Last Day for FREE Genie Awesomeness

Today's the last day to get Wish in One Hand for free.  Well, until the next time it's free.  Which probably won't be until 2022.  So, if you want to read it for free and don't want to wait, I suggest you hie yourself to Amazon and download yourself a copy.  Tomorrow the price goes back to $3.99.  Save yourself four bucks.

Just do it.  You know you want to.

Upcoming Book Birthday!

Lest you think I have, in my total immersion in this fantasy, forgotten my other books...

On Wednesday the 18th, it will be Wish in One Hand's book birthday.  Six years old.  Just a wee babe in the scheme of all written materials but probably, in book years, middle-aged or something.  

To celebrate, starting Monday, this first of my forays into urban fantasy will be free for five days.  If you enjoy it, I hope you'll pick up the other three books in the series.  

As always, all my books are available through the Kindle Unlimited program, so if you're into that, you can get all the Once Upon a Djinn books free with your subscription to KU and read to your heart's content.

Enjoy!

The Sale Starts Tomorrow

Since I'm done with the first draft and letting the words stew a bit before I start editing, I thought this would be as good a time as any to have a sale.  

Starting tomorrow, A Model Curse the trilogy (and complete series) will be available for less than $2.  Sleeping Ugly will be free through Saturday.  Ugly and the Beast and Cinder Ugly will be 99c each through next Monday.  Three books for $1.98.  Woohoo.

When a curse strikes a supermodel, all hell is gonna break loose.

Jeni Braxxon was raised to believe she wasn't good for much of anything but being pretty. Her career in modeling is on the rise until being cursed to turn ugly throws her world into chaos. Now, she has to learn who the culprit is and stop them, if only to get her pretty back. And along the way, she'll discover that what she was raised to believe isn't anywhere near the truth. There's more to Jeni than ever met the camera lens—something her enemies probably should've thought of before they starting messing with her.

They're also available on Kindle Unlimited and in paperback, if you're so inclined.  

They're fun and they're snarky, but they also have a bit of heart and a sniffly place here and there.  

Another Dystopian Freebie

Hey, Everybody!

I know I don't usually post here on Saturdays, and my brain hasn't had nearly enough coffee to be sparklingly witty yet, but I don't want you to miss the start of BLINK OF AN I being free.  

I love this book so much.  It was actually the third book I ever wrote, even if it wasn't the third book I published.  I dusted the manuscript off and sent it through to my editor, and together we got it in readers' hands in 2018.  (The actual paperback wasn't available until this year, though.  Sorry about that.)  

Anyway, the ebook version is free through June 2nd.  Grab a copy today.

Sales and Marketing Updates and Junk

It's the last day to get UNEQUAL for free.  Starting tomorrow, BLINK OF AN I will be free for 5 days.  Then the sales begin.  RUMOR HAS IT will be on sale from 6/2-6/8.  The first three genie books will be on sale from the 9th through the 15th and WISH HITS THE FAN will be free from the 9th through the 13th.

I'll schedule additional sales for other books for later in the month.  

The thinking on the Once Upon a Djinn series sale this time is this:  A lot fewer people have read the fourth book than the others.  And I really want them to read that last book.  It's the one where everything comes together and I'm really quite proud of it.  So I made it free, while the other books are cheap.  We'll see if it works.  If you haven't read that last book, you're missing out.

As of this morning, I only moved 12 copies of Unequal, which is kind of depressing.  Dystopian is hard to move anyway, but I guess right now, living in a pre-dystopian world makes it so people don't actually want to read about one.  :shrug:  We'll see what happens with Blink.  

I still don't have money in the budget for advertising, so I'm doing the best I can with the free outlets available to me.  Two of my go-to FB groups have gone to archive - which means they aren't live anymore.  (One of them went to archive in the middle of my advertising campaign, which blew my mind.  One day it was open and the next it was closed.)  FB keeps glitching out on me and making life difficult, but I am persevering.  I have a couple book groups I belong to on MeWe, but the reach still isn't there yet.  

