This and That

Summer is in full swing across the country. This week will be very light due to the holiday coming up. I'm going to post a giveaway on my JGDS blog just to kick off the 4th of July week.

Not much to report sales wise - nothing that I can see has sold. Smashwords is having a site-wide Summer Winter Sale and we authors have the option of participating by either offering our books for free, or at a discounted price - 25, 50 or 75% off. I've put Finally Home at 25% off but am thinking of changing it to 50% off, so for $1.50 you can download my middle grade/YA paranormal mystery (which I've been told is written similar to a Nancy Drew mystery). Just come over to the Finally Home smashwords page and click on purchase and enter the promo code of SSW50 so when you check out, you will receive the book for 50% off. The other two stories, "The Propoal" and "The Tulip Kiss", are at the lowest price and I can only offer them for free regardless if I choose the 25, 50, or 75% off promotion, so enter the same code as for Finally Home to receive your copy for free. This promotion is good through 11:59 PM July 31. So if you like Nancy Drew mysteries and want a quick read, stop over and get your copy of Finally Home before the end of the month, or think about gifting it to the young reader in your life who enjoys reading mysteries like Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys, or any number of books written similar to these.

I may have an interview this week with Jo Linsdell, author of "Out and About at the Zoo", but unsure at this time as I've not heard back from her yet regarding this.

I'm running a special code on my createspace books (these are print copies of my state books and Finally Home for discounted pricing similar to my in-person events. If you are interested in a print book not directly through me, email me for the code and the links for the books to order through createspace. I'm still running the special deal on my state books of buy 3 for $25 or get all 6 for $50 (that's buy 2 at regular price and get the third for for 50% or in the case of all six, buy five at regular price and get the sixth one free). This promotion is good through the end of the day Saturday.



Don't forget to purchase extra chances for the red, white and blue afghan drawing which will be held in December. Chances are $1.50, 5/$6, 10/$12 and 25/$25, but this week only I'll sell chances at $1 each with the best deal of 30/$25 (five free chances). The only way to get this special pricing on the chances is to go directly through paypal - using eeldering@gmail.com to send the money for the number of chances you would like - 10/$10; 20/$20, et cetera. For every 25, I'll throw in those five extra so it would be 30/$25; 60/$50, et cetera.

I've also found a new color for my afghans/kindle sleeves/tablet sleeves/bookworms called Watercolor and really like the way the colors fall on this. I've made up a Kindle sleeve and tablet sleeve and however many bookworms I could get out of one skein of yarn but haven't taken pictures of them yet. They will be taken and posted on the websites soon. For Christmas in July, I'll run a special deal on the afghan/tablet or kindle sleeve/bookworm combo for $60 plus shipping and tax ($70 total). This is a 20% savings. I have the bonbon print and melonberry completed, the primary is lacking 1 skein from being completed, and the Aspen is started (just startd yesterday). The Marrakesh and Woodsy need about a 3-week lead time for each to be completed and the Monet and Watercolor I need to get the skeins of yarn to work up the afghans but if you order any of the unfinished colors, that will be the priority for me to work on. This sale is good for the month of July only.

I think that's all the news and special offers for this weeks. See you all in the postings and stay cool - E :)

Read an E-book Week

Have you read a good ebook lately?

Sunday, March 4, begins read an ebook week. This is the first year I've actually promoted it and participated. I'm offering Finally Home at a 25% discount on smashwords for the week. This promotion will be only available through smashwords, even though the book is available on kindle and nook. If you are taking advantage of the 25% off for Finally Home, you will need to enter REW25 on checking out. Here is the direct link to the page for Finally Home.

So, I'll offer a copy of either "The Proposal" or "The Tulip Kiss" for nook or kindle if you purchase a copy at the regular price for either the nook or kindle. All you have to do is email me (eeldering (at) gmail (dot) com) your receipt as proof of purchase at the $2.99 price and I'll email you your choice. Please make sure you indicate which title you would like to receive when you forward your proof of purchase (only if you purchase from B&N or Amazon).

Happy reading - E :)

The Tulip Kiss is up

I shared the cover with you all last week. I've posted the story on Kindle and Smashwords with the Nook version to come as soon as I have the cover sized for the Nook (apparently has to be different pixels compared to the smashwords and kindle version. It is only 99 cents.

