promotion & publicity

 by Jon F. Merz

April EBook Sales

I’ve been making a habit of posting my ebook sales figures because I know how other writers are interested in this data. I’ve done this for the past couple months and it’s time once again to examine how I did, this time over the course of April.

You may recall that in March, I posted a 46% jump in sales over the month of February. I aspired to the same jump in sales in April. Simultaneously, I’ve done some other research and seen several writers talking about how traditional print sales routinely slump in the third month and how they expected that same trend to affect ebook sales.

So without further ado, let’s get to the hard facts:

1. I sold just over 3200 ebooks in the month of April.
2. While number of ebooks sold was somewhat lower than in March, I sold more ebooks at a higher price point ($2.99) than I did in the previous month.
3. My sales for April in terms of actual dollars were 30% higher than they were in March.

This is the 3rd consecutive month I’ve posted strong gains. I am currently making more money with ebook sales than I have at any point in my entire career as a writer – minus the times I did freelance non-fiction work and also worked as a freelance advertising copywriter. And it’s been 13 years since I was fired for writing that novel on the company computers, which is when I decided to really make a-go of this writing thing.

Now, while I did not reach my goal for another 46% jump in April, a 30% jump is extremely strong in and of itself. Also, April contained a peculiarity I was unaware of. Midway through the month, I experienced a complete sales slowdown. I was terrified because without any warning whatsoever, everything ground to a screeching halt. For 2-3 days, my sales slowed to a trickle. Worried, I contacted other writers and found they were experiencing the same thing. Turns out, that April has always had this little surprise embedded in it. Could be because of tax season. Could be because of the change in weather in certain parts of the country.

But the slowdown didn’t last long. And then sales really picked up.

Better news as well: Amazon announced the launch of their German Kindle store. This was yet another platform to sell on. And while my numbers out on the German Kindle store have totaled exactly ONE ebook 🙂 I have high hopes this will be a serious channel in short order.

For May, my goals are much the same as they were at the start of last month: sell more.

THE SHEPHERD, a new Lawson novella, will be out next week. And the Lawson short story OATHBREAKER will be out soon as well. I’m very excited about the future for many reasons, and ebooks are just one of them.

And you can buy my Lawson series on the Kindle by clicking here. | Or for the Nook here.

in Build a Bestseller / common sense / ebooks / how I write / novels / promotion & publicity / publishing / short stories / writing 0 comments
 by Jon F. Merz

Amazon’s German Kindle Store

I’m thrilled that Amazon has now opened up its new German Kindle store – and already, my Lawson Vampire series is out and available for mass consumption. As of this morning, they had just about every Lawson adventure there, except for THE ENCHANTER, but I epxect that should be available shortly.

As someone making a significant income each month from my independently published titles on Amazon and Barnes&Noble, this latest news is fantastic. It’s yet another platform to sell ebooks on, and yet another market I can enter into and reach new fans. The books are still in English, of course, but given that there are many English-speaking Germans, I’m hoping to reach a majority of them and get them hooked on Lawson. And this, of course, helps also with the building of a global community ready to devour Lawson on the television as well.

Here’s the link to the full press release from Amazon.

in Build a Bestseller / ebooks / film/TV / lawson / novels / promotion & publicity / publishing / short stories / THE FIXER TV series / vampires / writing 0 comments
 by Jon F. Merz

Tax Time Escape

So, it’s tax time yet again for Americans and this season usually produces a lot of stress and anxiety.

I’m happy to report that I and a select group of caring, compassionate authors are here to help with our very own Tax Time Escape program.

What exactly is the Tax Time Escape program? It’s very simple: we’ve slashed the prices on some of our novels to the cheapest possible price allowed on Amazon and Barnes & Noble – 99 CENTS each.

That’s right, great reads from an amazing group of writers – and each for the paltry sum of just 99 pennies.

Whose involved in this Tax Time Escape? Feast your eyes on the writers listed below…

Obviously, I am. And I’ve chosen my supernatural thriller Vicarious to be included in this program. Here’s the brief description of this chilling little tale set in Boston. “When disgraced ex-FBI agent-turned-Boston-cop Steve Curran finds a corpse with no practical explanation for its death, the nightmares start again. Convinced the serial killer that caused his expulsion from the Bureau is once again haunting him, Curran soon learns his theories are all wrong. When the sister of the latest victim, Lauren Fields, uncovers an old journal detailing the hunt for a creature known only as the Soul Eater, she and Curran must confront the very real prospect that the killer is not of this world at all – and that his motives have little to do with killing, but all to do with something far, far worse.”