Anyway, thanks to all of you who have read and reviewed my books.  I really do appreciate it.  If you haven't read or reviewed yet, I'd appreciate it if you did.  Every download helps.  Sales help more.  Reviews are icing on the cake.  

It's Dystopian Time

Mornin', Folks!

It's feeling a little pre-apocalyptic out there lately.  But mankind is not doomed.  We have the power to change things, to step off and move in a different direction.  In my dystopian novels, I detail possible futures and how the characters fight to change the worlds they live in.  Always with the mantra of all my books: Good guys win, bad guys lose.  And, of course, with loads of suspense along the way.  

So, with this in mind, I decided to make my dystopian novels free for a limited time.  Download a copy, send a copy to a friend.  Spread it around.  Will they save the world?  Who knows, but they can't hurt, eh?

First up, we have UNEQUAL.  Free worldwide from today through Friday.

We are all the same.  Equal.

In a world where being different is against the law, Rue Logan lives in fear of being branded Unequal and getting disappeared like so many others.  The Department of Equalization had other plans for her life, but she couldn’t let that stop her.  Now, she works her assigned job as a janitor by day and prowls the hospital’s corridors at night, saving lives.  

Until she’s caught.

On the run from the DOE, Rue finds others like her, Unequals working in secret to achieve their goals and live their lives.  But their leader has a mission of his own.  With war brewing, both sides need her skills to help them win.  Torn between her own deeply held beliefs and her desire to save the people she’s come to love, Rue must find a way to stop the conflict before any more lives are lost.  Even if it means uncovering secrets and lies that could break her world apart.

Saturday, BLINK OF AN I will be free through the 2nd.  

Always, these books are available with your Kindle Unlimited purchase, too.

Talking Marketing Again

Okay, so I did the free thing for Dying Embers.  That ended yesterday and I saw 49 copies move out to readers.  Two more than the last time I did the freebie thing for DE.  Remember, this is sans paid advertising, so no huge numbers, but hey, it's something. 

Additionally, I have had Fertile Ground and Early Grave on sale for 99c each since Sunday and that sale is still on through Saturday.  (The logic behind Amazon letting you have a sale for 7 days but only free for 5 days escapes me.)  To date, I've sold 3 copies of FG and 2 copies of EG.  Plus there were some page reads for FG that I hope will continue.  

Facebook finally forced me to go with their new format, which makes advertising in FB groups a wee bit different.  Actually, it's a smidgen easier once you get the hang of it.  (The only good thing I've found about new FB, so far.)  Unfortunately, one of my go-to groups went to approving every post before it posts and the administrators aren't quick about approvals, so I won't be posting there anymore.  I get why they're doing it, but the delay harshes my game.  I also found and joined a new to me group I hope will find me some new readers.  :fingers crossed: 

If you want to sell through FB without giving FB money, posting in book groups is about the only way.  I mean, I've paid FB for ads and never saw a sale, so why pay them more?  That and I refuse to throw any more money their way.  I'd leave FB entirely if I could get the same return on posting at MeWe or elsewhere.  Hell, I'd pay MeWe if I thought I could make money there.  We'll see what it looks like in 2021.

In other news, I'll be doing another sale thing starting next week.  Not sure which book(s) I'll be doing.  Stay tuned.  Might be Accidental Death and Natural Causes.  We'll see.

I came across a potential new reader out and about in the world the other day.  But she only reads hardcopy books.  I stopped by and saw her this week, with books in the car, but I chickened out on actually trying to sell her any.  I'm so bad at hand-selling my books.  Thank goodness for Amazon.  (Although I rarely ever sell paperbacks even then.)

Okay, that's about it for me.  Any questions?  Anything to add? 

Cyber Monday? That Means Sale Time Again

 A lot of you will be doing some online shopping today, but I won't.  I'm doing the selling.  Well, kind of selling.  You see, DYING EMBERS is free worldwide today through the 3rd.  FERTILE GROUND and EARLY GRAVE are the ones on sale (US and UK only).  Get those two now thru the 5th for only 99c/99p each.

