I just learnt that Love or Lust has been live on iBooks for the past ten hours!
I’m very happy. IBooks is my favourite ebook platform and store.
Any Kobo users out there?
Love or Lust can now be found there!
God, I’m sorry folks, I got distracted and completely forgot to schedule a post announcing a sale!
Luckily it is for the entire month of July, and if you shop on Smashwords already then it would have kindly told you to use code SW50 to get Love or Lust half off.
Lots and lots of books 25%, 50%, 75%, even 100% off today. A lot of authors presenting their hard work at discount for us. So today I’m posting my link to the promotion. Err … There’s a lot of erotica on Smashwords. They kindly turn on an Adult Content filter by default, but be forewarned – or, if that’s your thing, I suppose you could call it rather a plus … just remember to turn the filter off (I work in Tech Support, if you don’t think people have to be told this kind of thing – I’m terribly sorry, but I must excuse myself to laugh until I hyperventilate).
Well, the up side: Love or Lust is selling; yay for me.
In fact, this is the first lesson: contrary to logic, it is easier to sell a $3.99/£2.62 book than it is to give it away. DriveThru and Smashwords report no one has taken a free copy. According to Amazon the paid copies are just traipsing along at a steady clip. I won’t ask. I mean, really folks, I appreciate that people are paying for it but I’m not starving – my day job pays terribly, but it does pay.
Next lesson: approximately 1/3 of Americans don’t know what a sample is for. How do I come to this statistic? Well, it’s the best guess I can make when a full 1/3 of my US sales were very quickly returned, if the person started reading and changed their mind … you know, like in the span that the sample would have covered.
Corollary lesson: Brits don’t have that problem. The sales there are coming slower, but are catching the Americans up and they seem happy with the purchase.
Kobo can’t tell time. 36hrs is, last I checked, greater than 24hr. Greater in this context means more, large. It does not mean better. I’m still pending there, but I don’t know why.
This has been an … educational experience.
For the Smashworders theres this code: GG53A
That will be valid until 8am PDT 1 July 2013
For those with a special place in their hearts for DriveThru Fiction simply click the cute little logo to the left.
Sorry folks, but until I’m in iBookstore that’s it for places I can do any kind of promotions. Amazon’s program for such things are just a free give away and only if I agree to exclusivity with them. I can’t, in good conscience, do that to my readers who don’t use Kindle.
When will I be in iBooks? I don’t know. Apple, admirably, reviews the books submitted to them by hand. This means the number of other books on their plate will determine when I’m accepted and released for sale. Why is this admirable in this day of computers? Simple: a computer can’t see if someone puts an erotica up as a children’s book, a human can. I’m willing to wait for them to protect the customers from incompetents and pranksters.
Now available in eBook and Print: Love or Lust the first of four books in the Now & Forever series.
A light-hearted, slice-of-life, romantic-comedy for young adults, Love or Lust introduces you to Lauren Conners, a ballerina, a Good Girl, studious, and sweet, and to Salencia Constellino, an exotic, irreverent cowgirl new to the little Washington town.
When the girls meet it’s love at first sight; sparks fly, angels sing, lightning and fireworks. But they attend the best school in the area, a Catholic secondary school, Immaculate Conception. It’s not just their school that brings trouble for the young couple. The young teens have their own inner turmoils and anxieties — especially Lauren, who always wants to think the best of people, but quickly learns just how petty people can get.
It’s an uplifting story, though, meant to inspire and give hope. The girls have supportive and loving friends and families. And, largely, the obstacles of life and of being teenagers are navigated with quirky senses of humour and strange misunderstandings.
In this book Lauren and Sally are first and foremost, young high school freshmen, fourteen years old and trying to make sense of themselves and the world around them. It is my hope that it might show people that we’re all human beings no matter who it is we choose to love. That homosexual, heterosexual, bixsexual, asexual, trisexual, or what have you, are still people; still feeling beings with hopes and dreams.
Print book us$17.99/£11.50/€13.75
eBook us$3.99. Available in numerous countries at proportionate price.
Currently in:
Coming soon to:
Love or Lust is going according to schedule. I’m actually a little upset about this; I’d hoped I was being pessimistic when I decided on the schedule I gave myself. Still, could be worse.
I will be updating the sample tomorrow or Wednesday — I hope. I certainly will have it updated sometime before 4 July.
The pricing for the eBook still isn’t completely decided. I’m considering us$4.99 (and comparable pricing across other currencies in other countries), us$3.99, or us$1.99. I’m also seriously considering making it 99¢ for the first couple of weeks or so.
Either way I will do random discount codes, including free vouchers, for the eBook in blog posts during the month of July for the various eBook stores that give such options.
You’re no doubt tired of hearing about this; I know I’m tired of thinking about it.
I’ve reached a final decision regarding Now & Forever‘s publication: I’m going to just put it out myself.
This really wasn’t an easy decision. By making it I am shutting myself out, completely, from certain sales channels – and things like the Scholastic Book Fair is not something to be set aside lightly if one is trying to write YA fiction. I’m also shutting myself out of some marketing channels – just TRY to find a reviewer willing to touch something self-published.
Still, YA romance readers are unlikely to be reading literary review blogs and mags, so no huge loss. The scholastic thing … well, no guarantee I could convince my publisher or agent to make the fight to carry my book there (unless it’s changed a lot since my days in school, I can’t imagine them happily taking a lesbian romance with a cheery smile).
