. We'll pretend I'm all on top of things and providing you with cutting-edge links to relevant entertainment. ;)

~Katie~

PROMO: 2012 eFestival of Words Winners

Eight Award Winners in the 2012 eFestival of Words "Best of the Independent eBook Awards" have grouped together to offer you an amazing opportunity. They've reduced the prices of their award-winning novels to 99 cents for August 27 and 28th!

Whether you like to read mysteries, romance, horror, young adult, women's fiction, or fantasy, this group has it. Are you a writer yourself? Do you want to learn all about digitally publishing your next masterpiece? They've got you covered there, too.

Get all eight award-winning ebooks for the price of one single paperback!

Award Winners

Best Mystery/Suspense: Dead is the New Black by Christine DeMaio-Rice
Best Non-Fiction: DIY/Self-Help: Let's Get Digital by David Gaughran
Best Horror: 61 A.D. by David McAfee
Best Romance: Deadly Obsession by Kristine Cayne
Best Young Adult: The Book of Lost Souls by Michelle Muto
Best Fantasy/Urban Fantasy and Best Novel: The Black God's War by Moses Siregar III
Best Chick Lit/Women's Lit: Carpe Bead'em by Tonya Kappes
Award for Best Twist ("I've Been Shyamalaned"): The Survival of Thomas Ford by John A.A. Logan

Here's a one-stop shopping link for your convenience: http://amzn.to/MO7qBY

Book Blurbs

Dead is the New Black by Christine DeMaio-Rice
Laura Carnegie gave up on the man of her dreams a long time ago. He's fashion designer Jeremy St. James, and not only is he her boss, everyone knows he's gay.

When the woman who holds the company purse strings is found dead in the office, and Jeremy's arrested for the murder, everything changes. If Laura can just solve this crime, keep the cops off her tail, break up a counterfeiting ring, and get the show on the runway by Friday, she might stop being Seventh Avenue's perpetual loser.

If you love Project Runway, or enjoyed The Devil Wears Prada, try Dead Is the New Black.

Let's Get Digital by David Gaughran
This guide contains over 60,000 words of essays, articles, and how-to guides, as well as contributions from 33 bestselling indie authors including J Carson Black, Bob Mayer, Victorine Lieske, Mark Edwards, and many more.

It covers everything from how the disruptive power of the internet has changed the publishing business forever to the opportunities this has created for writers. It gives you practical advice on editing, cover design, formatting, and pricing. And it reveals marketing tips from blogging and social networking right through to competitions, discounts, reviews, and giveaways.

If you are considering self-publishing, if you need to breathe life into your flagging sales, or if you want to understand why it's a great time to be a writer, Let's Get Digital: How To Self-Publish, And Why You Should will explain it all.

61 A.D. by David McAfee
61 A.D. For ten years, Taras has lived in the young city of Londinium, feeding off the city's underbelly. But now Theron, his old enemy, has come looking for revenge, and Taras' nights of living in relative peace are about to end.

Yet not even Theron can slip into town unnoticed, and the Council of Thirteen sends Ramah to deal with the two renegades once and for all. But unknown to the Council, a much older enemy is also in Londinium, and this time even the great Ramah might not be safe.

Set against the backdrop of the Iceni uprising in Roman-era Britannia, 61 A.D. continues the story of Taras, Theron, and Ramah, as they fight their way through history.

Deadly Obsession by Kristine Cayne
Nic Lamoureux's perfect movie star life is shattered by a stalker who threatens any woman close to him. When he meets photographer Lauren James, the attraction is instant--and mutual. She's exactly the sort of woman he craves, but the stalker makes deadly clear Lauren is the competition.
And the competition must be eliminated.

