Experiment Part 1

Greetings,

Today I want to talk about a test I am doing next week. I got the rights to Hollownton Homicide back from that publisher back in May. To celebrate this I decided to put it on sale with a bang. What does that mean exactly? Well, I read an article another Indie author posted on a writer site talking about how he ran a sale campaign for one of his books three years after it came out with great results.

His campaign consisted of running ads on several sale book sites including the coveted Bookbub, which I have never been able to get on. He ran his deal for I believe 5 days and on each day it was being advertised on two sites (except the Bookbub day that was by itself.)

That got me thinking, I have tried some of this services in the past but never more than three and they are always spaced apart. But what if this time I emulated this author's idea and ran multiples on each day. Well I got lucky because I found a site with a list of more than 100 services that do this kind of thing. So I may have gone a little overboard and now I am nervous. This is more money then I have ever spent on advertising before. So I decided to monitor everything to see if this plan truly works. I also decided to post this initial blog post informing anyone interested (I don't know maybe another author will want to see it some day) on the progress.

So Hollownton Homicide is running for $0.99 for July 18th - 23rd. It is being shown on at least four different places each day. I am going to put the list here then in a post at the end of next week I will give the raw data for each day. Here is hoping I break even. Wish me luck!

7/18

Book Machine

Hot Zippy

Book Bongo

EBookLister

EBook Boosters?

Awesomegang

7/19

Indie Book Promo (2 month thing)

Hot Zippy

Booktastik

EBookLister

7/20

BookSends

Hot Zippy

Kboards

Genre Pulse

Ebookhabit

EBookLister

EBook Discovery

7/21

Readers in the Know

Hot Zippy

Ebook deal of the day UK

Genre Pulse

EBookLister

Book Butterfly

7/22

Genre Pulse

Price dropped books

Bargin Booksy

Book Butterfly

That's all for today.

Happy Reading,

Gretchen

Not a Lot of Writin' Going On

Greetings,

I wouldn't call my current predicament writer's block. I am having ideas of what to write but the having the time and energy to actually do it seems to escape me. Then every contest I don't make to the second round and every un-positive review of my work seems to send me into a questioning spiral that moves me farther from writing. This means I am sadly not getting much done on the two books I have been working on.

That being said I do have some positive writing news.

The first is there is another short story of mine out on the market right now. On June first Passion in Portland debuted and managed to make it to the top 300 books on Amazon! Pretty sweet huh! There are a whole 20 short stories in this book and it is only $.99 with all the profits going to a woman's shelter in Portland, talk about a great cause. Here is the link so you can check it out!

Click-ity Click! 

It is currently at 1,044 in all pain Kindle books!

That's all for now.

Happy Reading,

Gretchen

Christmas Collaboration

Greetings,

In late October I approached some of my friends that enjoy writing and asked if any of them would be interested in writing an anthology of short Christmas stories. There were plenty of bites and in the end we finished with a book of 5 romance stories from five different authors.

Considering just how little time we had, since it still went into the editors, I was really impressed. Again I was able to do much of the cover myself, which I am really psyched about!

 

Seeing it still makes me smile! While we were putting things together, collaborating and navigating the waters that come with group work I received an interesting concern from several people who would eventually drop out of the book. We wanted more time to write then this deadline allowed, which is fair. So I got the idea to make the Writing With A Hearth imprint. We as a group would produce three books a year based or holidays or events around the time of each book release. So I put up ideas for books through the end of 2017 and build them up so people could skip three books ahead if that was what they needed. I am very interested in what will happen in the future. My hope is we will have so many writers that we will rotate in and out each book. 

 

We are working on the Spring book as we speak. It is shaping up to be a bit of fantasy, in a different world in a place where the Fae live. We gained two new authors but one author from book one is sitting this one out so we will still be up a story from book one. Overall it is a project I am hoping going a long time.

 

 

Here is a description of our first collection:

 

 

Writing With A Heart Presents: Christmas Crinkles. This is a book of short stories about finding someone while navigating the holiday season with a matchmaking boss. All profits for Christmas Crinkles are going to Seattle Children's Hospital. Keep up with us on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/WritingWithAHeart

The Wrong Guy
Being the Girl Friday of the office means Jeanette Foster doesn’t have much time for men. Sure, there’s Paul Scott, the witty accountant from upstairs. But he’s always been more of a friend. Then she meets Zach Porter, an attractive caterer, who seems like the perfect man. With two men suddenly vying for her attention, Jeanette has a decision to make: who’s the right guy and who’s the wrong guy?

