Helen Sedwick's Blog, page 8

Free Kindle Days – Are they worth it?

My novel, COYOTE WINDS, was inspired by my father’s stories of growing up in eastern Colorado during the Dust Bowl years. In honor of my father, I decided to run two FREE KINDLE DAYS on Amazon starting Father’s Day, June 16, 2013.
For those of you unfamiliar with Free Kindle Days, if you sign up for KDP Select (Kindle Direct Publishing Select), you agree to offer and sell your ebook exclusively on Amazon for 90 days, and in return you earn higher royalties on some foreign sales.  Plus you may offer your book for free (or at a very low price) for up to 5 days during each 90 day period. 
The goal of Free Kindle Days is to get your book into the hands of more readers. Since nothing sells books better than word of mouth, these readers will hopefully become more mouths to spread the word.
The Free Kindle Day program has become so popular that there are thousands of free ebooks offered every day. I wondered if COYOTE WINDS would be discovered in such a crowd.
I choose my dates about a month in advance and contacted various websites which list and promote free books.  It helped that COYOTE WINDS had a number of 4 and 5 star reviews. I had also just won two prizes in book contests. Some of the sites I contacted were
Pixels of Ink http://www.pixelofink.com/Ereader News Today http://ereadernewstoday.com/Freebooksy http://freebooksy.com/OneHundredFreeBooks.com http://onehundredfreebooks.com/Here’s a link to Galleycat's listing of more sites:  http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/free-ebook-promotion_b52130
I woke up early on the first free day and emailed practically everyone I knew. I also posted on Social Media sites. Then I waited and watched. 
I got a few emails from friends and acquaintances saying they had downloaded the free copy.  (Ahhemmm, they waited until it was free?)
I searched and found that COYOTE WINDS had been listed as a “highly rated free ebook” on several sites including --http://www.itswritenow.com/6118/coyote-winds/http://hunt4freebies.com/88-free-kindle-ebook-downloads-6-16-13/http://www.bookbasset.com/2013/06/16/happy-fathers-day/http://www.frugalfamilyhome.com/freebies/todays-free-kindle-books-coyote-wind-learn-to-compost-and-more
My “sales” started off slow, may 20 to 30 an hour.  By about 2 PM on the first day, the ebook had been downloaded about 190 times. The pace picked up to about 60 an hour. I was thrilled. By the time I went to bed, the total reached around 650, including sales in the UK, Germany, even one in India and one in Japan. Cool. 
The next morning I was disappointed that my sales had slowed back down to 25 an hour. I felt like old news on the second day.  I set my expectations at about 1000 total downloads and started my workweek.
Somewhere in the early afternoon, sales skyrocket. Between 1 and 3 PM there were more than 1000 downloads, and it didn’t stop there. COYOTE WINDS jumped into the top ten downloads for both Historical Fiction and for Teen—Literature and Fiction.  By 4 PM, it was number 1 in both categories and in the top 40 of all free Kindle downloads.  

It was exciting, mysterious and a little scary.  What had made the sales jump?  The NSA might know, but I certain didn’t.
By the end of the second day, free copies of COYOTE WINDS had been downloaded 4,465 times, including 14 in the UK, 8 in Canada, 4 in Germany and 1 in each of Spain, Japan and India.
Wonderful, but those were free downloads. The real question is what happened to sales since.
I decided to keep the ebook price low, at $2.99.  I had been resisting lowering my price because I felt it cheapened my work.  But my goal is to find readers, so I gave it a try.
In the week since the Free Kindle Days, I have sold more ebooks than I had in the four months before combined.
Two new 5 star reviews have been posted.
And maybe some of those other 4,465 downloaders will become readers and word-of-mouthers.
So was it worth it – those Free Kindle Days?  Absolutely yes. I am sure 99.99% of those who downloaded the novel would have never found it otherwise.
I will update my report again after 30 days.

Upcoming Events

Please join me at one of my upcoming events.


Tuesday, June 25, 2013, 6 to 8 PM, Wine & Dine with Authors – Readings by Five Local Authors, Redwood Café, 8240 Old Redwood Hwy. Cotati, CA 
Sunday, July 14, 2013, 2 to 5 PM, Redwood Writers Launch Party, Readings by 20 Local Authors, Flamingo Hotel, Santa Rosa, CA
Sunday, July 21, 2013, 4 PM, BOOK PASSAGE, 51 Tamal Vista Blvd, Corte Madera, CA More information
Wednesday, July 31, 2013, 7 PM, Hot Summer Nights With Local Authors: YA/Children's Panel, Copperfields Books in Montgomery Village, 775 Village Court, Santa Rosa, CA  More Information

