Kindle Countdown Sale!

Now through March 5th, 2014, you can get both of my suspense/thriller novels for just $0.99 each. Normally $3.99 each, so this is a steal! Also available in the UK. Kindle Select members can still get the book for free. Enjoy! :-)

The Same Six Questions - David Kazzie

Another episode of The Same Six Questions is upon us! Welcome today's guest, David Kazzie.

Thanks, Andy! I am a novelist and lawyer in Virginia, where I live with my family. When I'm not writing or obsessing about writing, I like to spend time with the family, read, watch movies, get some exercise, and eat bad food to counter the effects of exercise.

The Same Six Questions

1. Have you published a book yet?

I published The Jackpot to the various e-reader platforms in May 2011. It's about a young attorney who discovers that her financially desperate boss is planning to steal their new client's huge lottery ticket and her quest to return it to it rightful owner.

After a not-very-great 2011 for sales, I pulled the book from the other retailers and enrolled the book in KDP Select in January. After a successful freebie promotional run on January 25 and January 26, the book took off and became the No. 1 Legal Thriller on Kindle for about 4 days. It was the #1 Mover & Shaker in the Kindle Store on Jan. 27, and it reached No. 34 in the Paid Store on Jan. 31.


2. When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

Looking back, I think I knew all along. As a kid, I wrote short stories, mostly about sports, I wrote my own Choose-Your-Own Adventure books (I used a real book for the template to get the page numbers to line up properly). I got away from it for a while as I pursued the normal grown-up route, but eventually, I saw the light. To be honest, I have no idea how good a writer I am, but I'm probably better at writing than I am at anything else.


3. What was your first lengthy piece of fiction (say, >1000 words)? What was it about? When did you write it? Do you still have it?

It was probably one of those CYOA books, written when I was probably 11 or 12 years old. I wrote several of them (by hand, no less) -- the one that sticks out was called Escape from Alcatraz. The premise was that you were incarcerated on Alcatraz (for a crime that you, of course, did not commit), and you were trying to escape from the prison.

My first lengthy piece of real fiction was a short story about a lottery ticket called The Winner, which I wrote in 1999. It was published in a now-defunct literary magazine. Although the story is quite a bit different than The Jackpot, I guess you could say the novel had a few of its seeds there.


4. When was your first indication, "I can do this (write)"?

It came to me a little bit at a time. I went for years without ever wondering whether I was any good at it. When I was writing for my college newspaper in the early 90s, I interviewed for a summer internship with a large daily newspaper. After reviewing my clips, the interviewer told me that I was as good a writer as he'd seen in the
college ranks. That stuck with me, and I kept building my confidence from there.


5. If you could meet one of your characters in real life, which would it be?

Charles Flagg, the homicidal mercenary from my novel. He believes that humanity has become weak, and that it's his duty to "thin the herd" so that we continue to evolve as a species. I'd be curious to see if he thought I measured up.


6. It's a dark and stormy night...you're alone in the house...there's a knock at the door...you open it, look out, and proceed to scream like a little girl. What's on the doorstep?

A clown. I would probably experience a psychotic break.

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Thanks so much for sharing with us, David! For more of David and his writing, be sure to check out his blog, Twitter, and Facebook.

Swing back on Monday when my guest will be Scott S. Phillips. See you then!

To Select - Second Free Run Results

A few weeks ago, I decided that, given the success of my first free run with Amazon's Select program, I'd give it another shot. Being a bit of a pessimist, I was more than a little apprehensive about doing it again. I'd had pretty good success on my first run, but would lightning strike twice for the same book? I learned a lot from my own experience and those of my fellow authors who keep a running thread of stats over on the Kindleboards. There's enough statistics on going free over there to drive you up a wall and back down. My first run had been a single day and was on a Saturday. This meant that the magical 2-3 day post-free sales bump occurred between Monday and Tuesday. My theory was that a free run that occurred on a mid-week day would then land the bump on the weekend, closer to the time when I figured more people would be buying.