Don't forget to stop by my kindlegraph page and request your free kindlegraph. E :)

Finally Home - 1 week stats

Finally Home was officially released last Thursday (Thanksgiving day) morning as both a print and ebook. It is available on smashwords, kindle and nook as well as on amazon.com and createspace in print. As of 12/01/2011 the following stats are what I've seen: Smashwords' views = 24, sales = 0; Nook views = ?, sales = 2; ranking = 247,000 (not exact but I don't remember what the number was); kindle views = ?, sales = 0; no ranking on amazon as I've not had any sales and no sales from any source showing on my createspace account. This is disheartening to say the least since I've been posting for quite a while now that Finally Home would be released soon and I've spent the last two months (maybe a few more than that) talking about this book.

So I'm thinking I need to follow suit with Sybil Nelson (aka Leslie Dubois, author of YA novels with a dark edge to them), Author of the Priscilla the Great series, in her posting from either 11/30 or 12/01 and that is "take the McDonald's approach" to marketing. Sybil states in her posting (you can view the full article here), and I'm paraphrasing here, that everywhere you go you can see McDonald's ads, billboards or even McDonald's themselves. So why not as an author take the same approach? Obviously McDonald's is a billion or trillion dollar company and can afford to place ads everywhere (and those 30-second spots aren't cheap nor are the billboard placements) to make sure their name is out there, so some of the marketing approach for authors wouldn't be cost-effective or even feesible since we are in general poor and need other jobs to supplement our writing, but why not do some marketing that gets your name out there.

It isn't enough to just blog every once in a while or update a website every once in a while but we as authors have to stay in the limelight so to speak; we need to place "ads" everywhere to get known.

Within the next 2 weeks or so, I will be re-releasing three more stories that have been previously published and have placed in various contests, winning small monetary awards and other prizes. I've decided that after the first of the year, once I can get back on track with my state series (for more on the JGDS series, please visit the JGDS blog or the JGDS website) that I'm going to do a major marketing campaign.

I've done a few Skype visits with classes other than Mr. Hughes' to help with some writing aspects (one in Indiana for the Lunchtime Writers' Club and one in Washington state during NaNoWriMo) but that isn't enough. Hopefully, my marketing campaign will help some other writers as well.

I need to start seeing my books taking a turn because my job is getting frustrating and I would love to start traveling to all the states within the next couple of years or so (before I get too old to really enjoy the travels). I had set a goal to have my state stories supporting me by 2013 but that doesn't look like it is going to happen. I may have to move that goal to 2015 and by then I should have at least half of the states published along with my five other stories, oops - six (forgot about a children's story I will probably ebook publish too).

I'd like to know what some other authors out there are doing marketing wise. I also would like to see half the followings of some of my fellow authors (I still only have less than 100 folks following this blog with only a handful, less than a dozen, actually subscribing to receive the blog notices in their emails. I have half the number of followers on my JGDS site as I do on this site, which means I'm not reaching the audiences like I need to, so any suggestions from my fellow friends and authors on how to reach more people would be greatly appreciated.

I follow over 1000 blogs but don't read all of them on a daily basis and I comment on blogs that I've signed up for the email postings a good bit of time; I leave my links in my signatures on most places (some of them won't accept the comment with hyperlinks so I have to just hope that folks are stopping by my websites on those blogs) and yet I hardly see any traffic on my blogs or websites. I wonder how many of those 1000 blogs I follow actually take time to read their comments and respond back to the commenters or even check out the blogs or websites of the persons who leave comments on their blogs. I wonder how many folks who comment on blogs take the time to actually look at other commenters' blogs and websites. The answer is probably less than a dozen or so.

Vici Howard is running her 1-year marketing plan here. Of course, you can always follow Sybil's postings here. If you know of any other authors who have a marketing campaign going on and would like to share, please leave a comment with the link to that person's blog or website.

I definitely would love to hear from you all and hope you will spread the word to your friends. Let them know about some upcoming authors who are trying to get their name out there. E :)

Finally Home released

Finally Home is now availsble in all formats. Please visit my website to order a copy or you can get your ebook copy on kindle, nook and smashwords. If you order a copy from any place other than directly from me and would like it "signed" and a personal message added, you can request a kindlegraph here.

Those of you who have preordered a copy, you should have yours by the end of next week - see you in the postings - E :)