Giving stuff away for fun and profit

Whether authors are publishing their own books or they're with a traditional house, a central concern is how to get more books sold and into the hands of readers. And that's exactly what I'm obsessing about lately. Since the spring when I released STONES OF ABRAXAS and its sequel HEROES OF ABRAXAS under my Kissing Frog Books imprint, I've been trying to figure out how to effectively promote them. And what I've discovered is that promoting a self-pubbed book is even more of an uphill battle than getting a traditionally published book out there.

I've had a few books traditionally published (including the original edition of STONES OF ABRAXAS in 2006), but I've never done the self-pub thing before. So I did some research and asked other authors who've been successful with publishing their own books. The authors all generously gave me advice that worked for them. I implemented their advice, everything from using social media (including this very blog here), to trying to get reviews, to setting the price for the first ebook in my Abraxas series at free so people will get hooked and want to buy the next book. Then I sat back and waited for the royalty checks to roll in. I'm still waiting.

I had especially high hopes for the tactic of setting the price of the STONES OF ABRAXAS ebook at free, since it's worked so well for many other authors. So I priced it as free at Smashwords, then found out I can't make it free at Amazon's Kindle store unless I join the Kindle Select program. On its surface, Kindle Select sounded great because among other things your book is part of a lending library program and you earn royalties every time it's downloaded through the library. But I learned that the problem with Kindle Select is that you have to promise to exclusively publish your ebook through them for at least 90 days. I didn't like the idea of shutting out other booksellers, so I published my books for Kindle, but didn't enroll in Kindle Select.

Did that mean I couldn't set the STONES ebook price at free? Not necessarily, according to fellow YA author, Megg Jensen. She told me that Amazon wants people to let them know if a book is available for less than their price at another website. So I let them know it was free at Smashwords. That was a month or two ago, but it hasn't changed yet at Amazon. Not to worry, says Megg. She said that I might have to make a nuisance of myself until the price eventually gets changed. So Nuisance Land, here I come.

That's where I'm at right now as far as trying to promote my three self-pubbed books. If anyone has any suggestions that might help further, please let me know. Obviously, I can use all the help I can get.

You Now Have Timeline

"You Now Have Timeline." Are there any more dreaded words in the Internet universe? For people who are into social networking, these words can inflict the same horror as "You're being audited." Given a choice, everyone would much rather hear "It looks like triplets."

Today started out fine, until I made the mistake of checking out Facebook. That's when I saw the message. My nice, neat, easy-to-understand profile is being forcibly relocated to the Evil Land of Timeline. It's a barren wasteland where it's impossible to understand who your friends are or what they're doing. You don't know what you like and what you don't. Your pictures are lost in the ether. And you have no choice about any of it.

I knew it was hopeless, but I still went to Facebook's help topics looking for some glimmer of hope that maybe I could prevent the inevitable. I searched in vain using topics like, "Get rid of Timeline," "Timeline sucks," and "Why do you hate me?" But there weren't any topics to help me. If those topics exist, they're locked up in Timeline where it's impossible for anyone to find them.

So my question is "Why?" Why would anyone purposely make something suck this badly? And it's not like FB is unaware that people hate Timeline. I sent them an email and commented that I’m no doubt the one billionth person to complain about it. That's probably an understatement. The idea of taking something that people think is OK and turning it into something incomprehensible that your customers despise doesn't make sense. It's like if McDonald's got rid of its hamburgers and started only selling ground-up cabbage patties. They wouldn't. There would be no point. So why Timeline? Why inflict the social media equivalent of ground cabbage patties on the world of FB users?

If anyone has any answer to that question, please let me know. Because right now I'm forced to conclude that this is an elaborate practical joke designed to find out how much obnoxious crap the public will put up with. You know, along the lines of red-light cameras and info-mercials that offer to give you something "free" as long as you pay a "separate handling" charge.

Signing off in the Evil Land of Timeline,

Kim

Olympic Athletes Need Love, Too

In a never-ending attempt to avoid working on one of several manuscripts that I should be dealing with, I've been watching the Olympics. Who knew that professional trampolining (is that a word?) exists outside of the circus industry. Anyway, with the upcoming release of the relationship book I wrote with my aunt Louise Helene, I SAW YOUR FUTURE AND HE'S NOT IT: A PSYCHIC'S GUIDE TO TRUE LOVE, I got to thinking about whether any Olympic athletes have met their spouses through the Games. Turns out, there are a number of them. And apparently I'm not the only one wondering about this question because I found a photo segment that the Huffington Post just had on the same topic: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/24/olympic-marriage_n_1655143.html

Of the couples listed, the one that surprised me most was Olympic gold-medal gymnasts Nadia Comaneci and Bart Conner. I had no idea they'd gotten married. Even if you're too young to have seen Nadia earn multiple scores of perfect 10 in the 1976 Games, you've probably heard about her. And American Bart Conner won men's gymnastic gold at the 1984 Olympics.

I was intrigued by Nadia and Bart, so I did a little research about them. It seems their romance wasn't exactly love at first sight and smooth sailing forever after. They met for the first time at a gymnastics competition several months before the 1976 Olympics. A 14-year-old Nadia won a gold medal for the women, and Bart, who was 18 years old at the time, won the men's medal. They stood next to each other on the award platform, and a photographer suggested Bart give Nadia a kiss. He did, but if sparks flew, it would be a long time before anyone found out about it.

