Who Knew?! What I Learned About Amazon

I, too, half hate the behemoth but it's a necessary evil for authors...

Dec 13, 2024

Guess what I just learned about Amazon? You can sell books there.

I am only half joking.

Over the last few months, I’ve tried a lot of different marketing tactics, some free and some paid. I discovered what worked best was putting my murder mystery novel, Confess and Die, on a free Kindle promotion for a few days. I was alarmed and more than pleased at the results. Take a look:

You did that!!! Because of your support, I hit #1 and #2 in two categories. Granted, this was in the free section of Amazon, but I’d tried free giveaways on other sites and nothing even came close to these results.

Also, I have to give a huge THANK YOU to Hans and the Based Book Sale, along with my friends, Steve Stark and RH Snow, and all the other amazing Based authors who were involved in the promotion. This was another great success and my sci-fi book, Taming of the Fire Sword, sold enough copies to land me just inside the top 20. I am so lucky to be part of such an amazing and supportive community of talented writers.

The Taming of the Fire Sword ebook is still .99 cents and I’ll keep it at that price through Christmas, so you still have a chance to pick it up if you haven’t already.

Works in Progress

Let me explain how this is going in one meme:

I have a draft completed of the first 4 books in my Space Opera saga and I was halfway through the 5th and last book when I realized something. The 5th book SUCKED!

This was not a normal, first-draft level of suck. I lost my way to the point where giant killer bats, magical T-Rexes and gravitational “fizzy lifting drinks” were turning my masterpiece into a farce. I kept adding one bad idea after another.

I had to scrape it and start over. It put me behind schedule, however, I really love the whole series again and all those terrible plots are gone (sorry Mr. T-Rex). The problem now is, I’ve been afraid to write on it for fear of messing it up again.

So, I decided to take a break from the sci-fi saga and write another short 1950s murder mystery to refresh my creative juices. Writing that has been fun and I hope to complete it quickly and fast-track the release. After that, it’s back to saving the galaxy.

I Wish You A Merry Christmas

This is one of my favorite times of the year. As many of you know, I have a different Christmas outfit for every day of December. Yes, I’m one of those.

May your holidays be filled with fun, family & friends, and memories that will keep you warm on frosty winter days. Peggy Lee sings it best: