Stacey Voss's Blog, page 3

Working with an Author Website

From Author Marketing Experts:

In a world where social media follows us wherever we go, having a website may seem like an unnecessary step in your marketing. However, I’d urge you to reconsider. Why? We may live in a world consumed with social media, but social media sites change all the time. Having the stability of a website is the single most significant thing we can do for our business, product, or book. And today, there are a number of ways for you to build a great-looking site for free. If that seems to be too good to be true, it is.

What you cannot gain from those free services is an understanding of how to make your site effective, as well as attractive.

Below, I’ve outlined important things to keep in mind for those of you who are looking to build a site, and for those of you who think you site may need a tune up. At the heart of every website must be the marketing principles that include well-defined goals, a mission, and an understanding of the principles that go into creating something that isn’t about you, but about your end user.

Read more . . .

Feeling Rusty

I initially wrote Thunder and Blood in 2007. It took me two years to get the editing and everything else done, but it was published in April 2009. I took it off the shelves again about a year and a half later because I had decided to start a publishing company, and you can’t justify spending time promoting your own work when your job is to promote your authors.

Earlier this year, I had a few health issues, and I’ve had to give up the publishing company. At the same time, my hands–always a chronic pain issues–deteriorated dramatically to the point where I now do my writing and texting via dictation. I’ve discovered that my tablet is a wonderful tool that requires much less of my hands than a keyboard and mouse, so I’m slowly starting to move my daily work and writing over there.

This weekend, I finally reintroduced Thunder and Blood, starting with my own local market. The first day was super hard. I’m not used to promoting myself. In fact, it makes me feel distinctly uncomfortable. I had no issue convincing people to vote on a new cover for Thunder and Blood, but I seemed to get stuck before actually convincing anyone to buy the book. Yes, on Saturday I sold a single copy of my book.

It was incredibly discouraging. I went home, had a glass of wine, went to watch the Parade of Lights with my husband and son, took a bath and went to bed. I knew that I should have been looking at my approach and finding a better way of selling books, but I was too discouraged to even think about it.

The next morning, I kicked myself into gear and went on a search for my file of book reviews for Thunder and Blood. It took me over an hour to find the file, tucked behind a whole bunch of old tax documents. I know where all of the materials are for my authors, but myself? Nope.

However, despite the fact that I was mostly looking for the review in the Chronicle Journal, titled Good Book, Bad Cover, I found all of them. Looking through them reminded me of why people liked my book, and that people really had loved my book. I took a mental step back and looked at the situation. It was kind of foolish for me to take T&B off the shelves altogether. Any momentum it had gained fell away and it became an out-of-site, out-of-mind sort of situation. I couldn’t show up at a Gift Fair and expect people to jump all over a book that hadn’t been talked about for five years.

I’m still rusty at promoting myself, but I’m trying and I must be getting better, because I quadrupled my sales the next day–not anywhere near what I’d been hoping for the event, but anything was better than the day before. The highlight of my day came right after the doors opened and an older woman came over to me and told me how much she loved my book. She had purchased it when it was first released. It happened again later on, and a woman who had been given my book recently by a co-worker came over to tell me how much she enjoyed it.

It gave me a small taste of what that old momentum felt like. Maybe I’m not starting from the ground floor after all. Maybe I’m halfway up to the first floor. There are many floors ahead of me and I’m so excited for the journey.

Don’t forget to vote! Polls close at midnight December 31st!

Vote on our poll!

Preview Madness and Blood

***Please note that this is an unedited preview. Changes will be made both to story points and grammar prior to publication***

 

Chapter One

Sarah stood at the window of the gorgeous bedroom and gazed out at the slowly rising sun as it ascended from behind the Sleeping Giant. She found it hard to believe that only a week or so ago she had been watching practically the same scene from the comfort of her sister’s apartment. Their lives had changed so dramatically since then that she’d hardly had enough time to catch her breath. When she had awoken yesterday morning, she’d been human–now she was something more.

All she remembered of the time before her transformation was watching her friend Hillard battle with Lord Radek, the insane ruler of the small village of Donner. Things had been going badly for Hillard and she was about to try to help him–however futile that attempt might have been–when she had felt a sudden painful burning sensation in her neck. After that, she remembered nothing until she opened her eyes to see Hillard looking down at her in undisguised relief. It was then that she first felt the craving. It was a strange sensation–a dryness that started deep within her soul, rapidly creeping outward to fill her entire being. It had felt as if she hadn’t had a drop of water in days and had spent the last few weeks clawing her way through a vast, dry desert. It was at that point that she remembered Hillard lifting her into his arms and racing with his supernatural speed into the forest.

Sarah was startled out of her reverie by a knock at the door, followed a few seconds later by her sister, Christine, entering the room. Christine looked stunning in a green satin gown, whose colour appeared almost drab when compared to her phenomenal emerald eyes. Her blond curls haloed her face and she looked like an angel.

“Hey, whatcha doing? Are you tired?” she asked, appraising Sarah with a measured glance.

“Surprisingly not,” Sarah replied, “or maybe not so surprising. I’m not sure what to expect now. I wish Hillard were around so I could ask him exactly what I should be doing.”

Christine looked distracted for a moment. “I think he just needed some time alone,” she finally replied. “We’ve all had a rough time the last couple of days, especially Hillard. And remember, Hillard is used to being alone.”

Christine was right. Hillard had been alone when Sarah had first met him. He had come to her rescue when she had been left isolated and terribly worried about Christine, who had disappeared. He had stayed by her side almost constantly since then, first helping to rescue her sister, then coming to the aid of the entire village by helping to rid them of the insane Lord Radek. After taking Sarah out to the woods to help her quench that overwhelming initial thirst, however, he had returned to the forest alone without a word of explanation. Sarah was surprised to feel a vast sense of emptiness inside her at his disappearance. She wondered if it was due to her new physical state or just because of his simple absence from their newly blossoming relationship. They had shared a few special moments over the last few days and Sarah knew that he’d been starting to develop some strong feelings for her. She also knew that he was keeping her at arm’s length because he felt that he shouldn’t become involved with a human, but now she was a vampire too. Sarah hoped that he just needed some time to absorb everything that had happened over the last few days. Besides having changed her into a vampire to save her life in a moment of desperation, Hillard had also lost his closest friend, Adalaide, during the battle with Lord Radek.

Finally, Sarah sighed and said, “So, what’s up? I take it you’re not tired either. You wanna go out and test these new vampiric powers of ours?” She finally grinned at the entertaining idea of trying out the limits of her new body.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Christine said carefully. “The sun’s up, and while I know it won’t kill us, I think we should wait until Hillard’s home and we have a chance to talk to him before we start testing the validity of all those old vampire myths.”

“Home, huh? I guess you’re really settling into this whole Lady of the Manor thing.” Sarah was still a little awed by the fact that her sister was now the local ruler. It was just a small village, but it still wasn’t what she would have ever expected from her baby sister.

