R.J. Crayton's Blog, page 9

Life First on ManyBooks Today

Life First is listed as a deal today over at ManyBooks.net.

The book went perma-free earlier this year, and if you haven’t read it yet, then now’s a great time to pick it up.  Life First is the first of a three-book series, which also includes Second Life and Third Life: Taken.

If you’ve already read the Life First series, don’t fret, there’s more to read. Be sure to grab my newest Virus book series, which includes Concealed, Exposed and Contained (August release), or the new stand alone paranormal book, Scented.

Big Book Giveaway – Featured Book: The Master’s Plan

At the beginning of the month, I mentioned I was part of the Big Book Giveaway. As a featured author, we’ve been asked to feature one or two of the books being offered in the giveaway. Today, I thought I’d feature a book I thought you might enjoy.  If you don’t win the giveaway, please consider grabbing this book anyway.

The Master’s Plan, A Novel

By Stephany Tullis

52 reviews, 4.5 star average (Amazon)

SB is not your typical preacher’s wife. She struts her stuff in five inch stilettos, tossing a honey blonde lion’s mane Beyoncé would envy.

Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist Church members are less than enchanted with their Pastor’s new wife, and his daughter blames him for marrying much too soon after her mother’s sudden death.

Weary of dodging her daughter-in-law’s southern comfort punches, SB launches her master plan, a plan of life purpose where she depends on the Lord to order her steps and save her marriage. But her best-laid plans go awry when her husband suddenly goes missing, and a local politician devises a plan to suit them both – and get himself elected to the state legislature.

Unusual and atypical relationships form between government and church officials. Old and new friends, past and present family, make The Master’s Plan a ‘must read’ for everyone struggling to find purpose! (Ebook available FREE for Kindle Unlimited Subscribers)

 

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You can enter the giveaway through the end of the month.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Unconventional Thinking

Rodin’s The Thinker (source: Pixabay)

A few years ago, when Angry Birds were super popular, my children decided to craft a slingshot and pig hovel to shoot down. (For those unfamiliar with Angry Birds, you use a slingshot to shoot angry birds at things constructed by pigs.)

My kids’ slingshot (made of paper towel tubes and string, I think) was ineffective and my daughter was suggesting some things to my son that might improve the slingshot. At this point, he just turns to her and says, “Let’s just throw the bird.”

While one school of thought says giving up on the slingshot shows a lack of fortitude and stick-to-it spirit, giving up on the slingshot also shows unconventional thinking.

I bring this up because I think sometimes people stick with an approach because they don’t want to be a quitter. But, that’s sorta like saying, “I’m never gonna quit smoking because Momma didn’t raise no quitter.”

Some things deserve to be disregarded.  While others deserve to be fixed. In the field of self-publishing, people give all sorts of advice, and sometimes it can be uniformly applied (get your work edited) and sometimes it only works for certain people (you should produce one book a month).

When you’re looking at advice and problem solving, it’s not always going to work the way you want it to.  That means you can try tweaking the strategy you have or you can go nuclear, blow it up and do something entirely new.

The key in life is figuring out when to take the nuclear option vs. the tweak option. I think people are inherently reluctant to change, so the nuclear option generally is less appealing. But, don’t rule it out as quitting (the bad kind). Not all quitting is bad. When you quit because there’s logic involved, because it’s a strategic decision, because you’ve weighed all the options and quitting is best, then it’s a good decision. Quitting simply because you’re frustrated and just want a change (regardless of whether its good or bad), then that’s a bad kind of quitting. And quitting a strategy is a good thing, while quitting reaching for your overall goal is a bad thing. Because quitting a losing strategy is a good way to win.

So, when it comes to strategy, sometimes it’s good to think unconventionally. And sometimes it’s also good to reject unconventional thinking. The other day, I was working on my manuscript, and I said, “Ugg.” My son asked what was wrong, and I said, “I need to finish this story, but it’s just not coming together.”

“Just kill everybody,” he told me. “Then you’ll be done.”

So, I rejected that unconventional thinking, despite the lure of being finished.

And that is it for today. Have a good one.

Scented Available Today

My newest book, Scented, is available today.

