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

The Effects of a FREE Ebook on Paid Sales

The Faerie Guardian was free for one month,

and in that time there were

65,928 downloads!

Amazon - 48,938

B&N and iBooks - 16,989

I was hoping to reach 50,000 downloads in a month, so a total of 

almost 66,000 is freaking AWESOME!

The highest it was ranked was #7 overall in the Free Kindle US Store.

Here are some more details from Amazon:

Free downloads of The Faerie Guardian. Click to enlarge.

Paid sales during the period The Faerie Guardian was free.

The Effect on Paid Sales

I had obviously hoped that sales of Creepy Hollow #2 and #3 would go up after making #1 free, and they most certainly did (more so than I expected). I don't sell many of my contemporary romance books, so most of the sales on that second graph are of Creepy Hollow books. It's still quite soon after the promo, so sales are still high. I'm expecting them to dip down a bit over the next few weeks and average out at a daily number that's slightly higher than before the free promo.

The Effect on Reviews

The main reason it took me so long to do a major free promo is because I've heard a lot about how free books receive more negative reviews. This is because a lot of readers will download a book simply because it's free, and not because it's something they really want to read. They then end up reading books that aren't really their thing, and then rate them negatively.

Fortunately, I haven't seen this happening yet! Before TFG went free, it had 121 reviews on Amazon (and it took about 21 months to get those reviews, so an average of 5 to 6 reviews per month). TFG is now sitting on 170 reviews, and those last 49 reviews all appeared in the space of one month. Here's the breakdown of those 49 new reviews:

5* ~ 35
4* ~ 10
3* ~ 3
2* ~ 1
1* ~ 0


MY CONCLUSION

• BookBub is worth every cent!
• Making the first book in a series free definitely leads to sales of the rest of the series.
• The royalties I lost on book #1 by making it free were MOOOOORE than made up in increased sales of books #2 and #3.
• Periodically making a book free may be better than making a book permanently free. (There is a big boost of downloads and sales after a book first goes free, and thereafter downloads decline.)

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

Movie Posters for CITY OF BONES. Only a few months to go!

Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments series is one of my favorites, so I am REALLY excited for the City of Bones movie coming in August! I recently came across some of the gorgeous character posters, and I feel a need to share my excitement by showing them to you :-)

They're not all the way I pictured them, but I'm not going to be a hater, so bring on the movie awesomeness! (Please don't be disappointing like, ahem, that other movie series based on that other really successful book series!)

~  ~  ~

Also, for a few exhilarating hours, The Faerie Guardian found itself keeping company with City of Bones on a UK Kindle Store bestseller list. NO FREAKING WAY! It's fallen down the list now, but TFG enjoyed its few hours basking in the glow given off by the fabulous COB and trying not to pass out from excitement.

Featured: Fairy Tale Fortnight & The A to Z Challenge

Happy April! (And happy A to Z Challenge, for all those participating!)

I hope you all had a blessed Easter this weekend, spent special time with your families, and ate lots and lots of chocolate! (I have a rather large stash to get through still ;-) )

Anyway, this is just a quick post to share three links with you ...

• Yesterday I was at The Book Rat for an interview and giveaway as part of Fairy Tale Fortnight.
• Today, also for Fairy Tale Fortnight, you can find an excerpt from my fairy tale-esque book, The Faerie Guardian.
• And A to Z Challenge co-host Damyanti from Daily w(rite) is featuring indie-published book excerpts every day during the month of April, and she's kicked off the challenge today with an excerpt from my ebook An A to Z of Creepy Hollow Fae.

So PLEEEEEASE go visit The Book Rat and Daily w(rite)! If not to see my posts, then to check out the other cool Fairy Tale posts and the indie authors featured on Damyanti's blog :-)

~  ~  ~

In other news, Juliana Haygert's very first self-published novel, Destiny Gift, is now available on all major online ebook retailers!

Amazon | Barnes&Nobles | Smashwords | Kobo | Goodreads | Pinterest Board

Presenting ... The Animated Cover for THE FAERIE GUARDIAN!

Come on. You knew I would try it out after I found those other animated covers! Now, I know it's very simple, just the twinkling stars, but I had to create 42 different images to get that effect! (Actually, I created a whole lot more images than that, but I decided the other stuff didn't look as nice.) And I think simpler is probably better - don't want it to be too distracting :-)
Anyway, what do you think?

Spotlight on Ryn and Tora #CreepyHollow

Two spotlights today! You can find out more about Oryn at Worlds Away Book Blog, and Tora at Better Read than Dead.

I found stock images that I thought perfectly suited Violet, Nate and Ryn, but I eventually picked an actress for Tora - Abbie Cornish. She's meant to have green highlights in her blonde hair. Yip, green.




And that brings this short little blog tour to an end :-)

A big THANK YOU to everyone who hosted, everyone who visited and commented, and all the people who have never stopped being a great support on this exciting writing journey :-) I'm grateful to every one of you.

Three in a Row, and a FR33BIE for Creepy Hollow Fans!

Three book reviews in a row, today! We've got Cherie Reads , Read Review Smile (including an interview and another giveaway - whoopie!) and Camille Picott. Thank you, lovely ladies!

*FREEBIE TIME*

I know that a lot of you readers have already bought the four ebooks that make up the content of The Faerie Guardian. So if those of you who have (honour system now ;-) ) would like a copy of The Faerie Guardian so you can read the little extra bit at the end (or just because it looks good in your collection ;-) ), just leave your email address in the comments and I'll get back to you.

