TUESDAY TIPS AND TIDBITS - Intrigarama sale on Berardelli ebooks

Intrigarama - stock up on Berardelli now!

INTRIGARAMA - 99-cent specials in suspense and intrigue now until the end of November...

Author David Berardelli writes suspense and intrigue with wry humor and sometimes throws a little paranormal into the mix. From now until the end of November, his titles in ebook format published through Penumbra Publishing will be on sale for 99-cents at Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and Smashwords. Don't miss your chance to sample Dave's writing at reduced prices - when this Intrigarama's over, it's over!


Colors
by David Berardelli
Paranormal / Suspense / Thriller

After a young woman tries to help a homeless lady who's struck by a hit-and-run driver, she finds herself cursed with a strange visionary gift that could either help or harm her and those around her.After trying to help the victim of a hit-and-run, a young woman finds herself seeing odd colors around people when they're charged with emotion. As she probes deeper into the hit-and-run murder to help bring justice to the old woman and find out more about her strange new visionary power, a DEA cop comes to her rescue. She soon realizes someone very powerful wants to keep her quiet ... permanently. Can her gift keep her and those around her safe, or is she destined to end up dead like the old woman she tried to help?

 

 

 

Fatal Innocence
by David Berardelli
Suspense / Thriller

A wealthy software magnate with a drinking problem finds his life going to hell after he meets a mysterious beautiful woman in trouble.A hard-drinking, womanizing Orlando software king risks his empire after meeting a beautiful redhead in a bar. At first all he can think about is getting her in the sack. But bad things keep happening in his business and his home life, and he starts to wonder if this mystery woman is the source of all his trouble. A private detective hired to look into it starts suspecting this woman comes from the tycoon's checkered past and is out to get him. But can he find out the truth before she ruins the man? Or should he just step back and let it happen?

Escape Clauseby David Berardelli
Suspense / Thriller

A suspense action thriller that has it all - kidnapping, murder, high-stakes corporate contracts, prenuptial clauses, and mob hit contracts. This is one time when an escape clause would come in real handy...

A construction field supervisor spots a woman in a bar that looks like the love of his life he let slip through his fingers seven years ago. Now he wonders if she's in grave danger. When he tries to find out, he finds himself in danger too!

 

 

Stepping Out of My Graveby David Berardelli
Paranormal / Supernatural / Ghost

Sometimes ya gotta do the right thing - even when you're dead! A software company owner gets hit by a tricked-out truck and wakes up standing in his own grave. Once successful in life, he now has to learn the ropes of being dead. He soon finds out the afterlife of a ghost comes with its own perks, and he intends to use his for the greater good. His first 'project' is a street-smart teenage girl involved in a dangerous, desperate situation. But will all his newfound ghostly abilities be enough to keep her from becoming as dead as he is?

Interview and Giveaway With Author George H. Sirois

Q: Who are you, and why should readers read the rest of this interview?

A. My name is George H. Sirois, and I'm here to tell your readers about the Indie Book Collective and also to introduce them to "Excelsior," a novel available in paperback and eBook that has been called "refreshingly original and fun, adventurous, a definite must-read."

Q: Tell us a little about the work you are here promoting.

"Excelsior" is a science-fiction / young adult story about an underachieving high school student named Matthew Peters who spends all his time writing and drawing his own successful web comic. He is visited by a beautiful older woman who not only tells Matthew that she's from the planet he's been writing about in his comic, but that the lifeforce of the main character Excelsior is inside Matthew. So with Excelsior's enemies coming back into power on both planets, Matthew must stop writing about the larger-than-life adventures and start living them.

Q:  As a writer, do you have plans for world domination, or do you have a day job as well?

Don't knock world domination. According to Stan Lee, anyone can go to any police officer and say they want to conquer the world and they can't be arrested since that's not a crime. But anyway, while it would be nice to do so, I have no plans in the near future to reign over Earth with an iron fist. As of now, I'm going to have to stick to my current job as a news reporter for 411Mania.com while finishing my courses for my Masters in Communication Arts.

Q: Self-published, traditional, indie or part of an indie collective? If not yet published, what are you doing to make it happen?

