Any Authors Had Success With This Promotion?

Hi all,

Today I received an email from Amazon to say that they are considering including ‘A House Without Windows’ in an upcoming promotion in the Kindle Store on Amazon.ca for the whole month of June at a discount that they would determine.  The original price and the discount would be listed on the book’s page.  The discount could be up to 85% off, and royalties would be paid according to the discounted price.  As an aside, they state that they cannot guarantee my book will be featured.

I just wondered how many other authors have taken part in this Kindle promotion?  If you have, did you find it successful?  Also, why only Canada and not a general discount?

This is the first time I’ve been contacted in this way.  A House Without Windows is my best-selling book, but reading through the rules I see that books must be priced between 2.99 – 9.99 CAD before they are able to be discounted.  This leads me to another question:  Would it be best if all e-books were priced at $2.99 to start with?  Would they all then have an equal chance at this promotion?  Currently all my other books apart from this one are at a lower price.

I’ve told them to go ahead.  I’ve no idea whether I’ll sell hundreds of books or none at all.

 

The Drunken Druid Book Award

Tags

Drunken Druid Book Award

Amidst all my sorrow, this week has ended on a good note.  My thriller ‘Repent at Leisure’ has won third place in the Drunken Druid Book Award Competition.  I’ll be back on Monday to answer any comments. x

The Drunken Druid Awards consist of a Gold (1st Place), Silver (2nd Place) & Bronze (3rd Place) literary prize awarded each year for the best original full-length fictional novel. This peer-reviewed Book Award was established in 2013 to bring increased recognition to a deserving title published by independent or established authors. Along with a cash prize and a strictly limited edition seal, the winning book is remembered by its extraordinary quality of writing and its unique ability to break the mould as a one of a kind novel. Titles are nominated on the basis of ‘high literary merit’ of creative authors. The competition encompasses all fictional genres into one, making The Drunken Druid Award unique in its coverage of international fiction. The judges are totally independent and make their choices purely on their own judgement of the titles merits against the criteria. It is also a mark of distinction for authors to be selected for inclusion in the short-list.

FREE BOOK!

Tags

Free Book, memoir, Waiting in the Wings

My memoir ‘Waiting in the Wings’ is free today and until February 5th on Amazon.  It is now #1 in Amazon UK’s free books ‘Aging Parents’ category, and #6 in ‘Memoirs’.  Thanks to all who have downloaded it today.

http://bookShow.me/B01M3MOEPV

At the grand old age of 92, my mother Dot suddenly starts telling me that she loves me. I am quite dumbstruck at these outbursts of emotion, as she has never mentioned the fact before in all of my 58 years. Over the entire course of my lifetime we have often argued bitterly, and have never really seen eye-to-eye over anything. I squirm with the inner knowledge that she wants me to reply in a similar vein, but try as I might, I cannot.

The guilt I feel at being unable to grant Dot her wish is overwhelming. As Dot’s health deteriorates more towards the final chapters of her life, I take on the role of carer. I find the only way to bring her out of her perpetual misery is to reminisce on past events by showing her old family photographs, and by helping her to remember holidays and happier times. We look back without anger and sometimes with a lot of laughter, getting to know each other better, raking over the past, and talking more than we have ever done. The process helps me, a middle-aged woman, understand the perils of ageing that I might one day face, and also the struggles that elderly people suffer on a day-to-day basis while stoically attempting to maintain their independence.

This is a true story, told in flashbacks and in modern-day often humorous conversations with my mother.

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5 star review from J. Jonas on 14/12/16:

I have come to expect a well-constructed, intelligently-written book from this accomplished author, and Waiting in the Wings ticks all the right boxes. The story of the author’s rollercoaster relationship with her mother is told with honesty. She regrets that she cannot say the words, ‘I love you,’ to a mother who has been exasperating and difficult to deal with, even in her vulnerability and defiance as she clings to her independence and refuses professional care help. Although the author can’t say the words, we see through her daily actions and patience, the love and compassion that lie beneath.

I applaud the author’s courage in writing so openly about her family, laying bare her thoughts about them – it takes guts to do that and it takes excellent writing to put across a tale that is absorbing, funny and poignant. Waiting in the Wings achieves all that. I felt as if I knew the characters as much as my own family, which is due to the power of the dialogue, the narration and descriptive passages. I became the fly on the wall, observing events as the author explored the past and the present, combining her life story with that of her mother. The flashbacks are never confusing. The book drew me in, held my attention and had me laughing aloud at some the characters’ antics. Highly recommended on so many levels, not least for the portrayals of heartache, comedy and a willingness to allow love and wit to prevail.