"Stock up on ice cubes because this is definitely one sizzling debut. Readers will be hooked from the first sentence- on the book and on Nic! As rich as a white chocolate cheesecake, Cayne's entrance into the suspense genre is invigorating, explosive and simply intoxicating." ~ RT Book Reviews Top Pick

The Book of Lost Souls by Michelle Muto
When teen witch Ivy MacTavish changes a lizard into her date for a Halloween dance, everything turns to chaos. And when no one is powerful enough to transform him back except Ivy, it sparks the rumor: Like father, like daughter. Worse, someone has used an evil spell book to bring back two of history's most nefarious killers.

Ivy's got a simple plan to set things right: find the real dark spell caster, steal the book, and reverse the spell. No problem! But first, sheíll have to deal with something more dangerous than murderous spirits: the schoolís hotter-than-brimstone demon bad boy, Nick Marcelli. Demons are about as hard to handle as black magic, and Ivy soon discovers itís going to take more than a lot of luck and a little charm if she wants to clear her status as a dark witch, get a warm-blooded boyfriend, and have her former date back to eating meal worms before the weekís end

The Black God's War by Moses Siregar III
Against the backdrop of epic warfare and the powers of ten mysterious gods, Lucia struggles to understand The Black One.

Her father-king wants war.
Her messianic brother wants peace.
The black god wants his due.
She suffers all the consequences.

"Moses is a fine writer deserving of success, and I think that it will follow ... I really enjoyed Moses's work." - David Farland, NYT Bestselling Author of The Runelords

Carpe Bead'em by Tonya Kappes
Hallie Mediate was raised by her (slightly) crazy Great Aunt Grace on the wrong side of the tracks in Cincinnati. Hallie escapes her hometown and never looks back.

That is, until sheís transferred back to the hometown. Not wanting her past to cross paths with her future, Hallie puts her life on hold.

Aunt Grace is still up to her old tricks, but Hallie finds some sanity at a local jewelry-making class where she uncovers a hidden talent for beading.

Will she keep searching for the happiness she may already have found?

The Survival of Thomas Ford by John A.A. Logan

Thomas Ford is the only survivor of the car crash which killed his wife. He is also the only witness who would be willing to identify the young, reckless driver who caused the crash. But the driver would sooner see Thomas Ford dead than ever let that happen.





Happy Reading!

Temporary Hiatus

Hey Y'all,

I didn't get a chance to post yesterday due to a death in the family (meals, visitation, funeral--you know the drill), but I'm up on the Indelibles blog (On Being a Geek) if you're interested in checking it out.

It's been a whirlwind few days, and I have a lot of day job junk to do if I don't want to work on Saturday, so I hope you'll understand the blogging hiatus I'm taking for the remainder of the week.

Cancer Sucks . . . and that is all. :)

~Katie~

Am listening to "I Can Only Imagine" by MercyMe

Hot New Releases!

From 

Ali Cross

DESOLATE

 

Where darkness lives, all will become desolate.

It’s been two months since sixteen-year-old Desolation Black chose Earth over Hell and her friend Miri over her eternal love, Michael.

Desi goes through the motions of life: school, training, remaining vigilant against the forces of darkness, but her dreams are full of the choices she wishes she could change. When she’s injured by a strange demon, old temptations arise, and the lines between good and evil blur. Desi discovers those choices aren’t so final after all.

And this time, the power of love—for a friend, for a lover—may not be enough to save her from the darkness that lurks within.

(Desolate is priced at $3.99. The first book in this series, Become, is free.)

____________________________

From  

RaShelle Workman

BLOOD AND SNOW #3: The Vampire Christopher

 

As a revenant, Snow White craves blood. Especially the blood of her Hunter. But will drinking from him save or enslave her?

The Vampire Christopher is priced at $.99.

____________________________

From 

S. R. Johannes

MARKETING YOUR WORDS: 

A writer's guide to bestselling promotion

Learn how to sell books and become a bestseller. This "how to" is priced at $4.99.

Tuesday Links

Am slowly weeding through my inbox, so if you're waiting on something from me: Never Fear!

In the meantime, am passing on a couple of links of interest:

The first is "Low eBook Pricing: The Compensation Problem," and comes from Catherine Ryan Howard. It has to do with pricing your ebook, and focuses on "earning for the long haul."

