My book, The Coldest Equations, became live at Kindle three days ago. (I'm still waiting for it to come live at the Nook - I'll be giving them until Tuesday and if it isn't live, I'll email 'em and ask what's the deal! - they may well have all their folks on vacation, too!)
Anyway, initially I was going to do one marketing thing a day, to judge how effective each website/resource was. But then I grew impatient, and started doing 2 or 3 a day. So now of course if I do get a sale, I won't know which particular piece of advertising did the deed.
I do have 3 sales so far. One I knew was going to happen, the other two, I don't know where they came from.
I've announced the book on all my blogs, and at the KindleBoards, and that's it.
I would have liked to have announced it on the Amazon message boards, but Amazon in their infinite wisdom has decided that indy publishers are the scum of the earth, and not only can we no longer post announcements of our books in various threads, we also can't even have a link to a book in our sig line! No "shameless self-promotion" they tell us - and that phrase alone has got me furious. Amazon pushes its print authors relentlessly - the best -sellers who dont' need such pushing, and who have publishers who have the bucks to pay for advertising, and they begrudge us a measly sig line link? Bastards!
Anyway - 3 book purchases yesterday, none today. I'm hoping its because everyone is out and about for Memorial Day long weekend. Guess I'll find out on Tuesday...
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Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report
Friday, May 27, 2011
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
The Coldest Equations, by Caroline Miniscule
My latest book published for the Kindle is now available for purchase. (And within a couple of days, should be available for Barnes&Nobles Nook as well.)
It's science fiction.
Tracy Karlovassi, actress, is the star of the science fiction TV series The Coldest Equations, in which she plays Miranda Rainbird, security team leader for a corporation that deals in space travel. It is the near future, and these civilian corporations devoted to space travel have become little worlds of their own, with security agents protecting their own engineers and scientists from kidnap or spying, while at the same time spying on other corporations and attempting to kidnap their scientists and engineers.
Whenever a TV series on our earth is committed to celluloid, it is immediately created as an alternate earth, that exists just as much as our own does. And there are watchers -out there- who have devised a way to transport the actors from the TV series to their real life counterparts on the alternate earth, and vice versa.
In the TV series (and on the alternate earth) Miranda Rainbird has been framed for a crime she did not commit, and is on the run from both friend and foe. If it *were* Miranda Rainbird on the run, she could doubtless solve all her problems, skilled agent that she is. But Tracy Karlovassi has been transferred into her body...and what can a mere actress do?
It's fun, it's suspenseful, if you like classic science fiction TV and books, you'll like it. And best of all, it's only $2.99!
Available now. Go to the Kindle store via your kindle and search for The Coldest Equations, or follow this link:
http://www.amazon.com/Coldest-Equations-People-There-ebook/dp/B0052NSRKK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1306369228&sr=1-1
It's science fiction.
Tracy Karlovassi, actress, is the star of the science fiction TV series The Coldest Equations, in which she plays Miranda Rainbird, security team leader for a corporation that deals in space travel. It is the near future, and these civilian corporations devoted to space travel have become little worlds of their own, with security agents protecting their own engineers and scientists from kidnap or spying, while at the same time spying on other corporations and attempting to kidnap their scientists and engineers.
Whenever a TV series on our earth is committed to celluloid, it is immediately created as an alternate earth, that exists just as much as our own does. And there are watchers -out there- who have devised a way to transport the actors from the TV series to their real life counterparts on the alternate earth, and vice versa.
In the TV series (and on the alternate earth) Miranda Rainbird has been framed for a crime she did not commit, and is on the run from both friend and foe. If it *were* Miranda Rainbird on the run, she could doubtless solve all her problems, skilled agent that she is. But Tracy Karlovassi has been transferred into her body...and what can a mere actress do?
It's fun, it's suspenseful, if you like classic science fiction TV and books, you'll like it. And best of all, it's only $2.99!
Available now. Go to the Kindle store via your kindle and search for The Coldest Equations, or follow this link:
http://www.amazon.com/Coldest-Equations-People-There-ebook/dp/B0052NSRKK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1306369228&sr=1-1
Exploring the Nook
I had not been keeping track of Barnes& Nobles' Nook... now it turns out that they have the same kind of independent publishing program that Amazon does - except whereas Amazon gives you 70% as your top royalty, they only give you 65%. But, on a 99 cent book, they give you a 40% royalty, which is 10% better than what Amazon does.
Unfortunately, you are not allowed to price your book differently. I'd uploaded my Whose Body annotated to the Nook, and wanted to charge $1.99 instead of the 99 cents I'm charging on Amazon, just to see if people were willing to pay more for an annotated version. But after reading the TOS, I learned I couldn't do that. Prices had to be the same on any platform where the book was offered for sale.
Bummer!
_______________
Subscribe to our other blogs on Kindle:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report
Unfortunately, you are not allowed to price your book differently. I'd uploaded my Whose Body annotated to the Nook, and wanted to charge $1.99 instead of the 99 cents I'm charging on Amazon, just to see if people were willing to pay more for an annotated version. But after reading the TOS, I learned I couldn't do that. Prices had to be the same on any platform where the book was offered for sale.
