Butterfly Halves was at the #5 spot last week on http://www.fictionwise.com/, Echelon Press's page (on the left side, scan down towards the bottom, where it says browse and a list of ways to browse, go under publishers), find Echelon Press and then you can see where stories are sitting on that board), and this week with the new additions and updates, it is still at #5. This may mean no sales but the books behind me didn't sell anything either or maybe one sale, enough to keep me in that postion, even with everyone above me selling - hope it means the latter - sales are good. But since this is the last week of the accounting period, I would like to see more sales, especially since I'm running a contest - see previous post.
The Tulip Kiss had been at #18 and today, it's up to #15 - so woohooo - means maybe one copy sold, enough to bring it up six slots.
I'm trying to come up with an idea for a contest for The Tulip Kiss, something I can do as a giveaway but am not coming up with anything right off the top of my head. If anyone has any ideas of what I can do as giveaways for the contest, I'm open to suggestions - Bring it on - E :)
Showing posts with label echelon press. Show all posts
Showing posts with label echelon press. Show all posts
Monday, June 25, 2007
Monday, June 18, 2007
Butterfly Halves hits #4 best seller on Echelon Press's list
Now if that isn't good news, I don't know what it is. Check out the fictionwise listing --- http://www.fictionwise.com/eBooks/EchelonPresseBooks.htm. This is the listing for the third week of Butterfly Halves being up. I hadn't even checked the listings today but someone informed me on the Echelon Author's forum this evening that I was #4 - so I'm doing the happy dance -
Yay - so glad you all have been by to purchase my story - thank you all my friends and readers - E :)
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Echelon's New Fast Fiction contest is out
Come on all you short story writers - Echelon has posted it's new Fast Fiction contest and we love contests. You may get published within a week of the notification time or you could write something just as awesome as the winner and receive a contract to be published - which is what happened with my Butterfly Halves story. -
So here are the details -
So here are the details -
Fast and Foreign Fiction Writing Contest
As writers we have a wonderful array of locations to set our fiction in. This month Echelon Press challenges you to step outside your comfortable neighborhood and take us to someplace foreign. We want you to send us your stories of the unique and exotic, the bold and adventurous, the mystical and romantic. Take us far away. We want to read your stories that take place anywhere outside of the United States. For some this may mean where you live, but not where live!
Every author at every level should be committed to keeping their name in front of readers. Are you looking for your first publishing credit? Are you between books? Looking for a way to revive characters from books that have been out for a while? Want to introduce new characters for upcoming books? Looking for a way to build your readership? Have we got a promotional opportunity for you!
Echelon Press would like to publish your "Fast and Foreign" June story. The fast part means you have until June 11, 2007 to submit your story of 3000-6000 words. The winner will be notified by June 12, 2007 and have 5 days to edit/revise the story. Echelon Press will publish your story in its e-book division on June 18, 2007. Simple!
Send your submissions as a Word (doc) attachment to contest@echelonpress.com. Your cover letter should be in the body of an e-mail. Cover letters that do not adhere to professional standards will disqualify the submission from further consideration.
Our only real request is that the setting, anyplace outside of the United States be the catalyst for your story! You pick the genre. Stories must adhere to the following guidelines.
Standard Manuscript format:
File saved in Word format (.doc) or (.rtf)
8 ½ x 11 page
Times New Roman 12pt font/black
1-inch margin on all sides/ 1.5 line spacing
Align text left, do not justify (aligning text both left and right)
Header containing title, author name, and page number
Capital letters at the beginning of sentences and proper nouns
Indent new paragraphs 0.3. Do not add blank line between paragraphs.
Show scene breaks with * * * * centered in the appropriate line.
All cover letters must include:
Name (and pseudonym if applicable)
Mailing address
Phone number
E-mail address (required)
Web address (required)
*Winners under 18 years of age must show parent's permission prior to contract.
Previous Winners:
June 2007 -- Coming Soon!
