Two Years of Creepy Hollow: Time for a GIVEAWAY!

Some of you will remember that I first began publishing Creepy Hollow as a series of novelettes (Guardian, Labyrinth, Traitor, Masquerade ...). That began in March 2012, so more than two years ago. But the first NOVEL, the compilation of those four parts along with a couple of bonus scenes, which formed The Faerie Guardian, was published in October 2012. TWO YEARS AGO THIS MONTH!

Creepy Hollow has done better out there than I could ever have hoped, and its two-year anniversary is an excellent time to celebrate!

You could win a set of all three Creepy Hollow paperbacks, or a signed Creepy Hollow postcard and bookmark. This giveaway is open internationally :-)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A Gold Award for THE FAERIE GUARDIAN!

It was pretty darn awesome to wake up to 

THIS news on Monday morning!

I don't know how many books were in my category, but I do know that this year's contest was the largest contest Readers' Favorite has ever had and that the first round of judging had to be extended because there were so many books for the judges to read. Regardless of the numbers, that gold seal makes me RIDICULOUSLY happy, as does the fact that I get to put gold stickers on all my print books now (because who doesn't like shiny stickers?!).

I did not celebrate with champagne, but rather with this gigantic box of Lindor that my husband presented to me when he got home (and which is, in my opinion, a whole lot better than champagne!).

THE FAERIE GUARDIAN: Free for the Month of August!

The Faerie Guardian was published in October 2012, and, until now, it has never been free! So, since the trilogy has been complete for a while now, I decided to test the free effect by reducing the price to zero for a month. I know all about the benefits of free ebooks, but I also know that some think making a book free "devalues" it. I'm also very much aware that free ebooks invite the possibility of more negative reviews from the people who download freebies without paying attention to whether it's a book they actually want to read and then find themselves disappointed when they discover it isn't. (This book has faeries in it. I hate faeries. Two stars for you! ~ entirely fictional example ;-) )

I've had close to 12,000 free downloads so far, which is fantastic, but all my paid ads are coming up at the end of this week, so I expect to see a considerable jump in daily downloads (and, hopefully, a jump in the sales of book 2 and 3!).

When the promo's over, I'll report back on download numbers, sales numbers and the effects of different paid ads :-)

In the meantime, if you feel like sharing the news about this freebie, here's what you can do to help:

Share this Facebook post.

Retweet this tweet.

Share this Google+ post.

THANK YOU! 

Brand New Covers for the Creepy Hollow Series!

I am soooooooo excited to reveal these new covers! I love, love, love my original covers in print. They look so cool on the paperback copies on my shelf. But these new covers look super kickass on the ebooks. So without wasting any more words (because I know you'll just scroll down anyway ;-) ), heeeeeeeeeere they are!!

THE FAERIE GUARDIAN
Amazon | Barnes&Noble | iTunes

THE FAERIE PRINCE
Amazon | Barnes&Noble | iTunes

THE FAERIE WAR

Amazon | Barnes&Noble | iTunes

A little more behind the process...

Any designer who is also a writer will tell you that the hardest book covers to design are one's own. I struggled to come up with a set of covers that I LOVED! Several months ago, before I revealed the print cover for THE FAERIE WAR, I designed a new set of covers for the Creepy Hollow ebooks. Here they are:

I really liked these covers, and they looked super cool close up, but I realized after a while that at thumbnail size it was difficult to see what was on them. There wasn't enough contrast between the background and the model on each cover. So ... I started again. And here's what I came up with the second time:

I liked these covers too, and I really wanted them to be the final version after all the time I spent on them, but when I was honest with myself, I still didn't LOVE them. *sigh* So it was back to the beginning AGAIN. And this time I decided to go with something simpler. Those other covers were cool, but there was just too MUCH happening on them. You know what they say -- less is more ;-) And this time, when I was done, I LOVED the covers. Third time lucky!

Giveaway time!

