In a potentially-futile attempt to save September, Dying Embers is currently free and will be through Wednesday. The hope is that people will pick up a copy of DE and want the other books, too. :shrug:
Anyway, here goes nuthin'...
It's Monday, so that must mean Marketing Monday! :throws confetti: Today, I'm offering Dying Embers in all its glory. It's a helluva book.
I'm not sure exactly what happened yesterday. I was doing my usual thing, posting to FB groups - 1 every fifteen minutes to avoid getting my paddies smacked by FB's gulag rules - when I noticed an uptick in downloads. I was all like 'whoa' because in a short time, I'd moved like 20 copies. Cool, thinks I.
But it didn't stop there. The numbers kept rising... throughout the rest of the day and night, as a matter of fact. I'd moved 12 copies on Monday. As of this morning, I've moved 463 copies of Dying Embers in 24 hours.
Of course, all of those are free, but it gives me hope that at least some of those people will read it and go on to order FG and EG. (One person already did order the other two books at full price, so I've got that going for me.) I also have hope that it has brought DE high enough up in the rankings that the KU people will see it and start reading the book, too. Every page read adds up there.
I'm just a little dumbfounded. I've had this happen a couple times before. TTW got a boost somehow and moved like 100 copies in one day. Still, I've never had a book move this much in this short a time since I paid ENT for an ad.
Anyway, it's pretty exciting. I'd share the magic with you, if I knew what the magic was. I know yesterday I tried something different and hit the specialized FB groups (thriller, suspense type groups) with ads. Maybe that was the cause of the initial jump and, once DE started to rise in the rankings, that took over. Maybe I have a fairy god-newsletter that advertises my books without me knowing or paying for it. Either way, it does feel good to see the numbers jump like that.
Doesn't change anything with regard to yesterday's post, but still...
Here we are again at Monday, which means marketing. I even got up early to get after it, but then I got distracted :cough:facebook:cough:, so here we are at 6 o'clock and I'm just getting started. Derp.
Anyway...
Okay, so after the week of few freebies followed by the week of nothing, here we are slogging through the marketing again. This time I'm hitting the book that's sold the most (partly because it's the oldest and partly because once upon a time I had money to throw at marketing this book) - DYING EMBERS.
It's that time again. Marketing Monday. AND it's time for DYING EMBERS to hit the free lists at Amazon again.
The time has rolled around again to whip out the first book and set it free... or rather set it FOR free.
Now through Friday, get DYING EMBERS absolutely free. (Always free with Kindle Unlimited.) Get your copy of this gripping suspense novel today!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TEQK7OU
Revenge is better hot.
Wow. I mean, just... wow. The freebie thing for DYING EMBERS shot off like a freakin' rocket this week. When I checked the stats this morning, my orders said 777. 705 of that is DE. (71 was from last weeks freebie of PH. And I sold one FG.) I've never moved that many copies of anything at one time. Hell, I haven't moved that many copies of all of my books in an entire year since my first year. That year, I moved like 1016, which is fewer books than I've given away this year. I am shocked. This is my wow-face =oO. Anyway, thank you. Thanks to all of you who've read my books, and to all of you who've downloaded my books, and to all of you who've reviewed my books. You're all awesome and I love you. :HUGS: You're really making my anniversary special. Special thanks to Silver and Debs and Janet for sticking with me all the way. You guys rock.
Today is officially the 10th anniversary of DE going out into the world. On 2/13/15, it went live on Amazon and I got my very first sale ever. Woot.
Speaking of sales, I've officially made more money this year than all of 2023. Sure, it's $28.82 vs $28.08, but we have to take our little successes where we can find them, eh?
Man, these last few years have been a little depressing for me with regards to being a writer. I mean, I haven't broken $100 since 2021. The last year I made more than my average of $400/year was 2019. But there's always hope. And more than a little of a masochistic nature, LOL.
Okay, enough about that... I think I might've already mentioned it, but I made carrot cake. It was good but unimpressive the first day. Every day, it's gotten a wee bit yummier, though. Mmmm. Next time, I definitely need to add raisins. I do love me some raisins.
The weather here has been gross. Wet and cold and icy. Blerg. Good thing I got all my errands done over the weekend or we'd be screwed. Eh, it's all about planning ahead when you live in the back of beyond.
Ack. I need to wrap this up so I can call Mom. It's a thing. Every morning M-Th, I call her at 7am and we talk for an hour. She's 84 and, let's face it, she's not going to be here forever, so I like to get as much chatting in as I can. Plus, I really enjoy our conversations. There's no better way to start the day for me. (I also call her on Saturday, but that's at 7:45. She gets Fridays and Sundays off from me. LOL)
And with that I bid you all adieu. Have a great day wherever you are!
Hey all. This week I'll see the 10th Anniversary of being a published author. On 2/13/15, DYING EMBERS was pushed into the world. So...
We all know how that turned out, eh?
Anyway, I'll talk more about that in the week to come. Until then, pick up a copy of Dying Embers and enjoy my gift to you. And if you enjoy it, pay it backward by leaving a review. ;o)
The sale has started! Get all three Serial Crimes Investigation Unit books for less than $2 now through Friday night. DYING EMBERS is FREE. FERTILE GROUND and EARLY GRAVE are only 99c/99p each in the US and UK. Read them all!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B078MQ9RX9
Hey there, hi there, ho there. It's time to wrap this past week up.
I only wrote on one day this past week, but I laid down about a thousand new words and found a place for a scene I'd written a while back, giving me a net gain of about 2700 words. On SCUI4. :shrug: Gotta go where the inspiration strikes these days.
