Have you read Wildflowers Come Back yet? If not…now is your chance! The Wildflowers Come Back ebook is FREE again on Amazon today only. Hop on over and get your copy, then tell your friends, family, coworkers, mail carrier, landlord, cat, dog, chicken and that friendly dude in front of you in line at the coffee shop about it. I hope you enjoy the first part of Lyss’ story, and I hope you stay tuned for the second part of her story coming in March.

If you have already read Wildflowers Come Back I want to thank you sincerely for your time and for giving Lyss’ story a chance. Please consider leaving a review on Amazon if you enjoyed the book. It would be much appreciated.

If you read my post The 2-Day Amazon Free Promo Aftermath then I would like to give you major kudos for actually reading such a long-ass-winded post. Those of you who read the post will probably recall that Wildflowers Come Back had 19,687 free downloads during its 2-day free promo on Amazon. The results continue to blow my mind. It’s amazing to think that my book is in so many hands within such a short period of time! The only downside is the fact that my book is in so many hands within such a short period of time. Haha. That’s 19,687 opinions on my labor of love. That’s 19,687 people who could make me cry if they decided to join the ranks of the people who leave reviews that go beyond honesty and into the cruel intentions territory. (After all, we’ve already gone over the fact that I’m overly-sensitive).

This past week I’ve cried. I’ve stressed myself out to the point of being so sick that  I thought I needed to be rushed to the ER. I’ve questioned myself as an author. Then the most amazing things started happening: Just when I was starting to doubt myself, several readers actually took the time to send me e-mails and leave me comments telling me how much they loved WCB. I can’t even begin to tell you how amazing it feels to find an e-mail in my inbox from an avid reader who never contacts authors but felt the urge to contact me and actually thank me for sharing Lyss’ story. I am so touched. I am so thankful. I am so humbled. This past week has taught me a lot about having faith in yourself, about staying focused, and about not letting the bad stuff overshadow the good. This past week I’ve learned that not everyone is going to like the books I write, but there are people out there who will…and those are the people for whom I am writing. It’s hard to ignore the haters (How the hell do people in the limelight like Kim Kardashian handle it?!), but this week I’ve learned that you’ve gotta try. Find something to focus on as your mind is spinning out of control so you don’t get dizzy. Hold onto your britches. Hold onto your dreams. …And if you need it, put on your earphones to drown out the bastards who try to get you down.

Enough rambling…

In my last post I promised I would post an update on my one week post-promo results. I don’t know what results are typical when it comes to these free promos, and after talking with various authors it seems that results are all over the place. I’m hoping that a little transparency with my numbers will prove useful for other indie authors as they attempt to form their own conclusions about the KDP Select program and the free promo days.

After my 2-day free promo ended I had to strap myself in for a roller-coaster ride. My post-promo week one started on Sunday, January 15th. By Tuesday WCB had catapulted to #227 paid in the kindle store. It hovered somewhere between the 200s and 300s over the next few days until sales started to even out a bit. At the time of posting as I begin week two post-promo WCB is currently ranked #693 paid in the kindle store.

My numbers for the first week post-promo = Just under 1,400 sales and 217 borrows. Those numbers are huge, especially for a book that sold just 9 books total across multiple platforms in the month of December and just 4 books in January before joining KDP Select and doing the 2-day free promo.

What does this all mean? I haven’t a clue. How did it happen? I haven’t a clue. Did I do anything special? Nada.

I think I’m seeing sales for WCB slowly level off. Hopefully they won’t die off completely. Only time will tell. If something crazy happens… I’ll let y’all know.

Have you ever had your mind blown? I’m not talking about being surprised or shocked. I’m talking about going beyond surprise and shock into mind blown the f—- off territory. If you’ve visited ‘mind blown the f—- off territory’ before you must excuse my jaw hanging open because this is my first visit.

I will preface this by saying that I don’t think I have ever hit the refresh button as many times in a 48-hour period as I did over the course of Friday and Saturday. If there is a world record for such obsessive behavior then I probably broke it.

Now, as many of you already know… I made the decision to join Amazon’s KDP Select program and go Amazon exclusive on January 10th. This decision was basically a “What the hell!” decision brought on by the fact that my debut paranormal mystery novel Wildflowers Come Back needed a serious kick in the ass (as did I). I released WCB on September 27th, 2011 and since then the book has received eight 5-star reviews between Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. (None of those reviews belong to my mom). Since it’s release WCB has experienced paltry sales. What do I mean by paltry? In the month of December I had 6 sales on Amazon, 2 sales on B&N, and 1 sale on Smashwords for a grand total of 9 sales for the entire month of December. Not a pretty picture.

I should mention that I pretty much neglected my marketing efforts during the month of November, so my sales numbers during November and December are not exactly those of an author who is actually putting forth an effort. Why did I neglect my marketing efforts? I was scared. Plain and simple. The day I released WCB was such a frightening day for me. I can’t even begin to count how many times I thought, “I need to just unpublish the book before anyone buys it!” I was sure I would receive nothing but 1-star reviews that would reduce me to a blubbering pile of tears. (Obviously I’m one of those over-confident types. ) So when the new year rolled around I made a resolution to myself that I would grow a thicker skin, do my best to shake off the voices in my head that tell me I suck in sing-song voices, and freakin’ fight for what I want.

