Well, yesterday I discovered the wonders of Shelfari. I had seen enough folks mention it that I knew I should look into attaching my books there, but yesterday when I finally had the free time to check it out, I found that it was much more than just another place to advertise. In fact, both of my stories on Amazon were already added by other people without my knowledge, so I guess you could say that my fun there came down to my love of books!
What I spent a long time on shelfari doing, was copying my book reviews off of goodreads to stand next to the book descriptions there. As many of the books I've reviewed aren't mainstream, well known books; there are a few that stand right now with no description other than my review. I do plan to go back through to give my list of books with no 'official' description the description that their author or publishing company have with the work where it is sold.
I just wanted to show off the cool shelf widget on the side off my blog that can show off a list of books I've read with pop-up copies of my reviews.
March 25, 2012
March 14, 2012
KDP Select promo-day schedule (and readers, please review me!)
My story Right Now
is almost down to it's last free day on Amazon KDP select, and I'm sure everyone I know who cares has already gotten it free some earlier promo day. Cool enough, I gave away like twice as many as my other book
has ever sold. (and that's only in America). I even managed to give away a few copies in Germany!
I did save back one free day for my birthday(March 17, St. Patrick's day). Maybe for luck or something?
Well, thinking about it yesterday, I figured I probably needed to advertize the Free day in a couple of new places If I want to catch someone who might get it yet doesn't have it yet. Simple, I figure, there's got to be a place or two where people list books with what day they are free.
You know? I fail at internet today. I haven't been able to find one place to do just that. Sure there are a couple of places that have their own pre-set days where you can screw around with your free day schedule and join them, but I want my book to be free on my birthday!
If you don't have it; It's free March 17 here:
http://www.amazon.com/Right-Now-ebook/dp/B007GOYX56
Or it's always free with Amazon prime.
And if you want to be cool you can rate it, or even write a review afterwards.
Just go to: http://www.amazon.com/Right-Now-ebook/dp/B007GOYX56 and click that little grey bar that says 'create your own review.'
(Yes, while writing this, looking for listings at Goodreads did occur to me; I'm off to do that now. If you know of anywhere else I could add to a listing of free kindle book days, please tell me!)
is almost down to it's last free day on Amazon KDP select, and I'm sure everyone I know who cares has already gotten it free some earlier promo day. Cool enough, I gave away like twice as many as my other book has ever sold. (and that's only in America). I even managed to give away a few copies in Germany!I did save back one free day for my birthday(March 17, St. Patrick's day). Maybe for luck or something?
Well, thinking about it yesterday, I figured I probably needed to advertize the Free day in a couple of new places If I want to catch someone who might get it yet doesn't have it yet. Simple, I figure, there's got to be a place or two where people list books with what day they are free.
You know? I fail at internet today. I haven't been able to find one place to do just that. Sure there are a couple of places that have their own pre-set days where you can screw around with your free day schedule and join them, but I want my book to be free on my birthday!
If you don't have it; It's free March 17 here:
http://www.amazon.com/Right-Now-ebook/dp/B007GOYX56
Or it's always free with Amazon prime.
And if you want to be cool you can rate it, or even write a review afterwards.
Just go to: http://www.amazon.com/Right-Now-ebook/dp/B007GOYX56
and click that little grey bar that says 'create your own review.'(Yes, while writing this, looking for listings at Goodreads did occur to me; I'm off to do that now. If you know of anywhere else I could add to a listing of free kindle book days, please tell me!)
March 12, 2012
Results of my book hand-outs
I must say, I am more than impressed by the KDP select program. Last week it worked out so I was pitting my Kindle Free-Days of My New Short Story
against the Smashwords giveaway of my full-length book. I expected the new one to do a little better because, you know, Amazon is more known, and I couldn't expect friends and family who'd already read my silly sci-fi werewolf book to go get it AGAIN.
The size of the difference though, has floored me. the book on Smashwords made a good 13-14 sales. Yeah, I know that's nothing but it's maybe a third of my total sales on the site. The book on Amazon? 80!
