A New Face for a New Year

PJ Sharon here wishing all you Scribe’s followers a Happy New Year!

We are so thankful for your support over the past year and hope you’ll continue to join us for fun, informative, and entertaining posts about writing, publishing, and all things books. You’ll be treated to an occasional secret recipe, guest authors, interviews with industry professionals, reviews of our favorite books, and tips on everything from  craft to the everyday pitfalls of trying to manage this crazy writer’s life.

As the first Scribe to post in 2013, I’d like to talk about the most important selling point of a well-written book–aside from it being well-written, that is.

In this day of digital publishing, when as many as 350,000 new books a year are put in front of readers, the burning question is, what will help your book to stand out in the deluge? I can’t help but think the answer goes back to the basics. Most of us judge a book first by its cover, then by the blurb, and then by reading the first page or so. Most readers, many who are buying from their e-reading devices, only see a thumbnail version of a book cover and often decide to look closer only if something about that tiny image pulls them in. Having a breathtaking cover, a well-written and captivating blurb (back cover description), and a grabber of a first line can only up your chances at being noticed.

As you may know, I had moderate success with a FREE promotion last week and I think the results prove my point.  After having my cover redone by a professional cover artist, downloads for Heaven is for Heroes outnumbered my previous bestseller, On Thin Ice, 3 to 1. You can read about my results here.  Since the only thing I did differently to showcase Heaven is for Heroes was a $5 paid ad on Facebook, I’m betting that the new cover had something to do with the increased numbers. My results tell me two things. Facebook ads do work, and cover art matters. Either way, I took the hint and had a new cover made for Savage Cinderella. **Incidentally, I did see a small bump in sales this week after my FREE days, so IMO it’s still worth hopping on the KDP Select gravy train if you’re looking for a boost in sales and visibility.

Although I’d had lots of feedback from friends and fellow writers who liked the original cover, the black and white just didn’t stand out on the thumbnail version. The title and author name didn’t “pop,” and the image didn’t really give a clear impression of the genre or the story, at least not when competing against the cream of the crop with their photoshopped masterpieces.

One of the benefits of independent publishing is that we can easily adapt and change with the market. Young adult cover art has evolved over the past year or two, leaning toward “darker” images, bolder colors, haunted faces with intense expressions, and beautiful young men and women looking tormented but relatable on the covers. The tone of a book should be clearly expressed through the cover art, and there should be some hint as to what the story will entail via the title fonts, tone, and cover image. I’m hoping that my new cover does all of those things, perhaps even tapping into a new readership who previously may have overlooked the other cover simply because it didn’t stand out enough or they didn’t “get” a feel for the book.

There’s no doubt that I’ll run across those who would rather not see a face on the cover, preferring the character’s features be left to the imagination, but the idea is to make an impression–to grab a browsing reader and make them look twice. If you’ve read the book you’ll probably understand why this image is so powerful. If you haven’t read the book, you can find it on Amazon, B&N, and Smashwords, or you can read a chapter a week for FREE on Wattpad.

As always, I’d love your feedback.

This cover is the work of Melody Simmons, who also did my Heaven is for Heroes and Waning Moon covers. She is super easy to work with and reasonably priced, not to mention, fast. She had this cover and my HIFH cover back to me in a day or two, offering me several options from which to choose, and working with my suggestions to get to the look I wanted.

I hope you’re looking forward to 2013 as much as I am. I have a feeling it’s going to be a stellar year for the Scribes and we’d love for you all to share the journey with us.

Blessings of good health, peace, prosperity, balance, and harmony to all,

PJ

Do you have any exciting plans for the coming year? What do you think about trends in cover art? Too many faces on YA covers, or do you like to see those smoldering and deperate looks?

 

Marketing Makeover

As the end of 2012 looms on the horizon, I’ve been working on my first quarter marketing plan for 2013. Being a relative newbie to indie-publishing with much more to learn, I’ve been studying the results of my first year efforts, and in retrospect, I can say I’ve definitively learned one thing. Well, I’ve learned a LOT actually, but one thing in particular stands out for me. I’ve learned that there are no constants in this business. What worked for one book didn’t work for others. What worked yesterday might not work today, and no matter how hard I work, there is an element of luck and timing that I have no control over. PJ Sharon here, welcoming you to the Writing Secrets of Seven Scribes. Today, I’ll be sharing what I think is a more focused approach than my previous “throw everything at the wall and see what sticks” marketing plan.

Not that I haven’t had some moderate success with this approach, but like any business, the only way I can survive is if I trim the fat so to speak, and look for areas where I am wasting my time, effort, and resources. To that end, here is what I plan to do differently in 2013.

1) KDP Select-The exclusive 90 day enrollment that I did last spring with Amazon for Savage Cinderella was by far the most successful (at least in the short term) promotional tool I found. With 39,000 downloads, a temporary spot on the top 100 list, and a significant uptick in sales for several weeks after my FREE days, I felt like I was seeing some real progress forward. However, shortly after coming off the Select program, my sales declined in June, and the numbers tumbled every month after that for my first three books. I heard from industry veterans that the best way to rebound was to publish another book, which I did in September. Despite a month long blog tour and several group promotions, I have not seen much improvement in sales since then.

