A holiday interview with Cora

Posted on December 5, 2013 by Cora

I have been interviewed by David Njoku at Indie Author Land, where I talk a bit about my short holiday romance Christmas Gifts.

Drop by and say hello.

Send to Kindle
Posted in Interviews | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Bundle up with Speculative Fiction Bundles at DriveThruFiction

Posted on December 2, 2013 by Cora

One thing I like about DriveThruFiction, a small speculative fiction and RPG focussed e-book retailer, is the ability to create bundles of several e-books at a reduced price.

I currently have two bundles available at DriveThruFiction, the Arr, Matey! Pirate Bundle and the Tales of the Silencer Pulp Bundle (both of which have spiffy new covers), and I have also taken part in multi-publisher bundles.

So if you’ve been wanting to try my SF, Mercy Mission and The Hybrids are both currently available as part of the Snowbound Reading Science Fiction and Horror Collection together with two zombie tales by Stephen Drivick, space opera by Chris Reher (highly recommended) and Vincent Trigilli and two SF shorts by V.A. Jeffrey. And best of all, you can get e-books worth 15.95 USD for only 6.48 USD.

And just in case you’re in the mood for more indie speculative fiction, there is also the Holiday Frosty Fantasy Pack, featuring fiction by John Blackport, Scott Marlowe, MeiLin Miranda, Mackenzie Morgan and S.P. van der Lee, currently available for only 5.95 USD.

And if you want even more, try the Winter Break Fantasy Pack and the Winter Break Sci-Fi and Horror Pack, both of which are currently free.

All four bundles are only available throughout the month of December.

Send to Kindle
Posted in Books, Bookselling | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

And even more Bestsellerdom

Posted on November 28, 2013 by Cora

The new historical fiction subcategories are really paying off for me, for Seraglio has risen on the Amazon.com subcategory bestseller list for Middle Eastern historical fiction yet again.

In fact, Seraglio has been hanging out on the lower rungs of the top 100 list for Middle Eastern historical fiction for almost a month now, because the category for historical fiction set in the Middle East is rather small.

Send to Kindle
Posted in Announcements, Books | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

New holiday romance available in time for Black Friday: Christmas Gifts

Posted on November 26, 2013 by Cora

I already said that there would be more new release announcements from Pegasus Pulp in the near future and now I’m making true on that promise and give you yet another new story.

It’s a short and sweet holiday romance called Christmas Gifts about two people finding a personal connection (and very probably more) during the madness of the pre-Christmas shopping rush. The wonderfully seasonal cover art is by Russian artist Ekaterina Kokushkina.

Christmas Gifts is set on December 24, i.e. Christmas Eve, which is the biggest shopping day of the year according to retailers. Meanwhile, the biggest shopping day of the year in the US is the day after Thanksgiving a.k.a. Black Friday, which is coming up at the end of this week.

So if you want to enjoy a neat little story during, after or instead of the Black Friday shopping rush, then give Christmas Gifts a try. I can guarantee you that it is one hundred percent less stressful than shopping on an overcrowded day:

Christmas Gifts
Christmas GiftsWaiting until closing time on Christmas Eve to get a present for his Mom certainly wasn’t one of Tim’s better ideas. Especially not since the store only has a self-service wrapping station and Tim is utterly hopeless at gift-wrapping. Lucky for him, the lively and unconventional Shannon is there to lend a hand.

.

.

.

 

For more information, visit the Christmas Gifts page.
Buy it for the low price of 0.99 USD, EUR or GBP at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon France, Amazon Spain, Amazon Italy, Amazon Canada, Amazon Australia, Amazon Brazil, Amazon Japan, Amazon India, Amazon Mexico, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Apple iTunes, Casa del Libro, Libiro, Nook UK, DriveThruFiction, OmniLit/ AllRomance e-books and XinXii.

Send to Kindle
Posted in Announcements, Books | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Bestsellerdom yet again

Posted on November 26, 2013 by Cora

Under the Knout is hanging out on the Amazon.com bestseller list for historical fiction set in Russia again. It probably was even higher, since it has been a day or so since the last sale.

Send to Kindle
Posted in Announcements, Books | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Our E-Book Pricing Policy

Posted on November 23, 2013 by Cora

At Dear Author, Jane Litte goes into the ever contentious subject of e-book pricing and points out that limited time free or 99 cent promotional prices can backfire or are at least not nearly as effective as they once were.

