Tracy Cooper-Posey's Blog, page 12
May 6, 2023
Two more books shifting to full retail next Saturday
My two contemporary romances, An Inconvenient Lover and Lucifer’s Lover, are both moving from $3.99 to $4.99 USD next Saturday.
This is part of the process of shifting a lot of book prices that haven’t been raised in years.
It would be too inconvenient to like him.
When Anastasia’s fiancé’s best friend, David, returns to Seattle after years of living overseas, her nice, stable, orderly life is turned upside down. In denial about her own nature and the truth about her parents’ notorious and flamboyant marriage, Anastasia shuts down her attraction toward David.
Even though digging up her family history will cause pain, David is determined to coax Anastasia’s true nature out of dormancy. If Anastasia reverts to her real character, marriage to Hugh will become impossible and David’s best friend will be hurt. Yet if David doesn’t succeed in setting Anastasia’s soul free, he will lose his own chance at winning her heart.
Winner of the Romance Writers of Australia’s Emma Darcy Award.
Can you love the one you hate?Lindsay is determined to outshine her mother’s illustrious career. As head of marketing for the exclusive Freeman Hotel, in the rarefied mountains of northern Washington, Lindsay grapples with her rival, the charming newcomer, Lucifer Furey Pierse.
No one knows much about Luke except he could turn murder into a comedy routine, that he likes classy women and is oddly drawn to the prickly, definitely not-interested Lindsay.
It starts with a bet that goes horribly wrong. If Lyndsay wins, then Luke leaves town—forever. If Luke wins, he gets a date with Lyndsay. But when Luke wins and Lindsay is forced to pay the price, she learns more about Lucifer Furey Pierse than she thought existed. The date kick-starts a bitter-sweet journey as they learn why they are the people they have become.
Then life hands them an unexpected twist they must deal with…one that tests both of them to limits.
If you haven’t already picked the books up, and you’ve never bought books from Stories Rule Press (which is my store), you can find a 10% off coupon on the front page for your first purchase.
Or you can use your Reward Points from earlier purchases to get the books at a discount.
There are links to the retail stores on the SRP pages, if you prefer to shop there, too.
Buy An Inconvenient Lover from Me @ SRP!
Buy Lucifer’s Lover from Me @ SRP!
Enjoy.
May 4, 2023
Other Places to Find Good Books: Ask an AI
This is an informal series. Part 1. Part 2.
….
Asking an AI is a source of good book recommendations that wasn’t possible even a year ago. There are a ton of GPT-style AIs out there, including Microsoft’s Bing, and of course, Chat GPT itself.
The AIs are good at recommending similar books to something you’ve liked. And, they’ll only get better at it.
I tried it out to see how it worked, and actually got a recommendation that I went off and looked up…and bought it.
I originally asked Chat GPT to recommend a book similar to Mary Stewart’s The Crystal Cave (just one of my favourite books of all time, ever. It’s the story of Merlin, from early childhood onwards, and it’s brilliant).
Chat GPT said:
Although I’ve already read The Mists of Avalon and I’m not a Marion Zimmer Bradley fan, I was impressed that the AI not only gave a title recommendation, but explained why it was a good match.
So I expanded on my request:
I’ve read that one. I quite liked it. I also liked Catherine Christian’s “The Pendragon” very much. Is there a book like these?
And the response:
If you enjoyed “The Mists of Avalon” and “The Pendragon,” you might enjoy “The Firebrand” by Marion Zimmer Bradley. Like those two books, “The Firebrand” is a historical fiction novel that retells a classic legend from a new perspective. In this case, it’s the story of the Trojan War, told from the perspective of Kassandra, a priestess of Apollo who is cursed with the gift of prophecy. The novel explores themes of women’s roles in ancient Greek society, the nature of prophecy and destiny, and the human cost of war.
Another book you might enjoy is “The Winter Prince” by Elizabeth Wein. Like “The Crystal Cave” and “The Pendragon,” “The Winter Prince” is a retelling of the Arthurian legend, but with a darker, more complex tone. The story is told from the perspective of Mordred, Arthur’s illegitimate son, who is often portrayed as a villain in Arthurian legend. In this book, Mordred is a sympathetic character, struggling to come to terms with his father’s legacy and his own place in the world. The novel also explores themes of power, loyalty, and the price of ambition.
I immediately went off and checked out The Winter Prince. Darker sounds good to me!
There was a second reason for dashing off to research, too. Chat GPT and the other LLM (Large Language Machine) AIs aren’t above giving you completely fabricated “facts”.
