Fresh New Covers for my Time Travel Trilogy!

I’ve got some new covers to reveal for “Once Upon a Remembrance, Soulmates Through Time” and “Treasure So Rare”. I like them, hope you do to. Available at Amazon and everywhere else. www.amazon.com/Grace-Brannigan/e/B007YHYCYC/

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KDP Select Experiment

I’ve followed quite a few blogs about KDP select and how other authors are doing with this program. You have to commit for 3 months to Amazon only for your book, at least in eBook format.

I’ve tried KDP select twice, once when I had just signed up to place my eBooks on Amazon Kindle, and had only 1 of my romance eBooks available — and just recently, February 17 to 21st, where I now have a back list of 9 romances.
Today’s post is about the difference between that first experience and now, 8 months later. Keep in mind this is only my experience. But I have seen a difference in my sales just the last two weeks.

In June I placed my first eBook in the KDP select program. I signed up for the 3 months and utilized the 5 free days for Echoes from the Past, a contemporary romance. I split up the days, never really giving the book a chance to go somewhere. I  gave away 900 free copies the first 2 days, and the final 3 days in July I gave away 600 copies. It bumped me from about 200k in the ranking down to about 10k in the ranking.  After two weeks, my book went back to the 200k ranking and sometimes higher.

Below is the chart for sales in 2012. The books slowly grew in sales for the most part, beginning with the first book end of April at 2 sales. Once “Echoes from the Past” was off the free days my 3 other books in the series “Once and Always, Heartstealer” and “Wishing on a Rodeo Moon” made up most of the sales, but not “Echoes from the Past.”

By October I had added Book 1 and 2 in the time travel series, “Once Upon a Remembrance” and “Soulmates Through Time.” By November I had added two Short Romances, “Two Babies, a Cowboy and Sara” and “Deception.” For the month of December I did a special promo where all my romances were $1.99 and I also utilized Google adwords for that holiday month.
By now all my books were available on Amazon Kindle and Smashwords and all their channels, however, most of my books sold via Amazon Kindle as noted below. I did not have any books in the KDP Select program since July 2012.

I had “Treasure So Rare” Book 3 in the time travel trilogy ready to be published mid-January, so I decided to try KDP select for this romance. Having done more research on the KDP select program, I chose to take the 5 free days at once and just see what happened.

I utilized February 17 to 21 for the free days. I gave away almost 4000 free copies and interestingly, Book 1 and 2 in the time travel series jumped from about 180k and 225k in the ranking to 17k by the end of the 5 days. Treasure So Rare hit #2 and #3 in Kindle Free books and #10 to #5 in free Kindle Time Travel and 
fantasy.

I did a Romance of the Week promo for Once Upon a Remembrance through Kindle Nation Daily in mid-January, and sold about 36 copies, but did not see any spillover to other books. January I sold 130 books total across all distribution places.

In February I sold 277 books, broken down below. Total eBook sales on Amazon Kindle for 2013 is now 399 eBooks and 25 everywhere else.



My experience with KDP is that my two other books in the series really got the attention from this promotion. Treasure So Rare has sold some copies (about 30), but that's been bouncing in the rankings after the promotion while Book 1 and Book 2 have remained at about 17 to 20k. How long this will last is a guess, but right now all my books are getting some spill over as far as I can see. Not only on the US Amazon but also the UK Amazon.

Since I have 9 romances available I believe that has made a different in KDP select. Readers have obviously searched out the other books in the series due to the increased exposure. Having 9 romances available instead of only 1 or 2 certainly seems to make a difference, especially if they’re in a series.
My next KDP experiment is upcoming first week of March, a book in my contemporary series, “Heartstealer”. I will report back at the end of March on that experiment.

Since things  have changed with KDP, we will see how this experiment turns out.

Soulmates Through time on Smashwords

and also on Kindle later tomorrow.

Soulmates Through Time on Smashwords

Edits for Soulmates Through Time Book 2

I'm now working on the edits for my time travel manuscript, Soulmates Through Time, 2nd in the series. I received it back last night which is really exciting. It's not a lot of heavy editing, for which I'm grateful, but it's always good to have a professional go through it and check for story flow, continuity and anything that's just not sitting right.

Darien and Elise's story. Separated as young lover's, Elise has been trying for 24 years to get back to her own time. In that time she's yearned for the young man left behind, while Darien, thinking Elise fled and left him to her father's wrath, has had the same amount of time for bitterness to dwell in his heart over her apparent abandonment of the love they shared.

