Tag: Sales

The day before Christmas Eve…

Photo by Kristina Paukshtite on Pexels.com

It’s the day before Christmas Eve and all through the house, not a gift was wrapped and all was not well. The house was a mess and the dishes were unwashed. My hair is frazzled and I’m still IRS testing, so here we are…

Anyone else seem a little more off this Christmas season then in the past years? But my writing is going better than before, I just don’t have much time to sit down and get in my word count. My four day weekend starts this afternoon and I’m looking forward to some down time. I plan to undecorate, get my house in order, then write until my fingers can’t go anymore.

Let’s focus on the Reason for the Season and leave all the bustle behind. Sending all of you well wishes and A Merry Christmas Eve Eve….

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

P.S. Wine, Wedding, & A Cowboy is on sale through Christmas for only .99!

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Preorder, Cover Reveal, & Backlist Sale…

Good Friday morning!

It’s a cold, rainy Friday here in Georgia, but that doesn’t make the excitement about an upcoming release go away. There’s so much going on right now within my writing world and I can’t hold it back. I have two, yes two Christmas romances coming out this year. Here’s the scoop!

This Sunday, the longest book I’ve ever written will be coming out. ‘Christmas at Mistletoe Ranch’ is over 75,000 words and is such a sweet, good feel romance. It’s the first book in a three book series. Books 2 & 3 will be coming out in 2020. It’s on preorder for only $1.99 until the release this Sunday, November 17th. Then it goes up to $4.99, so grab it fast.

As for the cover reveal, well, when the Christmas spirit strikes hard and heavy, you write two Christmas romances. This little gem is a sweet, and I mean sweet romance. The main characters are complete opposites until they come together over gingerbread cookies and horses, but will it be that simple? Without further talk, here’s the cover for ‘The Christmas Wish’ which will be coming out near the end of November and first of December.

Then there’s a couple of sales on my back list titles. Poor things get lost in the glamour of the new, shiny ones, but here’s an incentive to revive them again!

Beyond One Moment is on sale for only .99 and that’s $2 off the regular price. And don’t forget the 2nd book in this series is coming out soon. Oh yeah, I haven’t mentioned that have I?

Safe in the Pirate’s Arms is on sale for .99. Who can ignore a handsome pirate falling for the nice young lady that stows away on his ship?

And last but not least, ‘Lacey’s Choice’ is only .99 for a limited time. Take a trip to the Swiss Alps in this sweet love story.

So, have a great Friday!

As always, good Friday and May God Bless You…

Fear as a writer…

Good morning! Hope all is well with everyone as we start this Thursday morning or afternoon, wherever you wonderful people are 😉

Fear, everyone has felt fear at one time or the other. Don’t lie, you know you have. As a child, we had fear of strangers and storms. As adults, we have many fears. Maybe we fear financial issues, for our children, the future… etc. There are a lot of fears in this world, but I want to talk about the fear as a writer.

The moment I hit submit on Ghost Lover, the first book I published in May 2012, I was sweating. My palms were damp, my heart was racing, in easy terms, I was a mess. What if nobody likes my writing? What if this is a mistake? What if… What if… What if… Then the emails started coming from readers that fell in love with Jared and Jessie. The fear was alleviated for a moment, then came the next book and the next.

Does my fear ease with each book I publish? Some, but not completely. I’m always afraid of the unknown. Even though my books are poured over and over with edits and rewrites and such, I still have that fear that I’m sending out my work with flaws. Even the best-edited book has flaws and I have to remind myself of that. My fans are so precious and let me know every day the pleasure they get from the words I put on the page, but still, I feel like I could’ve added more to the story, went over it one more time, or even changed something.

Then there’s the fear of not selling a single book, yikes…. Yes, that’s a fear. In January, my sales went on a downward spiral and I had to catch my breath. After an amazing end of 2016, it was like a kick in the gut. But, as I sought out other authors to see if it was happening to them, they confirmed that they too were seeing a sharp decline in sales. Even the authors that normally sell thousands of copies a month were down to hundreds. Although that should make me feel better, it only made my fear worse. Had people stopped reading? LOL! Yes, it was an irrational fear, but it still came through this ditsy blonde head.

Then, the sales started to rise. Yes, my fear was going away, but then a new fear arose. Could I do more to keep that from happening again? The truth is, no. We can’t control what people do or trends, so, I picked myself up off the pity floor and moved forward.

So, as a writer, what do you fear?

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

 

Don’t put all your eggs…

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Good Monday morning! It’s chilly here in Georgia and great writing weather. Saturday I managed a little over 3600 words, even with cleaning the house and planting mums. It was a productive weekend, to say the least.

Ok, you’ve written your book, now it’s time to publish it. As a self published author, you have so many choices. I’ve talked to authors that only place their books on Amazon, which is alright if you just want to get in with the Kindle reader, but there are so many other places to put your book, so why not?

You may be new to the publishing world, so I’ll enlighten you on some places that are great for self published authors:

1: Amazon – without a doubt, most authors go here first.

2: Smashwords – This website offers a one stop shop. Your book can be placed with Barnes & Noble, iTunes, Kobo, and a multitude of other places just through Smashwords.

