One Day Sale! (99 Authors/99 Books/99 Cents!)

99 AUTHORS--99 BOOKS--99 CENTS! 

Today only (December 21st) I am part of a quite large sale. We done got us 99 authors and some way cool prizes. If you want to get your hot little hands on some amazing books for only a buck click the link HERE to check out the prizes and go to Amazon to get your books.

Here are a list of books from StoneHouse Ink/StoneGate Ink:

Breaking Steele by Aaron Patterson and Ellie Ann (Mystery/Thriller)
Arson by Estevan Vega (Young Adult)
The Austin Job by David Mark Brown (Diselpunk)
The Disappearance of Grace by Vincent Zandri (Romantic Suspense)
Pyxis by K.C. Neal (Young Adult)
Cadaver Blues by JE Fishman (Mystery)
Mirror, Mirror by Les Edgerton (Young Adult)
Beauty and the Beast by Jenni James (Young Adult)
The Lonely Mile by Allan Leverone (Thriller)
Blood Sisters by Melody Carlson (Mystery)





Author Aaron Patterson: Blog: The Worst Book Ever.

Tagging on Amazon and other ways to piss people off! (RANT)

Gaming the system and other evils of John Locke! (RANT...FYI)

With this story about John Locke and other authors, who paid for reviews we are seeing all the baby sharks take their hero down in a blaze of glory. My my my, do we love to take someone down, especially someone who we want to be, someone who is where we want to be. This is the classic story of hero one day and monster the next. After all this is America, land of the free and home of the... something.

People are saying that John Locke is gaming the system. This led me to think about tagging, which SOME people say is unethical or gaming the system unlike paying for reviews which IS unethical... but tagging is neither.

Tagging: 
What does tagging do? Well, glad you asked as so many authors have NO CLUE and get all worked up over nothing. Why, you might ask? Maybe they listened to some other author who was ignorant and said you should only do it HER way, maybe they have nothing better to do, or maybe they just don't know. So here it is.

Tagging on Amazon helps you the tagger, it helps the person getting tagged. It adds a link from one book to another book, it makes your title and the other tagged title climb into new Amazon algorithms. It makes a connection for the readers, it in fact is the perfect cross promotion tool we have today. Imagine if Stephen King tagged to your horror book? Would you be angry? No, you would send him a thank-you card. So why do so many authors get all hot over this subject?

Because they don't know...I hope.

Here is the list of bad things that happen if you are tagged:

NONE.

Thats right, not one bad thing can come from being tagged.

This all started with a woman named ------- ------ (If you want her name email me) Who started this notion that it was unethical to tag your book title or name. SHE said it was only OK to tag genre. Well, she said it so we all should just go with that she said!!! Wait...but she also is using indie authors to sell her own books under the pretense of helping women and other authors cuz she is a beautiful christian. She will Tweet your book once (maybe) and Tweet her listing back to you 10 times a day and build a brand on the backs of other authors. But she MUST know what she is talking about cuz she is a bestseller!

I guess this is a rant, lol

The point is this is not how SHE does it, not cuz one way is wrong but just a difference in marketing and knowledge. Anyway, a lot of indies bought into this idea and now we have one side that says you are evil if you tag a name or title and the other side that is confused that so many would just go with the flow when tagging HELPS EVERYONE!!!!

Don't you want to sell? Don't you want to be seen on Amazon? Don't you want to get into more lists? Don't you understand that this helps you and them? Now there are rules on how to do all this and they change but I talk to Amazon all the time, I have had many conversations with them on this subject and they WANT people to tag, they want those connections so readers can find like-genre books. In fact Vincent Zandri got a packet from them when he signed with T&M all but DEMANDING that he TAG!

But maybe I am crazy...

I spoke with Amazon this last spring as a publisher and I got a call last week and they asked if I could come out to LA for a press release deal. I am stoked and excited to work with them and they know that I am trying to use their site as best as I can, they want me and you to sell books. This is just one tool they use that helps to do just that.

As a publisher I have some other rules I have to follow in the tagging game but I adjust and learn along with everyone. You say you want to work with other authors, so how is it helping to shoot them down because you don't understand... that they're doing something that helps YOU, too!

