Wednesday, April 30, 2014

The Little Flame Series by Melissa Lummis is so much fun!

Hello all! A good friend of mine, Melissa Lummis, just released three books in a brand new novella series called The Little Flame series. They are fun, edgy and filled with paranormal shenanigans. I have had the privilege of reading the first one already and let me tell you, this series is going to be great. Check them out!

  The Little Flame Series is LIVE on Amazon and Smashwords! Spread the word!

The first THREE novellas in the Little Flame Series are now live on Amazon and Smashwords, and will soon be available on iTunes, Barnes and Noble, and Kobo.
 The Little Flame Series

Description:

They say home is where the heart is, but if that’s true, then I’m lost because I have no clue where my heart is, anymore.  I thought I knew—until I met Maximillian.

I was on my way out of the Capital City before the local vampires could catch on to me and let’s just say if that happened then this club dancer would be facing her expiration date.  And that’s when the famous DJ blew into town—and into my head and heart.  He turned all my plans upside down with his sick friend and his electric blue eyes, damn it.

I should have cut bait and run for my life, but I couldn’t abandon someone I could heal—even if it meant the vampires might catch up with me.  Besides, Maximillian smelled familiar, like deep forest and pine needles baked in the sun mixed with that chilly snap of running water and the coolness of twilight. Those things have a smell that adds up to a dream.


You can get lost in that kind of dream. It can fill your mind with ideas and notions you have no business thinking or feeling. Dreams like that make it easy to forget the danger you’re in.



For one week only each novella is available for just 99 cents.  
Download your copies today and spread the word before the
release sale ends on May 6, 2014.

Buy links on Amazon:

Buy links on Smashwords:




Saturday, April 19, 2014

Ebook Marketing

Today I was invited to be on a panel at my local library's author's day about marketing. For people who live and die by their ebook sales, I don't think any of this is revolutionary (yes, yes, I know I am not selling this blog post), but for people just starting, these are just the best tips and tricks I have learned along the way.

More than anything—and I cannot stress this enough—write more books. Stop stalking your sales, returns, ranking, and reviews and write.

12 Tips for increasing sales and visibility:
1.       Finish your series! The majority of the money I made in year two was made toward the end of the year. The factor that changed was I published the third book in a series. Having a complete series can dramatically change your people’s willingness to buy the books. The audience doesn’t want to wait between books. They want it all now.
2.       Don’t be afraid to publish multiple books at once. In fact do it. The more content you have available the better you will do in the algorithms which in turn affect visibility which is the biggest challenge we all face.
3.       Don’t be afraid to price a little higher. I have found certain genres do better at a higher price point. The best part about being independently published is you can test different price points, covers, and blurbs until you find the right combination that works for you.
4.       Use your books. Your novels are the best advertising for your other books that you can do. Readers are already engaged and interested in you enough to pick up your book. Make sure you have links to all your other books, one excerpt, a newsletter sign up, and web address in every book you have available.
5.       Utilize sales and free days to their highest potential. Plan them carefully, set up advertising, and make sure you capitalize of having your book on sale.
      Personally, my feeling on free days and sales is that they don't actually help a lot until you have more than one book because the sales will trickled through all of your books, so the more you have the better the results will be. You can plan a sale or a free day at anytime, but what you need to make sure you do is advertise the hell out of it. Don't leave anything up to chance. Try Bookbub, Pixel of Ink, and Ereader News Today, as well as any and every other place you can find. You want the biggest push you can give it while it is at that price. You HAVE to capitalize on these moments. They will give you momentum and visibility
        
6.       Social media is meant to be social, not to share links to your books. No one cares about the random person they don’t know tweeting out a link. No one. They do care about the fun, interactive person who has chatted with them about cat videos and made them laugh. Let your personality and interest shine through and people will respond to you. You don’t have to run around begging for attention because then you become white noise and people stop listening.
7.       Know your audience. Facebook users tend to be Kindle users so sharing Amazon links make sense. Twitter users are more geared toward iBooks. Know what your audience in looking for from you.
8.       Don’t ignore the other retailers. Amazon is massive and the majority of my personal sales. However, Barnes and Noble takes a while to get warmed up but once you reach the point that you are making sales they continue. Kobo is big in Canada and in the fantasy genre. And I believe iBooks will be Amazon’s biggest competitor in about 5 years.
9.       Capitalize on all the different markets you can place one book. Ebook, print, audio, foreign translations, etc.
10.   Don’t give up any rights the publisher doesn’t plan to use. Often contracts will ask for rights they don’t intend to use (like audio or translations). Don’t sell them unless they plan to utilize them. If you retain your rights you can look at pursuing these paths or selling them separately.
11.   Know where your advice is coming from. There is lots of terrible advice on writing and marketing on the internet. People who have no business offering advice proclaim themselves as experts. Do your research. Check sales ranks, check the content they have produced,  and educate yourself as much as possible. The truth is there are two way to publish right now. Independent or Traditional.  Neither way is bad. If someone is telling you one way is the wrong way to do it, then it is pretty clear they are feeling threatened or insecure about their own position in publishing.

And my last tip. This is a business. Treat your career like a hobby and it will serve you as a hobby. Treat it like a business and you will build a career

-Liz

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Tiddly Jinx, The 4th Book in the Easy Bake Coven Series is HERE!


Tiddly Jinx is now available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Smashwords! 

Tiddly Jinx: 3.99


Selene Warren’s life is plagued by disaster. To fix the trouble her good intentions caused, she needs to rescue the necromancer who tried to help her, find and return the Pole of Charon, and win over the Elfish people. However, nothing ever goes as planned. The necromancer reappears in the Abyss, but is determined to be an enemy rather than a friend. The Pole of Charon can’t be tracked, yet small tears between worlds pop up and let in monsters that threaten to expose what Selene brought back. Tensions between elves and the other fae could erupt into violence at any moment, tearing apart the race once and for all. To mend the rips in the veil, Selene’s coven will have to use black magic, but that comes at a cost. Every time a spell is cast their souls are at stake. Forced to make a deal with an enemy or let the world be destroyed, all of her the lies and double crosses start to add up. The line between good and evil blurs until Selene doesn’t know which side she is fighting for.




Easy Bake Coven: FREE

For Selene Warren being a witch is no big deal. She dabbles in harmless magic with her friends and never thinks much about it. However, when a stranger who seems to know her shows up at her studio and her grandmother is brutally attacked, her simple life becomes complicated.

A world of elves, half-elves, fae—and one peculiar Sekhmet named Femi open up to her. She will discover that fairy tales are real, politics are ugly in any world, and there is a lot more to her life than she ever dreamed possible.

This new reality threatens swallow Selene whole, but with a forgotten past beating down her door, she will have to dive in to save her future.





Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Tiddly Jinx Release!

This is the week. Tiddly Jinx is officially releasing on the 10th, but you might find it up a little soon on sites like Amazon and Smashwords.

In honor of this release I am sponsoring the Romantic Edge Books newsletter and one lucky subscriber will win this necklace, made by the fabulous Christine from the Book Swag Shop.

This necklace has very special meaning to me. In the third book of the Easy Bake Coven series, Pickup Styx, I describe a necklace that once belonged to Cheney's mother. Well, Christine made me that necklace based on my description and it is absolutely gorgeous.

So if you want a chance to win, sign for for the Romantic Edge Books newsletter and you will be entered to win. You will also get an awesome newsletter with a chance to win fun prizes every month and you will hear about awesome new releases.

Sign up here

Thank you and talk to you all soon!

Liz
 
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