Soulmates Through Time Small excerpt

Soulmates Through Time, Small excerpt, Grace Brannigan copyright 2012
"My dear that is probably the first true word you have spoken since your arrival. It is all a lie." He walked to the door, his head and shoulders stiffly set.
 "Darien," Elise was unable to stem the heartbreak which cracked her voice, "please say you will wait to marry." He moved further away from her. "You know you cannot."
 "Lawyers can make all kinds of things go away." Darien flung the door open and strode angrily through it, out the hallway and up the stairs to the second level.
 Taking the stairs two at a time, he heard the echoing reverberations as the door hit the wall. At the top landing he paused, the pain and anger which he had kept inside all these years so unbearable he felt like weeping, something he hadn't done since he was a boy.
 Straightening his shoulders, he entered his suite of rooms, carelessly closing the door with his heel. He reached for the decanter, tilting the glass so the light filtered through the sparkling liquid, turning it a deep, rich reddish brown, exactly the color of her hair . . ..
 With a low growl, Darien flung it away from him, sinking down into a chair, unmindful of the glass shattering, whiskey running down the wall like rivulets of blood.

On Writing and Soulmates Through Time - time travel

Just read a good book, Stephen King's On Writing. I really liked learning about how he writes. He's obviously a seat of the pants writer, just as I am. I always felt kind of out of it when in writer's groups they'd talk about how everything is plotted down to the last second. I know that works for some people but my brain and creative sensors just rebel at that idea.

Well, I've written for years, just go in and write and the story comes out. It kind of reflects my life and personality, lol, I don't like restrictions or rules in general.  Either it's a product of me working for myself or working for myself it's become a by-product.

I'm going through Soulmates Through Time for the last edit. I've changed the story line just a tad because what I had, there were a few spots that weren't working. So now it's been changed and tweaked here and there and I've added some new elements. Once Upon a Remembrance comes in about 85k words, Soulmates Through Time is about 82k and still subject to change.

I'm very excited by the small changes I've made in the story line. I really feel it's giving it a bit more depth and there actually made be another book in it. We shall see.  That would make the series a Quadrilogy. Does that sound weird or what?

Actually, the contemporary romance Women of Character series is a Quadrilogy, but I haven't called it that. Hmmm.

Short Excerpt Soulmates Through Time

copyright 2012 Grace Brannigan

You have always been ruled by emotion, Elise. You follow your heart, which is not bad, but not always good."

            Several women walking alongside the road in a group waved to Mandine, their stares openly curious as they rested on Elise.

            "How long have you lived here in this village?" Elise asked.

            Mandine shrugged, stopping the cart beside her cottage. "However long Darien has lived here. I do not count days or years."

            "You came here the same time as Darien?"

            "When he came from the sea and settled here, I too came to this newly established town."

            "You mean you followed him?"

            She nodded, a small cackle escaping her. "In a way. I was here first. I knew you would return one day. I could not follow you, so I came to be with him."

            "Does he know this?"

            "He suspects it, but what can he do?"  She laughed again. "What can he do about it? I am a gypsy."

Soulmates Through Time Cover is here

Soulmates Through Time cover. Very excited to present the cover for the 2nd book in the time travel Women of Character Series.

Soulmates Through Time Book Cover

Soulmates Through Time is a time travel romance with a twist. The cover will be posted some time this week and it's looking fabulous.

Small Excerpt Soulmates Through Time (time travel)

Soulmates Through Time copyright 2012 Grace Brannigan

Prologue ~ 1807

            The thin boned hand pressed the scented cloth gently across a fevered brow, then continued soothingly along a rounded jaw.

            Aleanna's rich brown hair splayed against stark white pillows in a luxuriant, waving mass, framing once radiantly alive features. The eyes were now dull, stripped of the spirit of life, the complexion pale and waxen.

            "Aleanna, my Aleanna."  The young woman responded to the sorrowful whisper, her head turning on the pillow.

            "My baby?" Aleanna's voice was a mere thread of sound quickly lost in the hush of the room.

            "She is here."  Into her line of vision a small bundle appeared, warmly swaddled in soft blankets.

            Caring hands shaped Aleanna's limp arms into a cradle, and a weight suddenly lay against her breast. A warm, wanted weight.           

            Her child.

            With immense effort, Aleanna looked down at the child in her arms.

            "My darling," she whispered. A pleased smile was upon bloodless lips, then she leaned her weary head back into the pillow.

            She was so tired . . . she wished only to close her eyes. She fought the sensation, for she knew there was something she must do.

            Weakly, she lifted one hand, caught the thin boned hand of the woman who hovered beside the bed.

            "Mandine, you must --"

            The dark garbed figure bent closer to catch the words Aleanna could barely get out.

            "Tell me Aleanna," her caregiver, the woman named Mandine, urged, "tell me of your wishes. Do you wish vengeance?"

            "Protect my daughter."

            "I shall protect her from that one," the figure hissed balefully. "I shall take her away this night."

            "No." Aleanna clutched the thin forearm with surprising strength, her face, if it were possible, growing even more ashen. "You know she must stay here, in these surroundings. I wish it were otherwise, but --" She lay back, utterly exhausted. "I ask that you guide her. Shield her as best you can." 

            The dark garbed figure picked up the infant, held her closely against her breast.

            "You know I will do what is best for your child." Mandine bowed her head, dark eyes burning. "I will protect the wee one as if she were my own."

            "Yes," murmured Aleanna faintly, her eyes flickering for the last time, "I know you will take care of my Elise."