In the past month, I’ve seen more and more devoted Nate fans, which has surprised me– not because Nate isn’t wonderful… he is. It’s just that so many readers in the first few months were so devoted to Jack. I love that Nate’s getting some love now. For me, I waver, depending on my mood. Who’s your favorite guy– Nate or Jack? Or are you just happy Emi’s happy?
Month: September 2012
September 21, 2013
I had an epiphany last Friday.
Well, it sort of all started the Tuesday before that. That was the day my three-day-free promotion began for my first novel, Lost and Found. The campaign surpassed my wildest expectations, both in freebies and in ensuing sales, so I was riding a high with my writing career on Friday.
Of course that means another part of my life had to suck monumentally to even everything out. And work truly sucked. I’ll admit, my job is pretty good as far as jobs-that-pay-bills go. I’ve had some really crappy jobs in recent years that have made me grateful to have my current job with a good company. I really don’t mean to complain about it, but things happen at work that are truly out of my control, and nothing riles me up more than getting in trouble for something that’s out of my control. That’s how I feel about what happened at about 4:15 last Friday. My boss– who’s really one of the nicest, fairest, most level-headed guys I’ve ever known– started the conversation by joking about making me cry… and then, to his surprise, he did make me cry. I’d had an incredibly stressful week, and for it to end with the feedback he gave me… well, it pissed me off. It made me mad. It pushed me to make a big decision.
Inspired by the minor success of the book last week, and frustrated with the job that actually pays the bills, I decided that I was going to become a full-time author in 365 days. (I wouldn’t consider this my official notice of resignation, because there are benchmarks I need to hit along the way, but I’ve set the goal of goals for myself.) I need to start selling enough books and generating enough publicity to be able to support myself by September 21, 2013. (I’ll also be looking for a home, so if anyone has a cheap spare room and no small children that my dog can eat, let me know. A lake house or mountain cabin would be optimal.)
I’m very self-motivated already, and have a few strategies in place. My big marketing efforts will start in November, and I hope to really start seeing more interest in my books. By then, I will also have released my new Young Adult book, which will hopefully introduce my style to a whole new generation of readers. In November, I will have four full-length novels and one novella on the market, with two more books in the editing phase and three more in the writing phase. I really am setting myself up for success, and I honestly believe I can do this.
A few things will be imperative. I can’t get depressed if sales don’t take off like I hope they will. I have to surround myself with people who believe in me, and distance myself from those that don’t. I’ll have to eliminate distractions. Most importantly, I’ll have to keep writing. I think I can feasibly release three books (at least) in the next year: the first and second books of Livvy’s series, and the first book of Steven’s series. But there always needs to be more in the pipeline. This career has to be sustainable. This has to earn me more money than my current job… but I think it can. I really think it can.
A simple note to all of my readers…
Thank you so much for checking out the Emi Lost & Found series. Y’all have made me the happiest little author this past week! I’m so appreciative that you chose my books to download, buy or borrow. I know time is precious, and it means a lot that you’d choose to carve out a little of your time for the stories of Nate, Emi and Jack. I hope you enjoy the books!
Have a great week!
Protected: He makes me laugh…
A sneak peek at the new series! It’s coming!
My latest book is written, and just waiting on a title and cover art. What does that mean for you, readers? That it’s almost ready!!
SUMMARY of the first book: When she was four, a generous couple welcomed orphan Olivia Sophia into their lives. As she grew up, her parents made good decisions for her, raising “Livvy” to be an intelligent and creative young girl. Now sixteen, three people influence many of her choices: her first love, her second father, and a third man who speaks to her through his artwork.
Livvy’s father is practical and steadfast; even-tempered and quietly observant. She’s an artist who acts on her emotions and thrives on praise. Unhappy with their differences– and misunderstanding her father’s methods– Livvy chooses to focus on the similarities she shares with an enigmatic painter from her mother’s past. Her overactive imagination leads her down an obsessive path– one that only stands to hurt everyone around her.
The distraction of a new boyfriend has the potential to end her search and reunite her family, but his involvement in her life could be just as devastating, taking Livvy away from her father for good.
An excerpt follows…
Continue reading “A sneak peek at the new series! It’s coming!”
KDP Select came through for me… this time!
Please excuse my while I humbly sit in shock…
First of all, thank you to all of you readers who took advantage of the free LOST AND FOUND ebook offer over the past three days. For once, I am blown away by the results. Now, the rest of this post will probably only interest other self-published authors… but feel free to read on.
