Category Archives: Sales
A rant about ebook piracy wherein I channel my inner Lewis Black
(ATTENTION: There will be a great deal of profanity in this post. You have been warned.)
Well, fuck me. I did my usual check for reviews this morning and stumbled across a pirate site called readpremiumbooks dot com that has Empress of Storms.
612 downloads. Allow me to repeat that — SIX HUNDRED AND TWELVE DOWNLOADS. And that’s just from this one site. That’s $1,709.32 that I lost, assuming that people would have bought it through Amazon. That would’ve been enough to pay our bills this month and have cash left over for Christmas presents (and things are really goddamned tight around Castle Cameron right now).
And you wonder why I despise pirates. Not all of us are bestselling authors who can blow off piracy as a left-handed form of promotion. For some of us that income means paying the bills, or the mortgage, or picking up necessary medicine. But apparently people think I don’t need that money — hey, I’m a writer, I must be rolling in it, I won’t notice one pirated copy.
Surprise, motherfucker. I notice. So do my creditors. And I can’t even send these RPE fuckers a DMCA takedown because they advertise themselves as an “external affiliate” who cannot guarantee the presence of a particular file because they draw from third-party sites.
But losing income actually isn’t the most irritating thing about this. Want to know what’s really chapping my ‘nads? EoS has 41 fucking reviews on this site, all of which appear to be five stars. I can’t get people to leave me reviews on Amazon, but pirate sites? No problem. Goddamn it, I offered the book FOR FREE if people would just leave an honest review in return. Not one nibble did I get. But they’ll go to a pirate site that could be loading their ereaders with Cthulhu knows what sort of malware to get reading material AND LEAVE REVIEWS THERE.
And people wonder why I drink.
I’m big in the UK
So I’ve been checking my Kindle Direct Publishing dashboard, as you do when you’re a nervous self-pubbing author. While I was there I noticed an upwards swing in sales for Empress of Storms today, which is awesome because money around the holidays is always a good thing.
And then I dug into the stats a bit deeper. It seems that the bulk of the recent sales have come from amazon.co.uk. This pleases me as Ramón is in fact an Englishman and it’s nice to know that some of his countrymen (or women, as the case may be) are digging my work. So if any of you lovely British bookbuyers are reading this, thank you and please spread the word to your friends. I wouldn’t mind becoming a smash hit in the UK at all, especially if I could whomp up the funding for a book tour.
Keep all sharp objects away from my reality bubble. I’m allowed to dream.
Meanwhile, NovelRank is reporting that I have sold absolutely nothing in December and my only sales have been within the US. So bugger to you and your bizarre sales determining algorithm, NovelRank.
Empress of Storms 25% off at ARe! @allromance #cybermonday #sale
I’m still running that 25% off sale on Empress of Storms at All Romance eBooks, so if you haven’t picked up a copy yet you should go and do it now! For everyone who has already purchased a copy, thank you SO much. Your interest in my first foray into high fantasy erotic romance is truly appreciated.
Now that the holidays are winding down, however, could I ask you a huge favor? I really, really, REALLY need reviews for the book, ideally on Amazon but I won’t say no to Goodreads, B&N, or any other online retailers. I’ve reached the point where my social media self-promo is getting a little redundant and I don’t want to annoy people with repeated ads. I’ve purchased advertising on various sites, but right now reviews are desperately needed to promote the book, bump it up in Amazon rankings and pull in new sales.
Also, as I’ve mentioned before if you’re stony broke and just can’t afford an ebook right now, contact me with your preferred ebook format and I’ll send you a copy. All I ask is that you leave an honest review for me — and yeah, if you read it and absolutely hate it, then go ahead and say that. I know Empress isn’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea, and I’d rather have someone saying, “Yeah, sorry, this bites” than someone blowing smoke up my ass.
Okay, back to work!
Quick question about a newsletter
Namely, would any of you be interested in a VERY low-traffic newsletter from me where I ping you maybe once a month about new releases, progress reports on WIPs, teaser chapters, amusing pictures of my cats, etc. Please respond wherever you read this or in the comments on my blog — if there’s enough interest I’ll put it together.