Publishers don’t put forth enough promotion effort to be worth continued headache looking for an agent who then would have to find a publisher and … with some luck, hopefully by being out sooner I will make up for the loss of being on a Barnes & Noble shelf – the only part that really stings in this decision. Well, that and the prospect of an advance – given how my truck’s been behaving of late, that cash in hand would have been nice … though slow to arrive, I suppose.
As a result expect Love or Lust by the end of this month. When? I’ll get you a better estimate as soon as I can. It could stand one more scan for typos. Some rather silly ones slipped through the cracks somehow.
There’ll be a print edition via CreateSpace. I don’t know, yet, if I’ll bother with the expanded distribution at first or not. Feedback on how much people would rather order it from somewhere other than the CreateSpace store and Amazon will help with that – meaning, if you have an opinion, now is a great time to voice it.
There’ll be eBooks for: NOOK, Kindle, iBooks, and Kobo. There’ll also be copies available through Smashwords and a place called DriveThru Fiction. If you have a different preferred source of eBooks now is a great time to name it. These are all the ones I’m familiar with is the reason for their inclusion, I’ve no qualms adding to the list.
Pricing I’m still thinking about. The print edition pretty much has to be us$10, given the length of the book. The eBook, though? Well, I think most retailers make the minimum 99¢. I’ve contemplated this price – certainly keeps it in my budget. There’s much debate over how seriously people take books at that price point. Thus I’m considering as high as us$5.99.
Feedback helps. If you have an opinion on pricing, say. I’m listening. Don’t want to say publicly in the comments? Contact me.
The sample chapters are, and ever will be available. So, give them a look. Given that this is a YA series, feedback on stores and pricing from parents or teens is doubly hoped for.
I want to try something different for Ready or Not. I’d like to select some … in fanfiction they’re often called “Beta-readers” but I seem to recall there’s a niftier and classier term for it that most fiction writers use, but it escapes me right now. I’d like to select 3 people to be my guinea pigs for book 2. Given that the series is written such that one book flows to the next to some degree a selected reader will get a free ebook copy of Love or Lust to give them some reference and establishment.
How to be selected? Nominate yourself. The means to do this?
After much thought, and thanks to some very thought provoking conversation — both in the commentary, as well as among friends — I’ve reached a decision, kind of.
I am going to look carefully at the agents I’ve discovered through http://querytracker.com. I owe myself the investigation of those agencies, at least, as well as owing any of you excited about seeing these books out — simply put, I’d rather you had more ways to get them, unless I get an overwhelming response that you’d rather have them now from one e-store than a year from now in 1000 stores physical and online alike.
I’m being highly selective. I’m carefully considering the agent‘s “what I accept” list juxtaposed to her list of titles and clients to be sure that what they think they mean is what I think they mean. Also, there’s the inescapable fact that all too many agents seem to say “oh, it’s most important that it’s a great story!” but their client list indicates they’re looking long and hard for “the next best way to cash in on the latest hit trends”. I don’t believe any of the agents I queried before are as bad as that, or bad at all, but such agents exist and I intend to skip them over. I’m also being selective on another front: I’m going to try to see how well known, how well selling their client list is. I’m not looking for an all-star cast, who’s who of the NY Times Best Sellers list, but if she’s got 50 titles under her belt and they’re every one of them the picture of obscurity … I can do obscurity tomorrow and keep the 15% commission for myself!
If I find a promising agent, I shall query further.
I reached this decision after much agonising and arguing with myself and others. I was finally won over on this ground: I want this book to be accessible. If I can reach more hand, more eyes, and more minds with an agent and a publisher, then I should like to have an agent and publisher. If I could convince myself, or if I could hear a compelling argument from another, regarding that visibility from self-published I’m certainly open to it and would self publish the story June first. I will say I don’t believe it matters if I’m on a Barnes & Noble shelf or exclusively with Amazon, iBooks only or in every ebook seller offered as part of Smashwords‘ premium catalogue. I mean, the whole word of mouth matter. Suffice to say, with an agent and a publisher I’ve got more mouths saying more words on my behalf and any words I can pass on my own.
I do and don’t want to do this. Frankly I hate writing query letters. It’s tedious, it’s also terribly difficult — I’ve no self-esteem where they’re concerned. I also hate waiting; I’ve got a story, and I’m anxious to share it. I still may self-publish. For one, I may decide against querying any more agents, if that’s the case … I’m giving myself until 31 May to have queried even 1 agent. If I have, then the publish date will move to either 1 September, or the “hear back by” date of the last agent submitted a query — whichever is longest. I’m going to give them time to make up their minds before I make up mine.
I’m sorry. I know if I said: if it’s not picked up by 20 May it’ll be published 1 June. Still, there also hasn’t been any voices crying out in disappointment and sorry “No! Jaye, please, stop this horrible internal contention and give us the rest of your story!” I suppose that means I’m not really disappointing anyone but myself by changing my mind.
In the mean time, I want to try something different for Ready or Not. I’d like to select some … in fanfiction they’re often called “Beta-readers” but I seem to recall there’s a niftier and classier term for it that most fiction writers use, but it escapes me right now. I’d like to select 3 people to be my guinea pigs for book 2. Given that the series is written such that one book flows to the next to some degree a selected reader will get a free ebook copy of Love or Lust to give them some reference and establishment.
How to be selected? Nominate yourself. The means to do this?
Jaye Em Edgecliff 