Saturday, December 31, 2011

New years sale!

If you have not read the book yet now is the time! Use the promotional code CP43P
to download Enthralled from Smashwords for 60% off! This code will last from now until 1/8/12 so hurry and take advantage of this great opportunity.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Bitten - update

Hello all!
For any of you actually waiting to hear about my next book Bitten, I'm sad to say that I am now a few weeks behind schedule. I'm about 51,000 words in and my goal length was 60,000. However, it looks like it might be a little longer than that. Hopefully I'll be done writing soon and I'll be able to start the editing phase and commissioning the cover art.

Some of you may notice that this book's length is significantly shorter than the first. I've had a few requests that the books be faster reads (Plus, other ebook authors recommend a length of 50,000 words. However I think that is much closer to novella length (avg 40,000) than a real book (60,000-90,000)). This means cutting a lot of background information. Depending on time constraints, and my mood, I may compile these into short stories later. Maybe I'll just be lazy and make them into character blurbs here on my blog. That way those who are interested can pop over for a visit.

Before I forget again, I should also mention that I have reduced the chapter lengths. Dont be surprised when you see a lot of chapters despite the large chunk taken out of the word length. With Enthralled I underestimated the leap in length my chapters would take when converted from word to ebook format. (The chapter's lengths tended to double.) So, the book has been cut into smaller sections to make the chapters less daunting.

 On a more interesting note, I have been considering a few different promotional options for the holidays. I WAS leaning towards offering Enthralled on Amazon's new book lending library for prime members, but I found that the program wasn't suited for me and probably not my readers. For one thing, you have to be a prime member, not just any schmuck with an account (like me). Then I found out you can only borrow one book every month and you have to read it on a Kindle (Note: books borrowed through their library by prime members cannot be lent to their friends. You have to own it to lend it.). The program isn't compatible for  their kindle apps. So having a computer or smart phone with the app isn't enough. Plus, I would have to offer my book exclusively through them during a 90 day contract. That would give each person 3 chances to borrow it during the contract time period. And not to rag on myself but I have a feeling that there will be a few more popular books available during that time.

This sounds alot more appealing for authors that are already well known and have a ton of old books that they could offer so newer readers can get caught up in a series in time for a new release. Being that I am not in that situation I think I'll just generate a promotional coupon through smashwords for Christmas or new year. I want it to be near the release of the sequel so anyone that hasn't read the first can pick it up. I'll have to decide on that soon so I can let everyone know...

You may be wondering why I'm even bothering you with information about an option that I'm not going to use. Well, if you have heard of Amazon's program and are wondering why I'm not on it despite selling books through them, now you know. If, one day, I am flooded with countless readers asking me to put my older books up there then I will consider it. But its just not a real viable option at this time. Even if I tried their lending library and found that I didn't like it I CAN pull the book, but it still has to be offered exclusively through Amazon until the end of the 90 day period. So I don't even want to try it right now if it could potentially cause me a lot of grief. (I also wanted to rant a little)

Tell me what you think.

Anyway, I hope you all are looking forward to the holiday season. Best wishes!