My Facebook page recently reached 1000 likes. Woohoo! So I'm having a little giveaway to celebrate. You can enter below :-)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

AN A TO Z OF CREEPY HOLLOW FAE gets a makeover!

I'm not sure why it took me so long to get around to this, but I finally made my Creepy Hollow companion ebook FREE. And along with that, I thought it was time for a new cover (and some new formatting inside the ebook). When I did the first cover for An A to Z of Creepy Hollow Fae, it was something I threw together pretty quickly. But I've since decided that it might draw more attention with a person on the front.

So A to Z went backstage, had a makeover, and here she is! The new and improved Creepy Hollow companion ebook!

New Covers for the Creepy Hollow series

And this brings me to my next announcement. For a while now (since before I revealed The Faerie War's cover!), I've been planning to redo ALL the Creepy Hollow book covers. This was a difficult decision because there have been many people who've said how beautiful they find the series' covers, and other people who've said they've picked up the book purely because they were attracted by the cover.

BUT I also feel as though people searching through the Kindle lists for something to download may see the Creepy Hollow covers and think the pictures represent stories that are more juvenile than they actually are. I think perhaps this series would attract more readers of the YA fantasy/paranormal genre if they looked a little more like the new A to Z cover up there.

BUT I still love the original covers, and I think they look completely gorgeous in print.

SO, here's what I plan to do: I'm keeping the original covers for the print versions and doing new covers for the ebook versions.

Do you want to help reveal these covers?

I'll be revealing these new covers on Thurs Dec 5. I know there are so many cover reveals going on all the time, so if you're tired of them and don't want to take part, I totally get that. But if you do want to help out by sharing the new covers, please leave your email address in the comments below.

THANK YOU!

If you'd like to share this image anywhere online, please feel free!

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On a much sadder and more serious note ...

A red balloon for Andrew McNaughton, the stepson of Nick Wilford. 

Sadly, Andrew passed away recently and his funeral is being held today.

Andrew is the boy who inspired writers across the globe to write 

an anthology of stories entitled Overcoming Adversity.

The Faerie War Book Launch

Yay! I've finally done it! Had a REAL-LIFE book launch! Those of you who follow my Facebook page may have already seen these photos, but now that the blog tour's over, I thought I should post them here too.

The event took place on Saturday Oct 26th at Maris Stella school in Durban. I roped in my husband and a few friends to help me set everything up, and my mom did most of the yummy catering. Approximately 70 people attended, including a group of girls from the school I used to teach at. It was incredibly special to have them there, as they were the ones who first read my book before it was even in printed form.

Unpacking boxes of books

Tying up trilogy packs with ribbon

Here's my "signing table" by the piano :-) (Pretty flowers!)

Button badges

Super cool "guardian in training" T-shirts!

Yeah, that would be me, happy to be surrounded by my gorgeous print books!

The prize pack for the lucky draw. Four books plus some other stuff.

Hey look! I'm signing a book! (Totally not posed ;-) )

And ... my first fans have arrived :-)

My mom did all the delicious catering

Faerie cupcakes

A group of girls came from the school I used to teach at! Yay!

Mini prize packs for the quiz

Signing a book for real this time ;-)

And that would be me talking in front of everyone (totally not freaking out at all. BREATHE!)

One of the winners of a mini prize pack

Winner of the lucky draw prize pack

It was a fantastic morning :-) I had fun, and I'm so glad I did this. It was a lot of effort to organize, though, so it's not something I'll be doing for every book I release. Maybe for every complete series!

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WHAT'S NEXT?

Now that The Faerie War release celebrations are over (and all three of my books are currently on Amazon bestseller lists. Woohoo!), it's time to get on with the next project.

NaNoWriMo!

Which is starting TOMORROW! And I have no plan written down yet because all I've been doing since the book launch finished is formatting for Morgan Media. So ... bring on the pantsing!

The Faerie War Blog Tour

Thank you SOOO much to everyone who helped spread the word yesterday about The Faerie War's release! Here's what's happening over the next week. Please feel free to stop by any post that interests you and say hi!