The Vampire Council, sending their wishes to Hillard telepathically, had decided that Christine would be allowed to live, despite having been turned into a vampire without their consent by the insane Lord Radek. In a further surprising development, the council had also decreed that Christine would rule in Radek’s place, having proven herself capable of both rational thought and compassion toward others. In essence, the large ornate castle in which they now found themselves belonged to her, and the hundreds of villagers that lived below and at the bottom of the hill owed their fealty to her baby sister.

Christine snorted at Sarah’s reference to her new status. “Hey, it’s essentially half yours too. Ruling a village is a lot different than running a classroom,” she said in reference to her former life as a grade school teacher. “I’m going to need lots of help.”

Sarah didn’t remind Christine that they didn’t really know how secure her own future was at the moment. After all, Hillard had changed Sarah without the permission of the Vampire Council, for which the punishment was death for both the creator and created one. She had been trying not to think about that being the possible reason for Hillard’s absence. She didn’t even know if her attempt to keep her thoughts blocked off from the Vampire Council was working or not. However, that direction of thought led only to more worry and unproductive speculation, so Sarah pushed it forcibly to the back of her mind.

“So, what do you want to do?” Sarah asked, curious. She assumed that Christine must have had something in mind when she came into the room.

Christine looked conspiratorially at Sarah. “Let’s explore this place,” she said. “No one’s here. Giselle’s at home with her husband and Gervis is with his parents. There aren’t even any guards!” Christine very obviously skipped over the fact that the reason there were no guards was that Lord Radek had slaughtered them all the day before. “We have the whole place to ourselves!” she exclaimed gleefully.

Sarah had to admit that her curiosity was piqued. Having been born and raised in the small city of Thunder Bay, Canada, she had never seen a real castle before this one, except in pictures and on TV. This was a real opportunity. She grabbed Christine’s hand and practically dragged her out the door. 

* * *

Several hours later, the girls had almost finished exploring the enormous castle. They had walked through stone hallways and peeked into numerous extravagantly decorated bedrooms. They had even trekked up a long circular stairway into a tower room. It was dusty and filled with wooden boxes and discarded junk – obviously a storage room, but Sarah was charmed by the round shape of the room and the gorgeous view from the window. From that vantage point, they could see an identical tower on the other side of the castle. Curious, the girls dashed back down the stairs and through the castle, wanting to see what treasures the other room would hold.

When they opened the door to the other tower room, however, both girls stopped in their tracks, shocked at what they found within. This space was starkly different from the other tower room. The window was bricked up in this room, and no junk or boxes littered the floor. There was even a neatly made bed sitting to one side, indicating that someone slept here, at least occasionally. What had the two girls paralyzed with astonishment, however, was the room’s lone occupant.

Sarah doubted that the poor child had ever had the opportunity to sleep in that bed. A cage was placed as far away from the bed as was possible in the tiny room. It was approximately two metres square, with thick iron bars and a thin, moth-eaten blanket lining the bottom. The child cowered in the corner of the cage, with her stringy, scraggly brown hair knotted around her head. Sarah had never seen such a pathetic creature in all her life.

The young girl stared intently through the bars at Sarah and Christine, making small mewling sounds in the back of her throat. Despite the lack of a window, the room was cold and Sarah wondered how the child didn’t freeze to death, given her nakedness.

Sarah was just starting to wonder how on earth this child had come to be in this room, when the truth hit her like a brick wall. This was just another one of Lord Radek’s atrocities. She wondered if he had slept in this room and kept the child around for a ‘midnight snack’ or if he had just sadistically enjoyed inflicting such horrendous suffering on such a small, innocent victim.

After a moment of stunned silence that seemed to last an eternity, both women stepped forward.

“My God, Sarah,” whispered Christine in horror, “She’s practically a baby! What was he doing with her?”

“Nothing good,” replied Sarah, grimly. She knelt on the floor in front of the cage, trying to bring herself to eye-level with the child.

And what beautiful eyes she had! A stark contrast to her dirty face, her green eyes shone out of the filth. Although not the same glowing emerald green as either Sarah or Christine’s eyes, they had a delicate beauty of their own and seemed to hold a keen intelligence within.

“What’s your name, sweetie?” asked Christine, kneeling down beside Sarah. The girl just stared at the two women silently. Her gaze was slowly changing from one of fear to a more measured curiosity. She remained still.

Sarah got up and began searching throughout the room for a key to unlock the girl’s prison, which took her only a few moments. She found it easily enough under a pillow on the bed – there weren’t too many places to look in a room containing nothing but a bed and a small child in a cage. She tore the blanket off of the bed and tossed it to Christine. “She must be freezing,” she said as she strode back to the cage. It took her a moment to unlock the door – the lock seemed to be rusty and unused. The hinges creaked as the door swung open, granting freedom to its pathetic captive.

The girl paused for only a moment before dashing out of the cage and across the room, flinging herself under the bed. Sarah thought that she was hiding under there, afraid of the two women, until she heard the girl make a grunting noise and an answering squeak-squeal sound. The girl shimmied back out from under the bed, and then sat up on the floor holding her prize, a large rat, in front of her.

Sarah first naively thought that the rat was the girl’s pet, something she had watched running around the room, perhaps even played with, during her captivity. That thought was coldly proven wrong when the child raised the rat to her mouth and abruptly bit off its head. She spat the head back toward the cage and then began to suck greedily on the open wound that was oozing blood.

Horrified, Sarah and Christine both just stepped back and stared at the appalling sight. The child didn’t appear to be a vampire. Her eyes did not have the unnatural emerald sheen that thus far had indicated someone with the vampiric nature. But, if she wasn’t a vampire, what was she? And what had Lord Radek been doing with her?

 

Chapter Two

Sarah looked over at Christine and their gaze locked for just a moment before she weakly suggested, “Maybe she was just hungry…” Neither of them knew how to respond to what had just happened.

After a moment, Sarah took a deep breath, seeming to have come to some sort of decision about what to do. “Okay,” she said firmly, walking back to the cage and grabbing the blanket that she had torn off of the bed. “I’ll stay here with the child and you go downstairs and try to find some food in the kitchen. We don’t know how long she’s been here or even the last time Radek fed her. If we were back home, I’d say we should call an ambulance or bring her to the hospital. I don’t even know if they have a doctor in the village. But I think the first thing we need to do is try to feed her.”

Christine had been listening carefully and nodding at Sarah’s suggestions. In fact, she had started toward the door before Sarah had even finished speaking. She left the room, shutting the door behind her, and Sarah listened to her footsteps fade away for a moment before turning back to the child.

Sarah opened the blanket and held it out toward the child. The dirt on her face had been joined by smears of blood and she looked at Sarah warily. She looked like a wild thing and Sarah felt a moment’s hesitation before taking a few steps toward the little girl.

