Jason Halstead's Blog, page 20

Hard to Swallow

My wife was recently diagnosed with a condition I can’t pronounce, let alone spell. It involves white blood cells collecting in her esophagus as a result of allergens. These allergens are a combination of environmental (pollen, pet dander, cheap perfume, etc.) and food allergies (in her case, eggs). The end result is a swelling in her throat that can potentially close things down.

If that sounds scary, it’s because it is. Fortunately whenever this has occurred to her the swelling is at the base of her esophagus and it prevents food from going into her stomach. It has not impacted her breathing at all, other than the anxiety of not knowing what the heck is going on causing pressure in her chest.

She’s had a few isolated problems in recent years with this but we assumed the problems were unrelated. A recent trip to the ER for a bad one put us in touch with the right doctor to help figure it out. She ended up getting on a medication that’s supposed to help out as well as had a procedure performed where a balloon is stuck into her esophagus and then inflated to stretch it out. Yes, that’s a little scary too. Fortunately she felt virtually no discomfort afterwards and could carry on. And no, it didn’t fix the problem, but it might have helped a little.

All was well and we were moving on with life when yesterday we received the bill. We have insurance, and considering what the total bill was I’m mighty happy about that. In spite of that, it came to over $2000. $2000 for a procedure that took a few minutes and a stay in the recovery room of around 15 minutes. Without insurance it would have been over $8000.

Once I picked my jaw up I had to make arrangements with the hospital to pay the bill over a longer period of time. Then I began to fume about how incredibly screwed up our healthcare system is. I recently did a blog post and an interview on a libertarian political activist’s website and he asked me questions that made me uncomfortable. Not because it painted me to be a bad guy, but because it showed that I was under-informed. I tend to spend my time with my head in the clouds, or at least in my own worlds, and I just deal with the system we live in. Kind of like a lot of us, I suppose.

The easy solution is to just write and sell more books. Then I can pay for the bills and move on to her next throat stretching appointment in June. But is that really the right answer? A lot of people out there don’t have the option to boost their income. Heck, the way my book sales have been up and down lately (mostly down), I can’t be sure I have that option either. So what does that leave us for people who have medical problems that are bleeding us out?

I don’t have the answer, but you can bet your ass something’s going to pop up in a book of mine sometime soon. I’d love to hear some suggestions or, better yet, hear of things that are in process to try and make our lives a little less devastated by medical issues and / or bills.

In the meantime I’ll keep writing since it’s what I do best. I’m nearly finished with Chasing the Dragon, book 2 in the Order of the Dragon fantasy trilogy (sequel to the Blades of Leander trilogy). Next up is going to be book 2 in my Homeland series. After that, probably back to finish Order of the Dragon and then another Vitalis book. I’m also considering rewriting some old stories I wrote to create another fantasy series that has a more mature rating. Ironic, since the people that will probably like it most will be teenage boys!

In the meantime, stay safe and healthy my friends!

To learn more about Jason Halstead, visit his website to read about him, sign up for his newsletter, or check out some free samples of his books at http://www.booksbyjason.com .

That Funky Monkey

Fans of the Blades of Leander fantasy series will be excited to know that Isle of the Ape, book one in the Order of the Dragon series, is now available! And if you’re not a fan I’m sure there’s a perfectly good reason for it, such as you didn’t know about it or haven’t reached it on your to-read list. What else could there be? Hurry up and grab Child of Fate while it’s only 99 cents at Amazon so you can start the adventure from the beginning.

Isle of the Ape is almost a standalone novel. It follows the same characters from the Blades of Leander trilogy a year and a half later and ties in what happened  in those books with new material and a new character. His name is Carson Twoblade and, believe it or not, he uses two swords at once. I know, it’s a stretch.

Isle of the Ape starts off in the south, in the desert kingdom of Shazamir. Alto’s attending a wedding, but it’s not his own. From there the heroes realize that peace is a wonderful thing, but it’s also boring. They crave adventure and the trip to the south was little more than an appetizer. What better way to slake their thirst than exploring a deserted tropical island on their way home?

And that’s where I’ll leave you. Well, other than answering the obvious question and admitting that yes, there’s a really freaking big ape in the book. Or several. There, I admitted it. Now here’s the blurb, cover art, and links to where it’s available.

