The Initial Results of the Joe Konrath/KDP Select Experiment

Midnight PDT last night ended the free period for Love, War and a Bulldog, the short story I wrote for Joe Konrath's eight-hour challenge. The giveaways are as follows:

U.S. - 198
Canada - 3
Mexico - 0
U.K. - 19
Germany - 9
Spain - 0
France - 1
Italy - 2
Japan - 0
India - 0
Brazil - 0

Total - 232

OMG, you didn't giveaways thousands of books! Your experiment was a total failure!

No, it wasn't by my standards. Granted, my standards are a lot different that other writers. My ultimate goal is SUSTAINED GROWTH. I'm (hopefully) building a long-term audience. My purposes (outside of seeing if I could write a decent, entertaining 4.5K short story within eight hours) were the following:

1) Give potential new readers a taste of my style. I'm not going to please everyone. I can't because I write in a very niche market. But a free book coupled with a holiday weekend brought the expected number of giveaways.

2) Penetrate new markets. So far I've only sold in the U.S. and the U.K. on Amazon, except for one fluke in Germany back in 2011. As shown above, I've got books on people's readers in France, Italy and Canada now.

3) Spur interest in the Bloodlines series.My perma-free novella, Zombie Confidential, giveaways are up 20% over this weekend, and a couple of copies of Blood Magick have sold.

4) Spur interest in my other books. Spring, from the Seasons of Magick series, sold a copy in Germany over the weekend.

The one drawback was some of my readers are a little miffed that Love, War and a Bulldog isn't available on the NOOK or iBookstore yet. It will be available on or about December 1, which ironically was when I planned to released it originally before Joe threw his gauntlet on the floor.

What I may do for the next Bloodlines short story is make it exclusive on B&N for three months. Just to see what happens.

What I WON'T DO is make any of the novels exclusive to any retailer. That's a guaranteed way to alienate my readers. I view the novels as the main feature and the shorts as the DVD extras.

So what's the final analysis? With the rapid changes in the publishing industry, no one method is guaranteed anymore. What works for you may not work for me, and vice-versa. Don't be afraid to experiment.

A Gentle Reminder

Just a little reminder (in case you didn't see Friday's post) that Love, War and a Bulldog is FREE today and tomorrow on Amazon.

Results of the J.A. Konrath 8 Hour Challenge (and a Free Story)

As many of you know, I broke down and tackled Joe Konrath's short story challenge a week ago Thursday. Joe's kind enough to promote our books this weekend. He also encouraged us to try out KDP Select, which I planned to do later, but what the hey?

For those of you awaiting patiently for Blood Sacrifice, this challenge really helped spur me into getting the damn novel done. As in 10,00 words written since I completed the challenge. And I'm literally writing the story backwards, but I'm not going to question this method since the book is getting finished.

Love, War and a Bulldog takes place once everyone returns to Los Angeles after the events of Amish, Vamps & Thieves and Blood Sacrifice. There's no major spoilers.

Okay, maybe a minor one. But seriously, folks, if you haven't figured out who Phil's dad is by now, look up "Amazons" on Wikipedia.

So here's the deal--

1) Love, War and a Bulldog is free now through Tuesday, September 3, on Amazon US only. Click here to download.

[Edit: Amazon has made it free on other country sites as well. It already has downloads from UK and Germany. I've changed the link so it will take you to the appropriate store. Please let me know if you have a problem.]

2) If you're a pure-ist, don't read it until after you've read Blood Sacrifice.

3) Love, War and a Bulldog won't be available at other online stores until December 1.

4) I'll try to do a free period at the other sites, but the best I can guarantee is a Smashwords coupon. (I know. You'd think Apple, B&N, etc. would get a clue about these types of temporary sales.)

5) If you absolutely want it now, but you don't have a Kindle or you absolutely refuse to get a Kindle app, my books are DRM-free, You can always convert the file through Calibre or any other conversion software.

So what the hell is this story about?

Emerson O’Malley, a were-bulldog, has been trapped in his canine form since the day he was born. Even worse, the likelihood of him losing his virginity is zero. But when he rushes in to rescue three nymphs, he pisses off the Greek goddess Aphrodite, who curses him into human form. Does he take advantage of his one night with the woman he loves or does he save Los Angeles from the goddess’s wrath?

P.S. Emerson and his ladylove Agnes made their first appearance in Zombie Love.