James Ross's Blog, page 5

FREE Kindle #eBook - Round Two (April 6-7)

Any author that has tried to sell a book will probably admit that marketing a book is a lot tougher than putting forth the effort to write and publish a book. On my most recent release - Shari's Shot - I jumped onto the Kindle KDP Select promotional train with a very detailed and thorough effort.



Authors that participate get 5 free days to give away their eBook product. I scheduled those days over a six week period and so far my experience has been nothing short of amazing. On the first 2 days Shari's Shot seemed to go viral. It went from obscurity (being one of a million books) and rose into the Top 500 eBooks that have been downloaded on Kindle.

We've fallen off a bit since that lofty status, but hope to soar again up the list when Stage 2 of the free giveaway takes place on April 6-7. My hope is that mystery readers, St. Louisans, and golf crazy fans at The Masters find this to be an attractive read.

Oh. The plot? After filing for divorce chaos surrounds Shari Daniels-Donnelly. Threatening texts, confessions, jail time, arrests, and a liaison with a US Congresswoman add to the twists and turns. When a body turns up in a carpool parking lot two detectives are determined to find out who was responsible.

Early reviews have been outstanding! Go to Kindle April 6-7 for a free download.

A Kindle Freebie - Shari's Shot

With the early success of Shari's Shot I thought that I would try a promotional feature that is available to authors that participate in the KDP Select program offered by Amazon. The eBook concept is dismantling the bricks and mortar of yesteryear. Readers can't fight it. So, as an author I'm jumping on for the ride.



Free eBook downloads of Shari's Shot will be offered to Kindle users on March 18-19, April 6-7 as well as April 23. The book marketing business is so competitive that independent authors have to find creative ways to reach readers. Offering free books is about as revolutionary as a writer can get. The publishing industry is offering a wonderful service to readers and I'm excited to be a part of it.

Try any of the working links. They will direct you to Shari's Shot which will be offered for free on the above mentioned dates.

Oh, the story? After filing for divorce chaos surrounds Shari Daniels-Donnelly. Threatening texts, a lover's triangle, jail time, confessions, and a liaison with a US Congresswoman add to the twists and turns in this story. When a body is found in a carpool parking lot a detective duo is determined to find who was responsible.

The early reviews have been outstanding!

Shari's Shot - #Book #Giveaway on #GOODREADS

With the release of my newest book I'm dedicated to new promotional efforts in an attempt to utilize the exciting tools that are available to authors. One of those marketing programs is the FREE book giveaway promotion that is offered by GOODREADS, a popular site for readers. In this offer I'm giving away an autographed copy of Shari's Shot in a very attractive 6 X 9 Trade Paperback with high gloss cover.

From February 23 to March 18, 2015 I'm offering 13 free copies of Shari's Shot to a global audience. This character-based, murder-for-hire thriller is set at the Prairie Winds Golf Course, a familiar venue for frequent readers of mine.

Feel free to visit the Author James Ross website to register for a free copy. For alternative registration please travel to GOODREADS to sign up for a free book there - US residents and worldwide readers.

Stay tunes. There will be more offers available in the coming months!

#GOODREADS #Book #Giveaway - Shari's Shot

With the release of my newest book I'm dedicated to new promotional efforts in an attempt to utilize the exciting tools that are available to authors. One of those marketing programs is the FREE book giveaway promotion that is offered by GOODREADS, a popular site for readers. In this offer I'm giving away an autographed copy of Shari's Shot in a very attractive 6 X 9 Trade Paperback with high gloss cover.

From February 23 to March 18, 2015 I'm offering 13 free copies of Shari's Shot to a global audience. This character-based, murder-for-hire thriller is set at the Prairie Winds Golf Course, a familiar venue for frequent readers of mine.

Feel free to visit the Author James Ross website to register for a free copy. For alternative registration please travel to GOODREADS to sign up for a free book there - US residents and worldwide readers.

Stay tunes. There will be more offers available in the coming months!

