HOLIDAY SALES

Please do not forget to market your book(s) for the holiday season.  You can let me know if you'd like your book(s) to be offered at a special rate at Amazon Kindle or at Barnes & Noble for a limited time, or even at SynergEbooks.  You can order CDs that can be given as gifts - perfect for stocking stuffers or Secret Santa gifts! - or given away for contests.  If you'd like me to create an ORDER FORM for you that you can print out, I'd be happy to do that.  Create business cards or bookmarks that you can slip into other books or place at your local bookstores and other retail establishments.  Some of the local gift shops, novelty or hobby stores might be the perfect place to see if they'll sell your paperbacks or CDs.  There are tons of ways to take advantage of the holiday buying blitz. 

And don't forget to purchase books from your fellow authors! 

CYBER MONDAY!

AUTHORS, don't forget to check out the various retail sites where your ebooks are listed to see what type of deals they are carrying for CYBER MONDAY!  Today - and even all this week - can be a great marketing opportunity for all of you!

http://amazon.com/

http://barnesandnoble.com/

http://www.fictionwise.com/

EPICon 2012

ATTENTION ALL AUTHORS, WRITERS and DIGITAL PUBLISHERS! 

Don't forget to sign up for next year's EPICon Conference in Texas!
http://www.epicorg.com/epicon-2012.html

Why should you come?

• Cruise the beautiful San Antonio River.
• Meet booklovers and make new fans at eFiesta!
• Solve a mystery at the gala eBook Awards Banquet.
• Enjoy fabulous food!
• Attend workshops providing useful information for the ePublishing professional.
• Have more fun than any human being should be allowed to have.

For more information and the registration form, click on the link above.

And please, let me know if you are attending!  There's a 50% chance I will be attending as well.  If I do, I will need at least one roommate to share hotel expenses with.

NEED REVIEWS!

Now may not be the best time to request this, but I still do have need of reviews for various titles.  So I'm going to list the first 20 titles that need reviews.  The first 2 who reply on each will recieve a FREE eBOOK.  But please, do not volunteer to do this unless you have the time in the next week or two to read the book(s) you request. 

Send me an email (synergebooks@aol.com or synergedeb@yahoo.com) with the list of titles you would like to review.  I will only send one eBook at a time.  Once you have sent in the review, I will send out the next book on your list.  For series books, you are not required to read the entire series, but you are welcome to do so.

NOTE:  Please limit your review(s) to no more than 300 words, and make sure not to give away any of the plot.


88 Keys by Jerry W. Lennon (Fantasy)

Abbie by John Blandly (Fiction)

The Torment Series:  Blasphemous, Descendent and Abyssal by Will Molinar (Horror)

Adios Desperada by Sharon Kull (Western)

The Adventures of Joe MacIntosh by Bryant Arnold (Sci-fi)

Affinity & Trust by Ross Richdale (Historical Fiction)

Ancient Canada by Clinton Festa (Fantasy)

Angels Among Us by C.E. Barret (Sci-fi)

Anger Mis-Management by Chuck Bordell (Humor)

Another Man's Castaway by Sharon Kull (Romance)

Baby Love by Kristi Stokes (Fiction)

Banana Patch by Michael David (New Age)

The Bear and the Bull by Harvey Mendex (Young Adult)

Beethoven's Immortal by Jeff Fuell (Romance/Fantasy)

Beyond Infinity by Ross Richdale (Sci-fi)

Bone Dry by J.J. and Bette Golden Lamb (Fiction/Medical)

Breach of Worlds by Aubrie Dionne (Fantasy/Young Adult)

Candy Conoisseur's Encyclopedia by Lisa Scordino and Andrea Miminas


NOTE:  I also have tons of children's titles that need reviews.  Please do not ask to review this book if you do not have at least one child you can read it to to get their reaction(s). 

Top 10 at Fictionwise

These are the TOP 10 SELLERS at FICTIONWISE for the third quarter of 2011:

1)  Angels in Disguise (Hawkman Bk 8) by Betty Sullivan La Pierre  (Mystery)

2)  Deadly Fate (Teadai Prophecies Bk 1) by Dana Davis (Fantasy)

3)  Elders: A Matter of Death and Life by Robert Wayman (Sci-fi)

4)  Shades of the Evening: A Gothic Novel by I.M. Tillerman (Gothic)

5)  City of Gods (Teadai Prophecies Bk 3) by Dana Davis (Fantasy)

6)  Self-Sabotage: How Sabotage Effects Your Daily Life by Lorraine Hockley (New Age/Self-help)

7)  Sage Truth (Teadai Prophecies Bk 2) by Dana Davis (Fantasy)

8)  A tie between:
     Double Trouble (Hawkman Bk 2) by Betty Sullivan La Pierre (Mystery)
     The Enemy Stalks (Hawkman Bk 1) by Betty Sullivan La Pierre (Mystery)

9)  Affinity & Trust by Ross Richdale (Historical Fiction)

10) Cause for Murder (Hawkman Bk 7) by Betty Sullivan La Pierre  (Mystery)

To-do List

First things, first - update the website.  I try every Sunday to change SynergE's main page, adding any new releases plus 5 new eBooks that I put on sale for $2.99.  Please don't forget to check the main page every Sunday evening or Monday morning to see if your book is listed there so you can market accordingly.  http://www.synergebooks.com/   I will also update the SALES STATS page, which you can get to via the Author's BACKROOM (I won't link that here because it is a private author page just for SynergE's authors).

I am in the midst of editing the upcoming release, SYNERGY by Jack Donovan.  You can check that out in the COMING SOON area: http://www.synergebooks.com/comingsoon.html

I will also start formatting Betty Sullivan La Pierre's newest HAWKMAN book, Moonshine Murders this week.  That should be available by next Sunday.  I could squeeze her book into the PUBLICATION SCHEDULE because it was fully edited and a cover supplied.  So mainly all I will have to do is check for typos while I'm formatting.