The Decision To Go Free

After joining Amazon’s KDP Select program I started to consider taking advantage of the free pricing promo that they offer for up to 5 days every 90-day period. I talked to other authors who had put their ebook up for free, and I read blogs from authors who had done the same. The results were varied. Some authors had crazy results with thousands of downloads during their free period followed by steady sales after the promo which trumped any of their previous pre-promo sales. Some had more modest but still quite successful results that gave their post-promo sales a  nice enough boost. Meanwhile, there were some who had experienced what can only be labeled as crappy results. Of course these results varied due in part to the variance in genres. Some genres just have a bigger audience than others.

I made the decision to go ahead and give it a shot. It’s not like I had much to lose with my ranking of #273,483 paid in the Amazon.com Kindle Store and #178,371 paid in the Amazon.co.uk Kindle Store. So, I set up a 2-day free promo scheduled for Friday, January 13th and Saturday, January 14th.

Being Free

I woke up the morning of Friday the 13th with a sense of dread in my stomach. My luck I would be one of the poor saps with 15 downloads over the course of two days. Those massive download numbers don’t happen to me…they happen to other people.

As I groggily turned on my computer and logged into my account I was surprised to find that at 6:30 AM MDT I was ranked #3,856 Free in the Amazon.com Kindle Store and #1,836 Free in the Amazon.co.uk Kindle Store. I was also ranked #28 in the Ghost Horror Top 100 Free list.

My numbers continued to grow steadily as the day progressed. By 2:40 PM MDT on Friday I had hit #147 Free in the Amazon.com Kindle Store and was also ranking #5 in the Ghost Horror category.

By 5:30 PM MDT on Friday I had cracked the Top 100 Free in the Amazon.com Kindle Store coming in at #98. The numbers continued to rise through the evening and by the time I went to bed at a little after 10:00 PM MDT on Friday I had received over 8,000 downloads which put me at #37  Free in the Amazon.com Kindle Store and left me in the #1 spot for free in the Ghost Horror category and the #3 spot for free in the Mystery/Thriller category.

When I awoke on Saturday morning I was at over 11,000 downloads and was holding the #14 spot on the Top 100 Free list on Amazon.com. (Wedged right between Pride and Prejudice and a copy of The Holy Bible which probably amused me more than it should have).

WCB briefly captured the #12 spot on the Top 100 Free list in the afternoon on Saturday, but soon moved back up to the #13 spot where it spent most of the afternoon and early evening.

When I went to bed on Saturday night at  11:30 PM MDT my free promo had a little over an hour left until it ended. I was #13 Free in the Amazon.com Kindle Store and #37 Free in the Amazon.co.uk Kindle Store. As of 11:30 PM MDT on Saturday night my free promo totals for Friday and Saturday combined were as follows:

Free downloads on Amazon.com: 18,568

Free downloads on Amazon.co.uk: 1,091

Free downloads on Amazon.de: 25

Free downloads on Amazon.fr: 2

Free downloads on Amazon.es: 1

Free downloads on Amazon.it: 0

Friday & Saturday Combined Free Downloads Total = 19,687

My mind is blown. Wildflowers Come Back received 19,687 free downloads in TWO DAYS. The number far exceeds any of my expectations. Now it is yet to be seen if my post-promo sales will fall flat, but I’m hopeful that this free promo will help my book find its groove. I will be posting a blog toward the middle to end of the week to update y’all on if my sales fell flat or not.

Thank you to everyone who helped promote the free promo and thank you to everyone who downloaded it!

Yes, you read that right. I’ve decided to use two of my ‘free’ promotion days as a part of the KDP Select program. Recently I’ve taken some time to talk with other authors about their experiences with putting their book(s) up for free. Some of the experiences have been positive, some have been so-so, and of course there have been a few who totally poo-pooed the idea. After a lot of internal debating I said “What the hell!” and decided to give it a shot.

So… I’m excited to announce that the Wildflowers Come Back ebook will be available for FREE on Amazon for the next two days: Friday the 13th and Saturday the 14th. (I figured Friday the 13th just might prove to be a lucky day for me).

I’m really hoping that this two day promotion proves to be successful in kicking my book’s ass up in the rankings thus giving it more visibility to a wider audience. I am invested in the Wildflowers Come Back series, and a crazy thing has happened since the release of book #1: Other people have become invested as well. It’s a beautiful, exciting, and strangely frightening thing… and I hope each of you who have read WCB know how deeply appreciative I am to you. Thank you.

At the time of this posting Wildflowers Come Back is currently ranking #273,483 paid in Amazon.com Kindle Store and #178,371 paid in the Amazon.co.uk Kindle Store. (See the screenshots below). My best rank was somewhere around the 45,000 mark on the Amazon.com Kindle Store which occurred about a week ago. Definitely not a ranking to write home about, but a better ranking than my current one nonetheless.