I resisted continuing with the KDP Select program because I didn’t like the idea of exclusivity, and I was hearing that results for the Select program had reportedly not been as good as they were last spring. That being said, I’ve decided to take the plunge again—for several reasons. I would be foolish not to tap into the Amazon pot that is set aside monthly to be divided amongst Select participants, paid out for “borrows” from the Kindle Lending Library. With 1.5 million dollars available for December (twice the norm), “borrows” should offer authors a nice Christmas bonus. Being able to offer my books for FREE for five days during that 90 day period without jumping through all the hoops of playing the “price matching” game is a simple and effective marketing tool. It also helps me to increase my reader base and my visibility, which are probably the greatest challenges that an author must focus on.

So I’ve revamped my cover for Heaven is for Heroes and enrolled both it, and On Thin Ice, into the program for the next 90 days. That means Only Savage Cinderella and Waning Moon are available on all platforms. If all goes well, when my 90 days are up, HIFH and OTI will go back onto all distribution channels and I’ll put Waning Moon into the Select program for a few months prior to the release of Western Desert, book two in the trilogy. I hate feeding the Amazon “monster,” but until I see real sales on B&N et al. I can’t pass up the opportunity. I literally have made an average of $15 a month from B&N—and less through Smashwords–hardly worth giving up potentially hundreds of sales through Amazon.

This is where I was supposed to mention earlier that both Heaven is for Heroes and On Thin Ice will be available for FREE on Amazon this Friday and Saturday, December 22-23. If you haven’t read them, I’d love it if you would download them or tell anyone you know who might enjoy some YA romance drama. The more downloads I have, the closer I’ll get to that top 100 list so all those new Kindle owners can find me after Christmas. I appreciate it!

2) I’ll keep exploring available social media platforms-I now have almost 500 FB likes and nearly 1000 Twitter followers, which is where I have put my focus over the past year. I’m not sure how that translates directly to sales, but it sure helps me connect with some great authors, bloggers, readers, reviewers, industry professionals, and some all-around awesome people. Since word of mouth is still the best advertising, it’s clear that social media is here to stay and is a useful medium to help get the word out. I would like to try to focus on finding what works for me and best helps me connect with my target audience. That will include more time on sites like Good reads, Pinterest, Tumbler, Wattpad, and Kindle Boards.

3) Budget funds for paid advertisements and production costs. Short cuts are not the way to go in this business. It’s a very competitive industry and becoming more so every day. Hiring a cover artist, quality editors, and paying for advertising that has proven to be effective are worth budgeting funds for. My husband and I doing everything ourselves at first seemed like a way to save money and maintain control of my product, but in the long run, I can see I didn’t give my books their due.

The nice thing about Indie publishing is that I can make changes whenever I want. The books won’t be taken off the market if they don’t sell in a month or two. My backlist can become my front list if I want to start a new advertising campaign and change up the cover, try a new venue, or target specific groups of potential readers. The sky is the limit, but it all costs money, so I’ve realized that I have to budget money to give the books their best chance to succeed.

4) More than anything, though, I’d like to become more organized about my time management-This is a business. But without writing good books in a timely manner, I will have no business. That means that the writing has to come first. I’m not kidding myself into thinking I’ll be able to keep it all under perfect control, but I will budget my time differently, allowing for 50-60% of my time to go towards production of new material, with only 40% of my time spent on administrative details.

There have been times over the past year where I haven’t written a word on a WIP for weeks because of getting caught up in all the crazy business chores and responsibilities. I’m finally beginning to let go of all that, and bring my focus back to the writing. If it means less time building my network or promoting the books, then so be it. And if I only get one quality book out this year, then that’s okay with me, too–though I’m planning for two and possibly another short story.

Most importantly, staying healhy, sane, and having some fun along the way is much more important to me than sales figures these days. When I start stressing about all the “to-do’s,” I remind myself to relax and enjoy the ride. You never know what’s going to come over that next big hill.

What will you do differently this year?

Fur Friends in Fiction

In honor of my dog Zak, I wanted to write a post about adding animal characters to our stories. Zak was a handsome and faithful ten year-old lab/husky mix who I had to say goodbye to this weekend. The house has been all too quiet since and we will no doubt miss him terribly. When we invite an animal into our lives, we are taking on a partner of sorts. They don’t become our pets as much as we become their people. As authors of romance and love stories, it’s only right that we should include our furry soul mates in our stories. I don’t know about you and your first encounter with your fur friend, but I fell in love with Zak at first sight. We quickly became best friends, forging a bond that would last his lifetime. I love the idea of incorporating that kind of relationship into my books.

In SAVAGE CINDERELLA, my main character Brinn befriends a bear, rescuing it as a cub after its mother is killed. Since Brinn was still a child at the time, she named the bear cub Kitty, stole milk from a farmer’s goat, and cared for the bear until it was grown enough to fend for itself. From then on, the two were friends for life, Kitty coming to Brinn’s rescue just in the nick of time. (see book trailer here).