So, now's the time to pick up a copy of one or all of them.  Get them for yourself.  Gift them to your friends and family.  Spread the suspense and the justice around.  See the bad guys get what's coming to them.  It's good fun for everyone.  (Given the proper maturity level, of course.)

Read along while Jace tracks a serial killer bent on fiery revenge, Teri chases a serial rapist with a god complex, and Ned hunts down an Angel of Death who's no angel at all.  Agents who have to face their own fears and regrets to do their jobs and stop some nasty characters.

Like I said, good fun.  ;o)

Surprise! Freebie Alert!

Umm, yeah, it was unexpected by everyone, including me, but PROJECT HERMES is on sale now through the 7th worldwide.  

PROJECT HERMES is free worldwide 7/3-7/7. (Always free with Kindle Unlimited.)

 

The highest levels of government believe Project Hermes is the best solution to the immigration problem. Except their simple plan to microchip people might be deadly. Now, Agent Miranda Kruz has to figure out why Project Hermes is killing people and who’s behind it. Finding the madmen will be hard enough. Stopping them might be impossible.

 

US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B017Y6G0EW

UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B017Y6G0EW

CA: https://www.amazon.ca/Project-Hermes-B-Sanderson-ebook/dp/B017Y6G0EW

AU: https://www.amazon.com.au/Project-Hermes-B-Sanderson-ebook/dp/B017Y6G0EW

 

#suspense #political #medical #thriller #conspiracytheory #free #ebook

More Randomness

The five-days-free thing for UNEQUAL ended last night.  I moved 99 copies and it reached as high as 54th in free dystopian.  We'll see if any page reads come of this.  If nothing else, there are 99 people in the world with the opportunity to read and enjoy it.

I'm up to 27516 words on Cinder Ugly.  It would be more, but I took Friday off to watch Live PD and then the yardwork I did Saturday screwed up my wrists enough that I took that night off, too.  There's a pivotal scene coming up next and I have no idea what's gonna happen.  Should be fun writing.

I started work on the blurb for Ugly and the Beast.  Here's what I've got so far:

Jeni Braxxon’s life as a up-and-coming supermodel hit the skids when she got cursed.  The asshole who did this to her is rotting in jail, but the curse remains, leaving her as ugly as the north end of a southbound dump truck every damn night.  Still, she’s trying desperately to hold onto her old life.  As if this case of the gruesomes and impending unemployment wasn’t enough for a gal with serious esteem issues, someone snatches her nephew.  The fight is on to find the boy before something seriously heinous happens to him.  With the help of her friends and a magical cat, Jeni will face anything this world or the next throws at her.  If she’s lucky, she might just make it out alive.

Yeah, it's pretty rough, but you get the idea of what goes on, so it's not totally lame.  Or is it?  I'll keep working on it.

UatB is at the readers and so far, I'm feeling good about it.  We'll see if that holds once the responses start to come back. 

I tell ya, it's nice to be working again.  The writing is flowing pretty well and with it, excitement for other stuffs keeps popping into my head.  But I'm staying focused.  Fingers crossed the excitement is still there when I sit down to write SCIU #4 or DH #3.

Oh, and I did some pricing stuffs this weekend.  I raised the prices on Sleeping Ugly, Accidental Death, and Natural Causes to $3.99.  When Ugly and the Beast comes out, it'll be $3.99, too.  Just trying to get my books in line with the market and each other.

I hope y'all aren't bored with this random stuff, but it seems like the only stuff I can hold in my head long enough to write an entire post. 

How are things with you? 

UNEQUAL is Free

Hey all.  Just thought I'd let you know that UNEQUAL is free now through Sunday.  Five days of freebie fun.

In a world where being different is against the law, Rue Logan lives in fear of being branded Unequal and getting disappeared like so many others. The Department of Equalization had other plans for her life, but she couldn’t let that stop her. Now, she works her assigned job as a janitor by day and prowls the hospital’s corridors at night, saving lives.