I mentioned in a previous blog post that I was going to forego pre-orders in the near future, with the goal of getting content out quicker (if the book were up for pre-order, it wouldn’t be out for another week, likely). So, hopefully, it doesn’t feel like a total surprise that this book is here. It will be 99 cents today and tomorrow, just for you early purchasers. It will go up to $2.99 on Saturday. The book is also available in Kindle Unlimited for a free borrow. The blurb is below and you can read sample chapters online: in PDF on my site or  a web-based view on Wattpad.

Ashes to Ashes…. Dust to Dust…

When the sickening, unfamiliar scent wafted from his mother, Bryan had no idea why until misfortune struck the Harper home. Forced to say good bye to his deceased mother and distanced from his father. Bryan finds his new sense of smell is no gift, it’s a curse.

When Lauraline Reese walks into his life, Bryan begins to question everything he knows. He doesn’t know why she appeared, but there is one thing he is sure of his life is about to change. He just doesn’t know how…

At a young age Lauraline Reese escaped death, yet its specter still haunts her. Unable to let go of the feeling that death has not forgotten her, Lauraline finds it hard to find peace with the storm that almost took her life. With the specters of the past visiting the present, Lauraline finds herself doubting her sanity

When a familiar face delivers a vital message to Lauraline, Bryan finds himself in a race against death to set things right.

Can Bryan live a normal life despite his talent in scenting death? Or will he be forever marred by the curse of knowing when someone will die next?

Grab Scented on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01I2TJ5E2

 

Concealed 99 cents all weekend!

I’m part of this Patty Jansen SciFi promo. Several books are being advertised for 99 cents and Concealed is one of them. This promo starts today and officially runs through tomorrow. As an independence day bonus, I’ll leave Concealed 99 cents through July 4 (it’s patriotic, right?)

Also, today, July 2, is my brother Jamaal’s birthday. Happy b-day, little bro. You’ve improved with age.

The #BigBookGiveaway

Happy July to you.  All this month, the Big Book Giveaway will be running, and you can enter it. Two giveaway winners will receive 10 books each. This is a list of the book prizes.

Concealed by RJ Crayton

The Princess, the Pea and the Night of Passion by Rosetta Bloom

The Night Watchman Express by Alison DeLuca

Christmas O’Clock: an Anthology by Alison DeLuca et al.

Song of the Fairy Queen by Valerie Douglas

Crosscurrents by D.B. Sieders

Til Death Do Us Part by Stephanie Ayers

The Taming by A. M. Rycroft

The Photograph by Grant Leishman

Silent Slaughter by C.E. Lawrence

The Witch’s Kiss by Tricia Schneider

The Master’s Plan, A Novel by Stephany Tullis

Graveyard Shift by Angela Roquet

Blood Moon by Angela Roquet

Kitten Kaboodle by Kathi Daley

Rook (Allie’s War) by J.C. Andrijeski

Black in White by JC Andrijeski

You can enter the giveaway via Rafflecopter until July 31.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Lesson Learned on Vacation – #BigHeartsWin

I was on vacation last week, at the Outer Banks of North Carolina. I had a lovely time with the family. (Thankfully, I didn’t read this article about what happens to whale urine until I returned home!)

Now that I’m back, I thought I’d impart one quick life lesson I learned on the sand.  You see, I made a heart for my daughter, here:

It was a lovely heart, and she literally stepped on it, leaving me feeling a bit sad, and the heart half destroyed. But, the next day, I made a bigger heart. And even though she still stepped on it, it was alright. Big hearts tend to be more resilient. And this time, she even helped me fix it.  So, just remember, big hearts are always better.

Have a great week.

Self-Publishing Sunday: You Gotta Do You

What do you see when you look in your author mirror? (Source: Pixabay)

One of the things I do here on Sundays is offer advice and tips on self-publishing. But the truth of the matter is, no matter what I say, you’ve got to live with what you do. Therefore, you’ve got to make the choice about which advice to take and which advice to shelve.

Today, I thought I’d talk about you doing you. Because, ultimately, in self-publishing, what happens in your career has to be about what you can live with.

I initially got the idea to write this post because an author in an online group I’m in mentioned using a sales tactic I thought was a bit shady. (I won’t explain it, because–again–I think it’s shady, and I don’t want others copying it).  However, nothing the author did was illegal. It just left a bad feel, in my humble opinion.

After watching what transpired, I vowed I wouldn’t use a similar tactic because I thought it was wrong. Even though the tactic worked out well for the author I mentioned, that’s not the kind of author I want to be.

