Indigo Awakening V-Tour with YABound + Giveaways & GRAND PRIZE

The amazing folks at YA Bound are hosting a virtual tour from January 28th - February 2nd for the release of Indigo Awakening (now available). The tour is loaded with GIVEAWAYS and plenty of opportunities to WIN! You can enter to win for all the giveaways on one Rafflecopter form, available at every tour stop. Enter as often and in as many ways as you'd like.

The tour schedule is HERE.

There will be Indigo Awakening books to win, a digital audio book for In the Arms of Stone Angels (narrated by the award-winning voice actor, Michelle Ann Dunphy in a stunning performance), and four infinity bracelets (like the ones Rafael gave his street family in the book).

Good luck, everyone!

 

 

Grand Prize will be a HarlequinTeen Gift Pack of Books!

 

 

DARK WING Tour Starts Tomorrow - Dec 19!! WOOT!!!

The ON A DARK WING Virtual Blog Tour kicks off December 19 and ends January 2, followed by a live chat on January 5 at 7:00 PM EDT when winners will be announced.


GRAND PRIZE: Jordan Dane is giving away a Kindle Fire to one lucky person!!! Contest rules will be posted at YA Bound on December 19, the start of the book tour, using Rafflecopter.


PRIZES: Ten blog stops along the tour will be hosting giveaways for signed copies of ON A DARK WING with a secret gift from character Abbey Chandler. Rules for each giveaway will be posted on the blogger's site using Rafflecopter.


WINNERS will be announced at the live chat with Jordan Dane on December 5, so make sure you're there! Special thanks to YA Bound for hosting the tour. YA author Trisha Wolfe is AMAZING!

Perseverance

For my last post in 2011, I found a Wall Street Journal article on self-publishing that offered something a little different. We’ve all heard the big blockbuster sales of a precious few who have seen sales of more than a million books, but who can really relate to that. We can all hope lightning will strike and we’ll be the one benefiting from that good fortune, but I picked out the elements of this article that addressed the digital trend, growing successes that have not gotten much highlight, and what one author—Darcie Chan—did to grow her self-pub sales.



Many have heard about Amanda Hocking and John Locke’s stories of hitting in big. These stories represent a miniscule fraction of independent authors, but did success is still being found. According to Amazon, 30 authors have sold in excess of 100,000 copies of their books through Amazon’s self-pub Kindle program and a dozen more have seen sales of 200,000+ — a program started in 2007 that allows authors to upload their own books, set prices, and publish in multiple languages. Barnes & Noble have their own version for their Nook readers.


Self-published books have fueled the surge in digital sales from $287 million in 2009 to $878 million in 2010, according to the Association of American Publishers. Analysts speculate that e-book sales will pass $2 billion in 2013. We’ve all seen how the publishing industry (authors, agents, publishers, stores, etc) are scrambling to figure out how to capitalize on this exploding trend.


So here is one author’s story about how she stuck to her dream of writing a book she believed in and took the plunge.


It took Darcie Chan two and a half years to write her book during the hours she wasn’t working her day job of drafting environmental legislation. After getting feedback from friends and family, she sent queries to more than 100 agents, but since it was a cross genre story (with elements of romance, suspense and mystery), it didn’t fit neatly on retail book shelves and got rejected as a “tough sell.” After she landed an agent who submitted her book to over a dozen publishers, they all rejected it for the same reason, so the book of her dreams landed in a drawer and Darcie got on with her life. FIVE YEARS LATER, she read about the rise in e-book sales and self-publishing and decided to do something about her dream. Here is what she did:


She made her own cover for THE MILL RIVER RECLUSE (about an agoraphobic philanthropist) from a photo her sister had taken of an old mansion and added Photoshop graphic elements to make it look gloomy.


She uploaded her book into the Amazon Kindle self-publishing program and sold a trickle of copies. A few weeks later, she loaded it onto Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Apple’s iBookstore, Sony, and Kobo.


Her first royalty check was $39. That’s when she noticed that popular e-books were priced at $0.99 and immediately dropped her price from $2.99 to $0.99. (That cut her royalty percentage under Amazon rules from 70% on books priced at $2.99+ to 35% for novels priced below that threshold.) But sales picked up immediately for her and she found new readers who liked her book.


During the first month at her lower price, she sold 100 copies. She was thrilled with this, but by the end of June, her book got mentioned on a site called Ereader News Today, that posts tips for Kindle readers. Over the next two day period, she sold another 600 copies, giving her hope that she could drive her own sales.


She spent $1,000 on marketing, buying banner ads on websites and blogs devoted to Kindle readers and also bought a spot on Goodreads.com with its more than 6.6 million members.