Until she’s caught.

On the run from the DOE, Rue finds others like her, Unequals working in secret to achieve their goals and live their lives. But their leader has a mission of his own. With war brewing, both sides need her skills to help them win. Torn between her own deeply held beliefs and her desire to save the people she’s come to love, Rue must find a way to stop the conflict before any more lives are lost. Even if it means uncovering secrets and lies that could break her world apart.

I love this book so much.  I hope you will, too.

Updates and Stuffs

I'm getting excited.  This is so close to being a real thing.  Since I already have a cover, all this is going to take is the final bits of editing and proofreading, and a blurb (gah, blurbs), and it'll be ready to send off into the world.  Woohoo!  and barf.

I really have no idea what I'm going to write for the blurb.  I'll have to put on my blurbing cap and hammer this out.  Soon.  :panics a little:

Speaking of blurbs, I'm not necessarily good at writing them, but I can spot a bad one for someone else's book like a laser guided missile.  And I've seen some stinkers lately.  They're usually written with either too much information or not enough.  When I'm looking for a book to buy, I need basic plot, main character, conflict.  I do not need to know their life story up to this point.  Probably something I should keep in mind when I write my own blurbs. 

Oh, and for the love of all you find holy, PROOFREAD your blurbs before you post them in public.  Nothing turns me off of a book quicker than a blurb with errors that could've been fixed if the author had taken the time to go over the damn thing again.  If someone can't proof a paragraph or two, I can't hold out much hope for an entire book.  Harsh, but true.  Of course, I'm more forgiving in a manuscript.  60-100K words to proof is a lot harder than a couple paragraphs.

Over the weekend, someone read Blink of an I in KU.  This morning, there's a new rating for it on Goodreads.  A 3-star.  Which would bum me out except I hopped over to their page and it seems like all the books they read they give 3-stars or less.  I'm taking it as a win.  It's all about perspective. Anyway, I hope they enjoyed it enough to read Unequal next.

Speaking of Unequal, it'll be free for a few days next week.  And I set up a sale for the SCIU books for the week after. 

Once I get an idea of publication dates and junk for Ugly and the Beast, I'll probably have a sale for Sleeping Ugly to kick off the release.  Woohoo.  I'm hoping for end of March, but time frames depend on other people and since other people are doing me a favor, I'm not pushing anyone for a speedy delivery.  They have lives, too, and their own work, and I'd be a shit if I was all like 'I need this yesterday'.  Cuz I don't.  It'll happen when it happens.  I'm totally chill.

While my beloved elves are busy marking up my manuscript, I'll be writing Cinder Ugly.  I posted the beginning of it over at Silver's blog on Wednesday, if you're interested. 

Any questions?  Got anything you want to update the world about?  How's things?

I Know It Sounds Anti-Intuitive

The other day I was talking with my in-person BFF and I told her about putting Blink of an I up for free.  She was aghast.  "Free?" she asked in disbelief.  As in 'why would anyone ever offer their stuff for free?'  And I said "Well, I know it sounds anti-intuitive, but sometimes it helps with sales."  Then I explained about Page Reads, and the potential for people buying others of my books, etc.  All good things to be sure.

But there's on other potential goodie from having a FREE that I neglected to mention because it so rarely ever happens for me - that it will be boosted in the rankings and perhaps gain sales that way.

I had scheduled Blink to be free from January 29st through January 31st.  Some time on Friday, I checked the rankings and Blink had made it into the free top 100s in Post Apocalyptic and in Dystopian.  And I remembered something I'd read a while ago about 4 days being the magic number for getting a book noticed in Kindle Unlimited.  I went right back into my Amazon Bookshelf and added two more days to the freebie.

And it stayed in the top 100s during those two days.  (Without any extra FB push, I might add.) 