Perhaps inspiration struck on that because I actually did some marketing. I posted on Thursday night/Friday morning about Dying Embers being only 99c and sold 3 books. One each of the series, so yay. I need to slap some more posts out there.
In reading news, I only finished one book, but it was a good one. I also started reading a suspense yesterday. So far, so good.
On the baking front, I made carrot cake! I'd never made one before, but I got the idea that I wanted to make one, so I went looking for recipes. And the ones I found that I liked called for way more carrots than I had in the house. So, when I went shopping on Thursday the idea was to buy another bag or two. The little bags looked piddlin' and doing a cost comparison, it just made more sense to pick up the big bag. The FIVE POUND bag. I already had a pound of carrots - I didn't realize the little bags had 16 oz - so 6 pounds of carrots total. I spent yesterday morning cleaning and shredding carrots. One big carrot yielded 1 cup of shredded. One carrot. I cleaned probably 10-12 carrots to start and still had about 3/4 of the 5 lb bag untouched. Anyway, I got my 4 cups of shredded carrot. Plus two quart baggies of carrot sticks. Then I made the cake. It turned out amazing, by the way. Recipe below.
I'm still falling down on the activity thing. Only one day wherein I walked the loop. So 1.1 miles added to the total. 19.3 miles for the year. That's kind of pitiful. :shrug: I did finally weigh myself and I'm holding steady, though. Weight: 181.6. Unfortunately, not moving is making me squonky. Not that I didn't get a boatload of upper body exercise grating those carrots, but that's not quite the cardio I'm going for.
I did something else this week that I've been thinking about for a while now. I'm not ready to talk about it and nothing may come of it anyway. No, it's not anything bad or medical. Or relationship related. Okay, fine. I applied for a job. The right job came along and I had to go for it. If anything, I'm overqualified for it and my resume will probably freak the people out. But it's like 2 miles from here and it utilizes my office skills with some new stuff thrown in to make it interesting. And hey, it might even help add a new flavor element to my writing. :shrug: Like I said, nothing may come of it. If something does come of it, I'll let you know because changes will have to be made. Anyway, I'm kind of excited.
Speaking of excitement, we found a big ol' rat snake in the garage this week. He was probably 5-6'. There were some comical elements to his removal, but we finally got him outside. Hubs then proceeded to spray the area to deter the snake from coming back.
Also, exciting... we have a fawn! And it's Lumpy's! Yay!
Okay, that's more than enough out of me this morning. Thanks for reading all the way down to here and I hope you have an awesome day. How was your week?
Recipe:
Best Ever Carrot Cake
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 1/3 cup vegetable oil
4 cups grated carrots
3/4 cup raisins
Preheat oven to 350F. Coat bottom of 9x13" pan with cooking spray. Plump raisins, drain, and set aside. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside. In a large bowl, beat eggs and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in oil. By thirds, stir in dry ingredient mixture. Fold in carrots and raisins until just combined. Spread evenly into prepared pan. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely and frost with cream cheese frosting.
Five weeks into 2021. I'm trying to hope for the best and prepare for the worst. So, basically, nothing new.
I'm not currently in writing mode, so don't expect any of that any time soon. As for editing, I pulled my head out of the mire and got back to work. I'm at 48% done with my first round. Pages and pages of notes accumulated. Some of it as simple as adding or deleting a comma. Some of it as deep as rewriting whole scenes. (Just the note to do it, not actually rewriting it yet.)
As for marketing, Dying Embers goes on sale Wednesday to celebrate its book birthday on Saturday. Just the one book this time. It'll be 99c/99p through the 16th.
Once again, I only finished one book in reading last week. It was a REALLY good one, though. I'd totally recommend it. (And it is in Audio format, for them what does that. Warning: if you follow the link, the description has spoilers. Damn them.)
In baking news, I made a meatloaf (recipe below) and a batch of drop biscuits.
On the activity front, I cleaned and organized three times and walked once. Eh, it's better than nothing. Weight 182.2.
It's been almost two weeks since we lost Kira. It's still pretty hard to not wake up thinking I have to feed her or take her to the litterbox. Or to look for her when I get ready for bed. It still throws me when I walk into the office and she's not laying on her bed. And to not look at her dishes and think that she needs kibbles. Yes, her dishes are still out. So's her litterbox. Seeing those spots empty would be sadder than having those things in place right now. I've been obsessed with thinking about dogs. I need to stop that. We can't have a dog right now, for most of the same reasons we couldn't get one before. With the exception of not wanting to stress out Kira. I still don't have the time, the patience, or the fundage to have a pooch. I'm being an adult here. Sometimes being an adult sucks, but it's better to be one than to regret not being one. Once upon a time, I had two dogs and in retrospect, I never should've gotten them. I didn't have the time to devote to them. I know better now.
Okay, I think that's it for me today. How was your Week 5?
Recipe:
Meatloaf
1 - 1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1 tube saltine crackers (crushed)
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 egg
salt and pepper to taste
Parmesan cheese (the dry stuff)
Preheat oven to 275F. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients but the Parmesan - using your hands to squish it all together. When it's all combined, squish in enough Parmesan to make the mixture dry enough to form a ball - usually about a quarter cup for me. (The wetness of the mixture will depend on what grade beef you use, how much beef there is to mushroom soup, how big the egg is, etc. Too wet a meatloaf won't hold its shape, hence the Parmesan.) Spray the inside of of whatever baking receptacle (I use a blue glass casserole dish) you're using with non-stick cooking spray. Bake for 2.5 hours uncovered. Slice and serve. Great hot. Awesome cold for sandwiches. Also yummy inside a grilled cheese sandwich.