The war is over before it fully began and peace has settled across the northlands. The balance has shifted from destruction to growth. From hate to love. With a wedding in Alto’s future, the time to relax and rejoice has come at last. Relaxation, however, breeds boredom for men trained to fight.

A short trip to slake the thirst for adventure takes Alto, Patrina, and Namitus to the deserted tropical isle of Britanly. Ignoring the warnings of sailors, they hope to find out what happened to the once thriving population.

Abandoned on the island, they soon learn that the fate of the people of Britanly is beyond their wildest imaginings. The companions must struggle to survive the hostile island and hope that help will arrive before they stuffer the same fate as those who came before them.

Amazon

Amazon UK

Smashwords

 

To learn more about Jason Halstead, visit his website to read about him, sign up for his newsletter, or check out some free samples of his books at http://www.booksbyjason.com .

Taking on Water

So I’m a writer. I write books and stuff. The objective, other than entertaining readers, is to sell the books I write. I had a kick-ass March and a pretty rocking April. May, now that it’s nearly half over, is starting to make me feel like I’ve been kicked between the legs. By a horse.

So, with sales declining I did what any writer with complete control over his books would do – I panicked. Well, only a little. Mostly it leads to feeling grumpy and depressed. It feels like my ship is taking on water so here’s an attempt to bail it back out. I’m running an experiment the rest of May by lowering the price on Child of Fate to $0.99. My hope is to spur sales back up to where they were and hook people into buying books 2 (Victim of Fate) and 3 (Silver Dragon). And then from there onto the second series called The Order of the Dragon.

Speaking of Order of the Dragon, book 1 should be out very soon. It’s called Isle of the Ape. Book 2 is more than halfway finished but something happened today while I was working on it that I wasn’t expecting. The bad guys took control and changed the course of the story. They’re devious bastards, let me tell you. As a result of this twist my trilogy may very well turn into a four book saga. How terrible, more books to read… Anyhow, Look for Isle of the Ape very soon, followed by Sands of Betrayal, Chasing the Dragon, and Dragonlady. Assuming I don’t get things all twisted around again.

Until then, pick up your copy of Child of Fate for only $.99 and tell a friend…or fifty.

To learn more about Jason Halstead, visit his website to read about him, sign up for his newsletter, or check out some free samples of his books at http://www.booksbyjason.com .

Contagion

Don’t you hate it when the person sitting next to you yawns? Great, now you’ve got to yawn to. Fighting the urge requires cramping jaw muscles and blinking back the tears that come to your eyes. It’s horrible and unnecessary, but somehow wired into us.

It’s because we’re social creatures. The psychology of being social animals is that we can get caught up in a mob mentality. Even something as simple as a yawn can impact us. It’s also why having a lot of good reviews on a book helps to sell it – if everybody else is buying it, odds are a reader browsing through will stop and buy it too. This post isn’t about reviews, that was just a shallow ploy to ask my readers to please leave reviews on books – mine or others (preferably mine first, in case you run out of steam).

This post is about something I noticed on Facebook, a giant social animal in itself. I’ve seen how bothered or irritated people get by others posting updates on their workouts. I’ve even done it on rare occasions myself after I was happy with what I’d accomplished. Nobody’s ever given me any flack over it, but I seldom do so. Lately I see more and more people bitching about it though, although never directly.

What do I never see? People bitching when somebody posts how their heart was trampled or how a part of them died because Sally Suitcase was sleeping with their husband or something along those lines. A few people feel obligated to respond and a few others may bitch about it quietly to themselves (or anyone unfortunate enough to be within listening range).

I consider this a fail. No, it’s not about a lack of empathy on my part. It’s not because I’m cold-hearted either. It’s because a lot of us – most of us even- are selfish pricks. Yeah, I went there…

Secretly we like hearing about a part of somebody’s life being in ruins. We like it because we know they’re doing worse than we are – or maybe in the same boat. Oh sure, for the genuine cases of genuine bad stuff happening (I’m reminded of Amanda Beard and her 10 year imprisonment at the hands of a sexual predator) there’s nothing but genuine compassion available for the most part. But hearing about Jason’s truck getting smashed up and him being stuck in a virtual golf cart for three weeks while it gets fixed just makes other people feel better. After all, he’s the dumbass that wrecked his truck; he deserves the golf cart as punishment! As to whether I chose the name “Jason” for this example to mean something or not I don’t intend to share.

