Their Last Hope

Their Last Hope is on its way. It’s already available at Amazon (print and ebook), Smashwords, and Google Play, but I’m waiting for it to show up at Kobo, Apple, and Barnes & Noble before I send out the new releases email. If you want to grab the book now, buy links are here.

I almost didn’t upload the files this week. I had planned to do it on Wednesday, but instead I was in a dentist’s chair for an hour and forty-five minutes having the first stage of a root canal done. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel yesterday. I felt fine, so I went ahead and uploaded everything. If I hadn’t felt great, I would have pushed publication to Monday.

I’ve mentioned before (I think in a new releases email, but maybe here) that Amazon always sets the publication date to the day before the files were uploaded, so the Amazon page says the book was published on January 24th.

When I checked the Google Play page this morning, it says the book was published on December 17, 2017. Considering that I hadn’t generated any ebook files at that point, it certainly wasn’t published on that date. I assigned an ISBN to the book on December 15th, so I’m wondering if the book record made it into Bowker’s database on December 17th, and that’s the date Google Play is using.

Anyway, if you’re on my new releases list, expect an email sometime within the next few days.

Bookstore News

Here’s some bookstore news, in case you haven’t heard. You can now buy audiobooks at Google Play. I’m not sure where they’re sourcing the books from, so the selection probably isn’t as good as Audible’s. But it’s early days.

Microsoft opened an ebookstore not too long ago, and without much fanfare. It’s not open to indie authors at the moment, but that could change. (BTW, Microsoft Edge is a pretty good EPUB reader. I used to check the EPUB versions of my books with Adobe Digital Editions, but now I use Edge).

Apple is no longer going to call its bookstore iBooks. It’ll just be Books. Some publishing pundits have taken this as a sign that Apple will be paying more attention to its bookstore and perhaps making more of an effort to take on Amazon, but it’s crystal ball talk right now.

Smashwords is planning to revamp its store this year. It did a cosmetic facelift to the site a few years back. I think the changes will be more substantial this time, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Goodreads Giveaway Changes

And here’s news about Goodreads giveaways. If you regularly use Goodreads, you might already know that the giveaway program has changed.

In the beginning, an author or publisher could only give away print books on Goodreads. Giveaways were free. They no longer are, and they’re quite expensive. There are two tiers. A standard giveaway will cost $119, and a premium giveaway will cost $599. As part of this, indie authors can now give away Kindle books (previously only traditional publishers could do so).

A premium giveaway provides featured placement on the giveaway page. Not sure that’s worth an extra $400+.

There are changes for readers, too. Entering a giveaway will automatically add the book to your want-to-read list.

I used to do Goodreads giveaways, but I stopped. It’s expensive for me to give away print books (due to Canadian postal costs), and I saw little benefit from doing them. The idea is to get exposure for your book and maybe a couple of reviews. But that’s only effective if the book gets into a target reader’s hands.

Many readers enter every giveaway without considering whether the book is right for them, so there’s a high probability that someone will win who isn’t in your target audience. That can be especially true for books that have LGBT main characters. Also, many winners don’t review the books (I suspect many turn around and sell them).

I would definitely NOT pay to give away books to an untargeted audience. I might as well throw my money out the window.

I’m guessing that this will reduce the number of giveaways at Goodreads, especially from indie authors.

Also, giveaways will now be open to US residents only (at least initially).

From what I’ve read, readers don’t like the book being automatically added to their want-to-read lists. So nobody is really all that happy about these changes, but we’ll see how it plays out.

If you’re interested in reading the official announcement, it’s here.

Other Giveaway Ideas

I would like to do a giveaway here, but with something other than a book. Why? Because doing a giveaway of a book does nothing for readers who already have the book. That means people who support me by buying my books are left out. So I’m thinking about what I can give away instead. If you have any ideas, I’d love to hear them (leave a comment or contact me here).

Have a great weekend!