I scheduled my second free day on February 22nd. I notified a slew of websites over a week in advance. There are really only two that matter; pixelofink.com (POI) and ereadernewstoday.com (ENT). POI and ENT are bastions of freebie-loving readers. Each site has 200,000+ loyal followers on Facebook and their legend among indie authors grows. They post free books throughout the day on their blogs and Facebook. To be included in these posts can mean the difference between giving away 1,000 and 10,000 copies. And, that can mean the difference between selling 2 dozen copies post-free and selling 200. In my first run, which was only a day, I only managed to have one site mention me, but it was still all I needed for a great 1-day total. I thought, this time, I'm much more prepared. But, there was still the unknown element of going free with the same book for a second time. I'd not heard any results and had no evidence that it would be as successful as the first time.

When I woke up on Wednesday morning, I was a bit dismayed. At 7 AM I had apparently only given away 5 copies. It was more of a slow start than I'd expected. Of course, being home sick from work that day (really!) was of no help...as I was able to watch the numbers on an almost constant basis. By 3 PM, the numbers were respectable and actually better than my first run at the same time: 1181 "freeloads" in the US. My UK and DE numbers were much weaker this go round. I have no explanation for that, except that maybe the Brits and Germans keep their book buying for the weekends. I got picked up by ENT that evening, but by 8:30 PM, I knew my day was not going to be as successful as my first run: 2722. At that point, I had yet to break into the Top 100 Free books on Amazon, something I had determined to be an important milestone. I made an executive decision that night. I was going to add another day and remain free through Thursday. By Friday morning at 3 AM ET, when the switch back to paid should have occurred, I'd given away 6970 copies and stood at #90 in the Top 100 Free. I'd actually been as high as #57 earlier in the day, but the onslaught of new freebies had pushed me down. I was satisfied, but not really thrilled that it had essentially taken two days to do what one had done last time. The best moment had been the realization that someone in France decided to download my book for free; a first for me to have anything from that store.

Now, the last time I'd gone back to paid status, the sales came in fairly quickly. There was no lag. I didn't see a flood of sales, but it had moved along nicely that first day (a Sunday) before really picking up between Monday and Tuesday that week. I made it as high as #742 on the Top Paid list at one point and finished consecutive days in the 800s. Well, I watched my sales number throughout the day and got scared. It barely moved. One sale...maybe two. I thought, the magic is gone. I had been a one and done. The Amazon algorithms had changed and I'd just given away 7000 books for nothing. Then, I took a deep breath and reminded myself that patience was a virtue when it came to this game. Saturday came and all was right with the world. By 7 PM Saturday evening, I'd sold 60 copies and had 5 borrows. On Sunday, I climbed to my highest rank of #1,831 overall paid. Not as high as last time, but not too shabby. It stinks being in a category like Suspense. Lots of competition...lots of good competition (on any given day, the worst book in the Top 100 in Suspense is #1400 overall in the entire store; other categories, some of the more obscure ones mind you, can have folks who are ranked as high as #20,000).

Not sure if this is legible as is, but it's supposed to show my last month of sales activity. Click to enlarge.

It's now Tuesday night and I've been back to paid for 5 days. I've sold a total of 169 copies and had 13 borrows in the US. I've had no paid sales in the UK this time round and saw very little action at all in the German store. Nowhere near as successful as my first attempt, but I still consider it a success. Still sold more books in five days than all of last year, so there must be something to this. I've now sold 377 copies of my book in the month of February and have 73 borrows. That follows up 201 and 12, respectively, in January. 578 and 85...not too shabby. Sure, I had to give away 14,000 copies, but c'mon!

Things I've learned:

1. A POI or ENT mention is critical to success. It's as simple as that. Yes, you might reach a few thousand "freeloads" without them, but to really get the big push, you need their quick access to heavy firepower. Hundreds of thousands of readers all itching to pick up free books...even if they never intend to read them. I think POI needs upwards of 3 weeks' advance notice now...and even that may not guarantee you a spot. I've given them 4 weeks for my next free day.

