Explaining My Absence

I have been away from the blog so long because (1) of my recovery from the PRK touch-up in my right eye, which, again, has resulted in my desktop computer drying out my eye; (2) I accompanied my husband on a business trip to Quebec for a week; and (3) well, how can you tell that I’m under the weather, because I can’t remember three!

Addressing (2) – I’ll post a few piccies of the Quebec trip in a few days. I’ve ordered a pair of Gunnars computer glasses and hope that when I receive them I’ll able to spend more time at the desktop, which is where I update the blog. For now, I’m editing a manuscript on Daisy, my netbook.

If you’ve never heard of Gunnars, I sort of found about them by accident. A friend aware of my difficulty with dry eyes following surgery told me she had seen “computer glasses” with yellow lenses that cut down on blue glare in a major department store. So I went looking. And I found some Foster Grants, but they’re reading glasses. And I don’t need reading glasses. I just need something to cut down the glare. Some Internet searching took me to the Gunnars website, and now I am awaiting my pair. I’ll let you know what I think.

It’s been six weeks since I had the right eye (my distance eye) corrected for the second time. This time I had PRK surgery, which has a much longer recovery period than the SBK surgery I had fourteen months ago. About ten days post-surgery, I could see 20/30 in the eye doctor’s office, whereas before the surgery I had fallen from near 20/20 vision down to 20/50 over a period of six months. I’ve been told that 20/30 for 10 days post-PRK is good.

At the four week post-PRK surgery, I was seeing at around 20/25 and 20/30, so not much improvement. That was two weeks ago. My vision was much clearer than at the 10 day appointment, but I had developed a sort of double vision which especially affects me when reading something in the distance and making me very glad I still have driving glasses to allow the left eye to take over for driving.

The double vision is a bit disconcerting, although it’s getting better as the weeks progress. I am now at 6 weeks post-surgery and I won’t see the eye doctor again until the 3 month point, where the goal is that I’ll be seeing 20/20. In about the last ten days, I have begun noticing an improvement in the double vision, which is a weird sort of experience in that I CAN see, for example, the name of an elementary school nearby as I’m walking the dog, but I also see a ghost image of the name right above the real name. However, now I’m noticing that if I lower my head and look out the top of my eye, the ghost image goes away. At first it was if I lifted my head and looked out the bottom of my eye, the ghost image would go away. Now it’s the top. My fervent hope is that over the next several weeks I will be able to look through the MIDDLE of my eye and not see the ghost images. Cross your fingers!

Before the PRK touch-up, the eye doctor could not get me to see 20/20 out of my right eye even with corrective lenses. I do have great hope, considering the clarity of what I can see out of the top of my eye 🙂 that even if I will eventually still require driving glasses, that I will be able to see distance clearly enough for everyday activities that don’t involve getting behind the wheel.

The last time I posted, WHERE SHE BELONGS was on the Paid Bestseller lists for Amazon Kindle following a very successful free run in which I gave away over 96,000 copies of the book worldwide! I have some other commentary and stats I’d like to share with you, hopefully later this week. Now that WHERE SHE BELONGS is back on paid status, however, the book continues to sell very well. I should surpass having sold 1000 copies either today or tomorrow. Sales are also up for HEAD OVER HEELS, Deceiving Derek, and Catching Claire. More about all of that soon!

WHERE SHE BELONGS A Kindle Women’s Fiction Bestseller!

Two weeks ago, I never thought I’d say this…but one of my books has cracked a Top 100 Kindle Bestseller list! In the Paid Store. As in, people are actually buying my book!

No doubt due to the success of WHERE SHE BELONGS’s run in the Kindle Free store, which went way beyond anything I expected, my Canadian-set romance with a mother-daughter subplot has hit #63 in Women’s Fiction as of about 3 p.m. this afternoon! I’ve received a number of new reviews, which the book was sorely lacking previously, and, for the moment, anyway, I am enjoying a bit of that elusive force authors call “discoverability.” And it feels so sweet!

Originally, I wrote WHERE SHE BELONGS before my romantic comedies and before targeting the erotic romance market as my alter ego, Penny. For the life of me, I could not sell the book to a traditional publisher. At the time, I was targeting category romance publishers, and it didn’t matter how many times I rewrote the book, how many times I pitched it to an editor and received a request, how many months it then sat on an editor’s desk, how many times I eventually received a rejection letter, no matter how positive. At one point, when I had an NYC agent, she told me I had a problem letting go of projects that weren’t working. In other words, books that weren’t selling to traditional markets.

