Win a Kindle copy of KING OF TREES!

Since "alternative facts" are in the news, I decided to host a giveaway for my "alternative world" book, King of Trees. This is an alternate history/time travel time novel with fantasy overtones.

I'm giving away three free copies, but sadly, you have to be in the US to win.

If that's you, enter here!

Bragging

Let me just say that I appreciate all reviews. Even low-star reviews mean the person at least read the book, and cared enough to comment. But of course, positive reviews are more fun to read, and glowing reviews that praise the story or the writing are a real mood enhancer. Plus, it means instead of actually bragging, I just have to point to the good reviews!

Recently, an Amazon customer who goes by the online handle of Mara gave my two newest books 5-star rave reviews:

Here's what Mara said about The Nostalgia Gambit:

This woman can WRITE! 

What a good story! Masterful writing with such a brilliant plot. The characters become real enough to want to talk with and the story is completely enthralling and flawless. It's also a story to make you think about ethics and how scary it is that it might soon be something that could really happen; it will stay in my mind for a while to come.

For King of Trees, Mara has this to say: 

A favourite author

This isn't a simple story but, my gosh, it's a good one!
An alternate world with a history that diverged sometime after the Roman conquest of "Albion", two generations after a small group of modern people managed to settle in London. The world building and character development is wonderful as Bardolph and Melissa struggle to find their way together through their different cultures.So good! Really well worth reading.

Whoo hoo! Color me tickled pink!  And let me just say that Mara is no relation and has several hundred reviews to her (I assume) credit. 

Update on my books

So, here is where we are in Buxton World:

King of Trees is now on iBooks as well as Kindle and Nook.

The Nostalgia Gambit is still not on iBooks! I don't know why, since KoT made it onto that platform in days, but TNG is still not there after two months.

The Sixth Discipline had a fantastic month! Thanks to the Bookbub promotion, it has already topped 15,000 (free) copies in May, and that's on Kindle alone. It's also now free in the UK and Canadian Kindle stores.  The sequel No Safe Haven is selling well in consequence.

Lastly, my science fiction romance (working title is now Saronna's Gift) is back from being critiqued by my writers group, and is now undergoing some revisions.  I'm still aiming for a late summer release.

King of Trees is available in more stores

I recently uploaded King of Trees to the Barnes & Noble Nook store, using their new Nook Press feature, which replaces Pub-It!, the original iteration of self-publishing on the Nook.  It took about two days, but I'm hapy to report that it's now for sale on the Nook as well as in iBooks.

Oddly, The Nostlgia Gambit is still not in iBooks, even though it made it to the Nook and everywhere else!  The folks at Apple must not like nostlgia!

Last day to borrow King of Trees

Today (May 10) is the last day that King of Trees will be in the KDP Select Program, which means it's also the last day it will be in the Kindle Owners Lending Library (KOLL). In additon to books published via KDP Select, there are a lot of tradionally published books in the KOLL, too.  Amazon negotiated with some publishers and pays a fee every time somone borrows a book. The Harry Potter books are the most famous example.

If you own a Kindle or a Kindle Fire and you have Amazon Prime, you can borrow one book a month for free from the KOLL.  The trick is, you have to borrow the book from your Kindle or Kindle Fire.  You can't do it fom the web.

But, since King of Trees is no longer going to be in KDP Select, that means I can load it to other vendor platforms, which I plan to do ASAP. I'll be sure to post when it hits the major ebookstores.

King of Trees is free for the last time!

Happy May Day!

My alternate history/science fiction novel KING OF TREES will be free in the Kindle store TODAY ONLY (May 1)! This is the last time it will be free!

Here are the links:

US & India Kindle store
UK Kindle store
German Kindle store
French Kindle store
Spanish Kindle store
Italian Kindle store
Japanese Kindle store
Brazilian Kindle store

King of Trees got a nice review!

The book blog An Eclectic Bookshelf gave King of Trees a very nice review. Blogger/reviewer David King questioned some plot points, but overall had some nice things to say:

“This was another enjoyable story from Buxton that explores an alternate Britain that never got to embrace the industrial revolution. The plot itself had a good blend of excitement and action interspersed with politics, diplomacy and discussion. In addition, the writing was competent and flowed well which is something I have grown to expect from Buxton. . . 