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5 star review from Nancy L. Silk on 4/1/17:

This is a true account which the author shares with readers via flashbacks and in modern-day humorous conversations with her mother. Stevie is 58 years old, her mom, Dot, is 92 when Dot starts telling her she loves her. They always had arguments and disagreements over the years. But looking back there are also lots of humorous times to remember. This is a life event which most of us have to face eventually. It’s not easy, but caring for an aged person can alleviate pain and guilt at the end of life. Very well worth reading, especially for those who have loved ones turning the corner into old age.

Blog-go-Round

Tags

#postaday, blogging

I cannot help but notice that one of the latest promotion strategies to win more readers to your blog site is to use your own blog as a base for other authors to write guest posts on.  There seems to be a sudden surge lately in authors inviting fellow scribblers to compose a family friendly blog for their site.  I’m sure it is the way forward to gain more readers, but I have a bit of a warped sense of humour, and my mind has gone into overdrive.  I’ve started to imagine some kind of frantic blog-go-round, where we all send posts off through the ether that we would have written on our own pages, but now they have to appear on somebody else’s blog instead.  Blogs fly in from cyberland, taking up residence where our own posts should be.

While I’m awaiting guest post invites from my cyber friends, this whole scenario has caused me to trundle through my back catalogue and check the content of the most popular blogs I have written over the past year.  I thought it would be a good idea to cut to the chase and find out which type of blog I’d like authors to blog-go-round with on my own WordPress site.

With it so far?  Ha ha!  What I’ve come up with is surprising to say the least, because I’ve found out that readers on the whole aren’t too bothered about who has got a book for sale, or even what their new book is about.  No, my dears, fasten your seat belts on the blog-go-round and have a gander below:

29th Jan 2016 – The chance to win a free critique of their work in the ‘Dear Lucky Agent Competition:  https://steviet3.wordpress.com/2016/01/29/dear-lucky-agent-contest/

16th Feb 2016 (53 views) – ‘Anodynity’ which focuses on using local slang in your novels: https://steviet3.wordpress.com/2016/02/16/anodynity/

9th March 2016 (89 views) – A blog regarding my then new women’s fiction book club: https://steviet3.wordpress.com/2016/03/09/new-womens-fiction-book-club/

23rd March 2016 (64 views) – A blog about my new book ‘Repent at Leisure’ (yes I’ve contradicted myself, but never mind – onwards and upwards): https://steviet3.wordpress.com/2016/03/23/cover-reveal-for-repent-at-leisure/

11th April 2016 in the Open Book Blog Hop (47 views) – Lessons we’ve learned while writing, publishing or marketing:  https://steviet3.wordpress.com/2016/04/11/open-book-blog-hop-11th-april/

4th May 2016 (51 views) – A blog about alternative medicines: https://steviet3.wordpress.com/2016/05/04/alternatively/

13th May 2016 (51 views) – A blog regarding ReadFree.ly’s 50 Best Indie Books of 2016 competition: https://steviet3.wordpress.com/2016/05/13/readfree-lys-50-best-indie-books-of-2016/

15th May 2016 (42 views) – A blog about my mother’s 92nd birthday: https://steviet3.wordpress.com/2016/05/15/two-years-older-than-queen-elizabeth/

17th May 2016 (64 views) – My review of ‘Vatican Intervention’ by Andrew Lee Sullivan: https://steviet3.wordpress.com/2016/05/17/review-of-vatican-intervention-by-andrew-lee-sullivan/

25th May 2016 (51 views) – A blog for Haddon Musings’ Senior Salon regarding role reversal:  https://steviet3.wordpress.com/2016/05/25/haddon-musings-senior-salon-role-reversal/

4th June 2016 (78 views) – Information for authors regarding the PitMad competition: https://steviet3.wordpress.com/2016/06/04/info-for-authors-for-june-9th-pitmad/

6th June 2016 (83 views) – I write about a good marketing strategy which I tried on Facebook,  but unfortunately it died through lack of interest:  https://steviet3.wordpress.com/2016/06/06/a-good-marketing-strategy/

29th June 2016 (62 views) – I write about my first time nerves at attending an author signing event: https://steviet3.wordpress.com/2016/06/29/first-time-nerves/

25th July 2016 (55 views) – I write about raising a hyperactive child:  https://steviet3.wordpress.com/2016/07/25/open-book-blog-hop-25th-july/

3rd August 2016 (47 views) – I write about learning of the past whilst speaking to an elderly resident who lived in my mother’s sheltered housing complex:  https://steviet3.wordpress.com/2016/08/03/all-change-and-yorkshire-miners/