Quote: "But the point is that the money you earn from your writing is not a question of how much you make from individual sales of your work. It’s about how much that work makes in the long run, over time. And this is what you should consider when you price your book."

The next is a post by Susan Kaye Quinn. I am so in awe of her, truly. ALL of her posts are fabulous. It's called "Building Your Production Capacity." If you're a writer or other creative individual, it basically gives you permission to watch TV and stare out the window as long as you're producing work (i.e. writing, editing, and marketing).

In her words: "I continue to create craft study programs and examine bestsellers, as well as invest in publishing production capacity like social media and marketing. But I skimped on the production capacity that directly fed my creativity (reading, free writing, daydreaming). And as I get further down the writing road, I realized that this, almost as much as the writing itself, is vitally important to my writing career in the long haul."

So, go meet your word quota for the day, then pop in a good DVD. :)

That is all!

~K~

Am listening to "Time to Say Goodbye" by Sarah Brightman

(No, there's no hidden meaning in that one. Apparently my Opera Pandora Station has decided I need to hear this song once every forty-five minutes. No complaints here, though.) :)

A Whole Lot of Random

I've been quiet all week, I know. Working on a super secret new project. (Not that it's super secret or amazing or anything, it's just that I tend not to discuss what I'm writing as I'm writing it. Sorry--just not a "post from the work in progress" kind of gal.)

It hasn't been all work work work, though. I spent yesterday afternoon mellowing at the pool, for instance. (And trying to catch up on my reading. I swear, my Kindle is overloaded.)

Seriously thought about posting a graph showing how much "work work" I've done this week, how much "writing work" I've done, and how much "other" work I've done (including pool time, procrastination, and watching of the Olympics), but I will SPARE YOU the graphs. ;)

 

Otherwise, I'm enjoying my new laptop--a MacBook Pro courtesy of Mr. Klein. I'm switching back and forth from PC (for work work) and the Mac (writing work), though, so I'm still getting used to all the Mac "frills." This is all v. alien for me.

 

I just finished reading (paperback) Stardust by Neil Gaiman. (Because I'm so pathetic I've never read anything by Neil Gaiman, and this feels wrong, somehow.) Totally remedied that.

 

I also finished Super Zero by Rhonda Stapleton on my Kindle. Super Fun and Super Sexy. *Love*

And finally (Nerd Alert!) I recently enjoyed watching this video on Creativity by John Cleese. Ignore the subtitles.

So many great ideas. . . . Now all I need is an hour and a half of uninterrupted "thinking" time in a house with a husband, kid, and two crazy dogs. 

Yeah. Not happening. :)

That is all.

Enjoy your weekend!

~K~

 Am listening to "Somewhere Only We Know" by Keane

July Sales Numbers

So, if you missed the beautiful graph from my last post, it was meant to show that you CANNOT predict ebook sales from month to month—expect highs and lows (and everything in between).  

The point? There's no need to freak if you're on a downswing: it's not necessarily "over." There's no need to freak if you haven't seen much of an upswing: you have plenty of time.

(ebooks are forever, remember?)

What I really wanted to do, though, is show off my mad graphing skills (Yes. I finally learned how to insert graphs in MS Word. Am so behind on this technology stuff, I know.)

Anyway, I also promised to post July numbers, so. . . . 

The grand total is:

5,392

The Guardian

Amazon US: 278, Amazon UK: 7, Amazon DE: 2, Amazon FR: 1, BN: 175, iTunes: 13            

Total: 476          (15.3 sales per day)

Cross My Heart

Amazon US: 3,023, Amazon UK: 183, Amazon DE: 61, Amazon FR: 8, BN: 672, iTunes: 337

Total: 4,284       (138.1 sales per day)

Vendetta

Amazon US: 151, Amazon UK: 3, Amazon DE: 2, BN: 67, iTunes: 1                              

Total: 224          (7.2 sales per day)

               

Revelation

Amazon US: 275, Amazon UK: 2, Amazon DE: 1, BN: 69, iTunes: 4

Total: 351          (11.3 sales per day)

Trilogy

Amazon US: 18, Amazon UK: 2, Amazon DE: 1, BN: 20, iTunes: 16

Total: 57            (1.8 sales per day)

Oh, wait. You actually stopped by to see my mad graphing skills? You got it!

