So, here’s the deal. Hold on, I’ve gotta move the keyboard and get the fingers on the right keys. There we go. Ok. The long and the short of it is that it was too hard to market my book. I didn’t have the time or the money to sink into adequately marketing it. Being an indie is tough, simply because there are so many other people out there trying to do the same thing. Technology has made it easy to get your product to the people, but how do you get the people to your product?

So, I put the book back on the KDP. The reason is simple: even when I wasn’t on the KDP, I sold more books through Amazon than through any other service. Amazon is the only seller who has sent me a check. The KDP program gives me a subtle marketing system. I get the boost from when the book is free for a set number of days during the 90 day period, but I also get the chance for Amazon Prime Members to borrow the book, which for me, still counts as a sale.

I’m sure there’s a lot more I could be doing to try to sell more copies, but like I said before, I don’t have a lot of time right now. KDP is something I don’t even have to think about. I just set up my promos, and let the balls roll.

That being said, the one thing I don’t like about it is the exclusivity, but only for one small point. I read ebooks on my iPad, and so far, my favorite eReader is iBooks. I just love the way it feels. Somehow with iBooks, I start to forget that I’m reading on a computer. I’m just reading. I’d really like there to be an iBooks version of the book, and so I’m working on putting together an iBooks edition, which will be a new book with a separate ISBN.

The next promo weekend is coming up in two weeks. The book will be free on Amazon from Nov 9th through the 11th. Hopefully, it will generate enough interest to at least garner one review on Amazon.

I am still working on the second book, but it’s slow with everything else that’s going on. I just feel the need to let you know that it’s still there, and I’m working on it. Once I’m through December, things should open up a little bit, and I hope to get more done then.

We are working on a podcast of the first book. My wife snapped off Snow White and the Huntsman about 30 minutes into it, telling me to get the MIDI keyboard hooked up to the Mac so she could finish the theme music for the podcast. If that crap can make it onto the screen, my book should be able to make it somewhere. I’ll let you guys know when the episodes are ready to post.

So, I put the book back on the KDP. Wasn’t sure what else to do. Outside of Amazon, I’ve sold one book on Barnes and Noble and one book on the Sony eBook store. I gave away copies for a while through Smashwords, but that didn’t seem to generate any interest, either. I had an ongoing issue with Smashwords not being able to get the book into the Apple Bookstore, which was where I really wanted it, because I love the way iBooks looks on my iPad. After going back and forth with Smashwords customer service, I finally just pulled the book from Smashwords, Barnes and Noble, and Goodreads, and made it an Amazon exclusive.

I just came out of my first promo weekend, and we gave away 332 copies of the book. It’s my understanding that these count as sales in terms of rankings in the Amazon store, so if we do enough of these, then the book should start to climb the lists, right? Then maybe we’ll get some attention.

Work on the second book is proceeding, but very slowly. There’s just not a lot of time in my days right now. I’m not getting a lot of sleep. Things will open up eventually, but for right now, I’m scribbling in a corner when I get a chance. But I’m still dreaming the story, still going over elements in my head, still visiting with Perdita and Lucinda when I get the chance.

Hopefully soon, I’ll have more to tell.

At the end of last year, I self-published my first novel, To Trust the Wolf. It was the culmination of a life-long dream to finally write a novel and get it into the hands of strangers. Technology has advanced to the point where it is fairy simple for anyone to publish their novel. So, why bother courting the publishing industry with its Byzantine customs and procedures that almost require a masters’ degree to figure out when you can just click some buttons and publish your book yourself?

Promotion. The publishing industry may be losing its hold on the tools of publishing, but it still controls the main promotion channels which are needed to successfully market and sell your book. Sure, you can push that button and grin when you see your name and your book on Amazon, but there is no easy button to push that allows you get reviews for your book, that allows you to let the readers who might be interested in your novel that it even exists.