“It’s okay, sweetheart,” she said in her most soothing tone, “No one’s going to hurt you. Aren’t you cold?” She took another step toward the girl and was startled when she sprung up onto the bed, scrambled across it, and squeezed herself in the space between the bed and the wall, where the curved wall didn’t meet up properly with the bed.

It was apparent that the child was terrified and Sarah didn’t want to make things worse for her. Who knew what kind of things Lord Radek had already subjected her to?

Sarah placed the blanket onto the bed carefully, inwardly cringing as the girl made that whining/mewling noise again in the back of her throat, then took a step backward and sat down on the floor, trying to appear less threatening. She was somewhat at a loss of what to do next.

The small girl looked only briefly at the blanket before returning her intense, suspicious gaze to Sarah. It was evident that she was terrified of the woman. Footsteps sounded on the stairs and Sarah heard a quiet knock before Christine re-entered the room.

“There wasn’t much in the kitchen, but I did find some bread,” she said apologetically. As her gaze crossed to the blanket on the bed, she looked questioningly at Sarah sitting on the floor.

“She’s terrified,” Sarah said. “I don’t think she’ll take that from you. Just put it on the bed and we’ll see if she wants it.”

Christine approached the bed and Sarah could see the girl’s body tense up even more than before, but Christine stopped just within arm’s reach of the bed and rolled the small loaf across the mattress toward the girl.

At first the girl drew back from the offered food, and then her eyes narrowed suspiciously at the piece of bread. Her hand reached out tentatively, grabbed the piece of bread and held it up to her nose. Then she grunted and flung the loaf across the room where it tumbled to a stop beside the head of the dead rat.

“Okayyy …” Sarah said slowly, “I guess that answers that question. Or at least she’s not a big fan of bread. I think one of us should go and find a doctor.”

Christine appeared to think for a moment before she spoke. “I think it’s better if you go. I’m not sure how many people know that I drank from Gervis. They might not want to talk to me.”

Sarah sighed. “They might not want to talk to me either. It’s not like I can hide my eyes or anything, but maybe I’ll see Conrad or Giselle around the village and can ask them.”

Giselle Smith had no reason to dislike Sarah, except for the obvious, vampiric reason, but she definitely didn’t like Christine. When Christine had first been turned into a vampire by Lord Radek, she had nearly drained Gervis of blood to the point of death. Giselle had seen that as the worst in a growing number of things that Christine had been doing to cause trouble for Gervis, of whom she thought of as a son. Her husband, Conrad, was a blacksmith in the village and had no reason to dislike either of the girls.

  * * *

Sarah went quickly down the stairs, through the passages in the castle and out the front door to the main courtyard where the big battle had taken place the day before. As she passed through the main gate, her eyes were unavoidably drawn to the large blood stain that had soaked into the ground near the entrance.

That was her blood. It was in that exact spot that she had nearly died the day before. It seemed so unreal to her now. She turned back and looked toward the other stain that marred the lovely courtyard. That was Adalaide’s blood. She hadn’t known Adalaide for long, but the woman had nursed Sarah back to health when she was deathly ill. Sarah felt her throat contract with grief and pulled her gaze away from the ground and forced it back toward the outside of the gate, toward the mission at hand.

Sarah had seen very little of the village thus far. She had observed the immediate layout from Christine’s bedroom window, but didn’t know which house belonged to Giselle and Conrad, or even how to begin looking for them. She took a deep breath and took her first steps out of the castle walls.

There was a pathway leading down the hillside toward the lake and Sarah slowly started to walk down it. She heard a rustling in the bushes and a young man burst through into the path in front of her and she gasped in surprise. For his part, the young man stopped and just stared at her for a moment. Sarah didn’t know what to say.

“Is it true?” the boy asked finally. “Is Lord Radek dead? Are you here to take his place?” Rather than sounding relieved, the lad sounded afraid.

“He is,” Sarah replied. “He won’t hurt you or your people anymore.”

The boy jerked back as if in surprise. Then his eyebrows drew together and he looked searchingly into Sarah’s face. “And you,” he queried, “you’re like him?”

Sarah could understand his fear. She couldn’t imagine how terrible it would have been to have grown up under Lord Radek’s rule. She had been emotionally scarred growing up in her own emotionally abusive home, but to have lived under someone who took pleasure in terrorizing his subjects and brutalizing those who opposed him had to have been worse.

“I’m not at all like him,” she began, but hesitated as she saw his look of disbelief in his eyes, “well, I am a vampire now, but I wasn’t yesterday. Yesterday I was just like you, living in fear of Lord Radek and what he might do to the people I love. Today I still have fear, but it’s more a fear of the unknown. I think the people of Donner will be happier now.” She paused for a moment, thinking, then continued, “Do you know Hillard?”

The young man nodded carefully.

“Well me, my sister, and Hillard are going to change things around here. If you know Hillard, you know that not all vampires are like Lord Radek–my sister and I certainly aren’t!”

With the mention of her sister, Sarah was quickly brought back to her original reason for leaving the castle. “Oh, that reminds me,” she started, “is there a doctor in the village? There’s a little girl at the castle who seems … well, I’m not sure if ill is the right word. I don’t know how to help her and Hillard is gone …” Sarah’s voice trailed off as she was reminded again of Hillard’s abrupt absence.

The young man didn’t seem to notice her distraction and he stared at her for a moment more before motioning his head down the path. “I’ll take you to the doctor,” he said and started walking down the well-worn trail. Sarah rushed to catch up, or started to, until she realized how much faster she was than the boy.

“My name’s Sarah,” she said brightly, trying to engage the young man in further conversation.

“I’m Anton,” he answered, turning his blond head toward her and meeting her emerald eyes with his own blue orbs. “My parents are the millers down by the big river. I just came into town to see if everyone was okay. We got word yesterday morning to hide because Lord Radek was killing people in Donner.”

“Hillard said that most of the villagers were missing from the group that Radek had gathered up in the castle courtyard. I’m really glad to hear that was true because they were hiding, rather than because he had already gotten to them. Have you heard how many people he actually killed?”

Anton paused. “We’re not sure. All of the guards were killed, including three of my cousins. I heard that there were more, some villagers, but not how many or who. I’m sure the doctor will know.” He continued down the path, Sarah following right behind.

As she walked, Sarah looked around her at the forest lining the path. She was surprised to notice that her vision had improved; she used to have a little bit of near-sightedness, but now she could see, not only the individual leaves on the trees, but also the bugs nibbling on the leaves. The colours of fall were incredibly vibrant and Sarah spent the next few minutes gazing at the gorgeous surroundings as they walked.

* * *

Anton remained silent and led Sarah through the beginning of the village. They passed several small buildings that Sarah judged to be houses and one larger building that smelled faintly of fresh baked bread. Anton noticed her glance. “That’s the bakery.”

