I put my fantasy book, Ravenwood, into the Kindle Select program when it first came out. It might have done better if I’d had the other books in the series, but on the whole, the downside of having the book exclusive on Amazon didn’t offset the value of the “borrows” and exposure from Select.
So at the end of the period, I’ll be coming off that experiment and resuming sales of the Ebook everywhere. To mark the occasion, I’m doing something I’ve never done — making the book free for a few days. If you ever wanted to try it but didn’t want to drop the $5, here’s your chance.
UPDATE: After 11,500 downloads, the promotion ended (a bit abruptly, I thought) around Noon mountain time today (2/27). Thanks to all the people that took Ravenwood to #8 in Free Kindle.
This sounds really awesome. But you know what’s more awesome? This reminding me to buy the hard or soft covers of your books! They’ve been sitting in my amazon card and I finally have the money for it! YAY! Ravenwood, Half Share and Full Share. I already own Quarter Share. :D
Sounds like it’s gonna be a fun time in the Pawlak household! :D I’ve finally ordered Full Share so I must go and wait by the front door now…
Hello Nathan,
Glad that Ravenwood was so well received (purchased my copy on Halloween! great idea on that release). I’m unsure where I first heard of Quarter Share. I quickly read through it and the other Trader E-books, found your PodioBooks and also delighted in them as well. You have a great voice, oration, and found them well produced as well.
I was disappointed with the publishing delays, but as a person who is in business and suffered similar family problems, I’m Glad Ridan is putting quality first, few companies do.
I found Ravenwood and South Coast, just as captivating as the Trader series, and await future installments of them as well.
Clear Skies, Quack
I’m surprised that Amazon is not the primary source of your book revenue. I own more than 300 ebooks, and I have bought them all from Amazon because I am too lazy to try to figure out multiple ebook formats, and Amazon had the first user friendly ebook reader. I just figured everyone was like me:) I’d be curious to hear where your revenue is generated by percentage if you ever have time to write that blog post.
Captain,were you surprsised at how well Ravenwood did? I was cheering you on the whole time! Getting into the Top 10 Free is pretty darn awesome! Will this change your strategy at all for selling it and the Shares?
I was quite surprised.
And no, probably not change my overall strategy, but it’s certainly an interesting outcome.
I have really enjoyed the Trader series that are in print, and was lucky enough to get the free Ravenwood and look forward to the next one. I brught up the Trader series to one of the WorldCon panels, with the question, “why does it take so long to get into print books that have already been written?” I want to read the rest of the series! Their speculation was that the publisher wanted to space them out, but from your post that’s apparently not the case. Anyway, congratulations on your very readable and enjoyable books.
I loved RavenWood…downloaded it on my ipad.
will will be graced with more if Tanyth?
Books 2 and 3 are underway now. I’ve already got the new cover art for them.
Book 2 – Zypheria’s Call – is on the schedule for this month (I’m probably not going to make it, but I’m still trying.)
Book 3 – Hermit of Lammas Wood – is about one quarter of the first draft done (which is why I’ve had to go back to revise book 2 substantially!)
@Tom – It’s a question of through-put. The first books got pushed through rather quickly. This last one, not so much. It’s not a “decision” to delay. It’s the result of stuff that happens in spite of our best intentions.
I am genuinely enjoying Ravenwood and looking forward to the sequel. I appreciate the insight into Amazon Select. My goal at this point is to have my proceeds from my e-book cover the cost of my reading habit. I’m based in Helena, Montana, so I noted with interest your east of the Rockies locale. Truly a beguiling place to be in thrall to one’s favorite Muse, yes?
Indeed it is. :)
Thank you for the response. I’ll write again when I’m done with Ravenwood, so you don’t need to get back to me again. It’s apparent that you are REALLY busy–and quite an early riser. I have a day job, but am closing in on the magic moment when I receive Medicare so I can retire and do more writing. I have a short fiction item pending a local contest, so we’ll see what happens. :)
So, I did finish Ravenwood last night, and noted how nicely you wrapped it up for the sequels. I liked how well you did with Tanyth throughout, her voice, her strength and humor. OK, I’ll just ask–did you target my demographic because we are still such a large part of reading pool, or did Tanyth just emerge on her own? I got a little “mummed” out, but at this point it would probably take more energy than it would be worth to write around it–so I’m figuring you will just go with it. I liked the convention of calling the elder women “Mother,” whether they actually had kids or not–not even sure why exactly, but it did work for me. I’ve had rather a full life, dabbling in politics, raising kids and working for state government finally in finance. It becomes more and more of a struggle to get written off politically and opinion-wise, especially now that I really know what I’m talking about. That is why I’m so grateful to you at this juncture for Tanyth. I may need to get myself a collared staff.