May 2007 -- No Contest
April 2007 -- No Contest
March 2007 -- Janelle Dakota -- Hear the Wind Blow (Fanciful)
February 2007 -- Yvonne Walus -- Small Price to Pay (Frisky)
January 2007 -- Elysabeth Eldering -- The Tulip Kiss (Frigid)
December 2006 -- Dan Strohschien -- The Naughty List (Festive)
November 2006 -- Jamie Summers -- A True Friend (Fatal)
October 2006 -- C.A. Verstraete -- The Witch Tree (Freaky)
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Second Time Around (Butterfly Halves is officially published - lol)
I've posted this blog on my Book space area - an ning networking group - I'm not sure how I signed up with ning - but I believe it started with Maverick Marketers (another of Karen's sites - but I'm glad I did - book place is for authors, editors, readers, publishers - anyone who likes books - so if you would like to sign up - make sure you add me to your friends' list - the weblink is above in the title but here it is again - http://morganmandelbooks.ning.com/profile/elysabeth42 --- I also belong to a crime space on ning and a publishers site (besides Karen) and maybe one other group - so check out the ning networking things and see where you belong - http://www.ning.com/ - there are many out there and everyone should belong somewhere - lol
I don't know about most of you but when you get your first publishing contract, it is very exciting - can't sit still, must shout it from the rooftops and do the happy dance. How about when you get the second one? or the third? or the 100th? Are you still excited when you get acceptance and receive the contract, even if the contract is basically the same as the first?
I know I am. I received my first contract in January from the Fast and Frigid contest for Echelon Press. That was very exciting. Well, I've entered two more monthly contests since then (forgot to or was too busy to enter the April contest) and didn't win either of them but my March entry (one of my friends did win that so she was published in March), a young adult fantasy story received a contract. Butterfly Halves is officially published now and all I can do is the happy dance, and the announcements and everything. Of course when I got the request to contract the story, I was doing all those things too. So the last two months have been promoting Butterfly Halves and The Tulip Kiss, but in different manners.
So I leave the question to all you published authors - is the second time around just as exciting and good as the first one or not? - E :)
I don't know about most of you but when you get your first publishing contract, it is very exciting - can't sit still, must shout it from the rooftops and do the happy dance. How about when you get the second one? or the third? or the 100th? Are you still excited when you get acceptance and receive the contract, even if the contract is basically the same as the first?
I know I am. I received my first contract in January from the Fast and Frigid contest for Echelon Press. That was very exciting. Well, I've entered two more monthly contests since then (forgot to or was too busy to enter the April contest) and didn't win either of them but my March entry (one of my friends did win that so she was published in March), a young adult fantasy story received a contract. Butterfly Halves is officially published now and all I can do is the happy dance, and the announcements and everything. Of course when I got the request to contract the story, I was doing all those things too. So the last two months have been promoting Butterfly Halves and The Tulip Kiss, but in different manners.
So I leave the question to all you published authors - is the second time around just as exciting and good as the first one or not? - E :)
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Depressing sales for The Tulip Kiss on fictionwise
Karen has been posting fictionwise sales per week on the authors' forum on yahoo. I like this a lot. It helps us see if we had any sales and helps us project what our possible royalties will look like when we receive them. - so she is keeping us informed (since there is still a glitch on Echelon Press's webstore page and I believe now she is sending every ebook directly to fictionwise and not even publishing on the Echelon website - but she is still publishing printed books - so anyway - I like this being informed of what sales look like on fictionwise, although it can be depressing when you look at it a week at a time - such is the case for these past three weeks so far
I knew I wasn't selling much but golly gee - do I not have any fans out there? - The first week of May (April 30 through May 6) my sales totaled all of 2 (Jane from down under purchased a copy and had some delightful things to say to me via email about my story and that she can't wait to purchase more of my writings (she also gave me a good rating on the fictionwise site)- so thank you Jane from down under) and Jane from Washington state purchased another copy just to put a rating on the story - which I think her for also) - so my whole two copies for the month of May so far.
(Overall, Echelon authors sold 99 stories this first week with one author selling 23 copies of her story - and of course Janelle sold 11 copies that week - way to go Yvonne and Janelle)
Fictionwise only updates their site once a week, every Monday. Any books to be uploaded are uploaded on Mondays. I'm anxiously awaiting my Butterfly Halves to be uploaded since Karen said it had already been submitted to them (she thought it should have been uploaded yesterday but as of this evening sometime, it had not so alas, hopefully for memorial day - will be a good thing)
Okay, week #2 (May 7 - May 13) - Zero books sold on fictionwise - what's up with that - I have no sales whatsoever, how tres, tres tres sad for me - where are my friends and fans? Yvonne sold only 8 copies (for her first place sales this week) and Janelle sold 3 copies (placing her in second place). Where are the fans and readers? (overall, all Echelon stories that sold this week was very low - only 35 copies of stories sold - these are just authors from Echelon who sold stories).
