AVAILABLE NOW!!
This story might be set in the winter, but don’t let that stop you from buying it today!! Readers are calling Finding Destiny “wicked steamy”. Another reader has described it as “sweet, hot, and downright delicious.” I promise you it’ll melt away any reservations you have to the point you’d be fanning yourself at the beach, and it wouldn’t be because of the heat outside. 😉
Do yourself a favour and pick up a copy of Finding Destiny today! It’s now available in paperback too. $6.00 USD plus shipping for an autographed copy, for those who might be interested. Email me with your address if you would like an exact quote! csimp@live.ca
For your reading pleasure 😉
After an embarrassing exchange of too much information, Destiny was relieved to hear that the headboard had finally stopped banging off the wall. It wasn’t very long after that when Felicia and…
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Legends of Windemere 
Thanks for sharing, Charles. 🙂 I appreciate it!
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You’re welcome. Good luck with the sale.
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Thank you. My last one was a success. I’m amazed with what Amazon can do for you through, “Customers who bought this item also bought…” and “What do other customers buy after viewing this item…”
I’ve been asking new fans how they learned about me and I’m quite shocked how many answers exclude my social efforts. Free advertising. Certainly can’t complain about that.
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I’ve been questioning my social efforts lately. I don’t know how effective they are, but I see it as doing something that costs no money and makes me feel like I’m trying. This really came to a head when I tried a Thunderclap campaign. I see a lot of retweets, reblogs, and shares when I post about it, but about 75% of those that spread the word don’t sign up themselves. So it feels like social media is really hit and miss.
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I took a pass on Thunderclap and everything automated for that matter. If I see a campaign with 20 friends sharing the same, “OMG this book was so great!”, it’s hardly a trustworthy source for finding a good read. I ignore Thunderclap posts, to be quite honest. Readers are looking to make a connection with you and these automated processes are just takng the social aspect right out of social media. I was happy to see Twitter crack down. It questioned one of my posts after I’d saved a duplicate in my drafts folder. I hope that means people will stop with the spamming. I think each account should only be allowed to spam at the rate of one human’s ability. Who knows… maybe I’m alone on this.
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I can see that, but I’ve found that nobody really wants to interact. At least not with fantasy authors. Most times that I try it’s always ‘why do you write fantasy?’, ‘I don’t really like fantasy’, or ‘I can’t talk to you because I hate spoilers’. I’ve found myself in a black hole of social media. I get nothing if I stay inactive, but I get nothing if I try to interact too. As for the Thunderclap, I’m doing it as an experiment and I’ve found that I have a lot fewer active supporters than I thought. I was curious to see who would step up to get involved and I was really disappointed. I mean, interaction goes two ways and I think it becomes spam when somebody is trying to get attention and nobody is talking back.
As for Twitter, I really don’t know what to say. I see some people posting once an hour. I do one every 3-4 hours because I know there’s the whole ‘joy’ of time zones. Whenever I try to post a non-book tweet, I get nothing beyond odd retweets. So I can’t see any use for Twitter beyond book promos. Personally, I think my blog is the best place for interactions because there’s no character limit and Facebook is always screwing with me.
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I get FB interaction from fans, but it doesn’t result in sales. My street team is great, but FB is not reliable. Twitter is my main promo hub. I see the number of clicks I get on my links when I get a number of Retweets. That seems to turn out some sales.
I agree with you that, as an author, we need to do something if only to save ourselves from the crippling fear of vanishing from the ranks. But then I know for a fact that blogging was my primary reason for instant popularity when I released my first book and yet I can’t bring myself to blog more. I need an assistant who’s willing to work for swag and books. Lol. My lack of blogging is not for lack of content, but rather time and effort spent composing the post and making it look how I intend it to. I keep telling myself to come back to it. One day I will.
I’m not a fan of FB at all, except for how it’s pushed me enough to walk away and focus on me. That has to be worth something.
