YA Indie Carnival ~ My Indie Idol

I'm moving in a few days, so I need to keep it simple this week. (Don't worry, wonderful readers, I'm working on Forever while boxing stuff up! I hope to give you a release date very soon.)

One of my indie idols is definitely John Locke. My husband purchased his book “How I sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months!”



I’ve been trying to do what he suggests, and one of those things is get lots of books out. I have three out now, and I have several more in the works. Of course this move isn’t helping my writing schedule much. Anyway, I was delighted when he started following me on Twitter the other day. Maybe many of you don’t know who he is, but for me it was like having a celebrity notice you! On his Twitter account he says, "I'm John Locke, the private investor and crime fiction writer, not the guy on Lost!" Hmm, now you'll know I never watched Lost because I know who John Locke the writer is, and not the guy on Lost.

I recommend his book for writers, and he just posted a great blog post for self-published authors...

“The world makes it hard enough for you to be successful, so you’re not going to see me piling on the negativity! Let others talk about the mountains. I’ll show you where the tunnels are! Others can talk about the raging rivers, I’ll point you toward the bridges! Yes, there are roadblocks in the land of self-publishing, but there are super highways, too.”~ John Locke

To read the whole thing, go here. www.lethalbooks.com

I have been disappointed with my US sales during the summer, but my UK sales have picked up. I don’t understand why. Even so, my sales have been great enough that I’m not going to lower my expectations. Going indie is still one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

I recently joined YA Indie Carnival and I'm really enjoying it. I'm linked in with a bunch of really great people. If you're looking for some entertaining YA reading, please check out any one of these blogs:

The Fuji Mermaid Dani Snell's Refracted Light Reviews
Leopard Girl Patti Larsen Author of The Ghost Boy of MacKenzie House, The Hunted Series and the Hayle Coven Novels.
Fire Breather Courtney Cole Author of Every Last Kiss, Fated, Princess, and Guardian. Also a contributing author in The Glassheart Chronicles.
The Magician Wren Emerson Author of I Wish and a contributing author in The Glassheart Chronicles.
Strong Woman Nicole Williams Author of Eternal Eden, and Fallen Eden. She is also a contributing author in the Glassheart Chronicles.
Champion Sword Swallower Fisher Amelie Author of The Understorey, as well as a contributing author in The Glassheart Chronicles.
Snake Charmer Amy Maurer Jones Author of The Soul Quest Trilogy as well as a contributing author in The Glassheart Chronicles.
Pretzel Woman Rachel Coles. Geek Mom. Book Reviewer Author of Diary of a Duct Tape Zombie, Whistles, Beergarden, Plagues, Bees of St. John, and Mushrooms.
The Giant T. R. Graves T.R. Graves: Author of Warriors of the Cross.
Woman With A Song That Hypnotizes Cyndi Tefft Author of Between
Jungle Woman P.J. Hoover Author of Solstice, The Emerald Tablet, The Navel of the World, The Necropolis.
Shape Shifter Alicia McCalla Author of the upcoming science-fiction novel Breaking Free
Tarot Card Reader Heather Cashman Author of Perception
Fortune Teller Abbi Glines Author of Breathe, and the upcoming Existence and Vincent Boys
Knife Thrower Cheri Schmidt Author of Fateful, Fractured, Forever, and Fair Maiden
Elephant Trainer Gwenn Wright Author of Filter
Ring-Leader Kimberly Kinrade Author of Bits of You, Pieces of Me and Forbidden Mind
Prestidigitator J.L. Bryan Author of Paranormals series- Jenny Pox. Tommy Nightmare & Alexander Death
Death Defying Darby Darby Karchut Author of Griffin Rising

Electronic revolution, really? What do you think explains the drop in sales of print books? Have you made the switch yet?

Amazon announced a while back that eBooks have already outsold printed books on their site. In June, Barnes & Noble announced that eBooks outsell print books three to one. I guess that explains why my printed books never sold on B&N,even though B&N had discounted them by 3-4 bucks! David Farland said this in one of his "Daily Kick in the Pants" posts: (I recommend signing up for his "Daily Kick" if you're a writer, by the way. It's free to subscribe.)
...book sales on a month-by-month basis for hardcovers in the US are showing about a 40% loss...and paperback sales are also tanking.


At the same time, Amazon.com, the world’s largest retailer, is showing about a 300% rise in sales of e-books on their site from last year.


Barnes and Noble, the second largest retail chain in the United States, is jumping onto the digital platform. In the past few months, they’ve reduced shelf space for books in their stores dramatically, increasing the space that is allotted to selling e-readers and accessories.


As a result of this, an author can anticipate that paperback sales now are about 50% of what they were last year.


In other words, paper books are rapidly dying. Many of the retailers who were selling them only a year ago are gone, and many of the survivors were selling paper books are now pushing electronic books instead.

If you go looking for printed copies of my books you'll see a new lower price. Basically, I had opted in to the programs that make my books available to places like B&N and Libraries, but those options drove up the price. Because the eBook version of my books are outselling the printed versions by something crazy like 2000 to 1, I decided to drop those options and lower the price of my printed books.

If you want Fateful in your local library, sorry, you'll have to donate it or specifically request they buy it for you. The only places you can buy printed copies of my books are: Amazon, Createspace and soon my website for signed copies.

Some might complain that my books aren't widely available...well, since B&N is carrying less printed books in their stores and Borders is closing, I can't change that even if I do opt in for the programs that make my books available in those markets as well as more expensive. Of course you can always follow my blog to be informed of giveaways, which I do often.