Welcome to the Indie-Pendence Week Giveaway Hop!
The Indie-Pendence Week hop celebrates indie’s in all forms, including indie authors like myself. It’s run by Grave Tells in association with Buffy Kennedy and Kari Pinasco and is open between July 2nd and July 6th 2012. My giveaway is international and the details are below, after my introduction.
Any readers of mine already know my story, but since there may be some new faces among my visitors during this hop, I thought I would take this opportunity to give some background about myself.
I have always loved everything paranormal, from vampires and werewolves to demons and witches, ever since I was a young child. When I reached my teens, I began to read classic romance novels and developed a love for the fairytale they swept me up in. Several years on from that, I’m writing my own fairytales, complete with the all important happily forever after.
I started writing romance stories ago in 2003, and in 2005 I became e-published with three novels, two of which were historical romances and the remaining one was a romantic suspense. In 2006, I decided to break away from e-published to pursue self-publishing. Myself and a fellow author had both done well as e-published, and had both received good reviews for our stories, but we also felt as though we could do just as well, if not better, if we struck out on our own. It was great to have another author feel the same way as me. Being e-published was good but it wasn’t quite what I wanted. I wanted to get closer to the process, and having experienced being e-published, I knew that I could do everything it took to be a good indie author.
I knew that I could get my book edited, make a cover for it (I was already making my own covers when with the e-publisher), and write the blurb just as good as the e-publisher could. I could market my story, get it reviewed, and build my following by running my own Yahoo!group and newsletter. For me, the switch to self-publishing was about retaining control of my story and how I market them. I no longer have to struggle with a publisher sending it to review sites that really aren’t suitable for my book (my e-publisher insisted on sending my stories to erotic romance review sites even though those books weren’t in that genre). I get to do everything from first draft to formatting for various websites, from buying ad space to sending it out for review, and even arranging interviews and guest blogging.
Of course, back in 2006, being an indie author wasn’t as easy as it is today. Distribution was difficult, e-books weren’t selling like hotcakes, and review sites were sceptical about anything that was e-published let alone self-published. A few other authors we knew also wanted to go independent so we grouped together to form a self-publishing cooperative, determined to show the world that a self-published book could be just as good as an e-published one. We set up a website, got ourselves distributed on Fictionwise, which was the only place to be back then when Amazon Kindle and other major e-book outlets didn’t exist, and started promoting.
The effort I put into it was probably a little more than I had done when I had been with the e-publisher, but the difference in book sales was incredible (bearing in mind that back then, if you sold 500 copies of a book within the first 6 months, it was amazing!). It really made it hit home that I didn’t need a publisher in order to sell books. I got great reviews for my self-published stories, even better than I’d had for my e-published ones.
I felt happier as an indie author than I ever had as an e-published one. I started writing paranormal romance, a genre close to my heart and one I had started out in before switching to historical, and even wrote some science-fiction romances, another genre that I have always loved. When I released my first paranormal romance, which was also the first story in my Vampires Realm series, Prophecy: Child of Light, I felt as though I had finally found myself as an author. I was so excited about the series and writing paranormal romances, and readers really responded to that. It was amazing to connect with them about the book. Speaking with readers is what I love most about writing, whether it’s the book doing the talking as they read it, or them communicating with me through email.
I love connecting with readers and the advent of social network has really allowed me to do more of that. It’s exciting to receive emails from them, to converse with them about current stories and upcoming ones, and chat in general. That was what I had wanted from the start of my writing career, and I’m still like a kid in a sweet shop whenever I talk with readers and reviewers now.
My audience grew with each book, and I’m lucky enough to have a large group of loyal readers who have loved my stories and who email me to ask for more.
Self-publishing to me wasn’t about making more money. It was about learning how to do it all myself and then putting everything I had learned into action. It was about reaching readers on a more personal level and I like to think that I’ve achieved that.
When self-publishing really took off back in 2009 (2010 for me as I couldn’t self-publish on Amazon and places before then, being in the UK) I was actually looking at quitting being indie and trying for a book contract with a major publisher. I had even set out in search of an agent with one of my books. I’m glad that I remained indie, but it doesn’t mean I’m not gunning for an agent and that publishing contract with future novels.
I’m very fortunate that my hard work and perseverance has paid off. In July 2010, I sold around 2000 ebooks in one month on Amazon. It was exciting because I could almost afford to live on the royalties I received. I decided in November to quit my job, but had to wait out a 3 month notice period. By the time I left my job in February 2011, I was selling close to 10000 books a month on Kindle alone. I went on to sell 155000 books in 2011 (not including free books), and I’ve just this month passed 100000 books sold in 2012 (and I’ve given away 123000 too). It’s fantastic to see the results of the years of hard work I put into my dreams of being an author and being able to connect with that many readers, and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for me.
So, to say thank you to everyone who has supported me throughout my career, I’m giving away the following during this hop.
Hop is now closed and winners have been announced:
Juana Esparza won: Signed paperback copy of Masquerade by F E Heaton, plus book goodies including signed cover postcards, bookmarks, romance trading cards, 2013 magnet calendar, black rubber VET series wristband, and pen.
Tina Becker won: Signed paperback copy of Covet & Crave by Felicity Heaton, plus book goodies including signed cover postcards, bookmarks, romance trading cards, 2013 magnet calendar, black rubber VET series wristband, and pen.
Shadow Kohler won: book goodies including signed cover postcards, bookmarks, romance trading cards, 2013 magnet calendar, black rubber VET series wristband, and pen.
Sally Michelle Shaw won: book goodies including signed cover postcards, bookmarks, romance trading cards, 2013 magnet calendar, black rubber VET series wristband, and pen.
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