Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘guardian vampire’

The .99 Experiment

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on March 2, 2013| 9 Comments »

For my three books that sell for $2.99, I did a Valentine’s sale that started February 14 and ran through the rest of the month. Those three books were available for .99. So, how did the sale work out for me? Let’s just say, I’ll probably never put my books on sale for .99 again (I have some that have always been .99). Let’s look at the numbers. I might have sold 4 or 5 more of the books that were on sale than I usually do. But it takes 6 books at .99 at a 35% royalty to equal what I would make on a $2.99 book at a 70% royalty. Do the math. I probably LOST money. Or at least didn’t make any more than I would have made. I thought the reason one of my older books (and a different older book in the UK) was still selling better than my newer ones was the price. Haunted Lake is still my best seller in the US on Amazon. Guardian Vampire is still my best seller in the UK. Since those are .99 books, I really did suspect it was the price. But I think I was wrong. There is SOMETHING about those two books that keeps them selling better than any of the others. Guardian Vampire is still in the lead on B & N. I JUST DON’T GET IT. Why do those two books still perform the best? Are they more searchable? Or maybe because they are older, there are more books out there where they are listed as “customers who bought this also bought…”. I will admit, I didn’t really publicize this sale as much as I should have. I was really busy here at work and was just trying to keep my head above water. Two or three of my friends mentioned it on Facebook and/or Twitter, so I really appreciate that. I really need a good marketing plan. I know people say “just write a good book”, but people have to FIND your book before you can sell it. I took out an ad in Indtale magazine this month. That’s a start. We’ll see if that helps.

Anyway, I think the experiment was a flop. I do plan on doing a free giveaway on one of my books soon, but that will be where readers get a free coupon code from Smashwords. And there will be an extra gift for the grand prize winner. When I do the free stuff, though, I do it mostly for fun, especially since I like to give gifts. I think the grand prize is pretty cool, and it’s something we actually sell here at my day job. 🙂 I’ll probably do it mid-March because the prize is kind of an out-doorsy thing, and maybe it will be a little warmer then. Piqued your interest yet???

Advertisement

Read Full Post »

I’m Finished With My WIP…Maybe

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on August 31, 2012| 24 Comments »

I have a serious dilemma. Or should I say a series dilemma? Here’s the deal. I just finished the last chapter of Soul of a Vampire. But I think this book might have the potential of being the first in the series. I THINK. If it’s going to be a stand alone, I need to stop it where it is. But if it’s going to be a series, there’s an epilogue I need to write to hint at whose story might come next. I don’t know what to do. Many of you know my story of series writing. I wrote Guardian Vampire and a lot of readers wanted a sequel. But there was no sequel in my brain for it. So I wrote the Vampires’ Curse (Libby Fox) trilogy to please readers who liked series. It just doesn’t sell well. If it weren’t for Guardian Vampire and Haunted Lake, my sales would be TERRIBLE. Those two have always been my best sellers. And they’re stand alones. And they’re getting some age on them, so the momentum is slowing down. The only reason I hesitate to write a sequel to SoaV is because I was going to work on the book my husband thought of next. But I could put it off and write the sequel, then come back to the other one. However, I don’t want to disappoint my husband by putting off “his” book. Oh, what to do!

On the eating situation I was talking about earlier, I found that I can eat fish without the gag reflex taking over. I actually had for supper…sushi (not the raw kind), a few olives, and cheese & crackers. So I won’t have to revert to popcorn for supper again. LOL

Read Full Post »

About My WIP

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on July 23, 2012| 11 Comments »

I’ve been working on my current WIP since April. For the first three months, it was hit or miss in the writing department. Some weeks, I would do some writing, some weeks, not so much. It was a bad three months for writing. But since the beginning of this month, I’ve had some awesome word counts. Everything is flowing nicely, and I’m really loving this story. But will others love it as much as I do? This is a story that I’m hoping with take off on Amazon and B & N like Guardian Vampire did in Jan/Feb of 2011. It’s so frustrating to have something like that happen, and then it not ever happen again. I WANT it to happen again. 🙂

I had almost resigned myself to the fact that I’m more of a novella writer than a novel writer. Before I wrote The Gnome, I had three novels and six novellas published. And a short story. I was SURE The Gnome would be a novel. But when I finished, I didn’t quite have 40K words. You really can’t call something a novel unless it’s 50K, and I was almost 11K short. 😦 At that point, I was sure there would be no more novels for me. I was convinced I didn’t have any more novels in me. But along came my current WIP. I planned it as a novella, but I wasn’t even going to worry about how many words it would turn out to be. I was hoping it would at least be a LONG novella like The Gnome. Now here I am at almost 38K, and there are still more adventures to come. The main characters haven’t yet gone on a journey where there will be challenges and perils. In a little more than 12K, this will become a novel. I’ve been averaging 1K to over 2K in each writing sitting. So even if I only get 1K per day, I could conceivably finish this as a novel in 12-13 days. (Not necessarily consecutive.) This makes me happy. But that doesn’t mean I’ll stop at 50K. I’m just saying I COULD and still call it a novel. 🙂