It was fun creating that relationship and showing the connection between humans and animals even under the most unusual of circumstances. Animals have a way of getting under our skin right from the start, reminding us that unconditional love is the truest form of love we can express or receive. The bond that we form with them goes beyond pet and master. There is a soul-deep affection and trust that is difficult to explain to someone who has never befriended an animal and spent years living with them side-by-side.

Adding an animal character to a story is challenging, which is why I don’t think we see it done often. You need to make them into a believable, continuous thread of the story.To do it well, in my opinion, you have to sprinkle in the personality traits of the animal and show how they impact the main character. Aren’t we always a perfect match for our pets? By sharing how animal characters interact with the hero and heroine, it can deepen character and connect the reader even more than the hero/heroine relationship itself.

I’ll use Kristan Higgins again as an example because she does this so well. Her fur friend characters are engaging and lively, and are just as quirky as her main characters. They are clearly just one more member of the family. I think Kristan’s success with this is that the dogs aren’t just thrown onto the page to add color. It would be easy to have them distract from the story, but instead they are real secondary characters who are present in the background at all times, affecting the emotions and actions of our main characters, just like our real companions. They also have unique personalities–always ready to express themselves through a bark, a pant, or a set of pathetic big brown eyes begging for some love and attention, or a treat.

In my upcoming YA Dystopian release, WANING MOON, genetically altered teen Lily Carmichael, is accompanied on her journey by a pair of grey timber wolves. Bo and Pappy are brothers, distinguishable only by the scar that Bo carries across his eye and snout from having fended off a polar bear to save Lily. (Don’t ask about polar bears in the Northeast. You’ll just have to read the book.) I had fun writing the wolves into the story and used a lot of Zak’s character traits in doing so. I’ll describe him and you tell me if you don’t see the heart of a wolf in him.

Zak was a fiercely protective dog who thought nothing of challenging a bear or moose if he thought his domain was being threatened. He was stubborn and loyal, and not always terribly bright (just ask the skunks and porcupines that he thought were cats).  But he was also totally goofy and handsome the way his ears perked up and shifted at the slightest sound, like two satellite dishes on his head. My biggest challenge after taking him in as a six month old pup was that he had been taken out of two other homes for neglect and he had major abandonment issues, did not get along with other animals, and would become aggressive if threatened or fearful. I tried socializing him, but he had his mind made up that he was going to be a loner. Eventually, we became his pack. He was friendly to children, neighbors and even strangers, but if you tried to do something he didn’t like, he let you know in no uncertain terms that if you didn’t have a tranquilizer gun, you ought to just back off.

Against the advice of vets, I didn’t put him down as a pup. Instead, I moved him out into the country. Here, he was surrounded by woods where he could run free. Amazingly, he never strayed from our property or even far from our sight. He was a great companion for me on our hikes on the vast trail system behind my house. If my husband traveled, Zak was on guard and would no doubt protect me with his life. His daily presence was a comfort to both my husband and me, always greeting us with a bark and a wagging tail. He lay by my side more than once when I was sick, ever watchful and responsive to my moods or energy shifts. Though he sometimes made it difficult to appreciate his quirks, we always loved him unconditionally and that love is what I believe made him the great dog he was. He had a happy life here, and I’m so glad we could give that to him. In return, he gave us his all. It seems fitting that I should have him immortalized in some way through my Chronicles of Lily Carmichael trilogy. I’m sure you’ll get to know Zak a little better as you read about Bo and Pappy.

Until then, what do you think about animals in fiction? 

Back at the Beginning Again!

PJ Sharon, here. Actually, I’m at the beach today celebrating the completion of my first draft of WANING MOON with a few of my very best young friends (my twin nieces and my godson).

 After many months of clawing my way through that manuscript, I needed to take a day off and have some fun before diving totally into revisions. Admittedly, I’ve already begun the process, and have moved through the first ten chapters with relative ease. I was excited to get started, but felt I also needed to take a day and acknowledge my accomplishment—something that I often have trouble doing.

 Once I started back at the beginning, it wasn’t hard to see where the story went off track and needed to be trimmed–sections where delving deeper is necessary. I can clearly see some missed opportunities to address the lack of multidimensional depth of character. But the most important revision I will make will be with my opening.

 I believe it is Orson Scott Card, in his book THE FIRST FIVE PAGES, who says that how you open your story can make or break your chances at publication. If you don’t grab a reader/agent/editor in the first five pages—or dare I say, even the first paragraph—they may never get to page six waiting to find out what the story is about. One of the most common comments I’ve heard from being on both sides of the contest fence (both judge and entrant) is that the story often doesn’t begin until page seven or eight. That is a sure sign there is too much backstory. Of course, you have to ground your reader in a setting, but you can push them over the cliff with those first few paragraphs and they will enjoy the ride down as they figure out what’s happening along the way. It requires a delicate balance and some hard earned skill, I think.

