free give away a success

The "Doors to Eternity" promotion was a success. With a little help from my friends and the facebook/indies unlimited community, I reached #5 on the Amazon free epic fantasy best sellers and stayed in the top ten. I almost cried. Even cooler, I sold two copies of my paperback to people who were interested but didn't like e-format. I made more that day than the month of December.

To be honest, "Doors" is one of my 99 cent "B-side" books. I wrote most of it in my early years. It still has fun characters and action but with rough edges. I started it when I got laid off in 1994 -- 80 pages in one week. But I didn't get serious on the project till 2001 when Eos expressed an interest in my writing. I filled two notebooks (with battle maps) by hand to make it an epic. It still felt like my high school D&D adventures. To make it work, I had to rearrange a lot and polish the heck out of it. I had to make about 9 passes. (Thanks to Katy and Weston). The fact that people liked something that I was afraid to share meant the world to me. I'm unable to post the download count for legal reasons, but purchase ranking is now the same as Jezebel, the best-selling book I have. This tells me that some of the newer stories that I rate the highest (hence the $2 price tag) are likely to get an even bigger audience when I publicize them.

I just started the wheels rolling to get "Foundation for the Lost" taken off itunes and Barnes and Noble -- I never sold a single copy on either site. After a couple weeks, I can put Foundation in KDP premium as well. My only regret is not having Smashwords coupons to give reviewers and Operation E-book drop. I'll have to hand mail pdfs to those requesting or something.

Doors Give away + Dreams Update

Free this Friday and Saturday.
http://www.amazon.com/Doors-Eternity-Temple-Traveler-ebook/dp/tags-on-product/B006XMM4XA
Get 'em while they're hot.

I'm about 45 pages from finishing my edit of the sequel "Dreams of the Fallen." It goes to my wonderful line editor Katy in one week and to my peerless cover creator Renee on Feb 6. Meanwhile, I'm lining up beta readers for an optimistic projected March 1 release.

second day tweaks

I just released "Doors to Eternity" last night (99cents).http://www.amazon.com/Doors-Eternity-Temple-Traveler-ebook/dp/B006XMM4XA
I'd rate it a 4. The story ends too soon, but I'll have the action-packed volume two out by March. Of course, minutes after posting, I discovered some extra space in chapter 45, better formatting for the cast of characters, and a "b word" that slipped through. Words like ass, damn, and shit can roll off the tongues of soldiers in combat, but I have to have some standards. Unfortunately, you can't post v2 until v1 is approved by Amazon.
I'm also trying KDP Premium out for 90 days.

Next: I'm polishing the sequel "Dreams of the Fallen" for authonomy after I set up the print on demand. This should take about three days. I already know two whole chapters I'm cutting and a few places I'll need to add more details. I can't wait to start "Mira's Journey", the followup to Jezebel.

Reviews and News

I need to write one more page and reread the last two chapters, but I'm about done with the sequel to the epic sword and sorcery novel "Doors to Eternity" I'm planning on putting out this month. Temple of the Traveler was originally one incomplete 74 chapter book that I gave up on from eight years ago. With some encouragement, I've rewritten, and split it into two 51 chapter books. I really have fun writing the climactic battle scenes. It's even more enjoyable when, in the middle of the seriousness, the characters cut loose with something that makes *me* laugh. The biggest surprise was that in the final three chapters, my characters set me up for a possible sequel in this same world--Queen of the Pirates.

About nine months after I released my first e-book "the Scarab", I got a wonderful and unexpected review. He got it, my target audience, a gamer who reads! http://freebookreviews.blogspot.com/2012/01/book-review-scarab-by-scott-rhine.html