Thanks to My Readers, Another Milestone!

A year and a half ago I posted about an important milestone in my authorial career--one thousand Kindle copies of I Serve sold. Now I have another milestone to share, a milestone I never even dreamed of when I self-published three years ago. Tallying up all electronic and print copies, I have now sold ten thousand copies of I Serve. I feel like I'm giving an acceptance speech at the Oscars, and I don't have much to say except thank you, thank you, thank you to all my readers, and God bless Amazon!

Kindle or Paperback: Two Ways to get I Serve FREE This Week

A tale of arms, of death, of love, and of honor.... Monday and Tuesday (April 30 & May 1) I am running a free promotional of I Serve: A Novel of the Black Prince on Kindle. Head on over to Amazon to get your free copy today.

E-books aren't your cup of tea? I am also offering one paperback in a giveaway over at the English Historical Fiction Authors blog. Head over there and enter by commenting with your e-mail address. (Available internationally.)

Road from the West - Free on Kindle This Weekend

Madison Street Publishing is offering my latest novel, Road from the West, free on Kindle this weekend, from Saturday, February 25 through Monday, February 27. I would love it if you could spread the word about this exciting promotional. Let's see how many copies we can give away before the end of Monday!

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ROAD FROM THE WEST: BOOK I OF THE CHRONICLES OF TANCRED


A tale of Courage, Conquest, Intrigue, and Honor. 

You've heard of the Knights Templar, you've heard of Richard the Lionheart—now learn the story that started it all with the adventures of the First Crusade.

Haunted by guilt from the past and nightmares of the future, a young Norman named Tancred takes the cross and vows to be the first to free Jerusalem from the infidels. As he journeys to the Holy Land, he braves vast deserts, mortal famine, and the ever-present ambushes of the enemy Turks—but the greatest danger of all is deciding which of the Crusader lords to trust. A mysterious seer prophesies that Tancred will find great love and great sorrow on his journey, but the second seems intent on claiming him before he can find the first. Intrigues and passions grow as every battle brings the Crusaders one step closer to Jerusalem. Not all are destined to survive the perilous road from the West.

They Weren't Going to Buy Your Book Anyway

One of the features that Amazon is offering with its new KDP Select program is the ability for you to list your Kindle book for free for up to five days during each 90 day period. This feature has been the subject of much discussion among authors. Is it savvy, sensible, or even fair to give away for free something on which you have spent so much blood, sweat, tears, and time? Some authors would say no--they can't afford to give away free books, even free e-books which have no production cost for the author/publisher. It is not unreasonable to expect the public to pay for their work, and they do not want to miss out on the royalties that these books would have earned. Others argue that giving away free books for a limited amount of time is a wonderful marketing tool. It gives your book exposure to a wider audience and provides a way to garner more word of mouth advertising and reviews.

Below is a video interview with Neil Gaiman on "Copyright Piracy and the Web" that addresses this very topic. Gaiman shares that in countries (like Russia) where his books were pirated on the Internet, his sales actually increased. The Internet pirates (who were essentially giving away free copies of his books) were introducing his work to a whole new audience who then became fans and purchased his works legitimately. These people would have never taken the plunge to buy a book from an unknown author, but after becoming familiar with Gaiman through a "free copy" of one of his books, they were happy to shell out some dollars--or should I say, rubles--for other books by their new favorite author.

To authors who say they can't afford to give away free e-books, Gaiman (in a nutshell) says: "You're not losing sales by doing a free promo. The people who download the free book weren't going to buy your book, anyway."



Having embraced Neil Gaiman's line of reasoning, my publishing company, Madison Street Publishing, is doing a couple of free promos this month.

I Am My Beloved's: Christian Devotionals for the Bride to Be, by Amy Hayes, is currently free on Amazon Kindle through tomorrow (Friday, February 3).

My own book, Road from the West: Book I of the Chronicles of Tancred, will be offered in a free promotional later on this month. Stay tuned for more details.