Self-published and a proud member of the Indie Book Collective. I was originally going to send Excelsior through the traditional methods, but I considered everything that I want to do with this character and didn't want to risk signing his rights away, especially since I had created him back in 1992. So I put together a blog and raised the money for the printing fees with Infinity Publishing (Everyone who pre-ordered for $17.95 guaranteed their autographed copy and had their names printed in the Acknowledgements section), and Claudia Jackson (@Novelhelp) was a huge help with the eBook conversion.

Q:  How do you handle bad reviews? If you haven't had one...would you be willing to take part in a social experiment? Basically? Would you grant me permission to trash your writing, just to see if you cry? I wouldn't do that (don't worry)

I've had a handful of bad reviews so far, and with each one, the sting fades a little quicker than the previous one. One thing that irked me a bit was that the good reviews were short and sweet while a couple of the lesser reviews went into great detail about what it was that bothered them, but now I look at it as something to consider while I write the sequel: "Ever Upward."

So unless the review is not offering anything positive and is just hateful ranting like Roger Ebert discussing "North," then I'll take it in and go from there.

Considering that you enjoyed the book, I'd be curious to know what worked for you and what didn't work.

Q: Are you nervous yet and do you prefer white or wheat bread.

Actually, I'm feeling very calm, thank you. And I prefer seedless rye bread, but if I had to pick between the two, I'll go with wheat.

Q:  Do you blog? If so, don't you wish you were as cool a blogger as I?

I do blog, and I wish I was as cool as every blogger out there, especially you. I've been very much behind on my posts, and I need to get caught up. Actually, more than anything, I need to delete the posts that never went anywhere to free up some room for what I'll be blogging about in the near future, which is the progress on the next book in the series.

Q: What is your favorite creature, monster, or fantasy based thing you write about?

I love writing about the planet Denab IV, which is where Excelsior came from, and its origins. I've always been a sucker for a good backstory and I like to think I came up with a worthy one for Excelsior and how he is tied to the planet he created.

Q: Are you planning to give something away (if not, good luck getting anyone to read this thing) and if so, what are your demands for winning (I assume, your book because why else would you stop by?)

I plan to send out free copies of the "Excelsior" eBook, but if people want to read it, they'll have to do a little something first. They must go to the page on my blog site that features the excerpt from the book: http://excelsior2010.blogspot.com/p/excerpt-from-excelsior.html. Once that's done, they must post their favorite part of the excerpt on this page and include their e-mail. They will then be e-mailed the Smashwords coupon code that will allow them to download their copy of the eBook.

Q: Any advice for aspiring writers?

The main piece of advice I have for aspiring writers is to get involved with social media, especially Twitter, and start building up your followers right away. That way, when your book is ready to go, you will have an audience ready to take what you have to offer.

A few months after my novel was online and ready for purchase, I followed the advice of a co-writer and friend Andrew Mocete (@AndrewMocete) and started following the Indie Book Collective on Twitter. The more I interacted with them, the more confident I became in my decision to self-publish.

Before, I was under the impression that once the book was finished, I would be alone with my marketing efforts. Now I know that's not the case, and it's because of Carolyn McCray (@craftycmc), Rachel Thompson (@RachelintheOC) and Amber Scott (amberscottbooks) taking me in and giving me the necessary tools I needed to give "Excelsior" more exposure than I had ever thought possible. They accepted me into the first-ever "Blog Tour De Force," which has already become a major staple in the IBC, and after seeing the success shared by other writers for their Bestseller for a Day promotion, I can't wait to get involved in that.

Q: Tick off a few indie authors you look up to.

The three main members of the Indie Book Collective - Carolyn McCray, Rachel Thompson and Amber Scott - have all been great to me and I hold them in very high regards.

I also have a lot of love for Ann Charles, who wrote the award-winning novel "Nearly Departed in Deadwood." I had to give my thoughts on that for the first Blog Tour de Force, and I couldn't put my Kindle down. She is a magnificent writer who tells a very captivating and entertaining story. And I'm not just saying that because she provided the quote that I used at the beginning of this interview.

Looking at their success, it's hard not to be in awe of Amanda Hocking, J.A. Konrath and John Locke. I had to add their books to my Kindle and I'm anxious to get all of them read.

And of course, there's your book. Judging by what I've read about it,. I think it's gonna be a blast and once I get my Kindle back from my wife, I can start reading it.