Few new things to note: The rules on tagging are posted in Amazon's guidelines. If your tag annoys someone and they complain to Amazon, then Amazon looks as the person who complained as a customer, and they will always side with the customer because they want to keep customers happy, EVEN IF there was no violation of Amazon's guidelines.

Again, rules change but learn and just don't run around yelling "The sky is falling, the sky is falling!"




Author Aaron Patterson: Blog: The Worst Book Ever.

The Idaho Book Extravaganza! This Weekend!

This is a post all about the Idaho Book Extravaganza this Friday and Saturday. Why post about this event? I will tell ya. First, it will change your life if you are a writer. Just ask many authors that attended last year.

You will learn about eBooks, marketing, publishing, agents and all sorts of other stuff that is relevant. So many book shows or writing conferences are so outdated that is is sad, no really, I cried at the last one that only had one class on social media and nothing about eBooks.

If you can make it please do yourself a favor and come. We will have Vincent Zandri, Estevan Vega, and some other amazing authors. Want to talk to an agent? We will have them, and it might surprise you what they have to say about the publishing world.

“Attending the Idaho Book Extravaganza was a life-changing experience for me. I heard about the event on the news, and the next day prepared a package of materials to take with me. I had been trying to get some of the big name publishers to view my CD and workbook for over fifteen years. The good news is that within four months had a newly packaged CD, and will be releasing my first book in the fall.
– Yvonne Rousseau, author Beyond Myself: Reclaiming Your Life After Sexual Abuse

I will link the details but here it is just for fun:

To Register click HERE

I hope to see you here.

Author Aaron Patterson: Blog: The Worst Book Ever.

Guest Post by CJ Lyons: Jack be Kindle, Jack be Nook: What you need to succeed in E-pubbing

Unless you have been hiding under a rock, you have seen the name CJ Lyons in the eBook and publishing new feeds all over the internet. She has a book in the top 10 on Amazon right now and made it to #2 beating out Lee Child. This is no small thing and as a blogger and writer I want to not just talk all about eBooks and the new way to publish, but I want to give you real life examples of other authors doing it.

We have seen Amanda Hocking, john Locke, Vincent Zandri and others all hit the Amazon top 10 list and what happens after that is always fun to watch. CJ was kind enough to grace us with a post so here she is... Thanks again CJ.


Jack be Kindle, Jack be Nook: What you need to succeed in E-pubbing

Aaron asked me to tell you guys how I got my start as an Indy author/publisher. It's one of those a funny thing happened on the way…type of stories.
You see, I initially sold to a major NYC publisher. That book, my dream debut, was a nice hardcover deal, a pre-empt, and garnered cover quotes from a dozen NYC bestsellers, including Sandra Brown. The editor wanted the sequel and it was already in the production line when the first book, my debut, was pulled from publication.

Why? Cover art--something I had no control over. But it meant my dream debut had crashed and burned.

I'd already made a leap of faith and left my medical practice after 17 years to pursue my life-long dream of being a full-time writer. And suddenly I was unemployed with no contract.

So what did I do? I kept writing. A few months later another NYC publisher came to me and offered me even more money to create a new series for them, which led to the Angels of Mercy medical suspense books. With the first book, LIFELINES, I became a National Bestseller.

I was able to pay my bills with my writing but I had several manuscripts that had undergone revisions and edits with NYC editors but never made it to publication for a variety of reasons--including those first two books. It nagged at me that these were books that had passed muster with NYC but the reading public would never see.
Then came Kindle. And Smashwords. And Nook.

Being a total cyber-klutz, I wasn't sure I'd be able to learn how to format and submit manuscripts, but with the help of Mark Coker's Smashword Guide, I mastered it. And so, by January 2010, I had four books on Kindle.

(new to e-book formatting? I made a short video walking you through the basics. You can find it here: http://www.norulesjustwrite.com/break-free-from-the-slushpile/)
I'd done my homework and read folks like JA Konrath who were true pioneers with self e-pubbing, but I was skeptical about his advice on pricing books at $1.99. So I priced mine between $2.99 and $4.99.