2. Reaching the Top 100 Free is a necessity. If you're close and you were only going free for a day, book a second day so you get there. If you're already there on your first day, keep going! The higher you climb free, the more you'll get into the Amazon algorithms and, subsequently, the more you'll be seen afterward.

3. There is little you can do to control what happens on your free day. Just roll with it. What happens happens. It's not a personal affront to you or your book...really. Deep breaths. Remember, you have 5 free days and after 90 days, you can get out of Select if you're really not that happy with it.

4. There is nothing more addicting than having the ability to see your sales updated in real time. It's an awful, wonderful, horribly fascinating and terrifying thing, but you already knew that.

5. Everyone has a different experience. Some folks have gone free and struggled to give away 500 books one time, then turned around and gave away 5000 their next. It's a process. Give it a chance. Be patient with it if you can. It can and has worked for many.

So far, I'm happy with the Select system. It's worked for me. I think it's the ideal mechanism for promoting a first-in-series book. But, at the same time, I don't think I'll be enrolling books 2 and 3 in the trilogy. We'll see though. Now that I have two runs under my belt, I'm trying to apply everything I know for the last free run of my first Select 90 days. I'll keep you posted. ;)

The Same Six Questions - John Mefford

Hi there, and welcome to another exciting episode of The Same Six Questions! ;) Today's guest is John Mefford. Welcome!

Thanks, Andy. At different points in my life you could call me a West Coast person or an East Coast person. I moved eight times by the seventh grade, finally laying roots just outside Dallas, Texas. Being the new kid was somewhat of an albatross, but the plethora of geographic and architectural settings, weather patterns, and cultures of each home city and state resonated with me. Now grateful for the experiences, I use my recollection of people and their lives to help me devise characters and storylines for my writing. Only my family gives me a better high than spending a day creating something that will hopefully evoke an emotional reaction by a future reader.

The Same Six Questions

1. Have you published a book yet?

My debut novel, Committed (The Michael Doyle Chronicles), is now available on Amazon. It’s about sinful deception, a malicious corporate takeover, a grisly murder, and unrelenting greed. We all have that inner voice, the one who knows all but refuses to let even our closest confidantes inside. The one we must calm when we’re most unsettled. The one who seeks to understand our path, our destiny.

Michael Doyle lives in emotional anonymity, resistant to fully devote himself to anyone or any cause. Without warning, a technology conglomerate acquires Michael’s company, and he quickly sees through the fog of political posturing: false hope, layoffs, and blatant dishonesty.

Then, death reaches up and grabs him. Shaken to the core, Michael leans on his live-in girlfriend, who has touched his heart like no one else. But her haunting past resurfaces, and she’s pulled into a seedy web by an outside force so cruel, so cunning it destroys every soul in its path.

Can Michael rise above his greatest fear to uncover the truth about a murder and save the life of the person he loves most?

Committed is Book One of The Michael Doyle Chronicles.

2. When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

Twice in my life writing has called my name. Right out of college I took a job as a newspaper sports writer. My competitiveness pushed me to consistently “scoop” the competing paper and to hone my craft. I had never written a story prior to that first job. What seems like a couple of lifetimes later, I quit my regular day job, fed up with corporate BS and greedy a-holes who reminded me of The Penguin from the first Batman movie. I needed a creative outlet. I started writing, pouring out my thoughts into something that resembled fiction. That’s when I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up.

3. What was your first lengthy piece of fiction? What was it about? When did you write it? Do you still have it?

I wrote various magazine articles over the years, but, of course, those were non-fiction. Other than some elaborate fictional doodling (not sure they quite reached 1K words), my first piece of fiction was an early version of my just-released novel, COMMITTED. The difference between version 1 and the published version is similar to comparing a slab of concrete to a piece of sculpture created with a metal-bristled toothbrush. Massive effort and painfully elaborate. But worth it.