This morning, I woke up and checked the rankings - hoping it would at least be in the hundred thousands on overall Paid in Amazon.  (Which is better than the 7 figure ranking it had.)  Except it almost never happens that a free push does anything with the rankings in Paid. 

Imagine my surprise when I saw this...

That's paid ranking, folks.  #6895 overall and #119 and #126 respectively in Paid.  :jaw drops:  I can only assume I picked up a bunch KU downloads to make that happen because there are no actual sales associated with that.  Just 89 free books downloaded. 

I still haven't seen any money from any of this, but there's hope.  And it's nice to see one of my books rise so far up in the rankings.  I hope the people who downloaded my book enjoy it.

In other noteworthy news, I sold a paperback yesterday for the first time in over a year.  And for the first time sans Createspace.  So that was pretty neat for me. 

Now to convert that positive news into gumption to get some writing done.  :fingers crossed:

Merry Christmas! Here's a Present!

Since my writing is really the only gift I have to give, starting today the book that started it all, DYING EMBERS, is free.  (And the other two SCIU books - FERTILE GROUND and EARLY GRAVE - are only 99c.)

DE is free through Saturday.  FG and EG are on sale through Monday night.  Grab one or grab them all.  Send them as gifts to friends and family.  If you already have them, thank you so much.  Your support means the world to me.  I wish I had a prezzie to give you, too.  :hugs:

Merry Christmas to you and all of your loved ones.  Here's to a Happy New Year for us all.

Free Book Numbers

Since I had Project Hermes listed for free this week, I got a little curious about the numbers.  Oddly enough, I'd never actually looked at the numbers for my freebies before.

Let's hop into the wayback machine...

2015:  I listed Dying Embers as free in March and moved 356 copies.  I also sold 26 copies of it that month.  Since there were no other books published at that point, that was all DE.

2016:  I did quite a few freebies in 2016.  The biggest one was for DE, during which I moved 2431 copies.  That was February.  I also had a freebie for PH (then BloodFlow) during February and moved 127 copies.  In March, I listed AD for free and moved 759 copies.  FG was free in August - 100 copies.  WIOH was free in both September and October - I assume for one day each month - and 321 copies went out the door.  All told, I gave away 3738 copies in 2016.

2017:  I held two freebies for WIOH only.  I moved 858 copies and then sold 75 copies of the next three genie books - on sale during the freebies for WIOH.

2018: In March, I put AD for free and moved 118 copies - after which I sold 4 copies of NC.  Then in April, I listed DE as free again and 1007 went out the door.  Residual series sales for FG and EG ended up being about 40 books.

2019:  In February, I put Unequal for sale for a day.  Moved 22 copies.  Afterward, I sold one copy of UEQ and one copy of Blink of an I.  This week, Project Hermes was free for three days.  161 copies went out the door.  Since there isn't any book that relates directly to PH, I don't expect a lot of movement, but there's always a chance for KU reads and other sales.  :fingers crossed:

All told, I've given away 6260 books since 2015.

Sometimes, I see an uptick in sales of the book I made free.  Sometimes I get sales for other books in the same series.  Every rare once in a while, other unrelated books get sold because of a freebie promo I've run.  It's hit and miss.

Personally, I hate giving anything away.  But I understand that sometimes giving books away helps sell books.  And I have to remind myself that the people who get my books for free might not have slapped money down to buy them because I am an unknown author to them.  Once they give me a try, they may go on to buy my stuff. 

As a reader, I rely on free books to feed my reading addiction.  The budget's so slim right now I can't afford to try new authors, so I pick them up during freebie promos.  And if they're good, I try to find space in the budget to buy their subsequent books.  That's kind of how the freebie promo is supposed to work.

What about you?  Have you tried freebie promos for your books?  How did they work out for you?  If you haven't tried them as a writer, do you use them as a reader to find new authors? 

Project Hermes is FREE

Early Saturday morning, I got tickled by a wild hair and decided to run a free promo for Project Hermes.  To the best of my knowledge, I've never done a freebie promo for PH, so now's your chance to snag a copy without having to slap down $4.99.