Another unintended effect of sales and free promotions is that they train readers to wait for the book to go on sale or free before downloading it. Because, as Jane Litte points out, “almost every self published author has their book on sale at 99c at some point”.

Jane Litte also points out that loyal fans of an author who buy a book for the full price on or pretty close to release day often feel cheated when the same book is put on sale a few days or weeks later. I can totally understand this sentiment.

Now price-pulsing and giving away books for free, either via KDP Select free days or via a mechanism known as permafree along with advertising those sales and giveaways via sites like Bookbub, are indie author marketing techniques that are not just largely unquestioned in the self-publishing community, but also considered obligatory for many.

Nonetheless, I have never used any of those techniques. I hardly ever change my prices, except for minor adjustments whenever Amazon opens a new Kindle store somewhere, and over the course of my indie career I have given away maybe 220 books for free, mostly via coupons, giveaways and bundles.

Why do I eschew such common indie marketing techniques as price pulsing and free giveaways? The reason is the German fixed book price agreement, which among other things forbids reduced sale prices as well as any price changes within the first 18 months after publication for books published in Germany.

Now nobody is quite sure whether the fixed book price agreement applies to self-publishers or not. Even the association of German booksellers and publishers gives contradictory information. The main issue seems to be whether self-publishers count as publishers or not.

However, until the issue has been decided one way or another (which probably won’t happen until someone goes to court over the issue), German indies run the risk of paying pricey penalty fees for violating the fixed book price agreement.

Therefore, Pegasus Pulp adheres to the German fixed book price agreement. This means that you don’t have to worry whether one of our e-books will be discounted two weeks after publication, because it won’t happen. More information about our e-book pricing scheme can be found in the FAQ.

Send to Kindle
Posted in Books, Bookselling | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

New science fiction story available: Acacia Crescent

Posted on November 20, 2013 by Cora

It hasn’t been all that long since the last new release announcement and already we have another new story to announce. Nor will this be the last new release announcement for the foreseeable future, for Pegasus Pulp is planning to release at least three more new titles for the Christmas season.

But for now we present you another science fiction tale. The premise for this story is simple. What if the sort of alien invasion via flying saucer depicted in 1950s B-movies really happened? And what if there were eye witness accounts?

Acacia Crescent is one of those eye witness accounts, related from the POV of a ten-year-old boy experiencing the worst day of his life. And no, the flying saucers are not the reason why it was the worst day of his life.

Acacia Crescent 1956. In the quiet suburb of Shady Groves, a ten year old boy watches as both his parents are murdered, shot down by a mafia enforcer. And the mob is not inclined to leave any witnesses behind. However, an invasion from outer space may just prove to be one little boy’s salvation…

.

.

.

.

For more information, visit the Acacia Crescent page.
Buy it for the low price of 0.99 USD, EUR or GBP at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon France, Amazon Spain, Amazon Italy, Amazon Canada, Amazon Australia, Amazon Brazil, Amazon Japan, Amazon India, Amazon Mexico, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Apple iTunes, Casa del Libro, Libiro, Nook UK, DriveThruFiction, OmniLit/AllRomance e-books and XinXii.

Send to Kindle
Posted in Announcements, Books | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

A Note to Our Australian Readers

Posted on November 13, 2013 by Cora

Yesterday, Amazon opened a Kindle store in Australia. This is good news for Australian readers and for Australian writers like Andrea K. Höst, Patty Jansen, C.J. Archer and David Adams, who can now get paid via EFT rather than the increasingly old-fashioned paper cheques.

However, Amazon requires a minimum price of 3.99 AUD in order to pay 70% royalties. By comparison, the respective minimum price in other territories is 2.99 USD, 2.99 CAD or 2.86 EUR.

Now the Australian dollar is relatively close in value to the US and Canadian dollars, so up to now I always priced my novelettes at 2.99 AUD. However, due to Amazon‘s royalty and price-matching policies, I am forced to raise the prices for all novelettes to 3.99 AUD across the board or risk losing my 70% royalty and violating Amazon‘s Terms of Service. This does not just include Amazon Australia, but also Kobo as well as Australian Kobo affiliates Angus & Robertson, Bookworld and Collins Booksellers.

I am sorry about this price hike, but unfortunately it is outside my control. Perhaps Australian readers will be able to purchase Pegasus Pulp e-books for a better price at one of the many other fine retailers offering our e-books.

