YA Indie Spotlight: Ben White

Hi Everyone!

For this week's YA Indie Spotlight I'm pleased introduce Ben White.

Ben is on the blog promoting his YA Fantasy novel Miya Black, Pirate Princess I: Adventure Dawns.

This novel is priced at $0.99, and is the first in a series.

SUMMARY

For Princess Miya Black, home is Clover Island, a tiny dot of a place not even named on most maps. Founded fifteen years ago by her parents, ex-pirate Tomas "Boots" Black and ex-princess Lilith "Lily" Brightburn, it's a place for second chances and new beginnings. It's there that Miya was born, there she grew up, and there she now lives, spending her days riding with her best friend, practising swordsmanship with her fake uncle, sailing with her father, and avoiding book lessons with her mother. To Miya it's the best place in the entire world, and she knows how lucky she is to have it.

So when her home is threatened Miya doesn't just sit around around sulking. She's the princess of Clover Island, with the blood of pirate legends running through her veins, and she'll do whatever it takes to protect her kingdom.

RATING: A mild PG for minor violence and mild swearing (damn, hell, bloody).

(This rating leads me to believe that this could be a good choice for some middle grade readers, too.)

ABOUT BEN

I'm Ben, Benjamin Joseph Kuniyoshi White if you're not into the whole brevity thing, Ben White if you're somewhere in the middle, and I write books. Books about pirate princesses, books about would-be greatest superheroes, books about gloomy girls bashing zombies about with baseball bats. Most of my books would fall squarely in the sub-sub-genre of 'Girls Kicking Arse', and if you had to choose a section of the library to put them in, Young Adult would be the safest bet.

I live in Nelson, New Zealand with my wife and two busy young daughters, and in pretty much every spare moment I have, I write.

Readers: You can find Adventure Dawns on Amazon.

Check out Ben's author page while you're there. You'll find the second Miya Black book and a few others there, in addition to the paperback links.

Thanks for stopping by, Ben!

KK

CROSS MY HEART is Here!

The links are live! CROSS MY HEART is officially available for Nook and Kindle. It's actually been available for Nook for about 24 hours. I'm kind of floored at the response so far, especially since I've barely done any promotion.

That's great news for "newbie" indies, though. You don't need to be established or have a following to be successful. Put your work out there and let the readers find you. They're looking. Trust me.

KK

It's Coming!

I literally just hit the submit button for my latest YA novel: Cross My Heart.

It's currently in processing for both Nook and Kindle. 

Part of me is relieved. I love this story. I've been working on it (off and on) for more than two years, and I feel like a weight has lifted. 

The other part of me is convinced I sent the sorriest, most pathetic book ever out into the world. But I'm a writer, and we're neurotic like that. 

At any rate, I will return with details as soon as the links go live.

KK

YA Indie Spotlight: Michelle Muto

Hi Everyone!

I'm very pleased to have YA author Michelle Muto on the blog today. Michelle is promoting her newest YA urban fantasy novel: The Book of Lost Souls.

Isn't this cover beautiful? This book is hot off the presses and priced at $1.99. How can you beat that?

SUMMARY

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. Ivy has heard it all before - that her father, who left when she was seven – was involved with the darkest of magic.

Making the rumors worse, someone uses 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 she’ll have to deal with something more dangerous than murderous spirits that want her and her friends dead: the school’s resident bad boy and hotter-than-brimstone demon, Nick Marcelli. Nick’s offering Ivy more than his help with recovering the missing book – he’s offering her a way to ditch her scaly reputation as a lizard-lover. Demons are about as hard to handle as black magic, and as Ivy soon discovers, it’s going to take more than a lot of luck and a little charm if she wants to survive long enough 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 week’s end.

RATING: PG-13 for very mild language (the b-word), some thematic violence.

Link for Nook

Link for Kindle

About Michelle:

Michelle writes young adult urban fantasy and young adult horror. She loves scary books and funny movies, sports cars, chocolate, and changes of season. Michelle lives in NE Georgia with her husband and two dogs. Currently, she is preparing to release a second book and is busy writing her next novel.

She blogs here.

I hope you'll check her out!

KK

Cover Reveal!

I have to admit, this kind of makes me nervous. But I did promise that I would reveal the cover of my newest ebook (Coming Soon! As in: ideally in the next two weeks, soon). For those of you who prefer realistic YA contemporary over fantasy/paranormal: this one's for you. Again, I want to thank Gemma Hart over at Deviant Art for letting me use her beautiful image.

So, without further ado:

ABOUT CROSS MY HEART:

True love can blossom in unexpected places. This is Jaden pretending not to notice. . . .

Jaden McEntyre and Parker Whalen are a wrong fit from the start. Jaden is driven and focused; Harvard Med School within reach. Parker has a past—a reputation—and the rumors about his mysterious habits abound. So there’s no reason why, when they're assigned to work together on a project in English, they should discover they have anything in common, or even like each other; and they definitely shouldn't be falling in love.

As they bond over Edith Wharton’s tragic novella, Ethan Frome, the “bad boy” vibe Parker plays begins to dissipate. Soon, Jaden finds herself shedding her own “good girl” image: sneaking around to be with him, confiding in him, and ultimately falling hard for this leather-wearing, motorcycle-driving loner who plays into the rebel stereotype.

Still, Jaden can't shake the feeling that there's more to Parker than he's letting on. He's hiding something from her, and discovering the truth means reconciling the Parker she's grown to love with the person he really is. Because it's possible that his life inside the classroom—everything Jaden knows—is one, massive lie.

More details to come!

KK

Guest Blogging Today

Hi Everyone!

I just wanted to drop a quick line to let you know that I'm guest blogging on Jennifer Hudock's blog (The Inner Bean) today.

You can read my post here.

Also, check back in the next few days . . . because I think it's time for a cover reveal for my next project. :)

Happy Wednesday!

KK

February Sales

If there is one thing that, as indies, we love, it's knowing each other's sales numbers. So, on this first day of March, I leave you with my official February numbers:

US Kindle: 33

UK Kindle: 2

BN Nook: 32

I mentioned in my previous post that I met my sales goal (50 books) about five days early. I'm hesitant to post another goal, because sales are so unpredictable from week to week. In fact, over half of these sales dropped in the last half of the month. Still, it's something to work toward, and motivates me to get my name out there. So . . . I'll say that, for March, I'd like to sell 100 copies. :)

I will be releasing another book this month, so maybe that will help. (Stay tuned for more info!)

I know a lot of authors are playing around with their prices (especially lowering to 99 cents) to build readership. I can't say that's something I'll never do . . . but it's not something I'm going to try yet. I seem to be gaining readers with the $2.99 price point, and I'm happy with the increase I'm seeing. If it ain't broke . . . you know. :)

And yes, my February numbers outsold December and January combined.

I'm sitting at 67 sales for the (short) month. :)

KK