On the flip side, people don’t want to hear about weight loss or working out because it reminds them that they suck. We find ways to doubt progress pictures, claiming photoshop or other cheap tricks (spray tans, different lighting, etc.). We don’t want to be reminded that we watched an hour of TV with our hand in the chip bag when we could have been exercising. So we complain about it and make the people who are doing these things feel shameful that they’re posting their triumphs. No, the shame belongs on you. Now get your hands out of the bag, wipe off the grease, and go for a walk.

Numerous examples abound, but the point is that we all are self-serving and we look for things we can use to justify the way we live our life. Instead of turning inside and running the risk of falling short of our own expectations we compare ourselves to others and find their faults. Sure, we’re all people, but we really shouldn’t compare ourselves against each other. It’s a case of apples and oranges.

My suggestion, which is sure to be ignored, lost, or forgotten, is to focus on posting positive things. You worked out? Great! Share it! You had a good day? Let people know that the world doesn’t revolve around negative events in your life, but positive ones. It can be hard, I know, we live in a narcissistic and depressed society. Even my cynicism where I suspect this message will be abandoned is an example of the wrong way to think and post such things. My challenge to you? Be better than me.

In the meantime I’ll go back to writing. Isle of the Ape, book 1 in the Order of the Dragon trilogy will be out very soon. I’m hard at work on book 2, Chasing the Dragon. Order of the Dragon is the sequel to Blades of Leander. At this point I’m planning on pushing ahead with book 3 before moving on to something else – most likely book 2 in the new Homeland series.

To learn more about Jason Halstead, visit his website to read about him, sign up for his newsletter, or check out some free samples of his books at http://www.booksbyjason.com .

Chasing the Dragon

I’ve heard this phrase before but I wasn’t quite sure where. So naturally, Google to the rescue! Turns out it involves heating up heroine, morphine, or anything along those lines and inhaling the vapor that escape from it. Rest assured this post has absolutely nothing to do with anything like that.

In this case, Chasing the Dragon is a serious contender for the title of the second book in my Order of the Dragon series. I just finished the rough draft of Isle of the Ape and it would be in the hands of my editor had I remembered to attach the file with the email I sent. Yeah, I do that too sometimes.

Back to Isle of the Ape for a moment. What is it? It’s book 1 in the Order of the Dragon trilogy – but you already figured that out. It continues the story of Alto, Patrina, Aleena, Garrick, Namitus, Kar, Karthor, and Celos a little over a year since the end of Silver Dragon (Blades of Leander trilogy). Oh, I almost forget to mention, it even adds in a little Thork.

During that year+ between books the people of the north have not been nearly as busy as they should have been. Without a common foe to unite them, they’ve fallen back to complacency. The promised construction to rebuild the city of Rockwood at the entrance to the dwarven mines has been stalled by labor negotiations and little has been accomplished. At least for the “good” guys.

Emissaries from the south have sailed north. Reopening the long lost dwarven mines is a noteworthy event and everybody wants a little action with that. The leading contender seems to be a southern noble who’s become quite smitten with Alto’s sister, Caitlyn. I hope it’s not a spoiler to say this, but Isle of the Ape opens with their wedding in the south.

That’s not the only thing to happen though. Garrick’s gone back to his people but his eyes have been opened. He’s come a long ways from the intemperate youth he was. It could even be argued he’s a wee bit more than an intemperate young man now! He’s wise enough to know that when bad things start to come out of the mountains again he needs help in figuring them out.

Aleena and Celos? They’re cleaning up some messes left behind and doing so in a fine fashion. Fine enough, in fact, to draw the attention of Leander and earn the notice of their church. Of course having the spotlight on you isn’t always a good thing…

Now who remembers Rosalyn, the kidnapped girl that was tattooed and coerced into becoming an apprentice for the evil wizard, Therion in Victim of Fate? Well, she’s back…and that’s all I’ll say about her for now.