Then the Haiti earthquake struck. I decided since this was all an experiment anyway, I'd have nothing to lose by giving away my proceeds to Doctors Without Borders' relief efforts. In one month I sold 1800 e-books and was feeling pretty good about myself.

Even better was when the reviews began coming in. Not just from readers but from some wonderful bloggers who'd discovered my e-books.

I had several more manuscripts finished, so I hired a freelance editor who'd worked with NYT bestsellers and an artist to create new covers for all my books. By the end of 2010 I had eight books up, with fans clamoring for more, and was poised to make more in a year from my indy e-books than from my NYC contracts.

All this without any advertising other than listing the books on my website and including them in my monthly newsletter.

I continued to experiment with a variety of price points and for the first time ever, actually was able to track sales to see what worked and what didn't--something NYC publishing could take a lesson from! After discovering that one of my books, SNAKE SKIN, had great reviews but lackluster sales, I decided to experiment with giving it away in an effort to help it find its readership.

Giving away books has always been my main promotional effort. Before e-books, I would buy extra copies of my print books and mail them to my newsletter subscribers as special reader appreciation gifts. Now I routinely give away e-books and have built a Street Team of fans eager for a chance to read and review my new books.
(interested in how it works? You can find more info here: http://cjlyons.net/for-readers/join-cjs-street-team/)

Smashwords allows you to give a book away for free, but Kindle and Nook don't. So I set SNAKE SKIN for free on Smashwords and around three weeks later the free price finally propagated to Amazon. I woke up on Saturday morning to find 5,000 people had SNAKE SKIN on their Kindles.

Within 48 hours that number climbed to over 24,000 and at my agent's urging, I changed the price to 0.99. By the end of the month almost 40,000 people had downloaded SNAKE SKIN. Not only had SNAKE SKIN found its readership but sales of the rest of my books increased by 280%

I didn't like the 0.99 price as a full-time price because I thought it was "cheap" and under-valued my work. BUT as a special sale price it certainly was effective--gaining me new readers without losing me any money.

That was on a book that wasn't selling well. Could I risk reducing the price of my bestselling book, the one that paid the mortgage, from $4.99 to 0.99?

I decided it was worth a try. So for a limited time, my bestseller, BLIND FAITH, is on sale for 0.99. I don't know what will happen as far as long term sales, but in the first three weeks I've sold over 35, 000 copies, hit #1 on the Amazon Indie Bestseller list and #2 on the overall Kindle Bestseller list, so I'm pretty darned pleased.

What was the trick? I didn't do any big time promo for the BLIND FAITH sale. Just my normal newsletter and a few tweets and website/Facebook updates. So I can't take credit for this surge of sales.

I think it was a question of SNAKE SKIN already being on a roll, allowing everyone who viewed or bought it to see my name. Plus BLIND FAITH has a great cover and already had stellar reviews, so building on SNAKE SKIN's momentum was easier for it than an unknown book.

Could someone with only one book do this? Honestly, I think it would be very difficult. I'm learning that with online sales momentum builds more momentum until you reach a tipping point. You need plenty of books in your arsenal (I'd recommend at least 5-6) so that you can keep the momentum rolling from one book to the next.
No fancy tricks, no sleazy sales techniques, no expensive ads or trailers or sponsorships. Just readers who resonate with my brand of Thrillers with Heart and keeping an eye on my sales trends, ready to make those price adjustments when need be.

(in my mind, I imagine log rollers dancing across timber streaming down whitewater rapids—try that, NYC publishing conglomerates!)

Bottom line if you want to achieve success as an Indy: be nimble, be quick, be fearless. And never forget: it's ALL about the reader!

Thanks for reading!
CJ

About CJ:

As a pediatric ER doctor, CJ Lyons has lived the life she writes about in her cutting edge thrillers. In addition to being an award-winning, bestselling author, CJ is a nationally known presenter and keynote speaker.

CJ has been called a "master within the genre" (Pittsburgh Magazine) and her work has been praised as "breathtakingly fast-paced" and "riveting" (Publishers Weekly) with "characters with beating hearts and three dimensions" (Newsday).

