Peter Laurent's Blog - Posts Tagged "amazon"
The Magic of KDP Select - A Debut Author's Story
What a whirlwind book launch.
My head is still spinning. I never expected there to be an audience for my writing.
Hoped, yes. Expected, no.
After publishing my debut novel, The Covert Academy, on Friday 1st Feb 2013 (NZ time), I saw around 10 sales over the weekend. Probably they were some of my faithful Facebook friends, since I had been spamming their timelines with my book's launch date.
But I joined KDP Select right away, because as a new author, I realised there would be little to no public knowledge of my book's release.
So I scheduled a single day's free promotion for Monday (USA time), and signed up to a bunch of ebook newsletters in the hopes of drumming up awareness.
The Covert Academy is now sitting at:
#13 in Amazon's bestsellers for Science Fiction Adventure,
#37 for General Fiction Action/Adventure,
#1,012 Overall in the Free Kindle Store
EDIT: By the end of the promo it had reached
#6 for Science Fiction Adventure,
#14 for General Fiction Action/Adventure,
#520 Overall in the Free Kindle Store
I know it will drop back down after the promotion, but I am still amazed. Floored even. It was at around #60-80,000 overall before the promo.
It's incredible to see people from around the world adding my work to their "to-read" list on Goodreads or "Liking" it on Facebook.
Where will it go from here? I haven't made a cent from those sales, not that I mind. The hope is that some of those readers will enjoy the read, post an honest review on Amazon, and help keep the book in the spotlight for a while longer.
I would dearly love to continue the story of the Academy. I've got many more ideas about where the series should go next!
Writing a 60k+ word novel is no small task. This was my first attempt, and it took me six months of almost full-time commitment. My wonderful parents supported me the entire time, since my animation freelancing work had slowed towards Christmas. I owe them a lot.
Still, I enjoyed every minute of the process. I want to do it again.
Six months to write a book?
...Well that's two per year!
Here's to a great 2013 :)
Cheers,
-Petes
My head is still spinning. I never expected there to be an audience for my writing.
Hoped, yes. Expected, no.
After publishing my debut novel, The Covert Academy, on Friday 1st Feb 2013 (NZ time), I saw around 10 sales over the weekend. Probably they were some of my faithful Facebook friends, since I had been spamming their timelines with my book's launch date.
But I joined KDP Select right away, because as a new author, I realised there would be little to no public knowledge of my book's release.
So I scheduled a single day's free promotion for Monday (USA time), and signed up to a bunch of ebook newsletters in the hopes of drumming up awareness.
The Covert Academy is now sitting at:
#13 in Amazon's bestsellers for Science Fiction Adventure,
#37 for General Fiction Action/Adventure,
#1,012 Overall in the Free Kindle Store
EDIT: By the end of the promo it had reached
#6 for Science Fiction Adventure,
#14 for General Fiction Action/Adventure,
#520 Overall in the Free Kindle Store
I know it will drop back down after the promotion, but I am still amazed. Floored even. It was at around #60-80,000 overall before the promo.
It's incredible to see people from around the world adding my work to their "to-read" list on Goodreads or "Liking" it on Facebook.
Where will it go from here? I haven't made a cent from those sales, not that I mind. The hope is that some of those readers will enjoy the read, post an honest review on Amazon, and help keep the book in the spotlight for a while longer.
I would dearly love to continue the story of the Academy. I've got many more ideas about where the series should go next!
Writing a 60k+ word novel is no small task. This was my first attempt, and it took me six months of almost full-time commitment. My wonderful parents supported me the entire time, since my animation freelancing work had slowed towards Christmas. I owe them a lot.
Still, I enjoyed every minute of the process. I want to do it again.
Six months to write a book?
...Well that's two per year!
Here's to a great 2013 :)
Cheers,
-Petes
The Battle for Reviews
After a stunning few days following the free promotion, The Covert Academy soared up the Amazon charts to #5 in SciFi Adventure as a paid title, and #2 in the UK.
Incredible, especially considering how few reviews I currently have. It has since dropped down to #79 (US) and #12 (UK).
Reviews are the MOST important resource for an author. Without reviews, you don't get noticed.
I suspect the strength of my sales so far have come from the momentum of the freebie day at the start of last week, and (hopefully) a compelling synopsis and book cover on the store page.
As a debut author, it is much harder to get reviewed. Forget traditional reviewers like TV, radio, and newspapers, on or offline. Not a chance, not that I expected it, even in New Zealand.
