Hi readers! Before I say anything else, Thank you! Commenters were very generous, taking time to answer my questions from last month’s post and providing me with a hefty amount of useful information. A special thanks to the two who kindly let me know about my homonym error!
For those who are interested, here’s a quick summary of the most salient info:
Self-published books are okay with readers who answered, if the author is known to them.
Price matters! Especially as related to book length.
While people still use Goodreads, it doesn’t seem as prevalent as it once was. Many people rely on review blogs, author blogs, and social media. Other book sites like Goodreads also only got a few mentions. Notably, I think a lot of us are going to miss Prism Book Alliance!
The Dreamspinner family of imprints and Riptide took the publisher popularity category hands down, with Extasy and LT3 tied for a distant second. I do see some newer names, though, and I’d wager they’ll be growing.
Kindle Unlimited didn’t seem nearly as popular as I expected. The primary reason people said they didn’t use it is because they want to own their books—a sentiment I can definitely identify with! I sometimes read a book three or four times, with possibly years between the readings.
Answers to other questions really revealed no clear trends or preferences, proving what I already knew—every reader is unique. I love that.
I am thoroughly in love with those commenters who said they look forward to my books (and also those who do, but didn’t say it). For you, here’s a little info. I am in the process of reclaiming the rights to A Shot of J&B which hasn’t competed well with titles much more heavily promoted, by top-selling authors. As some of you know, that book is the first in a series I spun off from Vasquez and James—which remains proudly on the Dreamspinner catalog (and fared much better there). Book two of the new series (Vasquez Security: the Next Generation), Chasing Perfect is complete. I might shop for a publisher to put the series out (before or after book three is finished)—see if I can find them a publishing home where these books will be more visible, and the fabulous crowd at the top of Dreamspinner’s list won’t push them too far back into the shadows. If I can’t find a satisfactory home for them, I’ll be working on getting the series completed, edited, formatted, and packaged, and then take a giant step into self-publishing.
As of right now, though, you can still get A Shot of J&B—and the rest of my books, too—at the Dreamspinner Store. And I’ve finagled a coupon code for you! Use MARCHLUV at checkout for 30% off any or all of my single titles now through March 26th.
Now, the envelope, please! (Random) winner number one… Tanja! And yes, indeed, the number of comments was sufficient to generate a second winner, so… The envelope, please! (Random) winner number two… Serena S! Everyone join me, please, in congratulating Tanja and Serena.
Again, I thank all of you for your thoughtful answers. I’m blowing kisses. As always I’d love to hear any thoughts you have on this month’s post, otherwise I’ll look forward to seeing you next month.
(I can’t go away without saying thank you very much for hosting me, Dani and all the Love Bytes crowd.)
Wishing you all the best with finding a new home for your guys – whom I love – whether it be with another publisher or self pubbed. Their story needs to be out there!
Congrats to the winners. Though when Lou writes we all win!
Congrats to Tanja and Serena! I loved seeing all the different answers. I always feel like I’m very out of step with other readers, so it was interesting reading for me. I actually did try KU this month because I had a book that had a part 2 and discovered it was only on Amazon. So, even though I don’t buy ebooks from them, I saw that I could do a month-long trial of it. I went to authors I knew first, but then I discovered a couple of new-to-me ones because of blog reviews I just happened to see this last month. I’m pretty sure they would have been ones I wouldn’t necessarily have tried, but a whole month of free books had me wanting to maximize my time. I found some good ones, but honestly, I can say it’s still very difficult for me to try out self-published authors if I don’t know them because I found several books I would have been disappointed to have spent money on. And obviously, there’s some reviewers I trust more on review sites than others, so I don’t always try out new authors just because it has a positive review on a site. Anyway, I just thought it was cool how your questions intersected with my new experience this month.
All the best on your quest to continue the series! I’m always looking forward to reading more from you.
I am doing my happy dance now. Super that I have won. And thank you for the coupon code.
Congrats to Serena.