Her newest project is as co-author of a new suspense series with Erin Brockovich. Learn more about her writing at http://www.cjlyons.net and find the tools you need to help you finish your novel and find your audience at http://www.norulesjustwrite.com


Author Aaron Patterson: Blog: The Worst Book Ever.

Her Story: J Carson Black, Guest Post

Aaron, thank you for inviting me to your blog today.

When I decided to write a new thriller, I had several ideas on the table. None of them made the final cut. Then the idea for THE SHOP came out of the blue.

One evening while eating dinner, my husband (and publisher) Glenn and I were watching cable news. John Mark Karr’s plane was coming into Boulder, Colorado, where he would face charges for killing JonBenet Ramsey. He’d been flown over from Europe, dining on shrimp cocktail and entertaining his captors—federal marshals—and generally having a great time of it. Now the press was lined up along the airstrip in Boulder to cover his arrival. Picture the private jet coming in for a landing with all the pomp and circumstance of the Space Shuttle. The reporters, the news vans, the cameras, the microphones, the breathless reporting on the ground and in the studio: an absolute frenzy!

Glenn and I looked at each other. This was a farce worthy of commentary. What we were seeing was the new American way: celebrity conjured out of nothing. It turned out later that John Mark Karr was playing everybody. He didn’t kill JonBenet Ramsey. But he’d fulfilled his purpose—he’d fed the hungry maw of the media for a short time.

Something could be done with this—the distraction of celebrity. That was the seed for my story, THE SHOP.

In the opening scene of THE SHOP, celebrity Brienne Cross is killed in her Aspen chalet, along with the four finalists of her reality show, SOUL MATE, and the producer of the show.

I knew right away who killed them. But why? Even the killer wants to know why. And so he sets out to find the truth.

Sometimes stories come from strange places, and sometimes they come from cable news.

I’ve been writing most of my life, and sold my first book, a ghost story, in 1990. My career went like this: I would sell a book or two for very little money, get kicked off the carousel, and then write something much better, get on again, get thrown off, go back to the woodshed and improve my craft, and sell again. I think the important thing here is the “getting better” part.

I ran into a buzz saw when my agent tried to sell my new thriller, THE SHOP. She absolutely believed in the book and thought it would sell very quickly at the highest level. Two miserable years ensued, ending with a whimper, not a bang. She said, “There’s just no other place I can try.” And so, with her blessing, I put the book up on Kindle at the end of March.

At the beginning of April, THE SHOP spiked. By the end of April I’d sold almost nine thousand copies of THE SHOP alone---and I had other books up as well.
My idea in March had been simple: I wanted a Big Six deal. I would go the Boyd Morrison route and rack up a ton of sales, which would parlay into a six-figure deal with Random House or Penguin. But my thinking changed as I learned how much fun it was to design covers, write cover copy, market a book my way, and, yes, count the money rolling in. It made me feel smart and savvy. And I remembered a road trip two years before, a conversation with my husband all the way from Ruidoso, New Mexico to Lordsburg (that’s a good piece of distance) about our strategy for selling THE SHOP. 1) We needed a powerful, top-flight agent. 2) She had to get the book in front of the best editors at the best houses. And we agreed then: we wanted as much money up front as possible, because we knew that by the second book the publisher would be disillusioned and would kick us to the curb. Not the best model for a career, is it?

And so my attitude changed. I no longer wanted to sell to a Big Six publisher. I did sign with Thomas & Mercer (THE SHOP and two other thrillers), but I kept my Laura Cardinal series and plan to keep one foot firmly planted in the indie camp.
You ask me what I did for marketing. I didn’t buy any ads. I didn’t guest blog a lot. We did Tweet and Facebook the successes as they came, like getting on to the Top 100 list. I spent a lot of time on Kindle Boards Writer’s Café, sharing experiences. I truly believe that Writer’s Café taught me what was possible. When you see so many people reach 1000 sales, 5000 sales, 10,000 sales and more, you begin to think you can do it. Your own Vince Zandri inspired me. He said he was selling 1000 books a day for a week. So I thought: I’ll sell 1000 books a day for one week. And I did. I know it sounds crazy, but just knowing you can do it really helps.

