YouTube – Pied and Prodigious

The faerie shook his little head. ‘I taught you that ditty to focus that reckless mind of yours. Enchantments be subtle things, not subject to mere words.’ He flew down and pushed the lamp off the chest-of-drawers on which it stood, and I watched as it floated down to the floor.
Puck had taught me the words for various ‘enchantments’ over the years. They’d just been games to me in my childhood. I’d seen this sort of trick before, of course – like the time last year when Puck had made my bed spin around three times, with me still in it!

And I’ve selected these 7 authors all from my Kindle Family Fiction group on Facebook:

1. Clare Pollard – http://clarepollard.com
2. Rebecca Storey – http://rebeccastorey.tumblr.com
3. Melissa Foster – http://www.melissafoster.com
4. Linda David – http://eternalrainbows.moonfruit.com
5. Jennifer Hanning – http://www.moongolly.com
6. Nicola Palmer – http://nicolapalmerwriter.blogspot.com
7. Christine Ann Schimpf – http://christineschimpf.blogspot.co.uk

US: http://amzn.com/B007U8V9XC
UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007U8V9XC

First, click one (or both) of these links to open up a new tab/window. This is my book’s Amazon Product Overview Page – the one you see before you decide whether or not to make a purchase:

http://www.amazon.com/Serpent-Glass-Thomas-Farrell-ebook/dp/B0062A7UVE

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Serpent-Glass-Thomas-Farrell-ebook/dp/B0062A7UVE

1. At the top of this page you will see a “like” button. If you liked my book, you can click this button! Easy, wasn’t it?

2. If you look at the reviews you can click the “yes” button beneath them if you find them beneficial (they helped or help you get a good understanding of the book) or “no” if you feel the review is inaccurate and/or unfair. You can open up all the reviews by clicking the links beneath the review section where you can also access reviews for the .com/.co.uk site. It really helps both to vote for good reviews and for against unfair reviews.

3. Now scroll about halfway down to the “Tags Customers Associate with This Product” section, then click on “See all x tags” (x is the number of tags) and it will open up a similar page but with all the tags displayed.

From here you can do two things: (1) you can click on the tags (in the little box next to them) if you agree that the tag is an accurate description of my book and (2) you can add your own tags in the little text box beneath the listing (click “add” afterwards); you can add as many as fifteen! These tags describe the book but may also link similar authors by name. This really helps the book to become more likely to show up in searches.

There’s a number of other things you can do from that page, too – such as sharing on twitter/facebook, and giving input to the discussions listed at the bottom of the page – but the above are the simplest and quickest!

Thank you for your time and your support of The Serpent in the Glass!

BLURB for Pied and Prodigious

‘It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a man in possession of a wife, must be in want of a good fortune.’

There is much excitement in Longlawn when two men with tall hats enter the district. Mothers buy new dresses for their daughters, fathers polish up on their fencing skills, and Mr Bayonet tackles the perilous journey through the stinging nettles to call upon the new occupants of Nettlefield Park.

The ditsy Jane Bayonet soon falls for Mr Blingley with all his gold jewellery, but her sister, the ever-prodigious Lizzy, very much dislikes Mr Blingley’s friend, Mr Dicey, whose pied coat and tall hat strike fear into the local populace.

This is a story of excessive fashion, high heels, large wardrobes, tall hats – oh, and love…

Find out more on my new facebook page for this book!

The above is an excerpt from my recent review of The Wizard of Time by indie author, G.L. Breedon. Impressed with the story, I decided to contact the author for an interview.

D.M. Andrews: First, tell us a little about yourself. Where do you live? What do you do? What are your hobbies and interests? What do you like to read?

G.L. Breedon: I grew up in small town in Michigan and I now live in Brooklyn, NY with my wife. I work freelance as a production coordinator for corporate events to pay the bills while slowly I figure out how to write for a living. I studied theatre and film in college and have directed several plays and two independent feature films. I’m also an ordained interfaith minister and will be publishing a non-fiction book about spirituality and globalization at the end of the year.

These days, most of my reading tends to be research. So, since one of the settings for the second Wizard of Time book is the Middle Ages, I’ve been reading Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose and Connie Willis’s Doomsday Book as well as histories and anthologies about the Middle Ages. A Time Traveler’s Guide to the Middle Ages was particularly fun and informative.

D.M. Andrews: That’s some diversity! I like it when research involves fiction books So, why do you write fantasy? Would you write in other genres? In The Wizard of Time the protagonist is thirteen years of age and the book is suitable for all confident readers. Do you feel it’s important to make fiction to accessible to a wide audience and age range?

G.L. Breedon: Interestingly, although I grew up reading science fiction, I never read much fantasy until about ten years ago. However, all of the ideas I have in my notes files are for science fiction and fantasy stories so, with the exception of the occasional non-fiction book, I suspect that will be largely all I write. It’s what I feel most drawn to and interested in since I was a kid, so it feels right. I must say, I’m happier writing sci-fi and fantasy stories than any of the other things I’ve written.

