Two Books in the Top Six

This weekend I’m venturing into Kindle Countdown territory, with my very first Countdown promotion. Early results are promising, with sales of my second romantic comedy, The Family Trap, increasing massively.

The Family Trap (TFT) has always been a reasonably steady seller, and it’s just over a year now since its release. Sales are usually around 6-10 a week, and I imagine most of these are by people who discovered it after reading Can’t Live Without. I reduced the price of Can’t Live Without a couple of months ago (to 99p) and took it out of KDP Select, publishing it on Kobo via Writing Life and through other channels via Smashwords. Sales of CLW have increased on Amazon since then, and I think 99p is a reasonable price for a novel that has been out almost two years and had over 70,000 downloads already 🙂

As a quick aside, I have sold exactly zero copies of Can’t Live Without on Kobo. (I just checked again – still nothing.) If anyone reading this has a Kobo reader and 99p to spare and fancies making me very happy here is the link http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/can-t-live-without-1

So, back to Kindle Countdown. TFT has jumped from the obscurity of the 30,000-50,000’s to a whopping position of #1,300 in the overall charts, and is currently #1 in humour for parenting and families – perfect for the Mother’s Day weekend. Apart from talking about it on Facebook, the only additional promotion I’ve done is a sponsored Facebook post, which cost £15 and allowed me to target ideal readers. I did have ideas about a mini blog tour but these didn’t pan out unfortunately; I don’t imagine it would have made that much difference, although it’s impossible to know for sure.

So far, since the Countdown started, TFT has had 75 downloads, which is fab! And there are still 2 days to go. The great thing about Countdown is that you get 70% of the price, instead of the usual 35% you’d get if you had your book priced at 99p. Sales of CLW have jumped up too, which is also a bonus – and at the time of writing I have both books in the top 6! Check it out:

It’s so nice when they meet in the charts like this, really makes my day. So here’s hoping all you mums out there have a great day tomorrow, and that loads more people download TFT during my Mother’s Day Countdown promo 🙂

Ebook Distribution – All You Need To Know

I’m halfway through my series about Self Publishing on the excellent Writers’ Services website – the latest column is all about ebook distribution, and you can read it by clicking here. What I’m enjoying about writing this column is that it’s an opportunity to share what I’ve learned with a new market – Writers’ Services is a massive website with readers all over the world, all at different points in their journey.

My books are still primarily only available on Amazon, although Can’t Live Without and A Life Unpredicted have now been uploaded to Smashwords, and The Silence of Juliet Mann will follow very soon. Most authors report their best sales through Amazon, but that’s no reason to stay exclusive. My personal feelings about KDP Select are that it’s not as beneficial as it used to be – free doesn’t work for the author anymore, and Countdown seems a bit of a poor substitution. That said, I do have a countdown deal planned for The Family Trap to coincide with Mothers’ Day – more about that soon – so I’ll see how that goes before making my own judgement.

What about you guys? Are your books still in Select? Have you run a Countdown promo, and if so, how did it go?

Free Literary Fiction This Weekend Only

Regular blog readers will be familiar with writer Lindsay Stanberry-Flynn – the prize-winning author of Unravelling, who was picked up by Cinnamon Press last year for her second novel, The Piano Player’s Son. Cinnamon Press are running a promotion this weekend and you can download the Kindle version of The Piano Player’s Son for FREE! The Kindle edition is usually priced at £4.49, so this is a significant saving – grab it while you can 🙂

And here’s a bit more about it:

Family is all-important to Isabel. Her parents have an idyllic marriage, and she has tried hard to create one for herself. However, all pretense is shattered when her husband leaves her. On top of this her father dies, leaving Isabel devastated. Then her mother confides in her: behind her parents’ apparently happy marriage was a secret kept for more than three decades. Isabel is staggered by the revelation. Against a back-drop of events that will devastate all their lives and amongst a maelstrom of emotion, breakdown, loss and competing claims, Lindsay Stanberry-Flynn weaves a careful and detailed story of how fragile people negotiate or fail to negotiate challenges and crises; keep secrets, fall apart or try to recover a sense of integrity in the midst of human mess.

The Piano Player’s Son has 14 x 5 star reviews on Amazon – in fact, it has nothing but 5 star reviews, which does not surprise me at all. It’s a great book, characteristic of Lindsay’s flawless writing talent. Please download and share, share, share.

Launched Today – The Broken Heart Refuge!

Right now I’m at a launch party over on Facebook celebrating the first in a new series from ace author Martina Munzittu. The Broken Heart Refuge is such a fascinating concept – I think Martina has come up with a great idea for a series, and as ever her writing is poetic and totally beautiful. Check out the book here, or read on for the blurb. Congratulations, Martina! I hope this is a fantastic success – you deserve it.

Where can you find comfort when your heart is broken?

Nonna Pina runs The Broken Heart Refuge: the go-to place for anyone who is suffering for love. In Episode 1 – Betrayal – we meet Lisa, who has fallen in love with her best friend’s boyfriend, and Mary, whose husband died recently.

What can be done to help Lisa? Should she tell her friend how she feels or should she run away and start a new life? Mary’s grief seems paralyzing, but there’s something more to it that bothers her and won’t allow her to move on.

Will Mary and Lisa be able to find the answers they’re looking for, among the lovely people who frequent the centre? As Nonna Pina says: “A cup of tea and a few kind words can work miracles.”