It also has helped tremendously that I have great quotes from John Lescroart, T. Jefferson Parker, Gayle Lynds, and David Morrell.

I think marketing comes down to Joe Konrath’s creed: good books, good product descriptions, good covers. I would add that we emulated the look of Big Six covers, because we wanted to capitalize on the familiarity factor. So we studied the Edgar Award book covers, paying particular attention to fonts. We wanted a unified look for our books, but knew they should stand out from one another so no one would be confused and buy a book twice. Hence the colors and different themes: THE SHOP has a thriller look with menace and a silhouetted protagonist. THE DEVIL’S HOUR is blue, DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN is red, and DARK SIDE OF THE MOON is mostly yellow, navy and white. We didn’t consciously come up with these colors—they just happened. But the art, which I always feel is secondary to the font, fits each book. I see the art as behind the font, which is super-imposed over it. I think books need to have a uniform look. If they’re thrillers, they have to look like thrillers. You can be creative, but you have to maintain the brand.
When we were really broke last fall and were coming to the end of the line with publishers, I was within sight of a deal with a real bottom-feeder of a publisher. I figured we’d get $2500, and at that point I was willing to take it.

They turned me down.

Favorite song: Garth Brooks’ “Unanswered Prayers.”

http://jcarsonblack.com



Author Aaron Patterson: Blog: The Worst Book Ever.

"John Locke is not a real published author unless I say so!" -The Big 6

*Warning Rant*

I woke up to this post on my Twitter feed and after reading it had to first smack my face, throw up and after all that read it again just to find out that yes, in fact it was posted by a real human. The Shatzkin Files posted this on John Locke.

Here is my take.

First off, this entire post is about what could have happened, might, maybe, but more important, DIDN'T. It is like a friend of a lottery winner trying to tell everyone else what they would spend the money or how it should be done.

We all know that JL has made headlines as the indie author that has sold one million eBooks. Now out of the woodwork come these talking heads that want to over think how he did it and what he should have done.

What is the goal of all this? To keep us thinking that the big publishers still have something to offer. He will run the numbers on a .99 book or a 9.99 book. How is that even in the same ball park? I mean, he sold the books he sold because of the price and his marketing. One without the other would not work as well and to compare what he would have made if he was with a big publisher is just stupid.

The fact they will never tell you is that JL would have never sold the books he sold if he was with a big publisher. No publisher would have taken him on, and even if he did get a deal they would not market him like he marketed himself. The price of his eBook would be to high and the small number he sold through them would put him out of print in 13 months.

So, I ask you, why are we trying to shove him into this box? Why not just say, good job john? Are we that scared to leave the old system? Is it that bad out there?

He was smart, he sold his books at a low price, built a fan base and made himself worth a ton of money. Now if a publisher wants him they will have to pay out the nose. It is not the money, I am so tired of all these talking heads and writers who just think of the money and how much the book is and what it cost and are you worth it and is your writing worth a buck and are you selling yourself short and is this a run on sentence?

Look, it is about FANS, let me say that again, FANS! If you build fans the money will come. He reached a million people and it doesn't matter if he gave out all those books for free! That group if they liked the book will come back and pay for the other books. I wonder why this is such a mystery in the publishing world.

So could he have made more money if he sold the books at 9.99? Well DUH, if he sells them at a higher price he makes more. Come on! But would he have sold a million? Nope. Not a chance, sorry but it wouldn't happen. Also, if he sold through a publisher for 9.99 he would make only 1.75 per book when he could do it himself and sell the book at 2.99 and make 2.10 per book. Lets do that math!

This blogger did at least say as much: Of course, if Locke himself sold the ebooks at $2.99, he’d be taking in six times more per book, or about $2.10 a copy.

But, either way, he seems to be leaving a lot of money on the table. Without a publisher’s efforts, he’s certainly leaving a lot of marketing on the table too.

The only thing here is the marketing he is leaving on the table. What marketing? Really, you think a big publisher is going to market you better? Come now, let us not be dumb. The only person going to market you is you. If they do anything it comes out of their royalty. Besides, why would they market him, he is a small fish, cuz we are talking all this before anyone knew who he was... You can't backdate your rules and treat him like a bestseller before he was. Now I would say he could get some marketing out of the publishers, but not before the million books.

