Brand New Baby! Book 3 of The Gastien Series is Live!

First, please let me apologize for not blogging for the past several days.  I have been busy giving birth to my new novel, Tristan Michel: Bloodline of Passion. It is book 3 of The Gastien Series and is historical ficiton/family saga that takes place duirng the early twetieth century.  Here is the description:

From the bustling streets of New York City to the smoky speakeasies of Roaring Twenties Chicago, Tristan finds huge financial success. Along with respect, tradition, and family, he promises himself that this will be enough. Having achieved peace by forgiving his father his debauchery, he’s certain that there is nothing that could induce him to follow in his father’s lascivious footsteps.

Like father, like son will never apply to Tristan.

Then the urgent whisper that has been telling him there should be more than what he is experiencing with his wife becomes a full blown roar. With a very proper wife that refuses to loosen up, Tristan learns that the passion of the father is very much the passion of the son. To deny it may be impossible, but to embrace it could cost him everything. Book 3 of The Gastien Series.

And here are the buy links for Kindle and NOOK (Paperback will be available on Amazon by June. You can click on the Amazon link and then go to paperback once it is ready):

http://tinyurl.com/7kuoh5f For Kindle readers

http://tinyurl.com/89jcpmn For NOOK readers

You will find the first two books in the series on this blog.  Just click on the book covers to go to Amaszon.com. If you have Nook, you can type in "The Gastien Series" and all three books will show up.

I am going to be working on the formatting for paperback the rest of this week and taking a week off to paint after that. I will try to blog some, but may get bogged down in formatting (and later may be in my own speical world while painting).   Thank you for your patience while I do these things.  I hope you don't leave my blog, as I enjoy having you visit. I promise I will be back regularly real soon!

To Kindle Select or Not to Kindle Select, That is the Question

Indie Authors have a big decision to make.

Amazon has changed the game and may be planning on taking over the publishing world.  Around mid December they started offering authors Kindle Select.  If you join, you get to be part of their loaning program and get part of the revenue shared by authors whose books are loaned to Prime members.  Prime members can borrow one book a month.

You can also offer your book free for 5 days during 90 days.  Doing so often pushes your book into the top 100 lists for the genres it is listed in and makes it appear also a "also bought" for people.  This means you may sell a whole lot more for awhile after the free days.

Not to mention that books in the Select program will probably be promoted more heavily to Prime customers.  Sounds great, right?

Well...not so much.  In order to do that, you have to go exclusively with Amazon for at least 90 days.  That means you can't sell your book on B&N for NOOK, Apple, any other book sites or even your own website.  You must have your book removed from all of those sources and only be available on Amazon.  If you stay with Select after the 90 days you must stay exclusive to Amazon.

That means you lose your reviews on those other sites.  It means those customers can no longer buy your book.  For some authors, that does not seem like a big deal.  The majority of sales come from Amazon for most anyway.

But think about it for a minute.  Doesn't that take the "indie" out of indie author?  Telling someone where they can and cannot sell their book is not exactly independent. Also, traditionally published authors don't have to play by the same rules.  They are not required to be exclusive, at least from what I understand.  If I am wrong, I hope someone corrects me.  How is that fair?

Also, if a Prime member can only "borrow" one book a month, how many times will that be an indie book?  Indie books are significantly less money.  Why would they use their one borrow for a $2.99 or .99 book when they can use it for a $10.00 or more?  Really, the money an indie will make from the loaning program won't be much.

What if Amazon pushes hard enough that almost all indies are exclusive with them?  Can't they then change the game again...and offer them a lot less profit per book?  Where are they going to go unless they start over, building reviews, etc on other sites?

I don't know.  This seems like a stranger offering me candy on a street corner.  On the other hand, other authors are jumping in and seeing a huge increase in visibility because of days their book is free.  It remains to be seen how that free turns into future sales...but it is looking promising.

So far, I have decided not to abandon my Nook users.  But they are a tough sell.  If things don't improve with Nook users and my sales, I may be tempted.  I have not published with Apple yet, but planned to.  Now this Kindle Select comes along. Still, it just feels wrong in my gut...and my gut seldom lies.

It would be easier to try it if I wrote stand alone books.  Right now I am in the middle of a series.  It does not make sense to put just one of two in a series on there only on Amazon...or does it? What about when book 3 comes out?  Should I make book 1 exclusive then, thinking that it has been out long enough on other sites already?  Decisions, decisions.

Yeah, it feels crappy, like a potentially bad situation in the future. I have been wrong before and could be again.  This is really a hard decision.  A decision every indie author will be facing with every book published. Tomorrow I may wake up and think "what the hell" and try it.  Or I may continue as is, truly indie and loving it.

Giving Birth To A New Book (Indlie Publishing)

When I released my first novel as an indie author, it was extremely exciting!  It was also very stressful.  I had never formatted a novel for Kindle or NOOK before.  I wasn't even considering paperback...just getting the darn thing ready for e-readers seemed an impossible climb.

I was surprised when it went smoothly.  Sure, I had questions.  However, the community boards with KDP really helped me.  Before I knew it, I had Gastien Part 1: The Cost of the Dream released to Amazon.com for Kindle and Barnes&Noble.com for NOOK.

Dare I think about a print on demand paperback?  Since I had several friends who did not have e-readers, I decided to give it a try.  Plus, I wanted to hold my own book in my hands.  I used Createspace.  I am not going to lie and say it was easy.  It wasn't.  I am not at all left brained.  Several times I almost gave up. But, again, the community board with Createspace was always there, helping me with answers to my problems and the resulting questions. 
Before I knew it, I was holding a proof paperback in my hand.  No, it was not easy.  But it was not as hard as you might fear.

Now it is time to release my second book, Gastien Part 2: From Dream to Destiny.  I am 5/6 of the way through the out loud reading.  I am half done with the final tweaks.  There will be one read through after that.  I am on schedule for a release by December 15th or so.  I really want to make sure it is out there getting exposure as a new release for travelers over the holidays and people unwrapping new e-readers over the holidays.

The cover has been decided on, Robin Ludwig Design has finished it, and I have the files on my computer.  The cover is beautiful! It is starting to go into labor.  I still have to write the synopsis, or the blurb.  Then, it will be time to fomat.

Stress is building.  But, this time, the excitement far outweighs the stress.  This time, I know I can do it.  I have done it before.  Plus, truth be told, I kept the answers from those questions I submitted on the different community boards.  If I run into those problems again, I have solutions at my fingertips.

The labor will last a couple of weeks yet (thank God humans are not in labor that long!) before the book is "birthed".  All that is left are the final preparations so that the book can come into the publishing world knowing it is loved by me and that all of it's needs have been taken care of so far.

Once it is born, there will be more work.  All of the marketing starts once again.  Social networking.  Asking bloggers and reviewers to read and review it.  Hoping friends and previous buyers purchase this one.  But, this too will be easier.  I know what to do now.  I have contacts for reviews from my first book. This baby will be well taken care of. 

Finally, what I have to hope for is that others will love it as much as I do.  I would really hate to see it sit on the sidelines, an outcast.  I love it too much for that to not hurt.  It will be nurtured and guided to the best of my ability.  The rest will be up to the public.