Here’s a problem, though. This story has flowed so well lately. But when it comes to the challenges the main characters must face, I’m afraid things will come to a screeching halt. The challenges will have riddles involved (and danger), but what if I can’t think of any good riddles? What if my riddles are lame? Eek, this riddle thing is new to me! (I know this almost makes it sound like I’m writing a fantasy book, but no, it really is a paranormal romance. It’s just a little different.) Have any of you ever faced something like this? Have you had to write something that had to be SOLVED? Any advice?

Read Full Post »

Will I Ever Make a Living as an Author?

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on July 12, 2012| 16 Comments »

***WARNING*** Long post ahead

This post stems from the frustration of tanking book sales. I would like to at least continue to enjoy the little “extras” in life by working full time AND writing, at least for now. Eventually, I would like this to be my job, but things aren’t looking so good right now.

I started thinking I might be able to eventually do this full time when my January & February 2011 sales were so good that I made more money those two months than I did at my full time job. And most of that was from one 99 cent novella…Guardian Vampire. I’ve pondered the mystery of this book’s success for a long time, and I still don’t understand it. It’s actually still my best seller at Amazon UK, although the sales aren’t that great. Think about it though…I made a full time salary on one 99 cent book for two months straight.

I got some emails from readers wishing for a sequel. I know I’ve told this part before. There was no sequel to this novella. So I wrote a the Vampires’ Curse trilogy, thinking that readers wanted series. I’ve never had good sales on those novellas even though they are much better, in my opinion, than Guardian Vampire. After writing GV, I wrote a novel, Haunted Lake. It went months with few sales, but suddenly took off. It never reached the volume of GV, but it wasn’t shabby at all. I currently have 12 works published (one is a compilation of three of the others), and Haunted Lake is still the best seller in the US. Better than anything newer. In fact, the oldest novel is doing better than Vampires’ Curse. I absolutely do not understand.

Here’s the thing. Except for when GV was going crazy, I’ve been used to making a steady $500-$700 a month in sales across a few channels. (We know which channel has the best sales.) This has been less than enough for full time work, but it was really good for part time work. We had been buying essentials and paying bills with our full time money, and had been buying fun stuff and paying for vacation with book money. But in the last couple of months, I haven’t made much over $300. And it looks like July might be even worse. I can’t make a living this way. We’re told the only way to do this is to keep writing so you have a lot of books out there. But the last few things I’ve written are the ones I haven’t sold well. And I’m beginning to suspect that it’s because most of them aren’t 99 cents anymore. My old stuff is all 99 cents, but I refuse to price my later work that low. We, as authors, deserve to get paid for our work. So mine ranges from the 99 cent books, up to the 2.99 ones. I’m afraid, though, that as long as other authors keep pricing at 99 cents, it’s going to be hard to compete. Even if you have a good story, you have to get someone to read it first. Readers will download a bunch of 99 cent books at once. I know this because I’ve done it myself. It’s fun to get lots of stuff for your money. But if I really like an author, I’ll pay more. The key is getting someone to read your work to start with. Some of those 99 cent books don’t even get read, I’ll bet. I have honestly considered dropping all my prices to 99 cents to see what happens. But then I think about the hard work I put into the books and say no.

So we come to the present WIP I’m working on. I think Guardian Vampire did well partly because of the title when people were doing searches. I really feel like my WIP has an even better title. I’m not ready to reveal that title for reasons I’ll explain later. But I feel like this might be the book that brings my sales back up. I have a glimmer of hope. I just need to make sure I’m realistic enough to realize that there’s tons more competition in ebooks than there used to be, and that things may not work out like I hope. I’m a resilient person, though, and also persistent. So there’s always the next book, and the next one, and the next one….

Read Full Post »

Why Do Certain Books Sell?

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on February 23, 2012| 15 Comments »

I’m sitting here scratching my head and wondering why some books sell and some don’t. I don’t mean all books, I just mean mine. LOL Why do the same two books sell the best all the time?