My goals with those first five pages are to:

 1) Pull the reader in by connecting them emotionally to the main characters.

2) Introduce at least one or all of these: Goal, Motivation, and Conflict.

3) Set the scene by “showing” the environment in relation to the story and how it goes to show either the central conflict of the story, or what motivates the character to take action.

These are lofty goals for sure, but I’m willing to write and re-write until I meet those goals and create the strongest opening I can. Take my other works for instance. In HEAVEN IS FOR HEROES, the story begins with Jordie attending the funeral of her brother, the point where her world changes forever. There, she sees her childhood crush wounded and blaming himself for her brother’s death and we show the underlying conflict that Jordie has with feeling so responsible for her mother as well as her brother. Lots of emotion/empathy for both Jordie and Alex, and the story question is posed at the end of the first chapter.

ON THIN ICE began a bit differently. I wanted to show Penny in her world, which included figure skating lessons at the rink, and how she viewed her life and her peers. I was able to quickly show why skating was so essential to who she was throughout the story. It set the scene for her goal, (to live up to her mother’s dreams for her), her motivation (intro to her mother’s cancer), and her conflict (knowing that her heart really wasn’t into competing). It might have been a bit slower opening, but I would argue that it gave the character more depth to do it that way.

In SAVAGE CINDERELLA, I chose to use a prologue. I don’t like or dislike prologues per se. If one is needed to show the passage of time or to set up a pertinent scene that sets the tone for the story, I say, go for it. My three page prologue in SC did several things. It gave us a compelling and creepy snapshot into the mind of our psycho villain. Since he was off page until almost halfway through the story, I needed to make him real, frightening, and believable right off the bat. It also gave an indication of the passage of time when chapter one begins eight years later and we see the world through Brinn’s eyes after overcoming and surviving. If I didn’t have that prologue, I don’t think we would connect or identify with Brinn as quickly.

Today’s unlocked secret: I think as long as you keep in mind those few goals I mentioned above, start your story with a compelling scene that quickly leads to the character’s call to action, and write the most powerfully engaging first five pages you can, your reader will gladly read on to page six.

 Good luck with polishing those pages! I’ll look forward to seeing how some of you did when we go to our CTRWA writers retreat in September. Until then, happy revising!

 

FREE FALLING

Tuesday’s Child, PJ Sharon, coming to you from the lovely Hills of Western MA. I trust you all had a memorable and relaxing Memorial Day weekend. Thanks to everyone who helped me spread the word about my Heaven Is for Heroes FREE book offering over the weekend. I was able to gift dozens of e-books to military families and meet some new readers. I LOVE giving books away! But I’m a little concerned about the consequences of all this giving away of free books. How much is too much?

Ooops! Never too much! Ya’ll awake now?

Sigh…you can never get too much of my beau Alex, here…when digression is a good thing. Back to business. As I was saying…

When I published my first book last September, I was rightfully focused on recouping my investment, managing a budget, and making enough money to produce the next book three months later. By being diligent (that included making my family and friends buy my book) I was able to break even by January and start loosening the reins on my militent book selling. Fortunately, the third book, which came out in March, cost me much less to produce, allowing me to break even on my investment within the first month of it’s release.

It wasn’t until I entered Savage Cinderella into the Kindle Direct Publishing Select program that I saw the opportunity to make my book available for FREE. With KDP Select, a ninety day agreement to offer the book only through Amazon, I could put the book up for free for up to five days within that three months. I had been watching my Indie Romance Ink pals do very well with their free promotions. (I have to say here, I feel incredibly fortunate to belong to such supportive writing loops. I would not be able to do any of this without them. I’ve learned so much about the inner workings of publishing, marketing and promoting that would have taken years  to learn on my own.)

Several YA and Children’s authors in the group organized an event in April that ran for three days (see my experiment here). During those three days I had 28,000 downloads of SC in five countries. I was blown away by these results and noticed a consistent boost in sales of all three books for about the next three weeks.

Just when the numbers started to decline, I was approached to join another group of authors. This time with the WG2E (Writers Guide To E-publishing) in another give away. I still had two more FREE days to use up, so I jumped on board with the WG2E Street Team.  Sixteen authors worked together to promote an amazing Beach Book Blast event. There was a Twitter party, crazy cross-promotion through FB, a deluge of tweeting and retweeting, a Kindle Fire giveaway, and a constant sense that everyone was working in sync to move mountains.

 It was an awesome experience. During my two FREE days with the BBB promo, I had over 11,000 downloads and have sold 120 books in the past four days. I also reached the Amazon Top 100 Kindle Free book list, gaining the exposure that every author hopes for. My best ranking during that time was #30 in the Kindle Free Store, #3 in Love and Romance category, and #4 in Children’s e-books. Woohoo! I was thrilled, and I’m only sharing so you’ll know what’s possible.