So, yeah, it's free worldwide through Amazon today through Wednesday. 

No cost to you, unless you want to be really nice and pay for it by leaving a review.  That would be awesome and I would be so appreciative. 

If you're not familiar with PH, it's my political/medical/techno suspense.  (Previously published as Blood Flow.)  Here's the blurb...

It's the little things that kill

The highest levels of the government believe Project Hermes is the best way to control America’s immigration problem. A simple microchip carrying a citizen’s information will allow officials to sort out who belongs—and who doesn’t. Harmless.

Unless the chip carries more than just information.

Agent Miranda Kruz of the Terrorism Task Force has reason to believe something is very wrong with Project Hermes. People are dying and the clues all point to a microchip implant. But Randi’s superiors don’t want anything or anyone interfering with their pet project. They’re threatening her job, her loved ones, and her life to keep her from revealing their secret. With the help of medical examiner, Vic Hammond, and electronics engineer, Jack Davis, Randi has to uncover the truth and make it public before anyone else is targeted for death.

Locating the madmen behind these executions will be hard enough—stopping them might just be impossible.

Anyway, I hope people will pick up some copies while it's free and maybe read some pages through the Kindle Unlimited program.   That's about all a writer can ask for.

Enjoy!

Thinking of Series Titles

I am not good with series titles.  I mean, SCIU kind of lent itself a title, as did the Dennis Haggarty Mysteries, but let's face it Once Upon a Djinn is kind of lame.

So, here I am working on the sequel to Sleeping Ugly and it occurred to me that I have no series title.  I had thought 'Pretty Damned Ugly' would be a cool series title, but now I'm all like meh.  Jeni's pretty and she's ugly, but she's not damned.

The 'Pretty Ugly Series'?  Might work, but it's just not blowing my skirt up.

'Ugly Tales'?  You know, since the titles riff off classic fairytale titles?

'Pretty Ugly Tales'...


Ugh, it all sounds lame to me.  But we're our worst critics, aren't we?

'The Magical Mystery Tour' just occurred to me, but it's too Beatle-y.  And, frankly, I hate the Beatles.  (Okay, Ringo was cool.  And George was okay.  Can't stand Paul or John.  Or their music as a group.)  But these are 'magical mysteries' of a sort.

Argh. 

If I can't think of anything better by the time Ugly and the Beast gets close enough to start marketing efforts, I'm going with 'Pretty Ugly Tales'.  :shrug:

Any thoughts?  Suggestions?  How are you with series titles?  Do they make any difference when you're buying books?

And before I totally forget, Unequal is free today.  If you haven't already grabbed a copy, this would be the time to do it.

Stuffs

With my other work project finally finished, for now at least, I can focus on my actual work stuff again.  Having said this, though, I realize I am playing catch-up.  I do have a book releasing this week - Early Grave (Book three of my Serial Crimes Investigation Unit series).  Over the weekend, I made a Goodreads listing for it, so that's something.

I know some of you weren't keen on the blurb, but I went with it.  It's in line with the blurbs from the other two.  (I changed the blurb for Fertile Ground, so it's more in line, too.  And creepier.  Can't help the creepy.)

I'm also hip deep in the final edits of Early Grave.  I should have those done over the next couple days and then I'll format.  And THEN I'll upload it to Amazon and make it live so all y'all can finally snag a copy.  So, Friday's still a good day for release and it'll be live earlier if I can swing it.  It's going into the world at $2.99.

BTW, if you missed it, FG is on sale all month worldwide.  It's 99c here in the US and all other prices are adjusted accordingly.  Dying Embers will be free sometime next week (I have to wait until my KDP 90 days is over on Wednesday and after EG is live to set that up.)

I have ideas for three more Dennis Haggarty mysteries.  I still have to write them, so don't look for those any time soon.  Next year maybe.

The way Sleeping Ugly is currently written, it will be a new series.  Which means I'd better get some ideas for subsequent books soon or rewrite SU so it's a standalone.

