2 books for $.99! Okay, but what's in it for you?

We often forget in the rush of events that point of entry in a pitch is the ruling factor. And if we enter incorrectly, we'll be overruled by readers who are deluged with thousands of Free or Save Now pitches.



A freebie or a reduced price mean nothing in themselves if the benefit can't be seen quickly. In fact, to be brutally honest, readers who've been burned before may fear that a free book is not worth the price...and that a $.99 book isn't worth a penny more.

But what can the benefit be if not price or the bland commonalities offered by so many others: thrills, romance, suspense, chills...? You won't find room on Twitter or the average free site listing to get across your difference.  So take whatever chance you get to nail your point of entry...as I hope to do right now by way of demonstration.




My Double Event Next Week--and Its Benefits for Readers

Free Event: 02/2-02/06: The Vanishing Magic of Snow--a reformatted and revised edition.
Benefits: Previous readers receive a free, properly formatted edition with light but important revisions. Others can enjoy a tale unlike anything else that's on Kindle--without charge. TVMOS will have special appeal for all readers who share my interest in the subject of manifestation, as popularized in The Secret. It concerns one ruined man's use of magic to escape The Great Recession--with a risky trick that killed his friend. Partly set in Toronto in the 1970s, TVMOS features cameos by some well-known people including: Leonard Cohen, Margaret Atwood, Linda Lovelace, Xaviera Hollander...
Link: http://tinyurl.com/m9ep5fs

Amazon Countdown Event: 02/02-02/09: Red Champagne--the second book from my new formatter and the first with my new cover artist. The Countdown Event offers layered savings before a return to the regular price:
02/02: $.99
02/05: $1.99
02/09: $2.99
Benefits: Red Champagne  has been described as combining Groundog Day and The Great Train Robbery. Extensive research puts readers on board the legendary train, The Twentieth Century Limited, in 1938. And in this book I've drawn on my background as a professional writer to give readers a unique thrill ride combining mystery, fantasy and magic. Reviewers have agreed that they've never read anything like it.
Link: http://tinyurl.com/maavygs


So, buy now...and save big...while you receive rich benefits!

Heyyy, Where the Heck Did the Freebie Go?

Here's a very short story about the best intentions...the ebook learning curve...and the occasional need to eat crow.

Supposing we start off with crow and good intentions...





For weeks I've been promising a free event for the reformatted, revised edition of my first ebook, The Vanishing Magic of Snow. Since I've stopped doing giveaways, the event was special in itself. But, equally important, the giveaway allowed readers who'd bought the previous, misformatted edition to replace it with the book done right. Furthermore, I'd done some editing and rewriting, resulting in a better book.



http://tinyurl.com/q5mfrrc

I'd scheduled the event on Amazon for 1/26-1/30...and thought I was ready to go after a few announcements on Twitter and Facebook. I also asked on Authors Electric if anyone could recommend a few free sites on which I should post, since I'd lost my own lists in a computer crash. I received one response advising me to place an ad on AE's own group page. By and large, AE members no longer stage free events.

Clearly, I'd just run head-on into the learning curve. And I needed to learn some new footwork.




Opening lesson: we can't count on everyone to help us with our homework...but that doesn't mean we can't count on anyone--as long as we're willing to carry our end. So, while I dug around online, I contacted a friendly ebook king, Claude Bouchard and asked if he knew anything he might share. Well, CB and I have ReTweeted promotional touts for our books for two years. And he's a noble soul. So he took the time to send a link to a free event site list from another writer's blog.

A quick glance a the list convinced me that I had to postpone my event. I'd need to cull the list to a manageable size since I don't have a month to prepare and since I'm hard at work on a new book. Some sites require listings on the day(s) of the event. Others must be contacted days (or weeks) before. Some listings require considerably more work.

The learning curve, for this challenge, demanded clear knowledge of my chief goal: to reach as many readers as I can with one week's work. My goal is not to 'beat' other writers with my numbers...nor to engage in a steeplejack chart chase with anybody else. My goal is to make this rare, for me, free event as special as I can...my way of saying thanks to those who've supported me--and Hi to those who are new.

I'm not doing this gig for the numbers.



The Gold Rush days resulting from the first free events has passed. Who cares? Let's stage our own, now and then, with free and loving hearts.

The new dates for my free event are:

Monday, February 2-Friday, February 6

And special thanks to Claude Bouchard for being such a prince:





And thanks to Authors Electric, whose members have always been there when they can:

The Vanishing Magic of Snow: Back Again...For the First Time

If you've ever had an ugly duckling you'd meant to be a swan, then you can relate to this story.