They passed a well, the grey stone crumbling slightly around the outside, but it looked to still be in use. The well was positioned in the centre of a larger clearing that was outlined by various buildings and Sarah paused for a moment to look around her. Six buildings encircled the rounded clearing and she tried to make out what they were. Just to the left of the path leading to the castle was the bakery, and next to it looked to be a seamstress or tailor of some sort, judging from the clothing hanging out front. Next to that was a smithy, which Sarah only recognized from seeing a blacksmith at Old Fort William, which was a historical tourist attraction just outside of her hometown of Thunder Bay.

Donner, the town she was in now, was actually located in the same spot as Thunder Bay in this dimension. In fact, she had learned from Hillard that Donner was the word for thunder in German. Before Hillard had transformed her into a vampire, Sarah had spent almost a week of confusion trying to wrap her mind around the fact that she and her sister had passed through some sort of trans-dimensional gateway in the form of a paranormally thick fog. She was still reeling from the realization that she would never be able to return to her own world. Having her body changed in such a drastic way didn’t make things any easier.

Sarah was jolted from her thoughts as she realized that Anton had stopped in front of a building at the back end of the clearing.

“This is the Doctor’s place,” he said and turned to stride toward the Smithy.

Sarah stood in front of the building for a moment. There was a sign at the front of the building that read Arzt, Doctor, Docteur. She assumed that they all meant Doctor in different languages. She opened the door and entered quickly. She had barely crossed the threshold, however, when Sarah felt her pulse quicken and her thirst return so immediately and violently that she could barely control herself.

 

Chapter Three

Christine stared at the door for a moment after Sarah left. She wasn’t sure what to do with the young girl now. Obviously she was afraid of people and Christine didn’t want to make that worse for her. After a moment, she sat down on the cold stone floor of the room with her legs crossed and waited to see what the child would do.

They sat, Christine on the floor and the girl on the bed, staring at each other, unblinking, for about ten minutes, before the girl slowly climbed down off of the bed, staying as far away from Christine as humanly possible. Keeping her distance, she moved past Christine, turning her head as she continued, never taking her green eyes off the woman’s face as she backed her way into the cage. The girl pulled the door closed between her and Christine, her eyes still on the woman, the look of timid suspicion now becoming something just a bit less than a challenge.

Christine had been a grade three teacher until she and Sarah were transported to this new world, and she felt that she had a good insight into children. This behaviour indicated to her that the girl had been terribly abused, a revelation that was not surprising since it was obvious that Lord Radek had been using the girl for some awful purpose of his own.

Slowly and carefully, Christine approached the cage on her hands and knees. The girl held on to the bars and drew herself back as far into the tiny enclosure as she could. As Christine came within touching distance of the bars, however, the girl drew her arms into her chest, seemingly trying to make her body as small as humanly possible, perhaps hoping that she would vanish completely from view.

Christine sat back again, with her legs crossed in front of her, her palms placed flat on her thighs, showing that she had nothing in her hands. She tried to keep the expression on her face as complacent and sympathetic as possible, attempting to use her eyes to somehow communicate to the child that she wouldn’t harm her or threaten her in any way.

“Shhhhhhh,” she whispered in a calm, low voice, “I won’t hurt you sweetheart. It’s okay, you’re safe. You aren’t alone anymore. No one will hurt you.” Christine spoke softly and slowly, hoping that the girl could somehow take meaning from the tone and cadence of her voice, even if she couldn’t understand her.

Christine thought she saw some brief flash of understanding in the girl’s eyes. “Do you understand me, sweetie? What’s your name? I just want to help you.”

The girl narrowed her eyes at Christine. She opened her mouth slightly, almost as if she wanted to speak, but no sound came out. After a moment, Christine reached her right hand out toward the bars, trying to somehow express that she just wanted to help.

“No touch!” screamed the girl, pressing herself so tightly against the bars at the back of the cage that it seemed almost as if she were trying to push her body through the cold metal.

Christine was astonished. It was almost impossible to tell how old the girl was because her obvious state of malnutrition, but the speaking pattern of the two short words the girl had shouted sounded very much like those a toddler would utter. By her size, Christine estimated that she was somewhere between two and four years old. Her eyes, although stunning, held the deep weariness that you seldom saw in anyone so young, unless they had been terribly abused. Christine ran her eyes over the girl’s body, looking for bruises or wounds, but found no such obvious signs. Perhaps the doctor would be able to tell her more.

Christine scooted away from the cage, toward the bricked up window, figuring that providing more distance between them would let the girl relax a bit.

She had been sitting there for about ten minutes when there was a sudden knock on the door. Before Christine could react, however, the door swung open to reveal Giselle’s harried form. The flustered woman rushed into the room.

* * *

“Anton just told me you’d found her!” Giselle seemed to be so upset and anxious that she had forgotten her animosity toward Christine. “I can’t believe that I didn’t remember her. I should have come up to get her as soon as Adalaide had put an end to Radek!” Giselle knelt down on the floor in front of the cage and Christine was astonished to see the girl’s eyes widen, a brilliant smile blooming across her face as she quickly crawled out of her prison and into Giselle’s waiting arms.

“You knew she was here?” Christine asked, shocked that Giselle would allow a child to be tormented in such a way. She decided to overlook the woman’s statement that it had been Adalaide who had set Radek afire at the end, when it had really been Christine.

“As if I could stop the Master from doing what he wanted with her!” Giselle’s glaring eyes turned toward Christine. Apparently Giselle had remembered her animosity toward her. “He did what he wanted with all of us! Anyone who tried to stand against him was killed – and not gently, let me tell you! How do you think I could have stopped him from hurting this poor child?”

Christine was at a loss for words. She hadn’t really thought that Giselle had left the girl to be tortured. Despite their differences, she knew that she was a caring woman.

“I’m sorry,” she said softly. “I know he was a horrible person. Who is she? Where did she come from?”

“Her name is Brynn,” Giselle said grudgingly. “She’s been locked up here for about two years. Lord Radek killed her mother and would have killed Brynn as well, except that Gervis begged him to let her live. We rarely have fog travelers so young come through this way, and it’s always terrible to know that they would be nothing more than a food source for the Master. Of course, Gervis had no idea what he was asking. He was horrified to find out that Brynn’s fate ended up being so much worse than the quick death he had spared her from.”

“What did Radek do to her?” Christine asked, horrified.

“I don’t know for sure,” Giselle admitted, “but I have my suspicions. When she arrived here, she was a perfectly normal, beautiful two year-old. But after he brought her up here she started to change. I never saw him bring her food and she grew thinner and thinner as time passed. I was only able to sneak up here to visit her once a month, when the master would go out into the countryside to find the fog travelers.” Giselle’s voice trailed off as she remembered that Christine had been one of those fog travelers herself only a few days before.

“But she survived–how is that possible if he didn’t feed her?”