Week #3 - (May 14 - May 20) - Although I still sold 0 copies of The Tulip Kiss (my fans must all be sleeping - I mean a story that you can download for only $1 and I've been pushing it with my email signatures, and other things - bookmarks floating around places and mentions just about everywhere I go - so where are my wonderful reading fans?), Echelon authors did sell 80 stories overall (not as many as the first week but more authors sold stories than previously). Yvonne has taken a dip in sales and is now 4th with only 6 copies sold. Janelle took a small dip also, she sold 3 copies and now sits at 7th place on the chart. The top two sellers both sold 10 copies each and they are both brand new uploads - so awesome job ladies.
All I'm asking is if you have purchased a copy of my story, either from Echelon when it first came out, or from fictionwise since the end of January, please review or rate the story. I believe that reviews do help sell stories, especially ebooks, since people can't hold the story in their hands and flip through to read passages throughout to decided if they want to buy the story. If you have purchased a story, I really do thank you from the bottom of my heart and would love to know what you think of it. Either review it publically on Echelon, rate it on fictionwise or drop me an email or note here to let me know what you think of it.
Thanks again to all the wonderful readers of short stories out there - see you all in the postings - E :)
I knew I wasn't selling much but golly gee - do I not have any fans out there? - The first week of May (April 30 through May 6) my sales totaled all of 2 (Jane from down under purchased a copy and had some delightful things to say to me via email about my story and that she can't wait to purchase more of my writings (she also gave me a good rating on the fictionwise site)- so thank you Jane from down under) and Jane from Washington state purchased another copy just to put a rating on the story - which I think her for also) - so my whole two copies for the month of May so far.
(Overall, Echelon authors sold 99 stories this first week with one author selling 23 copies of her story - and of course Janelle sold 11 copies that week - way to go Yvonne and Janelle)
Fictionwise only updates their site once a week, every Monday. Any books to be uploaded are uploaded on Mondays. I'm anxiously awaiting my Butterfly Halves to be uploaded since Karen said it had already been submitted to them (she thought it should have been uploaded yesterday but as of this evening sometime, it had not so alas, hopefully for memorial day - will be a good thing)
Okay, week #2 (May 7 - May 13) - Zero books sold on fictionwise - what's up with that - I have no sales whatsoever, how tres, tres tres sad for me - where are my friends and fans? Yvonne sold only 8 copies (for her first place sales this week) and Janelle sold 3 copies (placing her in second place). Where are the fans and readers? (overall, all Echelon stories that sold this week was very low - only 35 copies of stories sold - these are just authors from Echelon who sold stories).
Week #3 - (May 14 - May 20) - Although I still sold 0 copies of The Tulip Kiss (my fans must all be sleeping - I mean a story that you can download for only $1 and I've been pushing it with my email signatures, and other things - bookmarks floating around places and mentions just about everywhere I go - so where are my wonderful reading fans?), Echelon authors did sell 80 stories overall (not as many as the first week but more authors sold stories than previously). Yvonne has taken a dip in sales and is now 4th with only 6 copies sold. Janelle took a small dip also, she sold 3 copies and now sits at 7th place on the chart. The top two sellers both sold 10 copies each and they are both brand new uploads - so awesome job ladies.
All I'm asking is if you have purchased a copy of my story, either from Echelon when it first came out, or from fictionwise since the end of January, please review or rate the story. I believe that reviews do help sell stories, especially ebooks, since people can't hold the story in their hands and flip through to read passages throughout to decided if they want to buy the story. If you have purchased a story, I really do thank you from the bottom of my heart and would love to know what you think of it. Either review it publically on Echelon, rate it on fictionwise or drop me an email or note here to let me know what you think of it.