She also learned that self-published authors could pay to have their book reviewed by some sites. She paid $35 for a review on IndieReader.com (who no longer offers paid reviews) and she paid $575 for an expedited review from Kirkus Reviews, a notable book review journal and website. (The Kirkus review service, launched in 2005, gives self-published authors the option to review privately if the review is negative. Darcie opted to have her book reviewed on Kirkus’s website and Kirkus called the novel “a comforting book about the random acts of kindness that hold communities together.” Darcie used quotes from the review and other reviews on Amazon and B&N for publicity purposes, to encourage more reviewers to try her book.


By July, she had sold more than 14,000 copies and got her noticed and featured on two of the biggest sites for e-book readers, which generated more sales. In August, she had sold more than 77,000 copies and had hit the New York Times and USA Today e-book bestsellers lists—and later landed her on the Wall Street Journal’s list too. In September, it sold more than 159,000 copies and to date—413,000 copies and growing.


Darcie and her agent have since offered her book to traditional publishers, but none have matched her royalty rates of 35-40% that she gets from Amazon and B&N. (Average print royalties range 10-15% with digital royalties usually set at 25%.) Simon and Schuster offered to distribute the book—as is—but Darcie wants the book professionally edited and marketed. So as of now, she is staying the course, content with how well her book is selling. She made an estimated $130,000 before taxes PLUS she’s getting a steady royalty check every month.


And from her success, she’s seeing interest from other parties. Foreign rights and audio book publishers have made offers and six movie companies have inquired about film rights.


Bottom line is that Darcie didn’t give up, even when everyone told her NO. No matter how you’re published, I think we can all learn from this woman’s perseverance.


This is my last post for 2011 since I'll be taking a 2-week blog hiatus so I can focus on my virtual tour which starts with YA Bound Dec 19-Jan 2. Happy holidays to everyone and have a great 2012.

ON A DARK WING Tour Schedule Announced!

On Dec 19 through Jan 2, 2012, the fabulous YA debut author Trisha Wolfe of the YA Bound blog will host my ON A DARK WING virtual book tour. We had over 50 blogs wanting to host a stop so we will have a BLAST tour format. My dark angel will be everywhere. Be on the lookout.


Here is the LINK for the tour schedule. Check out all the great blogs and tour stops planned. We'll have loads of reviews, character interviews (including one with Death), the inspirations behind the book, Dream OADW Film Cast and plenty of excerpts from the book, plus sneak peeks at my upcoming Crystal Child series with Harlequin Teen. There will also be a LIVE CHAT hosted by YA Bound at 7:00 PM EDT on January 5th to announce the winners of the grand prize and the giveaways. What a way to kick off 2012!

For book giveaways, my character Abbey Chandler will be sending a SECRET gift with each book. Shhh! She's not telling anyone what it is, not even me. Only the winners will know when they get the package. (She's such a drama queen.)

And the grand prize is named GRAND for a reason. Stay tuned for that. Announcement coming soon!

I love you guys!

Virtual Book Tour - YA Style (How to Create Advance Buzz)

I wanted to cross post my KILL ZONE article on Virtual Book Tours - YA Style here on my YA blog, but the comments amassing on my other blog are making that link more valuable. If you want to read about my Virtual Book Tour experiences for my upcoming tour for ON A DARK WING (Harlequin Teen, Jan 2012), please click HERE.

Sign Up for ON A DARK WING Virtual Book Tour

YA Bound is hosting the virtual book tour for Jordan Dane's ON A DARK WING with Harlequin Teen. Release date is Dec 27, 2011. SIGN UP IS OPEN NOW!


There will be a totally awesome grand prize plus plenty of book giveaways (a special gift will come with every book from character, Abbey Chandler).


For details, visit http://www.yabound.blogspot.com until the tour sign up ends on Oct 30th.

Cover Reveal & Virtual Tour Announced - ON A DARK WING

By Jordan Dane





As part of my cover reveal announcement for ON A DARK WING, I want to let everyone know on TeenShiver that the lovely Trisha Wolfe (talented author & avid YA blogger at YA Bound) will be hosting my virtual tour exclusively, along with the support of Harlequin Teen. Stop by YA Bound on Tuesday Oct 4th to see how you and your blog can be FEATURED on our tour.


Now show TeenShiver love to the Angel of Death. Post him, share him & tweet sweet nothings in his ear.

He’s listening.

From the first moment I saw him on my mountain, he mesmerized and controlled me. Now the danger of being with him oozed from every pore of my body, yet I had to come. Nothing could have stopped me from seeing him.


“You asked who I am,” he said. “Look into my eyes, Abbey. You tell me.”


~Abbey Chandler (staring into the eyes of Death) – ON A DARK WING (Harlequin Teen, Jan 2012)