Guess what I did this morning?
Everyone who liked my Breaker Zone MWT snippets is about to be very happy because — ta-da — I signed the publishing contract with Evernight this morning! Breaker Zone should be coming out either in late November or early December, and I cannot wait to see the cover art and make the trailer for this one.
Of course, that also means that I need to get cracking on Olympic Cove 3 because waiting eighteen months between books is not fun (I mean, who do I think I am, George R.R. Martin?). Right now the working title is Deep Water, and this one will be a little different in that it’s going to be a MMF story.
MM lovers, come back! There’s going to be plenty of hot man-on-man action for you, I promise. The initial pairing will be Poseidon (I TOLD you he was going to get his own book) and a gruff British oceanographer named Griffin Parkes who wants to spend a peaceful week at Olympic Cove before going into hospice care for his terminal cancer. But the God of the Ocean isn’t giving up that easily, especially when he recognizes Griffin as the long-lost agapetos of himself and his consort Amphitrite. Now, Poseidon must seduce a quite straight Griffin in order to save his life, then figure out how to bring Amphitrite back into their triad.
Can a still-grieving Amphitrite forgive Poseidon for the ancient betrayal that destroyed their marriage? Will the blunt, pragmatic Griffin be able to accept not only a male lover, but the fact that he’s a mythological figure reborn? Will Poseidon be able to bring the two loves of his life back together, or is he destined to lose Griffin and Amphitrite yet again? And what plans does Thetis have for this triad? And gads, how are Bythos and Aphros going to react to the idea of their parents, you know, doing it?
Only time will tell, mwahahahahaha. (And I can see Ceit staring at the screen and screaming, “WHAT? You, I, buh, WHAT?” Don’t worry, sweetie, I already have you down as one of the betas.)
Well, I’m back (and with good news!)
So there I was, sitting in my hotel room in London (Ramón and I were attending the World Science Fiction Convention, long story) when I decided to get online and check my email. Lo and behold, an acceptance email for my Planet Alpha story appeared!
The current release date is sometime in October, and the acquiring editor decided that Assassin was an appropriate title in honor of my delightfully sarcastic Xyran assassin Zhan. If you’ve been following my Mid Week Teases for this story, you’ll soon be able to read the whole thing. Here’s the blurb I just submitted with my cover art sheet — can’t wait to see what Sour Cherry Designs comes up with for this one.
A routine wilderness patrol goes horribly wrong when Sergeant Deacon Shea and his patrol partner are ambushed by scavengers. After a firefight leaves his partner dead and their vehicle destroyed, Deacon is forced to hike out of the mountains alone. Stumbling across a grounded Alphan shuttle, he thinks he’s found a ride home with the Alphan warrior Taric and his Xyran associate Zhan. The handsome aliens, however, have other plans for Deacon — to make him their mate.
Forced to hide their bond from their respective governments, Taric and Zhan never expected to find their third bondmate on Earth, and definitely not in the middle of an unauthorized mission to stop a vicious Xyran slavemaster. Neither of them can resist the urge to claim Deacon, but will their new mate help them catch their old foe, or turn them over to Earth — and Alphan — justice?
Folks, I need a favor from you
I just got my 3Q royalties statement from Evernight, and after I stopped flailing like a happy Muppet I sat down to study the numbers. Storm Season, unsurprisingly, has been my best seller to date, and I love each and every one of you who bought a copy.
Thing is, I need to sell a minimum of 25 copies through Evernight’s website in order for it to be considered for a print run, and I’ve only sold 20 copies so far. It’s a stupid egoboo thing, I know, but I would so very much love it if this was available in print. If you haven’t purchased Storm Season yet and want to find out how the whole Olympic Cove saga began, I would ask that you head over to the Evernight website and get it directly from the publisher. Plus, today is the last day of their 40% off everything sale, so if you buy it today you’ll get it on sale as well!
I thank you for your support!
