New Year's Eve Surprise!

Here it is! IMAGINATION

A botched military mission finds new recruit Christopher Parker in a hostile prison camp. His life has become pain. To escape the prolonged misery of torture, Christopher journeys deep into his own memories and imagination, reliving his life in extreme detail. Imagery is so precise the people who occupy these memories believe they are living real lives. As each character explores ever-shifting landscapes of Christopher’s imagination they uncover a shocking truth; Christopher is slowly dying. Can they fight against Christopher’s own thoughts from convincing life to slip away before everything they know disappears forever?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ATFC3JM

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00ATFC3JM

Scatter-funk!

My promotion blitz is going well, sales are slowly increasing, and I’m getting a lot of email from people reading my books. All this is good. However, as one of the emails pointed out, I’m not certain what exactly is generating the increase. I’ve got a lot of blog ads running simultaneously right now at a cost of anywhere from $5.00 for two weeks to $300.00 for the same two weeks, depending on the amount of traffic the blog receives. However, I have no way of knowing which ads are generating sales. It would be a waste to have spent money on the expensive ad only to find it was the cheaper ad that sold the books. Chalk that up to another lesson learned. Do no more than two ads per book at any one time in any single medium. Then judge the results before booking another. I expect interest in my books to increase as the week wears on because I believe hundreds of thousands of people have opened new Kindles for Christmas. I also believe that a majority of these people are traveling home right now or have plans for the New Year and haven’t really settled and explored their new ereader. That’s why I booked my ads through mid January. I’ll know at the end of the month if my efforts have paid off. I do wholeheartedly believe they have paid for themselves already in the exposure I’ve received, which will eventually lead to the ultimate goal: bestseller.

Just throwing this out there.

 To my fellow authors. Just copied and pasted this because I've used many of these sites with some success. Waiting to see what the results are going to be. Comment for more info on results.



Free Sites for eBook Promotion
Addicted to eBooks: “This website is perfect for readers like me, who want to watch their book budget. This website also allows the author to rate some of the content of their book. I want to know before I buy if a book the level of profanity, violence or sex in a book. I’m excited that authors can now rate their books for the readers.”
AppNewser Free eBooks of the Week: Our editors pick a few free eBooks every week. To submit email your pitch to appnewser [at] mediabistro [dot] com.
AskDavid: We offer free book promotion for authors.
Author Marketing Club: “No longer do you have to dig up your links to the best places to submit your books. We’ve put them all together here for you in one spot. Just click on the logos below to load each site’s form, fill in your details, and you’re done.”
Bargain eBook Hunter: “If your title is currently FREE on Amazon, we want to know about it! Simply use the Contact Form to let us know about your free title and we will consider listing it on our site. There is NO COST to you if you contact us and we choose to post your free book.  We accept all genres except erotica.”
Books on The Knob: “Bargain reads, free ebooks and book reviews for the Amazon Kindle, nook, Kobo, Sony and other ereaders, Kindle Fire, nookColor, Kobo Vox, and other tablets, along with some games, music, technology and computers tossed in now and then.”
The Cheap: “This website was created in an attempt to let other Barnes and Noble NOOK users know that there really are plenty of deal priced books for NOOK readers. Here at the Cheap we, a group of deal scouting women, inform you of free and low-cost books. These change frequently so please be sure to check in often. We do our best to share only legitimate offers.”
Digital Book Today: Includes both free and paid options for writers looking to promote.
eBooks Habit: “Each day we will bring you 20-30 great ebooks that are free at the time of posting, as well as some bargain ebooks with reduced prices!”
eReader News Today: Features bargain Kindle books and free Kindle books.
eReader Perks: reading, ereader devices and all things reading+tech related. Here you will find free books for Kindle, Kobo and Nook plus the latest device news, book/ereader reviews and author interviews.
Flurries of Words: “we have both FREE and PAID advertising options (apologies but we do not accept porn or erotica books). There are currently five FREE advertising options available: 1) Free Book Find (for permanently or temporarily free books) 2) 99 Cent Book (for permanently or temporarily 99 cent books) 3) Bargain Deal (for books over $0.99 but under $4.99–either permanently or temporarily) 4) Indie New Releases (for books newly released within the past 30 days) … 5) BOOK OF THE DAY”
FreeBooksy: If you find an ebook you think our Freebooksy readers should know about please let us know in the form below. And if you are an author and you want to tell the world about your free ebook fill out the form in the Authors section and we’ll take a look at your book.
Frugal Reader: “Please use the form below to submit your FREE books to be considered for a featured FREEBIE post. Submitting your novel does not guarantee that your book will be featured. Please allow as much lead time as possible as I know these are limited time offers. Please note that I feature most genres, and while I may feature romance titles that include sexual scenes, I don’t feature titles that strictly fall under the erotica genre.”
Free Kindle Books & Tips: “If you are an author and would like to have your book promoted (for free) on our site, please fill out the form below: your book must be free in the Amazon Kindle Store and must have an average user rating of at least 4 out of 5 stars for consideration.  Please note each book submitted cannot be promoted due to space limitations on a particular day, but if your book is selected we will contact you at the email address you provide below.”
Free eBooks Daily: “I love to hear from authors and readers! If you have a comment, suggestion, or free ebook you would like listed or if you just want to say hello, feel free to send me an email.”
Free Erotica: “This form is for erotic eBook submissions, ONLY. If you have more than one book to promote, fill out the form separately for each book. – If you have not scheduled all of your free dates, feel free to come back again and fill out the form. – Please give me at least two days advanced notice.”
GalleyCat Facebook Page: You can post your book in our New Books section, an easy way to share your book with our readers.
Goodkindles: “we are a place where you post your own article about your title and can reach the readers. We do not review your book – we give you a platform to tell everyone what do you think is most interesting about your book and what you think will interest readers so much that they will go and buy your book.”
Indie Books List: “If you submit an excerpt with less than 1,500 words, we will delete it. Due to the high number of submissions we receive, we may not have time to email every person who submits a shorter excerpt to ask for another one. Please – look at your word count before uploading. If you would like to be considered for both Indie Books List, and Only Romance…you must submit using each site’s submission form. There are now two separate submission forms, when there used to be just one.”
Kindle Daily Deal: “Let’s get the word out about your wonderful books on Kindle to my 13,000+ followers. I am a fellow author and I’d love to help promote your books. I enjoy reading as much as writing, and feel it’s important to support my friends. Currently, this service is FREE to you, but in return for adding your book(s), I’m hoping you reciprocate by buying my latest book containing funny essays about relationships…”
Meet Our Authors Forum: A place on Amazon where writers can talk about their work.
Pixel of Ink: “If your book will be listed as Free ($0.00) on Amazon.com in the next 30 days, then please let us know by filling out the form below. Pixel of Ink may attempt to feature your book on the day it is free, time and space permitting.
Spicy Romance: Fill out the submission form, send a 600 to 3,000 word excerpt and a cover image.