 

The following graphs are dedicated to Ana (@beingbold) at The Book Hookup  —fellow lover of pie charts. Go forth and follow her to discover new, amazing reads.

These are pretty self-explanatory, I think. Cross My Heart is my #1 seller, $3.99 is my best price point (so far), and Amazon is my number one platform.

Best sales month of my Indie career so far! (The next best month was June 2011.)

As for milestones?  

Cross My Heart slipped across the 30,000 ebooks sold threshold, and I'm just over 41,000 total ebooks sold since I began this journey! 

And now I blow dramatic kisses to all of you for purchasing, rating, reviewing, and telling your friends. CMH has always been a word of mouth book, and I can't thank you guys enough for taking a chance on me. Seriously.

And now I run off to pinch myself. (And make more graphs!!!)

Enjoy your weekend! :D

~KK~

A Few Words of Encouragement

I'm going to preface my monthly numbers post by offering a few words of encouragement. (If you've been playing the indie game long enough, this isn't anything you haven't heard before.)

First, ebooks are forever.

Second, you never know which ebook you publish will take off. 

Keep writing them. Lots of them.

Third, you never know when an ebook will 

come back around and surprise you.

I guess (in some ways) I'm still stuck in a traditional publishing mentality: publish a book, see a surge the 1-4 months after it releases, watch it fizzle. By last fall, I was bracing myself for a plateau—to hit that monthly "mark" I could maybe expect to coast at "from this point on." 

Data proves: that's not happening.

Because it DOESN'T happen—not when you have an ebook that's "forever."

Yes, there have been some great months, there have been some slower months, but the truth is: there's no way to predict what you will sell from month to month, or when you'll see a surge or a dip.

Proof in Figure A

See the highs? See the lows? Is there a trend? Meh. It's probably too soon to tell. If we're going by last year's data, I can maybe expect a lull during the fall, but I also didn't anticipate having the highest Cross My Heart sales month ever a year and four months AFTER the book released (July 2012).

If this was a traditional book (based on the traditional model) I would have had about three months after the release of Cross My Heart to make an impact. If it didn't resonate, the books would have been shipped back to the publisher, and I would've been written off. Bookstores have to make room for those new releases, right? They have to make a profit, too.

But what if that doesn't happen? What if a book hits stores before its "time"? What if a particular story doesn't hit that tipping point until 6-9 months (to a year) after it releases?

Thank goodness we have online booksellers, because I doubt the brick and mortar stores are willing to carry a book that's not selling well six months after the release—not with every major publisher pushing "The Next Twilight" or "The Next Hunger Games" onto the floor. 

Anyway, it makes me kind of sad for all of those novels with potential that were shipped back to the warehouse (or stripped) before they were able to find the right readers.

It takes time to build an audience, so if you've released a book and the "sales" aren't there yet (and I use that term loosely, since "sales success" means something different to each of us): hang in there. Don't give up. Write that second book. Because honestly? There's no way to know where you'll be a year and four months after your release. 

The numbers may surprise you.

Marathon, not a sprint.

Marathon, not a sprint.

That is all!

~Katie~

P.S. I'm posting July numbers on Friday.

By the way, does anyone still care for these numbers posts? I promised when I first started I would be as transparent as possible. At the time, a lot of indies were posting sales numbers. Are people still doing this? Are the numbers surprising? Enlightening? Inspiring? If it's getting old/annoying, let me know.

And always, if you have a numbers post, feel free to send me the link. I love to see how others are faring. :)