14th August 2016 (47 views) – All about my first book signing event:  https://steviet3.wordpress.com/2016/08/14/the-manchester-author-signing-event/

21st August 2016 (47 views) – Promotions tried and tentatively tested:  https://steviet3.wordpress.com/2016/08/21/promotions-tried-and-tentatively-tested/

22nd August 2016 (42 views) – A blog about where I live ‘Seasons in Suffolk’:  https://steviet3.wordpress.com/2016/08/22/open-book-blog-hop-22nd-august/

29th August 2016 (44 views) – An excerpt from one of my short stories:  https://steviet3.wordpress.com/2016/08/29/open-book-blog-hop-29th-august/

7th Sept 2016 (61 views) – A blog about the secret of a long life:  https://steviet3.wordpress.com/2016/09/07/the-secret-of-a-long-life/

10th October 2016 (38 views) – A travel blog of places I’d like to visit:  https://steviet3.wordpress.com/2016/10/10/open-book-blog-hop-october-10th/

26th October 2016 (47 views) – A blog about downsizing:  https://steviet3.wordpress.com/2016/10/26/downsizing/

4th January 2017 (51 views) – A blog regarding the generation gap:  https://steviet3.wordpress.com/2017/01/04/the-generation-gap-is-alive-and-kicking/

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So you see that the most popular posts seem to be blogs that are about the lives of authors, not about their books.  Therefore in this 2017 blog-go-round if any authors would like to write a funny, heartwarming or poignant post about events in their lives for a guest post on my blog-go-round, then please send it to stevie@stevie-turner-author.co.uk.  Don’t forget – IT’S NOT ABOUT YOUR BOOK, IT’S ABOUT YOU (you’re allowed to add a link to your Amazon author page though)!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Exercise for the Auditory Ossicles

Tags

#audio book, thriller

I’m pleased to announce  ACX has informed me that the audio version of For the Sake of a Child is now ready and available for purchase today.  I’d like to thank narrator Janine Haynes for a superb job, especially with Larry’s Liverpudlian accent!

http://bookShow.me/B01N11YDP5

ACX will be sending me 25 free codes, and so if anybody has an Audible. co.uk account and would like a code, please contact me and I will send you one.  First come, first served.

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Also I’d like to thank Sandra Garston for narrating Lily: A Short Story.  The audio book was published just before Christmas, and already has one 5 star review:

http://bookShow.me/B01M0FE0IQ

I’m going to chase up the free codes for this one, as I never received them.  Please leave a comment if you would like an Audible.co.uk code.

Janine is now narrating ‘Repent at Leisure’.

 

 

Explain!

I was pleased to receive an email letting me know that my short story ‘Checking Out’ had made the shortlist of the Creative Writing Institute’s competition earlier this year, and would be featured in its new book ‘Explain!’ The book is a compilation of 30 short stories written in different genres using the same theme sentence, ‘Explain how that happened.’

‘Explain!’ was published on December 1st.

http://bookShow.me/B01NAEKTBA

Priced at only £1.59 for the Kindle version, proceeds from sales of the ebook and print book will benefit the Creative Writing Institute, a non-profit charity that sponsors cancer patients in writing courses. The school also provides a variety of writing courses for all levels from beginner to advanced.

 

Do you like to read about family relationship dramas?

If you do, then my novel The Donor is currently reduced in price to just $0.99 / £0.99 until 3rd December:

http://bookShow.me/B01G3KFZ64

Description:

When you meet the love of your life, the last thing you expect is your sister luring him away.

Clare Ronson faces this scenario when her sister, Isabel, marries singer and guitarist Ross Tyler. To make things even worse, Ross hits the big time, makes a fortune, and moves to France with his family.

But when tragedy strikes, Ross and Clare are forced to revisit their common past, one which they must try to put behind them for Isabel’s sake.

Reviews:

5.0 out of 5 stars“THE DONOR” GRABS YOU FROM THE OPENING LINE By Michael Phelps on January 15, 2016

Format: Kindle Edition

AUTHOR STEVIE TURNER is a novelist from “across the Pond”, Great Britain. “THE DONOR” is my first read of her lengthy list of novels. Now,I am excited to read every novel she has written.