Now what does all this have to do with an island and a really big monkey? Well I guess that’s what you’ll need to read the book for. I’ll be sure to share when it comes out, hopefully later this month since I already have cover art completed.

I’ve decided that, since everything is still fresh in my mind, to push ahead for book 2 in the trilogy. Thus the potential title of Chasing the Dragon. My hope is that the books are as addictive and as heroin, but without any of the nasty side effects. I’m not certain what all will be happening in book 2 other than to say much of it will take place in the south, in the desert kingdom of Shazamir. I’m giving myself 3 weeks to write this novel. I managed Isle of the Ape in a little over two weeks, so let’s hope the mojo is still with me!

 

To learn more about Jason Halstead, visit his website to read about him, sign up for his newsletter, or check out some free samples of his books at http://www.booksbyjason.com .

KDP Select – The Aftershocks

I ran a five day freebie promo on my Vitalis Omnibus book last month. It’s been around two weeks since that happened so I feel I can talk a little more intelligently about the effects of that run. This particular is called an omnibus because it contains the 7 novellas (I call them episodes) that originally made up the Vitalis series. I have since expanded the series by adding a second (Vitalis: Resurrection) and third (Vitalis: Provenance) full length novels.

I gave away a little over 2000 books over that 5 day promo. Not so impressive, I know. Still, it rose to the top ranks of its genres on Amazon  (hitting #1 in at least one of the categories, if my memory serves). I did not use Bookbub to advertise this promo, but I did try a couple of smaller services that, to be completely honest, I can’t even remember the name of. I also did some blog swapping to try and raise awareness.

I reported a day or so afterwards that I was disappointed with the results. Sales had not picked up hardly at all. That was day 1 after the promo. By the end of day 1 they had improved, although not in a big enough number to consider anything more than a fluke.

But as the days passed the fluke continued. It never climbed into anything resembling a runaway freight train though. It was more like one of those hand carts with the levers you have to pump to get it down the rail. Still, that beats walking. I’ll give some numbers starting from March since that did not include the promo. In it and the number won’t be skewed.

In March I sold 65 copies of Vitalis Omnibus and 49 copies of Vitalis: Resurrection (Vitalis: Provenance was released in April). In April (the promo month) I moved 105 copies of book 1, 82 copies of book 2, and 74 copies of book 3 – with close to half of book 2′s and book 3′s number coming after the promo.

In May so far after 5 days I’m forecasting (based on current sales) 167 copies of book 1, 136 copies of book 2, and 110 copies of book 3.  Of course I hope I do better, but May has been a slower month than April so far. Feel free to help me fix that by picking up the books and spreading the word (shameless plug over).

So did KDP Select work? Yes, I suppose it did help out. I’ve also lowered the price on book 1 from $5.99 to $2.99, and the increased volume has cancelled out any revenue loss. Overall it helped, in fact, because it encouraged more people to read it, and more people then went on to buy books 2 and 3. As a series I’m looking at increasing sales by around $300 over the month. Not very substantial, but who among us is going to laugh in the face of $300? As a champion for indie authors I’m happy to say that every extra dollar earned is a victory.

So here’s to victories – however small they may be.

To learn more about Jason Halstead, visit his website to read about him, sign up for his newsletter, or check out some free samples of his books at http://www.booksbyjason.com .

 

Forbidden Love

What could be dangerous or upsetting when it comes to loving someone? In this day and age, there are prejudices that remain that seek to stop certain relationships from existing. Polyamorous relationships, homosexual relationships, and interracial name just a few of the many demographics that some people disapprove of. What’s my take on them? None of anyone else’s business. For that matter, this post has nothing to do with any of those partnerships or groupings. It’s about a different kind of trouble James Knight, my main character, gets himself into regarding two very determined women.

So what’s forbidden about it? Well, adultery is still a crime,  as an example. So is being told by someone that you can’t want who you really want. That tends to make you want them that much more! What if you tell yourself you can’t want something, what does that do to you?

Forbidden Love explores these concepts and many more. It blends romance, heartache, love, plenty of sex, and a woman that’s just too good to be true for James to believe she’s real. As the story unfolds he begins to wonder if maybe he’s right.