That was way before the Amazon Kindle grew the ebook market exponentially. My former agent had no clue (and neither did I), how the introduction of the Kindle would change reading habits. When I parted ways with that former agent (who is no longer in the business, as far as I know, although the agency she was with remains a strong player in romance), I was already epublished in romantic comedy. Those of us who entered epublishing a dozen years ago fully expected the market to take off. But it didn’t. We thought, maybe next year. But it didn’t. We were all about a decade ahead of the market.

Then, when I thought I had exhausted all possibility of publishing this story, I submitted to one last traditional publisher: the now-defunct Five Star Expressions Women’s Fiction and Romance line from the library press, Five Star/Cengage. The library hardcover edition of WHERE SHE BELONGS came out last December (2011). The publisher was not publishing ebooks at the time I signed the contract, which was over a year before the book came out. So the ebook rights belonged to me (along with the audio rights), but I had to wait a year to put the book out in ebook and/or trade paperback. That twelve months was a long wait.

I don’t know why the library-edition version of the book didn’t sell very well (to libraries, I mean. I know the cost of a hardcover edition is prohibitive to many readers), but, so far, it hasn’t. It was the last Contemporary Romance of the Expressions line. So maybe it got lost in the transition to the publisher deciding only to publish mysteries and romantic suspense. Or maybe that’s just how hard hit libraries have been in the last few years.

Whatever the reason, when I factor in that it’s been well over twenty years since I wrote the first draft of this story, all the markets to which I’ve submitted it, the wonderful experience of selling to Five Star/Cengage, and now experiencing what a little discoverability can do for an author, is it any wonder I am in total awe and over the moon to crack a Top 100 Amazon Bestseller list?

Yesterday, I received a box of trade paperback copies of WHERE SHE BELONGS. And they are gorgeous. The trade paperback is beginning to very slowly sell. However, it’s basically just at Amazon right now. As the extended distribution program I’m working with kicks in, the book will begin to emerge at other venues.

Wait! I just checked, and the trade paperback edition of the book is now on the Barnes and Noble website! And it’s on Amazon Canada, too, although through third-party vendors. However, that means it shouldn’t be too long before the book is available from Amazon Canada without going through the third-party vendors. Yoo-hoo! (That means people who order the paperback from Amazon Canada would be able to get free shipping if their combined order is large enough.)

All very exciting!

Where She Belongs Hits #1 in Kindle Free Store Again!

On the last day of its promotional free run, WHERE SHE BELONGS hits #1 again! So happy!
On the last day of its promotional free run, WHERE SHE BELONGS has hit #1 again! So happy!

It’s the last day of my five-day free promotional run on Amazon with my small-town contemporary romance, WHERE SHE BELONGS. Yesterday, Tuesday, the book logged over 80,000 downloads and remained #2 in the Kindle Free store until the afternoon, when it briefly climbed to a second hit at #1. That was super exciting. Later, it dropped to #3 overall and #2 in Romance as another worthy author (and fellow Golden Heart finalist sister from the year WHERE SHE BELONGS finaled) took the #1 romance slot.

This morning I woke up totally expecting the book to still be the #3 spot or lower. After today, I imagine it will drop off the Top 100 Free Kindle list completely, because, well, it will no longer be free. I don’t believe the books slowly drop off the list. If they aren’t free, they aren’t on the list at all. Whether I hit the paid lists or not once the book goes back to paid status remains to be seen. I’m not holding my breath for that to happen, although it would be wonderful if it did.  I obviously would like to make some paid sales of the book, but it’s not something in my control. Just like this entire wonderful free run hasn’t truly been in my control. I am totally amazed at how readers have responded to the opportunity to download my book and to give me a chance as an author. Thank you so much everyone for taking a chance on a pretty much unknown-to-most-of-you romance author.

I just had to take another screen shot this morning. I have no clue what will happen with WHERE SHE BELONGS up until the point the free promotion ends just before midnight. So I have to enjoy these moments. It might never happen again!

If you haven’t grabbed your free copy yet, here’s the link!

Over 65,000 Downloads!

It’s the fourth day of my 5-day promotional run with WHERE SHE BELONGS on the Amazon Kindle store. The book remains free for download until very late in the evening January 30th. Here’s a link to find out more.

As of 7 a.m. this morning, WHERE SHE BELONGS remains #2 in the Kindle Free store, although a different book than yesterday has taken the #1 slot. It looks like the book that was in #1 yesterday has finished its free run, because I didn’t even seen it in the top ten.