Happy Thursday :-)


*expires 12 Nov

Spotlight on Nate #CreepyHollow (And Wedding Stress!)

Thank you, thank you, yesterday's hosts :-)

And woohoo, today we have another character spotlight! This time it's Nate who's on the spot, over at **Qwerty**.
And if you'd like to "meet" me and see where I spend my days writing and teaching, you can visit erica and christy (who came out of blog hiatus especially to host me! What an honour!) to check out the video fun :-)

 ~  ~  ~

In other news ... I had my first wedding-stress dream! Aaaah! I think I've been pretty chilled so far with wedding stuff, but ever since I woke up from that stressful nonsense dream, I've had this anxiety inside me! Ridiculous, since there are the same amount of wedding things left to do today as there were yesterday. But this happens to everyone, right? You get all stressed out and then it's an awesome day? *sigh* I know it will be. Just gotta get there :-)

Spotlight on Vi #CreepyHollow

Thank you to yesterday's hosts!

Today you can find out more about Violet over at The Book Hookup.
And Sandra of the Simply Sensational Book Fanatics (who is a South African blogger like me - yay!) is posting a review. Awesomesauce! [Edit: seems I'm not the only one using that word today ;-) Hehe! ]

And in case you haven't entered (because it hadn't yet been approved yesterday), here is the Goodreads giveaway :-)

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Faerie Guardian

by Rachel Morgan

Giveaway ends November 12, 2012.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

The Official Launch of THE FAERIE GUARDIAN!

Yaaaay! Launch day!

I know the content of this book has already been published in separate parts, but it's still exciting to have it all together in a novel. And in a print edition! And thank you to anyone who's already purchased a copy -- and those who've sent me messages to tell me they've enjoyed it :-) I won't get tired of hearing that :-)

Ebook:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Smashwords

Print:

CreateSpace

So there's a little blog tour happening this week. Today you can visit:

• Loves 2 Read for a book review and giveaway of some ebooks, 
• Refracted Light for a chat with Vi & Ryn (definitely fun ;-) ), and 
• Walking on Bookshelves for another review and an excerpt from the book.

Here's the Rafflecopter giveaway taking place on Loves 2 Read:

Rafflecopter Giveaway

Aaaaand here's a Goodreads giveaway for a paperback of The Faerie Guardian!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Faerie Guardian

by Rachel Morgan

Giveaway ends November 12, 2012.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

PS - If you haven't read the latest news, check out yesterday's post about a Creepy Hollow decision.

The Crazy Author Dance (In Honor of the Print Proof of THE FAERIE GUARDIAN)

Guess what, guess what?! The proof copy of THE FAERIE GUARDIAN finally arrived! Sooooooo exciting to hold my actual very own real life book in my hands! I think you can only really understand the insanity feeling once it's happened to you. It's like I'm looking at a book for the first time! There are actual pages with real words printed on them and the pages turn and my name is there and it's ALL SO AWESOME! See what I said about insanity? On top of which I felt the need to video this experience so that you can all see me dancing around like a complete fruitloop.

Feel free to laugh. I am here to entertain!

Launching the Cover for THE FAERIE GUARDIAN!

Yippee, yippee, yay :-)

Protecting humans from dangerous magical creatures is all in a day’s work for a faerie training to be a guardian. Seventeen-year-old Violet Fairdale knows this better than anyone—she’s about to become the best guardian the Guild has seen in years. That is, until a cute human boy who can somehow see through her faerie glamour follows her into the fae realm. Now she’s broken Guild Law, a crime that could lead to her expulsion. 

The last thing Vi wants to do is spend any more time with the boy who got her into this mess, but the Guild requires that she return Nate to his home and make him forget everything he’s discovered of the fae realm. Easy, right? Not when you factor in evil faeries, long-lost family members, and inconvenient feelings of the romantic kind. Vi is about to find herself tangled up in a dangerous plot—and it’ll take all her training to get out of it alive. 

[This novel is a compilation of Guardian, Labyrinth, Traitor and Masquerade, and includes bonus scenes at the end.]

Release Date : 5 Nov 2012

Add on Goodreads

And since this novel will also be published in print form, I get to show you the whole spread :-)

Click to enlarge

Giveaway time! 

Alrighty, so at the end of this book there are some "bonus" scenes that are NOT written from Vi's point of view. If you'd like to win a $10 Amazon gift card, all you have to do is guess whose point of view the scenes are written from! Enter your answer into the Rafflecopter widget below. There will be TWO winners.
The characters you can choose from (in alphabetical order) are:

• Calla
• Flint
• Nate
• Ryn
• Scarlett
• Tora
• Zell

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank you HEAPS to the following people who are helping to reveal this cover today or in the next few days. Virtual cupcakes for you all :-)

Vive le Nerd | Alex J. Cavanaugh | My Inner Fairy | Komal Lewis | Cherie Reich - Author | Ink in the Book | Juliana Haygert | The Peasants Revolt | Geek Banter | Queendsheena | Gwen Gardner, YA Author | So, You're a Writer... | Refracted Light Reviews | Michael Pierce | Jinky is Reading | Anything Imagined | Buried in Books | In Time... | Cally Jackson Writes | Dreaming in Black and White | Tangent Shell | Elise Fallson | Kittie Howard | Author Jacqueline Gardner | Eagle's Aerial Perspective | Worlds Away Book Blog