BLACKOUT is ON SALE! (or 66% Off Now!)

Tip of the Day: Join BookBub for daily ebook deals emailed directly to you!

In anticipation of the upcoming official release of DESERTED, BLACKOUT is on sale for just $.99 for a limited time on Amazon and B&N!

Read about bro and sis Leo and Jenny's NY and PA adventures in book #1 before being whisked off to Las Vegas in book #2....

Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing

Soft Book Launches

Tip of the Day: My new book, SHUCKED, debuted yesterday. Check it out on my website.

In self-publishing, ebooks are forever. My first day, week, month don't matter in the grand scheme of things. No one's going to pull my book down in shame if it doesn't hit the top of the charts right off the start line.

I LOVE THIS!

I'm not one of those authors that has rabid fans foaming at the mouth for my next book. Okay, maybe I have a few, but not enough to drive me to #1. So here's my strategy for book releases....

1. Facebook. That's where I have the majority of my followers. Generally, they are the ones who will buy my books when they release. Not thousands of them (wouldn't that be nice?), but quite a few.

2. Book Bloggers. I maintain a separate mailing list for bloggers. When I have a new release, I send them a message, asking if they want to read my book. I've had a handful of requests, which is great.

3. Fan Newsletter. These guys get the good stuff. Look, if you want people to sign up for your newsletter, give them a reason. With my announcement, they all get the chance to win 1 of 15 free ecopies. They can also be the first to receive signed bookmarks in the mail. Yes, that slows sales a bit at first. If they don't win the ebook, the bookmark in the mail will remind them about my book.

4. Book Blast. I want to sign up for one. I've contacted one blogger, but she hasn't gotten back to me yet. If she doesn't by tomorrow, I'll contact another. This is a one-day blast on bloggers' pages about my book. It's a good, cheap, way to get the word out.

While it's a goal to sell, I also have a bigger goal - to entertain. I put a lot of my heart and soul into this book. I hope people enjoy it. :D

Megg, Miss Enchanted ePubber

Vacation Time and Reflections on 2012

Tip of the Day: I'm participating in a blog hop & giving away a ton of Amazon money and ebooks. Check out the giveaways here and here.

Wanted to let y'all know at the top of the post that Author2Author is going on vacation for the next couple of weeks. Plus, our format is changing a bit in 2013. Instead of hearing from us on a daily basis, we will be blogging only when we have interesting, informative, and fun things to pass on to our readers. You are guaranteed to hear from each of us at least once a month and please email us with and questions or topics you want covered.

Wow, so 2012 was kind of crazy year for me professionally. In January, out of the blue and a total surprise to me, my books kind of exploded. The amount of ebooks I sold in January was half the total of what I sold in the entirety of 2010. Talk about a bit of spike! Sales only continued to climb through April, then held steady until August 6th, when inexplicably, my sales on Amazon were cut in half. I never recovered that high of the first half of the year. In fact, just this past Tuesday, I had my lowest sales day on Amazon in a year.

This crazy rise in sales led to agent interest. Very few outside my inner circle know that I was contacted by some pretty big agents (who shall remain nameless), possibly interested in repping me. It was exciting and scary. But, just like my sales, those fizzled out. Even the one who was most interested in me ended up rejecting me with a form letter. Depressing!

So while you're reading this, you're probably thinking, Gee, Megg, your career was great and now it sucks. Guess you're going back to querying. If you thought that, you wouldn't be the only one. Friends keep asking me the same question. While I've tossed the idea around in my head, I really can't see any advantage to sending out queries now. Look at what I accomplished on my own - and I got to keep 70% of the income. I made more money this year self-publishing than I've ever made at any job in my life. Plus, I'm inching ever closer to that 50,000 sold mark. Not too shabby for a nobody self-pub.

I've got a new book in the works already for 2013. I'm not telling a lot about it now, but if you're interested, you can follow here to get updates.

Enjoy your holidays and see ya in 2013!

Megg, Miss Enchanted ePubber

Gift or Curse?

Tip of the Day: Um, uh.... Be kind to chickens. They come from broken homes. (That's one of my mom's favorite jokes. I suppose it also qualifies as a tip.) ;)

We self-pubs seem very focused on the raw numbers. How many ebooks we sell. How much we make per month.

It's almost an obsession. We have access to data our trad pub friends are dying to see. Or so they think....

Sometimes I think it's a curse to know exactly, on a minute-by-minute basis, how I'm doing. I made an announcement on Facebook about a new book and within minutes, I knew how many people jumped over to Amazon to buy it. You'd think that would be great. It's really not.

In the beginning, I was super-focused on my sales. I checked about nine thousand times a day. Now I check once a day, in the morning, and enter the numbers into my spreadsheet. I used to check every sales outlet every day. Now I only check Amazon (though iTunes is coming in a very close second lately - thanks, Australia!).

Many writers say this can help you market better. They say it can help you keep track of what matters to readers. They say lots of things.

I say it simply drives us insane. Don't get me wrong, I love the business side of self-publishing. I grew up in a family business and owning my own corporation is very fulfilling. But sometimes I think too much information at our fingertips is more distracting than advantageous.

It makes us proud at times, but it can also make us horribly insecure. A couple months ago, when my sales fell off of the Amazonian cliff, I panicked. I tried everything in my marketing toolbox to bring sales back. It worked - a bit - but I never did get back into the high sales I'd had earlier in the year. It's fair to say I was a smidgeon depressed for a couple of weeks. Now? Meh.

It took some time, but I remembered I didn't get in this business to rake in cash. I did it because writing is the ONLY career I've ever wanted with all of my heart. I wanted to write something other people might like. I've done that. Maybe that should be enough.

Happy Friday!!!!

Megg, Miss Enchanted ePubber