It’s hot off the presses as of today so go and check it out! Forbidden Love is book one in my latest series, Homeland. Romance, erotica, and some good old fashioned backstabbing and treachery are what this series is about.

James Knight was a man with a job, a trust fund, and a rocking girlfriend. Life was perfect and wedding rings seemed to be on the horizon. Then a new girl started at the gym and his soon-to-be-fiance, Karen, started spending more and more time with her. Shopping trip after shopping trip led to plotting behind his back.

Before he knew it James had a mistress he didn’t want and a company full of workers depending on him to save them. Torn between past and present lives, James doesn’t know who he can trust until Special Agent Towers from Homeland Security knocks on his door. It’s a knock he wished he’d never answered.

Amazon

Amazon UK

Barnes and Noble

Kobo

Smashwords

 

To learn more about Jason Halstead, visit his website to read about him, sign up for his newsletter, or check out some free samples of his books at http://www.booksbyjason.com .

What Worked (and Didn’t) in April

I think it’s safe to say that your mileage may vary when it comes to marketing, promoting, and ultimately selling books. There are enough variables involved to make it perhaps even more complicated the predicting the weather. Nonetheless, here I am attempting to bring order to the chaos and explain what did and didn’t work for me last month. These are unofficial results since Amazon won’t release finalized sales data until the 15th of April.

Overall my sales were down in April compared to March. I sold more books but made less money (I think). How’s that work? Pricing tweaks and experimentation (see below). Plus I only moved an extra 150 books or so, or around a 4% increase in volume.

First off my Blades of Leander trilogy, it did remarkably well again, although I think I left money on the table. The first two weeks of the month I experimented and dropped the price to $2.99 for all three books. Sales went up but revenue went down. I changed it after two weeks so the first book stayed at $2.99 but the other two returned to their former prices. That left the sales increased and recaptured missing revenue for books 2 and 3. I nearly made up what I lost, at least in theory according to my formulas. I’m predicting real world numbers will come in around $3000 – $4000 for this trilogy (over 1500 books sold).

The other experiment was with my Vitalis series. I released the third book so I knocked the first one down to $2.99 and then enrolled it in KDP Select for a 5 day freebie. I gave away a little over 2,000 copies in 5 days – not very impressive. Still, that and the pricing drop helped it start moving again. I sold about 40 books more this month than I have the last several, although that shows up as a slight loss on the balance sheet due to the reduced price. The good news is sales of Vitalis: Resurrection and Vitalis: Provenance went up and they more than made up for the missing revenue on Vitalis. Resurrection sold 30 more copies (most in the last few days after the promo) and Provenance almost matched the number (with the biggest boost in the last few days). All told, I’m predicting somewhere in the neighborhood of $750 on my Vitalis series for April (up around $300). KDP Select worked for me this time around it seems – now my hope is that I can keep the increased sales steady.

My Voidhawk series is up a few hundred, but that’s due to the release of Voidhawk – The Edge of Forever. My Wanted series broke even, and Dark Earth showed a very slight increase ($40 or so). The Lost Girls, my other experiment, tanked.

After fighting with Kobo to get The Lost Girls listed correctly and then having Amazon list it as paid too much time elapsed and it slipped off the algorithms / charts. I flipped it back to being free and “sales” picked up at a modest pace again, but books 2, 3, and 4 were not selling as well due to the period where exposure was lacking. I lost at least $600 on that series. I blame Kobo and their growing pains.

Speaking of Kobo and other non-Amazon booksellers. They seem to be tanking in 2013. I mentioned this in another post and promised a follow-up. Well, here’s the follow-up. Smashwords has released their Q1 2013 royalties and Novel Concept Publishing revenue with Smashwords was down around 33%. I don’t have the official report from Smashwords yet that lets my figure out where the money falls, exactly, but the bottom line is decreased significantly so I presume it will be spread in the same ratio as prior disbursements. And, for those curious, I make more on Amazon in a month than I make off of Smashwords in a year. Smashwords is a great platform with very fair terms and conditions – Mark Coker has done a heck of a job with it. But it doesn’t have the visibility or market segment that Amazon claims.

