I'm guest blogging over at AJ's Notes, with award-winning author Autumn Jordon. Stop by for a chance to win an e-copy of MOUNTAIN FIRE! Deadline is Midnight PST tonight, so you still have a chance to enter.
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I am Guest Blogging at Just Romantic Suspense this weekend. Come visit for a chance to win an e-copy of MOUNTAIN FIRE!
Wednesday is the day. Wednesday is the day I have spent three decades dreaming about.
If you read a lot of writers' blogs, you'll discover a common theme. The vast majority will mention at one time or another how they've always wanted to be a writer, how they scribbled stories in crayon, how they survived their teenage years with their nose in a book and their fingers on a typewriter (for those of us who remember the pre-computers age). I was no different. I distinctly remember Grade 7 as the year my dream to be a published writer solidified. I went to Catholic School, and our teacher handed out Saint Prayer Cards for outstanding marks on tests and projects. I collected a stack for my Creative Writing. Two stories stand out in my memory – one, about a girl who survived a plane crash in the wilderness, the other (inappropriately named “Shake and Bake”) a dramatic retelling of the San Francisco 1906 earthquake and fire. MOUNTAIN FIRE, my debut romantic suspense novel, was a long time in the writing. In the opening scene, the heroine, June, is hiding from a grizzly bear. In the original draft, the animal was alerted to her presence by the sound of her camera clicking. It wasn't a digital camera. :) I have a lot of excuses for why it took me so long to finish the novel. But there's really only one reason. I wasn't disciplined enough to put butt in seat and fingers on keyboard. Sure, there was only one computer in the house and I had to share it with three children and a husband. But I'm pretty sure I managed to watch an hour of TV every night. An hour when I could have been writing. At first, my goal was simply to FINISH the darn thing. And what a thrill that was! 55,000 words, all mine, with a beginning, a middle and an end. I started writing another novel while my first born was making its way through the rejection process. Except that process didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would. I sent it to one publisher (a big one) and waited the requisite three months. When there was no response, I sent it to another publisher (a smaller one). Imagine my glee when I was told they would consider accepting it, if I made some revisions. Not that they would accept it...that they would consider accepting it. I didn't care. I was over the moon. A few months later I resubmitted, and within weeks had a contract with The Wild Rose Press. I am so thankful they gave me this chance to realize a dream. I have learned so much from the process, both on the business side of publishing as well as the writing side. It has truly been an amazing, wonderful time. MOUNTAIN FIRE will be released Wednesday, January 9th, in epub and print. Click the “Shop” tab at www.brendamargriet.com for links to where you can purchase. I hope you'll join me as I celebrate this “bucket list” moment! A lot of authors, especially self-pub, are raving about the KDP Select program via Amazon. For three months your book must be available exclusively from Amazon, and in return you can offer it free for five days.
It's a no cost way to get your book in the hands of people who may never have bought it. Sure, you're losing the profit of selling the book, but you are not out of pocket as you would be with most other advertising. And that's pretty much what the free days of the program are. Advertising. My publisher enrolled MOUNTAIN FIRE in KDP Select from October 1 to December 31. It was offered for free from October 31 to November 3, and then again on November 5. That odd schedule was a glitch due to the time change. For some reason, that one extra hour in the early morning of November 4 counted as an entire day. So in order to use all five free days, the publisher skipped November 4 completely. Prior to my free days, the highest MOUNTAIN FIRE had reached on Amazon's lists was approximately 141,000. In the days leading up to the promotion, it had actually dropped as low as 385,000. During the four consecutive days of the promotion, the book rose to sit steady in the number 2 slot of Romantic Suspense, and reached a high of 26 overall, as well as making appearances in the top 30 of Contemporary Romance. Despite the break in the promo for November 4, it held its own on November 5th. Since then, MOUNTAIN FIRE has climbed as high as the 3000's in Amazon's overall bestseller list. Now, this sounds like nothing to jump for joy about. But consider where it was sitting before the free days. That's an increase of more than 380,000 places on the list. I have no idea what the numbers mean in actual copies downloaded and sold (my publisher does, of course). But I do know this...it's a huge improvement over where the book was trending before the promotion. MOUNTAIN FIRE continues to waver in the ranks, but as of the writing of this post had not dropped below 9000. As a debut novel from an unknown author, I'm not surprised by this. But from my point of view, I think KDP Select was a worthwhile experiment. Happy Halloween, everyone! And instead of a trick, I'm sending you a treat!
MOUNTAIN FIRE is available FREE, right now in the Kindle Store. And if you're too busy handing out candy, you'll have until Saturday, November 3rd to get your copy! En
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