Free give away.

I’ve given over a thousand books away over the last few days so why not a little more to open this New Year. “Storytellers” is free on Amazon starting at midnight on the 6th and going through the 7th and ending as soon as the 8th day of January begins. So if you would like a free copy please head over to Amazon and get yourself a free copy for your Kindle.

Free Fallen Blood

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Since there was such a large response to my free Vampire tales, I’m making “Fallen Blood” free as a promotion Dec 30th through the 31st. It will end  at the stroke of midnight. Also sorry, but it is only on Amazon and as an eBook. Createspace and Barnes and Noble will not let me make them free… Happy Holidays!

Vampire tales free for Christmas!!!

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If you haven’t heard, Amazon will be allowing free downloads of my shorts called “Vampire Tales.” It will go free on Christmas day and go for two day’s afterwards.  My gift to you. Merry Christmas.

 

Free books

Fallen Blood and Storytellers are currently free on Amazon for prime members.

Pen pals and Sekirei

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Well I’m feeling bummed. I’ve joined a few pen pal sights recently in the hopes of getting a few pals to write to out there. I most especially wanted a few new friends from Japan, as I’ve become recently interested in their culture and language. But it seems not to be.

Apparently my age is a factor and most of the people at these sites appear to not be looking for friends, but possible mates instead. Admittedly I’m not looking as two marriages later, I’m not in such a hot hurry to find myself tied down again. I suppose it was naive of me to think people would see me as anything more then a dirty old man, but I did have hopes.

Alas I don’t think it is to be. I suppose the fact that I had been only interested in female pen pals could of been part of it, but I have enough real life male friends and since I write a lot of Paranormal Romance, the chance to hear a woman’s thoughts and feelings about things would be great for my writing. Oh well, live and learn.

I’m training up my Dragon speech software in an attempt to increase my writing speed. It seems my hands don’t want to work so well since getting out of the hospital. I hope my editors will be ready for the influx of work I hope to hit them with soon. I’m grateful that they work for free, as my writing could not afford to pay an editor at this point in my career.

My other big distraction these days is the discovery of anime. Well one in particular. I’m currently enchanted with Sekirei anime and manga.  It’s absolutely awesome and I can’t seem to get enough. In fact I just got off Hulu after watching another episode. I love the heck out out of it and would love to get the PS2 game for it, if only I understood Japanese.  I wish they would hurry with season 3.

Hopefully Revenge should be out soon. It’s another vampire book I’ve got in the works. It’s a bit different from what I’ve been writing recently, but I hope fans of my series will like it. Anyways that’s about it for now. I’ll write later.

Two years of Indy publishing

Some people may be wondering if self publishing is right for them.  It’s a hard question to answer, as it really depends on what you want. There’s very little glamor or fame in it unless your a John Locke or an Amanda Hocking.

Let’s face it, not many people are going to sell over a million books as an Indy. For that matter the same goes for the traditional crowd as well.  It’s not easy to reach those numbers. I haven’t, but I have done pretty good for someone without a name or a big publisher backing them. The fact that these guys have done it means that it can be done and it should give us all hope that our books will be that well read.

As for me, well my first year out back in 2010 I sold around 500 books. That’s pretty good when so many people say that you will most likely only sell around a 100 books over the lifetime of that book if you go the self published route. Nothing to cry about when I never really thought about actually publishing any of my stories before. So it felt really good back then.

This year has been a big surprise so far, and I almost wish it wouldn’t come to an end. I’m flattered and surprised by how many people actually read my books, and even more that so many people actually like them. I want to thank everyone that has taken the time out to read them. Words can not express my gratitude! I really do love you all!

Oh yeah… That’s right I’m suppose to tell you how well I did. Oops… Well lets see…

 

2010   500 sales

2011    17,705 sales

 

Yep… Blows me away. That doesn’t even count my free promotions over the year. If I counted those giveaways my figures would be over 25,000 books. Not a bad year, and the last month isn’t over yet. I’m hoping for an even better year in 2012, especially with the release of several more books in the next couple of month’s.

