There comes a time when decisions need to be made. Is it better to enroll in KDP Select and offer freebies, or not?
So far, I've got Forever Young: Blessing or Curse still enrolled, as well as Girl of My Dreams.
I took my most recent romantic comedy, Her Handyman, off the program, but may put it back on later. I have mixed feelings about offering freebies. After a free event, I do get more sales, but then I wonder if some readers notice it's available free for Prime members, which means it will probably be free for everyone else for five days, somewhere along the line. That seems a double-edged sword.
Anyway, I'll see how the system goes, and learn if any other alternatives present themselves.
In the meantime, I'm not completely neglecting other sources, since two of my books, Killer Career, and Two Wrongs, are still available on all the Smashwords sites, as well as on Amazon.
For excerpts and buy links to all my books, you're welcome to check them out at:
http://morgansbooklinks.blogspot.com
If you aren't on Facebook and following my page, you may not know this -
Freebie coming up this Friday, Saturday and Sunday - April 5, 6 and 7
That's right -
Forever Young: Blessing or Curse for Kindle/or PC will be free on those days. If you don't have a copy, be sure to click and get one before it goes back to its usual $2.99 price.
Here's the link:
http://amzn.com/B006MO28CQI'm over halfway through the edits for
Blessing or Curse, the companion sequel to
Forever Young: Blessing or Curse .Blessing or Curse contains 5 different stories about 5 very different people taking the Forever Young pill. Each story has some sort of romance, but is much more than a typical romance.
You'll see when I start sharing excerpts.
Morgan Mandel
http://www.morganmandel.com
All those pesky little details an author better get right, or else--
Late afternoon yesterday I noticed all our early blooming daffodils, both in the backyard by the kitchen window and by the fence, had fallen over. I thought that may have been due to the strong winds, but just in case it was from the heat, I gave the ones by the kitchen window some water.
This morning, both sets of daffodils had sprung back up, so my conclusion is they didn't like the heat, but revived during the night because it was cooler.
Daffodils do not usually bloom in Illinois this early, nor do forsythia bushes, green grass, and other tulips happen yet. We also don't usually have bees circling our backyard, ants on the sidewalk, gnats in the air, or mosquitos flying around, not to mention 80+ temperatures this early in the season. This year is an exception, which I've heard is due to a jetstream.
If you were writing a book with a setting near Chicago, Illinois, and the timeframe of March, unless you were specifically mentioning this year, all the things I mentioned above wouldn't be here. Instead, to ground your readers in a story, you'd mention snow starting to melt, or grass still brown, if you even see it peeking from the snow. The temperatures would typically be in the 50s, or if you're lucky the 60s. You might see a few buds on the bushes, or daffodils or tulips beginning to come up, but not blooming. The insects would also be few and far between.
When I wrote Forever Young: Blessing or Curse, I had to check certain details also, such as when the rose bushes bloom, and when they're dormant, what the temperature is in Scottsdale, Arizona compared to Flagstaff, even what time it's sunset in that part of the country. Though I'd taken a trip to Scottsdale in April, 2011, and garnered much information which proved useful, that didn't mean what I witnessed in April was typical for other times of the year in that area, or even in Flagstaff.
Fortunately, the Internet is a great source for learning such pesky little details. An author needs to get them right, because, God forbid, if they're wrong, a reader will notice.
What other pesky little details should authors be aware of? Can you share any you've encountered when writing a book?
By the way, the thriller I mentioned, Forever Young: Blessing or Curse, is on sale on
kindle at 99 cents through March 24, 2012, after which it returns to $1.99. It's also available at the regular price of $1.99 in other electronic formats, and is in
5 Comments on Pesky Little Details, last added: 3/22/2012
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While about 80% of my sales are through Amazon (I recently had a couple on Amazon Germany, woohoo!) I do get steady sales on B&N, Smashwords, and a few other sites. I think it's best to be widespread.