 I love that I am reaching so many new readers who might potentially want to read other books I write. Every writer writes, if only in part, for the joy of stirring an emotional response from an audience. It’s an amazing feeling when someone tells you that they loved your story or that you touched their heart in some way. But there are also those who think your book is “unbelievable and stupid.”  I appease my bruised ego by counting my sales and waiting for those royalty checksJ A few negative reviews are well worth the pain for those short bursts of increased sales after a FREE promotion, and the momentum that gets generated in sales of your other books. If timed right, it can give you a pretty good payout over a few months.

On the downside—and yes, there is always a downside—for all of those downloads, a certain percentage of readers will never read the book because they have downloaded more FREE books than they will ever have time to read in this lifetime. It’s also a heck of a lot of work being a part of or running one of these promotional events and you are super lucky if you can hook up with some indiustrious people willing to collaborate. Otherwise, it’s tough to get these kind of results all on your own. 

Another possible side benefit of doing a FREE promo is that you can pretty much plan on getting a bunch of reviews, something that is generally a challenge for new authors. Great! Right? Um, no…Quantity seems to win over quality in this respect. I had 10 new reviews, some of which were very nice, others, not so much. With 25 reviews, SC has an average rating of four stars, for which I am very grateful, but there are some unhappy readers out there and that is always hard to take.

 I think many of the negative reviews come out of the fact that a cross section of people who download anything that is FREE may not be your target audience and may not be a fan of your genre. Don’t be surprised to see some returns. That’s right, for every ten books I sell or give away, there are at least one or two returns. That means that for every fifty books I sell, five to ten are returned. No idea why, but I hear other indie-authors say the same thing so I don’t worry about it. I don’t worry about negative reviews either. The majority of comments are wonderful, and I’m pretty comfy here in my thick skin.

But the biggest downside of going FREE is that the glut of free books on the e-book market are making things very tough for authors who need to charge $7, $8, or even $9 for their books to ensure that publishers, agents, and distributors get their cut. Being an indie, I can set my price, and most indie authors are fine with selling a 75,000 word novel for under $3.99. Why would anyone want to pay for books if they can get so many inexpensive or FREE books? Is it devaluing the work of authors? Will readers come to expect books to be free? Will people with e-readers fill them up with so many free books that they will just stop buying them? I’m sad to say I have more books on my Kindle than I will ever have time to read. This is a definite deterrent for me buying anything new or even downloading more free books.

 Don’t get me wrong. I’m very pleased and satisfied with my results, and I don’t think that people will ever stop buying books, I’m just pondering the future and wondering what’s next?

So how do you feel about FREE books? For, against, or neutral, and why?

Projects, projects, projects

PJ Sharon back from a vacation in the beautiful Smokey Mountains with a big “thank you” to my Scribes buddies who stood in for me last week. It wasn’t just Suze and Casey covering on my behalf while I was away. Thanks to Cat Kalen for bailing me out of my scheduling curflewy and moderating comments on YA Beyond last friday. And lest I forget the most supportive people around, the fabulous WG2E Street Team has been hard at work preparing the Beach Book Blast. I’m on board with fourteen other indie authors who either have their books up for FREE or have them listed for .99 cents between May 23-25^th, and these folks have done an extraordinary job of organizing the event. SAVAGE CINDERELLA will be available for FREE on May 23^rd and 24^th ONLY, since I have just two more free days available through the KDP Select program. (click here for more info on why authors are giving their books away FREE.)

The WG2E folks are some hard workers, let me tell you. I’m so proud to be associated with such amazing professionals as D.D. Scott who contributed a FREE Kindle Fire as a contest giveaway during the event, Alicia Street our organizer, and Tamara Ward and Greg Corrico, two of the tech savvy people who helped set up our BeachBookBlast site, our FB page, and a Pinterest Board. Thank you all for holding down the fort and forging on without me. It’s so nice to not be alone in this crazy, solitary writer’s world.

In honor of Memorial Day, I’ve also made Heaven Is For Heroes available on Amazon, B&N, and Smashwords for .99 cents. I hope you’ll pass the word on to those who might be interested in a sweet YA romance about a girl, a Marine, and a family drama that will have you crying on one page and laughing on the next. The perfect gift to honor someone you know who has served in the military or is part of a military family.

So now, on to my new found secret I’d like to share with all of you. Aside from heading south to witness one of the loveliest weddings it has been my privilege to attend, the other reason I was so looking forward to getting away last week was that I needed some time away from business so I could take care of something even more important. That means working on writing books. I did find opportunities to advance my WIP while I was relaxing, the rushing waters of the nearby creek stirring up my creative flow and making me think about some good advice I’ve heard from a few great authors. “When you get stuck, make sure you have something else to work on.”

The concept of working on more than one project at a time might sound ludicrous to those of us struggling with completing even one, but I’ve been finding myself stuck after each scene in my dystopian trilogy, having to take time to ponder, research, or otherwise percolate before being able to get the next scene on the page. During that time I’m hearing the voices of other stories singing in my ear. I’m fighting not to listen. I keep thinking I have to force myself to stay focused and stick it out with my WIP, but I’m beginning to see another way to work.