I’m not a big-time book seller. The money I make from books each month could typically pay for dinner for myself at a $$-$$$ restaurant. Once. I’m obviously not quitting my day job anytime soon. I’ve had an incredibly difficult time marketing my books, and it shows. My series is quite well-reviewed (4.29 on Goodreads), but I haven’t been able to reach the masses yet. I do have some fans that are very good at recommending the books to their friends, and I’m grateful to them, but I guess the lack of a red room of pain keeps this from reaching an audience I once thought would enjoy my stories. Regardless, I don’t intend to add one to any future books.
Bygones.
So as most of you know, I’ve been participating in the KDP Select program through Amazon.com. If I sell my ebooks through them exclusively, I have the opportunity to promote them for free five times in a 90-day period. I haven’t been incredibly successful at finding the right day to offer these free ebooks, nor have I been very good at promoting the offer. Over the past five months, I’ve offered LOST AND FOUND for free ten days. I don’t remember the stats of the first five, but on the sixth time, I gave away about 450 books (on a Tuesday). I did very little to promote the offer that day, and was pleased with the results. The seventh time, I gave away the book on Labor Day, and only gave away 93 books. I had even submitted the offer to free-Kindle-promotional websites the day before, but they seemed to have no effect. I was extremely disappointed in those results.
It was after the seventh time that I decided to do a little research about other peoples’ successful campaigns. The ones that I read about with the best results were multi-day offers that were supported by advance promotion, blog tours and social media bursts. I decided to use my last three days of this 90-day period and offer the book for free three days in a row. I was hoping to give away 500 books, but dreamed of breaking the Top 100 Free Kindle books chart. I had no idea how many books that would require me to give away.
I picked Tuesday through Thursday, and planned ahead by submitting my book to a lot of websites that promote free Kindle books the weekend before the promotion began. I created a three-day Twitter campaign that tweeted every ten minutes from midnight to 9pm. Tuesday was depressing. I checked stats all day, and even half-way through Wednesday, I had only given away a little over 100 books. I sort of pouted all afternoon, even as I saw tons of my Twitter followers retweeting my tweets. I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong.
After work Wednesday, feeling sorry for myself, I checked my stats. Somehow, I was up to 1300 books given away. In four hours, 1200 books had been downloaded. I was floored, and I realized I was inching closer and closer to the Top 100 Free Kindle books chart. Five hours later, I was up to 3500 books, and my book was sitting pretty in the 105th position. I thought once it hit the Top 100, even more downloads would come because it would have a lot more exposure.
When I woke up this morning, I had reached #39 on the chart with over 4000 downloads. While I suspected today would be even better than yesterday, things have slowed down considerably. Right now, with about four hours remaining, I’ve given away about 5450 books. That averages out to approximately 80 books an hour since the promotion started. Consider my mind blown.
I still don’t know what happened yesterday afternoon to bring so much attention to my book, but whatever it was, it helped me surpass my goals by quantities I couldn’t fathom before now. I know that a lot of people who download free books never get around to reading them all, but even if 1% read them, I’d be elated. That’s 54 new readers gained in three days.
Not only did people take advantage of the free offers, I also sold quite a few books, making this month my best month ever, looking strictly at royalties. In the last three days, I nearly doubled what I’d sold in the first 17 days of the month, and even though that’s still not very many books, it could pay for a few modest dinners, which is a huge success, in my mind. I’ll probably use the extra money for Christmas gifts, though.
What did I learn? Gee… a part of me still thinks it might be a fluke, but when it comes time to give away the next great book, I’ll definitely try this strategy again first.
Lost and Found ebook FREE today: Excerpt #3
The Lost and Found ebook is FREE from September 18 to September 20. Each day, I’ll be posting a brief excerpt from the book for your viewing pleasure. Make sure you spread the word to your friends so they can take advantage of the free book offer!
From Lost and Found, Chapter 11 (Nate’s point of view):
I begin to recite a poem as I tap the rhythm on her skin, each syllable represented by another small speck on her pale flesh.
“One transcendent kiss
That later makes lovers take
Soft breaths, holding hands”
“That was beautiful,” she says, shivering when I kiss what has now become my favorite part of her. “Who wrote that?”
I look up at her, amused by her question. “That’s your haiku. One syllable for every freckle.”
“You wrote that?” I nod to her. “When?”
“Just now. Just for you.”
She looks at me, stunned, before a smile breaks across her face. “Say it again,” she whispers.
I clear my throat before beginning. “One transcendent kiss,” I say as I rise from the bed. Standing in front of her, I lift her chin so our eyes can meet. My stomach tightens as my thumbs brush over her dimples.
She takes a deep breath. “One transcendent kiss,” she repeats. I watch her closely as she moves toward me. Just another inch or two, and her breasts would be touching my torso. Her soft lips on mine, they move in sync. The sweet taste of her just makes me want more. My hands move slowly down her body. “Go on,” she whispers, exposing her neck to me.