COYOTE WINDS Kindle version free today and tomorrow

The Kindle version of COYOTE WINDS is free today and tomorrow on Amazon. Yes FREE. $0.   Please spread the word.  I want to get this book into readers’ hands. The more the merrier. Download one for yourself and “gift” it to others. (Remember, it’s Father’s Day.) There’s no limit on downloads, but the special will end Monday, June 17 at midnight.
Click here  http://www.amazon.com/Coyote-Winds-ebook/dp/B00B4YMDPQ/ref=sr_1_1_title_1_kin?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1371392709&sr=1-1
First Place for Historical Fiction, Purple Dragonfly Book Award 2013 Honorable Mention, Green Book Festival Awards 2013
Reviews of COYOTE WINDS
5 Star Review from ForeWord Reviews—“Sedwick … creates authentic moments that showcase the American West in the 1930s… Sedwick reminds readers that people are profoundly affected by their time and place, and many of her characters embody that…Part of the novel’s strength is how fluidly it reads considering its depth. This is no heavy-handed historical novel. Rather, readers will be drawn into an engaging story that broaches serious questions about family, the American spirit, and hope.” 
5 Star Review from Compulsion Reads –“Coyote Winds is a vivid and beautiful portrait of two very different worlds… Sedwick pens this story so well that I could see the Vincent farm, hear the chickens pecking at kernels and feel the coyote winds blowing across my face.  This book pulled me into its grip in the first chapter and didn’t let go…Coyote Winds is a must-read.  Its simple beauty struck a deep chord within me that is still humming with the sound of the coyote winds. 
“The story transports readers to a bygone day when dreams died hard and indomitable spirits struggled to endure.  You’ll taste the sand in the air and feel the heartache with these unforgettable characters shaped by a gritty American landscape that will linger in the memory long after the dust has settled.” --David Schweidel, author of Confidence of the Heart and What Men Call Treasure
“There are days when I tire of being a reviewer, but then along comes a book like Coyote Winds by Helen Sedwick that makes me feel excited about my role. Coyote Winds  is a bittersweet story, full of sadness and hope… Carry it with you. Make it a top priority to read.”  Allison Hunter, Allison’s Book Bag
“Coyote Winds is engaging and provocative.  The book tells the story of the Great Depression and Dust Bowl in a way that encourages readers to think and to want to know more.  It helps us to understand both the harshness and the beauty of farm life on the southern Plains.”--Pamela Riney-Kehrberg, History Professor and Chair, Iowa State University, author of Rooted in Dust and Always Plenty to Do, and contributor to Ken Burns’film, The Dust Bowl

First Place for Historical Fiction In Purple Dragonfly Book Awards

COYOTE WINDS won First Place for Historical Fiction from the Purple Dragonfly Book Awards.  I am all  smiles.   Purple Dragonfly Book Awards 2013

The Source of the American Dream

In 1816, long before the Irish Potato Famine, my great-great-great-great-grandparents, John and Alice Carroll, and their two children Biddy and John, left Ireland for New Castle County, Delaware. Their passage was paid for by John’s new employer, the E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, now known as DuPont. John joined other Irish immigrants working at DuPont’s gunpowder mills along the Brandywine River. The work was dangerous, as the powder mills were known for flash fires and unexpected explosions. But the pay was good, and if a worker were to die on the job, DuPont maintained a widows and orphans fund to protect his family. 

After only a few years, John Carroll had saved enough money to purchase land, farm animals and a wagon. He paid to bring his brothers over from Ireland. He and Alice had more children, who had many more children. A hundred years later, his great grandson (my grandfather) LaPenne J. Guenveur was awarded a Rhodes scholarship, which sadly was cancelled because of World War I. Their descendants went on to become teachers, doctors, lawyers, engineers and writers, like me. The American Dream-- that uniquely American ethos that hard work will lead to a fulfilling and prosperous life --came true for John Carroll and his family, my family. But many ask whether the American Dream still exists today. Or was comedian and social critic George Carlin correct when he said, “it’s called the American dream because you have to be asleep to believe it?”Over the next few weeks I will discuss the American Dream. Does it exist? What does it mean? Has it changed over time? Is it threatened more by poverty or prosperity? Or terrorism and globalization? Does it exalt individualism over the community? Are their different versions of the dream? Why is it called the American Dream and not the Scottish or Turkish dream? But let’s start at the beginning. Where did the phrase come from?  What is the source of the concept? Some credit historian James Truslow Adams for coining the term “American Dream” in his 1931 book “The Epic of America.” He described “that American dream of a better, richer and happier life for all our citizens of every rank.” The publication of his book coincided with the blossoming of mass culture (movies, radio, national newspapers), and the phrase quickly came into common use.  Today, a search of “American Dream” on Amazon brings up almost 15,000 titles. The concept underlying the phrase--the belief that one is the master of one’s destiny -- goes back further than that.  The American Dream was born in a land without a history of monarchy or the myth of royal blood. It was born in a land of people starting new lives. In 1630, John Winthrop preached to Puritan colonists about a land where everyone would have the chance to prosper as long as they worked together and followed Biblical teachings. Virginia was founded by businessmen looking to gain fortunes from tobacco and other crops, and the Spanish sacked the land in search of gold. In 1776, the Declaration of Independence proclaimed that “we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Abraham Lincoln’s journey from a log cabin to the White House was held up as a model of the American Dream even before the phrase was in common use. On the western frontier the concept of the American Dream flourished. Whether it was railroading, gold mining, rustling cattle or farming homesteads, the wide open land offered millions the opportunity to make their own lives their own way. The dream lived on, at least until the frontier was settled in the early 20th Century.  I set my novel, Coyote Winds, in the 1930s when families clung to the American Dream through the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. Most Americans do not realize how different this mind-set was from traditional European and British social structures. In Europe, the circumstances of one’s birth sharply limited choices and ambitions. Royalty and rank counted far more than ability, ingenuity or diligence. With its trade guilds and laws controlling land ownership, Europe's hierarchical or aristocratic society blocked individual aspirations. And children paid for the sins of their fathers and forefathers. In contrast, America drew adventurers, speculators, and freedom seekers escaping the restrictions of the old world. As one German immigrant explained, “there are no princes and corrupt courts representing the so-called divine 'right of birth.' In such a country the talents, energy and perseverance of a person ... have far greater opportunity to display than in monarchies."  Source Wikipedia American_Dream citing  F. W. Bogen, The German in America (Boston, 1851), quoted in Stephen Ozment, A Mighty Fortress: A New History of the German People (2004) pp 170–71 Even Henry David Thoreau wrote in his famous WALDEN in 1854, “If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours." Was he correct? Then? Now? Ever?