I tried the Kindle Select Program. I tried lowering the price from five dollars to three dollars. I listed the books on several different websites. For the first six months, the book did all right. In six months, I made about a hundred dollars in royalties. Thanks to the Kindle Select Program, over 900 copies of the book were distributed worldwide. That’s not bad, in my opinion–that’s way more people reading my work than ever before.

But of those 900 readers, only one wrote a review. I will always be grateful to that person–in fact, if I got anything out of this experience, it is that I gained a friend, someone I’ve never actually met (yay, Internet!). My friends and family have been very nice about leaving complimentary reviews on different sites, but so far only one stranger has left me a review.

I don’t know if reviews are the key to marketing a book, but it feels to me like they are fairly important. I’ve spent a lot of time over the last six months researching self-promotion for self-publishers. I put together a pretty ambitious marketing plan designed to get and keep attention on the book. I just needed to get started on it.

Then I reviewed my sales for July. As near as I can determine, I sold one ebook in the entire month of July. I sold two paperbacks, but just one ebook. And I sat there thinking, why am I knocking myself out over this?

I’m really busy right now. I’m a stay-at-home dad in the morning, and I manage a wine bar at night. In a few weeks, I’ll be adding classes into this mix. Time is becoming very precious.

Meanwhile, there’s the second book. The novel is the first part of a trilogy. I needed some time off after pushing the first book out, but it is time to get back to work. I left my characters hanging, and I need to get them moving again. I keep sitting down to work on the second book and end up flipping through my outlines, my scene descriptions, my new characters and sighing wistfully, because I just don’t feel like I have the time.

Something’s got to give. I want to work on the second book. I want to return to Raioume. I’ve started dreaming about it at night. And I can’t give up on the child care, on work, or on school.

So, starting August 1st, I’m suspending my marketing efforts to sell the first book. I went to Smashwords, and set the price to zero. Right now, instead of trying to make money on it, I’m just going to let it get out into people’s hands. Maybe eventually Amazon and Barnes & Noble will follow suit. I don’t know. I am leaving the paperback at $7.99, which is about as cheap as I can afford to go.

Anyway, if you’ve been curious about the book, now is your chance to grab a copy of the ebook. And if you like it, pass it along to someone. Buy a relative a copy of the paperback as a gift. Drop me an email telling me what you thought. Leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads. I really do hope that you enjoy it.

But I’m going to be focusing on being a dad, being a manager, being a student. And writing another novel. Because I really want to be a novelist, not a book promoter.

And I need to return to Raioume.

The wonderful Opal at the Akamai Reader asked me some questions, and I gave some answers. If you haven’t checked out the Akamai Reader yet, you should definitely give it a whirl. I don’t know how she finds the time to not only read all of these books, but write insightful reviews as well.

For the New Moon that marks the start of Eostra, we’re offering the book for FREE through Amazon. The free day runs midnight to midnight PST this Tuesday, so tell your friends, tell your neighbors, tell anyone you can think of. Thanks!

The Violin is a short story that takes place within the Little Red setting. Its events transpire before the events that occur in To Trust the Wolf.

The story was originally a chapter in the novel, in the original draft, several years ago. It was cut because it wasn’t actually part of the plot, but an idea I had while working on the plot. But I liked, and held onto it. I salvaged it from the cutting room floor, and for the last couple of weeks, I’ve been working it into a short story that can stand on its own.

The Violin [PDF] [Kindle] [ePub(Nook, et al)] [HTML]

For those who enjoyed their foray into Raioume, or are just curious as to what it’s all about.

“Zabiana is always a mystery that you have to solve,” Lucinda says, pointing to a passage in the book in front of Perdita. The younger girl kicks her heels together over her back as she lies on her stomach on her bed, her finger tracing the lines Lucinda indicated in the book.

“It tests your logic, your intuition,” the older girl continues, holding a wooden practice sword as she stretches to her right side. She grins up at Perdita, her white teeth flashing against her tawny skin. “It rankles most novices, the first time they run through it. They get all nervous, looking for a fight, and instead have to hunt for clues.”