WCB Ranking – Amazon.com 1/12/2012:

WCB Ranking – Amazon.co.uk 1/12/2012:

If you haven’t read Wildflowers Come Back…now is your chance. Please stop by Amazon on either Friday or Saturday to score your FREE copy of Wildflowers Come Back. Read it. Let me know what you think. If you have already read Wildflowers Come Back please help me out by telling people you know about this free offer. Let’s see how far we can kick WCB up in the rankings…and let’s see how long WCB can stay there after the promotion ends.

Here’s to hoping that my experience with the free promotion becomes one of the positive ones.

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Starting today the Wildflowers Come Back ebook has officially gone Amazon exclusive as a part of the KDP Select program. The ebook will remain Amazon exclusive for at least the next 90 days. If after that I feel there is a strong enough call from readers to once again offer Wildflowers Come Back for Nook on Barnes & Noble then I will reconsider the Amazon exclusivity. Until then feel free to send me your opinions.

Are you an Amazon Prime member? Now that the ebook has gone Amazon exclusive, Amazon Prime members can borrow the Wildflowers Come Back ebook for free to read on Kindle. That’s right…free! Check that out.

As you know by now, I changed the Wildflowers Come Back cover back in December. Today I received the proof for the new, updated paperback cover. Check it out and let me know what you think!

I’m coming at you with a double hitter in news today. Are you ready?

Read A Snippet From Wildflowers Come Back

Have you read Wildflowers Come Back yet? If not, I would like to invite you to check out a tasty and tantalizing snippet from the book. Don’t have a lot of time? No worries…it’s short and sweet. Make your way over to Indie Snippets where a snippet from Wildflowers Come Back is being featured today. Enjoy!

Wildflowers Come Back Scores Another 5-Star Review

That’s right… Wildflowers Come Back is continuing to thrill readers. Just this week Wildflowers Come Back scored another hot 5-star review. Want to check it out? Head on over to Alison’s blog As Life Like As to read it.

It’s the third day of January in the shiny new year of 2012. This means that you have successfully kept your new year’s resolutions to diet or eat healthier for two full days. Before I go any further: If you are one of those people who leans back with a smug expression as you exclaim, “I’m not making any resolutions this year.” I would first like to throw used confetti at you and then proceed to point out that you are essentially making a resolution to not make resolutions. Now wipe that smug look off your face and join in with the rest of society as we trudge through a sea of promises we made to ourselves that are impossible to keep. Don’t argue with me. It’s tradition!

Pass The Lettuce, S’il Vous Plaît.

Right about now grocery store cashiers everywhere are ringing up thousands upon thousands of Lean Cuisine microwaveable meals which are being purchased by people who are staring longingly at the candy display as they silently bid adieu to Snickers. The intentions are good, but we all know that most of those Lean Cuisine meals will get lost in the freezer only to be dug out sometime in mid-April when you are too lazy and/or broke to make a run to the grocery store.

It Hurts To Sit Down

As you read this, the number of new memberships at gyms around the world are skyrocketing through the roof. People are buying spiffy new workout clothes and practicing their gym nod in the mirror. In fact, yesterday I joined the masses and spent some time in the gym with the company of a personal trainer as I took on the hardest core of all hardcore workouts. Okay, so I’m lying. Yesterday I played an Xbox 360 Kinect game in my living room. However, I assume the results of said game are fairly close to those of the hardest core of all hardcore gym/personal trainer workouts. After all, today it hurts to sit down. That has to be the most productive workout ever. A workout that makes you NOT want to sit down? A workout that makes sitting down like a lazy bum unenjoyable? Genius. Pure genius.

…….I’m never doing that again. AND, most of those new gym membership cards will languish in the back of wallets until people realize it’s nearly November and they still don’t look good in a bathing suit at which time they will hit the gym for approximately a week.

You Did It!

So, it’s January 3rd, 2012. You have kept your new year’s resolutions this long. Kudos. You can eat your cake now. Granted, you probably shouldn’t eat the whole damn cake…but a few bites won’t hurt you. Seize the moment, fluffy.

The countdown is on for the new year! As everyone around the world prepares to welcome 2012 with noise makers, boozy kisses, funny looking hats, and confetti, I would like to invite all of you to ‘Party Like It’s 0.99 Cents!’

Wildflowers Come Back is now available for ONLY 0.99 cents! However, this deal won’t last long. Grab your copy by January 2nd to take advantage of this amazing price. Can you believe it? For the cost of a candy bar you can start the new year with a little paranormal mystery AND keep your resolution to be healthy by not spending that 0.99 cents on a candy bar. It’s win-win.

Buy it now on Amazon.

Please tell your friends, family, twitter followers, frenemies, dog walker, mailman, neighbors, and anyone else you come across about Wildflowers Come Back and this special 0.99 cent New Year’s price!

Happy New Year, y’all!