Upcoming Free Download Days All Books

Since I've moved all my books off Smashwords and Nook and I haven't done any free days in a while, it's time to do some more free download days.  I tried to space everything out so that nothing is really running the same day but there ended up being two back-to-back (see below), which may or may not work to my advantage - lol.

Here is the lineup:

"Bride-and-Seek" - July 18-20 (3 days); September 24-25 (2 days)
"The Proposal" - July 23-25 (3 days), September 27-28 (2 days)
"The Tulip Kiss" - August 13-17 (5 days)
Finally Home - August 29-September 2 (5 days - this will run the Thursday before Labor Day through Labor Day)

Remember the free promotional days run midnight PST through midnight PST (3 AM to 3 AM EST).  If you are eastern time and look for the books at midnight the day it starts,  you won't see them listed as free. 

Also posted on the JGDS blog that "Train of Clues" would go free next week and then again in August.  The schedule will be July 11-12 and August 27-29 (which will overlap one day with Finally Home, but it will be okay since they are not related and shouldn't have any bearing on the other).  Check out my posting and let me know if you have any thoughts on gaining sponsors for the state series.  Thanks all - see you in the postings - Mrs. E :)

Price Reduction

I just decided to lower the price on all the print books available.  State books are now $8.50 across the board (Wilderness, Successes, Heights and Nature) as this is the price I sell them when I do in-person events.  Finally Home is now $9.99 and "Train of Clues" has been reduced to $5.99.  Hopefully sales will pick up with these price reductions across the board.

I've been thinking about this for a while now because I do generally well at in-person events with these prices and should be able to do well through Amazon with the same prices.  See you all in the postings - E :)

This and That

It's been a kind of crazy week here having to deal with insurance and towing and AAA and getting daughter's car fixed but overall, I think things have settled down and hopefully she will have her car tomorrow before she goes to work.

I totally forgot to mention Friday that Susanne Drazic, the person who leaves the most comments here and who bestowed upon me the RAOK on her blog, posted a review of "The Proposal". Part of forgetting this was that I was away from my desk most of the day and it slipped my mind. For the review, drop by her blog and leave a comment.

On the sales side, I sold one copy of "The Tulip Kiss" on kindle and no sales anywhere else. I am running a special deal on my state books through the 7th of July - buy 2 get 1 for 1/2 off ($25 for three books/$50 for all six which is like buying five and getting one for free, plus no shipping costs). For more information, you can check out the JGDS blog.

I do plan on getting back to my state stories soon but I'm waiting on some other things from Heather before I get back to writing anything. She's got one more fix on "Train of Clues" and I'm thinking of trying that one out as an ebook as well just to see if it will work in that format being that it is illustrated. I'm also waiting on the cover for "Butterfly Halves" so I can get that published. Of the two persons I shared the first cover with, I've had differences of opinion on several aspects of the cover. Things I like about it, they don't and things I'm not crazy about, they like. I've passed both opinions and mine to Heather and hopefully she will come up with the perfect cover.

If you are a horse lover or even a horse rider or know someone who is, my other blind friend, who is also an author, Andi Mills, has an article here about using mini horses as service or guide animals.

This week's guests will be Jen Wylie, author of the Ever series and several other short stories, Darcia Helle, author of many suspense stories, and a special appearance by Jo Linsdell for her "Out and About a Day at the Zoo" book tour. See you all in the postings - E :)

Createspace announcement

No, they are not going belly up. No they are not changing names.

I received an email today regarding the Pro Advantage plan on createspace. For those of you who are published with createspace already, you probably received the same announcement. For those of you considering publishing with createspace, some good news for everyone. The Pro Advantage plan has been discontinued, but not to fret you still have the ability to get your books listed in the expanded distribution.

What this means for authors publishing using createspace is what we were paying for books under the pro advantage plan is now the same for every one, which in turn means higher royalties on our sales. The pro advantage allowed us to list our books with Ingrams (bookstores), Baker & Taylor (schools and libraries) and Createspace direct distribution. It would cost us $39 each for the titles we listed with the pro advantage, with a renewal of $5 per year to keep the title active. Now, the expanded distribution is only $25 and from what I'm reading, this is a 1-time payment on each title to get the same distribution as what the pro advantage gave us.