I was inspired by another author asking Chat GPT what the book world was saying about her, and tried it myself. What I got back was correct for the first 50 or so words, because it was paraphrasing my bio. But then Chat GPT told me that Tracy Cooper-Posey also wrote under the name of an author I’d never heard of. I checked out the author. They exist, and they write gay erotica (and no, it wasn’t Chuck Tingle…but that would have made my day!). I’ve no idea why Chat GPT thought there was a connection!
Chat GPT went on to tell me about awards I’d won (I didn’t) and other accolades that were more fantastical than the novels I write.
As AIs learn, this tendency to make things up when being asked for factual information will diminish. Just be aware that the book recommendations you get might be as fictional as the books you want to read.
But if you get a really good recommendation that is completely made up, forward it to me. Maybe I’ll be intrigued enough to write it!
—
My next step, had I continued the conversation with Chat GPT, would have been to ask it for recommendations that were not Marion Zimmer Bradley. But I got very neatly diverted by the recommendation of an Arthurian book I hadn’t heard of!
Try asking an AI for a recommendation the next time you want a great read. You might be pleasantly surprised, too.
May 2, 2023
Only a Few More Days Left for this One Time Deal
The Tenth Anniversary Limited Editions of the Kiss Across Time series will only be available for a few more days. Once the Kickstarter campaign closes on May 9th, the editions will not be made available on any bookstores, or on my site at SRP.
So far the project has overfunded by more than 200%. Thank you to everyone who has pledged to back the project so far!
Check out the limited editions here — they’re really very pretty, and include the essays at the front, which the commercial releases do not have.
Here’s one of the interior pages:
This is for the print edition. The ebook will not look exactly like that (most ereaders can’t handle drop caps very well at all, for example).
You’ll find the Kiss Across Time Tenth Anniversary Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/storiesrulepress/kiss-across-time-10th-anniversary-exclusive-special-editions
Cheers,
April 29, 2023
Paranormal romance books heading back to full retail pricing soon
Following up from my post of a couple of weeks ago, this week’s batch of books to head back to full retail is everything in the MMF vampire urban fantasy Blood Stone series.
SERIES OVERVIEW
Nathaniel (Nial) Aquila Valerius Aurelius is over 1,500 years old and a master manipulator of people, hearts and emotions, but he has grown tired of hiding behind masks and he knows the modern world will soon force vampires out of hiding if they do not step out into the light themselves.
But there are those that oppose Nial and his liberators’ plans to expose vampires to the world, including the powerful Pro Libertatus, who hide among the powerful of the human world; politicians, military leaders, powerful businessmen and entrepreneurs with enormous resources and manpower to call on to bring Nial and the liberators to heel.
Then there is the League for Humanity, who are anything but humane. They consider humans the underdogs, mere servants to their vampire overlords and useful cannon fodder. They hide in shadows while humans do their very dirty work, as they try to bring the liberators back into line. They have no intention of becoming the equal of humans in any respect.
It would be a tough challenge with just those opponents, but Nial and his friends face more and more difficult foes as time goes on: The Unspoken Ones — vampires so old they have regressed to ways of thought and speech that modern humans and younger vampires can barely comprehend, but they wield powers unmatched by anyone on the planet.
Then there is the Blood Stone itself.
Is it myth, or real?
If it is real, it has the power to change the world as we know it.
Who finds it, who wields it and who breaks it, will decide the fate of humans and vampires, both.
—
The prices for these books are currently 50% off retail. They will return to retail prices on all retail stores, everywhere, next Saturday.
In the meantime, you can pick up a copy of the series from my store at Stories Rule Press, or the retail stores.
Buy your books from me here:
The Blood Stone Series:
1.0: Blood Knot (#1 Amazon Best Seller, Fantasy Romance. Also, it’s free.)
1.5: Amor Meus (Blood Drops Collection)*
2.0: Blood Stone
3.0: Blood Unleashed
4.0: Blood Revealed
5.0: Blood Ascendant
5.5: Flesh + Blood
BIG TIP: This morning I announced the start of the monthly 20% off sale. These books are not excluded from that sale, so if you buy from Stories Rule Press, you can get a further 20% off the already discounted price.
Enjoy.
This month’s 20% Off Sale is On
It’s two days before the month ends, which means it’s the start of the Stories Rule Press monthly 20% off sale.
The sale runs for 4 days each month — the last two days and the first two days of the next month.