Giselle looked with sad, yet anxious eyes down at the small girl huddled in her lap. “I think he gave her his own blood,” she whispered hoarsely. “I don’t think he ever gave her enough to change her, but I think he was using her as some kind of test subject. I think he wanted to see how much he could give her without changing her.”

That revelation set Christine back on her heels. That explained Brynn’s bizarre behaviour with the rat and her reaction to the bread. If the girl had had nothing to eat for the last two years but vampire blood, who knew if she even knew what to do with real human food anymore?

“Besides getting thinner, how else did she change?”

“The main thing was her eyes. When she got here, they were a deep blue, but over time they changed to green. I’ve heard of children’s eyes changing colour during childhood, but with my suspicions about the blood the Master was giving her, the change in colour – especially to green – made me worry more about what he was doing to her. I’ve never seen anyone change before the Master did it to you, but in all of the stories I’ve heard about the Vampire Lords, I’ve never heard of a child vampire. I’m not even sure if she’s human anymore.”

Christine stared at the little girl for a few moments, lost in Giselle’s last two statements. If vampires don’t age and don’t die, then would the child remain like this forever? Brynn’s eyes weren’t quite the same as the tell-tale glowing emerald that hers and Sarah’s were now, so Christine suspected that, whatever Radek had done to this poor child, Giselle was correct in her assumption that she wasn’t a full vampire.

“Has she grown at all since she got here?” she asked Giselle.

“Oh, that’s the other change that I’ve been noticing. When she arrived, she was just a wee thing, like a small, perfect doll, but as time passed, she grew and grew. She’s quite tall for a four year-old, didn’t you notice?”

Christine hadn’t noticed, but the girl hadn’t stood up straight since they had found her, and her emaciated state had made Brynn look much tinier than she really was. Now Giselle helped the girl to stand, slowly helping her to straighten out.

Giselle had been right. Brynn was easily as tall as any of Christine’s students had been in her grade three class back home. Those children were between seven and nine years old, not four.

“CHRISTINE” a voice thundered in her head. Even though she had experienced it only once before, she recognized the communication as coming from the Vampire Council. “WE ARE SENDING AN EMISSARY TO YOU. HE WILL ASSESS THE GIRL AND DETERMINE WHAT IS TO BE DONE WITH HER. FOR NOW, FOCUS ON LEARNING WHAT YOU NEED TO RULE OVER DONNER WITH THE COMPASSION THAT THE PEOPLE DESERVE.”

With those few sentences, the communication broke off and Christine rocked back on her heels in shock that the Vampire Council had been monitoring her thoughts all of this time. Someone from the Vampire Council was coming and if they discovered Sarah’s existence, her sister would be destroyed!

 

Chapter Four

Sarah stared at the man standing in front of her. He wore a blood spattered apron over his clothes and had dark circles under his eyes, that widened as he saw Sarah. The hungry look in her glowing green orbs startled him and he took a step back.

The thirst raging in Sarah was nearly overwhelming. Her eyes were locked on his freshly blood-stained apron and she licked her lips while trying to slow her breathing. She had drunk her fill of animal blood the night before when Hillard took her into the woods, but this fresh scent, of what was obviously human blood, was so intoxicating and alluring that it took her by surprise.

The man backed away quickly, frantically pulling the apron over his head and thrusting it into the fire that was burning in the fireplace in the centre of the room. As the fabric burned, the scent dissipated and, after a few moments, Sarah’s overwhelming thirst began to slowly subside.

“I wasn’t expecting…” the man began, flustered.

“No,” Sarah finally gasped, “Not your fault. I have to learn to deal with this. I’m rather new to this whole thing.”

At her benign words, the man seemed to relax slightly. The door opened suddenly behind Sarah and Conrad entered the room, breathing hard.

Giselle’s husband looked anxiously between Sarah and the other man in the room, his dark eyes searching Sarah’s face. “Is everything okay in here?”

“Ye…yes,” answered the man, “I think so.”

“It is now,” reassured Sarah, “I was looking for the doctor.”

The man looked at Sarah in surprise. “That would be me. But you shouldn’t need a doctor, miss. Hasn’t Hillard explained things to you?”

“Somewhat,” she replied, “but my sister and I found a young girl in the castle. She looks like she’s been tortured. We can’t get her to speak and she’s terrified of us. I think you should come and take a look at her.”

Conrad nodded in agreement. “Anton came by my house a few minutes ago and told us that you had found a child. Giselle knows the girl and rushed right over to the castle while I came over here to make sure that…” His voice trailed off and he seemed uncomfortable.

“It’s okay Conrad,” Sarah said, realizing that Conrad had come over to make sure that she wouldn’t hurt the doctor. “I had a momentary lapse, but it’s all good now. I wasn’t thinking what it would be like to be around normal … humans … now that things are … different.” She had trouble speaking the words that so emphasized the difference between her and other people now that she had changed.

“Hillard let you come out alone?” Conrad seemed concerned.

Sarah explained that Hillard had left the castle early that morning and told Conrad about finding the girl in the tower room while the doctor gathered a few items from around the room. A few moments later they were walking swiftly toward the castle.

* * *

“Normally, my assistant would come with us,” the doctor explained, “but we were up all night trying to help the survivors. I just sent him home to sleep when you arrived.”

“Survivors? How many villagers did Lord Radek kill last night?” Sarah asked.

“Only three, besides the castle guards. The teacher, Frau Lambert, was killed by Radek when she tried to stop him from entering the school to get the children. The children managed to escape out the back, however, so her sacrifice wasn’t in vain.”

“I hadn’t heard that,” murmured Conrad. “Her death will mean a great loss for the village. She had just taken over from Frau Vogel after her death last year and hadn’t had time to take an apprentice of her own. I’m not sure how we’ll be able to replace her.”

“Christine is a teacher,” Sarah mentioned excitedly, thinking that Christine would be thrilled to be able to continue teaching.

Conrad looked over at Sarah dubiously. “I don’t think the teaching that your sister knows is the same kind that is taught to our children here, if you don’t mind me saying. The children are taught the languages, about Vampire Governance, and about the trades that are available to them once they turn sixteen. From what I know of the different worlds of the fog travelers,” he said carefully, “your education is a mite bit different from our own.”

Sarah realized that he was right. Christine could teach basic math and reading and writing in English, but it was likely that both she and Sarah would need to learn more about this new world they were in than they would be able to teach.

“You said three people had been killed,” Sarah prompted the doctor.

“Yes, we also lost our banker and the carpenter’s apprentice. Both were killed trying to run away from Lord Radek.”

Conrad shook his head. “I never liked Reingard – probably because of his job. He seemed to enjoy it a little too much, and I never saw him donate a single Geschenk in all the time I knew him.”

Sarah was a bit confused. “But I thought you used blood as currency. Was he in charge of that?”