Guardian Vampire took off in January and February of 2011 and made me a lot of money in those two months. I never figured out why that particular one sold like that. And now, over a year later, it’s still running neck and neck with Haunted Lake in sales. Haunted Lake is selling a little better right now, but GV is still doing well. If it weren’t for those two books, I wouldn’t be making much money. Haunted Lake actually took about 7 months from the publishing date to really start selling well. I don’t know why. It’s averaging 4 1/2 stars on Amazon, so that’s encouraging.

The reason I did the Libby Fox series in the first place is because my readers asked for a series. They really wanted a sequel to Guardian Vampire, but there just WASN’T a sequel in my heart and mind. So I did this other vampire series. There’s even a werewolf in the second and third book. And honestly…I think the Libby Fox books are better than Guardian Vampire. Much better, in my opinion. The covers are definitely better. Was it the title that sparked interest? (Thank you Susan.) Are the Libby Fox titles all wrong? The readers wanted a series. I gave them one. But they aren’t selling like I want them to. Is it going to be a delayed reaction like Haunted Lake was? I released the three novellas in June, August, and December of 2011. Should I be patient? I know the key to continue selling is to keep writing and publishing. But I’m still getting better sales on my older stuff.

So now I’m wondering about my garden gnome supernatural horror story. I haven’t a clue in the world how it will do. It’s out of my genre, but not too far out. There’s a romance in it, that’s just not the main focus of the story. Will readers think it really sucks? Or will they like this book that’s different from my others? My first beta reader likes it, even though she’s only seen the first draft. I’m anxious to see what my other betas think after I get the edits done. The thing is, even though I wonder about these things, I’m not AFRAID to publish this story. Because what will be will be. I’ll never know until I publish it.

So here’s an interesting question. Should I write a sequel to Haunted Lake or Guardian Vampire? Should I force myself to revisit those characters just to try to boost sales? Or should I follow my heart and mind and write what I feel? Actually, I’m not so sure I would mind revisiting Haunted Lake. Because the guy that DIDN’T get the girl might just have his own story to tell. The possibilities are endless, aren’t they?

Read Full Post »

What Do Your Characters Look Like?

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on February 17, 2012| 11 Comments »

Most of us, when we’re writing a story, have at least a vague idea about what our characters look like. Some writers have a particular look in mind and make up someone completely from scratch. But many of us see certain actors in our minds when we think of our characters. It’s hard for me not to do that. So I thought I would let you see what I saw when I wrote some of my books.

I’ll start with Guardian Vampire since that one is still my best seller. I honestly didn’t see an actor in my mind for this one until I started watching The Vampire Diaries. When I saw Ian Sommerhalder, I knew this was my Logan. And I imagined Hilary Duff as Kendall.

Ian Sommerhalder

Ian Sommerhalder

Hilary Duff

Hilary Duff

One problem I’m having with Ian is that I also want him to be Ethan in Club Blood. LOL

There was never any doubt as to who I wanted to be Patrick in A Rocky Path. Hans Matheson was the one from the very beginning.

Hans

Hans Matheson

I think the hardest character to cast is John in Haunted Lake. I think he may be my favorite character. So much happened in his past and he’s scarred both physically and emotionally. I can’t make a connection between him and any actor yet. Those of you who might have read Haunted Lake, what do you think? I do have some ideas for Daniel, though. These two:

Archie Kao

Archie Kao

Tim Kang

Tim Kang

And Adam from my Libby Fox Series. It has to be Alex O’Loughlin!

Alex

Alex O'Loughlin

Who do your characters look like? Or do you make up everything about them? I would love to hear who you see when you write!

Read Full Post »

CreateSpace/Haunted Lake

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 5, 2011| 6 Comments »

Today I submitted Haunted Lake to CreateSpace for a print version. I’m really nervous, and I think my cover designer, Anya Kelleye, is nervous, too. The cover is going to be iffy. I love it, but sometimes there’s an issue with color on this particular cover. And it looks different on the computer screen than it does when I print it out on our color laser here at work. Also, I hope all the errors in the interior have been fixed. When Anya and I did the print version for Jonathan Eli’s book, The Last Cabbandeum, we were delighted at how it turned out. Her cover was perfect. The interior I did looked great. So, hopefully, we did okay on this one. If not, we can always redo it and order another proof. It costs more to do that, but it has to be right.

After this, I’m going to work on getting Starfane in print. Then, I’m going to do a three novella set in one book with Club Blood, See Me, and Guardian Vampire. I may have said this before, but I joked about calling it “Loving the Dead and the Undead”. :0)

Read Full Post »

ROW80 Check In 8/3/11 + Frustration

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on August 4, 2011| 15 Comments »

No, my frustration isn’t actually with my ROW80 goals. I’m 7864 words ahead of my goal on my current WIP. And I have Haunted Lake ready for print. All is good on that front.