As for writing for a wide range of audience ages, that was actually a very conscious decision I made with The Wizard of Time. My first novel (The Celestial Blade ­ a sci-fi YA that will be out sometime this summer) largely followed the story of three kids with limited adult characters. I wanted WOT to be a novel that could appeal to adults as well as kids, so I made sure there were adult characters that older readers could identify with. But it also worked with the story.

In my other YA fantasy series, The Young Sorcerers Guild, there really aren’t many adult characters that feature prominently in the stories, but I’ve tried to write them in a way that anyone, of any age, who likes a good adventure can enjoy. The important thing is tell the story the way it wants to be told rather than forcing something arbitrary into it in order to appeal to what someone imagines as a wider audience. I think that is why the Harry Potter books were such successful cross-overs with adult readers. They were clearly written for a YA audience and adults read them for those YA qualities, not because Rowling did anything intentional to attract older readers.

D.M. Andrews: Yes, there’s something about books that have a wide appeal, but I agree that it must be natural. In The Wizard of Time you’ve chosen a theme of time travel, albeit with magic rather than technology. As an author, I’ve avoided that theme, for the simple reason that I think it would confuse me! How do you deal with the added complexity of having to deal with timelines as well as the standard storyline? Do you keep lots of complex charts?

For some reason I’ve always had a knack for keeping time travel stories straight. When I’m watching a show or reading a book about time travel, I start creating a mental timeline to keep track of everything and I rarely get confused. I actually enjoy it, because if the writer of the time travel story is really good, then it’s like trying to assemble a puzzle. It’s one of the reasons I like watching Dr. Who. The writers are really good at creating these little ‘time puzzles,’ like the storyline with River Song. That said, I still plot everything out in advance and spend days and days making sure it all makes sense.

D.M. Andrews: There are Dr Who fans everywhere! Do you have an interest in science? Do you think time travel possible?

G.L. Breedon: I love science. The first hardcover book I ever bought was Carl Sagan’s Cosmos when I was 12. I was addicted to watching Sagan’s PBS series, so when I discovered that there was a book based on it, I insisted my parents take me to the book store so I could plop my allowance down and buy it.

After that, for several years I wanted to be an astrophysicist. Then I realized how much math that required. I’m not awful at math, but it never came as easily as writing. As for time travel being possible, I’m not entirely sure, but I suspect that if it is, it’s not possible for any mechanical based technology (baring forward travel via relativistic effects). I would guess that time travel would be something only a species that had managed to transcend physicality might be able to manage. It would require being able to bend the laws of the universe, to reshape reality to confirm to one’s will. Essentially, you’d need God like powers of consciousness. Basically, magic.

D.M. Andrews: I remember Sagan’s deep American accent on the TV from my youth – probably about the same time Gabriel was taken out the time line (spoiler!). The Wizard of Time references various historic time periods. Do you like history? What periods do you find most interesting?

G.L. Breedon: I do like reading about history. I am absolutely addicted to DK Publishing’s series of large illustrated history books. I don’t have a particular time period that I prefer. What I enjoy is looking at not just the events of a time period, but the artifacts – the art, the weapons, the daily items, the writings ­ poems, diaries, plays, religious texts, philosophy, etc. Unfortunately, I rarely ever have time to do as much research as I would like. There’s always more writing to be done.

D.M. Andrews: One of the great things about historical novels is that the reader can learn a bit of history in a far more pleasurable way than they often do at school. Although I’m no fan of preachy or didactic fiction, I do think a reader can learn a lot when such information is presented well and appropriately. Did you intend for The Wizard of Time to educate people about history?

G.L. Breedon: That was the hope ­ that kids (and adults) who read the books would be interested not only in the story, but the places the story is set in. The difficultly is keeping a balance between enough information to set the scene, and give some historical background, without going into unnecessary detail. I needed to find a similar balance with the information that sets up the magical world the story takes place in. What’s even more difficult is trying to make the historical settings integral to the story, so that they are not merely backdrops, but essential to the plot.

D.M. Andrews: Perhaps you could tell us about your sequel to The Wizard of Time and your other fictional works (published or not)?

G.L. Breedon: Actually, I’m not sure I want to say much about WOT #2 yet, as it’s still being written. Best not to show the cake while it’s still baking. As for my other books, the first novel in the Young Sorcerers Guild series is out now. It’s called The Dark Shadow of Spring and if the story of how Alex Ravenstar and his friends in the Young Sorcerers Guild must save the secluded magical town of Runewood from an ancient soul enslaving creature known as the Shadow Wraith. The second book in the series, Summer’s Cauldron, is coming out at the end of the month. As one might guess, there are four books planned for the series, one for each season.

I also have a YA sci-fi novel I’m hoping to release sometime mid-summer. It’s called The Celestial Blade and takes place on an enormous planet-sized starship traveling between galaxies. The story is about Jed and his two friends, Kylla and Fallon, and their adventures to save Jed’s older brother from the clutches of a violent rebel group set on taking control of the ship.