You can get VICARIOUS for the Kindle by clicking on the cover or HERE and you can also get it for the Nook by clicking HERE.

Willie Meikle is a fantastic writer of various genres and his latest is every bit a nail-biter. From Willie, here’s the description: “Patty is a cataloguer of rare manuscripts, working on part of a newly discovered journal of a 14th Century alchemist. Just another dull day on the job. But after mentioning it in her blog she gets to the office to find everyone brutally murdered. Now she’s on the run with the incomplete journal, trying to find the rest, pursued by a killer who wants the secret of eternal life it contains. ”

Grab THE CONCORDANCES OF THE RED SERPENT for the Kindle by clicking the cover shot above or clicking HERE and you can get it for the Nook by clicking HERE.

Steve Savile is one of those writers who comes up with ideas you wish you’d thought of, plus he just so happens to be a damned good friend of mine. His offering is OUTCAST and from Steve, here’s the description: “Outcast is a document humane charting the descent of an ordinary man into a murky underworld of very human monsters, grief and madness as he wrestles to come to terms with who he is and just what he is capable of in the name of love. Ask yourself this: how do you fight a monster no one else can see?”

Check out OUTCAST for the Kindle by clicking the cover shot above or clicking HERE. It’s unfortunately not available on the Nook just yet.

in ebooks / novels / promotion & publicity / publishing / Uncategorized / website / writing 0 comments
 by Jon F. Merz

Twilight Scam on Facebook

There’s a massive scam happening on Facebook right now involving a Twilight Breaking Dawn game. Do NOT click on it because it apparently hacks your account and attacks your friends. Worst of all, it opens you up to ridicule from people who see that you actually like the Twilight series. 🙂

The single best way to combat this threat is to read my Lawson Vampire series. Like, say, the latest novel in the series that goes back to the 1970s when Lawson and Zero are dispatched to Madagascar to track down a skeleton in the Council’s closet with roots running back to World War II. Its awesomeness will easily trump any Twilight scam and you can be proud that reading Lawson is like saying to the world, “I rock the casbah and so does Lawson.” In fact, you can grab THE ENCHANTER just by clicking the cover here—>

And here’s another way to show your pride on Facebook: grab this anti-Twilight scam banner and fly it proud! (just right click and “save as” or Mac users can Control + click to save)

Remember: I’m here to help. 🙂

in common sense / ebooks / gifts / lawson / ninjutsu / novels / promotion & publicity / publishing / short stories / THE FIXER TV series / Uncategorized / vampires / writing 0 comments
 by Jon F. Merz

Lots of News

So, this past Friday at 9pm, we launched the all-new, all-awesome website for THE FIXER. This is THE place to go for all things Lawson Vampire – the TV show, the book series, everything. We also debuted the new 30-second teaser clip, which you can see just by clicking on the screen shot to the left.

AND on top of that, we also debuted the brand new ebook THE ENCHANTER. You might know this better as THE MADAGASCAR MATTER project that I ran as a subscription only serialized piece a year or so back. The problem was, the story took on a life of its own and blossomed into a full-fledged novel of 81,000 words. So I turned it into THE ENCHANTER and put it out. The book is a Lawson adventure from the late 1970s when he’s in Madagascar with his former mentor Zero to run down a skeleton in the Council’s closet with roots running back to World War II. Fun stuff. It’s out for the Kindle and the Nook, or you can grab it on THE FIXER website, too.

And we have much more planned. This week, I’m working on THE SHEPHERD, a special Lawson novella written for some very special folks. That should be out soon. And then we’ll be debuting the extended cut of the teaser clip out on THE FIXER website. Look for that by the end of the week,hopefully.

More media attention is brewing. I have a lunchtime interview today, so that should be fun. It comes on the heels of a nice piece in the Boston Herald a week or so back.

Tons of other stuff happening right now. I’ll talk about it when I can.

in ebooks / film/TV / general / Hollywood / how I write / lawson / ninjutsu / novels / promotion & publicity / publishing / THE FIXER TV series / Uncategorized / vampires / website / writing 0 comments