Overall, I found this to be a entertaining and fun story that introduces some interesting characters who on the whole are likeable even if at times they can make some rather frustrating choices.”

David is truly an eclectic reader, and his blog has reviews for a wide variety of books. He likes to do book challenges, which involve things like reading books in many different genres or following one series (e.g., Star Trek books) in depth.  Check out his blog if you're looking for something interesting to read!

Update on my books

Smashwords status for The Nostalgia Gambit:

My sixth book The Nostalgia Gambit is still for sale in the Kindle store, but it's no longer in the KDP Select program. I have therefore uploaded it to Smashwords, where it is now for sale. Smashwords is an ebook-only retailer that's a great venue for self-published authors, not so much because people buy books there (although some do), but because Smashwords allows authors to selectively sell their books through the iBooks, Nook, Sony, Deisel, and Blio ebookstores, too, just by clicking a few buttons. Smashwords handles the delivery, paperwork, and collection of royalties (they get a very small percentage).

Of course, the ebook has to be well-formatted for this to happen; Smashwords will not send an ebook to a retailer/partner site if it has crappy formatting. They review each book, and TNG is now in the review stage. Smashwords has gotten much faster about that; it used to take a week or two, but now it's usually a few days. The ebook also has to have an ISBN to be sold in other stores, but Smashwords will provide one if the author doesn't have one.

Smashwords used to accept only an MS Word file, formatted to their specific guidelines; their upload program (commonly known as “the meat grinder”) would take the Word file and convert it to Mobi/Kindle format, epub (used by almost all ereaders except Kindle), PDF, and even RTF. The meat grinder produced clean, readable ebooks, but every Smashwords ebook had the same (rather boring) style. On the very last day of 2012, Smashwords began accepting epub; if you upload an epub file that meets their standards, they will use that copy to send to all the vendor partners you select. Of course, if you also want folks to be able to get a Kindle, RTF, or PDF version of the book from Smashwords, you still need to upload a Word file with the proper formatting.

I had a delay of several days in getting my epub file uploaded to Smashwords, because in addition to proper epub coding they wanted specific text (“Smashwords edition”) on the copyright page. That's all taken care of now, and I'm hoping the review process goes smoothly and swiftly! Note added:  TNG made it to the premium catalog in only 3 days! It should be "shipped" to the B&N, iBooks, Sony and other ebookstores very soon.

Status for King of Trees"

I need to keep King of Trees (ebook #7) in KDP select until about the first week in May. After that, I plan to also load it to Smashwords, and push it out to Nook, iBooks, Sony, and all the available vendors. Until then, it is for sale on in the Kindle store, but if you have a Kindle, or a Kindle Fire, and you have Amazon Prime, you can borrow it for free!

Has Amazon shot itself in its metaphorical foot?

Okay, so today, only one book is free, The Sixth Discipline.  It's free because of price matching, not because of a Kindle Select promotion, which is why it's free almost everywhere it's for sale.

This latest promotion was only moderately successful. In spite of King of Trees reaching #33 in free Kindle science fiction books, I still gave away only a few hundred copies, over the two days, with almost twice as many on the 28th of February as on March 1st. In addition, the numbers of free downloads for The Sixth Discipline have dropped by a little more than half since March 1.

Interestingly enough, March 1 was when Amazon started a new policy for their affiliates. Amazon affiliates are websites that have a formal arrangement with Amazon; they put links to Amazon products on their pages, and they get paid when people use them. The new policy says that if those websites have too high a percentage of customers clicking free ebook links, they will be penalized finacially. The Digital Reader blog post explains the specifics of it better than I can, but what it means at a very basic level is that links to free Kindle books are now poison for blogs that are Amazon affiliates.

