I’m very happy to announce that A Man With A Gun is now fully released, in both paperback and Kindle formats! Even better, the book has a nifty new trailer! Check it out:
The trailer was produced by Two Edged Studios, which is run by the same awesome guy who did the beautiful cover art for Frostwalker. Give ’em a look – they do fantastic work.
I’m happy to announce, after much struggle and a great deal of effort on the part of the fantastic Jack Wallen, the Frostwalker audiobook is now finished and available for sale!
Let’s just go ahead and get it said: You can grab this great story, read by a great narrator at Audible and Amazon right now. It’s also available on iTunes!
Come for the story, stay for the venison!
It’s been a long, sometimes difficult process. While Jack worked quickly and without complaint, he also waited patiently for me to find the time to go over the various iterations of the audio files. As I’ve discussed recently, my current situation has left precious little time and energy for creative pursuits, but Jack was very understanding whenever I was slow on my end. Sometimes, I was very slow indeed.
I also learned a great deal about how one goes about creating an audiobook, and had some great chats with Jack along the way.
So, now what? Now you go get it! But, more than that, I would like to ask my friends and followers, readers and fans (yes, Mom, this means you) to help get the word out. Frostwalker isn’t a new release, but it’s currently my only full-length novel (more on that in a moment). With such a limited catalog available, I need all the help I can get letting people know about my work. If you want to help an indie author out, the best thing you can do is tell your friends about them! Please do so, and thanks in advance!
What else is going on? There’s good news there, as well. First and foremost, I’m happy to say that I’ve finally managed to return to writing – a little. The day job is, frankly, a serious drain on my energy, even when it’s just the normal eight hours. However, the past week has seen slight progress on a couple of stories I started work on last summer.
Beyond that, I’m also still in the early stages of revision on my second novel, A Man With A Gun. There are more (new) beta readers looking at the manuscript. Soon, I hope to begin edits. Yeah, I know, you’ve heard that one before, but seriously, the book will be coming out eventually! Heck, if you really want to give it a read, you could always volunteer to be a beta reader and help make it the best book it can be.
It’s been difficult, but I do hope that this recent return to writing will be a long term development. I’ve missed sitting here at my writing desk, putting on my writer hat, and… well, you know! If you want to be a writer, you gotta write!
I hope to begin doing more frequent updates in the future. For now, thanks for stopping by!
So, it seems that all of the time left in 2015 has leaked out and now we’ve got a whole other year ahead of us. That went fast!
To kick off the new year, how about we start with a major announcement? After two and a half years since initial publication, the Frostwalker audiobook is almost here!
The audiobook will be narrated by the inimitable Jack Wallen. Many of you will know him, either through his own fiction, the numerous audiobooks he’s narrated, or possibly even from his stage career. Principle production is complete and now we’re into the nitty-gritty of polishing up the final product.
While the final release date for the audiobook is still undecided, it shouldn’t be too far off. For now, here’s a look at the audiobook version of the Frostwalker cover art:
Looks kinda familiar…
So, that’s pretty cool! But what else is going on?
Well, the short answer is: Not much. As I discussed previously, my employment situation changed and the new job has utterly devastated my productivity. The good news on that front is, I’m beginning to adjust a bit, and I do think I’ll be able to eventually start devoting more time to this whole author thing again soon. It likely won’t be much, but with luck, it will be enough to make progress on my various projects. Slow and steady wins the race, right?
Unfortunately, no further progress has been made on any projects since the last time I posted. My final word count for 2015 came to 95,795. If you recall, my goal set at the beginning of the year had been to average 500 words per day. In the end, I only managed a smidge over 262 per day, on average. The first half of the year had seen daily averages well above target, but after faltering during the middle of the year, then getting this new day job, that was doomed.
I’m not sure how feasible setting a goal like that is for this year. With the situation as it stands, I’ve held off on setting a concrete word count goal. But, there are things I plan to get done!
One particular item, A Man With A Gun still needs to be finished up and prepared for publication. Technically, the manuscript is still in the first draft stage, and there are still copies out with beta-readers. The focus for now will be on getting A Man With A Gun through the editing process, and ready for release.
A whole new year is set out before us. A lot can happen in a year, as the previous one has shown. Here’s hoping for a productive and successful 2016!
Today we’re celebrating the release of STIFLED, book two in the SUMMONED series by USA Today Bestselling author, Rainy Kaye. A dark twist on genie folklore, SUMMONED follows a reluctant criminal as he unravels the mystery of the paranormal bond controlling him. In STIFLED, Dimitri trails an elusive jinn and finds himself in the middle of a community keeping dark secrets. The SUMMONED series is represented by Rossano Trentin of TZLA.
