What next for “Free” books in KDP Select?
Last year, I had one of my biggest weeks of sales ever for The Marinara Murders by making it free. The book was enrolled in Amazon’s KDP Select, which meant that in exchange for 90 days of exclusivity with Amazon, I got some marketing benefits–the biggest of which, was the ability to make the book free for 5 days. I tested this with modest success, until last March when the website EReaderNewsToday.com listed my book as a free one. I went from a few hundred free downloads to 11,000. Sales of The Saints Go Dying boomed, and then in the Read more…
Meet your next favorite book
Years ago I signed up for Goodreads.com. For some reason, I got out of the habit of posting there. I think that I thought I should go through my bookshelf and add every book I’d read. I also was temporarily lured away by Google Books, which had an incredible feature: you could search within books that you’d read. It turns out, though, that while that feature sounded awesome in theory, I rarely used it. And in the meantime, I stopped updating the books I’d read on Goodreads. When I started publishing my own books, I got back into Goodreads to Read more…
Ask An Author: “How do I get reviewers to read my book?”
Getting people to read a book from an unknown author with no track record is hard work. When I published The Saints Go Dying, I uploaded the text, the cover, and poof, I thought I was done. Only later did I realize how much more work I could have done. It turns out that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of bloggers out there who are interested in reading new independent fiction. Many are focused on narrow genres: romance, paranormal, young-adult, etc. Some have much wider interests. When I saw the potential of getting early readers, I got serious. Three Read more…
Finally live on the iBookstore!
For months I’ve been working to get my books onto Apple’s iBookstore. I’ve worked through a number of systems, formatting, and I’m finally glad to say that The Saints Go Dying and The Marinara Murders are both live in the store (plus the audiobook of The Little Book of Gold–the ebook version of it will be coming soon). Apple has become a big platform for book sales, and–in many ways–it was Apple that spurred me to self-publishing. When I read about the iPad, I wanted to get The Saints Go Dying on there when it launched. I never made it, Read more…
The Great Molasses Flood
Nearly ten years ago I stumbled onto the great molasses flood in Boston. A massive vat of molasses burst in Boston on January 15, 1919, causing a wave of hot molasses to flood the streets at 35 miles per hour, knocking a train off its rails and killing 20 people. I included a fictional description of the scene in a novel I wrote about 10 years ago. I still find the idea fascinating. Supposedly for decades after, on hot days the bricks of Boston sidewalks would smell like molasses and the harbor was dyed brown for months. The Atlantic has Read more…
I recorded an audiobook!
Way back in June I started a new project: recording an audiobook of my fundraising guide, The Little Book of Gold. Working with Doug Mackey at Moonyard Studios, I was able to record a high quality audiobook and upload it directly into the Audible store. It was a fascinating experience, demanding a lot of patience and very. clear. enunciation. It was surprisingly tiring, I thought. Then, after the sound editing had been done, I had to listen to the whole thing again very slowly, reading the book while I listened, and watching for any slip-ups I made or dropped words Read more…
“The Con Before Christmas” is now on Kindle!
It’s no longer free, but you can still get The Con Before Christmas for $1.99 (which is practically free) delivered direct to your Kindle. (I would still encourage you to sign up for my author newsletter of course!) It’s the next Beautyman mystery, but if you haven’t read the others, that’s fine, it’s still a good stand-alone read. I think this is a really fun story. The novella is about 90 pages long, so it’s prefect for a long drive or quick flight on your holiday weekend. I hope you’ll check it out!
Want to get “The Con Before Christmas” for free?
In only a few short days, I will be releasing “The Con Before Christmas.” I want to give dedicated Arthur Beautyman fans a chance to get the book before anyone else, and for free, no less! I’ve created an “author newsletter” and if you sign up in the next couple of days, I’ll send you a free copy of the newest mystery for free! Before it shows up on any of the online stores! After the free copy is sent, emails will be kept to a minimum, usually with announcements of new books or new formats. Or you can just Read more…
Something Frosted This Way Comes
I’m very excited to announce that later this month I’m launching a new Beautyman mystery. This time it’s a novella, but during the holidays, who has time to read anything longer? This is going to be a fun one. Expect it on bookshelves soon!
My First 5,000 Sales
So sometime in the last two days, I passed an incredible milestone: 5,000 total sales between my three books. I can’t even tell you how floored I am by that number. Two and a half years ago, when I uploaded The Saints Go Dying to the Kindle, I sold fifty copies in that first month. I would have been happy with just that, when it really comes down to it. 50 people reading a novel I’d written was already more readers than I’d ever had before. I dreamed about publishing more, but at that point The Marinara Murders was just Read more…
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