Yet even book bloggers geared towards indie publishers rarely responded. Of the 30-40 requests I sent, maybe 6 replied, and of them, only 2 agreed to review it. And one of them won't get to it until 2014!
The sad fact is that there are hundreds of thousands of books and not enough book bloggers to weed out the rubbish. They are all inundated with books "to-be-read". Fair enough, I can't expect preferential treatment.
I've posted in forums offering freebies for reviews... no responses there.
So how to get reviews as a debut author?
The trick is to scour books on Amazon similar to your own, and contact the people reviewing them. People without blogs, who review fewer books (with a few exceptions). Yet they too have clout within the reviewing community, which is valuable to any author.
Finding them on Amazon is incredibly time consuming, far more than searching for bloggers. Only a minority display their contact details. This likely worked to my advantage. How many authors would go to the trouble?
After several hours, I have lined up 7 reviewers. The first should hopefully be posted in just a few days.
Of course, the battle isn't won by that point.
Once I've got at least 10 reviews (fingers crossed for positive ones) I will schedule another freebie day a few weeks in advance. With more reviews, I can sign up to the larger ebook newsletters (such as Pixel of Ink) to get the book in front of more eyeballs.
That's the battle plan.
Of course, it all hinges on whether the book is any good!
But no one will know until it gets reviewed.
Cheers,
-Petes
Incredible, especially considering how few reviews I currently have. It has since dropped down to #79 (US) and #12 (UK).
Reviews are the MOST important resource for an author. Without reviews, you don't get noticed.
I suspect the strength of my sales so far have come from the momentum of the freebie day at the start of last week, and (hopefully) a compelling synopsis and book cover on the store page.
As a debut author, it is much harder to get reviewed. Forget traditional reviewers like TV, radio, and newspapers, on or offline. Not a chance, not that I expected it, even in New Zealand.
Yet even book bloggers geared towards indie publishers rarely responded. Of the 30-40 requests I sent, maybe 6 replied, and of them, only 2 agreed to review it. And one of them won't get to it until 2014!
The sad fact is that there are hundreds of thousands of books and not enough book bloggers to weed out the rubbish. They are all inundated with books "to-be-read". Fair enough, I can't expect preferential treatment.
I've posted in forums offering freebies for reviews... no responses there.
So how to get reviews as a debut author?
The trick is to scour books on Amazon similar to your own, and contact the people reviewing them. People without blogs, who review fewer books (with a few exceptions). Yet they too have clout within the reviewing community, which is valuable to any author.
Finding them on Amazon is incredibly time consuming, far more than searching for bloggers. Only a minority display their contact details. This likely worked to my advantage. How many authors would go to the trouble?
After several hours, I have lined up 7 reviewers. The first should hopefully be posted in just a few days.
Of course, the battle isn't won by that point.
Once I've got at least 10 reviews (fingers crossed for positive ones) I will schedule another freebie day a few weeks in advance. With more reviews, I can sign up to the larger ebook newsletters (such as Pixel of Ink) to get the book in front of more eyeballs.
That's the battle plan.
Of course, it all hinges on whether the book is any good!
But no one will know until it gets reviewed.
Cheers,
-Petes
Constructive Criticisms
One of my wonderful reviewers contacted me today. They asked why another author would write a book and then blog about expecting to sit back to wait for the money to roll in, then get upset when receiving this reviewer's honest 3 star review.
I thought my response to the reviewer might interest some of you...
(edited for relevance)
I have no issues with wanting to make money out of writing, I definitely want to make enough to support myself and be able to write full-time. But writing with the sole intention of making money is the wrong way to work. The most important thing, above all else, is that the reader enjoys your book, whether it's entertaining, educational, or an erotic thrill, making money is a by-product of reader enjoyment.
So when I read a book, and I see a typo or clunky sentence, it diminishes my enjoyment of that book. I can forgive maybe 3-4 errors for an indie author, a bit more if the rest of the story holds up (strong characters, plot etc.)
A traditionally published author has no excuse and must have zero mistakes.
That's why I proofed my book at least 6-7 times. Then after I published it on Amazon, I read it again and found maybe 10 punctuation mistakes and fixed them (within a few days of the initial publication date, before the freebie sale). So maybe even I was a little hasty, but at least I went back and fixed it up as soon as possible. It's something I wanted to be proud of.