I don’t want this to turn into a referendum on right and wrong tactics, but I do think it reminds us all that at some point, we need to sit down and figure out what kind of author we want to be. As you learn more, the types of strategies you employ will be different, but the kind of author you want to be, at your core, will likely endure.  Once you figure out what kind of author you want to be (even if it’s something as simple as the kind that tells a really good, entertaining story), you can find strategies that help you succeed at being that kind of author. And disregard strategies that don’t.

There are a lot of authors out there that say writing and publishing quickly always result in poor-quality work. But, if that’s the kind of author you are, then disregard that advice, because it’s not for you. There are authors out there who would suggest you write get-rich-quick type of books and stick them in Kindle Unlimited for a quick buck. If that’s the kind of author you want to be, then that’s your advice. If that’s not the kind of author you want to be, then steer clear. There are writers who suggest releasing an entire series on the same day (three or four books), while others suggest pacing them out, and still others who suggest stand alones only. There are people who say don’t write short books, but there are some authors out there making a killing with this type of work. Why? Because those authors did what works for them. The thing about advice is some of it may work for you or none of it. But, you’ve got to figure out the kind of writer you want to be and take the advice that jibes for you and your own personal code.

If it doesn’t jibe, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bad advice (though I’d tend to advise most people to stay away from “get rich quick schemes”), it just means it’s bad advice for you.

So what kind of author do you want to be? Have you figured out how best to do you?

Self-Publishing Sunday: Pre-Orders

Today I thought I’d talk a bit about pre-orders. Just so we’re on the same page, pre-orders are when you set up your book ahead of time so fans can order it before it’s published.

This was a pretty big win for self-published authors, because for the longest time, companies like Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Apple, didn’t allow self-publishers to set up their books for pre-order. The fact that we’ve got this now is really awesome.

To ensure that self-publishers actually have a book together and ready for customers, companies want your file in advance of the publication date. Amazon requires it 10 days in advance, while other companies, have different lead times. This is really a fair compromise. While I’m one hundred percent rock solid when I say I’m going to do something, I know not everyone is like that. To prevent a bad customer experience, Amazon actually has a penalty for failing to turn in your pre-order. If you don’t turn it in by the 10-day advanced marker, Amazon cancels your pre-order and bans you from the privilege for a year. (Again, I think that’s totally fair, as Amazon needs to provide reliability to customers.)

While I love the availability to create pre-orders, I’ve decided I’m going to stop doing them. Why? Because I’m trying a new approach of writing quicker and publishing quicker. And when you’re writing a lot and publishing a lot, the advanced timing required of pre-orders can throw a monkey wrench in things. I’m barely getting things done on the timeline I set for myself, so the idea of adding in an extra 10 days just doesn’t appeal to me.

I’d planned to set up my new book, Scented, as a pre-order for July 6 publication. But, that’s really going to squeeze me on time, if I want to make sure the best version goes out. I could push back the release date, or simply skip the pre-order.  To me, skipping the pre-order made the most sense.

The other reason to skip the pre-order is because I’m not getting a ton of them. While I absolutely LOVED getting pre-orders for my book, they were inconsistent. This is only an issue because Amazon ranks your pre-order for book sales. If you get only a few pre-orders, or they all come two weeks before the book is released, rather than trickle in, your book, will end up with a pretty low sales rank on release day.

Now, if you’re getting a ton of pre-orders, I think it’s a very good strategy to use. It gives you some nice momentum for your book and allows fans to buy. I’ve got a little bit of time before I plan to release Contained, the final book in the Virus series, so if the timing works out, I might do a pre-order for it. But, again, it really depends on the timing, and what else I’m working on.

When you do pre-orders at some of the other vendors, the rank all accumulates on release day, so when pre-orders trickle in, that doesn’t matter. So, ifyou’re releasing wide, a pre-order at some locations may work well for you, though.

So, what are your thoughts on pre-orders? Yay or nay?

Exposed is out Today

Happy Tuesday to you. Just a quick word to let you know that Exposed, the second book in my Virus series, released today. This book continues the saga of Elaan, Lijah and Josh. It’s a fun book and I hope you enjoy it. I’m very excited to have it out in the world today.

The book is in Kindle Unlimited, so it’s free for subscribers to borrow and $2.99 to buy.

Check out Exposed on  Amazon.