Thanks again to all the wonderful readers of short stories out there - see you all in the postings - E :)
Friday, May 18, 2007
Top rankings for stories on fictionwise.com
I've been asked that since this was good news on the Echelon Authors forum on yahoo - to post the info here.
Fictionwise is a pretty neat place for our short stories and other ebooks. They update their website every Monday and so by chance I was looking through the short stories (I did all, then by individual categories) and then browsed through all the fiction posted there and these were the results I came up with -
For just browsing the short stoies there are 5175 items posted in all the short stories, The Tulip Kiss was 469 (I think that's the right spot or maybe it was 439 - it seems I remember it being in the top 500 - which equates to the top 10%) out of those.
Breaking it down to mainstream (the category that The Tulip Kiss falls in) - there are 154 items listed and The Tulip Kiss was 3rd - that's pretty impressive if I do say so myself.
For the overall fiction category - of 2744 items under the mainstream category, The Tulip Kiss is 56th - again - right up there a good bit.
When I checked Echelon Press's books - I ranked 12th out of 151 items -
Tells me that The Tulip Kiss is selling some but not a lot. I'd like to see sales pick up but not sure how to really market that one story - I've tried several things and am gearing up a display for the Printer's Row in Chicago June 9-10 (Karen will allow us authors to pay a small fee and will set up a display for us to get our stuff advertised). I'm doing up some bookmarks, some tulips with some information (going to be really cute because the tulips will be in little flower pots) and a few other things since by this time my young adult fantasy story, Butterfly Halves, should be out.
I checked out Janelle's rankings and the following is true for her:
For overall fantasy stories - of 1845 items, Hear the Wind Blow ranks 6th - way to go Janelle - keep up the good work
For short stories - overall - no category - of the 5175 items, she is 31st (again this is pretty awesome).
For short stories - fantasy category - 2nd of 506 items (now her story just went up on fictionwise on April 30th, so basically in two weeks she has maintained some high spots on fictionwise)
On Echelon Press's listings of the 151 items, she is ranked #2 - I think she deserves a round of applause for doing such a great job - onl being on fictionwise for 2 weeks and already ranking in top 10 of her category and on our publisher's listing as well.
For everyone who has purchased any story from fictionwise or Echelon Press, please make sure after you read to rate the stories or go to the Echelon site and post a review - with ebooks, I think reviews and covers really do help sales a lot. We appreciate everyone who has already purchased our stories and for those of you haven't, what are you waiting for - they are good, quality short stories (or we wouldn't be published) - so I encourage you all to download a quick read and check back and drop us a note when you have purchased a story and let us know what you think of them - For a $1 - you can't go wrong - see you all in the postings - E :)
Fictionwise is a pretty neat place for our short stories and other ebooks. They update their website every Monday and so by chance I was looking through the short stories (I did all, then by individual categories) and then browsed through all the fiction posted there and these were the results I came up with -
For just browsing the short stoies there are 5175 items posted in all the short stories, The Tulip Kiss was 469 (I think that's the right spot or maybe it was 439 - it seems I remember it being in the top 500 - which equates to the top 10%) out of those.
Breaking it down to mainstream (the category that The Tulip Kiss falls in) - there are 154 items listed and The Tulip Kiss was 3rd - that's pretty impressive if I do say so myself.
For the overall fiction category - of 2744 items under the mainstream category, The Tulip Kiss is 56th - again - right up there a good bit.
When I checked Echelon Press's books - I ranked 12th out of 151 items -
Tells me that The Tulip Kiss is selling some but not a lot. I'd like to see sales pick up but not sure how to really market that one story - I've tried several things and am gearing up a display for the Printer's Row in Chicago June 9-10 (Karen will allow us authors to pay a small fee and will set up a display for us to get our stuff advertised). I'm doing up some bookmarks, some tulips with some information (going to be really cute because the tulips will be in little flower pots) and a few other things since by this time my young adult fantasy story, Butterfly Halves, should be out.
I checked out Janelle's rankings and the following is true for her:
For overall fantasy stories - of 1845 items, Hear the Wind Blow ranks 6th - way to go Janelle - keep up the good work
For short stories - overall - no category - of the 5175 items, she is 31st (again this is pretty awesome).