Send to Kindle
Posted in Announcements, Bookselling | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Pegasus Pulp crosses the 500 sales threshold

Posted on November 13, 2013 by Cora

Late last night, Pegasus Pulp crossed the 500 sales threshold across all books and platforms. And as I did for previous milestones, here is a platform breakdown:

Amazon.com: 54.4%
Amazon UK: 18.4%
Amazon Germany: 13.2%
Kobo: 4.2%
OmniLit/AllRomance: 2%
Apple: 1.8%
XinXii: 1.8%
DriveThruFiction: 1.4%
Barnes & Noble: 1%
Amazon Italy: 0.6%
Amazon Canada: 0.4%
Amazon Spain: 0.4%
Amazon France: 0.2%
Casa del Libro: 0.2%

The various Amazons still dominate, but together the smaller stores make up almost 13% of my total sales. What is more, Pegasus Pulp books weren’t even available at Kobo until summer 2012 and at Barnes & Noble and Apple until late 2012/early 2013. 14% of our total tales were German language titles BTW.

And now for a title breakdown:

1. Seraglio
2. Outlaw Love and Under the Knout (tie)
3. The Kiss of the Executioner’s Blade
4. Der Kuss des Richtschwertes
5. Hostage to Passion
6. Unter der Knute
7. Rites of Passage
8. The Hybrids
9. The Spiked Death
10. Flying Bombs
11. Mercy Mission
12. The Other Side of the Curtain
13. Kurierdienst
14. Countdown to Death and The Butcher of Spain (tie)
15. Murder in the Family
16. Flights of Madness
17. He never brings me flowers…, Letters from the Dark Side, The Hidden Castle and Old Mommark’s Tale (tie)
18. Heartache, Pissed, Courier Duty and Reiche Beute (tie)
19. Cartoony Justice, “He has come back to me”, Muse & Crisis and Honigtopf (tie)
20. Dream Job, Insomnia, Loot, Love in the Times of the Macrobiotic Müsli, Payback Time, The Apocalypse Protocol, Thirty Years to Life and Whaler (tie)
17. Family Car, Honeypot and The Dark Lily (tie)

Compared to the last time I did this for the two year anniversary of Pegasus Pulp, the top of the list has hardly changed, though The Hybrids and Mercy Mission are rising up the charts, considering both titles have only been available for a few months. Kurierdienst is another title that has been doing surprisingly well of late (and much better than the English version), though it mainly sells at Kobo.

The low sellers are the same as usual – standalone crime shorts and stories like Cartoony Justice that are just a bit too quirky and different.

Countdown to Death still sells worse than the subsequent two installments in the Silencer series (The fourth Silencer adventure Elevator of Doom will be out sometime before Christmas) and The Butcher of Spain still sells much worse than my other historicals. And people still flat out refuse to buy The Dark Lily.

Price has less influence than genre and reviews have very little influence as well. Hence my bestselling title is also the one with the worst reviews (and Under the Knout isn’t all that well reviewed either), whereas the story with the most and best reviews, Old Mommark’s Tale, is only at No. 17. And Dream Job just got a wonderful five star review and still languishes at No. 20. Of course, it’s a new release.

So what do we learn of this, apart from the fact that I probably shouldn’t be writing any more crime fiction? I’m not sure.

But here’s to the next 500!

Send to Kindle
Posted in Announcements, Metrics | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Two not so new releases and a new cover

Posted on November 9, 2013 by Cora

It’s that time of the month again, where we announce the latest Pegasus Pulp releases. However, this is not your usual new release announcement, because both releases are not quite so new anymore. First of all, the whole Kobo/W.H. Smith uproar, which I blogged about here and here, has thoroughly upset my release schedule, because the titles in question were simply gone again from Kobo within hours of being uploaded. Nonetheless, here they are, albeit a bit too late to hit the “hot new release” list at Amazon. Not that it matters much, cause I don’t think I ever hit that list, at least not as far as I know.

What is more, both stories are not exactly new, because they are already available as part of Flights of Madness, my collection of aviation themed short stories. However, if you’ve been interested in Flights of Madness, but didn’t want to buy the whole collection, here is your chance to buy two of the stories as standalones: Continue reading →

Send to Kindle
Posted in Announcements, Books | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment