I’ll admit it. I got nothing done this weekend. I was positively glued to my iPad, pulling up the growing stats on my promotion for Unraveling Time, watching the numbers click upward hour by hour, day by day.
It was fascinating, and it totally exceeded my expectations.
(And in case you missed it, no worries; it’s still available for free, thru midnight tomorrow. Don’t be left out. Go claim yours!)
So, instead of something pithy and/or insightful, let’s talk about the progress so far.
Posted in Books, Writing | Tagged amazon, book promotion, books, creative writing, ebooks, free book, free kindle book, Kindle, novel writing, novels, publishing, self-publishing, Unraveling Time, Writing, writing tips | Leave a Comment »
Yesterday’s promotional campaign–offering Unraveling Time free of charge for an entire weekend– came under the heading of “It couldn’t hurt.” I thought it might get my book in front of a couple of new readers. It did, but it did more than that. There are secondary effects.
Unraveling Time is a time-travel/historical/adventure/romance (yep…it is) and as such, I listed it in two sub-sub-genres: Historical fantasy and Time Travel Romance (didn’t know there was a Time Travel Romance sub-sub-genre, did you?) Well, this morning, due to the free copies that people have downloaded, Unraveling Time is in the Top Ten for its genres. Now, I grant you, those are rather specific sub-sub-genres, but here’s the thing. At Amazon, there are people who subscribe to the RSS feed of top sellers in those genres. There is even an RSS feed for top free books in those genres. And that, my friends, is targeting your demographic.
Of course, it’s a free promotion, and I’m not making a dime off it, but as folks in another business say: The first taste is free.
Already, I’ve had emails from people thanking me for the free book, telling me that they’ve started reading it already and are enjoying it, and one email from a brand-new reader just to tell me that she really loved a line from the book (“…and the sand
beneath him that smelled of ancient anger.”)
I can’t tell you how big my grin was when I read that.
So, if you some friend or colleague or even just a blogger like me says, Here’s a book for free, go get it. Even if you don’t read it, you’ll help that person’s book reach new readers and that is, essentially, what most of us are striving for.
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Posted in Books, Writing | Tagged amazon, book promotions, creative writing, ebooks, free books, Kindle, novel writing, novels, publishing, self-publishing, writing techniques, writing tips | Leave a Comment »
It’s out there. For free. Go get one!
Unraveling Time is free through Tuesday!
What are you waiting for?
While you’re doing that, I’m going to write up a review of the book I finished yesterday.
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Posted in Books, Writing | Tagged amazon, book promotion, creative writing, ebooks, free books, Kindle, novels, publishing, Unraveling Time, Writing | 1 Comment »
Attention, biblio-nauts! I’m kicking off a promotion for one of my recent novels.
Starting tomorrow (Friday, April 5), you can get a free copy of Unraveling Time for your Kindle-reader.
No gimmicks. No strings. From April 5 through April 9, this book is entirely free. Go, get it, and keep it forever. It is literally yours for the taking!
(Remember, you can read Kindle books on your PC, your Mac, your iPad, your iPhone, your Android phone or tablet…anywhere!)
Still not sure? Read an excerpt of the book right here on this blog! What can you lose (except a weekend spent with a good book)?
Want to know more? Want to know what it’s about? Continue Reading »
Posted in Books, Writing | Tagged book giveaway, book promotion, books, e-readers, ebooks, free book, Kindle, novels, publishing, self-publishing, Time travel, time travel adventure, time travel romance, Unraveling Time, Writing | Leave a Comment »
There are some things I cannot do and will never be able to do. I will execute a perfect entrechat huit. I will never date Morena Baccarin. I will never be the conductor of a world-famous symphonic orchestra. I will never eat balut. The items on this list are there due to my physical limitations, my not having enough talent or time to achieve the goal, or my strong desire to not ever do such a stupid thing. (You can figure out which goes with which.)
There are other things I cannot do and should be able to do. These are things that are not beyond my physical capabilities or mental acumen. These are things I want to do but simply, at this point in time, cannot.
Like cooking the perfect hard-boiled egg. Continue Reading »
Posted in Writing | Tagged blogging, books, cooking, creative writing, hard boiled egg, novel writing, perfect hard boiled egg, Writing, writing techniques, writing tips | 2 Comments »
I watch a lot of British television–a lot for an American, that is–and not just on BBC America. I watch Masterpiece Theater, I subscribe to Acorn TV, and I even buy DVDs direct from the UK so I can see some shows not available any other way (“New Tricks” is a good example). But there’s one thing I hate about British television series: They’re too damned short.
Now that my beloved “Ripper Street” has completed its stingy 8-episode Season One, I was jonesing for a new series. I saw the ads for the new show called “Orphan Black,” but to be honest, I wasn’t going to watch. Then an advert for the opening 3-minutes popped up on my Facebook feed and I thought, why not?
In the first minutes, we meet Sara (Tatiana Maslany) at a train station somewhere near New York City. She’s a Brit, and she has serious problems. But whatever she’s up against, it’s nothing compared to the what’s bothering that woman over there, crying at the end of the train platform. Sara goes over to the woman, and discovers that the woman looks just like her…right before the woman steps in front of the oncoming train. Sara, distraught, has a moment of panic, then a moment of clarity; she grabs the dead woman’s purse and flees the scene.
That’s the three-minute setup, and it was pretty good. Good enough, in fact, to get me to plunk it on the DVR and watch the whole episode.
Is it as good as “Ripper Street”? No. Is it better than most things on American network television? Yes.
Posted in Culture, Television | Tagged BBC America, british television, orphan black, reviews, Ripper Street, television | 4 Comments »
It’s one of those things I dreaded. A reader of the Fallen Cloud Saga has asked me what species of dinosaurs I used in the series. Don’t get me wrong, it’s terrific that readers want this kind of detail and “behind the scenes” info, and I’m more than happy to provide it, but I know this will only give ammunition to Paleozoic anoraks to shoot holes in my world-building techniques. The row that ensued over my leaving Quebec under French control was epic. I can only imagine what will happen with this.
But, rather than just a cold list of species, I’ll give a little of my thinking to the scenario as well.
Posted in Books, Fallen Cloud Saga, Writing | Tagged amazon, ankylosaur, Beneath a Wounded Sky, creative writing, dinosaur, ebooks, Fallen Cloud Saga, FC:V, novel writing, novels, parasaurolophus, plesiosaur, pterosaur, self-publishing, T-Rex, Writing | 2 Comments »
Kurt R.A. Giambastiani 