For short stories - fantasy category - 2nd of 506 items (now her story just went up on fictionwise on April 30th, so basically in two weeks she has maintained some high spots on fictionwise)
On Echelon Press's listings of the 151 items, she is ranked #2 - I think she deserves a round of applause for doing such a great job - onl being on fictionwise for 2 weeks and already ranking in top 10 of her category and on our publisher's listing as well.
For everyone who has purchased any story from fictionwise or Echelon Press, please make sure after you read to rate the stories or go to the Echelon site and post a review - with ebooks, I think reviews and covers really do help sales a lot. We appreciate everyone who has already purchased our stories and for those of you haven't, what are you waiting for - they are good, quality short stories (or we wouldn't be published) - so I encourage you all to download a quick read and check back and drop us a note when you have purchased a story and let us know what you think of them - For a $1 - you can't go wrong - see you all in the postings - E :)
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Publisher's blurb for Butterfly Halves
I've been asked to post the new blurb for the upcoming story, Butterfly Halves. Here it is -
Determined to possess a beautiful butterfly necklace, two sisters find themselveschallenged by time and space when they break the necklace in half in a fit of siblingrivalry. Fate sends each of them into an unknown place, separated and alone. But somethingstronger is at hand; will they discover the power of the butterfly and be reunited, or has fate other plans?
One person has said to take out the necklace part and leave that as a mystery; one person says it will be better with the girls' names and ages - what do all of you think?
The necklace is vital to the story but I'm game - I'll make the suggestions to the publisher and see what she says - Thanks for reading and commenting - see you all in the posts - E :)
Determined to possess a beautiful butterfly necklace, two sisters find themselveschallenged by time and space when they break the necklace in half in a fit of siblingrivalry. Fate sends each of them into an unknown place, separated and alone. But somethingstronger is at hand; will they discover the power of the butterfly and be reunited, or has fate other plans?
One person has said to take out the necklace part and leave that as a mystery; one person says it will be better with the girls' names and ages - what do all of you think?
The necklace is vital to the story but I'm game - I'll make the suggestions to the publisher and see what she says - Thanks for reading and commenting - see you all in the posts - E :)
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Cover, fictionwise bestselling list, and some general news
It's been a couple of weeks since I updated my blog, so figured I'd share with you a few things.
Last night, my friend Janelle (see book cover Hear the Wind Blow) posted about her bestselling figures, so I figured I needed to post mine as well. On fictionwise, in the mainstream short stories, The Tulip Kiss is ranked #3 out of 153 short stories. Fictionwise updates the rankings and ratings and all every Monday. So this is in large part due to the fact that two copies (Janelle purchased a copy and another Jane from down under did as well) sold in one week. Out of all the short stories, 5167 of them, The Tulip Kiss ranked 439th. Top 500 isn't bad. Janelle's story ranked 40th out of those 5167, because she had 14 copies sell in one week (her story was just posted to fictionwise on Monday, April 30) - way to go Janelle.
General news - I have to go back for another sleep study the end of this month - not fun - but they are going to put me on CPAP this time and see if I sleep better, although I'm not so sure I will even with a breather to help me breath better. I'll still be hooked up to trodes on my head, chest, legs, and a belt around my waist and chest to monitor my breathing, my eye movements, my heart rate and my leg movements. The problem with studies like this is that the person being tested doesn't sleep well as it is and then to throw all the other stuff in makes one more likely not to sleep. I can't sleep in other people's beds and can't sleep hooked up to monitors, so maybe the CPAP will help, maybe not - guess we'll find out in the next few weeks.
And now - my cover for Butterfly Halves is here. I can't wait to see the book published. So here you go -
It's so pretty - and I think it will have sell appeal - drop me a line and let me know what you think of this cover.
See you all in the postings - E :)
Last night, my friend Janelle (see book cover Hear the Wind Blow) posted about her bestselling figures, so I figured I needed to post mine as well. On fictionwise, in the mainstream short stories, The Tulip Kiss is ranked #3 out of 153 short stories. Fictionwise updates the rankings and ratings and all every Monday. So this is in large part due to the fact that two copies (Janelle purchased a copy and another Jane from down under did as well) sold in one week. Out of all the short stories, 5167 of them, The Tulip Kiss ranked 439th. Top 500 isn't bad. Janelle's story ranked 40th out of those 5167, because she had 14 copies sell in one week (her story was just posted to fictionwise on Monday, April 30) - way to go Janelle.