If an author is lazy and publish their 1st or 2nd draft, readers will not enjoy their poorly edited books, won't recommend it to friends and/or give negative reviews. Money can't buy good reviews, they are worth more than that.
Good reviews aren't just 5 star reviews. If a reviewer gives 2, 3 or 4 stars, but mentions what they liked and didn't like, possibly even suggest improvements, that is just as valuable as a 5 star review.
Authors should not be unhappy with 3 star reviews if they actually cared about improving their writing.
Besides, many readers ignore the 1 and 5 star reviews because they assume they are biased, and only read the 2, 3, 4 star reviews for honest opinions. I would be fine having 2-3 star reviews as long as it was honest and said how the book could have been better, or why it was not good enough for 4-5 stars.
Personally I think the whole "star-rating" system is broken and Amazon should abandon it. Readers should be forced to read reviews instead of tallying up an average star rating to make decisions on what to buy.
Maybe it's because I come from an animation background, which is even more cut-throat than writing, I became used to taking criticism, and kept an eye out for what people will pick up on that would need fixing.
It can be heart-breaking when you have spent months of your life pouring your soul into your work, only to be told it is no good.
I was lucky to have received mostly good reviews on my animation, honest feedback that critiqued and ultimately ended up improving it. The same applies to writing. You can't learn without making mistakes.
Then again, not every reviewer knows what they are talking about, and sometimes you have to stick to your guns. It's just that it is important to keep an open mind.
There are over 1.5 million ebooks on Amazon, and since they do not check for quality, you can imagine how many books are rubbish and not selling at all. That's where honest reviews are needed, positive and negative ones.
Whew that's quite the rant I wrote!
Well I'd better get back to it, book two isn't going to write itself haha!
Cheers,
-Petes
I thought my response to the reviewer might interest some of you...
(edited for relevance)
I have no issues with wanting to make money out of writing, I definitely want to make enough to support myself and be able to write full-time. But writing with the sole intention of making money is the wrong way to work. The most important thing, above all else, is that the reader enjoys your book, whether it's entertaining, educational, or an erotic thrill, making money is a by-product of reader enjoyment.
So when I read a book, and I see a typo or clunky sentence, it diminishes my enjoyment of that book. I can forgive maybe 3-4 errors for an indie author, a bit more if the rest of the story holds up (strong characters, plot etc.)
A traditionally published author has no excuse and must have zero mistakes.
That's why I proofed my book at least 6-7 times. Then after I published it on Amazon, I read it again and found maybe 10 punctuation mistakes and fixed them (within a few days of the initial publication date, before the freebie sale). So maybe even I was a little hasty, but at least I went back and fixed it up as soon as possible. It's something I wanted to be proud of.
If an author is lazy and publish their 1st or 2nd draft, readers will not enjoy their poorly edited books, won't recommend it to friends and/or give negative reviews. Money can't buy good reviews, they are worth more than that.
Good reviews aren't just 5 star reviews. If a reviewer gives 2, 3 or 4 stars, but mentions what they liked and didn't like, possibly even suggest improvements, that is just as valuable as a 5 star review.
Authors should not be unhappy with 3 star reviews if they actually cared about improving their writing.
Besides, many readers ignore the 1 and 5 star reviews because they assume they are biased, and only read the 2, 3, 4 star reviews for honest opinions. I would be fine having 2-3 star reviews as long as it was honest and said how the book could have been better, or why it was not good enough for 4-5 stars.
Personally I think the whole "star-rating" system is broken and Amazon should abandon it. Readers should be forced to read reviews instead of tallying up an average star rating to make decisions on what to buy.
Maybe it's because I come from an animation background, which is even more cut-throat than writing, I became used to taking criticism, and kept an eye out for what people will pick up on that would need fixing.
It can be heart-breaking when you have spent months of your life pouring your soul into your work, only to be told it is no good.
I was lucky to have received mostly good reviews on my animation, honest feedback that critiqued and ultimately ended up improving it. The same applies to writing. You can't learn without making mistakes.
Then again, not every reviewer knows what they are talking about, and sometimes you have to stick to your guns. It's just that it is important to keep an open mind.
There are over 1.5 million ebooks on Amazon, and since they do not check for quality, you can imagine how many books are rubbish and not selling at all. That's where honest reviews are needed, positive and negative ones.
Whew that's quite the rant I wrote!
Well I'd better get back to it, book two isn't going to write itself haha!