A New and Irreversible Dust Bowl Looms

A dire prediction about the depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer due to widespread irrigation of the Great Plains.

LINK: A New and Irreversible Dust Bowl Looms by Rupert Cornwell of THE INDEPENDENT

Compulsion Reads Endorsement

[image error] Great news.  COYOTE WINDS just received a Compulsion Reads Endorsement and was added to their Irresistible Collection.  This is a selective site, so I am thrilled they gave the novel five stars. 
I've reprinted the review below.


COMPULSION READS BOOK REVIEW  5 OUT OF 5 STARS   
Andy Vincent-McKay is an underperforming suburban teen who suffers beneath the expectations of demanding, helicopter parents. He doesn’t have movie star looks; he doesn’t know how to fit in at school; and he definitely doesn’t know how to fulfill the promise he made to his grandfather, Myles Vincent, to write down the story of Vona, Colorado and the coyote winds.  
Coyote Winds seamlessly blends Andy’s modern-day struggles with the story of Myles and his family as they worked their small farm in Vona and watched it all blow away, along with so much else during the darkest days of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. 
The two stories are connected by the shared blood between Andy and Myles and the new purpose and strength that Andy discovers within himself as he digs deeper to uncover the story of Myles and the coyote winds that stop for no man.
Coyote Winds is a vivid and beautiful portrait of two very different worlds. Andy’s modern day existence couldn’t be more different than the wide open promise of Vona, CO that Myles and his family approach, but the stories merge brilliantly. Helen Sedwick pens this story so well that I could see the Vincent farm, hear the chickens pecking at kernels and feel the coyote winds blowing across my face. 
This book pulled me into its grip in the first chapter and didn’t let go. I couldn’t help but sympathize with Andy’s plight and understand intuitively the juxtaposition of his overly-sheltered life with the broad freedom Myles experienced over 70 years earlier even as he and his family faced the heart-wrenching ruin of the Dust Bowl and Great Depression.
Coyote Winds is a must-read. Its simple beauty struck a deep chord within me that is still humming with the sound of the coyote winds.   

Coyote Pup Saved

This poor guy took on a cholla cactus and almost lost the battle. I am so glad they saved him.
Cholla Coyote

Puns

My main character Myles loves to tell puns, just like my father did. Here are some groaners.


It's raining cats and dogs. Well, as long as it doesn't reindeer.
I once heard a joke about amnesia, but I forgot how it goes.
When a clock is hungry it goes back four seconds.
I relish the fact that you've mustard the strength to ketchup to me.

Wonderful, thoughtful review from Allison Hunter

Thank you Allison!

"There are days when I tire of being a reviewer, but then along comes a book like Coyote Winds by Helen Sedwick that makes me feel excited about my role. Coyote Winds  is a bittersweet story, full of sadness and hope. As a historical novel, it’s about Myles and his family who struggle against overwhelming odds to maintain a farm during the depression and the Dust Bowl. As a young adult novel, it’s about thirteen-year-old Andy who lives in our modern times but misses his Grandpa Myles and is determined to keep his grandfather’s memories alive.

It’s been a long time since I have read a book about the love between a boy and a wild animal. Books such as Rascal come to mind. Being about a teenage boy and a coyote he rescues from a dust storm, Coyote Winds is also such a book..."More on Allison's Book Bag