4. When was your first indication, “I can do this (write)”?

I remember the day vividly. Parked in what has become my writing chair, I had just completed the first twenty pages or so of my first novel. I slowly read through the draft and took a deep breath. My pulse started to pick up speed and a realization clicked in my brain with the exact quote you have above. “I can do this.”

5. If you could meet one of your characters in real life, which would it be?

Without a doubt, Arthur Spanarkel, the publisher. We know enough about Arthur to be intrigued, just by walking into his office. He’s met so many people, seen so many things across the globe. He’s open-minded, but gritty and strong-willed in his own, educated way. Yep, he’s the guy.

6. It’s a dark and stormy night...you’re alone in the house...there’s a knock at the door...you open it, look out, and proceed to scream like a little girl. What’s on the doorstep?

A note from Tony the Neanderthal Bastard (character from COMMITTED) that says: I will find you. I will kill you. The paper message disintegrates the moment I finish reading the note and the remnants fall between my fingers like sand. I’m not sure if I scream or if my heart stops!

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Thanks for stopping by and sharing with us, John! For more of John and his writing, check out his Web site, Facebook Author page, and Twitter page.

For more indie author interview goodness, be sure to stop back on Monday!

To Select or To Not Select, That's the Question - Revisited...Again

BEWARE! LARGE AMOUNTS OF STATS AHEAD! Ok, so you might have perused my previous post on the subject of Amazon's new KDP Select program. Well, I folded and joined the club. Here's my experience...

I decided to use a single day to test the waters. You might remember that being part of Select gives you 5 every 90 days of exclusivity. My intention was to pad my readership with a freebie day prior to releasing the sequel. Then, once the sequel is ready, I would have free days with the first book 4 more times to help move the second book. After reviewing many results on one of my favorite online haunts (kindleboards.com), I was a little wary about going free for only one day. The results seemed to be a bit of a mixed bag. But, I figured, if things weren't going as planned, I could always jump in and add an extra day.

So, let's lay some pre-free groundwork. On the evening of January the 27th, my book was approaching a ranking of #300,000 in the Amazon store and had sold a whopping 5 copies for the entire month of January. What's worse is that those 5 copies were sold in the first week. Oh, and no Select members had borrowed my book. Yeah, not so hot.

The book went free at ~3 AM EST on the 28th.

I woke up late and checked my numbers:

10 AM EST
Amazon US
Best Sellers Rank: #1,861 Free in Kindle Store
#57 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Genre Fiction > Mystery & Thrillers > Thrillers > Suspense
274 "sales"

Amazon UK
Best Sellers Rank: #351 Free in Kindle Store
#25 in Kindle Store > Books > Fiction > Crime, Thrillers & Mystery > Thrillers > Suspense
75 "sales"

Amazon DE (Germany)
Bestseller-Rang: #395 Kostenfrei in Kindle-Shop (Siehe Top 100 - Kostenfrei in Kindle-Shop)
Nr. 5 in Kindle-Shop > eBooks > Fremdsprachige eBooks > Englisch > Krimis & Thriller > Thriller > Spannung
14 "sales"

I was pretty geeked to see that some German customers had picked up the book. Though I've had a couple sales in the UK in the past, I'd never touched the German market. I was also kinda surprised to see that almost 300 people had picked up the book. Not that I was being a pessimist, but I had tried desperately to keep my expectations in check. There were stories about people giving away +10k in a day, that were only slightly tempered by the stories of folks who'd only managed to give away 500. I think that was the goal in my head. 500 additional readers is nothing to sneeze at. It was hard to not check throughout the day, but I won't bore you with too much minutiae (postscript edit: I lie...minutiae to follow). My numbers climbed steadily throughout the day at about 100 copies per hour. By 5 PM, this is what it looked like:

Amazon US
Best Sellers Rank: #298 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
#18 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Genre Fiction > Mystery & Thrillers > Thrillers > Suspense
918 "sales"

Amazon UK
Bestsellers Rank: #182 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
#13 in Kindle Store > Books > Fiction > Crime, Thrillers & Mystery > Thrillers > Suspense
188 "sales"