And then, this morning I realize that's only 80 in the US. going through the Amazon paperwork/pages it looks like I sold 80 in the US, 35 in Britain and 3 in Germany!
Germany?
Geeze, I didn't expect that one.
Whatever, this all just makes me happy. And if you haven't yet, please check out at either Amazon or Smashwords.
against the Smashwords giveaway of my full-length book
. I expected the new one to do a little better because, you know, Amazon is more known, and I couldn't expect friends and family who'd already read my silly sci-fi werewolf book to go get it AGAIN.The size of the difference though, has floored me. the book on Smashwords made a good 13-14 sales. Yeah, I know that's nothing but it's maybe a third of my total sales on the site. The book on Amazon? 80!
And then, this morning I realize that's only 80 in the US. going through the Amazon paperwork/pages it looks like I sold 80 in the US, 35 in Britain and 3 in Germany!
Germany?
Geeze, I didn't expect that one.
Whatever, this all just makes me happy. And if you haven't yet, please check out at either Amazon
or Smashwords.
March 05, 2012
Right Now, FREE: KDP select
I'm using my short story, Right Now, to try my luck with the KDP select program. For people signed up foe Amazon Prime it is free to download.
For those of us who haven't signed up for Amazon Prime, its only $0.99.
Now, of course, with KDP Select every 90 days you can slate 5 days where the writing is free to everyone. So you can get my book free here: http://www.amazon.com/Right-Now-ebook/dp/B007GOYX56on March 5, 7, 9, 10, and 17(just had to do that, March 17 is my Birthday :P)
, to try my luck with the KDP select program. For people signed up foe Amazon Prime it is free to download.For those of us who haven't signed up for Amazon Prime, its only $0.99.
Now, of course, with KDP Select every 90 days you can slate 5 days where the writing is free to everyone. So you can get my book free here: http://www.amazon.com/Right-Now-ebook/dp/B007GOYX56
on March 5, 7, 9, 10, and 17(just had to do that, March 17 is my Birthday :P)
March 04, 2012
Speed of Darkness, FREE: Smashwords promo
It seems, Smashwords is having a promo event from March 4 until March 10. This is your chance to get my short sci-fi book, The Speed of Darkness free!
Just go to http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/88625, click add to cart, and enter: RE100 as your coupon code, click update and your price should be at $0.00. Now just click checkout, and the book is yours for nothing!
I guess the only hitch you may have, is that they do require that you have an account to buy something; but such a thing can also come to your advantage. Forever more, from -ANYWHERE-, you will be able to download any ebook you've bought on Smashwords, in just about any different file type. They also send you very little mail. Other than notifying you when purchases are made by your account, or asking for reviews of what you've recently purchased, they are virtually silent.
Just go to http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/88625, click add to cart, and enter: RE100 as your coupon code, click update and your price should be at $0.00. Now just click checkout, and the book is yours for nothing!
I guess the only hitch you may have, is that they do require that you have an account to buy something; but such a thing can also come to your advantage. Forever more, from -ANYWHERE-, you will be able to download any ebook you've bought on Smashwords, in just about any different file type. They also send you very little mail. Other than notifying you when purchases are made by your account, or asking for reviews of what you've recently purchased, they are virtually silent.
March 03, 2012
It's gotta be a sign!
Yesterday I decided to put 'Right Now' the short story I had a lot of fun writing a few months back into the Amazon KDP select program. The idea of getting paid to let them hand out my book for free was somewhat appealing because it would have a better chance of attracting people I don't know to read my unknown work. I realize of course the fact that it's offered free will make some turn up their noses at the story as either cheap or childish. But whatever, my pricier book with its extravagant cost of $2.99 isn't exactly generating more than maybe 2-3 sales a month.
Of course, except for like 20 days/year 'free' is only free for people paying for special Amazon membership. and $0.99 for everyone else. But whatever, I'm somewhat curious to see how this works out for me.