The Man Who Did Not Keep His Word

Have you ever promised something that was not yours to promise? What did you do then? Did you keep your word or did you break it? At that point, which is the worse option?

At the Council of Clarendon in 1164, Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was bullied into making some concessions to Henry II that allowed the king undue power over the Church. Later, Becket regretted and rescinded his words. When he was reproached with oath breaking, Becket answered this: “If we lapsed at Clarendon (for the flesh is weak), we ought to regain our spirit, and in the strength of the Holy Spirit rise up against the ancient enemy, who tries to make the one who stands also fall, and prevent the one who falls from getting up again. If under a guarantee in the word of truth there we conceded there or swore unjustly, you know that by no law are we obliged to that which was unlawfully sworn.”

I have always admired Thomas Becket for these words, for admitting that he had been wrong and then trying to correct his error as best he could--even though such backpaddling could only tarnish his reputation further. An oath, according to Becket, is not a thing that is holy in and of itself. An oath may be sinful, a work of the devil. And when an oath is sinful in its conception, it is an even greater sin in its completion. Better, says Becket, to be forsworn than to commit a second sin for the purposes of honoring the first.

It's been nearly ten years since I first befriended Thomas Becket. I attended a small liberal arts college in Northern Idaho named New Saint Andrews College where students were required, to obtain their bachelor's degree, to write a senior thesis on a subject of their choosing. Thomas Becket and I had met early in my junior year during a class on saints and hagiography. I knew, with hardly any hesitation, that this man was my choice for a senior thesis. I spent a year exploring his life through the primary sources of medieval chroniclers and his own letters. I watched him turn from chancellor to archbishop, from a man of the king's coin to a man of the true cloth. And I had the pleasure to write about his transformation, his trials, and his martyrdom in one-hundred-and-ten pages that I then defended before a panel of faculty members.

If you have not become acquainted with this remarkable man, I urge you to take the opportunity to do so. The Life and Death of Saint Thomas Becket: Type of Paul, Type of Peter, Type of Christ is now available for FREE on Amazon Kindle from February 25 to February 29. This copy of my college thesis also contains a free three-chapter sample of my debut novel I Serve: A Novel of the Black Prince.

Three Reviews + Kindle Nation Daily

I neglected to post yesterday, so today I have three new blog reviews of Road from the West to tell you about. The first is over at A Few More Pages:

....I definitely would like to continue reading about Tancred's adventures, and since this book only takes us part-way on the Crusaders' journey to Jerusalem, I am looking forward to picking up the next book in the series. There are too many questions still left to be answered: Will Tancred make it to Jerusalem? Will Alexandra win his heart? Will Bohemond gain the riches and power he is after? I must find out what happens!

The second review is at By the By Books:

Lortz's narrative is wonderfully written. The writing is very simple, but in a good way. I felt that this section of history, which is almost 1000 years old, was fresh and easily understandable for today's reader....

And the third review is over at The Owl Bookmark Blog, a website which has the most whimsically delightful header:

It is very obvious right off the bat that Lortz did her research and probably is as familiar with the Crusades (all of them)as she is with the back of her hand.  This novel is full of historical facts and anecdotes as well as a very realistic setting that allows Lortz's historical prowess to show....

 In other news, Road from the West is the featured sponsor over at Kindle Nation Daily today. KND is a website with a large e-mail subscriber list that alerts Kindle owners about great finds in the e-book world. The site owner, Stephen Windwalker, is a pleasure to work with, and we've really enjoyed the ads that he's put together for both I Serve and Road from the West.

Milestones

"How many Kindle copies have we sold?" I get this question from my husband several times a day: in the morning when he wakes up, in the afternoon when he comes home from classes, in the evening when he texts me on his work break. The number of Kindle copies sold--it is a number my husband is particularly fond of, especially when it is plugged into a line graph. At the beginning of each month he reminds me to update our book sales graph with the data from the month before. He uses the graph as the desktop wallpaper on his laptop and as an incentive to continue marketing I Serve.