@Sandy – that’s bit about calling all elder women “Mother” is a real custom of old. Consider your “Mother Goose Fairy Tales”.
Actually, Sandy, the work was a challenge from Mur Lafferty in 2009.
Mur challenged me to “win” NaNoWriMo in half the month — that is — write 50,000 words in two weeks instead of a whole month. When I accepted that challenge, other people piled on. Next, I had to write fantasy, not science fiction. It’s a related genre but outside my main comfort zone. I agreed because it was NaNoWriMo and a great time to experiment. After that, a long time beta reader said, “Ok. If you’re gonna write fantasy, write a woman instead of a man.” She’d been after me for years to do more with women characters and she piled that log on the fire.
So, the goal was — in 15 days, write 50,000 words of fantasy about a female lead character.
Oye.
In looking at the genre, what I saw was the Standard Fantasy Story.
1. Young person leaves everybody at home to carry the load and runs away to find fortune/adventure.
2. Young person finds power with puberty (generally coming into their “magic” along with their fertility).
3. Young person saves the world from ultimate evil.
4. Young person optionally tries to go home again and discovers that, while people might be glad to see them, the fact that you stuck them with the milking and wood cutting didn’t sit too well.
So.
I wanted to write a story that took the Standard Story and turned it upside down, while keeping the basic tropes.
1. Ok. Woman, but not a girl going into puberty. Instead of the Maiden-Mother passage, I picked the Mother-Crone passage. If the All Mother takes away one gift, she gives another. I thought there was a lot of rich ground there in terms of dealing with age, in dealing with perceptions.
2. Instead of leaving home, she’s trying to get home. Or a surrogate home. In this case Gertie Pinecrest’s place to get the last pieces of knowledge.
3. Instead of saving the world from ultimate evil, she’s trying to keep from going insane herself. The reality is that – for any given person – if *I* die, the world that I know ends. In a way it’s very selfish, but in another way, it’s very real and what makes these kinds of “small stories” interesting to me.
The result was Ravenwood. It was supposed to be a standalone book but it’s grown to be a trilogy. I’ve got book 2 well underway and book 3 started. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun to explore some of these ideas.
So, no. I didn’t have any demographic in mind. I was afraid, in fact, that I would alienate most women readers because … well … I’m a guy. Guy’s don’t write women well. My fear was that I wouldn’t do the ideas justice. So far, it’s going pretty well. :)
No kidding–the Muse has interesting advocates, doesn’t she..While thinking of your book yesterday, I realized that I wasn’t giving the Raven enough credit–I deduced, finally, that the Raven is personal creativity–it saves us and makes us crazy at the same time–we do morph don’t we..Finally, your gender challenge may have been passed on. My short fiction is about a young woman (it’s a love story)–I am struggling with whether to take it further. I still don’t know if I will, but if I do, it will be to develop the male “lead.” I’m finding him rather interesting already. Thank you so very much for detailing the process for me. Is there any chance I could pick up a class from you? Nothing I have written had me using the tenets you set out above, and yet oddly, my recent short fiction follows them. I guess all the reading imprinted something I wasn’t aware of. Yes, I would say that you did Tanyth justice and that things with her are going VERY well, and deservedly! All good wishes, Sandy
@Tara Li–Thank you for helping me remember the custom. My family came over from Sicily in the early 1900’s and it would interest me to know if there is a similar convention over there. I know that every other phrase was “mama mia,” or “Madonna mia,” so one wonders.
Nathan,
I just wanted you to know an opinion of a reader. To those that read SF, I personally would buy the book. I think five is cheap for a weeks read. Of course this is purely for my benefit. One of the fans.
John
Nathan,
As a reader, I may be impatient for the next book. Of course if you like to serve us with months of reading material for free, I think that is very altruistic of you, me I would rather pay the fiddler.
John