I'd have probably tried it earlier if I could have enrolled my other book in it, but Amazon won't allow KDP select books to be distributed by anywhere else. Because most of the copies of 'The Speed of Darkness' that other people own were distributed through Smashwords, I was somewhat leery of taking it down from that site to play with some shiny new thing at Amazon.
So now, as I'm in the middle of preparing my 'Right Now' manuscript to upload onto Amazon, Smashwords sends me an email. They are about to start a week long promo on their site where I can easily give my book there to people free. Obviously, I'm being told to throw these book promotion schemes into competition with each other. So if I play with my kindle free-for-everyone days (I can use up to 5 every 90 days) as this Smashwords sale runs, I should be able to either capture a few new readers or get my first returning readers. Once the books go free, I'll post it right here. So if you haven't read me, or have and want some more/ know someone else who's ready to try a book at no cost; check back at this blog for the links I'll give out once the books are free.
with its extravagant cost of $2.99 isn't exactly generating more than maybe 2-3 sales a month.Of course, except for like 20 days/year 'free' is only free for people paying for special Amazon membership. and $0.99 for everyone else. But whatever, I'm somewhat curious to see how this works out for me.
I'd have probably tried it earlier if I could have enrolled my other book in it, but Amazon won't allow KDP select books to be distributed by anywhere else. Because most of the copies of 'The Speed of Darkness' that other people own were distributed through Smashwords, I was somewhat leery of taking it down from that site to play with some shiny new thing at Amazon.
So now, as I'm in the middle of preparing my 'Right Now' manuscript to upload onto Amazon, Smashwords sends me an email. They are about to start a week long promo on their site where I can easily give my book there to people free. Obviously, I'm being told to throw these book promotion schemes into competition with each other. So if I play with my kindle free-for-everyone days (I can use up to 5 every 90 days) as this Smashwords sale runs, I should be able to either capture a few new readers or get my first returning readers. Once the books go free, I'll post it right here. So if you haven't read me, or have and want some more/ know someone else who's ready to try a book at no cost; check back at this blog for the links I'll give out once the books are free.
February 29, 2012
My growing story
My book, The Speed of Darkness has no official page count because as of now it only exists within computer files. (Yes I'm still sure that someday it'll become popular enough that someone else will pay to print it. I can dream can't I?)
Before today or at least until recently Amazon estimated its length to be around 117 pages. That may have seemed a little short to me, but hey I wrote it; I realize that I'll probably see it as bigger and more important than anyone else. Hell, MSWord only has it as 104 pages; I just thought that the average book page was quite a bit shorter than the average document page.
117 and 104 seemed a bit too close to me, but maybe my whole page-length idea was just wrong. Whatever... Except when I was getting its Amazon page today, for some reason they've recalculated the book-length to 143.
Where did that come from? Were they miscalculating in the first place and so advertising my story as less than it is? Have they stuffed the back end with adds that they aren't paying me for? Either way, that just doesn't sit well with me.
Nothing to do with Amazon, The story actually IS growing. Right now I've started putting some notes together and rereading The Speed of Darkness to collect the elements I need to make a prequel. Right now I think it would be somewhat funny if I could fix it to be exactly 9,999 words because most of the short story publishing submission guidelines ask for a story of less than 10,000 words, but my length is not essential. If I build up a good story that gets messed up when I try to tweak the length, that idea can easily be abandoned. Mainly, I want a story that would easily stand alone but would also happily lead into the existing story. With my lack of advertising budget, this could be a great way to have others notice my writing. Even if it isn't, I had a ton of fun making The Speed of Darkness, and even if nothing comes of the prequel being an ad idea, it could eventually lead to my reediting of the original to offer in some sort of combo edition.
Before today or at least until recently Amazon estimated its length to be around 117 pages. That may have seemed a little short to me, but hey I wrote it; I realize that I'll probably see it as bigger and more important than anyone else. Hell, MSWord only has it as 104 pages; I just thought that the average book page was quite a bit shorter than the average document page.