Amazon DE
Bestseller-Rang: #384 Kostenfrei in Kindle-Shop (Siehe Top 100 - Kostenfrei in Kindle-Shop)
Nr. 3 in Kindle-Shop > eBooks > Fremdsprachige eBooks > Englisch > Krimis & Thriller > Thriller > Spannung
23 "sales"

Not too shabby. As you can tell, it doesn't take as much to climb the UK and DE ranks, as there aren't as many transactions happening in those stores. So, at this point, I was pretty darned happy. I'd given away almost one thousand copies of my book. I hadn't seen nothing...anything...erm...you know what I mean. Lightning struck. One of the more popular websites that lists free books sent out a Facebook post with my book as their "cover" image. They have over 170,000 followers on Facebook just waiting for freebies. I suddenly went from 100 copies an hour to ~26/minute.

• 6:00     2498 copies
• 7:00     3186
• 8:00     3919
• 9:00     4466
• 11:30   5788

This was the last time point for which I recorded the ranking:
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #46 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
#6 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Genre Fiction > Mystery & Thrillers > Thrillers > Suspense

It might have gone higher, but I wasn't that desperate to stay up to record the data. Which is why, at this point, the data gets a bit fuzzy. According to Amazon, the final number for the 28th was 6681 freebies given away. However, the free promotion doesn't necessarily turn off at 12 AM on the dot. So, the numbers to start on Sunday are a bit fuzzy.

When I first woke up (time unknown), I picked up my phone and checked my ranking (not my sales). Just as I had expected; I had returned to my previous ranking before going free...plus some. Yep, I was at 340,000. YIKES! Quite a let down from the excitement of the day before. I rolled over and went back to bed. By the time I motivated myself to check my numbers, I was pleasantly surprised. The total number for the month of January at 9:30 AM on Sunday morning was 6733, which meant there were some phantom numbers in there that may or may not have been sales. At least a couple were paid sales because my ranking climbed to #40,000 overall in the hour or so since I'd checked. I'd also received my first returns! I assume that these were people who had clicked a link to my book, figured it to still be free and only found out afterward that it wasn't. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I then waited for the slow dropoff. The agonizing slide back to where my book "belonged"; wallowing in obscurity in the 100,000 to 200,000 ranking range. It was not to be. Sales came in steadily throughout the day on Sunday; 33 to be precise. It pushed me up to a rank of #2,948 Sunday night.

Ok, then perhaps Monday would prove to be the day of fade. No such "luck"; between Sunday night and Tuesday morning, I sold another 51 copies and got my first Select borrows! The most I had ever sold in one month was ~50. I'd now managed that in one day.

As I post this, early on Wednesday February 1st, a full 72+ hours after going free, I have sold 180+ copies and 15 Select members have borrowed the book (which I'll be compensated for). The book's current rank is:

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #967 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
#82 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Genre Fiction > Mystery & Thrillers > Thrillers > Suspense

I'm there, hanging with the likes of Dean Koontz, Lee Child, and John Locke, even if only for a moment. If there was ever a time for the book to really take off, it's got the best chance it's ever had.

Obviously, in the short term, the results look good. I'm now eclipsing the number of books I sold all of last year (5-1/2 months on sale), in a matter of days. Did I give away a lot? Yep. But, I look at the freebies as going to people who never pay for books. If my gift to them helps me get the book into the hands of folks who are willing to pay the $3, I have no problem with that. And, if perhaps I can get a percentage of those 6700+ freebie folk to actually purchase (God forbid!) the sequel, well...I can dream, can't I?

I'm sure I'll revisit this topic. For someone who has seen just brief glimpses of sales success in the past, it's a potentially strange new world to venture into. I already consider it a large success. I've got pretty lofty goals to be able to call it an overwhelming success, but stranger things have happened. ;)

To Select or To Not Select, That's the Question

So, Amazon's self-publishing arm, Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), recently announced a new feature for self-publishers called KDP Select. To say that it's created a bit of a stir in the self-publishing world is an understatement.