This is my frustration. I never wanted to write a series. I was doing perfectly fine writing stand alone books. But then some readers emailed me and asked me for a series. So I thought I would try one. I released Dark Relic: Vampires’ Curse in June. I’m currently working on the second novella of the Libby Fox series. Here’s the problem…Dark Relic isn’t selling worth a crap. (See, I’m frustrated, because I never use that word in my blog.) Every one of my previous books is outselling it. I thought the whole purpose of making sure you’re constantly putting new material out there is to keep your sales up, and get people to also buy your backlist. But my backlist is what’s selling. No matter what I do, Guardian Vampire continues to be my best seller. What is it about that book that sells? Although, maybe I need to think about something else. Hmmm. Haunted Lake is now keeping up with Guardian Vampire. And that book took seven months to really start selling. So maybe it’s going to take time. I just don’t know. I think Dark Relic has a better cover than Guardian Vampire. Is it the title? Am I just being impatient? Grrrrr.

Read Full Post »

What Do People Expect From Indie Books?

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on April 7, 2011| 17 Comments »

I usually don’t show my book reviews in my posts. But I found this review on Goodreads for Guardian Vampire and I think it points out what’s wrong with a lot of indie published books. Here is an excerpt (the review was much longer, but I just wanted to show the pertinent parts).

“Whenever I buy a PubIt! ebook, the quality is going to be hit or miss. Guardian Vampire surprised me in a way no other PubIt! ebook has ever done before: it was well edited both in grammar and content. This is rarer than you might imagine.

I read this little 192 page novella in one night of insomnia. It was quick, action packed, and enjoyable. So I’m surprised it doesn’t have higher rating especially when compared to othe PubIt! ebooks like ****** which made me want to rip my hair out with the lack of content editing and flat characters.”

I blanked out the name of the book the reader mentioned out of respect for a fellow author. But this just shows what people are expecting out of indie authors. That’s why it’s so important to have good editing. I know that people have found a typo or two in some of my books, but I agree with the author of this review. There are very few indie books I’ve read that had good editing. A lot of them have so many typos that I can’t believe more of them weren’t caught. Professional indies like Zoe Winters, Susan Bischoff, and Kait Nolan (I know I’m leaving some awesome authors out, but I’m just giving three examples of authors with well edited books) always make sure their books are as good as they can be before putting them out there. But I’ve found that this is a rare exception. I know not everyone can afford a good editor at the beginning, but if you have several sets of eyes on your book, the chances of bad grammar, typos, and incorrect punctuation get slimmer and slimmer. So let other people read your books before you publish them. Have both beta readers and proofreaders. That will help you put out a better product. If there’s a typo or two, it’s not the end of the world. But when there’s 20 (or about 50, like a couple I’ve read), that’s just not good.

I know the reviewer mentioned editing for “grammar and content”, but I know she probably also has experience with typos and bad punctuation in indie books (I have). So this post really encompasses all of it.

Read Full Post »

January Sales Stats

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on February 1, 2011| 16 Comments »

January was the best month I’ve ever had in book sales. EVER. I sold more books in January than I have all other months put together. And the reason for this huge jump in sales is one particular book. Guardian Vampire. I have six titles out right now. In fact, Haunted Lake is actually the latest one. But I feel like the biggest factor in the success of GV is one thing. The word “vampire” is in the title. I’ve probably mentioned that before, but that has really gotten me to thinking…people still want vampire stories. They aren’t tired of them yet. So it would probably be profitable to me to write another vampire story. Or maybe a three novella series. And make sure the word “vampire” appears somewhere on the titles. Am I shamelessly looking at the monetary side of things at the expensive of my “art”. Is it bad for me to look on the commercial side of things and write vampire stories for that reason when my true love is ghosts? Well, when your husband is out of work and your salary doesn’t pay all the bills, let alone groceries, you have to do what’s best for you. So, after this garden gnome novel I’m currently writing, I’ll probably be writing more vampire stories. LOL

So for the stats. And this is assuming B & N has the correct figures now.

Across all channels, including the UK for one channel:

Total books sold in January: 7,373
Total sales in January: $2,774.05
Highest rank at B & N: 135
Highest rank at Amazon: 227

Everybody loves vampires….

I wish I knew every reader out there that bought a copy. I’m so grateful, but it’s impossible to tell everyone that had a part in it. But I do know that some of you that read this blog have also bought my books. So to you that I CAN thank…I really, really appreciate your support.

Read Full Post »

Older Posts »