Scroll down to pick up your copy of STIFLED, get SUMMONED for free for a limited time, and enter to win a $10 Amazon gift card.
Dimitri would like nothing more than to live a low-key life in Naples, Italy. His girlfriend, Syd, has other plans.
After three months of researching, she is positive she has found a jinn on a killing spree in San Diego, California. Since Syd gave Dimitri the one thing he thought was out of reach, he feels obligated to use his ill-gained talents for her cause.
A few hours back in the US proves that Dimitri and Syd didn’t quite make the clean escape they had thought. As they trail the elusive jinn, someone else trails them. What should have been a simple trip to confirm once and for all if the jinn are living among humans, instead reveals a community keeping dark secrets.
Unfortunately for Dim, the only way out is in.
Get your copy here!
Haven’t read book one yet? No problem! It’s currently FREE on Amazon.
Twenty-three year old Dimitri has to do what he is told—literally.
Controlled by a paranormal bond, he is forced to use his wits to fulfill unlimited deadly wishes made by multimillionaire Karl Walker.
Dimitri has no idea how his family line became trapped in the genie bond. He just knows resisting has never ended well.
When he meets Syd—assertive, sexy, intelligent Syd—he becomes determined to make her his own. Except Karl has ensured Dimitri can’t tell anyone about the bond, and Syd isn’t the type to tolerate secrets.
Then Karl starts sending him away on back-to-back wishes. Unable to balance love and lies, Dimitri sets out to uncover Karl’s ultimate plan and put it to an end. But doing so forces him to confront the one wish he never saw coming—the wish that will destroy him.
Rainy Kaye is an aspiring overlord. In the mean time, she blogs at RainyoftheDark and writes paranormal novels from her lair somewhere in Phoenix, Arizona.
She is represented by Rossano Trentin of TZLA. Someone told her she’s a USA Today Bestselling author. She thought there would be cake.
Just shy of two years ago, my short story The Card was released. The price point has been a steady 99 cents ever since. I’ve decided that now is a good time to transition this one over to free pricing. If you’ve been waiting for a good excuse to give it a read, now you have one!
Free reading is always good!
A couple of things that bear mentioning: First, the pricing has just now gone into effect at Smashwords. I use Smashwords for all of my distribution except for Amazon. So, if you prefer Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple, or any of the others aside from Amazon or Smashwords, it may take a little while for the price change to take effect at those “downstream” retailers.
Second, the Amazon edition of The Card is released through their Kindle Direct Publishing platform. As such, it has a minimum price of 99 cents. I’m not able to set the price to free there. However, Amazon does have price matching! That’s why my other short, Out After Dark, is available for free from Amazon. Eventually, I believe they will do the same for The Card, but it may take some time.
Feel free to help them along by reporting the lower price to them. At the Amazon page for The Card, just above the Customer Reviews section and at the bottom of the Product Details section, there’s a link to report a lower price. You can just click on that, tell them the price comes from a website, and give them the link to the Smashwords edition:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/273583
Also, please do tell your friends! I’d love to share this story with as many folks as possible, and you can help make that happen!
Thanks, and enjoy!
UPDATE: Looks like the Kindle Edition on Amazon has been switched over to free as well! Nice! If you need that edition click here.
Title: The Flower of Hell
The ebook revolution continues! Books in digital format are still a bit new to some people. But, this portable, flexible, and connected new way of reading has taken the world by storm. If you’ve never read an ebook, now is your chance to give it a try – for free!
Read An E-Book Week is an opportunity to pick from thousands of books for free and try ’em out. You don’t need to have a Kindle or any special hardware. Chances are, whatever you’re reading this on will work just fine. There are free Kindle apps for PC, Mac, Android, and Apple devices as well as other formats, such as PDF, that you can read on your computer, tablet, or smartphone.
During this year’s Read An E-Book Week, I will be offering all of my works at Smashwords for free! This is a great opportunity to check out my pulp horror short story The Card if you’ve not read it before. If you really want to cash in, grab my survival horror novel Frostwalker and save $2.99! While you’re at it, my other short, Out After Dark is also free – but it’s always free at Smashwords anyway.
How To Participate
During the event, head over to Smashwords, add my books to your shopping cart, and use the coupon code RW100 before you check out. It’s that simple! Just use the coupon code when you checkout at Smashwords and you’re set!
Thousands of other books will be available for reduced prices or even free like my own. Take a look around and see what catches your eye! But remember, this event only runs from March 2nd until the 8th. At midnight (Pacific time) at the end of March 8th, the deals end – but the ebooks you get to keep!
Take the plunge and get into ebooks – you won’t regret it!
So, here’s the thing: I know what it’s like to shop for books. I also know what it’s like to have a very limited budget for entertainment. This is why I understand the difficulty people have with taking a chance on an author they don’t know. For most of the Earth’s population, I am one of those authors you just don’t know.