Cheers,
-Petes
Fully Sick
Hey there fine people who read this. I was planning to make a start on Book 2 this week, but I came down with a very nasty cold on Tuesday. Woe is me and all that.
I think I'm finally on the mend so hopefully I'll be able to get going with some writing on Monday. Yay!
I read a few writing blogs on writersdigest.com this week, and was amazed to find at least two or three blogs written by authors who incorrectly wrote "less" instead of "fewer" (i.e. less words). But I won't name names.
I'm not perfect myself, having got "its" and "it's" wrong throughout The Covert Academy. One reviewer who didn't read the book (just the sample I assume) pointed this out in a review on Amazon.
I've since fixed the "its/it's" mistakes. I'm not sure anyone else even noticed.
Well, now we know...
Making mistakes is only human, and on a blog it's fine (though it doesn't instill me with confidence in the author).
What galls me is people being able to review books they haven't read, like a few people who have "reviewed" my book on Amazon US and UK.
I'm also told that some hateful reviews are written by jealous authors seeking to sabotage their fellow authors' work! What sort of sick mind would do that?
There is no way to trace these people, but it is apparently a fairly common occurence.
Amazon's review system is broken. Indie books live or die based on customer reviews.
They could easily fix it by:
*Forcing customers to buy the book to be able to review it. This would help weed out spammers.
*Increasing the minimum number of words for a review from 20 to, say, 100. This would help weed out reviews from the authors' friends and family.
*Abandoning the 5 star rating system entirely, or not making this number visible to the public. This would force customers to judge books based on the content of the reviews (and the book itself), rather than an average numerical rating.
*Perhaps only allow star-ratings from well known reviewers such as those in the top 10,000 on Amazon or other editorial reviewers.
Any other ideas?
I hope I don't sound bitter, I'm really not at all.
My book is doing better than I could have dreamed, and I am incredibly grateful to the people who write honest reviews, whether they are full of praise, criticisms or both.
Maybe it's because I'm still feeling a bit sick. Hopefully I'm back in full writing mode next week!
Cheers,
-Petes
I think I'm finally on the mend so hopefully I'll be able to get going with some writing on Monday. Yay!
I read a few writing blogs on writersdigest.com this week, and was amazed to find at least two or three blogs written by authors who incorrectly wrote "less" instead of "fewer" (i.e. less words). But I won't name names.
I'm not perfect myself, having got "its" and "it's" wrong throughout The Covert Academy. One reviewer who didn't read the book (just the sample I assume) pointed this out in a review on Amazon.
I've since fixed the "its/it's" mistakes. I'm not sure anyone else even noticed.
Well, now we know...
Making mistakes is only human, and on a blog it's fine (though it doesn't instill me with confidence in the author).
What galls me is people being able to review books they haven't read, like a few people who have "reviewed" my book on Amazon US and UK.
I'm also told that some hateful reviews are written by jealous authors seeking to sabotage their fellow authors' work! What sort of sick mind would do that?
There is no way to trace these people, but it is apparently a fairly common occurence.
Amazon's review system is broken. Indie books live or die based on customer reviews.
They could easily fix it by:
*Forcing customers to buy the book to be able to review it. This would help weed out spammers.
*Increasing the minimum number of words for a review from 20 to, say, 100. This would help weed out reviews from the authors' friends and family.
*Abandoning the 5 star rating system entirely, or not making this number visible to the public. This would force customers to judge books based on the content of the reviews (and the book itself), rather than an average numerical rating.
*Perhaps only allow star-ratings from well known reviewers such as those in the top 10,000 on Amazon or other editorial reviewers.
Any other ideas?
I hope I don't sound bitter, I'm really not at all.
My book is doing better than I could have dreamed, and I am incredibly grateful to the people who write honest reviews, whether they are full of praise, criticisms or both.
Maybe it's because I'm still feeling a bit sick. Hopefully I'm back in full writing mode next week!
Cheers,
-Petes
#amwriting
The Covert Academy reached #78 Overall and #1 SciFi Adventure on Amazon in the last freebie sale.
Fantastic to see so many people interested in reading it, thank you!
Double thanks to those who took the extra time to write a review.
I'll be writing Book 2 full-time over the next few months, which means writing these blog posts less often.
You can still follow what I'm up to on the Twitter machine, I'm @petes117.
Say hi and I'll follow back :)
Cheers,
-Petes
Fantastic to see so many people interested in reading it, thank you!