3: All Romance Ebooks – They offer your book on their website and in many different formats.

4: Barnes and Noble – Through Nook press, but I usually just go through Smashwords to get here.

5: Kobo – Again, I use Smashwords to get here too.

6: Google Play – I have some of my books here, but I’ve never done well on their pages.

7: Createspace – You need to get your book into paperback form and here’s where you can do that.

8: Draft to Digital – This site will get you on a couple of different foreign site.

9: Apple iTunes – If you use a mac, then this option is available straight to the site, but again, I use Smashwords.

This is only 9 of the many sites, but it gets you on the road to discovery and if you spread out your wings, readers will find you.

I hope this helped. If you need help getting your book formatted or the word spread, let me know. Horseshoe Publishing helps authors get their books ready for these sites and Fresh From the Book helps you spread the word.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Just a little Monday promo – Highlander’s Heart will be only .99 for a short while! So fall in love with a Highlander… myBook.to/HighlandersHeart

 

 

 

What’s in a review?

I’ve blogged about reviews before and each time I get a lot of response from fellow authors. Reviews can do a lot for an author. They can cause readers to flock to your book, run away from your book or make them unsure. I’ve been reading several posts from fellow authors regarding the trend in reviews and in some ways its not good.

As I’ve said before, if you’re thinking about reviewing a book, please read the book first. It’s so evident to an author when a reviewer hasn’t even read the book.

Let’s take a look at some of the things fellow authors have told me about some of their reviews that either made them laugh, cry or smile. Some may have caused all of these emotions.

1: I really enjoyed this book but I’m giving it a 2 star because I didn’t like the characters name. (This author was shocked when she saw this review. What’s funny is, even though it’s a 2 star review, which should be bad for the sales, the reviewer told readers it’s a good book.)

2: This book is horrible. Why did it have to be so unrealistic? People just can’t do this in real life. (Ok, this one made me laugh out loud. The book being reviewed was a Paranormal book about mythical creatures. I do give the reviewer credit, people really can’t do what the characters did in this book because they aren’t real. This author’s book sales actually escalated after this review.)

3: Why? Please stop this. I didn’t like this book at all. (This reviewer went on to email the author directly and tell her to stop writing. The author smiled as she was telling me about this review because she actually has hit the bestseller list in several countries with the very book this reviewer slammed. Her response was “It takes all kinds to make up the world”. By the way, this book is free and the reviewer did not pay for it to begin with.)

4: Great book. I can’t wait for more from this author. Waiting impatiently for next installment. (This author was thrilled with this review. It was her first book and she was afraid it wouldn’t do well.)

5: I loved the book, but could have been a little more descriptive. The writing was good and the character development was well received. (This was a constructive review that was helpful to the author. She said that actually she went back and edited a couple of areas of the book to correct these issues.)

This was just 5 of the responses I received after my last post on reviews. We rely on reviewers to be honest about their reviews of our work. The sad thing is many people out there are not very nice when they review a book. They strive to make the author look bad. What’s really sad is that a post I read a couple of months ago, several authors were slammed repeatedly on Amazon and the reviewers were not verified purchases. The wording went along the same line and did not mention anything from the book. The reviewer was slamming the author themselves. It’s sad but true.

My advice to new authors or even veteran authors that haven’t developed a thick skin is this. Use the reviews wisely. If the review is structured and they explain the flaws they see, then maybe check the flaws out. It could help. But if they’re nasty and scathing, just let them roll off your back. It’s hard, but as a published writer, you’ve opened yourself up to the public and sometimes they aren’t very nice. 

So, tell me your experiences with reviews. How do you react? Just remember, smile you’re a published author.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

 

 

 

Picking the right cover photo

I know I’ve harped on this before but I can’t stress enough the importance of a great cover. I was looking at some of the new books on Amazon and to tell you the truth a couple of the covers were non imaginative. They were just bland and didn’t exactly go with the book description. But of course there were some that I was just stunned at the creativity and dare I say ‘beauty’. 

Your book cover is the first thing potential readers see. If you go the extra mile it will help you tremendously. Like right now I’m scanning photos for my newest work in progress. I have in my mind what I want and it has to be perfect. I’ve looked at thousands of photos and let me tell you, it’s a lot of work, but the payoff makes it worth it.

If your cover doesn’t fit the book, why even go there. If you write a Christmas romance and put a Easter bunny on it, well you get the picture. Don’t give away too much with your cover either. This means don’t put a picture of the ending on the cover. If all the way through the book you keep the reader in the dark about if the couple is going to marry or get pregnant, you might not want to put them in a wedding dress or looking pregnant. But then again that could increase sales. Sometimes it’s a catch 22, you just have to know how to make it work.

Also, one last thing that’s a huge, big piece of advice. For next to nothing you can purchase a picture from a reputable site and make it really pop. Don’t just pull something from the family photos and make it work, unless it really goes with the book. I use several sites, but my favs are bigstockphoto.com and istockphoto.com. There are several, but these are the two I use.

