Tag Archives: ebooks

April updates and sale on Darkness Haunts

For those who don’t subscribe to my newsletter and missed it this morning I wanted to give a few updates.  The first is that Darkness Haunts is currently on sale for only 99 cents through to tomorrow night (April 2nd) on all the major retailers.  If you know anyone who might be interested in trying the series out, this is a great time to get the first book at a discount since I’m not sure if/when I’ll drop the price again.  You can find the purchase links for it here.

In other news…

One of the questions I’ve been asked a lot lately is when the Darkness Shatters paperback will be out.  I’m waiting on the hard copy proof to look over, but I expect to approve it and have it ready for sale within the next two weeks.  Some of you are also waiting on the audio version of Darkness Shatters.  My publisher has set the release date for June 3rd of this year and the CD version is already up for pre-order.  They usually don’t have the digital version on pre-order until 2-3 weeks before the release, but I’ll put out another reminder close to then for those who need it.

As far as my publishing schedule on upcoming books go, I’m writing a novel now for an all-new series with the first book releasing in late June.  It’s an idea that hit me about a year ago and has been bugging me ever since.  I’ve worked on it in bits and pieces over the past months, but forced myself to wait until after publishing Darkness Shatters before putting my full attention on it.  This one falls within the dark fantasy genre, but has totally different races/creatures than the Sensor Series.  Most of my current readers should find it appealing.  Yes, I’m leaving the details vague but I’ll reveal the cover and summary in about a month so you can find out more then.

For Darkness Wanes, book six of the Sensor Series, I expect to have it out in October of this year.  That will wrap up the story arc for the main series, but I’ll go on to write spin-offs for some of the side characters and explore more on how *spoiler alert* the world has changed with supernaturals coming out in the open.  There will be at least two of those novels (one featuring Cori as the main character and another featuring Micah) and possibly a third if the demand for Kerbasi to get his own novel keeps up.  After that, I may do a book seven with Melena and Lucas where I actually keep them together for the plot (try not to be too shocked).  Yes, I hear the complaints but keep in mind this is an urban fantasy series, not a paranormal romance so the focus has been different.  Book seven would be to please the PNR lovers.

That’s it for now, but feel free to ask questions below if you have any.

Kindle Unlimited?

The author community is buzzing with the latest news about Kindle Unlimited (KU).  A $9.99 a month program Amazon released a few days ago where readers can borrow an unlimited number of ebooks (though they can only keep ten at a time).

From a reader’s standpoint it’s not a bad deal.  It gives them the opportunity to try out books they might not have otherwise and if they don’t like them?  They can return them, never to see those works muddy their Kindle again.  If they do like them, they may even go on to pick up more from the author.  Amazon has managed to include some well-known titles in an effort to expand the selection (currently at 600,000) and tempt readers into giving the program a chance.  Having said that, you’ll still find more than a few favorites not available.

For independent authors, there is a good reason their books may not be there.  Most self-published novels (with a few exceptions) are required to be exclusive to Amazon if they want their book in KU.  What exactly does that mean?  An author must pull their participating ebooks from all other retailers so that the only place they can be found is Amazon.  For some writers this isn’t a big deal, but for others it is asking a lot.

There is also the question of how much an author can earn within the program.  As it stands now, a short story will earn the same as a full-length novel for each borrow.  No one is quite sure how much that will be, but estimates are as low as 30 cents a download (after the reader passes the first ten percent of the book).  This gives less incentive for authors to put their longer works into the pool.  In fact, it may give rise to a greater number of serial books where it would require more downloads to get the entire story, thereby earning the author more money.

I know some of you may choose to sign up for KU and I do think that’s great.  Heck, I’ve considered it myself as a reader and may give it a shot.  For now, though, I won’t be putting any of my own books into the program.  There seems to be a lot of kinks that still need to be worked out and I’m not interested in limiting my work to just one retailer.  I do have fans who prefer Nook, Kobo, or iTunes and I don’t want to force them to make a decision as to how to obtain my books…or not.

How things play out in the future I cannot say.  I might write a stand-alone novel that I feel is a good fit for KU or I might experiment on something with other urban fantasy authors for a different kind of work.  But for the Sensor Series (and any of the shorter spin-offs), it’s going to be staying out unless some of my concerns are alleviated.  Particularly the exclusivity factor.

I hope that this doesn’t inconvenience any Amazon readers who decide to try KU and that they will continue to pick up the Sensor books as they release.  If you’ve got your own thoughts on the new program, feel free to leave a comment below.  I am curious to hear what others think.