Because of this, I think it’s very important that relatively unknown authors such as myself get their work in front of readers. Until you know me, and know that my work is worth your limited entertainment dollars, I can’t reasonably ask you to risk your cash on my work. It’s going to take some give and take – and I have to give before I take anything.
That’s part of the reason why my short story Out After Dark is free. Another reason is that it’s rather short, and I don’t really think it’s long enough to charge for. Granted, publishing it through Amazon means that I can’t set the price to free – but Amazon does price matching. That story being free at Smashwords and all the other places that Smashwords distributes to (iTunes, Sony, Kobo, B&N, etc.) means that Amazon makes the price on Out After Dark free – at least, on the US Amazon site. Not entirely sure where they’re setting the price elsewhere.
However, that’s just one story, and it is rather short. The Card is a longer piece, and it’s not in the overdone vampire genre (even if I think Out After Dark is a new twist). The Card is a very original piece. I do think The Card warrants a price, and 99 cents is pretty much the lowest you can go.
Now, in an effort to get my work out there, and give readers a chance to get to know me, and a chance to enjoy my work, I’m posting this coupon code to get The Card for FREE. However, this coupon code is only good for the next day or two. It expires February 14th, but I’m not sure if that is midnight (California time) the morning of the 14th, or if it will be good until the end of that day. Smashwords wasn’t entirely clear on that when I generated the coupon code. Bottom line: get it fast while you can! Here’s the code:
To use this code, go to Smashwords and add The Card to your shopping cart. Input the code in the space provided, then check out! You may need to create a Smashwords account, if you don’t already have one. It’s free and easy to get a Smashwords account, so don’t let that hold you back. Using this code, The Card will be yours, and on your account, for as long as you want it. No strings attached!
After you’ve read The Card, if you liked it (or even if you didn’t), I hope you’ll leave a review at Smashwords. If you’re so inclined, you can review it at Amazon and Goodreads as well.
If you like my work, I hope you’ll try my full-length novel, Frostwalker. Again, I don’t feel like you need to spend your money without knowing you’ll like what you’re getting. You can read the first 33% (one third) of the book for FREE at Smashwords. I hope you’ll check it out!
Lastly, please share this with your friends! I really want to reach as many of you as possible. Someday, I wouldn’t mind writing full time, paying my bills doing what I love. But even if I reach that goal, I hope I never lose sight of what is important: This isn’t about making money. It’s about telling great stories and entertaining readers!
I’m of an age where paperback books were generally pretty affordable. In truth, many still are, but prices have indeed gone up. For me, the “normal” price of a paperback book was in the area of six to eight dollars. When I think of the cost of an “average” paperback, my brain just spits out $7.99.
However, sadly, those days have slipped into the past. These days, a more normal price for a paperback (if there is such a thing as a normal price) is around $9.99. At least, that seems true for many of the books I buy, aside from the larger volumes, such as epic fantasies.
When I first released Frostwalker, I wanted to keep the paperback edition pricing low. In part, this was due to nostalgia over those older prices. There’s a part of me that still feels like paying more than $7.99 for a book of that size is maybe a bit much. Another factor was simply the fact that I am an unknown author to most of my potential readers. Having a lower price, combined with the good reviews the book has been getting, might be just the incentive for a reader to take a chance on my work.
But, in order to reach a broader audience, I need to be able to break into more distribution channels. These channels have a higher overhead cost, which means that the author’s portion of the sales is significantly smaller. In order to even be eligible for those channels the price has to be increased above a certain threshold just to cover the cost of distribution.
So, beginning February 1st, I will be increasing the price of the paperback edition of Frostwalker to $9.99. The ebook editions (Kindle and others) will remain at $2.99. The upside is that, with time, the book will be available for bookstores to purchase, as well as libraries.
If you intend to pick up a paperback copy of Frostwalker, but haven’t done so yet, now would be a good time to grab yours!
This is just a quick little post to tell you about a new program Amazon is doing. It’s called Kindle MatchBook, and it’s pretty cool for those of us who like to read both at home and on the go.
The upshot of the Kindle MatchBook program is, if you buy a paperback on Amazon, you can get the Kindle Edition of the same book for a discount. In the case of Frostwalker, I’ve set that discount to 100%, meaning that those who buy Frostwalker in paperback through Amazon can get the Kindle Edition for FREE!
Also, if you’ve already purchased a paperback copy of Frostwalker through Amazon, you should be able to get the Kindle Edition for free as well. By the way, Kindle isn’t just for Kindle devices – there are free Kindle apps for PC’s and other platforms as well!
So what are you waiting for? Go get it!
Brandon R. Luffman 