“That later—” I speak softly against the hollow beneath her ear, tracing her earlobe with my tongue. Curious, I press kisses on her shoulders, her collarbone, then finally reach my destination. My lips surround the areola on her right breast.
“That later–” she gasps headily as I suck lightly, her fingernails digging into my naked back. Not wanting to ignore her left breast, I do the same, and am rewarded with a soft moan escaping her lips. I could abandon the poetry altogether at this point, and continue to find more actions that may yield the same response. It’s a beautiful sound, but I decide to continue my recitation, wanting to see her expression when I declare what we are; what we’re about to be. My lips move back up her body, stopping for a gentle peck on her forehead.
She waits in anticipation for my next words. I hold her head inches from mine, watching her eyes, the skin of her cheeks, as I deliver my next line. “Makes lovers—” My gaze seems to move through her, and she doesn’t blink as she repeats me.
“Makes lovers–” Her skin blushes a bright pink, as I had suspected it would. She would never be able to hide her reactions from me, something I had noted long ago but could never truly appreciate until now. She moistens her lips, then smiles. I lean back in to kiss her again, the passion between us beginning to boil up to the surface. Our kisses are soft and deep, fast and needing. I break away only when the need to inhale overcomes me.
“Take soft breaths—” I say quickly, drawing in the air around me, my heart racing.
“Soft breaths–” She wastes no time, either, her lips returning to mine for more. Her hands press into my flesh, traveling down my torso, pushing against my boxers. Trailing kisses down her body quickly, I stop when I reach the lacy hemline of her panties. Her breathing is expectant and shallow. I look up to her one last time. Her fingers direct mine beneath the fabric, permitting me to remove the soft garment from her body. She steps out of them as I stand back up, pushing my own underwear to the floor. She takes my hands in hers and holds them tightly at our sides. I kiss her once.
“Holding hands,” she finishes the poem.
I stare at her in silence for a few seconds before concluding her haiku.
“Holding hands.” I swallow hard as we stand before one another, completely exposed. Her hands still in mine, I wrap my arms around her back and pull her body tight against mine, her breasts pressing against me. I hold her wrists in my left hand, releasing the right one to explore her body. I drag my fingers slowly across her pale skin, hovering around her most sensitive area. She slowly puts her foot on the bed behind me.
©2011 Lori L. Otto
Lost and Found ebook FREE today: Excerpt #2
The Lost and Found ebook is FREE from September 18 to September 20. Each day, I’ll be posting a brief excerpt from the book for your viewing pleasure. Make sure you spread the word to your friends so they can take advantage of the free book offer!
From Lost and Found, Chapter 4 (Nate’s point of view):
“You’re not leaving, are you?” Emi asked.
“Do you want me to?”
“No. Please stay.” She scooted back and lifted up the blankets, welcoming me into the bed next to her. This wasn’t the first time we had shared a bed together. There were a few times when boredom had led us to my bed, or hers, but we never did anything but nap together. And even then, we never touched, because I knew I wouldn’t be able to hide my attraction to her, and that would have been an incredibly awkward conversation. In fact, every time, I had to sleep with my back to her, and the sleep was usually pretty restless for me. I always woke up before her, and sometimes found myself taking care of matters in the bathroom before she got up. I was a teenage boy, after all.
After kicking off my shoes, I climbed into the bed and turned my back to her. Suddenly her hand was on my shoulder, nudging my back into the bed, and she was sidling up next to me.
“Aren’t you hot?” she asked as her hand ran up and down my chest over the wool sweater I had worn. Her eyes were still closed but a pretty smile spread across her lips.
“A little, yeah,” I breathed. She gripped the hem of the sweater– and of my undershirt– and pulled them both over my head. I helped to remove them the rest of the way and threw my shirts onto the floor. “You okay?”
“I’m hot, too,” she said, and before I knew it, she was unbuckling the overalls and removing both of her shirts, too.
“Emi,” I tried to caution her, but once the shirts were off, her lips were on mine, hard and fast. She tossed the overalls over my head, too. Fuck.
“Have sex with me,” she slurred.
“What?” I asked, trying to make sure I heard her right.
“Have sex with me, Nate. I’m ready. I want to.”
My brain was saying no. My hormones had another idea, and my foolish teenaged heart was all in. Still, I tried to fight. “It’s not a good idea.” Before I could even get the sentence out, she was taking off my pants. I managed to grab my wallet out of the pocket before she had them all the way off. I was relieved to find a few condoms in the side pouch.
“Please?” she asked. Her eyes opened slightly, and it looked like she was having a hard time focusing on me. It was wrong, so fucking wrong.
