Some of you may remember the Author Spotlight I did on Reddit Books last year (if not, there's a post on here somehwere all about it). Anywho, I had such a great time interacting with readers and other interested parties that I'm heading back for a second help. So, head on over to Reddit Books this Saturday, 17 December 2016 and hang out with me or a while. I'll be chatting and taking questions between 11AM and 6PM US EST. Obviously, I'll be talking a lot about SERENGETI and DARK AND STARS, but come on out and ask me anything. I'm here for you guys!
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Those of you who read my blog regularly will remember that Serengeti won an AudioFile Magazine Earbuds award a few months back. That was huge and thanks in large part to the narration of the multi-talented Elizabeth Wiley. Well, AudioFile did me one better and picked Serengeti as one of the Best AudioBooks of 2016. It's a huge honor to have my little book listed alongside Joe Hill's work, and those from several other notable and well-known authors. You can check out the list in its entirety by clicking the document file link below.
Well, I promised the book would be out in December, but Severed Press stepped up and delivered a day early. So excited to announce that Dark and Stars. the sequel to Serengeti, is available for purchase. Ebook is out now and paperbook should follow in a day or two, so if you crave the wood-based reading tools, just be patient a few more days! The buy link is below, and here's the cover art to get you salivating with an anticipation.
Buy Dark and Stars on Amazon I know, I know, I've been promising news forever. Well, it's finally final: I signed a contract with Severed Press for the follow up to Serengeti we're calling Serengeti 2: Dark and Stars.
New book, y'all! *flails* As you can imagine, I'm pretty darn excited. Huge thanks to Severed Press for picking up my second book--it's always a good feeling when your publisher loves your book and your characters as much as you do. Publication date and artwork are forthcoming so keep your eyes on my website. I'll be posting additional information as it becomes available. Every speculative fiction author out there knows about The Qwillery--a great site filled with reviews and interviews and cover contests and more. Recently the lovely people at The Qwillery (Qwillerons? Qwillerians? Qwillernauts?) were kind enough to invite me in for an interview. You know me, I always like to babble so I jumped at the opportunity and HOGGED UP ALL THE WHITE SPACE! I've provided a snippet below and you can read the full interview here: J.B. Rockwell Interview.
Yay! Another SFF site let me use up some white space with my babble! Want to learn a little more about me? Well head on over to Indie SciFi Fantasy and check out my new interview. And, yes. I promise I didn't just regurgitate the same old answers from my last interview. I wouldn't do that to you guys. Honest!
There are a lot of writer contests out there offering opportunities for writers to get their work in front of agents. I've participated in my fair share over the years and connected with a lot of great people in the process, but Nightmare on Query Street (NoQS) is by far my favorite. Why, you ask? Well, because NoQS 2015 nabbed me my awesome agent Mark Gottlieb, who's with Trident Media Group. In fact, SERENGETI was my NoQS entry, and now it's a real, live, shell out your pennies for it book.
So, NoQS gave to me, and now I'm giving back. Last year I was a mentee helped along by the amazing Heather Van Fleet, this year I get to be a mentor and pay it forward by helping another writer out. Interested? Want more details? Well, you can find everything you need to know about NoQS on host Michelle Hauck's site. I've also included the basic timelines for the contest below: Submission Window Opens: October 14th 4:00 pm EST Final Picks are Announced: October 20th Mentors Go to Work: October 21th - 26th Revised Entries Due Back: October 26th at noon EST Agent round: October 29th - 30th The contest opens soon so grab that query and first 250 words and start polishing so you're ready. You don't want to miss out on this one! I've been fortunate enough to have several bloggers and SFF fan sites interview me and give me some space on their pages. Marketing and exposure is a challenge when you're an author (especially an indie author) so every little bit helps. My latest interview comes courtesy of DJ at My Life, My Books, My Escape. Check it out and let me know what you think.
I received some bad news from the publisher of my BREAKSHIELD fantasy series yesterday: after five years in business The Zharmae Publishing Press is closing up shop. Disappointing, but not entirely unexpected, I'm afraid. Zharmae is a small publisher and the vast majority of them don't make it. Although they signed many authors and published many books (including three from me), Zharmae struggled to find their niche and grow as a company.
