Absent-minded = ME!

Oh GOD!  I just realised I never put the sample chapters of Ready or Not up on the site!  And, if Love or Lust‘s sample is anything to go by people do like to read those before buying.

I’m terribly sorry.  I got distracted by issues with the print edition, and various things simply classified as ‘Life’.

It’ll take a little bit to get it set up in a way that doesn’t fight with WordPress, but I’ll have it up later today or sometime tomorrow.

#Ashamed

Upadate: Sample is up.

Ready or Not pre-orders

Ready or Not (concept only)Well, it’s finally done with my editor.  A quick proofread by me and some arguing with the various retailers, then the book will be available.

Smashwords and iBooks allow pre-orders, though it is not yet listed with Apple.  Smashwords is another story.

I’ll have the first two chapters up for samples sometime in the next couple of days.

The release is scheduled for 26 July.  Even if Apple doesn’t get the pre-order set up before then, the book ought to be available for purchase and download by then.

The other retailers: Kobo, DriveThru Fiction, All Romance eBooks, Kindle, and Nook will start showing up on that date as they each complete their own listing processing.

There, of course, will also be a print edition; and most likely a Goodreads give-away for an autographed copy or two.

Love or Lust will be reduced to us$2.99, Ready or Not will be us$3.99 their print editions will remain us$17.99.

Hope you will enjoy it as much as you did book 1.  It was certainly a lot of fun to write if not nearly so much fun to edit.  Book 3 still has no title, but one will be announced by the end of the year.

Sale extention

Image representing Amazon Kindle as depicted i...
Image via CrunchBase

Due to all the grief and nightmare getting the book to discount for all of you who prefer Kindle meaning nearly half (or more) of the sale was over before it could be taken advantage of, I’ve decided to bump it another week.

So, until the 9th of March you’ll be able to get Love or Lust for 75% off in ebook.

I’m extending the sale across the board, not just for Kindle.  So iBooks, Kobo, Nook, DriveThru Fiction, All Romance eBooks, Smashwords … whatever you like, you’ve got an extra week to get the book for only us$1!

Tell your friends, you enemies, your local radio station, the pope, Ben & Jerry (please inform them, in fact, that — should they wish — I’ll negotiate copies of the book for a pint of ice cream), extraterrestrial abductors, random strangers, and the Easter Bunny about this!  Get creative.

Hell … that’s a fun idea!  Anyone who actually takes my shameless pleading to heart, and can show me proof of your elabourate and creative endeavour to spread the word … I’ll give you a free copy of the ebook, and one first place winner gets a signed paperback (free ebooks for creative shameless plugging till the end of the month, on 1 April I’ll announce the paperback winner … if anyone decides to play along, that is).

Another 5-Stars!

I was poking around on Amazon and discovered something:  A week ago today I received another 5-star review!

You can, of course, read it here.

It’s always nice to feel appreciated, and that the book is well liked.  I’m even happier to see that it seems to really … resonate?  Resonate seems a good word, we’ll use that.   Yeah, it resonates with people.  It’s warming to know that the characters are so endearing, or that the story itself is in some way moving or touching.

I’ve seen it said recently (it was a quote from another writer posted to The Indie View’s Facebook page, if I recall correctly) that artists are kind of schizophrenic.  At one and the same time we’re incredibly confident and full of pride, and nervous wrecks with absolutely no self-esteem.  It seems true — on one hand we feel as though our work ought to be shared with the world, so there’s your pride and ego; on the other hand we’re absolutely convinced (well, most of us, exceptions like Anne Rice exist — I’m not a fan, don’t ask about her books, I’ve never even watched Interview With a Vampire) that our work is awful and that we will be belittled and berated, stopped in the street and spat upon … well, okay, maybe not quite that bad, but some pretty terrible things and emotions do go through our minds and flood out through our mouths.  I’ve nearly got myself strangled by close friends I fretted so much ~blush~.

Any of you still waiting to buy the book, Kindle edition is 99¢ right now, and the iBooks version is free.

Oh, and for those waiting on a status report for Ready or Not: Delayed. Editor had some issues with her gall bladder. She’s feeling better now, but some other problems decided to come play “kick ’em while they’re down” with her so she’s still rather out of sorts. Things will hopefully get back on track soon and, with luck, we’ll at least have a release around the 1yr anniversary of Love or Lust … pray for a little luck and we might even manage a new years or Valentine’s release, but I wouldn’t suggest any holding of breath for earlier than Easter.

iBooks freebie

Kindle may or may not join this game, I don’t control that so can’t say.

In my effort to test if Apple’s support had corrected my issue setting a sale for my book I have set a 99¢ price that is good through today.  Tomorrow the book will be free for a couple of days.  This is only on iBooks (and anyone else who elects to price match them).>

Please enjoy.

P.S.  this lovely little button below will take you directly to the book on iBooks — and soon, iTunes.

ibooks-button-graphic

iBooks sales can happen now!

It turns out the issue I was having with setting up the labour day sale was a glitch in iTunes Connect.  C’est la vie, glitches happen in the best of software.  I’ve heard of Hello World failing to run correct for people.  Computers are semi-daemonic entities.

Well, tomorrow until Saturday Love or Lust will be $0.99 on iBookstore.  And lowered approximately the same degree in most markets.  No, it’s not free.  I might do a free weekend soon, again, for everything.  This $0.99 was an experiment so I could tell tech support if I’m still having trouble.  I’ve got an experimental free set up too, but I’m not saying when }=) Well … not yet.

This new sale is just for a few days and only on iBooks (unless Amazon notices and auto-matches).  But I promise another free that will, this time, include everyone (except Nook and Kindle, since I can’t actually force such sales with them) is coming.

Oh! IBooks is live!

I just learnt that Love or Lust has been live on iBooks for the past ten hours!

Here’s a link

I’m very happy. IBooks is my favourite ebook platform and store.

What book sales teach us

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.

A free copy, as promised

smashwordsFor the Smashworders theres this code:  GG53A
That will be valid until 8am PDT 1 July 2013

dt-fiction3dwebFor 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.

 

Happiness and excitement

I don’t ever have to use Microsoft Word again.  The reasons for doing so can be accomplished in Apple’s Pages.  It’s even done the way I’d long suspected:  with Sections.  It just never worked for me before.

I can’t take the credit for learning this, though.  My lovely and talented editor figured it out.  She’s even more loathe to touch Office than I am — which is to say she steadfastly will not load it for any reason whatsoever.

In other news I’ve finished my proofread.  I’ll be spending tonight and tomorrow getting the files generated and uploaded.

I’m calling the release date the 29th, though Smashwords will have it the 28th because of their insistence on putting the file up as available the moment it’s uploaded instead of — like everyone else — after you’ve had the chance to make sure everything is correct and waiting for a final, blanket SUBMIT button to be pressed.  Oy.

Continue reading “Happiness and excitement”