It presents indie authors with a bit of a double-edged proposition. In order to "join the club", you must make your book exclusive to Kindle for 90 days (ie, it cannot appear anywhere else in any form...including teasers on your own web site). In return, your book will be made available through the Kindle Owners' Lending Library for US Amazon Prime members for "free." (Prime members pay $79 a year for expedited shipping and other perks). Authors will also have an opportunity to set their price to $0 for five days every 90 days (while some books are currently free on Amazon, it's only accomplished through "tricking" the system and putting your book free through another distributor. The new setup will allow authors to set the price to $0 right through the KDP manager).

So, what's the hook? A share of half a million dollars a month. Authors' cut of the share is based on how many loans their book(s) gets. Amazon's example is a bit conservative, in my estimates: "...if the monthly fund amount is $500,000 and the total qualified borrows of all participating KDP titles is 100,000 in December and if your book was borrowed 1,500 times, you will earn 1.5% (1,500/100,000 = 1.5%), or $7,500..."

But, you're not gaining anything by letting your book go essentially for free, you say? Not quite. You see, borrows are now being incorporated into the Amazon ranking algorithm. So, though you may not see increased sales, any "free" borrows will push you up in the rankings (which, theoretically, would lead to more exposure, borrows, sales, etc). Conversely, it means that if you're book is NOT in the program, you're not only fighting sales of other books, but the added weight of borrows against your book's ranking.

Tempting, no? Like a good number of self-published authors, I have cast my book's net as far as possible. I have uploaded my book to Amazon, B&N, and the multi-platform distributor Smashwords for the other ebook fish (eg, iPad, Kobo, Sony). However, when it comes down to actual sales (like a good number of self-pubbed authors as well), I have received the most sales through Amazon. Here's how the numbers break down for my ebook sales after 6 months on the market:

• Amazon - 77.9%
• Apple - 10.3%*
• B&N - 8.3%
• Smashwords - 2.0%
• Kobo - 0.7%*
• Sony - 0.7%*

*May be higher, but reporting is monthly at best

Now, comes the question that many indies are faced with. Do I give up that ~20% of sales produced by the other channels for 90 days to try and grab a piece of the Amazon carrot? To be honest, the only channel I'm loathe to give up is the Apple one. As much a I'm a fan of B&N, they've done little to spur the kind of interest in indies that amazon has. Whereas, Apple hasn't quite got a hold of the potential clout they have with the iBookstore. They could probably be a major player in the ebook world if they just got their act together and cared about it, but therein lies the rub. They'll probably never invest the time and energy required, simply because it's not the game they want to play. They're only in it because the game came to them.

At the moment, my answer has been to not do anything. If the process of removing my book from the various sales channels was an easy one, I might have jumped on the band wagon. However, because it can be a bit convoluted and slow to pull books back from Kobo and Sony, it might be January before I'd be "let into the club." But, with my sequel on the horizon (the slowly developing Divisible by Six), I will have to seriously consider my options. By then, the results from the December kickoff will be in and we'll have some numbers to consider.

But, besides the consideration of whether it will be a financial boon or not, we may need to consider whether we, as self-pubbed authors, are fueling the desires of a machine bent on monopolizing an industry. Yep, I said it. And, it shouldn't be much of a surprise to anyone. Sure, you're only giving exclusivity for 90 days, but what comes next? How much money will it take for authors to completely forego all other outlets and remain exclusive to Amazon? Some have already taken the bait. How many authors might just not bother to put their books back up on other channels after their 90 days is up? It's a subversive move, and akin to a recent move that some US retailers are openly calling ruthless. Is it ok because "everyone else is doing it" and "I don't want to be the one that missed out"? Last time I checked, those were pretty lame excuses. Perhaps we all really need to take a step back and consider the possible consequences of our actions.

Comments? Thoughts? Ideas? I know you've got 'em. Would love to hear 'em.