Double thanks to those who took the extra time to write a review.
I'll be writing Book 2 full-time over the next few months, which means writing these blog posts less often.
You can still follow what I'm up to on the Twitter machine, I'm @petes117.
Say hi and I'll follow back :)
Cheers,
-Petes
Announcing "Scout's Honour"
Introducing my new novella, Scout's Honour, continuing the story of The Covert Academy as a bridge between the sequel!
Scout's Honour follows a new protagonist, Jayson Georgiou, who also featured as a background character in the first book, now on his own adventure.
The story weaves in and out of events from the first book to explain a few leftover questions, sets up all new mysteries to come, and is action-packed with new and returning characters.
The eBook comes out on Amazon on July 10th 2013, and will be free for the first 24 hours.
The paperback will also be available on July 10th from the CreateSpace store and should be linked to Amazon within a week.
UPDATE: Out now! Grab a copy here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DUK9LPC
I hope you enjoy it!
-Petes
Scout's Honour follows a new protagonist, Jayson Georgiou, who also featured as a background character in the first book, now on his own adventure.
The story weaves in and out of events from the first book to explain a few leftover questions, sets up all new mysteries to come, and is action-packed with new and returning characters.
The eBook comes out on Amazon on July 10th 2013, and will be free for the first 24 hours.
The paperback will also be available on July 10th from the CreateSpace store and should be linked to Amazon within a week.
UPDATE: Out now! Grab a copy here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DUK9LPC
I hope you enjoy it!
-Petes
Book Advertising - My Results, Part Duex
Recently I organised a promotion, for both of my books, through Kindle Nation Daily and World Literary Cafe with the intention of breathing new life into my books' sales 7 months after publication.
I had enjoyed 2-3 solid months of sales starting back in Feb 2013, I have a suspicion that Amazon go out of their way to promote debut authors who sign up to KDP Select, but I have not much to base that on other than my own experience so far. I recommend KDP Select if you are publishing your first book at least. Check my older blog posts on how successful it was for me at first.
Anyway, I paid around $100 each to Kindle Nation Daily and World Literary Cafe for two one-day promotions, to promote my book being discounted from $2.99 to $0.99. They each kindly threw in an extra, by adding me to their partnered email sendouts, BookGorilla and BargainBooksy (respectively), since my eBook met their requirements.
So in effect I had 4 promos all running on the same day, August 1st 2013.
What were my results?
The Covert Academy did make it back into the Bestseller charts on Amazon, around #39 in SciFi Dystopia and #89 in SciFi Adventure, and in the top #5000 overall.
Not bad at all.
However, either because the promo finished at the end of the day and KND and WLC moved on to the next day's promos, my book stopped selling the next day. It's now slipping back down to where it sat before the promo, around #200,000 overall.
I also suspect that putting the price back to $2.99 put a lot of people off, and helped to cause the slip back down the charts.
Too long, didn't read: Advertising with Kindle Nation Daily and World Literary Cafe got my book in the bestseller charts again, but didn't last longer than one day.
And I didn't make my money back through sales either.
But I don't consider it a loss. More people got their hands on my book, hopefully the type who will read it, rather than the type who simply collect free books for their library.
One last note, I also signed up for a promo with The New Kindle Book Review. I got an email saying the date I'd booked was unavailable. I've sent several emails back asking to either change the promo type to another (and I'd pay the difference) or to just refund my money if that's not an option for them.
I haven't heard back at all. Not impressed. These guys ran a promo for me earlier in the year without any hassle, but this time they've taken my money and not done a thing. Very poor service. I recommend staying away from them!
UPDATE: They finally got back to me (almost a month later) and threw in a little bonus for my trouble. So no hard feelings and there's a happy ending eventually :)
I hope that helped you to decide on a promo for your book! Feel free to ask me any questions.
I'll be doing another blog post next week (see the "EDIT" below), because I got an interesting email from Amazon that has lead me to believe there is a loophole in their KDP royalty system that not many people know about. I'm putting it to the test now and will report back!
EDIT: The loophole does exist. It involves setting your list price's 35% royalty higher than your "Kindle Price", by price-matching through another sales channel. It works too.
(e.g. List Price= $5.99, 35% royalty= $1.74
Price match it to $0.99 and Amazon effectively pay you $0.75 per sale on top of the sale itself.)
The problem is, Amazon state that they pay 35% of the list price, not the price-matched Kindle Price (when using the 35% royalty).