My numbers for the past three days suggest that Amazon's new policy means that it will be much harder for authors to use free promotions successfully.  I don't think I'm the only author to notice this, either, because although The Sixth Discipline's numbers have dropped, its ranking is still about the same, which must mean other free Kindle books are suffering the same kind of lack of attention. One of the main benefits of the KDP Select program (which requires that you not sell any ebook versions for that title, except through Kindle) is the ability to do occasional promotions. Since it's now a lot harder to promote those giveaways, what Amazon has given with one hand, they have taken away (at least part of) with the other hand.

Get your free ebooks here!

On March 1, two of these are still free!

I had three books free in the Kindle store on February 28, and two on March 1; the first is free only on Kindle but free in all Kindle stores. The last one is free everywhere except non-US Kindle stores. Here are the links:

King of Trees: alternate history/time travel/science fiction with hints of fantasy. Druids converse with time travelers in an England that never was [Free on March 1]

US Kindle store
UK Kindle store
German
French
Spanish
Italian
Japanese
Canadian
Brazilian
Note: only free on Thursday, February 28, 2013

The Nostalgia Gambit: far future science fiction about a young man who struggles to find himself in an almost literal sense [NO LONGER FREE]

US Kindle store
UK Kindle store
German
French
Spanish
Italian
Japanese
Canadian
Brazilian
Note: will also be free on Friday, March 1

The Sixth Discipline: far future science fiction in which a hunter becomes the prey and finds himself caught in a trap he never imagined [Still FREE!]

US Kindle store
iBooks
Nook (Barnes & Noble)
Diesel
Smashwords
Kobo
Blio
Sony
Note: this is free all the time, because of price-matching. Also, Smashwords can provide a DRM-free Kindle-formatted book regardless of what country you are in.

The glass will be (almost) half free

I now have seven books (4 novels and one novella) for sale in the Kindle store. The newest one, King of Trees, just got its first review!  The reviewer said she loved it (5 stars!), and she finishes with this comment:

"The story offers likable, if sometimes exasperating, characters and a novel world." 

A novel world is pretty much what I was going for, so that's great.

In honor of that, and just because I am an optimistic "glass half full" kind of person, I have decided to make as many of my books free as I can for one day. Because The Sixth Discipline is free because of price matching, and my two most recent novels are both in the KDP Select program, I have decided that on Wednesday, February 28, The Nostalgia Gambit and King of Trees will also be free.  That makes 3/7 of all my books being free, which is pretty durn close to half!

Amazon controls how many days I can make a book free, so for TNG, that day will be the last hurrah. KoT will also be free on Thursday, March 1, and possibly a few other days in future.

Mark your calendars!

A little something from me

As a pre-Valentine's present and to celebrate the launch of my alternate history, King of Trees, I have made The Nostalgia Gambit free today and tomorrow. It's currently only on Kindle, but at about mid-March the KDP Select requirement will have been met, and I will launch it on Smashwords and through them on Nook, iBooks, Sony, and others.

Addendum:  The Nostalgia Gambit just hit #19 in science fiction/adventure in the Kindle store!

Instead of handing out cigars . .

I just loaded my newest novel King of Trees into Kindle Direct Publishing, which means it should be for sale tomorrow. Instead of giving away cigars or chocolate to celebrate KoT's birth, I'm giving away another ebook! I have my fingers crossed that my promotion will go off as scheduled. Amazon only messed up once, but that was enough to make me wary of making firm promises. But, assuming the Kindle gods work their magic, The Nostalgia Gambit should be free tomorrow and Saturday.

Book Status Update

Here's the latest news on my books:

The Sixth Discipline is still free everywhere except Sony, and I have great hopes that it will be free on Sony soon, as it has been "reshipped" from Smashwords.

The Nostalgia Gambit is only for sale from Amazon until some time in March. I have scheduled it for a giveaway in the Kindle store on February 8 and 9.

King of Trees will launch on Amazon in February.  If anyone wants a review copy, let me know.

Happy New Year and a request for reviewers

Today is the first day of 2013. As a friend pointed out on Facebook, the new century is now a teenager. It can go to its room a sulk for a while if it likes, but meanwhile the rest of us have to get on with life.