The coupon code will apply to your total SRP basket. You can include boxed sets, anthologies, whole series, even books already on sale. You can also use the code for pre-orders and new releases.
You can reuse the coupon code as many times as you want during the four days. You can also give the coupon to reader friends.
The coupon code won’t work on any other retail site, or for books that aren’t directly available on Stories Rule Press.
Here’s this month’s code: FYMPYXX9
You can start your browsing here: https://storiesrulepress.com/shop/. On that page you can sort by various categories and genres.
Enjoy!
Tracy
April 27, 2023
Other Places to Find Good Books: Barnes & Noble, Google, Apple Books
A few weeks ago, I did a post about finding good books on Kobo, and the benefits of being willing and able to buy from multiple sources, instead of just one bookstore (usually, the Big River).
Today, I’ll round up the other “big” retailers: Barnes & Noble, Google, and Apple Books.
Barnes & NobleBarnes & Noble is an insular bookstore. That is, it really only caters to United States readers, probably as a result of being a secondary off-shoot of the Barnes & Noble brick & mortar bookstores that are only in the USA.
The online store doesn’t specifically forbid non-USA residents from buying from the store, and it does have a nice, clean interface, However, it only shows USD currency when you’re there, so you’ll have to mentally convert to your local currency.
When B&N.com first started, it wouldn’t allow indie authors outside the US to publish their books there, which sharply limited the range of books on offer.
However, that restriction was lifted several years ago. I distribute my books there, but it’s possible that the old restriction, even though lifted, may have resulted in books still not being available on B&N that might otherwise have been, had the restriction not been in place.
Science fiction seems to do very well on B&N, and romance, as usual, has a firm foothold.
B&N also offer lots of in house discounts and special promotions, so watching their sales is a good idea. Most promos are advertised on their front page.
Other promotions and deals are advertised via their free newsletter.
I’ve participated in a number of these deals and the response is always very strong, which I take to mean that there are a lot of readers who shop on B&N and take advantage of the deals and discounts.
GoogleGoogle Play Books sells audio books and ebooks. And they’re also venturing into AI narrated audiobooks that are ridiculously cheap in comparison to the traditional audiobooks.
I like Google Books. The store’s strength is that it is built upon the world’s most popular search engine, so finding books you want to read isn’t as headache-inducing as searching for books on the store I won’t name.
From the back end, Google is a doddle for authors to deal with, which makes it super friendly and easy to upload to, which encourages indies to climb aboard.
Google doesn’t do sales and deals like Kobo and Barnes & Noble do, but what it does have in its favour is a seamless integration with the Google Play Books ereading software.
As Google’s ereader comes pre-installed on all Android devices, the store draws a lot of readers by default, most of them PC oriented…but not all of them.
It might surprise you to know that there is a Google Play eReader for ISO, too. You can find it here.
I use this ereader myself, and love the way it synchronizes without issue across all my devices, including my laptop and desktop (via the web-based ereader), where I can read and mark up non-fiction books I’m studying with ease.
And I love the annotated notes that the Google ereader saves on my Google drive. No exporting needed. They just sit there until I need them.
Google used to have an issue with pricing. They used a discount system, where they would automatically (without warning or notice) discount books from the price authors listed them at. This got a lot of authors in trouble with Amazon, who price matches. Authors were forced to artificially raise their prices on Google Play, so that when Google discounted, it wasn’t lower than the price at Amazon. It caused a lot of confusion for authors, who found it easier to ignore Google Books altogether.
Google Play Books has since moved to agency pricing (where the publisher controls the price), but you may still find that some of the titles on Google Play are artificially high. It pays to comparison shop on the price.
My romances and fantasy novels do very well on Google, which tells me those two genres are well represented and liked by the customers there.
Apple BooksI don’t feel qualified to talk about Apple Books as a customer, as I’m 100% PC oriented, and you can only access and buy books on the Apple Books store with an apple device. This is a shame, I think, for Apple is automatically cutting off a huge swathe of potential customers.
I can tell you that for the longest time, Apple wouldn’t allow authors to publish books on their store unless they used an IOS device, which prevented a huge number of great books from appearing there.
This has now changed, but the selection of books at Apple may still be limited because of this awkward heritage.
If you shop at Apple because you use Apple devices, you might find your reading selection expands enormously if you browse elsewhere, too.
Apple do offer in-house deals and discounts, but their criteria for participating in them are stringent (e.g., minimum number of reviews, etc), so that many books cannot be included.
It pays to browse and click through on related titles, author names, etc., to find books buried in their system.