And here is the meat of the matter: But if the markets are distinct, there is also some great potential reward. If there are people who only choose from the cheap books, there are also people who want to choose from the professionally validated books, the ones from the major publishers. The more you believe the markets are distinct, the more opportunity there could be for Locke in using what he’s done to launch himself independently as the springboard to a career as a published author with a major player.

This is what all the big publishers and the blind authors want you to think. That you are no good, you are sub par because you are not professionally validated.

Take that Amanda Hocking, Take that Vincent Zandri!

So we are fed the same lie. You are just a lame writer and have no value unless one of the Big 6 publish your books. Remember that when you see more and more eBook millionaires. Remember that when you read an amazing novel from a new author, that you the reader have no power, that you cannot choose who is a good writer or not, they choose!

It is the men on the hill that make the call, the publishers that decide if we are good enough. Well... what say you? Is it us the readers or them the publishers? You tell me.

Rant over.

Cheers

Let's Talk numbers... Again

If you follow this blog you know about Vincent Zandri and his book "The Innocent." It made headlines by making it to #3 on Amazon Kindle and selling over 100,000 copies from Jan-June.

We if you want the skinny read the post a few down. This is the update, the "Experiment" as we called it. The book was prices at .99 and was ranked #10 at the end of April. We wanted to see if we could raise the price and ride the wave, maybe make some good money and so we jacked up the price to 4.99 and most of the month it sat at 3.99. So here is what happened.

We expected a huge drop but up till the 15th it was holding in the top 75. This was good news as we were sitting at 10k sold with a goal of 20k for the month. At this price we would stand to make about 70k.

But once it hit 75 in ranking it started to drop really fast. This proves that your sales rank will drive sales and is very important to how your book does. We ended the month with 13k sold and a ranking of 300.

The test did not go as well as we hoped but still ended up doing good. In the end we did better at the 2.99-3.99 price point as far as money goes but gave up the large fans base and mass books sold at the .99 price.

The end result was about a 5k increase to the bottom line, but a hugs loss on the people reached. The question is: Is it better to reach a huge amount of people for a time and give up sales, or try to make as much as you can no matter how many sell?

I believe in both. Put books on sale, test the market as each author will have different stats. Some will sell well at a buck and others it wont matter. I have one author that sells just as good at 2.99 as she does at 8.99. So we keep it at 8.99.

We thought that "Godchild" would rise to the top, as it was on tour last month, but it ran out of steam in the top 50. We are still testing to see if we can bring "The Innocent" back in the top 100.

This is still a guessing game but all we can do is keep testing and try to find that sweet spot. The trick is to find where we can reach the most people and make the most money all at the same time, and this all comes down to marketing and a little luck.

Cheers

The Four Letter Word: W.O.R.K.

I get this vibe a ton from authors and other writers, that somehow by being in the same room as me or maybe by chillin with vincent Zandri the books will fly and the money will come in by the truckload. I think we all have this idea that it is the rub factor, can this person rub off on me, make me do better or by some sort of magic something will happen.

I do not say this with a mean spirit or because I think I have done anything special. in fact I wonder sometimes why and how I ever got anyone to read my books. I don't think I am that great of a writer or that I hold some power that makes me a success. That being said I will tall you one thing. I work hard.

Now I cannot claim to have great talent or to have a super brain, but I am a hard worker. And after talent and smarts give out, the hard worker will always win. We all remember the story of The Tortoise and the Hare. It is a simple story we all know about sticking with it, keep going and never give up. Now I like most never thought that story was more than just a kids story. But it is more.

Think about writing, publishing and selling books. It is not all about talent or style. Not about being the smartest person or having the highest ranking wizards review your book. It is about hard work.

What I lack in brains I make up for with stick-to-it-never-give-up-ness! What I lack in talent I make up for in Market-the-crap-out-of-my-and-others-books-ness!

I know we all want a pill, a magic list of how to make it. We want that simple thing we can all do to become a bestseller and so on. so here it is... the list the magic!