Q: Are you, or are you not a douche bag? Heh, you don't have to answer that. That's just for my enjoyment.

All I can say is that opinions vary. :-)

Q: Sell your book, right now, to your host without once mentioning your book, blog or twitter handle.

One of the great stories in literature is that of the Hero's Journey, when an ordinary man or woman gets that call to adventure and has a chance to do extraordinary things. Having grown up in a time when one of the best adaptations of the Hero’s Journey – Star Wars – became part of our culture, I remember the sense of wonder that story brought to so many people. Unfortunately, those same people cried foul almost two decades later when George Lucas released the prequel trilogy, and that same sense of innocent wonder was gone.

I feel the time is right for a brand new Hero’s Journey, a story that appeals to the youth in all of us, a story that takes you by the hand and pulls you into another world. With the help of my main character, Matthew Peters, my story allows you to experience wish-fulfillment at the highest level by becoming the savior of an entire world. And for only 99 cents, you can read the story for yourself, the story of a young man who gets to become his greatest creation.

Q: Alright, where can readers find you on the web?

FACEBOOK - http://www.facebook.com/ghsirois

TWITTER - @GeorgeHSirois

E-MAIL - GHWriter1976@gmail.com

BLOG -excelsiorbooks.blogspot.com

TUESDAY TIPS AND TIDBITS – The Dollar Menu

McDonald’s has a ‘Dollar Menu.’ Two pies for a dollar. Any size soft drink for a dollar. McChicken or McDouble sandwich for a dollar. Small fries for a dollar. You get the idea ... and so did a lot of other fast-food restaurants. Wendy’s and Burger King have a Dollar Menu too – great for hungry customers on a budget needing a quick meal on the go. Not a whole lotta food, but enough to get you by. And sometimes the food is not that bad, as far as fast food goes. Other retailers have tried the same approach. One is the Dollar Store, where almost everything in the store is priced for just a dollar. Need a toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste to go with it? A dollar each. How about a brand-name candy bar or a bottle of your favorite carbonated drink? At the Dollar Store, they’re just a dollar. But, of course, the Dollar Store has other things for sale, and those items are more than a dollar. And a lot of time some of those dollar items can be found elsewhere for less than a dollar. But the ‘almost everything’s a dollar’ ploy gets you in the Dollar Store with that unbelievable promise of finding lots and lots of everyday stuff for just a dollar. Most people fall for that lure without stopping to consider that these days a dollar doesn’t buy you much. That candy bar is gone in a few bites. And that tube of toothpaste is only good for a few squeezes. It’s just enough to get you by.

The online retailer Amazon has also seen the value of offering a Dollar Menu to its customers. Books for 99-cents, and many, many books for free are now being offered on Amazon, and the online giant hopes these ‘loss leaders’ will lure customers into buying companion or related items that are priced more in line with their usual retail offerings. This ‘lure ‘em in’ ploy may backfire for a while, resulting in sales only of the cheap stuff, to the detriment of sales of regular-priced items. But every once in a while, customers will want more that a McChicken or a McDouble, yearning instead for a Big Mac combo complete with fries and a drink. Maybe they’ve read that 99-cent first installment of a series and really liked it – liked it so much that they want more and are willing to pony up two, three, or four times as much to see how that series plays out. So, even though the Amazon retail planners may seem to be losing their britches on this Dollar Menu ploy, they are in fact gambling that their customers will find enough wheat within the chaff to spend some serious bread.

But what does this mean for authors? Well, there’s good news, and then there’s not so good news. But ultimately, whether it’s good or bad depends on how you choose to look at it.

Here’s the kind-of-good news first. Best-selling authors who have a great readership are not going to have to offer their current or recent work for little or nothing because, for the most part, their sales will not be adversely affected by all this cheap and free reading material. Why? Because they already have a loyal readership who will buy their books on name recognition alone. However, their publishers may be tempted to offer ‘teaser’ ebooks for 99-cents ... just a few chapters of a larger book, or a short-story tie-in for a popular series with a new full-length installment debuting. These teaser books help introduce bargain-hunters to their series, readers who may not already be reading these series. However, serious bargain-hunters will be annoyed at spending 99-cents for a short story when they are actually looking for full-length novels.