This weekend we celebrated some important numbers (and not all of them on Kindle sales).

One thousand: the number of Kindle copies of I Serve that we've sold this year. Since putting the book in electronic format in January, we have watched the Kindle sales grow exponentially till they far surpass the paperback sales each month. Thanks to all of our readers who have made the book a success.

Fifty thousand: the number of words I've reached in my manuscript for Road from the West. Only fifty thousand more to go and it'll be time to think about publishing another novel. That will make my husband happy--more book sale numbers to keep track of.

One: the number of years that we've been married. It's been a busy twelve months with having two kids and purchasing a house (Lord willing, we will close on the house this coming week). Strange as it may seem, one of my favorite things about our first year of marriage is working on book marketing together with my husband. It gives us a common interest and a shared project where we can both utilize our strengths. He discovers a new place to publish the book electronically; I format the Word document and upload it. He purchases ad space to promote the novel; I design a banner to fill that space. He approaches book blogs about reviewing I Serve; I write a guest post for them on some item of historical interest.

We've met with a lot of milestones this weekend with one thousand Kindle sales and fifty thousand word count on the new novel. And even though one is the smallest number on that list, it's still the biggest milestone of them all. Happy anniversary to my husband, my book marketing agent, and my best friend! 

December 12, 2009

Giveaway Winner!

Well, it's happened. Today we sold our 500th copy of I Serve on Amazon's Kindle, and that means that the book giveaway has come to an end.

The lucky winner of a signed, paperback copy of I Serve: A Novel of the Black Prince is....

Bercik & Agatka

I will be contacting the winner via e-mail. Thanks to all of you who participated in the giveaway!

Our First Ever Giveaway

Kin·dle – verb 

1. to set fire to or ignite 

2. to excite; stir up or set going

3. to light up, illuminate, or make bright

 

Kin·dle – noun 

 1. an e-reader first put out by Amazon.com in 2007, now owned by over 2 million book-lovers

 

It's only been three years since Amazon first launched the Kindle, and already it has made a huge impact on traditional publishing. In July of this year the New York Times reported that Amazon was now selling almost twice as many Kindle copies as regular books, "180 digital books for every 100 hardcover copies."

 

For independent authors, the Kindle is a huge boon. To sell your work on Kindle, all you have to do is upload a cover picture and a formatted Word document. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. In the last two months Amazon has also made it possible for authors to receive a 70% royalty from Kindle sales, a far higher profit percentage than authors have ever received from the sales of hard copies.

 

In recent months, Kindle readers have been enthusiastic in their reception of I Serve, and a steady stream of electronic copies have been downloaded from Amazon's website onto the sleek e-readers of historical fiction lovers. Sales projections show that we will sell our 500th Kindle copy of I Serve sometime in the next two or three weeks.

To celebrate our ongoing success with Kindle sales, we are giving away a signed, paperback copy of I Serve (because, let's face it, the paperback is feeling a little left out with all of this hype about its electronic counterpart).


If you want to be entered in the giveaway for a paperback copy of I Serve, do any (or all) of the following:

• Comment on this post (include your e-mail address).
• Become a follower of this blog and tell me about it in a comment (include your e-mail address). If you are already a follower, you can still do this.
• Post about this giveaway on your own blog and give the link to your post in a comment (include your e-mail address).

This gives you the chance to submit up to three entries to win your own signed, paperback copy of I Serve.  Once the 500th Kindle copy of I Serve finds a home, this giveaway opportunity will end and I will contact the winner.

The Life and Death of Saint Thomas Becket - On Kindle!

Rosanne's New St. Andrews College thesis The Life and Death of Saint Thomas Becket: Type of Paul, Type of Peter, Type of Christ is now available on Amazon's Kindle.

I Serve now on Kindle!

I Serve is now available on Amazon's Kindle.