My first two book giveaways at Goodreads.com finished this week. Was it worth it? My gut feeling is yes, but as with most promotional efforts, results will take a long time to play out, and I’ll never have a good way to measure them.

A giveaway is easy to set up. I pick the title, the number of copies, and the start and end dates for people to sign up. At the end of the giveaway, I get an email from Goodreads linking me to a page with the names and addresses of the five winners. I send the books out.

Hopefully those five winners will like the book and give it a good review, or maybe even try some of my other books. But the real gain is that all those other people who didn’t win a copy at least took a look at it. 1002 people signed up to win a copy of The Dread Hammer; 136 have it marked as “to read.” 672 signed up for Skye Object 3270a; 62 have it marked as “to read.” Not overwhelming numbers, but it’s a start.

The cost to me was printing for the books, postage to get them here, and postage to send them out individually to the winners. I live in Hawaii, so shipping costs can get pretty absurd. “Media Mail” isn’t an option for me, because that can mean up to two months in transit, so everything goes via Priority Mail.

Would I do another book giveaway? Probably. When I have the right sort of book to promote.

What would the right sort of book be? An original book, that was not second or later in a series. Basically, something no one’s ever heard of because it’s that new, and one that doesn’t require the reader to be familiar with an earlier volume.

If any of my Goodreads winners (or readers) ever happen to wander by here, I’d love it if you would comment on the experience from your point of view.

I’m a novelist by nature. I’ve only ever written a handful of short stories–and most of those are on the long end of a short story–plus a few novelettes and novellas.

Word count is the deciding factor on which category a piece of fiction falls into. According to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America:
Short story: under 7,500 words
Novelette: 7,500 to 17,500 words
Novella: 17,500 to 40,000 words
Novel: over 40,000 words

I’ve just published in ebook form a 7,000 word short. In the Tide was an Analog cover story back in the day, which was quite a coup for me at that stage of my career.

Here’s a tip for new writers: In the Tide was actually a “study” in much the same way that a painter will do sketches before tackling the big oil painting. I used this story to develop a feeling for the nanotech-drenched story world that later led to The Nanotech Succession books. I also used it to develop the type of evolved-human character that ultimately led to Nikko in The Bohr Maker. It’s a scheme I heartily recommend! Get paid developing the ideas for your novels. Where’s the downside of that?

In the Tide is a 99¢ short story. Here are the links:

Amazon USA
Amazon UK (£0.69)
Barnes & Noble

UPDATE: “In The Tide” is now available for free on my website, MythicIsland.com. Look for the box labeled “FREE FICTION”

The cover I designed for Memory didn’t seem to be too popular with y’all, so I asked artist Jenn Reese, a writer herself and owner of Tiger Bright Studios, to come up with something new, and here’s the beautiful result.

The new cover went live today on Amazon, and should show up at Barnes & Noble before too long. Find the ebook here:
Amazon.com USA
Amazon UK
Barnes & Noble

What sort of cover sells books? I don’t know, but I’m willing to keep experimenting.

Let me know what you think!

The To-Do List is like triage. Goals shift depending on who/what needs me the most. The top level tier of stuff I’m working on includes:

1-At least 1000 words/day on the work-in-progress

2-Tweak all the ebooks, prepping them for my upcoming launch at Book View Café

3-Upload new cover for Memory and do some promotion on this neglected novel.

4-Write a long overdue blog post for someone

5-Prepare print versions of The Nanotech Succession books (about 30% into this)

6-Proof and upload the first short story I’ve converted to ebook

7-Get more active in the marketing class I’m taking from Who Dares Wins Publishing

Not necessarily in that order.

I’ve raised and lowered the price of ebooks in the past without problem–until now.

Right now most of my books are for sale only at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Both stores have a policy that you have to offer the books at the lowest cost they’re offered anywhere. If you don’t, they will adjust the price for you.

In late April I released my latest novel, The Dread Hammer, under my pen name, Trey Shiels. I set the price of the ebook at $2.99 as an introductory special, good through May. Late on May 31 I updated the pricing to put it in line with my other novels, raising it to $4.99.

On June 1 I saw this:

My first thought was “huh?” My second was “is it part of the sunshine deals promotion?” My third was “uh oh.”

I’ve never heard how long it takes either Amazon or B&N to figure out that a list price is higher at their store than at the competitor, but I’ve had the impression from people that it takes several days.

Suppose that’s not the case anymore.

Suppose that, before processing the price change, Amazon executes a quick, automated inquiry to B&N, finds the ebook listed at $2.99, and converts my listing to a $4.99 list price with a 40% discount.