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I think I get more out of Twitter, but I’m part of a few groups that promo and retweet each other. As for FB, I get next to nothing there. Somebody suggested a street team, but I couldn’t get any recruits and I don’t have the time to maintain that thing. Honestly, the main reason I use FB is to chat with a few people and I do the nightly promo posts in groups on the off-chance that I get a sale or two. I tend to wake up with a few new ones, so it might be working.
I’ve managed to blog every day for nearly 2 years. I take a day to schedule everything by choosing a topic, but that’s starting to run its course. Come January, I’m dropping down to 3-4 days a week and reblogging on the off days to help others. It does seem like a lot of people have walked away from blogging and others are taking the approach to remain in their own corner of the Internet. It really does feel like something changed with indie publishing this year. At least outside of romance because you guys seem to be going strong no matter what.
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Things have certainly changed. What? I’m not quite sure. Overload of the indie population maybe? It doesn’t feel like the cozy, tight-knit family like it once had… even in the romance corner. That’s why spending time on FB has become a thing of the past. Focusing on writing more books and chatting with a few choice authorly friends has been much more productive and healthy for me.
I commend you Charles, for being such a dedicated blogger, and wish you all the best with your new schedule. Sometimes a change is just what we need to rip us out of our comfort zone and thrust us into new inspiration. I don’t know if that makes any sense to you but I like that play on words. I think I might use is in my WIP. 😀
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I thought it was the overload or a sudden shift toward ‘every man/woman for themselves’. Some people have claimed that it’s because traditional publishers are lowering their prices. Mostly I think someone spooked the indie scene. I’ve seen more flame wars, piggybacking FB posts, and move to perma-free than last year. Several authors I know even quit because they felt a lot of negativity in the community.
I’ve been doing the same thing with writing and focusing on a few close friends. I’m only able to release 3 books a year (Yes, I know that’s ridiculous complain about.), so I’m writing far ahead in my series. Keeps me busy and productive. I think that new schedule will help out a lot because I’m now the main house parent. I was before, but now my wife is out of the house before our son is up for school and she doesn’t get back until after his bath time. Once he gets home, my writing comes to a screeching halt. So having less to do on my blog will open up more time. January tends to be a dead period anyway and WordPress simply isn’t as busy as it once was.
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Let’s hope the negative newbies clear themselves out of the profession and we can get back to the way things were. It may be that the indie community is too far gone for me to ever return whole-heartedly. So be it. I started this journey as an independent and I plan to continue to do this thing on my terms.
September is a busy month with school back in and all the extracurricular activities bogging my nights with galavanting across the Municipality… the joys of having kids I guess. Book sales seem to reflect that. The rank remains fine but sales have dwindled lately. I hope the readers come back soon.
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I wouldn’t say all of them are newbies. I’ve seen a few veterans go the way of ‘all publicity is good publicity’. I guess it puts an odd sense of desperation on the indie author scene. At least from my perspective, which is why I keep wondering what’s going on. I tend to be in my own little world, so these things turning up probably hit me with more force than others. I think it’ll clean up eventually and we’re looking at a transition period.
My son started kindergarten this month, so it’s all new to me. Homework was a shock, but I’m lucky that he enjoys it. My sales and ranking have been doing the same up, down, cha-cha-cha they’ve been doing since the summer. Having a long series means the later books won’t have as big a debut as the previous ones, so I enjoy seeing the first book continuing to sell. There was a little bit of a hiccup after Book 3, but that’s a headache of the past. 🙂 I stopped trying to figure out the ranking though.
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Yes. I guess I’ve heard of a few stunts from seasoned vets. Not so shocking anymore. Drama. Drama. I steer clear.
It’s the same deal with book 4 in my series. It relies on the success of the trilogy. It’s frustrating some days because Twisted Desire is a really good stand-alone story, but no one likes to spoil a series by picking up book 4 first.
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Me too. Just going to keep my head down, my nose clean (hard with hay fever in autumn), and keep pushing forward.
I know what you mean with a later book being really good and not having the same sales as the previous ones. I get that with my second book, which seems to always be in the position of redheaded stepchild. Not the first of the series and not the newest book, so it moves at an odd pace.
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Haha. Truth.
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