February Kindle First Books!

gardenman · ‎03-09-2010

Amazon has extended the two free Kindle First books into February and now also allows non-Prime members to buy them at a discounted price of $1.99. Two of the selections were winners of last year's ABNA (Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award.) "The Dead Key" by DM Pulley was the grand prize winner while "The Mermaid's Sister" by Carrie Anne Noble won the YA title.

This may be your last chance to ever buy ABNA winners as Amazon has discontinued the contest this year. They've offered no real reason, but the suspicion is that they've looked at the entries that got cut and realized they'd missed some best sellers. (Colleen Hoover was there and got cut in 2012 and has gone on to become a 6-7 time NY Times bestseller including the book that got cut in the ABNA.) The contest brought great new writers to Amazon but the sorting process wasn't as effective as Amazon would have liked and many of the best writers/books slipped through the cracks while lesser works advanced. Speculation is the contest may relaunch in a new format in a later year, but for this year, there is no ABNA.

Fly!!! Eagles!!! Fly!!!

mima · ‎03-14-2010

3 of the 4 books looked really good for Feb. I usually forget to look at them. I got two free and pre-ordered one for $4.99. The one I didn't get was the Mermaid's Sister.

Thanks for the reminder.

gardenman · ‎03-09-2010

I try to grab one or two every month. Hey, if they're giving away free books, I'll take them. I got "The Dead Key" and "The Mermaid's Sister." I'm about halfway through "The Dead Key" and it's pretty good so far.

Fly!!! Eagles!!! Fly!!!

lovescats · ‎03-10-2010

Back to only one free book this month. I chose The Altar Girl. I have enough to read anyway.

gardenman · ‎03-09-2010

I went with ""The Altar Girl"" too.

Fly!!! Eagles!!! Fly!!!

thisbe · ‎05-04-2010

Sorry to hear Amazon discontinued the contest. I remember reading your entry when you were a finalist. It was good. I hope you are still writing.

gardenman · ‎03-09-2010

On 4/1/2015 thisbe said:
Sorry to hear Amazon discontinued the contest. I remember reading your entry when you were a finalist. It was good. I hope you are still writing.

I'm still writing. I'm now in the process of self-pubbing my novels. With any luck they'll be available by the end of summer. The first one has gotten the cover done and has been through one proof and is now undergoing the second proofing. I'm only making one small change every ten to twenty pages on the second proof so once that's done I'll order a third proof copy and if I don't find anything else to change then that one will be ready to go and I'll move on to another book. I want to have most of my finished novels ready at one time so if a reader likes one, they'll have something else right there to buy. If you make a reader wait six months for another novel they're apt to forget about you and move on to someone else, so having multiple novels ready at once is smarter.

Fly!!! Eagles!!! Fly!!!

thisbe · ‎05-04-2010

I think that's a smart way to go. When I find a writer I like, I immediately go to Amazon and the library to see what else they have written and then I binge read.

Amazon has a nice feature for readers that allows you to sign up for notifications when your favorite writers have a new book that's out.

Let us know when/where your books are out.