I received the Royalty Statement from FICTIONWISE this week.  Sales were dismal.  They have gone down from an average of $1200 a quarter, to $900, $600 and now a little over $300.  I believe some of the reason for that is the fact that Barnes & Noble bought them out and concentrates most of their efforts there, neglecting Fictionwise... a lot.  Some of it was probably the prices, so I went through last month and lowered every single SynergE title to no more than $4.88 (some are now listed at $3.99, $2.99 and even a few at 99 cents).  So go in and check to see what your book is listed at and feel free to market the hec out of it/them there.  http://www.fictionwise.com/.  I will post a top 5 (or 10) sellers at Fictionwise momentarily.

We have 3 books in various stages of publication for PRINT this month:  WAR IN THE LAND OF CAIN (Historical Fiction) by Debra Denker http://www.synergebooks.com/ebook_warinthelandofcain.html   THE SOUND OF SILENCE (Suspense/Thriller) by Stacy Reynolds, author of The Daathar Chronicles  http://www.synergebooks.com/ebook_soundofsilence.html and BLASPHEMOUS (Torment Bk 1)  (Horror) by Will Molinar http://www.synergebooks.com/ebook_blasphemous.html  All 3 are highly recommended reads.

IMPORTANT NOTE:  The retailer MOBIPOCKET will be closing its doors on December 31st.  Sales from there the last year or so have been more than dismal, so I can see why.  I think the advent of the Kindle and the Nook just blew them away, unfortunately. 

Reminders and a Few Updates

Here's hoping you all had an enjoyable Thanksgiving (for those who celebrate it).  I had some time to work that day in between preparing the meal, so I updated more titles at PubIt (for Barnes & Noble).  Some of the titles seem to need to be updated more than once, so please bare with me if you go to Barnes & Noble and notice your author bio, ISBN number or any reviews you know you have aren't listed there yet.  They are coming.  And it seems today I can't even get into PubIt to make those changes, so it'll have to wait for a bit.

I'm going to work on 2 of my upcoming manuscripts today - one that just needs some basic line editing and the other I will start formatting today.  I should have at least 3 more books published by the end of this week (December 3rd or so).  Those 3 may or may not show up as new releases this Sunday. 

I am in the midst of changing my bank account over to a new bank, so most likely all royalties this month will be paid via check instead of via PayPal (since it takes a week or more for PayPal to switch over bank accounts).  If you really do not want me to pay you via check, let me know and I will simply send your payment via PayPal as soon as the account is active again.

REMINDER:  I am still offering to send you CDs of any of your titles for only $3.75 (free S&H within the US).  If I get enough orders for the CDs at this price, I may just keep them listed at that price.  And remember, I am now including both the PDF (Adobe) and ePub (Nook) formats for every title.  Let me know if you want to order any and how you'd like to pay (check or PayPal) and I'll give you the total.

To Publish or Not to Publish

One of the hardest decisions I have to make on a daily basis is whether to work on my current book title list or whether to center most of my time on upcoming titles - whether that means actually editing a manuscript, or just formatting, converting and uploading to retail sites, or posting sales and other deals for my backlist titles on my social networks.  Of course, if you are an author who is waiting for your first (or next) title to come out, you most likely will vote for me to continue working on my PRODUCTION SCHEDULE.  But if you have had your book published recently - or not so recently - you may prefer that I work on listing your book(s) at another retailer or converting it to a new format.

And of course, I also have to work on keeping the website updated, answer emails, work with authors on creating covers for new titles and formatting those books that are scheduled to go into print, on top of numerous other things that crop up unexpectedly throughout the day.

So please be patient with me; I have not forgotten any of you... at least not intentionally.  If you've requested that I do something for you - such as adding a new review to the website or sending your book out to be reviewed in the first place, or sending you an order form, it's okay to send me a quick reminder to make sure I haven't forgotten.  Just know that every request I receive from you is important, but that I still have to prioritize some things over others.

Status with Barnes & Noble

I sent out a group email a month or so ago regarding the status of PubIt, which is where I list SynergE's titles that are available at Barnes & Noble in ePub (Nook) format.  Unfortunately, I should've held off on that notice, because it seems there were still some major glitches occuring at PubIt, and it took until just this week for them to actually fix most of them.  (That's not to say that they are all fixed yet, sorry to say).  So now I am at least able to get into my book title list and begin the process of updating those titles.  By this, I mean I have to add the ISBN number, the keywords and the author bio and any reviews, since none of those seemed to transfer over from Fictionwise (which is where B&N was getting all its info for it's Nook titles).  But this also means that whenever we need something changed - a new cover, updated bio, more reviews, etc., I can do that within a few days.

If you happen to visit Barnes & Noble online - or even visit a brick-and-mortar store - and notice that you don't see your book(s) listed, please let me know so I can look into that.  Most likely it's just a case of the information not yet being updated on their end, but I am doing my utmost to update on mine.  I have, for the second time, finally updated all of the OBERON series, plus the History on the Hoof travel trilogy, and tried to catch all of the titles that have updated their covers recently.  But please feel free to check to let me know if you see your old cover on your book so I can change it immediately.

Attention SynergEbooks Authors:

I have decided to use this blog as a day-to-day list of what I'm doing at SynergEbooks for all of you.  I know many of you find it hard to believe that I spent as much time as I do on your titles, whether they are newly released or on what most what call my backlist.  To me, books are timeless.  There should not be a time limit placed on a book's chance for success; nor on its chance to create sales in high volume. 

So please, check back as often as you can to see what I've been up to.  And feel free to post your comments, questions and observations. 

Your digital Publisher,
DEBI STAPLES