——-
I’ll continue this series of where you can find great books in the near future.
April 24, 2023
We funded! Thank you!
The Kiss Across Time Tenth Anniversary Limited Edition Kickstarter Campaign funded in a breath-robbing 9 hours. Thank you to everyone who backed the project!
It is still going, by the way. Reaching our funding goal means merely that the project will go ahead now no matter how many backers choose to support it.
This Kickstarter campaign is the one and only opportunity anyone will have to acquire the Tenth Anniversary Limited Editions of the series to date. Once the project closes down, the books will not be later released on the retail stores, or even our site. They can only be purchased via the Kickstarter campaign.
To get a look at the Tenth Anniversary Edition for Kiss Across Time, including the interiors of the print editions, head over to here and scroll through the Story.
Cheers,
April 23, 2023
Free Time Travel Romance
I don’t normally like to post on Sundays, if I can help it. Day of rest, and all that….
But BookBub are featuring Kiss Across Blades today, as a free giveaway, which means the book is free on all stores everywhere, including Stories Rule Press. The deal lasts only for a week.
I thought it only fare to let you know, especially if you aren’t subscribed to BookBub, or don’t have Time Travel romances in your preferred categories.
The cost of saving his children is too high…Since learning that time travel is real, Remi de Sauveterre has yearned to jump back two hundred years to revolutionary France to rescue his children the night they died. Only, the odds of creating a time paradox which will destroy everyone’s future are huge.
London would give Remi his heart’s desire if she only had the courage to attempt the dangerous jump back into his past, for she loves him and knows that refusing him will push him away from her and Neven.
Then she and Neven come across an alternative world where their son does not exist and, suddenly, the idea of risking everything to save their family seems worth it. Only, time travel always goes wrong…
Reader Advisory: This time travel ménage romance story features two super-hot alpha vampire heroes and sex scenes, including anal sex and MM sexual play. Do not read this book if frank sexual language and sex scenes offend you. The time-space continuum was restored to order at the end of this book. Promise.
This book is part of the paranormal time travel Kiss Across Time series:
1.0: Kiss Across Time
2.0: Kiss Across Swords
2.5: Time Kissed Moments*
3.0: Kiss Across Chains
3.5: Kiss Across Time Box One
4.0: Kiss Across Deserts
5.0: Kiss Across Kingdoms
5.1: Time And Tyra Again*
6.0: Kiss Across Seas
6.5: Kiss Across Time Box Two
7.0: Kiss Across Worlds
7.1: Time And Remembrance*
8.0: Kiss Across Tomorrow
8.1: More Time Kissed Moments*
9.0: Kiss Across Blades
10.0: Kiss Across Chaos
11.0: Kiss Across the Universe
11.1: Even More Time Kissed Moments*
12.0: Kiss Across Forever
[*Time Kissed Moments are short stories, novellas and collections featuring the characters and situations featured in the Kiss Across Time series.]
The series has ongoing storylines and characters. Reading the books in order is recommended.
Buy your copy of Kiss Across Blades here!
Happy Sunday!
April 22, 2023
More Romantic Suspense heading back to Retail Pricing
Today’s last chance pricing is for my two Sherlock Holmes novels.
Chronicles of the Lost Years and The Case of the Reluctant Agent will both return to $4.99 next Saturday the 29th, on all retailers everywhere, including my store at Stories Rule Press.
The boxed set remains at the current price.
Buy Chronicles of the Lost Years.
Buy The Case of the Reluctant Agent.
Buy both with Sherlock Boxed In!
Enjoy.
April 20, 2023
Because You Haven’t Got Enough To Do….
Rubik’s Cube became super popular when I was in high school and I drove my parents crazy for weeks until they bought me one. It seemed like everyone in school was carrying one around, trying to solve them.
My brother, who was mentally disabled, proved he wasn’t that challenged when he creatively peeled off all the stickers on his cube and put them back so that the cube was “solved”.
One of the girls at school was a freak. She could solve her cube without looking at it. She drove us all crazy by carrying on a full conversation while her hands manipulated the cube.
I wanted to be like that. I could probably get to a point where solving the cube was doable, but I’d have to spend time learning how to solve the thing, and there’s just too many calls on my time.
Several years ago, I came across this on-line Rubik’s Cube puzzle and bookmarked it, because in the back of my mind, in my infinite spare time, I would learn how to solve the Cube once and for all.
It never happened.
So I thought I’d pass it on to you guys, for the geeks and nerds at heart to play with.
Enjoy!