So is going Indy/ self publishing a good idea. You decided.

Related articles

• Amazon adds Amanda Hocking, David Baldacci, and Stephenie Meyer to Kindle Million Club (teleread.com)

Been awhile

It’s been a few months since the last time I wrote on my blog. Shame on me, but I have had a pretty good excuse. I’ve been sick and in the hospital for a bit. Unfortunately for me my Diabetes got out of control. So bad in fact that I had a blood infection as well as a bone infection. I lost two toes and even now I’m still in a wheel chair. A

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ccording to my family, I almost died.  So I think I have a really good excuse for missing a few posts. =)

I’m hoping that by writing more here, that it will spark my need to write at home. My writing has been on a back shelf the entire time I’ve been sick. I’ve written less then 1,500 this entire time. That’s why I’m hoping this will kick start my muse. So I’ve got my fingers crossed. I am definitely feeling the bug to write again. So hopefully I’ll be back to work again soon. Anyways that’s my update.  I hope everyone else is well.

Thoughts

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I’m thinking about moving my blog to blogger. I’m not sure yet as I have been on this site for what seems like forever. But blogger seems to be a lot more flexible, and I notice that most of the authors I know are on blogger rather then WordPress. So I’m not sure what I’m going to do, but it is on my mind the last few days.

It just seems like I have more difficulty getting this site to do what I want… Oh well. I’m getting ready to actually write out book three of Fallen Blood now. I’ve been meaning to do it for the last few days, but I’ve been really sick. I’ve got most of the hard stuff done, now all I have to do is put it on paper… or at least in this instance in my computer so we can begin editing it. I have no idea why I procrastinate doing this part.

It always seems like an impossible job when I actually start putting it in writing. Even when I’m down to the last few chapters. Must be psychological or something. I love creating, but I hate feeling like I’m on a schedule, or the reverse… that I’m not going to ever be finished. Anyways hopefully not much longer. The story’s done, just the writing and editing is left.

On that note I’m experimenting with Dragon speak now. Think it’s called that…at least near enough. It’s a dictation program. You speak into the mic, and it writes out what you say. I’m hoping it will increase my speed. I think it will as my test projects have gone incredibly fast. So all I got to do is pull myself  away from the internet, and wall la!

Easier said then done. Anyways I’m off. Hope everyone’s summer is going good.

Chronicles of Blood Summer sale

I decided just for the last few days of July to put Chronicles of Blood on sale to help kick it off a bit more.

This book is actually four books in one, ranging in prices from 0.99 to 2.99. So it would actually be around $8.00 for all the books if you picked them up individually.

For the rest of July, you can get all four of my vampire books bundled into one book for the low sale price of $2.99

So, if you’ve been waiting to pick any of these up…now’s the time! Chronicles will be going back up to $5.99 on the 1st.

You can pick Chronicles up at either Amazon or Barnes and Noble’s pubit.

Thanks everyone!

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Today I’m almost completely moved into my new apartment. I was debating on going on a sabbatical or starting my new life by getting a real place. The place won out. For those of you who didn’t know, I have been living in my RV for the past four years. In effect homeless since my marriage fell on the rocks. I’ve survived, I wouldn’t say I was living or for that matter having a life. Now thanks to my writing and the support of all of my wonderful readers I’m finally able to say that I’m not homeless any longer.

Thank you everyone for giving me a chance to turn my life around. It wasn’t that long ago that I thought it was over. A heart attack, the loss of my work, then my marriage, and soon after  my home and van. My health deteriorated after that, and I spent everyday waiting for the end to come. If it hadn’t been for my two kids who encouraged me to keep going, and then later to write, I don’t think I ever would have come out of the darkness that had a grip on my life.

The fact that my writing has actually found a place to entertain others is more of a bonus that I would have never thought possible. I can’t tell all of you thanks enough. I hope to keep writing about Brian and Heather, Melissa and Michael. Not to mention several people you haven’t met yet in other soon to be written books.

Thank you

Martin