When my friend Jacqueline Diamond made her novel Leaps and Bounds free she
had over 30 thousand downloads. Since I want to do everything just like Jackie,
I wanted to do that, too. But I didn’t want to use a book in my Rose Arbor
series and since I was frustrated with my current work in progress, Losing
Penny, I decided to revamp Hailey’s Comments, a novel I had written about five
years ago. Hailey was a quarter finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Writing contest, and was reviewed by Publisher's Weekly, so I have some faith in it. My goal was to spit and polish Hailey’s Comments, run a three to
five day free promo and then put it in
the kindle select program.
Hailey is currently being edited and I’m pretty close to achieving
my goal, but, sadly, the rumor is things have changed. According to online author
forums, authors aren’t getting the traction out of Amazon select promos that
they once were. Downloads are dwindling due to the glut of freebies. I see a
window of opportunity slowly closing…I can’t hurry the editing process and even
after Hailey comes back from the editor, after I’ve gone through it not once,
but twice (which I’ve learned from sad experience is necessary and even then it’s
usually not as clean as I’d like) to be listed on many of the online promo
sites Hailey will need reviews—the more the better. And that can’t be hurried
either. It takes about 7 hours to read my novels. Asking someone to read and
review my book in a chop, chop fashion…well, I won’t do it.
After a restless, sleepless night I’ve decided to make
Stealing Mercy, because:
She’s been edited repeatedly—every time anyone has caught an
error and let me know, I’ve fixed the problem.
Although Rose Arbor is mentioned in the side story of
Stealing Mercy, I didn’t include it in the Rose Arbor series because the bulk
of the story takes place in 1889 Seattle, about twenty years before the incorporation
of Arlington, Washington—my home town which I’ve fictionalized into Rose Arbor.
Stealing Mercy has a 4.5 star average and twelve reviews,
making her eligible on many, if not most, promo sites. And here’s the kicker—friends
that I asked to read and review Stealing Mercy almost all gave her a 4 star
rating. Random readers who found and read the book on their own gave her 5
stars. I think that my friends are 1. Mostly writers and therefore not the
average readers and 2. Wanted to be unbiased. While random readers who took the
time to review it, honestly loved it—or why else review it? Those are the
reviews I want—the kind I can’t ask for, the kind I can only hope for.
I can’t fully execute my plan because I can’t place Stealing
Mercy in the kindle select program. It has the first chapter of A Ghost of a
Second Chance at the end and that is a kindle select no-no. I could try and
remove it, but I’m not going to.
I have a new game plan. I’ve discounted Stealing Mercy to
free on Smashwords. It may take weeks for it to trickle to the other venues and
for Amazon to price match. I have a list of promo sites that I’ll contact as
soon as I see that Mercy is free on Amazon. She’ll remain free until Hailey’s
Comments is ready for the world and the kindle select program (meaning she’s
been edited and reviewed numerous times.) Losing Penny will go to the editor at the end of the
month. While Penny is at the editor, I plan on uploading my young adult novel,
Beyond the Fortune Teller’s Tent (written two years ago) a few chapters at a
time on Wattpad.
It’s a hefty game plan switch. There might be detours and
distractions, like a son returning from a mission and starting college, my twin
daughters’ graduating from high school and starting college, a trip to China
and heaven only knows what else.
Please wish me well…and let me know what you’re up to so
that I can wish you the same.
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