To segue briefly into talks of the future of ebooks and publishing I think it’s safe to say Amazon is going to be victorious. They will be the Microsoft of the publishing world, and Apple will be Apple. Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Sony, and the others don’t seems to be doing much of anything except losing market share. Even iBooks looks to be sliding a bit, but I think they’ll remain a dominant (although secondary) player.

And traditional publishing? Oh it’s here to stay, but it’s going to be downsizing and merging. That’s my prediction and nothing more. It’s not wishful thinking it’s just the way things have been heading and seem to continue to head that way. The only ones denying what’s happening are the publishers themselves and the handful of writers that the publishers have elevated with money and promotion to turn them into icons. Or in the case of James Patterson, someone who managed to force traditional publishing to work for him instead of the other way around.

As for me, I’m hard at work on Isle of the Ape, the beginning of the Order of the Dragon fantasy trilogy (sequel to Blades of Leander). Any day now I’ll be releasing Forbidden Love, the first book in a potential new series as well – it’s a vast leap from my traditional fair, it’s all about romance and smut with a twist of espionage tossed in. I really like the premise and characters and I have plans for several (endless?) stories in the series if the first receives at least a lukewarm reception. Just remember, this one ain’t for the kiddos (and that’ll be apparent on page 1).

To learn more about Jason Halstead, visit his website to read about him, sign up for his newsletter, or check out some free samples of his books at http://www.booksbyjason.com .

Does Twitter Sell Books?

I’ve had some discussions about this very topic privately via email and Facebook recently. In my experience yes, it does. A lot? Heck no! Enough to make a difference? Er, probably not. In any given month I’d say I probably sell 0 – 20 books via Twitter. Maybe more, I’m not positive and, sadly, I don’t really have any way to track it. Twenty books might seem great to some of you, but consider I’ve got almost 18k followers and I’ve been moving around 2800 books a month on average in 2013 (and it’s going up). So 20 books isn’t much, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to complain. Every sale is a sale, right?

What prompted this blog post was a Twitter discussion I just had this morning via DM. A new follower asked about my books and checked out my website. She wanted to get one, but wondered where she should start. Whenever I get asked this my response is always the same: What do you like? From there I went on to recommend a couple of books… But wait, it gets better.

My recommendations aren’t what you might expect. You see this is a person that has never read me before. They’re taking a chance on me and we’re both hoping it works out for them. It’s my duty to make it as easy as possible for them. Sure, I spoon fed the book and the link to them, but I can do better. I always recommend one of my free books to them. She chose Wanted.

Wait a minute, I’ve got a guaranteed sale and I’m using it to peddle a free book? What the hell is wrong with me?!

You read that right and yes, that’s what I do. I’m in this for the long haul, ladies and gentlemen. I want people to read my books and I want them to come back for more. By starting them out on something that doesn’t cost them any more than their time I’m setting the stage to prove that I’m not trying to steal their money. I’m no two bit hack or con artist tossing out unedited crap for the sake of making a buck. I’m the real deal and I’m only getting better as I go.

But I’m also an entertainer. My books will never sit beside the likes of “War and Peace” or “All’s Quiet on the Western Front.” Believe it or not, one of the most mind opening books I ever read was “Flowers for Algernon,” although probably not for the reason you might think. I was astonished at how the author could portray that character and develop (and then undevelop) him. I was awed. I honestly don’t believe I could ever do anything like that, though I may try. No, my job is to entertain and to thrill. Perhaps even to titillate. Truth be told, I’ll do just about anything to use the word titillate. It’s such a fun word. Try it out, go ahead. It rolls off the tongue and you can’t help but feel like it’s just a little bit immature and naughty. You’re having fun with it too, aren’t you? Don’t worry, I won’t tell.

So anyhow, back to Twitter and selling books. Yes, it works. But so does sitting at a craft show with a table piled full of trade books. It’s one tool of many and I think Twitter helped me get started moving from 1 – 20 books a month to hundreds and thousands. It’s a tool in a box full of many tools and just like a house can’t be built with a hammer alone, it does need a hammer to get the job done.

My advice is to remember these aren’t faceless blobs buying your books. They’re people looking for value. They want to be pleased and surprised. They want to know they didn’t get screwed over. Brighten their day with a good book and make it even better by giving it to them for nothing. I can’t guarantee a reader for life but I will say your odds are a heck of a lot better this way.