And I'm still planning on putting Unequal into the world either late this year or early next.  Another dystopian.  Weeee.

So much in my head and so little time to get it all done.  I need a clone.  Or a way to work more hours without going batshit crazy. 

Any questions? 

Stuffs

First off, you heard it here first - Accidental Death will be free worldwide from the 19th thru the 23rd and Natural Causes will be on sale for 99c or .99p (US / UK) from the 19th thru the 15th.  If you haven't read them yet, wait until then, pick up both, and save almost $5 off the usual cover price.  The links are over there ----------->

I'm still dragging my feet on Early Grave's edits.  It's not them.  They're fine.  It's me.  When I have the time, I can't muster the will.  And when I muster the will, I can't seem to do more than one chapter before I'm just tired of it.  This will pass.  And I'm not ready to thrown in the towel yet and move my deadline.  I suspect it's just the winter blahs hitting me late in the season this year.  Perhaps it's a bit of everything else going on in my life and my brain is toast.  Or maybe I'm just making excuses for my lazy ass. 

I'm stuck in the loop of pondering how much pimping of my own books on social media is too much.  I know I get annoyed when I see the same author constantly linking to their book in my newsfeed.  Six, seven, eight status updates in the same day?  And I know it's because they're posting to their own pages, plus to all of the groups I belong to, but come on.  It's overloading my nerves.  Then again, if you don't post to all the groups, you might miss a potential sale.  It's a balancing act.  And I suck at those.

Cover doubt is currently assailing me, too.  I loved Blink's cover.  Now I'm kind of hating it.  Bleh.  And I suspect it's making me hate some of my other covers now, too.  Bastard.  I just need to chill the hell out.

I really need to go fishing and blow air through my gaskets.  I'm mentally clogged.  Maybe tomorrow.  Until then, one foot in front of the other.

The NEW Goodreads Giveaway Program

I got an email this morning from Goodreads with the subject of 'Introducing the New Goodreads Giveaways'.  I almost deleted it as junk mail.  Good thing I didn't.  It's all about the new super-special programs that Goodreads is implementing for giving away books through them.

And it's no longer free.

Starting in January of 2018 - so about 6 weeks from now - you can only give away books if you pay them to hold your giveaways.  Isn't that special?  I know in the email they sound super excited about it.

I remember an old saying and I'm paraphrasing because I don't remember remember it.  "Marketing is telling you to go to hell and making you think you're going to enjoy the trip."

That's about how I'm feeling about the whole Goodreads Giveaway Program this morning.  They've basically told me to go to hell and they're trying to make me think the trip will be super awesome.

Basically, you can get the Standard Plan or the Premium Plan.  Standard is $119 and Premium is $599.  But if you ACT NOW, you can get 50% off, or some such thing.  So, $60 or $300... to give away a book.

I like giving away books.  It makes me happy.  Not $300 happy.  Not even $60 happy.  Lord knows it isn't like I've seen great things come my way because I've given out a book here or there.  I got one review once from someone who won a Goodreads giveaway.  And there's one winner who immediately listed my book for sale on Amazon.  Gnarly.  I'm supposed to pay someone so someone else can get a free book they can then list for sale?  Ummmmmmmm.  No.

Anyway, they can do what they want to do.  It's their business, after all.  I think it's short-sighted and stupid, but I'm entitled to my opinion.  I'll still have my books listed on there for readers to add to their lists.  Until they start charging for that crap.

And yes, I'm bitchy about it.  It's like there a consortium somewhere thinking up ways to make the self-publishing business harder every damn day.

I have a distinct urge to run away this morning.  But it's rainy and cold.  Don't mind fishing in the rain.  Don't mind fishing in the cold.  Cold and rain?  No freakin' way.  I think I'll sort my library this morning and see what needs to be donated to St. Vinny's.

What are you up to today?  Do you enter Goodreads giveaways?  Ever won anything thru there? I have, but it's been a while.