Bummer!
_______________
Subscribe to our other blogs on Kindle:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report
Neither a borrow nor a lender be
I wish that I could follow that advice, but Amazon Kindle does not allow me to do so. Last night, I uploaded my new book The Coldest Equations to Amazon.com. I'd intended to charge $3.99 for it. I think that's a fair price.
Prior to that, though, I had wanted to explore the permutations of the lending feature. So I posted a thread in the Amazon Kindle forums, asking people if they purchased books they'd been leant. Most of them did not.
So, I did not want my book to be made available for lending.
Unfortunately, I did not have that choice. If you price your book at $1.99 or more, it is automatically made lendable, you can't opt out of it.
This makes no sense to me. Amazon has got to be losing money on this too, and in any event, they have no right to make such a draconian decision. It should be my choice whether or not I want somebody to be able to lend my book, not Amazons!
In the thread, a lot of people were telling me they'd probably buy a book from an unknown quantity for 99 cents, no more than that. And I refuse to price my book that low, and get a measly 30 cents per copy. Not after the amount of work I've put into it.
So I've priced it at $2.99.
Of course, Amazon is working to hamper independent publishers still further. It used to be that you could go to any Kindle message group and put in a plug for your book, and failing that, you could at least put a link to your book in your sig line.
No longer - now that's not allowed. There's only 1 place in these message boards where you're allowed to announce your book. That's ridiculous.
_______________
Subscribe to our other blogs on Kindle:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report
Prior to that, though, I had wanted to explore the permutations of the lending feature. So I posted a thread in the Amazon Kindle forums, asking people if they purchased books they'd been leant. Most of them did not.
So, I did not want my book to be made available for lending.
Unfortunately, I did not have that choice. If you price your book at $1.99 or more, it is automatically made lendable, you can't opt out of it.
This makes no sense to me. Amazon has got to be losing money on this too, and in any event, they have no right to make such a draconian decision. It should be my choice whether or not I want somebody to be able to lend my book, not Amazons!
In the thread, a lot of people were telling me they'd probably buy a book from an unknown quantity for 99 cents, no more than that. And I refuse to price my book that low, and get a measly 30 cents per copy. Not after the amount of work I've put into it.
So I've priced it at $2.99.
Of course, Amazon is working to hamper independent publishers still further. It used to be that you could go to any Kindle message group and put in a plug for your book, and failing that, you could at least put a link to your book in your sig line.
No longer - now that's not allowed. There's only 1 place in these message boards where you're allowed to announce your book. That's ridiculous.
_______________
Subscribe to our other blogs on Kindle:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Blog reports now available
Actually they've been available since last night.
It's kind of frustrating. I'll be receiving a relativley nice sum on the 29th (the day the payments are usually made), but that nice sum hasn't increased in 3 months - it's been the same each time.
Which means I'm not getting any new subscribers for my blogs...
And for one at least, I find that very difficult to believe. My Rush Limbaugh blog stays in the 4,000s every day. Occasionally it's gotten up as high as 12,000, meaning no one has subscribed to it for several hours, but within a couple more hours its down to 4,000.
Which means people are subscribing!
And while its perfectly possible that they subscribe, take a look at the blog and unsubscribe immediately, I find it difficult to believe that eveyrone does this. Yet the blog has been stuck on 470 subscribers (with 23 or so newbies) for over 3 months. So every new person who subscribes, immediately unsubscribes?
I just don't believe that.
But of course, there's no way to prove otherwise...
_______________
Subscribe to our other blogs on Kindle:Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report
It's kind of frustrating. I'll be receiving a relativley nice sum on the 29th (the day the payments are usually made), but that nice sum hasn't increased in 3 months - it's been the same each time.
Which means I'm not getting any new subscribers for my blogs...
And for one at least, I find that very difficult to believe. My Rush Limbaugh blog stays in the 4,000s every day. Occasionally it's gotten up as high as 12,000, meaning no one has subscribed to it for several hours, but within a couple more hours its down to 4,000.
Which means people are subscribing!
And while its perfectly possible that they subscribe, take a look at the blog and unsubscribe immediately, I find it difficult to believe that eveyrone does this. Yet the blog has been stuck on 470 subscribers (with 23 or so newbies) for over 3 months. So every new person who subscribes, immediately unsubscribes?
I just don't believe that.
But of course, there's no way to prove otherwise...
_______________
Subscribe to our other blogs on Kindle:Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report
Monday, May 16, 2011
Selling your books in Germany
The German market has recently opened up for us, and I'm still researching it. Will report here sometime this week on how to take advantage of this new market. (Germans are typically bi-lingual, and will buy English books, more often than an American will!)
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Welcome new subscribers
If you have a blog published on the Kindle, don't forget to email me at Nocturne_CVS@yahoo.com (I don't hotlink it, in an effort to deter spammerse) and have me review it for you.
_______________
Subscribe to our other blogs on Kindle:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report
_______________
Subscribe to our other blogs on Kindle:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report
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