Wanted, post-apocalyptic science fiction by Jason Halstead

To learn more about Jason Halstead, visit his website to read about him, sign up for his newsletter, or check out some free samples of his books at http://www.booksbyjason.com .

 

KDP Select Attempt #5001

All right, I admit, I haven’t tried KDP Select 5000 times already. I have been trying it off and on since it was conceived back in late 2011 though. I had good luck the first time around. Not great luck, but good luck. So I tried it again and it was kind of flat.

But wait, that’s only two data points. So I tried it again. Doh! More bad results. And again. And again. There might even be another again in there up until early this year. I figured what the heck, why not give it another go round – it’s not like the non Amazon retailers are doing crap for me sales-wise this year (more on that in a minute).

So my Vitalis books hit the KDP Select spotlight and WOW!, they didn’t do jack. To be fair I didn’t really advertise or promote them. Up until this past weekend, that is. I raised as much awareness as I could (admittedly, probably not very much) for my Vitalis Omnibus (this contains the first 7 novellas in the series). Over the course of five days as a freebie I gave away 2195 copies of the book in the US and UK (only 185 in the UK). Not exactly a jaw dropping number. Today was the first day it came off of being a freebie, so the question is, how is it doing now?

I sold one copy so far today in the US and 1 in the UK. Yep, 1 in each. Kind of takes your breath away, doesn’t it? Prior to the freebie-fest I was averaging 3.6 copies a day between US andUK. What about books 2 (Vitalis: Resurrection) and 3 (Vitalis: Provenance) in the series? Those did better, selling about a total of 8 or 9 copies between both (in both countries). Pre-promo I averaged a little over 4 sales a day (between both books and both countries).

And now I’m locked into KDP Select on Vitalis book #1 for the next 80 days or so. Such is the price of science. Or in this case, science fiction. Because it’s a science fiction book, you see. What I did there was…sigh. Never mind, I’ll stop.

Anyhow, KDP Select for people who aren’t Joe Konrath seems to suck. Bookbub won’t pick me up when I contact them to advertise and my experience with other promo / advertising agencies has really sucked the big toe. All in all, I’m a huge proponent of free books – I just wish I had done it in a smarter way instead of enrolling in KDP Select.

UPDATE: Two days later I checked again and I actually moved some more product (books 1, 2, and 3). Will it maintain these bloated sales figures (low double digits on each book by now)? I don’t know. I hope it does or gets better, but I doubt it. I’ll update as time passes.

I dropped a teaser earlier about non-Amazon retailers. I reckon if you’ve made it this far you deserve to know what I was talking about. Well here it is, they aren’t doing a damn thing for me. Or for other writers I know. You see I have sales data for not only my books, but several other writers and books that go through NCP Publishing. No, I will not disclose anybody’s data but my own, but I will say 2013 has not been a good year for Barnes and Noble or Kobo as far as I’m concerned. Sales are down through Smashwords too (and iTunes / Sony / etc.), but I won’t know any specifics until Smashwords releases their Q1 sales reports (which should be any day now).

So there you have it, Amazon is winning as far as the numbers I see can tell. And why not? Hate them or not, they’re doing everything right. They offer authors the best numbers in the business, real time reporting, great royalty schedules, and they cater to customers too. Anyone can set up affiliate accounts and they have Amazon Prime, which is a service I keep fighting the urge to sign up for. There really are no downsides to it, near as I can tell, I just haven’t bought enough via Amazon that wasn’t digital that I could justify it.

Yes, I sound like an Amazon fanboy because, well, they’re doing it right and they’re doing me right. I hate putting all my eggs in one basket, I really do, but as a writer that receives less than 4% of my writing income from the non-Amazon retailers, I practically don’t have a choice. KDP Select isn’t the choice I want to make for my books, but it’s not like opting out of it benefits me all that much either.

So, my fellow writers, I’d love to hear more experiences with KDP Select. So far the stories I’ve read are the outliers. How about sharing what the average writer gets out of a run with KDP Select?

To learn more about Jason Halstead, visit his website to read about him, sign up for his newsletter, or check out some free samples of his books at http://www.booksbyjason.com .