This makes me a happy camper because I have a short book that I just wasn't too thrilled with ordering too many copies at once because it wasn't cost effective and realistically for the cost to print the book and what I'm retailing it for, I wasn't making very much royalty wise. Now that the pro advantage is gone, the book will cost me the same as my state books to print and I can leave it listed through amazon and my createspace store and not have to worry about paying that $39 to have expanded distribution. I won't feel so bad about ordering copies of that book to have on hand now. Doing a happy dance over here for this new announcement - :)

Keep on writing, see you in the postings - E :)

Finally Home proof copy ordered

So money is in the bank right at 1 AM. I jumped on createspace and have ordered the proof copy for Finally Home and the republishing proof of Train of Clues. I also ordered 3 more copies of each of the state stories that are published since I have two events next week, back to back. The hope is that I will have my proof copies by Wednesday or Thursday of this week and will be able to release Finally Home officially Friday and order a few copies to have on hand for the Savannah Children's Book Festival the weekend of the 19th. That will be my official launch date if all goes well.

I am getting my new van today - and I can't wait. After that I have tons of errands to run and then come home to work and be available for the class visit with Mr. Hughes' class. See you all in the postings - E :)

MoonZeLent - a new vampire saga

Check out Heather's blog, my new illustrator, and you will find an interesting interview with an upcoming vampire novelist. The cover for this new novel can be found on her website. She is in the process of adding the cover for "Train of Clues" so keep an eye on this young lady as she has some raw talent and is about to embark on an adventure that will hopefully get her known. She is wanting to work with Disney/Pixar studios in the future, so hopefully the work she will be doing on the rest of the JGDS series covers will help her get there. I'm truly pleased with the cover and inside illustrations for "Train of Clues" and can't wait to hold the booklet in my hands.

As new covers in the series are available, you will be able to see them on my other blog and my website.

Good things are happening!

What a whirlwind of a few weeks I've had.

Last Thursday, I attended the Family TOUCH workshop as a vendor. The coordinators of the event are interested in having me come do my workshop "Writing Roads" for the co-op group. Yes, that's the same workshop listed on my website and they are aware of the costs. They will have the families participating contribute to the cost so that I can do the workshop.

My friend, Heidi Ippolito, called me last week and asked if I would be interested in a new venture - a teaching one. Now, I've not taught anything before but I told her to go ahead and give my contact information to the person at the Junior College in town and I would see if I could do it. So today, the young lady calls me (she's the one in charge of setting up instructors for the classes). So, starting Thursday (yes, July 1, this Thursday) I'll be teaching a transcription class at the college - what an exciting new item to add to my resume. (Of course, this is a paid job too, so that makes it doubly exciting).

I've been trying to get in touch with the South Carolina Council for the Social Studies (SCCSS) folks and so today left a message on the president's office phone and her cell phone and she called me back. We were discussing the conference to be held at Myrtle Beach this fall and me being a vendor. I explained a little bit about my books and she asked me to consider doing a presentation for the social studies teachers, the same type of workshop I have geared for kids. So now, I'm thinking with this new teaching job and a little supplement to my income, I can make the trip and do the presentation. I was telling Hailie about it and the first thing she says is that if I go to Myrtle Beach this year, she's going with me. Yay!! Now I know if I go, I'll have help in my booth while I do my presentation, and she will get to spend some time on the beach. She was a bit disappointed to find out that it was in October saying it was too cold in October to go to the beach, but honestly this is South Carolina - hello! - trust me, in October at Myrtle Beach, it will be nice enough for her to be on the beach.

One other place to contact about being a vendor for their 1-day workshop in September and hopefully everything else falls in to place.

And Heather, my new illustrator is working out wonderfully - have the almost final layout for "Train of Clues" and then it's off to the printers, so be on the look out for the story that started the whole series within the next couple of weeks -

See you all in the postings - E :)