D.M. Andrews: Thank you, G.L. Breedon, for that ‘timely’ and interesting interview!

You can find G.L. Breedon’s website at www.kosmosaicbooks.com, and he’s on facebook at www.facebook.com/GLBreedon. You can also follow him on twitter – GLBreedon. You can buy The Wizard of Time at Amazon US or Amazon UK or on Barnes and Noble. The Dark Shadow of Spring can be purchased at Amazon US and Amazon UK.

I joined KDP Select in early January after my debut novel, an all-ages contemporary fantasy entitled The Serpent in the Glass, languished on Kindle and Smashwords for about two months with only a few sales (4 throughout Smashwords channels, and about 20 on Kindle).

In early-to-mid January I ran a 2-day campaign on KDP with no clue what I was doing, and no preparation, and little promotion during those 2 days. It got me around a 1000 downloads (over 900 in the US). I had no sales swell afterward, but my sales did climb up to 2 per day for the rest of January, and to 2.2 per day in February. In the first week of March they had climbed up to 3 per day (again, nearly all in the US). Borrows did not exist prior to the first campaign, but were still very weak (I had 11 in the first week of March).

Then I read a couple of sites about how to go about doing a KDP Select promotion with a little more intelligence. So here’s what I did (as best as I can remember!)

1. My book is not too fast-paced near the beginning, so I added an excerpt to the beginning of the book that would show up in the sample on the Amazon “Look Inside”.

2. I had my book in 2 children’s categories. I decided to switch one of the categories to adult contemporary fantasy in order to garner more visibility (my book appeals to both adults and children).

3. I scheduled 2 days for the campaign – many people will miss the first 24 hours of a promotion, so I wanted to not block the momentum; I also scheduled a Wed and Thu so that the momentum would carry into the weekend higher sales period (with latency, my campaign ended about 11am Fri morning my time (GMT)).

4. I sent or submitted notifications to some freebie sites a good few days before – including Ereader News Today, PixelofInk.com and All Things Kindle on FB. I also set up a GoodReads event to notify friends of the free promotion.

When the campaign began I posted in the normal places: FB, Twitter (#freekindlebook, #freebook, @kindlenews), LinkedIn, Goodreads and a few forums such as FB’s Author on the Cheap and Indie Kindle WLC, and the Book Bazaar of kuforum.co.uk. I also added the “kindle freebie” tag to my book just before the campaign went live (there are freebie sites that monitor for books that add that tag).

With the sites that automatically pick it up, the book got quite a good exposure for those 2 days on the free listings at Amazon.

24 hours into the campaign I had about 6000 downloads in the US, 700 in the UK and about 50 in Germany. I hit into the 30s and 40s overall in the US/UK and #1 in 2 categories.

As the second day of free downloads progressed, I hit # 1 in my 2 categories both in the US and UK, and went to at least #13 overall in both the UK and US. I ended up with about 15,000 downloads at the end of the 48 hours (over 13,000 in the US).

After the campaign ended my ranks dropped significantly – I assume because of technically no sales for 2 days. However, they went up pretty sharpish within that first day after the campaign. At exactly 24 hours after the end of the campaign I had made over 100 sales, about 30 borrows, and was at #796 in the US (and in the teens for y categories). In the UK I only had 6 sales (making up for the 2 lost days!) and was at #5791 overall, and at #21 and #52 in my categories.

I was not able to get to my PC on the second day, but at the end of the third day from campaign end I had the following stats:

US sales: 457, 13 refunds, overall #374, category rankings of 7,7 and 8 (seems you can get up to 4 categories because it lists book and kindle counterparts separately)
UK sales: 86, 8 refunds, #440 (6,6,12)
Also 9 in Germany and 1 in France. So, 553 sales in 72 hours.

Sales stayed pretty strong, as did borrows, with daily sales declining thereafter from 133, to 80, to 70 and then down to 50 by day 6. I kept at 50 sales per day until day 10, then it slumped to about 20 sales per day. Then, for the past 4 days, up until March 30th, it’s been around 15 sales per day. I stayed in the top ten for approx. 6 days and hit the Hot New Releases.

As I am still – 3 weeks after the campaign – getting a daily sale count of five times my pre-campaign amount, I’m happy with it! Will it decline further? I don’t know. All I know is that I really should have more than one book out to make the most of it, so I’d better get back to writing! Do post if you have any questions.

Oh, almost forgot. My total sales and borrows for March (not including the 30th or 31st) are 1223 and 284 respectively, and a refund rate of 3.8% (so I actually had 1269 sales). I am currently around #7000 overall on both UK/US and am #67 in Kindle Contemporary Fantasy (UK). By the way, judging by the rankings during this period, I’d say I got a lot more sales from putting my second category in adult contemporary fantasy than I would have done if I’d left it in children’s…

TTFN!

The Harry Potter books are available as ebooks at last!

Click this link to read more:
http://insider.pottermore.com/2012/03/harry-potter-ebooks-and-digital-audio.html