“You passed it?” Perdita asks.

Lucinda nods, stretching to her left side, the practice sword held over her head.

“What happened?”

Lucinda smirks at her, “I’m not going to tell. You should know that by now.” Perdita frowns, looking down at her book. Lucinda stretches back to her right again, “Let’s just say I flirted with the miller’s son to find who was stealing the grain.”

“Luce!” Perdita’s eyes flash up at her. “Really?”

Lucinda nods at the book in front of Perdita. “Study those interrogation techniques. They’ll help you figure out who is telling the truth, and who is hiding something.”

“I just hope I don’t have to flirt with them to find out,” Perdita mutters, looking back down at the book.

For the Full Moon of Zabiana, To Trust the Wolf will be on sale for $0.99 for the next 24 hours or so.

“The world of Raoiume [sic] is fascinating. The witches each have their own Orders and the matriarchal society has put their country under martial law. The Mundanes, those without magic, are beaten down people. This book is as much their story as it is Perdita’s. Their tale is highly sympathetic yet they remain the villains, making this story all the more fascinating and three-dimensional.”

– The Akamai Reader

Raioume, according to the Internet, is Old French for ‘realm.’ Thank you, Opal!

So, after a month of trying to market the book on our own, we elected to participate in the KDP Select program. We’ve made the book a Kindle exclusive for 90 days, and in exchange, we get to give away the book for free for five days during that 90 day period, plus Amazon Prime members can “borrow” the book as part of the lending program.

When I first read about the program, I didn’t really get it. It’s just not that intuitive. What do I get out of giving the book away for free? The missing part of the equation is, what do I get out of giving the book away for free on a website that has more traffic than I could ever shake a stick at. Exposure, that’s what you get, and as an indie author trying to self-promote the book, that’s what was needed.

From December 27th to February 1st, we sold 14 copies of the book. On the first, we made it available for free through the KDP Select program. The book was free from February 1st through February 2nd. We moved 540 copies of the book on those two days, in the US alone. We also moved 24 copies in the UK, and 4 copies in Germany. I’m not sure if my math is right, but I think that’s nearly a 4000% increase in readership, in two days.

Now, here’s the exciting part. Since February 2nd, the book has been available at it’s regular price of $5.99. We’ve sold 4 copies since then. So, the exposure definitely helped us pick up some sales. Plus, we got a wonderful review, which I’m sure also helped!

And, the book has been “borrowed” 4 times. I put the borrowed in quotes, because unlike when I gave the book away for free, I’ll actually get some royalties each time the book is “borrowed.”

We have three more free days, and I think I’m going to use them on the new moons between now and May, when our participation in the program ends. So far, the Select Program looks like it really helped me get the word out about the book, and I’m really excited about what the future holds.

As part of the program, however, we had to make the book a Kindle exclusive, so the book has been temporarily pulled from Barnes & Noble, Goodreads, and Smashwords. Right now, the plan is to restore the book to those channels once the 90 period is up, around the start of May. We apologize for any inconvenience this might have caused, but since we’d only sold one book outside of Amazon, it seemed worth the risk when we decided to enter the program.

“Amidst all these familiar genre conventions, a story unfolds that reflects a unique authorial voice. The tale hinges, memorably, on certain prophecies and vision of the future that are related gradually to the reader. The backstory and prophetic predictions come into view as perfectly disorienting sliding puzzle pieces. Particularly striking are the descriptions of lucid dreams and magical telepathic encounters, in which characters gain insights and glimpses of future events, confused through the language of dreaming or the potential pitfalls and paradoxes inherent in relating to the future. As all these trajectories of foreshadowing begin to reinforce and converge on the themes of the archetypal source material, the novel shifts from “page-turner” to high art.

“The result is the impression of reading something satisfyingly familiar, through an entirely fresh means of storytelling.”

–Steve Rogne, on Amazon.com