“Yes,” answered the doctor, “although I had to train him how to take the blood. His job was to track which people owed Geschenk each month and make sure they came in to make their ‘donation’, enlisting the help of the castle guards when people weren’t cooperative. If Lord Radek found out that it had come to that point, though, most times the person would end up in the castle dungeons and never be seen in the village again.”

“Sounds like he was more of a record keeper.

“Oh no, he also handed out the Stϋck as well,” answered the doctor.

“What do you mean? People carry around blood?” Sarah was confused. She knew that carrying blood around would be impractical, but Hillard hadn’t really explained how the people kept track of this blood currency.

Conrad’s shoulders shook with laughter. “No.” He reached into a pocket and took out a few silver coloured coins in two different sizes. “These are Stϋck and Marks. We get them in exchange for giving the Geschenk. The blood goes directly to Lord Radek – or it did, anyway. We use these to trade between each other. I have to buy iron ore for my forge and Giselle buys bread and meat because with both of us working, we don’t have time to gather food. We rarely have to give more than one Geschenk a year.” He shrugged his shoulders. “I guess you would call us wealthier than most. Some families, especially those with many children, have to work and donate extra Geschenk. I expect that Giselle and I will have to start giving a bit more each year, once the children become apprentices.”

Sarah had many more questions for Conrad, but just then there came the sound of someone moving through the forest from off to their right. They stopped and saw Hillard appear a few moments later. Sarah was thrilled to see him.

“Doctor, Conrad, Sarah.” Hillard nodded to each of them in turn. “What’s happened?”

Sarah explained to Hillard how she and Christine had found the captive girl in the tower room as they continued to walk back to the castle. Hillard seemed very surprised to learn that Giselle and Conrad had known about the girl’s existence.

Conrad looked somewhat ashamed and avoided looking at Hillard as he spoke. “There are things that went on in that castle that Giselle just couldn’t tell anyone about. Lord Radek was terrible, everyone knows that, but Giselle was the only one who knew everything that he did, and she couldn’t tell. Radek threatened our family, and I won’t blame her for protecting our children.”

Hillard just nodded. “I know. These things are past now, thank goodness. We just have to make sure that nothing like that can happen around here ever again.”

“It won’t,” asserted Sarah, “I know Christine. I doubt she’ll even take the Geschenk. We won’t even need another banker.”

Conrad shook his head. “That just won’t work, I’m afraid. Other settlements have tried to stop giving the Geschenk, but it always turns out badly. The merchants who come through take money from us, and if there is no influx of new Geschenk, then it all eventually just dwindles away.”

“Well, we’ll just have to find a way to make this work,” Sarah insisted, “I can’t believe that taking blood from people is a good way of doing things.”

“Sarah,” Hillard interrupted, “we need to talk more about this. The things I told you were only an overview of how things worked. You need to know the whole situation before you can start making promises to these people.”

That silenced Sarah. They continued on until they reached the castle. Sarah led them through the hallways to the north tower where Christine was waiting.

She was shocked to find not only Christine in the tower, but Giselle as well. She was more shocked at the pallor of Christine’s face.

“Sarah!” Christine whispered hoarsely, seeming terrified, “The Vampire Council is coming here. They’re going to find out about you…”

 

Chapter Five

“They already know.” Hillard spoke softly, and Sarah turned to him now, shocked that he had said nothing to her during their walk to the castle. “They knew as soon as I made you. That’s why I’ve been gone all day. We’ve been in ‘discussions’ about what to do about you…” His voice trailed off and Sarah was dismayed to see the helpless look on his face.

“They won’t let me live, will they?” Sarah also whispered, as if speaking it out loud would make it truer.

The others just stood around them, quiet and somber. Hillard didn’t answer; he just looked bleakly at Sarah.

“Why?” asked a small voice. Giselle made a little sound of surprise and looked down at the tiny girl in her arms. Brynn was looking at Sarah expectantly. At Christine’s and Hillard’s revelations, they had forgotten all about the reason they were all there in the first place.

“Sweetie,” Giselle said in surprise, “in all the time I’ve been sneaking up here to visit you, you’ve never said a word.”

A dark look came over the young girl’s face. “Why talk?” she said bitterly. “He was going to kill me anyway.” The words sounded so mature coming from the mouth of a four year-old, but she spoke them slowly and not without a hesitation that made it clear that she was unused to speaking.

The doctor, meanwhile, had knelt down in front of the girl, a look of recognition growing across his face. “You’re Brynn, aren’t you?” he asked, a puzzled tone to his voice, “I remember you. You came in to see me with your mother right after you arrived here. You were sick. Gerwin and Elke brought you in.”

“I remember,” she said, a hostile look coming over her face. “I remember everything. They were trying to help me, they were hiding mommy and me until I got sick. Then you told on us to Lord Radek!”

The doctor sat back on his heels, his shock at her words and hostility evident by the expression on his face. “I didn’t!” he protested. “I swear, I would never do that. Someone must have told him, but I have no idea who. Only Gerwin, Elke, my assistant and I knew you had arrived. None of us would have reported you. We’ve been doing all we could to keep fog travelers out of Radek’s hands for years.”

“I will find out the truth,” Brynn insisted vehemently, “and whoever gave us to Lord Radek will pay!”

The doctor and Giselle tried to calm Brynn while the doctor examined her. While the others were distracted with the child, Hillard pulled Sarah aside.

“You have to go,” he said fervently, “I tried to explain to them that I had no choice – that you were just as good as your sister – but they don’t care. They know that they could never convince your sister to carry out the sentence, so they tried to convince me to correct my ‘mistake.’ I … can’t let them hurt you. You have to go.”

“But what about you?” Sarah asked, realizing that the sentence that her sister couldn’t carry out was the destruction of both her and her creator – Hillard.

“They would have been willing to forgive me if I had been willing to sacrifice you.” He had a haunted look in his eyes. “But I can’t. I almost lost you once.” His voice trailed off and then came back. “I don’t know what it is that we have between us – friendship, or something more – but I want the chance to find out. Sarah, please promise me that you’ll go, at least until the danger is past.”

“I don’t want to leave Christine,” Sarah protested weakly, “or you.”

Christine spoke up finally. “You have to go, Sarah. Maybe not right away. I’m sure it will take at least a day or so before the Vampire Council Representative arrives, but you have to be gone when they get here.” She turned to Hillard. “Can they track her once she’s gone? Can they find her?”

Hillard paused, apparently deep in thought, before he finally spoke. “I don’t think so. I mean, I can sense both of you in my thoughts, but I can’t tell where you are. I’m not sure who, exactly, they’ll send, and I don’t know if those kinds of powers change with the age of the vampire, but I don’t think so. I think that if Radek would have been able to find me that easily, he wouldn’t have allowed me to roam so freely in his territory for so long.”

“Where would I go?” Sarah still didn’t want to leave, but she knew that Christine and Hillard would fight for her if she didn’t, and she also knew that there was a good chance that they would lose.