But do NOT do it!
I got an email from Amazon asking politely for me to match my list price with my Kindle price, or they'd take it down themselves. We don't want that!
Still, Amazon probably ought to adjust their royalty terms and conditions to close that loophole. It's asking for trouble.
(e.g. What if someone listed their product at $200 and price matched it to $0.99 before Amazon caught on? They'd have to pay out $70 for each sale)
I'm not advocating this at all. Just pointing out an interesting flaw in the system!
My own list price is comfortably back at $0.99, and no harm done.
Cheers,
-Peter
I had enjoyed 2-3 solid months of sales starting back in Feb 2013, I have a suspicion that Amazon go out of their way to promote debut authors who sign up to KDP Select, but I have not much to base that on other than my own experience so far. I recommend KDP Select if you are publishing your first book at least. Check my older blog posts on how successful it was for me at first.
Anyway, I paid around $100 each to Kindle Nation Daily and World Literary Cafe for two one-day promotions, to promote my book being discounted from $2.99 to $0.99. They each kindly threw in an extra, by adding me to their partnered email sendouts, BookGorilla and BargainBooksy (respectively), since my eBook met their requirements.
So in effect I had 4 promos all running on the same day, August 1st 2013.
What were my results?
The Covert Academy did make it back into the Bestseller charts on Amazon, around #39 in SciFi Dystopia and #89 in SciFi Adventure, and in the top #5000 overall.
Not bad at all.
However, either because the promo finished at the end of the day and KND and WLC moved on to the next day's promos, my book stopped selling the next day. It's now slipping back down to where it sat before the promo, around #200,000 overall.
I also suspect that putting the price back to $2.99 put a lot of people off, and helped to cause the slip back down the charts.
Too long, didn't read: Advertising with Kindle Nation Daily and World Literary Cafe got my book in the bestseller charts again, but didn't last longer than one day.
And I didn't make my money back through sales either.
But I don't consider it a loss. More people got their hands on my book, hopefully the type who will read it, rather than the type who simply collect free books for their library.
One last note, I also signed up for a promo with The New Kindle Book Review. I got an email saying the date I'd booked was unavailable. I've sent several emails back asking to either change the promo type to another (and I'd pay the difference) or to just refund my money if that's not an option for them.
I haven't heard back at all. Not impressed. These guys ran a promo for me earlier in the year without any hassle, but this time they've taken my money and not done a thing. Very poor service. I recommend staying away from them!
UPDATE: They finally got back to me (almost a month later) and threw in a little bonus for my trouble. So no hard feelings and there's a happy ending eventually :)
I hope that helped you to decide on a promo for your book! Feel free to ask me any questions.
I'll be doing another blog post next week (see the "EDIT" below), because I got an interesting email from Amazon that has lead me to believe there is a loophole in their KDP royalty system that not many people know about. I'm putting it to the test now and will report back!
EDIT: The loophole does exist. It involves setting your list price's 35% royalty higher than your "Kindle Price", by price-matching through another sales channel. It works too.
(e.g. List Price= $5.99, 35% royalty= $1.74
Price match it to $0.99 and Amazon effectively pay you $0.75 per sale on top of the sale itself.)
The problem is, Amazon state that they pay 35% of the list price, not the price-matched Kindle Price (when using the 35% royalty).
But do NOT do it!
I got an email from Amazon asking politely for me to match my list price with my Kindle price, or they'd take it down themselves. We don't want that!
Still, Amazon probably ought to adjust their royalty terms and conditions to close that loophole. It's asking for trouble.
(e.g. What if someone listed their product at $200 and price matched it to $0.99 before Amazon caught on? They'd have to pay out $70 for each sale)
I'm not advocating this at all. Just pointing out an interesting flaw in the system!
My own list price is comfortably back at $0.99, and no harm done.
Cheers,
-Peter
Retroactive Fracture
Everyone likes free stuff, so I decided to split up The Covert Academy into thirds, offering Recruitment Drive permanently FREE!
Freshman is $0.99 and Graduation Day is $1.99
At the moment the entire thing is still $0.99 on Amazon because they were price matching my previous sale, but it will be going back to $2.99 as soon as they notice the update, which should be within the week.
That will bring it into line with the price of all three parts. But then what's the incentive to get the whole thing in one go up front?
Well, the complete version of The Covert Academy now includes Scout's Honour for free! That's some sweet value.