Perhaps those other authors have found the secret to keeping their creative juices flowing and their WIP’s growing by listening to the voices and working on multiple books simultaneously. Rather than swimming against the current, maybe I need to go with the flow, and stop trying to “push the river” as Vic in HIFH would say. I’m willing to give it a try and see how it works. To that end, I’ll be making writing a priority every day and focusing on making forward progress, no matter where it takes me. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Does anyone else want to admit to working this way? Do you have multiple projects going on at the same time? How do you manage your manic muse?

 

KDP Select and My Three FREE Days Experiment.

Hello Scribe’s readers. What a crazy week and a wild ride I’ve had. First, let me thank everyone who either downloaded SAVAGE CINDERELLA or helped spread the word that it was available for FREE for three days last week. And if you missed out, I’ll be using my two remaining “FREE” days at the beginning of June just before I pull the book down from the KDP Select program to upload it to Barnes & Noble and Smashwords. What does all of this mean? This post might be a bit long, but bear with me and I’ll explain.

Kindle Direct Publishing Select program is available to authors who upload their books to Amazon and agree to exclusively sell only on Amazon for a ninety day period of time. I won’t get into all the details of KDP Select since I’ll be covering it in depth soon on Market or Die with Jennifer Fusco and I want to focus this post on the results of the promotion. In short, one of the perks of being in the Select program is the ability to offer the book for free for up to five days during that ninety day period. The benefits of this are numerous. Allow me to share my experience with you.

On Thursday, April 19^th, I joined fifteen other children’s, middle grade and YA authors who put all of our books for free for that day only. I used the momentum of that promotion and added two more free days for my book. Thanks to the organizational genius and diligence of our “fearless leader” Stacey Juba, the books were listed on dozens of sites that showcase FREE books. Stacey assigned each of us five sites to contact regarding the promotion. That means at least seventy-five sites potentially carried our free promo. It cost us nothing and was very easy and manageable. I also listed my book on the following FREE Book promotion sites:

E-reader News Today, Indie Book List, Pixel of Ink, Free Kindle Books Today, Your Book Authors.com, and Kindle Nation Daily, most of whom kept my book listed on their front pages for the entire three days. It might interest you to know that I had just come off of a ten-day Blog Hop with seventy-four other authors and had the opportunity to promote the event to the dozens of people who “hopped” by my blog to check it out or leave comments. We implemented a massive tweet and FB campaign as well with our social networks. 

My goals for the FREE promotion were as follows:                                                                                     

1)      Increase visibility/discoverability (Top 100 lists)

2)      Expand my readership/reach new readers

3)      Boost sales

4)      Get more reviews (I had only two reviews, both 5 stars before the promo started. This will become important later.)

I was stunned at the results and I’m still floating on the residual effects. Before I started the FREE days, I was feeling a bit discouraged. January, February, and March sales had climbed steadily and I half expected April to continue to climb since I had just released SAVAGE CINDERELLA (SC) in mid-March, thereby expanding my backlist, which should, theoretically increase the sales of all of my books. Not so much. Truth be told, April brought on a big fat stall in sales and I hadn’t sold a book in three days. As of April 18^th I had sold 11 copies of SC on Amazon for the month. My Amazon ranking was somewhere around 80,000. Pitiful, I know! Sales of ON THIN ICE have consistently been good and I was at 58 sales for April. Not bad, but not nearly as good as the previous three months.

Imagine my surprise when I woke up on April 19^th (three hours into the promotion) to 57 downloads and a ranking of 7,842 in the Kindle  Free Store. I watched throughout the day and was mesmerized as I saw the numbers soar. By midnight that night, I had 4,954 downloads and was #89 on the Free Kindle Books list. I’d broken into the TOP 100 list that would gain me the exposure I was looking for.

I won’t bore you with a blow by blow of the numbers over the next few days, but by the time the promotion was over on Sunday morning, SC had 26,688 US downloads, 1,031 in the UK, 76 in Germany, 6 in France, and 1 in Spain (my first Spanish reader!) My book was #7 in the Kindle Free Store. There are other lists that are important to note here. Books are categorized into many sub genres when you list your book on Amazon. Authors get to pick these categories so it’s important to choose wisely. SC stayed in the #1 slot in my categories for the full three days.

The only downside I discovered is that I’ve gotten a few less than stellar reviews which has lowered my starred ranking from a lovely 5 star average to 3.8 stars. This is not an uncommon occurrence according to many indie authors who believe that this is due to the large cross section of readers who may not, in fact ,enjoy the genre but download anything FREE. There is also the belief that anything FREE is of lesser quality and value. 

The upside is that I met all of my goals and exceeded my expectations. Since the promotion ended on Sunday, I’ve sold 120 copies of SC with 45 borrows (for which I will be paid 2.04 each), and 30 copies of ON THIN ICE. HEAVEN IS FOR HEROES has sadly fallen off the radar with only 13 sales this month, and will have its own promotional resuscitation very soon. These are my current stats in the Kindle Paid Store as well as in my categories:

• ·         Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,088 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • o    #33 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Children’s Fiction > Literature > Love & Romance
  • o    #45 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Genre Fiction > Romance > Romantic Suspense
  • o    #49 in Books > Romance > Romantic Suspense

 Overall, a resounding success! It’s likely that the numbers will settle down again over the next days or weeks, but the boost has been encouraging and I am absolutely thrilled with reaching 28,000 potential readers. You couldn’t buy that kind of exposure and it really cost me nothing but a little time and effort. As always, thanks to all of you who continue to support my efforts and make this crazy ride such a blast to share.