#Blogger Help Wanted

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
HELP WANTED: #Bloggers - My thought process is working outside the box on this endeavor. I'd like to try a different marketing strategy. Shari's Shot, my newest release, is in need of some outside help from writers that penetrate social media sites.

I'm looking for bloggers that need material to write about. The following paragraph lists various topics that were discussed in my book. After a short blog article is written a selfless promotional tag about my newest release will be placed at the end of the article.

Those interested in writing about divorce, texting, a lover's triangle, golf, murder-for-hire, divorce attorneys, justice, infidelity, St. Louis, socialites, or defense lawyers are welcome to contact me on Twitter as @golfnovels.

At the tail end of the blog I'd like to include the following tag:  After the high-powered attorney for wealthy St. Louis socialite Shari Daniels-Donnelly files for divorce from real estate mogul, Tyler Cy, life becomes complicated. Young lovers, a multimillion dollar settlement, and marital freedom become compromised amid threatening texts, arrests, confessions, jail time and a liaison with a U.S. Congresswoman. When a lover is found shot to death a detective duo is determined to find who fired the shot. Shari's Shot, the newest character-based, realistic fiction novel from James Ross is available in hardcover, paperback and eBook format.

#Books and #Author #Marketing - http://x.co/68xyk

photo courtesy of Surachai at freedigitalphotos.net
After publishing 6 books my process for taking the product to market has improved. After all, part of the reason an author writes is so that readers can find the book and read it. With the explosion of the Internet and all of the online services available an author has to figure out what options are the most useful to boosting sales. A few years ago I changed the hosting of my website over to GoDaddy. Working with their templates has been very easy. We can use back links, post real time tweets from Twitter, sync blog posts and utilize online booksellers like Amazon.
GoDaddy has a multitude of products to optimize an author's online experience. We've been lucky in that we chose a template that was easy to use and allows for simple daily updates. The SEO (search engine optimization) lets us know on a daily basis how efficient our message is for the various search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing.
On my latest release - Shari's Shot - we tried the express e-mail marketing campaign which allowed for us to professionally reach a reader list. The statistics on this are updated immediately which allows us to check how many have been opened, clicked on, and unsubscribed to. From a tracking standpoint we can now figure out what is effective and what is not useful.
Shari's Shot is a mystery. After a wealthy socialite hires her attorney to file for divorce her life unravels amid threatening texts, arrests, confessions, jail time, and a seductive liaison with a prominent politician. When a lover is murdered a detective duo is determined to find out who fired the shot.  We're hoping that the current marketing helps this book to get increased visibility and mass sales. It is available in hardcover, paperback, and eBook format for Kindle and iPad users.

Cover Reveal For My New Release

Shari's Shot, the latest in the series of books from Prairie Winds Golf Course is due to be released in late January. Purchase information from Amazon should be available sometime in February. Here is the front cover which has received favorable comments.

More excitement arrives at Prairie Winds Golf Course on the east side of St. Louis when former Mrs. Missouri, Shari Daniels-Donnelly, in a fluke twist of a bottle cap earns a chance to win $1 million at America's greatest golf tournament, The Classic.

Shari is among the fashionable nouveau-riche, a member of prestigious Olde Blueblood Country Club, and seeking excitement outside a stale union with real estate mogul, Tyler Cy Donnelly. After her high powered and influential attorney, Leslie Potter, serves divorce papers it appears that Shari is on the path to a luxurious lifestyle that includes young lovers, a multimillion dollar settlement, and freedom from the balls and chains of a boring marriage.

Events become complicated when a young Latin lover supplants a longtime friend who vies for Shari's attention. Between threatening texts, arrests, jail time, confessions, and a liaison with a U.S. Congresswoman Shari's pending divorce delivers chaos. When a lover is found shot to death in a carpool parking lot prior to a golf outing a detective duo is determined to find out who fired the shot.

This story promises to bring controversy!