The authors who may benefit from pricing their novel-length ebooks at 99-cents are the unknown authors who can’t seem to catch a break with readers. But they’re more likely to benefit only if they price a lead-in book for a series at 99-cents. If authors have more books to offer at more reasonable retail prices, and readers like their 99-center, then this loss-leader might actually create a following for the entire series. This ploy worked for Amanda Hocking. However, she had several books and series available, and she busted her butt chatting and blogging and making a presence on forums to create a following among readers. Plus she stayed true to her genre and offered a whole slew of books to the same kind of readership without starting fresh by reinventing the wheel with every new series.

The not so good news is, a one-trick-pony author who has only one book for sale would only benefit by reducing the price temporarily to 99-cents in order to spur sales and readership. But price alone may not be enough to get readers’ attention, especially if there are thousands of books for free or 99-cents for readers to choose from. Further, other relatively unknown authors who choose not to reduce their price on their books may suffer a slump in sales as more and more desperate authors try the 99-cent pricing ploy just to get someone to read their books.

The end result is that readers may actually come to expect all unknown authors’ work to be offered for less, and equate it as being worth less than the work of more popular and better-known authors. Think candy bar at the Dollar Store versus a premium packaged select box of chocolates at an exclusive chocolate retailer like Godiva. The fact is, the surge in the free or 99-cent market has cut into book sales of many lesser-known authors who want to price their books similar to the pricing structure of popular authors.

Ultimately it’s the readers who benefit from this a boon of cheap books. And the dynamic of this pricing scenario is in fact the well-known model of supply and demand. As supply increases above consumer demand, prices go down to create sales incentives. With more and more self-published authors making their books available, the supply of books has increased. And with copyright-free material flooding the market (think old classics and public domain books offered through the Gutenberg Project), readers are inundated with choices. Not to mention all the desperate lead-in bargains offered by traditional publishers relatively new to the game of ebook selling.

Still, the truth remains that not all readers can read 18 hours a day. Many can only read during downtime, like during commuter train rides or while waiting for a doctor appointment, and their reading choices must necessarily be extremely selective. So, not everyone will sample free and 99-cent books willy-nilly, just because the price seems too good to pass up. Readers who read constantly and can’t keep up with their own consumption will naturally sample the free or 99-cent selections first before shelling out ten bucks for an ebook by a best-selling author.

In the end, most readers will judge free and 99-cent books by the same standards they judge any other book, regardless of the price, while still believing that in the world of fast food and economy merchandise, you get what you pay for. A mass-produced candy bar is not going to have the same flavor and consistency of an exquisite – and expensive – piece of chocolate. Yet inevitably the candy bar will be compared to the fine chocolate, despite the relative price and manufacturing differences. Because the mass-market candy is priced lower, people may automatically assume it is of lower quality, when in fact that is not always the case. But subconsciously this type of price and quality comparison cannot be avoided.

Truthfully, no author should bargain-price a book because it is not well written, but that is exactly what many readers may believe and expect from a 99-cent book. Why? Because many self-published authors don’t know the first thing about good writing, or don’t care. They just want their book out there, not realizing that putting a book out that is not of publishable quality hurts their reputation as well as every other author who legitimately tries to achieve quality writing to produce a quality book. Authors who price their books at 99-cents or for free should be prepared for these oftentimes uncomplimentary comparisons and reader assessments, even when they are not warranted.

Given all these considerations, and the fact that royalties on sales will be minimal because of Amazon’s 35% royalty pricing structure for books priced below $2.99, many authors may be hesitant to price their work at 99-cents or free. It is a difficult decision to make. The up-side is that the price can always be changed within 48 hours. So, if your books aren’t selling, or sales are nearly nonexistent, consider picking a ‘loss leader’ in your collection of work and try bargain-pricing it for a month or two to see if this helps. If it doesn’t, you haven’t lost much of anything. You can also try other tactics, like ebook giveaways on blogs or getting your book listed on bargain-book blogs. By closely tracking your daily sales, you can experiment freely to see what works for you and what doesn’t. The Dollar Menu is just one of many promotional options, and every author should consider it, even if there’s no plan to implement it ... at least for right now.

Patricia Morrison, Penumbra Publishing