 Questions? Comments? Do you appreciate FREE books as much as books you’ve paid for? I’m curious to know.

 

Dystopian-In or Out?

Hey all you Scribes fans, PJ Sharon here on this lovely Tuesday morning in the Berkshires. We’ve had a fabulous stretch of weather in New England which, as much as we’re enjoying it, has got to mean Mother Nature is lurking around the corner waiting to clobber us. I hate to be negative, anticipating the worst, but aren’t we all thinking the same thing and remembering those dark days during the blackout in October when we weren’t sure if the apocalypse was perhaps rearing its ugly head?

I bring this up now because I’ve just started a new project that has been roaming around the recesses of my mind for some time and won’t leave me alone. It’s a Dystopian trilogy called “The Chronicles of Lilly Carmichael.” If you want to get a peek at the premise and offer any suggestions for the title of Book 1 in the series, stop over at my “Extraordinary Stories of an Average teenage Life” blog, and weigh in. If I choose your title, you’ll get signed copies of each of my books, including the March release of Savage Cinderella. (Click on the title and scroll down if you want to read chapter one of Savage Cinderella.)

What exactly is dystopian and why is it so hot, you ask? Dystopian YA literature, also known as YA dys-lit, is loosely defined as stories about “post-apocalyptic” societies in which misery and negative conditions prevail, or a seeming utopia is gained at horrifying cost. Scott Westerfeld, Author of “The Uglies” series, has this to say about what draws teens to this genre in droves. Click here for his insightful take on this topic. Since the arrival of Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy, dys-lit has taken off like wildfire with teens and adults alike, and shows no signs of slowing down. Everyone seems fascinated by the fate of our future and imaginations appear to be drawn to the idea of destruction and chaos.

It’s not like this is a new concept. Books like “Farenheit 451″ by Ray Bradbury, “The Time Machine” by HG Wells, “1984″ by George Orwell, and “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley were talking end of the world survival long before Westerfeld and Collins arrived on scene. Since then, however, hundreds of dystopian stories have hit the YA shelves. Some of my favorites are “The Giver” by Lois Lowry, “How I Live Now,” by Meg Rossoff, and obviously—the “Hunger Games” trilogy—can’t wait for the movie! If you haven’t seen the trailer, it’s a MUST see. Check it out here.

What does the publishing world have to say about all this? Is Dystopian on its way out? Or is it the “new paranormal”? Publisher’s Weekly has this to say.

According to some buzz in the publishing world, there is a glut in the market, but most of the articles I’ve read disagree. Read here for another article from PW that speaks of “paranormal fatigue” and calls dys-lit “the next big thing.” I’m thinking those that are saying that Dystopian is on its way out are agents and editors who are getting inundated with dys-lit submissions and are trying to tone down the frenzy. They only have so many slots to fill, and it takes them eighteen months to get the books out. Perhaps they are anticipating that in two years, maybe the market will be saturated. I personally don’t see that happening. As an indie author, I like the fact that I’m under no such pressure to follow market trends or worry that I won’t be able to sell my story to a publisher who is trying to assess an ever-changing and fickle market. But just in case, I plan to jump in now and ride the wave while it’s big and running wild. I plan to have the first book out in July. And true to my other books, there will be a boy-girl romance and a hopeful ending.

Shifting from contemporary to dystopian may seem a bit risky, but it should be clear to you all by now that I’m anything but traditional, and my heart and my muse are telling me that now is the right time for this story. Besides, I have to follow my muse since she and Lilly are keeping me up nights. If I’ve learned nothing else on this indie-pub journey, it is that I have to trust my gut and follow my instincts. So far, they haven’t steered me wrong.

For more information on what various publishers are looking for in YA, check out this article.

What do you think of Dystopian? Here to stay, or doomed to fizzle?

Big numbers and Blog Tours

Since you folks seem to like seeing the numbers, I thought I would give you an update. This is totally in the interest of helping others to see what indie-publishing has to offer and to encourage those who might be considering it. Or maybe this is a deterrent, depending on your expectations. Either way, these numbers reflect my personal experience and are being shared because I consider you all to be my friends. Without your help and support, none of this would be possible. So thanks a million guys!

While preparing to do my taxes (which is as far as I’ve gotten), I was adding up my numbers. Sales numbers that is. I reported back in November that I was pleased with the progress in my indie-publishing journey and that sales of HEAVEN IS FOR HEROES were on a steady path of growth. With the release of ON THIN ICE, and a few promotional efforts through the holidays, I’m happy to say that I’ve met one of my big goals for my first year of publishing. 1,000 books sold!