The truly excellent news is that WHERE SHE BELONGS, as of this typing, is #1 in Fiction, Genre Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, Women’s Fiction, Romance and Contemporary Romance. The #1 overall Kindle Free book is Non-Fiction.

My Golden Heart finalist book has received over 65,000 downloads from around the world! This is amazing to me because it took literally years—I’m not sure I should admit how many—for a traditional publisher to buy the book. That was Five Star/Cengage, a library publisher, which bought WHERE SHE BELONGS for its now-defunct Five Star Expressions romance and Women’s Fiction line. WHERE SHE BELONGS was the last contemporary romance published by Five Star/Cengage, and due to contract restrictions I could not bring it out in ebook or trade paperback until a year had passed. Sales to libraries have been okay, but nothing spectacular. So to see my book get this kind of exposure on the Kindle Free store has been an experience I will never forget.

A new 4-Star review appeared on the book page today! The book doesn’t have many reviews, so I appreciate every one, especially when a reader, such as this latest reviewer, has taken the time to thoughtfully and kindly express her opinions.

To answer a question a reader put to another reviewer about swearing and love scenes in the book, I don’t feel I as an author should reply on the Amazon review page. Everyone has a different opinion about cursing and love scenes. This book has mild swearing (the characters never say the F word, but you can find several hells and damns and the odd S word). The characters do make love and the bedroom door is not closed when they do. The language in the love scenes, however, is not explicit.

Tomorrow is the last day WHERE SHE BELONGS will be available free on Amazon. So if you haven’t downloaded your free copy yet, pop on over!

Where She Belongs Hits Number 1 in Kindle Free Store!

Yesterday, January 27th, was very exciting for me. I honestly never thought I’d see this. I certainly didn’t expect, on the second day of WHERE SHE BELONGS’s five-day free promotion on Amazon that the book would hit #1 in the Free Kindle Store. Yes, Number One! Woot!!!

WHERE SHE BELONGS dropped to #2 last night and remains at #2 this morning. However, it had the #1 spot in the Kindle Free store for most of Sunday. As of this typing, the book is still #1 in Romance, #1 in Contemporary Romance, #1 in Contemporary Fiction and #1 in Women’s Fiction!

Later, when I saw that the book had dropped from the #1 slot overall, I realized there were a couple of other bestseller lists to check. Genre Fiction, where the book currently sits at #2 and Fiction, where the book also sits at #2. I don’t know if the book hit #1 on either of those lists yesterday, because I didn’t think to check them. I was too excited about the others.

To date, since just after midnight Saturday, January 26th, over 54,000 downloads have occurred. Wow!

The five-day promotion doesn’t end until January 30th, inclusive, which means you can still get a copy for free now.

So, I just had to take some screen shots. I mean, this might never happen for me again. Here they are!

Blew my mind! NUMBER ONE IN THE ENTIRE KINDLE FREE STORE!!
Blew my mind! NUMBER ONE IN THE ENTIRE KINDLE FREE STORE!!
Number one in Romance!!! Woot!!!
Number one in Romance!!! Woot!!!
Number One in Contemporary Romance!!
Number One in Contemporary Romance!!
Number 1, Contemporary Fiction, Kindle Free store.
Number 1, Contemporary Fiction, Kindle Free store.
January 27th, 2013, Number 1 in Women's Fiction, Kindle Free Store
January 27th, 2013, Number 1 in Women’s Fiction, Kindle Free Store

I’d love for the book to remain in the Top Ten for the duration of its free promotion on Amazon. So if you haven’t downloaded your copy yet, please do so. And tell your friends, tell your goldfish, tell your puppies!

Thank you for your support!

Number Four in Contemporary Romance Free Kindle Books!

It’s the second day of WHERE SHE BELONGS’s five-day run in the Kindle Free Ebook store. This morning, I am thrilled to report that the book is #10 in the Kindle Free store overall, #7 in Romance, #4 in Contemporary Romance, and NUMBER ONE in both Women’s Fiction and Contemporary Fiction.

Also, yesterday I received a wonderful new five-star review from a reader on Amazon. I have no idea if this review is a result of one of the free downloads or from one of the paid sales (on which I earn royalties) from December. The reader says, “This story made me laugh and cry. I absolutely loved the characters and their love story.” She also remarked on the book’s lack of grammar and spelling errors. Thank you, dear reader!

The free book downloads from Amazon continue until January 30th, inclusive. If you haven’t downloaded your copy yet, please do! Here’s the link again.

Also, thank you to Michael Gallagher of Free Kindle Books and Tips for mentioning WHERE SHE BELONGS on his blog this weekend.