END OF SUMMER SALE: FREE AND $0.99

The end of Summer is here and Promotional Book Tours is bringing you a Free and $.99 Book Sale so you can stock up your kindle!

Free Ebooks!

 

Grab These for Only $.99

Today's Sensational Special: #Bride BLOWOUT .99

THE .99 PROMOTION FOR THIS BOOK IS OVER. Still a great buy at $1.49

June is the time for brides, so don't miss this chance to get THE MARRIAGE BARGAIN from award-winning author Sandra Edwards. Over 50 reviews! Readers love this book. Grab your copy while you can!

Book blurb:
Camille Chandler is a tabloid journalist whose career is right on track--until her boss sees a curious ad in the L.A. Trades.

Wanted: Single actress for an extended gig abroad.

France's mega-rich playboy Julian de Laurent is up to something and Camille's boss expects her to find out what. Who knew the eccentric gazillionaire was looking to hire a temporary wife?

When Camille refuses to accept Julian's proposal--and secretly write a juicy tell-all about the de Laurent family--she's fired and left financially destitute, forcing her to entertain Julian's proposal for real.

But what'll happen at the end of the contract period, after Camille has spent six months as the wife of a man she learns is capable of stealing her heart? 

Reviews:
"The Marriage Bargain is a wonderful contemporary sensual romance that you will not regret reading." ~  5 Hearts from Sizzling Hot Book Reviews

"...a beautiful and sensually sweet story..." ~ Long and Short Reviews



Here are 2 more romance stories currently being offered at the bargain prices of $.99 - $2.99

Book blurb:
Eighteen-year-old Emily Stanton is excited to attend this season's society balls and begin her search for a husband. She is thrilled when the dashing and handsome Connor Preston begins to show her more attention. After each ball, Emily finds a love note in her drawstring reticule, and she expects a marriage proposal from Connor any day.

When her father objects and forces Emily to accept the proposal from Lady Tisbury's shy nephew, Ethan Richardson instead, her heart is broken. How can she love her new husband when her heart belongs to the man who wrote her such beautiful love letters?

$2.99 Novella of ~22,000 words

LOVE BY CHANCE: A short story ~10,000 words

Book Blurb:
When Alysa Stevens receives an invitation to attend the social event of the season, a Masquerade Ball, she thinks it's the perfect time to finally kick back and enjoy herself. After all, no one knows who she really is. The invitation came to her business persona, Mr. Al Stevens, but is that ploy about to backfire?

At the ball, she's immediately swept off her feet by a sexy stranger dressed as the Musketeer d'Artagnan. He sets her heart on fire, but he leaves abruptly without ever revealing his name. Will Alysa be able to track down the most handsome man she's ever met without a single clue to his identity?

$.99 Short story: ~10,000 words

Dean Wesley Smith Talks Pricing, Discounts & Sales

For those of you who don't know Dean Wesley Smith, he's a bestselling author who has written more than ninety popular novels and well over 100 published short stories.  On his website, he offers advice on a number of different subjects.  I'm reposting his post about pricing in his "Think Like A Publisher" series.  You can find the full post here: http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/?p=3940 


Think Like a Publisher #8 -- As some of you said in the comments, I sort of left this on a cliffhanger talking about how to get the other 79 book outlets to make at least 100 book outlets for sales. Please go read Think Like a Publisher #7 if you have not, or some of this will make no sense. This sales series is meant to work as one large unit.

Alas, before I can go into how to get the other 79 plus sales outlets, I need to once again talk about pricing.  I have done a number of major posts about this topic, so not going into it again here. Go argue price somewhere else if you have a problem.

Those of you who think you should price your novel for 99 cents on Kindle and that’s it, just stop reading now. You are a discount publisher and I am talking to regular indie publishers.

—Discount publishers, both traditional and indie, are a different entity and make money on vast numbers of sales with very tiny margins to a small number of outlets. Discount publishers have no regular distribution or bookstore sales.

—Regular publishers, both traditional and indie, make their money in regular sales at regular prices to a vast network of stores and outlets. Regular indie publishers are who this chapter is for.

Here is the price structure I suggest for indie publishers and that works in all the math you will be doing.

PRICING

Electronic Fiction:

…$2.99 for 5 story collections or short novels

…$4.99 for ten story collections

… $4.99 for novels.

(Nonfiction and other projects, including enhanced books are different.)