A Kiss Under The Mistletoe
Rogan is a widower and single father whose heart had ceased to feel until Sarah began working at the company daycare. Never one to make a move Rogan watched his children bond with her from afar. Sarah fell in love with the twins almost immediately, but it wasn’t until she met their father that she began to wish she could have their little family as her own. If only she knew her feelings were reciprocated.

Samantha’s Magician
Sam finds herself trapped in one of Marci’s Crinkle’s couplings and she couldn’t be less happy about it. Sure she likes hanging out with the guy but women are more her type. Enter Amanda the Great, she is beautiful and all Sam can pay attention to. Can Sam get to know Amanda while staying under Mrs. Crinkle’s radar?

The Tounge-Tied Hunter
Nikki isn’t looking for love or even a fling. Opening her bakery is her top priority, but she can’t seem to take her eyes off Evan. Evan is in a bad spot due to a family curse. The Hunter men are cursed to have trouble talking to ‘the one’ when they meet her. Just his luck Nikki is it and she is coming to the company holiday party.

Just Joe
The last thing Amber Michen wants to do is be at the office Christmas party. Even though eyeing the cute bartender helps the situation, she still feels like a Scrooge, and she is gassy. Unfortunately, the self-proclaimed office matchmaker Marci Crinkle seems to have other plans, and those plans involve somebody Amber had never considered for a boyfriend.

That is all for now.

Happy Reading,

Gretchen

The Doll Making Delta

Greetings,

Happy New Year!

In semi-old news I did get the Doll Making Delta published on October 14th, 2015. It was my first regular romance. I know that does not seem like a big deal but to me it certainly feels like it. :) I find writing romance, without the paranormal, to be much harder than it's paranormal counterpart. I am not 100 percent sure why, I think it is the focusing fully on romance that I struggle with.

But I am happy that it is out there for people to read. I even did most of the cover, which I am very proud of.

 

I really love this cover!

 

 

Okay so here is the description:

Reneé Edward has a lot on her plate. She took over as President of the Reneé-Gal company from her father a few months ago. Just in time for a merger with a new parent company. As if that timing was not bad enough she finds out several Junior Executives have been ruining the merger from within.

 

Just as she is scrambling to pick up the pieces, Ruben Blackthorne strolls into her life. He is sexy, tall and clearly into her. Though she is excited about this new development in her love life Reneé finds it a little hard to juggle the new addition.

 

 As everything in her life finally seems to fall into place for the first time in almost a year Reneé finds herself confused as Ruben begins to pull away. Had she imagined their connection? Were things moving too fast? Lost and confused, at least she has her family and her fellow Deltas to get her through. That is until everything takes another unexpected turn.

 

 

Interested yet?

 

The Doll Making Delta marks the first book in a new series, the Delta House Novels. For those of you keeping track that makes this my fourth series that I am currently juggling. I know, what was I thinking!

 

The Delta House Novels are going to follow the love lives of a group of women who all received the Delta House scholarship in college. There are a lot of them so I will save my Delta House introductions for a later post.

 

As always Happy Reading,

 

Gretchen

What News

Greetings,

I did it again, I am just failing at keeping an author blog up. Sorry about that. A lot has been going on though so I haven't been slacking for no reason, I promise!

So Viking Sensitivity came out Aug. 31st. Yay! You can get in on amazon. It is currently on a month long blog tour, showing itself off to the internet.

I also finished The Doll Making Delta! The cover is done and it has come back from the editor's. All that is left is my final read through and some formatting stuff. I am aiming to have it out Oct. 15th. I meant to have it out this month but that just didn't work out.

A quick wave hello to all over you I saw at Passion in Portland and Rose City Comicon this month. Meeting readers in person is always awesome!

Lastly for this quick update is I am working on the sequel to Berman's Wolves. Don't get too excited. I am less than a 10th of the way in. I am determined to have it done by Thanksgiving. So here is hoping! Then I will dive in to the sequel to Hollowton Homicide, Is the stars a line that will be out by New Years.

Happy Reading,

Gretchen