As always, good writing and may God Bless You…

By the way, don’t forget that my publishing service designs great covers. Check out the tab above for Horseshoe Publishing…

Crazy Maybe, Thankful Definitely…

How many writers have been told they’re nuts? I know I have. It’s almost hilarious the looks you get when you say you’re a writer. Some give you a sympathetic look. Some give you that ‘you can’t do anything else with your life,’ look. The one I love is the one where they look like ‘you’re nuts.” Ok, well maybe I am, but it’s something I love. 

Now anyone can say they’re writers, but how many can say they’re published writers? The first question usually asked is, “How’s that working out for you?” I always laugh and say it’s going wonderfully for me. I can finally say what I dreamed of years and years ago, “I’m a published author and am making money with my dream.” 

As for the “you can’t do anything else with your life”, well if you’ve read my bio you know I do a lot with my life. We are only given one chance at the pie so why not dip your fork into every slice you can. I run a successful accounting business which I built through experience and passion for the work. I’m a Children’s Ministry Director and dearly love what I do to minister to children. Then I get to do what only some sit and dream about. I get to put my dreams and thoughts into writing. I get to put romance, love, tears, heart and other emotions into someone’s life through my words. It’s a very humbling feeling to hear from my fans. Good or bad I have some faithful fans that ask when’s the next book coming out, where’s this character going from here, and so many more questions.

So where am I going with this post? I’m so thankful for the fans that support my writing. I’m thankful for the ones that write the adoring reviews and emails that I love reading every morning. This past year I’ve made friends all over the world and it’s been a very exciting time in my life. So, without further ado, I want to announce a huge sale. I’m doing a sale that will start today and run throughout Novemeber to show my thanks to all that follow me and even those that don’t but might start later.

The sales will be on all my stand alone books, not the bundles as they’re already reduced based on the amount of books included. You can find them at http://www.amazon.com/Stephanie-Hurt/e/B00850W7U8 and https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/StephaniePayneHurt and http://www.allromanceebooks.com/storeSearch.html?searchBy=author&qString=Stephanie+Payne+Hurt.

Soon they will show up on Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple, Sony and the other sites where my books are located. It usually takes about a week for the prices to show up on these sites, but the above link should start showing today and tommorow. So thanks and if you feel like it, give a review. I love to hear your thoughts.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Contests, New Releases, and just WOW…

Well, as promised in my blog last week, I jump. I entered the So You Think You Can Write Contest at Harlequin. This has been a year long process of do I want to or not struggles. Suddenly two weeks ago I started feeling the tug and coincidentally I saw a post that entries were being accepted. That was the sign I needed to jump. Here’s the link: http://www.soyouthinkyoucanwrite.com/manuscripts-sytycw-2013/finding-the-right-time/ So go over and read my submission and let me know what you think. I’m really excited about this entry. 

Image“Victoria” was officially released today. That’s an exciting thing also. I tried out the preorder with Smashwords.com, Barnes and Noble, Kobo and Apple iTunes. We will see how that goes because as you know those sales won’t show up for a little while. It you get a chance go over and check out this book. It’s also available on Amazon, CreateSpace and Allromanceebooks.com.

As with everything I do, I stay busy. Late last week “With All My Heart” was released in audio form. That was exciting, but what was really exciting was Apple iTunes picked it up immediately upon release. You may be saying, well iTunes is affiliated with Audible. The exciting thing is my other audio book that is out has not been picked up yet by iTunes, so this makes me wonder at the picking process. 

I had another author ask my opinion of audio books and my opinion is they’re great. My sales have been good and I’m excited about the rest of the books that are in production even as we speak. 

As Rosie Amber and I wind down our Romancing September Across The World Blog Tour, I sit to ponder the results. We were able to meet 30 talented authors in 30 days. As bloggers and readers alike we were able to see a small part of their lives and books for a moment. It went really well. If you haven’t check them out, just go through my last 30 days posts and you can see my side and the link to Rosie’s side.

So as I leave you today, think about the day. It’s Monday, a new week to make a better you. God made you in His image and that means do your best at everything you do.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Writing for fun or money…

How do you see your writing? Is it a hobby or career? I’ve talked to several writer’s lately that say they write for fun, but they do enjoy the royalty payments. Most writers work a full time job and fit their writing in where ever they can.

I love my writing. It’s so soothing and spirit lifting. I do work a full time job. Actually I own a Accounting business so I stay pretty busy, along with being a Children’s Minister and parent. My writing carries me to another world. It’s in my writing that I can get lost and leave the worries and stress behind.

I have to admit that it’s fun when the sales reports update on the various sites where my books are. And I would be crazy if I didn’t say I’d love to get a huge publishing contract. But I’d be happy to see some nice sales reports. I’ve been really happy so far with my sales. My writing takes the forefront in this scheme of things. It’s the passion that spurs me on. 

As we discuss sales, I’ve been telling you about the audio books. It’s been so fun going through the auditions. If any of you do voice overs for audio books, send me an audition. I’m trying to get those published this week if possible. I’ve got to make a decision. It’s funny how you know what you want it to sound like.

Don’t let slow sales or the need for more to conquer your passion for writing. Keep putting pen to paper or fingers to keys. If you let your dreams die, it will affect you in a bad way.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…