If you haven't yet got Scout's Honour, but you already have The Covert Academy through Amazon, you can get it by updating your book through "Manage Your Kindle" in your Amazon account settings. Set your Kindle to update books automatically or just update this one and it should work.
My sincere apologies if you've bought them both separately and feeling short-changed... it's my first time...
Scout's Honour is still exclusive to Amazon until early October, when I will publish it elsewhere for you non-Kindle toting folks.
Anyway, you can get the three separate parts on Smashwords and Amazon right now, they should be coming to the other stores soon too.
One last note, Recruitment Drive is not yet free on Amazon. If you could do me the favour of asking them to price match it to the Smashwords edition (https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...) that would be grand.
Cheers,
-Petes
Freshman is $0.99 and Graduation Day is $1.99
At the moment the entire thing is still $0.99 on Amazon because they were price matching my previous sale, but it will be going back to $2.99 as soon as they notice the update, which should be within the week.
That will bring it into line with the price of all three parts. But then what's the incentive to get the whole thing in one go up front?
Well, the complete version of The Covert Academy now includes Scout's Honour for free! That's some sweet value.
If you haven't yet got Scout's Honour, but you already have The Covert Academy through Amazon, you can get it by updating your book through "Manage Your Kindle" in your Amazon account settings. Set your Kindle to update books automatically or just update this one and it should work.
My sincere apologies if you've bought them both separately and feeling short-changed... it's my first time...
Scout's Honour is still exclusive to Amazon until early October, when I will publish it elsewhere for you non-Kindle toting folks.
Anyway, you can get the three separate parts on Smashwords and Amazon right now, they should be coming to the other stores soon too.
One last note, Recruitment Drive is not yet free on Amazon. If you could do me the favour of asking them to price match it to the Smashwords edition (https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...) that would be grand.
Cheers,
-Petes
Kindle Matchbook, I'm in.
All my books are now signed up with Kindle Matchbook!
They're now free if you choose to buy the paperback version.
Scout's Honour
The Covert Academy
Amazon sure don't give up on their constant innovation do they? Gotta love it!
They're now free if you choose to buy the paperback version.
Scout's Honour
The Covert Academy
Amazon sure don't give up on their constant innovation do they? Gotta love it!
The State of my Writing
Far past time I wrote a new blog post here!
I recently published The Covert Academy through Smashwords, finally taking down the three separated versions (Recruitment Drive, Freshman, and Graduation Day) to make room for the original complete one.
At first I put it up for free, but since changed it to $0.99 after a week or so, but now Amazon has caught on and price matched it to free as well!
I have no way to confirm this, since living in New Zealand means that Amazon's regional pricing still shows the price as $1.00, which is somewhat frustrating. I might need to invest in a VPN.
On a positive note, The Covert Academy shot back up the charts as a freebie to the Top 10 in all its subcategories! Woohoo! Thanks everyone, I hope you enjoy the read!
As for my next book, while I blitzed through the first draft to finish before Christmas 2013, I have not done much editing since then (around 1/3 of the way through the 2nd edit).
This is because I'm constantly on the job hunt at the moment. So if anyone wants to give me a grant to finish the sequel to The Covert Academy, you're more than welcome haha!
I've got a few tricks up my sleeve as far as my money problems are concerned, so hopefully I will be able to get back to writing very soon!
Stay tuned,
-Pete
I recently published The Covert Academy through Smashwords, finally taking down the three separated versions (Recruitment Drive, Freshman, and Graduation Day) to make room for the original complete one.
At first I put it up for free, but since changed it to $0.99 after a week or so, but now Amazon has caught on and price matched it to free as well!
I have no way to confirm this, since living in New Zealand means that Amazon's regional pricing still shows the price as $1.00, which is somewhat frustrating. I might need to invest in a VPN.
On a positive note, The Covert Academy shot back up the charts as a freebie to the Top 10 in all its subcategories! Woohoo! Thanks everyone, I hope you enjoy the read!
As for my next book, while I blitzed through the first draft to finish before Christmas 2013, I have not done much editing since then (around 1/3 of the way through the 2nd edit).
This is because I'm constantly on the job hunt at the moment. So if anyone wants to give me a grant to finish the sequel to The Covert Academy, you're more than welcome haha!
I've got a few tricks up my sleeve as far as my money problems are concerned, so hopefully I will be able to get back to writing very soon!
Stay tuned,
-Pete