“Let’s slow down,” I told her, apparently convinced her. Her actions became less frantic, more restrained. I needed to get control of the situation, the only one in a position to do so. “Emi, you’re too drunk,” I reasoned, although it pained myself to do it.
“For what?” she asked. “To have sex? That can’t happen, can it?”
“It can,” I explained, “but that’s not what I meant. I think you’re too drunk to– ohhhh…” Her fingers brushed against me under the covers, over my boxers. Too drunk to make this decision, I wanted to say. I couldn’t, though, not with her touching me like that. My lips found hers immediately as her fingers explored my body beneath the sheets. It felt amazing, but it still didn’t feel right, and I made the conscious decision to keep my hands above her shoulders, cradling her head as we kissed.
“Why don’t I feel it?” she whispered as she took a breath. I looked at her curiously. She would have been looking at me the same had her eyes been open. I decided to help her out, took her hand in mine, moved them slowly under my boxers and pressed her fingers harder against me. There’s no way she can’t feel that.
That got her attention and her eyes blinked open in awareness. She gripped me tighter on her own and I let her hand go… let myself get caught up in that moment. “Can you feel it now?” I asked her. “Because it feels amazing to me.”
“I feel that,” she said, emphasizing her word a little too much as she squeezed. I moaned softly in her ear. “That’s not what I meant. I want to feel what I felt when you kissed me. I don’t feel it.”
“What do you mean?” I didn’t give her a chance to answer. I just continued to kiss her, hoping to evoke that elusive feeling again.
She pulled both of her hands up to my face and pushed me back gently. Her brow was crinkled in uncertainty. “Earlier tonight, it felt different. It was, like, everything,” she mumbled, running her fingers through my hair.
That wasn’t me.
©2011 Lori L. Otto
Lost and Found ebook FREE today: Excerpt #1
The Lost and Found ebook is FREE from September 18 to September 20. Each day, I’ll be posting a brief excerpt from the book for your viewing pleasure. Make sure you spread the word to your friends so they can take advantage of the free book offer!
From Lost and Found, Chapter 1 (Emi’s point of view):
“Are you ever going to learn to do this yourself? I won’t always be here.” I set my wine down and begin to arrange the ends into a knot. “And where’s the step stool?” He begins to walk backwards to another corner of the kitchen, pulling me along when I don’t let go of his neckwear, slowly kicking the stool out to me. I stand on the second step, finding it easier to do this particular task when he isn’t towering a foot above me.
“I can,” he says. “It just never turns out right… and I’d rather it be crooked than lose my patience over something that’s going to be undone in a matter of hours.” He smugly raises one eyebrow.
“Right,” I say, tightening the knot– tight– against his neck. He coughs dramatically and pulls it a little looser.
His hand draws up to my face, stopping abruptly, his finger lingering inches from my mouth. “Um, you have a little wine on your top lip.” He stares at it while I stare back at him. I lick it from my lips and smile with a slight blush.
“Thanks.”
“Thank you, Emi,” he says after clearing his throat, clutching the knot once more. “How do I look?”
“Your hair’s a mess.”
“You always say that’s a good thing,” he says, confused.
“Yeah it is,” I sigh. I’d never met another man who could pull off that look in any setting, amongst any crowd. Women everywhere he went would fall at his feet… hence the fact that he was never without one. “You look fine.”
“Just fine?”
“Good. Great. Amazing. All of the above,” I say nonchalantly. He was the epitome of handsome, and I know every detail of him like I know my own– after all, he was often my subject in portraiture class in both high school and college. I know the perfect mix of brown and yellow and white paints that would recreate that messy hair that often covers his light brown eyes. I can haphazardly paint brushstrokes in every direction and it would still look like the perfect head of hair on him. His brows are just a shade darker, his lashes long, outlining a stare so intense at times that it can go right through me. His natural tan coloring always makes me look even paler when we walk side by side. He has a strong jawline with angular cheekbones that exhibit their own natural blush. His nose is well-proportioned to his face, and turned up ever-so-slightly at the tip.
And his lips… I won’t even go there. “What were we talking about?” I ask him.
©2011 Lori L. Otto
Nate, Fate, and Soul Mates
First of all, a warning: If you haven’t read Lost and Found, this post will contain the spoiler of all spoilers. Sure, the info might be out on the net, but I’ve never made it readily available to anyone on my website. I’m not kidding– if you want to read the series and get the best experience, don’t read this now. Come back to it later for the discussion. If you’re ready to continue, you may most certainly read on by clicking “Read more” (or if you don’t see that, just scroll beneath the picture).
Lori L. Otto, author 