POD Fiction:

…$7.99-$9.99 for 125-200 page short novels or collections in trade paperback. (5.25 x 8 inch or 5.5 x 8.5 inch trim sizes)

(Note: Price would vary by page count costs. Check the calculators on CreateSpace.)

…$10.99- $14.99 for 200-300 page short novels or collections in trade paper. (5.5 x 8.5 inch or 6 x 9 inch trim sizes)

(Note: Price would vary by page count costs. Check the calculators on CreateSpace.)

…$15.99- $16.99 for 300-450 pages trade paper novels. (6 x 9 inch trim)

(Note: Price would vary by page count costs. Check the calculators on CreateSpace. If you can’t get your book under 450 pages with leading and font and margin issues, you might think of writing shorter books. I have no suggestion for you except to take the price to $17.99 or higher and hope. Large fantasy novels can go to that length and handle the doorstop-book price. And nonfiction can go that large and handle higher prices.)

Okay, we set on pricing? Good, because the above pricing structure works for everything I am about to talk about. Again, check the price calculators on CreateSpace with your trim size and page count to set your exact price. Always look to the Pro Plan number and try to keep the price at least in the 8% and up profit range.

Brief Hiatus

I will be taking a brief hiatus from posting while I deal with a medical issue.  I hope to be back blogging in a couple of weeks.

In the meantime, if I promised you a guest post, an interview, or a book review, rest assured you're still in the queue.  I am still accepting requests for all three so if you have a new book coming out, need a review or want an interview, please feel free to send me an email at dlmartin6@yahoo.com and ask.

WEEKEND SALE: This is the last weekend to get a copy of both OTHARIAN books at 50% over at Smashwords. https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/debralmartin

"Quest for Nobility" - code PJ22M
"Crystal Facade" - code JJ97U

I am also happy to report that our DARK FUTURE novelettes, "Path to War" and "The Right Path" are gaining some traction - both in sales and reviews.  Thank you to all who have purchased these and, of course, if you enjoyed the books, please consider leaving a review.



Amazon links: "Path to War"
 http://www.amazon.com/Path-Novella-Dark-Future-ebook/dp/B003FGWUG8











  

Broke into the top 100

For the briefest of moments [3 hours this afternoon], QUEST FOR NOBILITY, broke into the top 100 [sub-category] today and I have the evidence to prove it.  Voila!

Product Details
Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 475 KB
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
Language: English
ASIN: B003CC1KI4
Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #19,479 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
#90 in    Kindle Store > Kindle Books > Science Fiction > High Tech


OK so trust me I won't be retiring on the .70 royalty per book, but you can bet that I did the "happy happy dance" when I saw that.  For those of you who don't know the song that goes along with the "dance" here's the words.....

"I got a sale, I got a sale!  Yipee! Yahoo!  You like me - you really like me!!"

It's strange how Amazon ranks books because we didn't have that many sales [fewer than 5], but we must have been the best selling ebook in the high tech category for that span of time today.  

So, fellow readers, feel free to pop on over to Amazon and check out the book.  Who knows maybe someday we'll have to have a youtube video of the happy dance....I'm sure I could get a lot of authors to join in!

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003CC1KI4

It's Been A Great Week

Both Dave and I are thrilled that our ebooks are now live at the Amazon Kindle Store. The best part of all, however, is that we have SALES!!!! What a rush! I know that it's not the same as getting a contract from a big fancy NY publisher, but our goal has always been to write what we love and get it out there so others could enjoy it too!

Well, we accomplished our goals and we are happy. Now it's back to work on our next book. We still can't decide which one to write yet. We have 3 novels started at the moment. We'll just have to see how the mood strikes us.

Thank you to our fans who have been reading our first book over on our author pages, Otharia.com. If you want to see what happens to Darius and Dyla, you can find the link to download "The Crystal Facade" in the right sidebar of the blog. You won't be disappointed.

Sales and Advances

Eric, over at Pimp My Novel has been talking about genre-specific sales and author advances all week.

It's good to see that books are still selling, even if publishers are being more selective about offering book deals.

If Dave and I get lucky enough to land a publisher and a contract, we could be looking at a cool $5,000 advance [of course minus the 15% agent commission and then divided by 2]. Oh yeah, I wasn't planning on quitting my day job anytime soon.

It would all be worth it though just to say I'm a published author!

So head over here if you're interested in seeing a typical author advance.