My first ebook, The Vanishing Magic of Snow, had special importance for me:
1) After 25 years in The Desert, ignored by all agents and editors despite four published novels, it was the first all-new project I'd completed in roughly a decade. And I'd set out to prove that I still had the stuff.
2) It spearheaded my master plan to lay siege to EBookLandia with a razzle-dazzle blend of new work, rewritten versions of the work that I'd done in The Desert, and reissues of my four novels published under the name Kelley Wilde.
3) Though it's a work of fiction, TVMOS was sparked by a true life nightmare: I'd lost my job, could not find work and found myself faced with the dual threat of eviction and starvation. The first part of the novel was written in a white heat: I wanted to leave something, in case I didn't make it, to tell the world how it felt to go down without a prayer. When a miracle occurred, I continued writing: a fantasy about one man's desperate efforts to manifest his salvation through the power of positive action and thought. The theme had been on my mind since the 1970's, when I lived in Canada--and for the first time I found myself writing about my Canadian decade. Part fantasy, part thriller, part horror, TVMOS became part personal testament too.

Enough about me, though. My thoughts turned to you and my growing awareness that good writing is translation. More and more I realized that talk about Me comes to nothing--unless it is grounded in thoughts about You as a reader. No one cares--and rightly so--about Reb MacRath losing his job. So many of you have lost yours or know someone who has lost theirs. Somehow we need to translate our tales into universal terms. Where is the real terror that all of us can relate to? How can a wealthy CEO, an actress or a best-selling author relate to the tale of an old call center clerk who's made a mess of his life? The universal lingo had to be something that all of us share. And the book began to write itself the instant I thought of a premise that all of us could relate to: things in the hero's apartment begin to disappear--while he is in the apartment. The job loss is simply one more loss as his entire life begins to vanish piece by piece.

So, then, then book represented a writing milestone as well. Onward with next to no online connections, little knowledge of ebook publishing--and no needed skills to format my Word text for Amazon.  And this brings us, at last, to the part of the story I wanted most to tell: I succeeded in finding a formatter for only $25. The results appeared...well, a little strange when I viewed her work on the Kindle previewer: faulty indentations and line breaks...extra spaces between words...etc. She insisted, though, that the problem lay in the previewer. The published text would be perfect.

No such luck. The published version looked a little like a tone poem.  And though I acquired some five-star reviews, though nobody groused of the formatting, TVMOS became my ugly duckling I seldom talked about. The book I felt ashamed to tout.

So much for the bad news. The good news is this: my new formatter, Yvonne Betancourt, will  reformat the manuscript within the next week. And I've used the last few weeks to really bring the book to life with polishing and tweaking.

Result: TVMOS will soon take its proud place among my seven other ebooks. And I'll stage a free event for as long as Amazon will allow.

A Short Ride on the Bus to Hell

This is a short horror story with a happy ending.

The week was half over and I was in hell. Two meetings had been scheduled with my hopes of achieving more financial and scheduling freedom. The first meeting raised my hopes. But I needed ID for the second--and had found that somehow I'd lost or mislaid a black leather wallet containing my Social Security card and my birth certificate. I never take that wallet with me except when changing jobs or traveling. So I hadn't taken it out in some time. Either I'd been burgled--unlikely since nothing else had been taken--or I'd thrown it out carelessly in my house-cleaning bouts for the upcoming move.

I felt just like Jay Penny in my short novel The Vanishing Magic of Snow: piece by piece, all he owns vanishes from his apartment--while he is inside.

Luckily, I thought, I had 'only' lost one wallet and the ID could be replaced. I still had my state ID and could replace what I had lost. Also, I could attend the second meeting and find out where I stood financially, though I might have to wait two weeks to finalize the process.

The day before that meeting, I dozed off on the bus--and was awakened by a familiar sound. It might have been a water bottle that someone had stepped on. Or--oh, no. Wait. I knew that sound. I bolted upright, hand to my pocket. My aluminum accordion wallet was gone! I checked the floor--not a trace. Think twice! I'd had it with me, certainly, because I'd used the monthly bus pas. I checked all pockets once again, then my back pack--not a sign. I checked the seat, the floor--both sides this time. Passengers started to help me. I offered a juicy reward.

But, one by one, they all gave up. So did I until the calmer voice of reason urged me to look more closely where I'd only glanced before. I'd had the wallet. And it had fallen. And I was not Jay Penny--that wallet was here on the bus!

On the far right of the seat, I now spied a tiny crevice between the seat and the wall. Leaning in and over, I now saw the silver gleam.

I had what I needed for the second meeting. And as I sit, I wonder: we all spend a lot of time trying to look outside 'the box'...but could it be that sometimes we need to look within the box of our situation--but freshly and from a new angle?

As I wrap up my new novel, I'm doing  more than proofing--I'm seeking out the crevices where nestled gold waits to be found.