In “THE DONOR”, Ms. Turner has crafted a novel with characters so well developed, you instantly visualize their physical appearances and through her real descriptions of their personalities, through “their” thoughts and words, you feel you KNOW them as living human beings. I found her writing style to be very unique. I have been a voracious reader for over sixty years and must confess I have never read any book that is outside the traditional “first persone” or “third person” point of view. I was immediately quite impressed that Ms. Turner has written “THE DONOR” with each character’s individual point of view. I am amzaed at how Ms. Turner deftly switched between her characters to pen a very touching novel. “THE DONOR” opens in 1970 with the end of a three day Band Festival, sort of a British version of America’s infamous “Woodstock” of 1969. The reader is introduced to “Claire Ronson”, who at almost 19 had secreted away three days earlier with her best friend Ruth to attend the festival, unbeknownst to her father Donald and mother Marian. Her father, a doctor and her mother, a nurse are upper-middle class and devoted to Claire and her older sister, Isabel (“Izzy”), At the end of the festival, having been awake for three days and nights, she has her food stolen, and she is penniless.

We then meet “Ross Tyler”, a blond Adonis, her “Knight in Shining Armor”. He provides her with an apple. He wraps a protective arm around her and offers to take her to the Ferry Station and assure her safe passage home. They spend several hours together, hitching a ride with a farmer to the Ferry boat station. Claire instantly falls in love with Ross and is positive he will be her “soul mate”. Ross invites her to a local Pub, where he and his band will be performing the following Saturday night. She agrees. She knows, however that her father will never approve of Ross, an art student and guitar player /singer in a rock band..

Once home, she finds her sister Izzy is home from the University, where she is a medical student. She tells Izzy all about the festival and her meeting Ross. She learns from Izzy that she has broken off her relationship with her long-time boyfriend, Jeff. She invites Izzy to the pub to meet Ross and watch the band’s performance. Izzy accepts and they tell their parents they are going to visit her friend Ruth. Events unfold from there, taking the reader through the next three decades with many twists and turns, incidents unfold which tears the family apart. The reader is gripped as each character describes the incidents through their individual point of view. The ending will blow your mind! “THE DONOR” is a love story that has all of the characters intertwined. Reading how each character views the evolving events in “real time” through the years is unique and makes “THE DONOR” one of the very BEST novels I have read in the last eighteen months. I LOVED it!

I give “THE DONOR” FIVE STARS, would give more if allowed. I highly recommend it. Ms. Turner is a true professional. Now, I will purchase every novel this extremely talented Author has written. A list of her novels appears in the front of “THE DONOR”. Oh, did I mention that Ms. Turner has used a lot of true English slang, and I loved it.

————————————————————————–

The final heartbreaking chapters moved me from disbelief to tears some of joy some of sadness By julz gall on September 6, 2016

Format: Paperback

From the word go this book grabbed my attention and kept it to the very end.

This was a book I could not put down and I read it in 3 hours.

The characters were profoundly flawed and that only added to the realism of the story, the relationships between them all are bittersweet yet heartwarming.

It’s a story of one family who suffer because of one betrayal then as the story progresses you find that there was more betrayal that has happened in the past, it was so well written that I could see myself being one or another of the characters and put myself In their shoes at time I found myself rooting for one character then in the next chapter I was rooting for another and wishing I could grab the and shake them and tell them not to be so prideful and explain to them all they would loose out on.

In the second half of the story the main two characters find themselves reunited in the darkest of circumstance and they have to find a way to get through it all together and that leaves them both reeling! The final heartbreaking chapters moved me from disbelief to tears some of joy some of sadness, and it’s a credit to the author that she was able to convey these emotions with the telling of this fabulous story

 

Anybody Interested?

I’m thinking of starting up a Facebook beta readers group for women’s fiction/family relationship dramas.  Authors who have books in this category and who would like more reviews can join up and receive free books to read and review, and hopefully other members will pick their book for reading and reviewing too.

If I can get about 20 – 30 members I think it would be worth setting one up.  Please leave a comment if you write in this genre and would like more reviews for your books.  It would be give and take; you would add your own book, but you would also need to read and review another one.  If all members are active, then it would not be a ‘review swap’ group, as members would pick a book that interests them.  No money need change hands, as members would provide a copy for free.

Have you had experience of one of these beta reading groups?  Do you think it’s a good idea?  If you joined one in the past, did you find that authors tended to drop out or not participate?

Let me know if you’re interested.  Thanks and best wishes from Stevie.

 

 

Family Drama ‘Repent at Leisure’ is $0.99/£0.99 from 14th – 20th October

http://bookShow.me/B01DFTXW2A

Publishers Creativia designed the cover and published my women’s fiction family drama Repent at Leisure in March this year, and are now running a Kindle promotion for $0.99 / £0.99 until 20th October.  An excerpt was shortlisted for the Escalator Writing Contest in May, and it has earned some good reviews, two of which can be seen below:

https://www.amazon.com/review/R20H5X42M7GT4T/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B01DFTXW2A

I have read several books by author, Stevie Turner and I admit this is my favorite. I enjoyed the book for several reasons. First of all, I was unable to ‘guess’ the ending of the book. The plot twists and turns and the author’s portrayal of the characters prevents the reader from drawing conclusions as the story develops.