Well, that was a good Thursday
- My guest post “Beautful Yet Cruel: Reasons to Make Your Villain Attractive” went up at Buffy’s Ramblings and attracted a fair amount of attention, based on the number of entries in the Amazon GC giveaway (yes, by the way, I’m giving away a $20 Amazon gift card on this blog tour, so go over to one of my stops and enter).
- I got the acceptance email for my short story “In His Name,” which will be in Evernight’s HIM: Strength Meets Innocence Manlove Edition anthology (the blurb for the story is, “Father Sean Halloran is a priest in crisis who must choose between his vocation and his growing desire for Matt McCormick, a Unitarian minister with a secret.” I am so going to hell for this one — but it’s tastefully done, I swear). I’m also trying to finish the story for the MF antho version at the moment, so with luck I may be able to make this a twofer.
- A bunch of lovely people started following me on Twitter and Facebook — hi people!
- I started weightlifting again last night. My body decided I was insane, and insisted on a 5-hour nap. When I woke up, Ramón had pizza waiting for me. Yay pizza!
So, yeah, that was a good day. I still have two more guest blog posts to write, the MF antho short story to finish, a short story for a steampunk magazine that is being patiently waited upon by the editor to finish as well, an Etsy sale to mail off and a couple of podcasts to edit. Happy Friday, y’all!
And Now, A Quick Look At The Sales Numbers
Using the nifty neato-keen Novelrank.com website, I can keep track of how many copies of “A Boon by Moonlight” sell on the various Amazon websites. According to the site, someone just bought the book in the last hour (thank you, whoever you are!) and my total number of sales for the month of March across all Amazon sites is…
…21 books. Twenty in the US, and one in the UK (hello, my British chums!).
And that, my friends, makes me freaking ecstatic. No, really, it does.
Yes, I know you’re sitting there thinking, “But Nic, that’s only 21 books. I mean, that works out as pretty much a book sale a day. It’s not exactly like you’ll be drinking Cristal any time soon.”
True. But let’s take a really good look at me — I’m nobody. Seriously, I am. I have a short story out in an anthology, and “Boon,” and that is the entirety of my published work in erotic romance to date (we shan’t discuss the SF career at the moment). And let’s not forget that I write in a genre that is hit with a tsunami of new material every single day. The fact that 21 people, faced with this morass of choices, decided to take a chance on my work makes me feel pretty damned good.
And those numbers don’t include sales on Evernight’s site, All Romance E-books or Bookstrand. Since “Boon” is an ARe category bestseller and keeps slowly climbing in the rankings, I have to assume that I’ve sold more than one book there. While I don’t have data on Evernight or Bookstrand, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to project that I’ve sold another 21 books or so through these three sites.
So let’s call it a projected total of 42 sales, 20 days after release, for a novelette written by an unknown author in an incredibly tough genre. Now you understand why I’m happy. The major ER review sites haven’t reviewed it yet, either — that will most likely start happening sometime in the next two weeks or so. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for decent reviews (my editor at Evernight and an independent reviewer both said that “Boon” made them cry, so I’m assuming that means it doesn’t stink), which can only help sales. Hell, sometimes even a bad review can mean sales, depending on how badly you’re savaged.
What all of this is, is a start. A very good start. And it’s a start on which I fully intend to build in April, when my full-length paranormal erotic romance Storm Season comes out. And that’s only the first in a long line of novels I hope to be writing in this genre. Muwahahahaha.
Now if I could just persuade people to leave reviews at Amazon…
Break out the dancing boys!
Just signed a contract and submitted the cover art/blurb sheet for my novelette “A Boon by Moonlight,” which will appear in Evernight Publishing’s Romance on the Go line sometime this year. Huzzah!
And to whet your appetite, here’s the blurb I sent in with my cover art sheet:
Ex-Marine Zach Mayhew is willing to do anything for his dying grandmother. When she asks him to find a fairy ring in the forest and beg that she be allowed to spend her last days in Faerie, he obliges her (even though he thinks it’s nuts). But when a gorgeous Sidhe noble steps out of the ring and asks for a night in his bed in return, Zach learns that history has a way of repeating itself, and a boon asked by moonlight can have unexpected consequences for his heart.
Nicola Cameron Writes 