Kristi’s Comments (group member since Jul 05, 2013)

Kristi’s comments from the The Suspense of It All! group.

Feeling like a rockstar tonight. I wrote +2700 words, plus did some research, AND got 2 hours proofing in for a customer.

Feels good to be writing again. I've let my proofing projects take over too much of my time. Still need to learn to budget time better, but these last couple days I've gotten a fair bit done. Yes!

Welcome, Season. I have seen you out and about on goodreads. (You have such a unique name it stands out!) Congrats on your release! It is such a thrill.

That looks great, Marta. I picked up my copy, I hope to be able to read it soon!

Thanks for sharing this promotion.

Not that I could tell. It was pretty disappointing on that front. But I did notice each of my books suddenly got on the Amazon Marketplace as 'new' after I shipped them to the winners. That makes me think some folks enter just so they can sell them.

Sorry, feels like I'm being a Debbie Downer, but it just didn't seem that effective for the expense.

Of course, it could just be my books. Who knows. :-/
(There's a lot of competition in the romance genre.)
I will be anxious to hear how you do.

I do recommend scrolling through the giveaways, to see what draws your eye. It also helps to have as many genres and subgenres tagged as you can, because those are less crowded than the big bucket that all the giveaways get lumped into. Choose your tags from the existing ones, because those will sort closer to the top of the genre list than if you create your own tag.

Like Fezzik says before they storm the castle: "I hope we win." ;-)

I have. I've done 4 of my own. Got a grand total of 2 reviews out of 25 books given away. So in future, I'll do 2-5 books, for a one week period, ending on an off day, like the 23rd or something. Most of my entries were on the first and the last day, and when I did one that ended on the 1st or 15th, it got buried.

They are best to build up the number of folks who have it on their TBR list.

You can be sure that if I win, I will do a review!

Cool! I just entered!

Charlene wrote: "I've just ordered both of your books, Kristi. Glad I found this group! ..."

Thanks, Charlene - I'm sure you will like them. I'm glad you found this group, too. :-)

Charlene wrote: "Just so there's no confusion, the only book I've written was a revision of my Ph. D. thesis in New Testament studies. I was commenting to the Charlene who's an author in this group's genre. I'm a..."

I did get confused. Sorry about that. I was on my tablet, and kinda glossed over the fact that I was reading two posts instead of one.

Thanks for the clarification! I may hit you up as a beta reader if I ever get my next book out. Unfortunately I have been doing too much of everything except writing, what with tax time right around the corner and life refusing to settle into some kind of a rhythm....

I had a banner event for book sales late last month, and I thought I'd share.

I submitted my books to EreaderNewsToday.com, to be part of their Bargain Book promotions.

They vet your work - you have to have at least 10 reviews, and an overall rating over 4 stars, and fit into their content guidelines - and if you fit, they'll put you on their website, and their facebook page.

For bargain books, you have to have your price set at .99 for the day of your promotion, and I think the day after, too. If you plan to lower your price just for their promotion, they give you advance warning so you can set it in time. They will also charge you 25% of the royalties from sales that come from clicking through their website on the day of and the day after the promotion.

Only you can decide if it is worthwhile to you.

The results, for me, were pretty astounding. Not for revenue, mind you, but for sales. I sold four times more books in four days than I sold in all of last year, including my first break into some international markets.

Now, my sales in 2013 were only just over 100 books, across all sales, direct and through (mostly) Amazon, so when I say 4x the sales, we're only talking 460, so if you're doing better than that, it may not be worth it to lower your price.

My two books were promoted two days apart, and I do know that I got a couple of reference sales, where the buyer bought one book, and came back and bought the other on the same or the next day. (I had mine both at .99 for about six days, total. One day before the first promotion, to two days after the second promotion.) I'm probably being clear as mud, here. The point of this is to say that those reference sales were not subject to the 25% fee.

I've had a few sales since the prices went back up - I think because my Amazon ranking was up so far. Before this promotion, I was ranked at over a million, and during the promotion, Blinding Justice topped out at around #2400, while Knight Before Dawn made it to #647 in overall paid Kindle Sales. I'm still #37 in the top 100 for Kidnapping for Blinding Justice, and #67,000 overall. I'm still ranked #17,600 overall for Knight, so there is some carryover.

(Note to self, I need to revisit my tags on Amazon.)

So for me, the sale was worth it, mainly in getting my work out in front of people. I am considering lowering my price to .99 permanently but I will wait to see if the sales continue at a moderate pace, or drop off completely.

I will definitely have a sale again, especially when I release my next book, to try to get some of those reference sales of the new book.

The only question I still have is that I notice one of my book's price hasn't returned to my regular price. The $3 price is showing as a slashed out "on sale from this price" type thing, but it is showing that it is 'on sale' for .99. I don't know what that means for my royalties. I think if I set the price, and Amazon discounts it, that doesn't affect my royalty, but if they are holding it as a 'price match', somehow, then I think I'm relegated to the 35% of .99 royalty. I don't know how to go about finding that out.

Anyway, take what you like from this post. I hope it helps.

Wow, Laura, The Devil's Playground sounds intriguing, and a rather unusual cast of characters. I will surely add it to my to read list.

And double wow, Cristin Harber, I guess I missed your post about Winters Heat because I do too much of this on my phone. :-( This looks like a winner, too. Thanks for sharing, ladies!

Welcome to you, too, Laura! I'll check your titles out, too.

Welcome, Charlene! I also write romantic suspense, heavy on the suspense. I look forward to interactions with you. We are always looking for new topics to engage in. As soon as I'm on my laptop I'll check out your titles.

H.d. wrote: "Just read Blind Justice this week! Highly recommend."

Thanks, H! Glad you liked it.

Both my books are on sale now through Saturday (or Sunday, for those of you on the other side of the date line.)

Blinding Justice features a cop framed for murder and the hot cowboy who is helping her clear her name and solve the mystery of why she was framed, while they are running for their lives through the streets of Denver. Lots of action.

Knight Before Dawn is a character driven story set in Alaska, which involves mistaken identity and kidnapping. A damsel in distress who doesn't exactly wait for her knight in shining armor to save her.

These are stand alone, HEA books, proper novels, (174 pages for Knight, and 229 for Justice.) They are getting pretty good reviews, so get your copies while they're still on sale!

You can get them on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or buy direct from my website. www.kristicramerbooks.com. If you go through my website, checkout is through PayPal, so it is secure, and you don't need a PayPal account to do it.

Thanks for taking a chance on me. You won't be disappointed!

I'm sorry I missed the sale. Am adding this to my TBR list!

That's quite a mix of (dare I say) accomplishments, Martyn. Sounds like you are on the mend, at any rate. But research time and promotion time are hard to come by and precious when you can have them uninterrupted, so it sounds like you are making the most of it.

Also, now you have another experience to fall back on when you are required to describe excruciating pain, right?

Welcome back! I know you saw my review of Reprobate. I will be reading Pecadillo at some point - I just don't know when as I am being kept busy with proofreading projects. Not that work is ever a bad thing!

Danielle wrote: "I'm formatting my book for paperback now. The ebook should be on Amazon today or tomorrow. I'll be glad when this is all taken care of. I'm ready to start the next book. :-)"

Awesome news!

Sounds interesting. Thanks for sharing.

I will check it out! (Sorry I'm so late in responding. Holidays you know....)

Thanks for the encouragement, ladies! I only got 376 words in tonight, but that makes two nights in a row, which is more than the last month or so. Of course, the holiday will put a crimp in that, I'm afraid.

That reminds me: Merry Christmas, and may all the suspense in your New Year be fictitious!