Nadia went on to endure a great deal of turmoil in her home country of Romania, which was ruled by the oppressive Communist regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu. In 1989, she fled Romania for the United States. Once there, she made contact with old friends, including Bart Conner. The two of them became engaged in 1994 and married in 1996. Twenty years after they first met.

That happily-ever-after story puts a huge, goofy grin on my face. I hope you like it, too.
Kim

I SAW YOUR FUTURE for pre-order!

I'm thrilled to report that my upcoming nonfiction book I SAW YOUR FUTURE AND HE'S NOT IT: A PSYCHIC'S GUIDE TO TRUE LOVE is available for pre-order at Llewellyn Publishing as well as lots of other book sellers! Click here to view.

This fun and inspiring book was co-written with my aunt, the psychic advisor Louise Helene. She has spent years advising clients in their romantic dilemmas, and now she's sharing her expertise with readers around the world.
I SAW YOUR FUTURE will be released January 8, 2013, and if you order now, it will be shipped to you as soon as it's available.
Happy reading!
Kim

New cover art for I Saw Your Future and He's Not It

My editor at Llewellyn Publishing just sent out the brand spanking new cover art for my upcoming relationship book I SAW YOUR FUTURE AND HE'S NOT IT: A PSYCHIC'S GUIDE TO TRUE LOVE. It's my first foray into adult nonfiction, and I co-wrote it with my aunt, the psychic advisor Louise Helene. It will be available for pre-sale later this summer, but I had to share this cool cover right away.
Stay tuned for more details!
Kim

Bigfoot: Coming to a neighborhood near you!

A family of Bigfoots (Bigfeet?) is living in my town. At least that's what my local newspaper says. It ran a story yesterday that said someone had been out walking his dog in a forest preserve when he saw two huge, brown furry creatures disappear into the woods. These creatures were 8 to 10 feet tall, smelled rank, and one of them screamed. Best of all, the Bigfeet threw rocks at the guy and his dog. So they're big, stinky, and aggressive. The person reporting the incident described himself as a skeptic when it came to Bigfoot, so it wasn't like he had been out in the woods hoping to see a mythical creature.

How cool is that? Bigfoot – even better – a family of Bigfeet living down the block from me? And even if the story is false, then maybe I've got a prankster or drunk or delusional crackpot living down the block from me who's lurking in the woods at night. Either way, I win. And my property value should start to climb any day now.

I learned in the newspaper story that there are way more Bigfoot sightings every year than I would have ever imagined. They're not all in the Northwest, either. They're spread around the United States, including here in Illinois where I live. Some people report their Bigfoot sightings to the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization where data on these incidents is collected. That's how the newspaper found out about the sighting near my house; the witness had reported it anonymously at the organization's website.

Stan Courtney, a Bigfoot researcher from Illinois, said Bigfeet like heavily wooded areas. They're also fond of bike paths and railroad tracks for walking. After all, who wants to blaze a trail through the brush if you don't have to? At Courtney's website www.StanCourtney.com he also noted the tendency of Bigfoot creatures to leave gifts. Of course, Bigfoot's idea of a gift (a skunk tail or rocks) might not be the same as most humans', but it's the thought that counts.

As much as I want to believe that legends like Bigfoot are for real, I have one big objection to them: Where are the bodies? If Bigfoots are wandering across the country, then somebody must have found a body by now. Unless they're immortal, which seems unlikely since nothing they seem related to (humans, monkeys) is immortal. Or maybe the TV show Grimm had it right in their Bigfoot episode. The creatures are actually humans that transform like werewolves, but they revert to human form when they die. But that seems strange, too, because we don't know of any other animals that do that.

The newspaper interviewed our county's forest preserve director to see if his office knew anything about Bigfoot sightings. He said no, although there's somebody in the office who fantasizes about dressing up in a Bigfoot costume. Yick. That's a subject for a whole different kind of blog. He also said that the person who spotted the Bigfeet was breaking the law by being in a forest preserve after dark. Really? Leave it to a bureaucrat to suck all the wonder out of life.

So am I living next door to a family of Sasquatch? Maybe. Which means I've got to be alert to things like skunk tails left on my property, rocks being thrown in my direction, and horrible stenches. Of course, those things would have gotten my attention before. Only now I know their true source. Cue Twilight Zone music.

Kim

I Saw Your Future

Terrific news: I have a contract with Llewellyn Publishing to release my first nonfiction book for adults! I Saw Your Future and He's Not It: A Psychic's Guide to True Love was co-written with my aunt, psychic advisor Louise Helene. For more than 30 years, she's consulted with clients around the world, particularly talking to women about love and relationship problems.

You might be thinking, "But, Kim, you write young adult fiction. What's with the nonfiction book for adults?" Well, the fact is that I'm a sucker for a good story, and this book is full of fascinating ones that my aunt has heard from her clients over the years. Some are hilarious, some heart-breaking, and some will just make you say "aaawww". This book has something for everyone, whether you're in a relationship or not, and whether you're into supernatural phenomena or not. It's entertaining, lively, and informative. You'll love it!

Our publisher is working on cover art for I Saw Your Future and He's Not It right now, and I'll post it here as soon as it's ready. The book will be available for pre-sale at Llewellyn Publishing's website and at booksellers starting in July or August. It will be released January 8, 2013, just in time for Valentine's Day.

My aunt and I really enjoyed the opportunity to work together on writing the book, and now we're looking forward to the fun of promoting it. I'm even sharpening my book-signing pen. Sadly, pens aren't supposed to be sharpened, so now I've got ink all over my fingers. OK, I'm going to sign off and wash my hands.

Happy publishing!

Kim