I sell a book at a fair price

Available HERE @ $2.99 and free to Kindle Unlimited subscribers 

THE jury is still out on the success of my non-price based promotion of Jane Sharp’s psychic mystery anthology, Vision: the Reluctant Psychic.

My publishing hut Bent Banana Books publishes Jane’s book.

With the literary  explosion propelling millions of eBooks into cyberspace, literally hundreds of thousands of authors are filling Amazon bookshelves.

Amazon has millions of eBooks for sale but only a few hundred titles will rake in the big dough.

Maybe it is because writers are usually better at English than maths. Whatever the reason, many wannabees do not seem to realize how astronomical are the odds of having a best-seller to your name.

KDP is the arm of Amazon which facilitates self-publishing. KDP provides a calculator which estimates sales based on Amazon ranking. You would hope it is reasonably accurate.

So let’s look at an author whose book is ranked 1000, above millions of its competitors. Predicted sales are 100-300 copies a day. I would imagine the range of the predicted sales is so wide as books sell in different numbers during various months of the year.

Depending on the cover price, the 1000th top seller should be returning a reasonable income to its author.

What of a book ranked 5000, still ranked above millions.

The calculator says 10-30 books a day. Even at the top end, it is barely a decent wage by many western standards.

These figures debunk the myth that eBooks have allowed a significant number of authors to give up their day jobs.

So how did Jane’s book go? Well it improved from 500,000 to 90,000. Sounds impressive.  One or two sales can provoke such a movement so I am not getting carried away.

But it did show you can market around things other than price. That is worth crowing about. In this instance we pushed "free to Kindle Unlimited members" and Jane's birthday which by coincidence fell on the day of our promotion.

And now we press on towards #5000. Any suggestions for our future tactics?

Jane says I did all right and that reminds me of a song:

Coincidence or fate: You decide

http://amzn.to/1GbfAgg 

http://bitly.com/1C9DWox 

AS the publishing guru at the helm of Bent Banana Books, I decided I would do a promotion for Jane Sharp’s first book, Vision  the Reluctant Psychic, of her ghost-mystery series   .

I decided I would do the promo with Kindle Book Review because they seemed good value and Vision  the Reluctant Psychic is exclusive to Kindle.

But the thing was to have another hook in addition to it being available for free to Kindle Unlimited and Prime subscribers.

I did not want to do a price discount as I am tired of small presses and indie author promoting around price while the major publishers merrily sell heaps of eBooks at $15 and upwards.)

Anyway, I told author Jane Sharp I had booked a promo for January 16 and she replied that it was her birthday.

And so it goes that I have hidden a message inside today’s promo at https://www.thekindlebookreview.net/

Pretty clever, eh? Please ask all your friends to see if they can find the message.

Do you reckon my alt to price-based marketing has any legs? Will it garner sales?

Give us your opinion and other suggestions on non-fiscal promos I might try.

I will keep you informed of the results.

Cheers

Bernie

When we sell heaps of copies of Jane’s books 
Vision:  the Reluctant Psychic (http://amzn.to/1GbfAgg) and Vision: the Complete Trudy Harper Psychic Investigations (http://bitly.com/1C9DWox ),

I will spend all of my money on bubbles, Bimmers and bling and I will have discovered the meaning of life.

When Arthur Met Trudy

The first critic declares

The first customer review of Jane Sharp’s Vision IV: The Reluctant Psychic Blooms is in..

We will let reviewer Arthur speak for himself

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5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful! November 10, 2014

By ArthurW

What a shame this is the last one in the series! I really like this author’s style. Her characters are ‘real people’ – what they think, what they say, how they feel. The descriptions of the locales make you feel you are actually there. And the story line is not just real-world but allows me, the reader, to use my own imagination to add to the content – one of the qualities I look for in books.

Trudy, the heroine, is starting a new life – following her passion, I suppose, and immediately meets situations that key in to her special abilities. Danger, nastiness, evil but also friendship, caring and protection. The full spectrum is here. I must be changing into an old romantic (something for which I blame Trudy and her powers!!!)

There have to be more in this series, Ms Sharp.