That question seemed to give Hillard pause. He thought it over for a few moments. Adalaide’s cottage was empty now, but he was afraid it might be too obvious a place to hide Sarah. Sarah could stay in the underground hideaway, but there was no telling how long the Council Representative would be staying in Donner, and Sarah would need to go out to feed. An idea started to form, but he didn’t want to suggest it to the girls yet.

“Let me look into it,” he said and the three turned their attention back to where the doctor was examining Brynn.

“Well,” Christine asked, looking at the doctor, “is Brynn okay? What did Radek do to her?”

Brynn’s haunted eyes looked up at the people around her. “Giselle guessed right. He fed me his blood sometimes and I was hungry all the rest of the time. I was mostly all alone, but when he came here he talked to me and called me his pet.” Her tiny voice trailed off and her expression looked helpless as she looked over at the cage that had been her home for the last few years.

Giselle hugged the girl to her chest. “He can’t hurt you anymore, sweetheart.”

“But my mommy …” Brynn started to cry at the thought that she was all alone in the world.

“Brynn,” said the doctor softly, “I think you should go home with Giselle and Conrad. They have other children you can play with and you can even start school soon…” He trailed off as he remembered that the village’s teacher had been killed by Lord Radek the night before.

“We’d be happy to have her,” said Giselle, hugging Brynn closely. Conrad nodded thoughtfully as well.

The doctor yawned. “We’ll discuss matters further tomorrow,” he suggested, “I’ve been awake since yesterday and I really have to get some sleep.”

Christine walked the doctor out and Giselle, Conrad and Brynn followed close behind, leaving Sarah and Hillard alone in the tower room. Sarah looked over at the cage and shuddered.

“What’s going to happen to you when the Council Representative gets here?” she asked Hillard.

He shrugged. “They seemed to be willing to forgive me, considering that they knew my … feelings for you. They even seemed to understand that I couldn’t … harm you, even though that’s the law. I guess I’ll just have to see what the Council Representative says.”

“And where do I go? It’s not like I have a car and can just drive away.”

Hillard looked thoughtful for a moment. “That’s only partially true,” he said. “Come with me.”

Four Easy Book Marketing Ideas

From Author Marketing Experts, Inc.

I hear this a lot, authors who write and just want to keep writing. They hate the idea of marketing or don’t know where to begin. I get it, believe me. Marketing isn’t easy especially if you still have a full time job and want to focus on your next book. The challenge here is that if you don’t market, no one will know about your book.

The simple act of putting your book on Amazon does not a marketing plan make and contrary to what your mom, family and friends may think, or perhaps what you’ve been told in your writers group: your book is not the field of dreams. Just the mere act of publishing won’t bring droves of people beating a path to your door.So what’s an author to do? Well the good news is it’s deceptively simple!

Build your fan base: Fans, and Super Fans in particular will really help you to market your book. In fact if you really engage with your Super Fans they may often help you sell your book, and wouldn’t that be great? So how do you build this fan base? Well, I talk a lot about putting a letter in the back of your book, something engaging, inviting, something that encourages readers to contact you. Building a loyal base is worth its weight in gold and if you really want to not spend your life marketing your books, then you must invest in the fans that find you organically. I have a longer Super Fan article on this if you want to dig into this further, you can see it here.

Pitch Reviewers: I know how tedious this is, but if you only pitch five bloggers a week that’s twenty new blog pitches in a month. And it does add up. You should always pitch your book consistently to bloggers, readers, Amazon reviewers, etc. Not sure how to find them.

Read more . . . 

Plotter or Pantser–how much do you plan your book?

From The Book Designer:

Fiction writers are sometimes divided into “plotters” and “pantsers” depending on how much advance thought they put into the development of their novels.

The “plotters” like to work everything out in advance. They may develop elaborate outlines, timelines, character portraits, diagrams of pivot points in their story, and know, even before they strike the first key, exactly what the story is and how it will develop.

“Pantsers” on the other hand, get their name from “flying by the seat of their pants” and I think that sums it up nicely. These writers might start with an idea, a scrap of conversation, a setting, or some dramatic situation, then sit down and start writing to see where the story goes, what characters show up, and how the whole thing will work out.

What about self-publishers? They can also be divided in terms of how they approach the publication of their books. Consider:

Continue reading here . . .

Writing Prompt Wednesday – Introductory Post

With the relaunch of my blog, I wanted to ensure that I not only had enough content, but also that I would engage my readers. I was browsing through a bunch of stock photo sites and discovered that many of the images inspired me to imagine stories around them. I thought that this might be a very good way to get myself writing more often and in more variety and to perhaps engage my readers/fellow writers.

With that, I introduce “Writing Prompt Wednesdays.” I will post a picture every Wednesday and will spend the week composing some sort of creative writing around the image. I would like to encourage my readers to do the same. You can use the picture to write a scene from something you’re already writing (if it fits), a stand-alone short story, or a poem.  Then you can either copy and paste it into the comments below or post a link to somewhere else we can find and read it. As long as the number of pieces remains reasonable, I’ll try to read through and comment on everything that is shared.  There is no need to participate every week. Write as the whim catches you. Each of the pictures ignited a flame of inspiration in my mind so I’ll have no excuse to miss a week.

I’ll share my piece of writing on the next Tuesday.

To summarize:

Check out the Wednesday Writing Prompt picture.
Compose a scene, short story, or poem that is inspired by the picture (does not actually have to include elements from the photograph).
Edit your work. (***Always important***)
Either copy and paste your piece in the comments section of that Wednesday Writing Prompt or post a link to somewhere that I (and others) can enjoy discovering what the image inspired.
Feel free to comment on others’ work, but try to compose any criticism in a constructive tone. Any trolls or intentionally nasty critics will be blocked from future comments.

Good luck and I hope I’m not the only one writing this week!

[image error]

eBook Piracy – What’s the big deal?

I read an article today about an author who has decided not to release her books into digital format any more to prevent book piracy.  Personally, I think it’s a stupid knee-jerk reaction. Strong words maybe, but come on–does she really think that her books won’t be scanned and transformed into eBooks anyway?

I look at the January 8th release of the last book in Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series–the eBook wasn’t released until April 8th. Unsurprising to me, there were scanned versions available online within a week.

Delaying the release of the eBook was supposed to jump-start the sales of the hardcover version of

the book. Honestly, I still haven’t read that final book in the series, and I’ve been a die-hard fan for 20 years. I would have picked up the eBook if it had been available immediately, but knowing that it wouldn’t be released until April made me wait, and by April I was reading other things and had forgotten about that book. Now and again I remember it, but never with enough immediacy or excitement to rush over and buy the eBook.

I actually own all of the hardcover versions of the earlier Wheel in Time works. I even contemplated buying the latest one, but the only time I have to read is at night before I go to sleep and the arthritis in my hands makes me put down a paper book before I’m ready to sleep. My husband bought me a tablet when Apple first released the iPad, knowing that this would be a good solution for me. Since then, I’m on to my third tablet and, as much as I love the feel and smell of a real book, they just aren’t a practical choice for me any more.