General news - I have to go back for another sleep study the end of this month - not fun - but they are going to put me on CPAP this time and see if I sleep better, although I'm not so sure I will even with a breather to help me breath better. I'll still be hooked up to trodes on my head, chest, legs, and a belt around my waist and chest to monitor my breathing, my eye movements, my heart rate and my leg movements. The problem with studies like this is that the person being tested doesn't sleep well as it is and then to throw all the other stuff in makes one more likely not to sleep. I can't sleep in other people's beds and can't sleep hooked up to monitors, so maybe the CPAP will help, maybe not - guess we'll find out in the next few weeks.
And now - my cover for Butterfly Halves is here. I can't wait to see the book published. So here you go -
It's so pretty - and I think it will have sell appeal - drop me a line and let me know what you think of this cover.
See you all in the postings - E :)
Friday, April 13, 2007
ebook site
Just in case anyone has problems accessing stories on the Echelon Press site, which you never know, my stories are currently available on FictionWise as well. http://www.fictionwise.com/ - you can purchase the stories through them as well.
Echelon is still experiencing some hiccups on the webstore page (after logging in and no one seems to know what is going on with it) - so if you have an account on Echelon (the only reasons one would need to actually log in would be to make a purchase and to post a review), we are asking everyone who logs in to please make sure you click the log out button before leaving the website. This is your best bet; that way whoever comes to the website after you won't be logged in as you and have access to your account info. Just remember to log out to be on the safe side; not discouraging anyone from perusing the site or purchasing, just want everyone to be safe. E :)
Echelon is still experiencing some hiccups on the webstore page (after logging in and no one seems to know what is going on with it) - so if you have an account on Echelon (the only reasons one would need to actually log in would be to make a purchase and to post a review), we are asking everyone who logs in to please make sure you click the log out button before leaving the website. This is your best bet; that way whoever comes to the website after you won't be logged in as you and have access to your account info. Just remember to log out to be on the safe side; not discouraging anyone from perusing the site or purchasing, just want everyone to be safe. E :)
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Fast fiction contest on Echelon
Okay, so today is April Fool's day - and this is not a joke - Echelon Press has posted the next fast fiction contest and the theme - Fast and Foolish - Jane and I had a thought this would be the theme - so write on - it is very fast. You have to submit by April 12, with winner announced on April 14, and story published on April 19; the foolish catalyst has to be a lie or joke (in honor of April Fool's days jokes abounding today).
Short stories are fun and can lead to publication (is how I got my second story submitted to publication - Karen was impressed enough to offer me a contract on the story) - Anyone interested, just check out www.echelonpress.com - scroll down to the bottom of the home page (second block of news) - and you will find all the guidelines needed for the story. Good luck to you all - see you in the postings - E :)
Short stories are fun and can lead to publication (is how I got my second story submitted to publication - Karen was impressed enough to offer me a contract on the story) - Anyone interested, just check out www.echelonpress.com - scroll down to the bottom of the home page (second block of news) - and you will find all the guidelines needed for the story. Good luck to you all - see you in the postings - E :)
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
update on freaky occurrence
Karen has informed Jane that the tech guys couldn't find anything wrong and short of her redoing her web store page, they didn't know how to fix the problem.
Sorry, but I still don't think they are producing the same problem because they haven't a clue what they are doing. There is obviously something going on - so my advice to anyone who has an account on Echelon (and no I'm not saying don't ever use the site) that when you do log in to make a purchase or post a review to please make sure you click log off when you are finished with your transaction or posting so that the next person that comes to the site won't be logged in as you. We definitely want you all to still make purchases and post reviews just be safe - see you all in the postings - E :)
Sorry, but I still don't think they are producing the same problem because they haven't a clue what they are doing. There is obviously something going on - so my advice to anyone who has an account on Echelon (and no I'm not saying don't ever use the site) that when you do log in to make a purchase or post a review to please make sure you click log off when you are finished with your transaction or posting so that the next person that comes to the site won't be logged in as you. We definitely want you all to still make purchases and post reviews just be safe - see you all in the postings - E :)
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