For example, I plan to launch my alternate history King of Trees later this month.  I'm hoping to get a review or two lined up for this one closer to when it launches, as my regular reviewers are a little backed up.  If anyone out there would like to get a free review copy, please post a comment to let me know, or if you prefer, send an email to me directly: carmen (dot) webster (dot) buxton (at) gmail (dot) com.  Be sure to specify if you need epub or Kindle format, but I would like the review to be posted on Amazon US, as to start with, the book will only be available in the Kindle store.

Here's the blurb to see if you're interested:

“What if the world we’re on is only one thread out of millions of threads in the rope of time?” The question the Outsider woman posed to him left Bardolph as confused as ever. He knew the Outsiders had appeared as if by magic many years before, during his great-grandfather’s reign, but he had never understood where they came from. He only knew they had changed Albion forever.

Melissa York might have been grateful to her rescuer, who called himself King of Albion, but she saw no reason to let her gratitude influence her opinion of antiquated notions like monarchy and pagan religions. Let the Druids go back to their forests. She and her people were the best defense Albion had against the invaders.

Bardolph knew better. All the peoples of Albion would need to work together, or they would find themselves conquered again. Only this time instead of a Roman emperor, their tribute would be paid to one in faraway China.  He only hoped the Outsiders were as clever and as powerful as rumor said they were, because Albion needed all the help it could get.
    

King of Trees coming next year!

I'm still proofing my converted file for the Kindle version of King of Trees.  I don't expect to have it for sale in the Kindle store until some time in January.  Even writers have to take holidays!

This book is a departure for me, an alternate history where England is called Albion and Druids still hold sway.  In this world, the New World was never conquered by Europeans—although the Roman tried their best. The hero is a man named Bardolph Patrickson, a blacksmith who supports his mother and younger sister. Bardolph also happens to be King of Albion, and when his country is attacked, he has stoke his forge and answer duty's call.

One and a half down!

I turned in the m.s. for King of Trees to the conversion house, and I got back the finished files for The Nostalgia Gambit. With so much going on, I could say that now I'm cooking with gas, which would be especially apt because our kitchen reno is done and we are, in fact, quite literally cooking with gas!

TNG should be in the Kindle store before the week is out; KoT will take a few weeks, because there is always a correction step to check for last minute errors and conversion problems.  Meanwhile, here is the cover for King of Trees.

One down, one to go

Okay, the corrections have been made to the converted file for The Nostalgia Gambit. Now I need to finish evaluating the copyeditor's comments and make her suggested edits to King of Trees.

Once I get a final pass version of TNG, I will load it into Amazon's Kindle Direct Platform. That usually takes a matter of minutes, once I have a corrected file.

Oops, just realized I also need to write the "back cover" blurb.  Even though ebooks don't have a cover, they still need a description.

It will probably be January before King of Trees comes out.  Once we get into the holiday season, everything slows down.

Going a little crazy here

I feel like a juggler who has launched one ball too many into the air. The main level of my house is being renovated, so we're camping out in the basement for several weeks. We're using a picnic cooler as a desk/coffee table, and I'm making the copyeditor's revisions to King of Trees while crouched over my laptop.

At the same time, I'm waiting for the converted file for the The Nostalgia Gambit and the final cover for King of Trees. As soon as I get TNG back, I need to load it onto my Kindle for final proofing; the conversion is generally very smooth, but sometimes quote marks don't convert correctly or it turns out there was weird stuff in the Word file that came through in the epub/Kindle versions.

And, of course, with home renovation, things never go as smoothly as you had hoped. Do the words "termite damage" and "rotten floor joist" sound as scary to you as they did to me?

At least tomorrow the floors should be done, and we will be able to bring the cat home from kitty jail. Now if I can just keep him from walking on my keyboard . . .

The Nostalgia Gambit is out for conversion!

Final edits are done, the ISBN has been assigned, the cover is complete, and I have sent it off for conversion. Now to get going on King of Trees, which is right behind TNG. KoT is back from the copyeditor and I need to start going over her comments/suggestions/corrections.  I will post the cover for that one soon, too,

All this in spite of suffering through a major home renovation and Hurricane Sandy, too! Luckily, Sandy didn't affect my area too badly. I feel so bad for the folks in New York and New Jersey.