Suppose further that B&N institutes a similar fast cross-check system, querying Amazon, and confirming that the book is still being sold there for $2.99–and refuses to raise the price.

I don’t know if this is what’s going on. It’s never a great idea to extrapolate too much from one sample. But The Dread Hammer ebook is still being sold at both stores for $2.99, six days after the price change, and processing of the update appears to be complete at both sites.

An inquiry to Amazon has basically confirmed the B&N price is the reason the book is discounted. I haven’t heard back from B&N.

If neither store will raise the price first, things get complicated. Do I need to take the book off sale at B&N, raise the price at Amazon, then put it back on sale at B&N at the higher price. That seems pretty silly, doesn’t it?

As I said, I’ve raised prices before without problems. Maybe this time around I’m just a victim of bad timing. I’ve been flirting with the idea of doing a 99-cent promotion, but I’m now feeling cautious about lowering the price knowing it might be hard to re-adjust it later.

Feedback? Has anyone else run into this?

I recovered from my facepalm moment and submitted corrected files for the print version of The Dread Hammer, my newest novel, written under my pen name, Trey Shiels.

The new proof took longer than expected, arriving on Friday, literally as we were getting into the car to race to the airport. I went over it while on the plane, and it looked good, so I approved it on Saturday. It should be working its way into the system at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, possibly Powell’s, and more. I’ll post when I know it’s available to order.

I’ve titled this post “European” only because those are the book buyers I’ve actually corresponded with, but it’s for everybody outside Amazon’s major markets of the USA, Canada, UK, and lately Germany.

Here’s the situation: if you live on the European continent and you want to buy a book from Amazon, you get directed to the USA website, where a hefty fee is added to the price of the book. For my latest book, The Dread Hammer, the price goes up from $2.99 to $5.74–a 90% mark up. This hardly seems fair.

If any of you reading this are from other parts of the world, please let me know if the same situation applies.

I’m told this mark up doesn’t happen on Smashwords, but I haven’t put most of my books on Smashwords because of formatting issues.

So I’m very pleased to announce that early this summer, very likely at the end of June, my books will be available through a writers cooperative called Book View Cafe. If you buy through BVC, then no matter where you live you’ll be charged the same price, and the books will be available in multiple formats–and will be properly formatted!

I’ll be blogging more on BVC as my launch date gets closer, but in the meantime, please go check out the current offerings from Book View Cafe.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mom’s out there! My kids live on another island and in another country, so it’s just me and the husband here. I think we’ll be trying to get in the door to see Thor today.

At any rate, the big event is that the new files have been uploaded for the print edition of The Dread Hammer. Wish me luck! Hopefully I got it right this time.

UPS just delivered the proof copy of The Dread Hammer’s print version. I have to approve the proof before the book goes on sale.

My first thought was, “It’s gorgeous!”

Then I started flipping through the book, showing off the cool layout to my husband when suddenly my gaze alighted on the left-hand-page header where the author’s name appears. That looks really good too, except that it says “Linda Nagata” when the cover and the copyright insist this was written by my pen name, Trey Shiels.

* FACEPALM *

What a dumb mistake. So frustrating. So costly.

I’m resisting the urge to send in an instant correction. Might as well sit down with the book and look for more errors. This is one of those times when it would be really nice to have an assistant editor looking over my shoulder.

I guess my schedule’s blown.

Oh. Hey. I published a new book this week. Or to be more accurate, Trey Shiels did–and that’s my first-time-ever pen name.

Meet The Dread Hammer, an enthralling, darkly comic fairytale of love, war, murder, marriage, and fate.

Really.

Not your usual Linda-Nagata fare, I know, and that’s why I thought I’d give the book a break and let Trey Shiels cover for me.

Here’s the back cover copy:

Ketty is a pretty shepherdess with a contrary nature, who runs away from home to escape an unwanted marriage. As she flees along the forest road, she prays to the Dread Hammer for help—and to her astonishment help comes in the form of a charming and well-armed young murderer named Smoke. As Ketty soon discovers, Smoke is not entirely human.

But just when happily-ever-after seems within reach, Smoke’s past returns to claim him. A deserter from the Koráyos army, his supernatural skill at killing is still very much in demand. Now the army wants him back.

The Dread Hammer is currently available for Kindle and Nook, with a *special introductory price* of only $2.99, good through May. Look for the print version to be available in a month or so.

Buy it at your favorite store:
Amazon USA
Amazon UK
Barnes & Noble

And if you’re at Amazon, please click that facebook “like” button if you should feel so inclined. Thanks!