Vision IV: The Reluctant Psychic Blooms is available from

GOOGLE

Amazon

APPLE

Barnes and Noble

KOBO

Inktera

Before I introduce our song, I would like to share some amazing sculptures from World War I soldiers. These photographs were release to coincide with Remembrance Day, November 11, this year, commemorated by Commonwealth countries.

Now for our song which references both Jane's book and war.

Vision of a new star writer

Vision of a new star writer

Bent Banana Books is proud to announce the 4^th and final eBook in Jane Sharp’s Vision series.

Jane is a rare talent soon to be praised as an exponent of popular literature.

To celebrate Vision IV: The Reluctant Psychic Blooms, Vision I and Vision III are available for 99 cents from November 6 (US time) at 99 cents for a limited time.

Here are the details of the Vision series.

Vision
Vision: The Reluctant Psychic introduces police detective Trudy Harper who battles with acceptance of her erratic ability which she knows will be lampooned by her hard-bitten colleagues.
Five graphic and sometimes macabre short stories bring the mundane and the Otherworld together.
Author Jane Sharp brings refreshing realism and splashes of humor to a popular genre.
Meet chilling and heart-warming spirits as Trudy battles for justice in this world and its parallel.

Vision II

Trudy, she’s back.
Reluctant psychic, Detective Trudy Harper, is back with her paranormal “gifts’’ stronger but still beyond her conscious control.

And that could be deadly for the living and undeadly  for troubled spirits.

Vision II: The Reluctant Psychic Returns follows the ghost mystery series debut of suspense stories which gathered reader praise including favorable comparisons with police procedural television shows, The Mentalist and Law & Order.

Vision III

Psychic detective Trudy Harper flees Australia to England after the murder of her police partner.
She has surrendered her badge but she cannot set aside her troublesome psychic gifts.
In more psychic mysteries, Trudy finds anguish, horror and suspense amid scenes of ordinary domesticity.
Trudy is called upon to use her police procedural skills administer justice across two worlds and the “in-between”. Her own romantic happiness, her loved ones and her physical safety are in jeopardy as the psychic detective finds you can fly but you cannot flee your inner world or the supernatural one.

Vision IV

Everybody loves Trudy Harper. Except for the living and the dead who want to kill her.
The Reluctant Psychic Blooms is the final eBook in the popular Vision series starring Jane Sharp’s psychic detective Trudy Harper.
Trudy moves to the country and makes a new friend in female vet Gus who needs help.
Gus’s father Paul is a skeptic and 15 years older than Trudy. But they become a psychic crime fighting duo. And perhaps more?
These tales set in Australia carry the Sharp signature of suspense, the clash of the domestic and the supernatural, and off-beat humor.

Here us our song, one of my faves. Pretend it's Jane

.

Trudy returns

RELUCTANT psychic Detective Trudy Harper is back with her paranormal “gifts’’ stronger but still beyond the conscious control of the young woman.

Vision II: The Reluctant Psychic Returns follows the popular series debut which gathered reader praise including favorable comparisons with hit television shows, The Mentalist, Law & Order and Medium.

Vision II starts with Lucky Luke in which Trudy is specifically signaled out by a spirit for the first time. The Spirit does not know Trudy is a cop but he has been told she is the only one who can save his beloved grandson from a cold, lonely death.

The Price of Freedom is the harrowing and unusual tale of a kidnapping. A rich girl’s life hangs by a thread and her only chance at salvation is with her tattered teddy bear.

Trudy Harper is funny and flirtatious at the beginning of Walking a Fine Line but an ethical call on her part could cost her a career. Walking a Fine Line is a sophisticated  suspenseful tale.

Forever My Child is a signature story from Jane Sharp. White terror invades domesticity. The ending will stay with you for a long time.

In Changes, death becomes personal and Trudy is alone at the crossroads of not just her career but her very life.

Be the first to download your ecopy of Vision II: The Reluctant Psychic Returns after you check out another great cover, this one by Australian artist Julie Tarrant.

Vision II: The Reluctant Psychic Returns, published by Bent Banana Books, is out TODAY, through Amazon and its affiliates.

BUY VISION II

Without further beating around the bush, here is our celebratory launch theme song