Final Days Of My Kindle Offer

Pabby's Score, the third book in my Kindle holiday promotion, will be discounted from Monday, December 16 through Sunday, December 22, 2014. The eBook pricing starts at $1.99 for 54 hours, escalates to $3.99 for the next 54 hours and winds up at $5.99 during the final hours. I've heard so much about the Kindle offers I thought that I would try them first hand.

In this story the proprietors of Prairie Winds Golf Course are sued by an overzealous lawyer who is looking for a quick settlement in what appears to be an insurance scam. An Internet dating affair weaves its way through the pages. Two special needs children, Pabby and Shae, get involved in an orientation program at the golf course and unknowingly get tangled in the web of events. Add a chance meeting with falcons, some thoroughbred racing, a trip up the river road to Lighthouse Point as well as a secret society and Pabby's Score becomes a busy read that has received excellent reviews.

Aside from that the Kindle Countdown experience has been enlightening. Sales have increased as has online exposure. Target numbers were not reached, but Internet visibility skyrocketed. When the promotion is over I'll sit down and see if it was worth it, but my initial thought is that more books were sold than if I didn't reach out. The only drawback was that the eBooks could only be offered by Kindle.
                                                                                                          
During the first week of December Kindle offered promotional pricing for Lifetime Loser which is the first book in the Prairie Winds Golf Course series. This story centers around the swindle of an estate, the theft of a golf course and civil fraud.

Opur's Blade was promoted during the second week of the month. A prodigy suffers through family strife, a future without aim and a sudden love interest. Unpredictable events allow the story to build to a dramatic ending.

Simon Barrett of Blogger News Network had this to say about Pabby's Score, "Perhaps the best yet from James Ross. A biting look at our modern world."

Treat yourself to Pabby's Score. Meet the characters that frequent Prairie Winds Golf Course. Get the latest in my series and let me know what you think.

Pabby’s Score is the fifth novel in the Prairie Winds Golf Course series from James Ross. It is a story with INNOCENCE – GREED – CORRUPTION – and SEX, as well as a few laughs and several surprises.



 

My Kindle Countdown Continues

Opur's Blade, here we come! During the second week in December one of my most popular books will be discounted on Kindle.


It is easy to see why Amazon has risen to the forefront in book sales and marketing. Kindle has developed a neat promotional tool. With a 90-day commitment to Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) Select an author can choose several different options in an attempt to increase exposure.

For my first experience I elected to try the Countdown Deal program. Essentially I chose the starting price of my book and the number of price changes that would occur during the 6-day promotional period. The drawback was that I could not offer the titles in any other eBook format.


During the first week, Lifetime Loser, my first novel that kicked off the Prairie Winds Golf Course series, was offered at discounted prices. To stay in real time KDP Select updates their sales statistics almost immediately. While the number of units sold was lower than expected it was encouraging to see my author and book ranking soar from a percentage standpoint as one-click purchases were made. My marketing on all of the social networking sites increased as well as my presence on some book sites that marketed directly to Kindle users/readers.

During the second week of the promotion, Opur's Blade, will be offered. This is the 4th book in the series. After a freak accident the child prodigy (Opur) perfects his putting stroke using a tired, worn-out putter. During his journey he has to deal with family hardship, a future without aim and a sudden love interest. Through a stroke of good fortune he rises to the top of his profession and earns an opportunity to play opposite the world's number one player in the most elite golf tournament in the US --- The Classic.

While it appears that this story might interest golfers only I think that reader comments will confirm that there is a lot more going on in this story than just golf. This character-based novel draws male AND female readers into the heart of the action.


Pabby's Score, my latest, will be promoted the following week. After that we will sit down, analyze the sales and where they came from as well as the publicity that was generated to see if another promotion will be considered. I will say that the preliminary results have been very encouraging. I love the way Amazon provides recommendations based on genre, hot sellers and Kindles users. Up to this point my experience could be categorized as -- so far, so good!

Author James Ross: Books on Kindle's December Countdown

Author James Ross: Books on Kindle's December Countdown:       My apologies for the lack of input on this blog, but sometimes LIFE JUST GETS IN THE WAY. The golf season was active, scree...