I’m not the only one out there. I looked around and there were no torrents of Patricia Simpson’s new book out there. Actually, there were no torrents of any of her books out there. (I was just looking for curiosity’s sake, her newest book doesn’t really appeal to me.) Either someone has been spending a lot of time having the torrents of her books taken down, or no one thinks they’re worth sharing. Either way, that doesn’t bode well for her popularity.

My philosophy is (and bear in mind that I’m both and author and a publisher) that if someone downloads a free copy of a book, they likely weren’t going to pay for it in the first place. If they read and like the book, they will probably tell others about it. Wait, isn’t that why we send out review copies to reviewers?  In this case, we don’t have to spend any time looking for someone to read the book, or arrange to get the book to them. If we’re smart, we include easy-to-use links to the book’s Amazon and Goodreads pages at the end of the book.

I download a tonne of those books that are offered for free on Amazon every day.  Most of them I don’t actually read. I tend to finish

a book and then scroll through my collection to see what hits my interest first. Sometimes though, I finish one of these free books and can’t wait to read the next book in the series. At that point I hop onto Amazon and buy the rest of the series.

Personally, I won’t waste my time chasing after people who pirate my author’s books. My authors know this and understand my philosophy. Frankly, if your books are good enough that people want to pirate them, then you know you’ve really made it.

A question for KDP Select authors

I have a question for all of the indie authors out there who have released more than one book and have used the KDP Select program for at least one of them: did it result in an overall increase in the rate of paid sales?

For anyone unaware, Amazon offers its eBook publishers the opportunity to sign up for a program where they can offer their eBook to Amazon prime library users and in turn receive a percentage of a monthly”money pot” put aside just for that purpose. This part of the program is something I don’t hear a lot about. I’d love to hear an author say, “Well, I didn’t make more sales, my part of the KDP Select fund more than made up for any losses I had for pulling out of all other distribution methods. That would be cool. But wait…

Did you say that I had to pull out of all my other distribution methods? Yup. That means no Kobo, no Smashwords, no Sony ebook store, no iStore, no nook store, and you can’t even sell it on your own website. That might not be the complete end of the world, since the Kindle app is available for all mobile devices. But what about people who own a dedicated non-Kindle ereader? Or maybe, they’re like me and love the scrolling text features of moonreader+? Would you be completely alienating those potential readers?

There is another benefit to the KDP Select program though: you can offer your eBook for free for five days out of every 90. I’ve heard of these free books getting downloaded thousands of times over these periods, sometimes hitting the bestseller lists (but I have to clarify that these are just Kindle categories, not the New York Times list or Digital Book World list. A lot of authors have used this as a marketing angle, making themselves on all their social media lists as bestselling authors. Truth be told, unless someone has the New York Times qualifier on their claim,I pay it no attention. If you offer your two-year-old’s random typing for free with a great cover and then market the hell out of it, then they,too, could be a “bestselling author” having written nothing more than ‘fsergbjitfddfgvfffghbn’.

So, back to my original question. Have you used Kindle Select? Do you think that the extra exposure of offering your book for free boosted your long term sales? Did you get any complaints from non-Kindle users? Do you think you could have made the price changes on all your methods of distribution to make your book free for a week and had the same results? Let me know what you think in comments below.

What’s goin’ on?

I fully realize that it has been well over a month since my last post. Receiving a comment on my last post last night and approving it this morning gave me a bit of a kick in the pants.

So where have I been?

This adventure in publishing has been and continues to be incredible!

We launched Michael Antcliffe’s book, Hope is my Wingman, on August 19th, and we’ve nearly gotten all of the distribution kinks out. In October, we’re launching Jillian Watts’s Become, and I would be remiss if I didn’t say that it makes my family sick hearing how much I love that book! On November 2nd, at Top Chef Thunder Bay, we’re launching a new style of Cookbook/Taste Tour called Superior Flavours. 

I’ve been working extremely long hours every single day, and no, I haven’t had time to pen the last few chapters of Madness and Blood. I did, however, reorganize and go through Thunder and Blood, and it is in the capable hands of my editors right now. It won’t be released until 2014, but they will both be out next year. I’m ensuring that I take my responsibilities seriously by ensuring that the other authors and organizations that we are working with come first. After all, this isn’t my own publishing platform; we started this company to make other author’s dreams come true. At some point, we’ll also be offering a full range of Indie Author Services, but I want to get a handle on the whole process before I allow myself, and others, to spread resources too thinly.

When I talk about the process, it reminds me of some quick announcements I can make:

We are partnering with BitLit to bundle a free eBook with every paperback that we sell.
We are working on developing a partnership with Ereatah, a subscription service for eBooks.
We will also be participating in Amazon’s Matchbook bundling program for books purchased on Amazon (they only provide Kindle versions of eBooks).
We will be offering advanced orders of Become in just a few weeks – Stay tuned!
At the end of September, we will be holding an event at Coles, Intercity Mall in Thunder Bay for Michael Antcliffe’s inspirational book, Hope is my Wingman . Expect the unexpected!

So, basically, that’s what’s goin’ on. I’ve been busy.

Avoiding DIY Novel Disasters

I know that a lot of what I’ve been writing lately may seem to come off as Indie Author Bashing. It’s really not. I honestly love some of the indie authors out there right now and they have replaced some of my favourite traditionally published authors. It’s the other 90% that I’ve been wading through that fuels these posts. And when I say wading, I want you to envision me wandering through the underground tunnels of Amazon, hip-high in sewer drudge, trying to find those priceless pieces of jewellery that were accidentally dropped through the sewer grate, all while avoiding the sludge that was flushed down the millions of toilets above.

Again, I think some indie authors CAN do it themselves. If they happen to have a marketing/English language/graphics design background, they could be super successful. I have all three. I taught English in Germany to high-level corporate students for three years and I think I now know more about English grammar than the average high school English teacher. But . . .even I’ve decided that I can’t do it all myself.

Yes, I’m part of a group that started up a publishing company. Some may say that I’m biased against Indie authors as a result. The thing is, we can’t publish all of the novels that come across our desks. A LOT of work goes into putting together a quality book and there is only five of us working on them. I also don’t want to read just the stuff that comes across my desk. I read a novel every one and a half days on average. We can publish maybe six a year. What would make me extremely happy is if Indie Authors decided on some quality assurance guidelines.

I’m going to recommend that my Indie Author friends look into a really great book by an Indie Author Guru. His name is Guy Kawasaki and he wrote a book called APE – Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur.

Check it out and let me know what you think. I’m going to start seriously reviewing more books on this site.

Oh, and for anyone looking, Michael Antcliffe’s book HOPE is my Wingman is being hosted by Jillian Watts today and she’s got information about how to win a free Kindle Paperwhite.