So, this leaves me in a bit of a pickle. I published the first two novels in the BREAKSHIELD series (BREAKSHIELD and SEIOKANA) through Zharmae, and had the final installment (REAPER) scheduled for release this October. Obviously that's not going to happen. At least not for while. I would like to get the last installment out there, though--I'm a bit of a completionist and I know fans will want to know how it all ends--so I'm looking into my options. Self-publishing is the most likely route but I'm not ruling out another publisher. Assuming I can one who's interested in a partially previously published fantasy series. That said, BREAKSHIELD and SEIOKANA are both available on Amazon for a little while longer--Zharmae doesn't officially pull the plug until 31 August 2016--so if you've been thinking about reading them, grab them now. Just a couple more weeks and it's all over. To be continued...(I sincerely hope) Okay, so some of you are thinking: What is a BookBub and why do I care? Well, if you’re an author, or a reader, BookBub is sort of the holy grail of book promotion. BookBub emails subscribers about discounts on titles they’ve accepted for promotion. So, how does it work? Well, if you apply to BookBub and they accept you for a listing—yep, that’s right, you apply and then pay them to list your book if accepted—they give your book a prominent listing on their website and blast a blurb out on the selected day to their millions of subscribers. But first you’ve got to put it on sale—that’s the big hook, after all. So when Serengeti was accepted (after 4 tries), Severed Press dropped the price to $0.99 for a week) and then we all sat back and chewed our nails. I honestly wasn’t quite sure what to expect going into BookBub day. BookBub’s pricing page (https://www.bookbub.com/partners/pricing) provides average sales for books by category, and Serengeti (a sci-fi novel on sale for $0.99 in coordination with the BookBub promo) was targeted for 2,200 sales. But those were just estimates. Averages based on other promos. And this was my book, my promo—I had no idea how Serengeti would measure up. The $0.99 sale started on Monday, 1 August—I saw a few extra sales right away but not much. And then Serengeti’s big day rolled around--4 August 2016, Serengeti BookBub day. After a slow start, things really got rolling, Serengeti’s Amazon ranking jumping by leaps and bounds. At its peak, Serengeti maxed out at #22 in Kindle ebooks and #1 in all its sci-fi categories. And that 2,200 sales expectation? Well, from everything I read I should hit that on BookBub day. Well, I didn’t. I didn’t even come close. Granted, I can only see Amazon sales data as reported by NovelRank (http://www.novelrank.com), not data from other sales outlets. And NovelRank only reports on some Amazon sites—Australia, critically, is missing from their data, which is potentially significant given my publisher, Severed Press, is an Australian company. Whatever the case, the data I did have access to told me that, on BookBub day, Serengeti sold just 159 ebook copies—a significant uptick from previous days, but nowhere near the 2,200 average advertised on the BookBub page. Disappointing? A little. But ya know what? I sold more books the next day, and despite a dip over the next few days, sales stayed steady and relatively good over the next few days, even after the $0.99 promo (which ran 1-8 August) ended. That’s not what typically happens. From everything I’ve read, sales tend to peak on BookBub day, drop off precipitously and all but die once the sales promo is over. Oh! And as an added (and entirely unexpected) bonus? The ebook promo spilled over into audiobook sales. I don’t have access to audiobook sales data like I do for ebooks but at one point, Serengeti was ranked #6 in sci-fi audiobooks. Interesting. Very interesting. Especially since I can only see a portion of the sales data. And it’ll be even more interesting to see if those sales stay. Even if they don’t, BookBub helped me connect with a ton more readers and secure a few more fans. At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about, right? I mean, yeah. Sales are nice and all but connecting with a reader, having them really, truly enjoy something you’ve written. Have them ask for a sequel because they really, really, really want more. Well, that’s it, isn’t it? Everything a writer could ever ask for. The whole reason I started writing in the first place. So, three cheers for BookBub and a huge thanks to my publisher, Severed Press, for landing the promo for Serengeti. It was fun, it was exciting, and it helped me find all of you. |
J.B. Rockwell
J.B. Rockwell grew up reading fairy tales, folklore and mythology, as well as anything and everything about ancient cultures and their history, and never lost her taste for any of it. She currently lives in West Virginia with her husband and four (yes, four) cats, all of whom provide inspiration for her stories, whether they know it or not. Archives
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