Taking the leap

Here I go! I just spent the most ever on a huge promotion blitz for SILENT INVASION and DROP OUT (my two best sellers). I did it through blogads.com. I’ve read other posts about the effectiveness of such ads and most said that author’s sales increased because of them. I booked on nine different sites with a combined reach of 312,000 avid readers. These are people who actively read the blogs. My ads will feature the cover, a blurb, and the link to buy the book. The blitz will run on all sites simultaneously for an entire two weeks beginning on December 26^th and running through the New Year into January. My logic is that people will be getting ereaders (it’s the #1 gift this year) at Christmas and then will have time off through the holiday to peruse various reader and book sites. At the same time, my newest novel debuts on Amazon and B&N, and I’ll be promoting that one like a rabid beast. If there’s a recipe for going viral I think I have all the ingredients. It’s just a matter of how much time it takes to cook.

A week not writing

My latest novel is off to my formatter and should be ready for sale in a few days. I’m ready to go with publicizing it once it is live and plan on doing all that right after Christmas. It’s been nearly a full week that I haven’t written any new fiction material. That doesn’t mean I haven’t been writing (I wrote the back jacket copy for IMAGINATION and I am posting this blog) just not doing the kind of writing I love most. Though I have been marketing and will continue to reserve sponsorships, I still find I have an extraordinary amount of free time when I used to be writing. I know, those of you with kids are cursing me right now because you probably would love a little free time. That’s not what I’m talking about. It’s like someone who suddenly quits smoking and realizes that the habit had occupied two hours a day. When you’ve had a writing routine for the twenty-plus years that I have, this sudden change can be jarring. Since my mind is so attuned to being creative in the morning I find it hard to concentrate on the business aspect of being an author before the noon hour. Since my planned three month marketing blitz started, I have been selling more books, but I’ve also noticed that I’m not as happy and inspired. I don’t wake with that anticipation of creating a new scene or tweaking an existing one. I’m not longing for dreary, rain-soaked days where I can lounge all day in my jammies and write without the guilt of sitting inside. Essentially, I miss the creative writing process. Though I don’t start a new novel unless an idea comes to me that just won’t leave, I’m already thinking about a few outlines I might draw up. Maybe scribble some ideas. For me, this last week has been unusual in the sense that I feel a bit out-of-sorts not working on something. I may have to lift my self-imposed ban.

Quick promotion!

Just got notified this morning. Scroll down a bit, but DROP OUT is there. Also, tweaked my book pages for Nook and Kobo. Check them by clicking the links on the left. I'm ready to do some hard promotion.

http://addictedtoebooks.com/

Feeling disconnected

Once again, I’ve reach the elusive milestone of finishing a book. My latest novel (my eleventh to date) is now complete and awaiting the formatting process. The novel took exactly 374 days from first sentence until the final read. A lot has happened in the past year and a lot of changes have taken place both in my life and the world. So, as I sit here on this first day of non-novel writing I find myself feeling quite odd and at a loss of how I should spend my morning. I could market and promote, but that is usually an afternoon activity done after my mind already squeezed out the creative juices for the day. I could answer emails. Again, something I usually do later. This lack of focus always happens to me when I’m not working on a book, a feeling of disconnectedness. Without a few hours writing and living in my imagination, the day takes on an oddity of unfinishness (artistic license with this word) like not having brushed your teeth in the morning. I know I stated that I wouldn’t start another book for at least three months so I could concentrate on promoting the ones I have out, but I’m finding it difficult to go even a few hours without working on a story. It seems I’ve forgotten the trick to having a normal morning. My latest, IMAGINATION will be out in a week or so and my next one after that… perhaps in 374 days.