117 and 104 seemed a bit too close to me, but maybe my whole page-length idea was just wrong. Whatever... Except when I was getting its Amazon page
today, for some reason they've recalculated the book-length to 143.Where did that come from? Were they miscalculating in the first place and so advertising my story as less than it is? Have they stuffed the back end with adds that they aren't paying me for? Either way, that just doesn't sit well with me.
Nothing to do with Amazon, The story actually IS growing. Right now I've started putting some notes together and rereading The Speed of Darkness to collect the elements I need to make a prequel. Right now I think it would be somewhat funny if I could fix it to be exactly 9,999 words because most of the short story publishing submission guidelines ask for a story of less than 10,000 words, but my length is not essential. If I build up a good story that gets messed up when I try to tweak the length, that idea can easily be abandoned. Mainly, I want a story that would easily stand alone but would also happily lead into the existing story. With my lack of advertising budget, this could be a great way to have others notice my writing. Even if it isn't, I had a ton of fun making The Speed of Darkness, and even if nothing comes of the prequel being an ad idea, it could eventually lead to my reediting of the original to offer in some sort of combo edition.
February 20, 2012
Gaaa!!! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!!
So I just sent off another round of review requests for my book, The Speed of Darkness, yeah? Of course I've found that most reviewers who offer to review for unknown authors ask for a copy of the book or a coupon to go buy it free.
Hey, I understand that! I'm not asking people to give me money so they can have the privilege of determining whether or not I'm a crappy writer. 'Twould be almost ridiculous (Not to mention that it would practically encourage fast thoughtless writing by people who write for the express purpose of turning around and to get rich directly from the reviewer's pockets.)
Anyway, I look in my email this morning to see I got one of those reviews posted. I'm OK with the misspelling of my name, that's common enough, but then I see my character referred to as SAM.
IN MY FINAL COPY, THE GUY'S NAME IS ERIC
Little story behind that... I wrote The Speed of Darkness nearly 3 years before I published it. By the time I put it on Amazon, I was in the middle of another still unfinished story/stories (online here) that also have a pretty important character named Sam. Having no real reason to keep calling people Sam I decided to switch one of their names to Eric. (A tribute to, I forget the name of the story, but it has a pair of twins named Sam and Eric). I forget why, but that other guy's name was unchangeable.
I tried to make the change everywhere, and I'm pretty sure now Sam Omlup is always Eric Omlup everywhere the book can be downloaded online. In most places on my computer it is changed too.
(I must have 15 different copies of the book on my computer to be ready for all the different file-formats people ask for, I also have 1 or 2 with the slight modifications Smashwords insisted on before they would send it to Barnes & Noble)
Looking back through my file system to destroy the offending 'Sam' files and create new 'Eric' files to replace them, I found 2 instances that hadn't been fixed within the folder where I was pulling copies of the story to give to reviewers who asked for them: the .pdf and the .mobi.
These are the two most common file-types reviewers want. So now I can look forward to a good score of possible reviews with names that don't quite match my story.
, yeah? Of course I've found that most reviewers who offer to review for unknown authors ask for a copy of the book or a coupon to go buy it free.Hey, I understand that! I'm not asking people to give me money so they can have the privilege of determining whether or not I'm a crappy writer. 'Twould be almost ridiculous (Not to mention that it would practically encourage fast thoughtless writing by people who write for the express purpose of turning around and to get rich directly from the reviewer's pockets.)
Anyway, I look in my email this morning to see I got one of those reviews posted. I'm OK with the misspelling of my name, that's common enough, but then I see my character referred to as SAM.
IN MY FINAL COPY, THE GUY'S NAME IS ERIC
Little story behind that... I wrote The Speed of Darkness nearly 3 years before I published it. By the time I put it on Amazon, I was in the middle of another still unfinished story/stories (online here) that also have a pretty important character named Sam. Having no real reason to keep calling people Sam I decided to switch one of their names to Eric. (A tribute to, I forget the name of the story, but it has a pair of twins named Sam and Eric). I forget why, but that other guy's name was unchangeable.