I’ve often heard the statistic that says most new writers will never sell more than a thousand books. Yikes! So when I heard that statement, I decided that would be my short term goal. I knew that if I could sell a thousand books, I’d be on my way. I originally gave myself a year to do this, but once I started seeing how the numbers climbed on my Amazon sales reports after each blog tour or advertisement that I did, I realized the potential to surpass my goal. It’s been a lot of work, but if I include January sales of 165 books so far, I’ve reached 1,000 books sold in four months! 

I published my first novel on September 24^th, and the second on December 15^th.

Sales have gone something like this:

September:            October:         November:    December:HIFH/OTI January:HIFH/OTI

Amazon      22            13                 198                     239/36                              23/114

BN               7              3                    29                      14/5                                  10/5

Hardcopy   28            39                   40                      14/12                                1/12

Createspace has sold a total of 28 copies in 2011 and 7 in 2012. Smashwords: 42 of HIFH and 59 of OTI since the books were released. In addition there have been 72 free downloads of HIFH and 29 of OTI. I’ve also donated books to libraries and sent out review copies and contest prizes.

Both books have received consistent 4 and 5 star reviews and I’m getting excited e-mails from readers who are looking forward to SAVAGE CINDERELLA in March. I haven’t yet figured the exact revenue from all of these sales because HIFH was up for sale for six weeks at .99 cents which I’m sure, in part, accounted for the boost in sales. I also advertised on Pixel of Ink, The Frugal E-reader, Super E-Reads, and a few free sites.

 I found blog tours more successful than book signings, and cross-promoting with other authors for the Booklovers Buffet to be helpful. Although, at .35 cents a sale at the .99 cent price point, I would have had to sell a heck of a lot of books to make real money. I know I’ve made enough to cover the cost of the first book and some advertising, but my budget is still running in the red. My goal for this year: 10,000 books. That breaks down to about 900 books per month, or 225 books per week, or about 30-40 books a day. Sounds doable when I put it that way, right? I’m hoping the release of SAVAGE CINDERELLA in March puts that goal within reach.

I’m beginning another blog tour this week, and would love for you to drop by and leave comments, tweet, or share my posts to your Face Book pages if you find them interesting or entertaining. You can find out where I’ll be and what I’ll be talking about on my calendar page of my website. I’ll be posting the specific links to my FB Fan page  as soon as I have them. If you want to follow along, just “like” my Facebook page or follow me on twitter @pjsharon. The tour starts this Thursday, Jan. 26^th on Author Eileen Cook’s website where I answer interview questions that will definitely let you all get to know me a little better. Thanks for sharing the journey with me.

Savage Cinderella Cover Reveal

Good morning Scribes fans! Today I’m doing my big cover reveal for my next book, SAVAGE CINDERELLA, due out, March 15^th. I’ve mentioned before that my husband makes my covers so I’ll give you the skinny on how he does it, in case you’re curious.

First, we talk about the book and my vision for what I want the cover to project. Then we peruse the stock photo sites looking for that one picture that screams at both of us, “I’ll tell the story, pick me—pick me!”. I found both the front and back cover photos for  this book at Big Stock Photos. After much research, reading the fine print, and following several discussions on the Indie Romance Ink loop, I realized I didn’t need to pay extended licensing fees on the stock photos for book covers unless I was planning to sell over 5000 print copies or use the photos for merchandising, neither of which seems likely. I can always change the cover later if I need to. So compared to the $300 we spent on Heaven Is For Heroes,

Heaven Is For Heroes

the $100 I spent for On Thin Ice,

On Thin Ice

and the $13.98 I spent on Savage Cinderella, I can safely say I’ve cut my production costs by several hundred percent. That’s what I call a bargain! I can use those savings for editing services or advertising. A learning curve, indeed!

Once I pick out the photos, my husband–the creative genius techspert–takes control of the next step. He downloads a template from CreateSpace that is based on the size of the book (in my case 5.5×8.5). I chose this size because it puts my 80,000 word young adult novels at a manageable width for readers. The print is large and readable, there is adequate white space on the page, and they are distinct from the typical 4.5×6.5 romance novel sized book. Anything I can do to have my books be reader friendly and stand out in the crowd, is a good thing. The spine width is automatically determined by the page count of the book.

Next, he sets up the template on Power Point and starts fitting the photos onto the template and adding the layers of text. I’d love to give you all the specs of step by step processing, but I’ve watched him do it three times now and the details still befuddle me.  He alters coloring as needed, we agonize over fonts for a while, and finally, when it’s as perfect as we can get it, he saves it to a PDF which is the format required by CreateSpace. Voilà! Hubby crops and saves the cover photo as a jpg. or png. file so I can use it for blogs, advertisements and on my website.

So there you have it. Above is the front cover and to the right is the back cover. We’ve added a QR code with a link to my website and Createspace will add the UPC with ISBN number. I’d love your feedback about how you think we did. We’re still learning and are open to constructive criticism so we can keep improving with each cover. I love each of them for different reasons but it’s fun to see the evolution.