W: Work your A#% off!
O: Open up to new ideas! Don't get stuck in the mud, i.e. eBooks etc...
R: Reach out! Brand yourself and meet people. Share and support other authors.
K: keep going! Never stop. Be smart and market all the time but in a cool easy way.

There you go, the magic to the bestseller line. Want to make it big? This is it, not writing the best book, not being super hot, not paying out money to but your way up, good old hard WORK.

Cheers.

Let's talk numbers.

Unless you have been living under a rock you know that Vincent Zandri has made some waves and is selling like crazy on Amazon. I wanted to go over the numbers with you so you can see what is going on and to get the inside information most publishers and authors will never give out.

Here is what we IE Vincent did. First, he is active on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and other social media sites. He went on a blog tour for his book "The Remains" and the numbers did good but not anything to write the New Your Times about.

Next up was "The Innocent" for a blog tour. If you do not know what a blog tour is Google it. But in short, it is a tour of bloggers that review your book and post it all in a month time frame. Maybe one every other day or every day.

In January Here is what Vincent's books did. The Remains 100, The Innocent 50, Godchild 12. Now we see the next month after tour for Remains in February. The Remains 350, The Innocent 400, Godchild 30.

Tour for Innocent is on and here is what happens: The Remains 1000, The Innocent 22,000, Godchild 2,200. See how the tour one month after built this movement? Again, this is some skill and a ton of luck. These things cannot be planned but you do what you can and see what happens. With this Vincent ended the month in the top 10 on Amazon with The Innocent and in the top 50 for Godchild and top 150 for The Remains.

Now for last month. The Remains 7,000, The Innocent 80,000, Godchild 20,000.

I will take a moment to let this all sink in.

Hmmm, I like coffee, Coconut coffee. Yum.

Okay, we good?

These are not the exact numbers but very close and rounded. This does not include the UK or other eBook sites like B&N, just Amazon US. His print sales went up as well and we find that eBook numbers will tell us how the print book will do.

Now for these titles the price of the eBook on tour is set at .99 and The Remains is as 2.99. We changed The Innocent to 4.99 for this month as Godchild is now on tour. We are going to play with the numbers and see if the wave will hold. If it does well at 4.99 Vincent will make a paycheck that will be bigger than most publisher advances.

Vincent also has a new book coming out at the end of the month called "Concrete Pearl" This will add to his list and will also give us more to work with on the pricing cycle. We hope to run some on sale, get them up in the ranking and see if we can get more out of them at a higher price. I will let you know how it works at the end of the month.

The combo, Good Cover, Good Writing, Good Description and Good Marketing. Will it work for you? I don't know, but it can't hurt.

WRITE FASTER!

If you are a writer and have been doing it a long time you might remember how writing one book a year was the goal. Publishing took FORRREEEVVVVERRRR, and some crazy writers would publish two or three books in a year.

Two and sometimes four years was expected to get your book in print and all the money it took to advertise, and go on tour and blah... blah... blah...

It was a game of polish, think... think some more and a writers life was filled with days on the beach, or out "Doing Research."

Now the game has changed. eBooks are taking over and the demand for content has never been higher. Readers are eating up books like hungry dogs. Sales are going insane and the chant is, "Where is your next book?"

It is numbers, content and how fast you can get more content out there. This, with trying to put out quality is the new era of writing and publishing. If you have one book you may sell okay, but if you have three or more you stand the chance to really make some money and build a huge fan base.

It is all speed, the eBook is NOW, the reader demands it NOW. You can publish an eBook NOW, and the more you have the more you make. It is an instant world and authors like J.A. Konrath, Amanda Hockings and Vincent Zandri are trying to keep up with the demand.

What should you do? Write faster, no more laying around or drinking coffee to be happy with one book a year. You need to do 2-6 books a year at least. Now, if you keep up with your hungry fans you stand to make a great living. We are no longer in the time of the easy writers life. So, if you have a short story sitting around... Publish it! If you wrote a story in high school... Publish it! Content, content, content! Back list, out of print, old works... anything and everything just get it up and for sale, you never know what book will take off and lead the change for all your other works.

Cheers