As with all of Turner’s books, the book is well written. This book grabbed my attention from the beginning and is a page turner through the end of the book. The story line is very unusual and developed in a way to keep the reader guessing. Characters Paul, Cat and Anita are fascinating and I found myself empathizing with the three of them despite and probably because of their inherent weaknesses.

I highly recommend this book and believe that, based on how easily the book flows, its dynamic characters and unusual story-line, it will be hard for any reader to not enjoy this incredibly well written novel.

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https://www.amazon.com/review/R1IABO5AGDXKB3/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B01DFTXW2A

I absolutely loved this book so much so that I read it all in one sitting! Of course it had nothing to do with it being set in my native Scotland lol, I found that the characters were very well written and they developed as the story progressed, they were down to earth and believable while at times they were altogether sinister but you end the tale feeling like the events could have actually happened to someone you know.

This story takes us on a tour of the world beginning in Scotland and visiting Spain, England and Australia before returning to Scotland, and I  found the author had researched very well all the places which you will visit in this book, as well as great use of slang fitting the place you are in at that particular time in the novel .

Although I would categorise this story as a tale of love and romance it would also fit into either the crime drama or thriller genre just as well.

I am not going to put any spoilers in this review as I want the reader to experience it the way I did by turning the pages to find out what happens next in Paul and Anita’s lives.

We all have to do it…

It’s  shameless promotion day today!

Lily: A Short Story, has finally been released as an audio book after many false starts, my family drama The Donor is just $0.99 today until 27th September, and last but not least, my crackly voice can be heard on The Authors Show tomorrow 22nd September speaking about The Donor if anybody would like to listen!

Lily:

I think my historical /paranormal audio book Lily: A Short Story, must have had one of the longest gestational periods known to man!

I originally put the story out to ACX about 18 months ago.  The first narrator Jenny managed to finish the story.  However, ACX could not use the narration for some reason or other, and so asked Jenny to correct it.  Jenny fell ill and was hospitalised, and could not continue.  The next two narrators had family crises, and unfortunately had to stop production.  My latest narrator, Sandra Garston, worked very quickly and finished the recording in no time at all.  However, ACX had so many audio books to process, that ‘Lily’ was stuck in a queue for about 5 weeks.

Finally it is done.  I’m pleased to announce that Lily: A Short Story, length 3 hours and 2 minutes,  is now available on the links below:

http://www.audible.com/pd/Fiction/Lily-Audiobook/B01LX66PKP/

https://www.amazon.com/Lily-A-Short-Story/dp/B01LYSRKBF/ 

http://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Fiction/Lily-Audiobook/B01M0FE0IQ/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lily-A-Short-Story/dp/B01LZG6WYV/

Audible.co.uk will also be sending me 25 promotional codes if anybody would like one, in order to receive Lily free at the checkout.  First come, first served!

The Donor:

http://bookShow.me/1533641668

Description:

When you meet the love of your life, the last thing you expect is your sister luring him away.

Clare faces this scenario when her sister, Isabel, marries singer and guitarist Ross Tyler. To make things even worse, Ross hits the big time, makes a fortune and moves to France with his family.

But when tragedy strikes, Ross and Clare are forced to revisit their common past, one which they must try to put behind them for Isabel’s sake.

Here’s a 5 star review it has received on Amazon:

From the word go this book grabbed my attention and kept it to the very end.  This was a book I could not put down and I read it in 3 hours.  The characters were profoundly flawed and that only added to the realism of the story, the relationships between them all are bittersweet yet heartwarming.

It’s a story of one family who suffer because of one betrayal then as the story progresses you find that there was more betrayal that has happened in the past, it was so well written that I could see myself being one or another of the characters and put myself In their shoes at time I found myself rooting for one character then in the next chapter I was rooting for another and wishing I could grab the and shake them and tell them not to be so prideful and explain to them all they would loose out on.

In the second half of the story the main two characters find themselves reunited in the darkest of circumstance and they have to find a way to get through it all together and that leaves them both reeling! The final heartbreaking chapters moved me from disbelief to tears some of joy some of sadness, and it’s a credit to the author that she was able to convey these emotions with the telling of this fabulous story.

The Authors Show:

http://www.theauthorsshow.com/

I will be speaking about The Donor tomorrow 22nd September.  You can hear what I have to say by clicking the link above.