Blog Tour Schedule

Tues 22 Oct

SS Book Fanatics ~ Promo Post

Buried in Books ~ Review

Random Things in Action ~ Review

Some Like it Paranormal ~ Review

Wed 23 Oct

Queendsheena ~ Review

In Between ~ Review

Elizabeth Delano Rosa - Interview

Thurs 24 Oct

Gwen Gardner ~ Creepy Hollow Playlist

Jessica Loves Books ~ Review

The Rest is Still Unwritten ~ Review

Mom in Love with Fiction ~ Review

Fri 25 Oct

Jeanz Book ReadnReview ~ Interview | Series Spotlight

Refracted Light Reviews ~ Review

Mon 28 Oct

Clare Dugmore ~ Saying Goodby to a Series

Surrounded by Books Reviews ~ Review

Not Everyone's Mama ~ Review

Part of that World ~ Review

Tues 29 Oct

A Bookish Escape ~ Review

Second Book to the Right ~ Review

The Unofficial Addiction Book Fan Club ~ Review

Wed 30 Oct

Fabulosity Reads ~ Interview

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And don't forget the giveaway!

Signed Creepy Hollow book, Creepy Hollow jewelry, 

and loads of ebooks from awesome YA authors!

Thank you to all the generous authors who donated ebooks for this giveaway

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You can finally read the end of Violet's story - THE FAERIE WAR is here!

It's party time!!! 

My third book baby is finally here!

Two and a half years ago, while taking a break from the loooong novel I'd finally finished writing, the words 'creepy hollow' popped into my head. From those two words, a magical world and three novels have been created. I'm SOOOO excited (and a little sad) that the finale to Violet's story is finally here. I hope you love it!

Amazon US | Amazon UK

Barnes & Noble

iTunes

CreateSpace (print)

I put together eight teaser images which are being displayed on various blogs today. If you'd like to see them, you can visit the following fabulous bloggers who are totally awesome-sauce and offered to help me share the word today! (If you want to share any of the images on Facebook, Twitter, etc. please go right ahead!)

And what's a release day party without stuff to
GIVE AWAY?!

Thank you to all the generous authors who donated ebooks for this giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Creepy Hollow Series: Together at Last

Indie Life is a monthly feature hosted by the fabulous Indelibles where we get to share something related to indie writing life.

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Guess what I'm celebrating this month? The completion of my very first series! Yaaaaay! On October 21st, all three of my books will be out in the published world. Whooopeeeee!

So what does that mean for me as an indie author? More freedom! No publisher telling me I have to write in the same genre because that's the way they branded me. I can go whichever way I want now. And that's what I plan to do!

For now, I'd like to introduce you to the Creepy Hollow series, finally able to chill together on a couch/shelve instead of a computer folder :-)

Sign Up: THE FAERIE WAR Release Day Blitz & Book Reviews!

It's that time again!

I'm getting ready to release another book, and I can't do it without you! This one is EXTRA special because it's the end of my very first series. If you'd like to be involved, there are two ways you can be super duper awesome...

If you'd like to share this banner on your blog, please link back to this blog post at http://www.rachel-morgan.com/2013/09/sign-up-faerie-war-release-day-blitz.html

Release Day Blitz

Release day is Monday October 21st!
For anyone who wants to help spread the word, I'll send you an announcement post that you can put on your blog on release day. To make it interesting and a little less "generic", I'll be utilizing my Photshopping skills to create some scenes/characters from the novel along with teaser excerpts. I'll send different images to different blogs so that you don't all have to post the same thing :-)
If you want to take part in that (pretty please!!), sign up here ...



Book Reviews

For interviews, giveaways and guest posts, I'll be contacting bloggers directly to see who's interested, but if you'd like to post a book review during the blog tour, which is running from October 22nd to 29th, please sign up here ...

THANK YOU ALL IN ADVANCE!