I tried to make the change everywhere, and I'm pretty sure now Sam Omlup is always Eric Omlup everywhere the book can be downloaded online. In most places on my computer it is changed too.
(I must have 15 different copies of the book on my computer to be ready for all the different file-formats people ask for, I also have 1 or 2 with the slight modifications Smashwords insisted on before they would send it to Barnes & Noble)
Looking back through my file system to destroy the offending 'Sam' files and create new 'Eric' files to replace them, I found 2 instances that hadn't been fixed within the folder where I was pulling copies of the story to give to reviewers who asked for them: the .pdf and the .mobi.
These are the two most common file-types reviewers want. So now I can look forward to a good score of possible reviews with names that don't quite match my story.
February 18, 2012
I've been interviewed today
Today I had a nice interview by Author Marcia Carrington.
Marcia's Book Talk
Marcia's Book Talk
February 09, 2012
This is fun
I check my email/facebook and see that my book now stands within The Book-Junkies Library: Sarah Baethge page
Now, I might have tried to put it there myself, but I truly don't remember this one. Nice little surprise.
Now, I might have tried to put it there myself, but I truly don't remember this one. Nice little surprise.
February 04, 2012
It's not mine, but if you like ebooks...
You want an ebook you don't have to open your pocketbook for? http://theriaka-ebooks.blogspot.com/2012/02/ebook-giveaway-falling-by-lc-smith.html It's a fantasy called Falling by L.C.Smith.
January 31, 2012
I think that last blog title hurt me....
Want to guess what happened to that story?
Don't worry about it, I'm sure I'll continue it at some time. In fact, Rachel Hadley's recent review of The Speed of Darkness has put me in the mood to write a prequel for it.
And don't let me try to get clever with words here in a way that's that's gonna leave me questioning whether or not the story will come to be; if I could end that other by saying my talk could curse it, I'm saying now- unquestionably, and quite assuredly- I AM going to write my prequel through to it's end without working on anything else until it's done.
-Sarah
Don't worry about it, I'm sure I'll continue it at some time. In fact, Rachel Hadley's recent review of The Speed of Darkness has put me in the mood to write a prequel for it.
And don't let me try to get clever with words here in a way that's that's gonna leave me questioning whether or not the story will come to be; if I could end that other by saying my talk could curse it, I'm saying now- unquestionably, and quite assuredly- I AM going to write my prequel through to it's end without working on anything else until it's done.
-Sarah
January 16, 2012
Now this probably curses it, but....
I've gotten a pretty good sized set of notes together for a story I'd like to write. I still haven't decided on a perfect ending for it, but I have enough that I don't think I will be able to just give up on it. Even if I plan nothing new I'm gonna give up this planning in a couple of days and simply get to writing. If I get to a point where I can't write any more, I think that this story, now called 'Panoptemitry' will get finished; or at least join the other 2-3 I'm working on with parts on my Kindle.
So those of you who ask if I'm currently working on anything, the answer now is yes. I WILL start writing that first chapter tomorrow whether or not I decide on the ending today. If I get stuck I'll start back on the one I'm calling 'Meant to Be.' Even if that doesn't work I can always switch back to 'The Link' that I started in Galveston...
Yeah, I'm gonna keep up reading and reviewing new books; but with any luck, I will produce 1 (if not 2 or 3) full length books this year that will easily outshine 'The Speed of Darkness.'
So those of you who ask if I'm currently working on anything, the answer now is yes. I WILL start writing that first chapter tomorrow whether or not I decide on the ending today. If I get stuck I'll start back on the one I'm calling 'Meant to Be.' Even if that doesn't work I can always switch back to 'The Link' that I started in Galveston...
Yeah, I'm gonna keep up reading and reviewing new books; but with any luck, I will produce 1 (if not 2 or 3) full length books this year that will easily outshine 'The Speed of Darkness.'
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