Escaping Fate is FREE on Amazon!

Escaping Fate is FREE on Amazon November 24th - 25th!!!

If you're looking for a good book to curl up with during the holidays, stop by and check out Escaping Fate. You can get a sneak peek of book 2 in the series, Soul Stone, too!

"Turning sixteen should mean driving, dating, and breaking curfew. It should never mean certain death. Arrabella's excitement for her upcoming birthday is swallowed up by not only her dismay at being moved to a tiny little town in the middle of nowhere, but by the terror of the dreams that assault her every night. Stalking her dreams, the raven haired beauty warns her, taunts her, as she is paraded toward her death. 

Desperate for answers, Arrabella turns to her grandfather, the only one willing to delve into her family's dark past. Warning her that once she takes the first step, there is no going back, Arrabella's grandfather begins to unwind their awful heritage. The only joy she finds in the week leading up to her death is meeting Tanner Wheeler, a young man she barely knows but is immediately drawn to. 

A story of selfish betrayal reaching back to an age of merciless gods and blood sacrifice, Arrabella's world is sent into a deadly spiral."

Get your FREE copy of Escaping Fate now on Amazon!

Escaping Fate...the evolution of the cover art

Designing cover art for a book can often be a challenge, even more so when you're painting the images yourself! 

I did the original painting for Escaping Fate several years ago when Escaping Fate was first published. I ended up not liking the full image as the cover and instead went with a very abstract portion of the painting. 

This is the old cover on the right --->

At this time, Escaping Fate was a standalone novel and I planned to keep it that way. That recently changed (yeah!) and I am now working on a sequel titled "Soul Stone." 

Soul Stone is currently out being beta read and will soon go into rewrites, but at the same time I had to rethink the cover art so I could find something that could be incorporated into a series. 

So...back to the original painting. 

This is the original painting. I based the painting off a pottery design for the Aztec god Tlaloc. But still...I didn't like the full image for the cover. So, I tried using a portion of the image, but not so abstract as the original cover design. 

This seemed to fit much better, leaving some to the imagination and creating intrigue. But the coloring wasn't quite right. It was clearly time to break out Photoshop! It took some layering, some effects, and some color alterations, this is what I came up with! 

And here's the full cover!

Escaping Fate is now available exclusively on Amazon as a paperback and Kindle Ebook. 

You can also get a sneak peek of book two, Soul Stone, at the end of the book. 

And keep an eye out for FREE days on Kindle for Escaping Fate coming up on 

November 24th-25th

That's what those are for ...

How many times have you been doing something on a regular basis, thinking you've got it down, only to realize later that you've been doing it all wrong? 

I've recently had one of those moments when it comes to choosing keywords for my books when I list them on ebook stores. 

Earlier this week, my new publisher, Clean Teen Publishing, sent all of us authors a link that gave a breakdown of Amazon's Most Popular Tags. Now, this list isn't just for books, it's for everything searched for on Amazon, but it's easy enough to pick out book related tags. And there are a lot of them. 

What did this link cause me to realize? 

I had been using keywords or tags wrong this whole time! Previously, my keywords were specific to each book. For my first book, Escaping Fate, I had chosen tags like "Aztec," "Arrabella," "Myth," and so on. Seems logical, right? 

After looking at the tag cloud from Amazon, I had an epiphany -- probably one I should have had years ago. What use are book specific tags if no one knows about my book? Why would anyone search for "Arrabella," the MC of Escaping Fate, is they didn't know anything about my book? I saw that I had done the same thing for my other books, choosing tags like Libby and Milo, and similar words that only applied to The Destroyer Series. 

What I realized after studying the cloud was that people are not going onto Amazon and searching for a particular book most of the time. They are searching for whatever genre they like to read and then perusing the search results for something that catches their eye. 

So what did I do after having this epiphany? 

I went and changed the keywords on all my books on the various sites I have my books listed. What did I change them to? Instead of sticking with book specific tags, I chose tags that will help readers find my books within the genres they like to read. 

I write YA fiction ranging from paranormal to science fiction and urban fantasy. So my new tags include words like "Young Adult," "Science Fiction," Paranormal," and "Fantasy." And because I love to add in a good romance to compliment each storyline, I also included tags like "Romance, "Love," and "Paranormal Romance." 

What now? 

Well, now I see how this realization pans out. Will better keywords that are directed at readers who have no clue about me or my books help get my books in their search results better than book specific tags? I'll just have to wait and see. I'm excited to see the impact it will have. I love learning new things about publishing and marketing, and this one is so simple yet important. 

I've been learning more about using Pintrest as and author as well, so check back next week for a new post and some new ideas. 

Win a Year of FREE Books from Clean Teen Publishing

How would you like to win a year of free books? 

Clean Teen Publishing (the NEW publisher of Wicked Hunger!) is gearing up for their annual end of the year giveaway. Check it out!

WIN A YEAR OF FREE BOOKS! 

Now this is WINNING! We have been kicking around ideas to offer an epic giveaway to our amazing readers who have made our opening year in 2013 amazing for Clean Teen Publishing and Crimson Tree Publishing. We have given away gift cards, swag, free books, a Kindle Fire and more this year. We want our Holiday giveaway to be something big, something from our hearts. We want to offer our readers a gift that keeps on giving! That's when we came up with A YEAR OF FREE BOOKS! Check out the description below to find out what you can win! 

1st Place: A YEAR OF FREE BOOKS From CTP! (Includes the 29 books currently published with CTP and any future books published throughout 2014! *Digital Copies) and a CTP SWAG PACK (Includes bookmarks, Authors Are Our Rockstars Bracelets and MORE Swagalicious goodies!) Prize pack is a $150+ Value including cost of retail books currently published and future books released! 

2nd Place: Readers choice of 5 CTP Books (Current or Future Releases) of their choice (Digital Copies) and a CTP SWAG PACK (Includes bookmarks, Authors Are Our Rockstars Bracelets and MORE Swagalicious goodies!)  Prize pack is a $15+ value not including the value of the swag! 

3rd Place: Readers choice of any CTP Book (Digital Copy) and an Authors Are Our Rockstars Bracelet. Prize pack is up to a $4.99+ value not including the value of the swag! 

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS: 

Question From A Concerned Fan: "I'm the biggest CTP Fan out there and I have all of the books you've published already! What's in this for me?" ~From CTP's biggest fan- Mr. Squirrel

Answer From CTP: "That's totally awesome that you are one of our biggest fans Mr. Squirrel! You know we love our readers, especially the fluffy tailed ones! If you already have all of our CTP books, you can give your free copies to a friend. (Save some money on birthday gifts.) Don't forget you also get future releases as well. In fact, if you email us in advance of upcoming releases, we might even be able to get you ARC's! (Advanced Reader Copies.) Isn't that awesome? Plus you get all of that amazing swag! You'd be nutty not to enter this contest!" ~CTP Gals

Reply From Mr. Squirrel: "You're so right! This sounds like an amazing prize pack. I'm going to go enter right now and I'm going to tell all of my friends about it! PS: You do realize you are having a fictional conversation with a squirrel right now, right?" ~From CTP's biggest fan- Mr. Squirrel

Reply From CTP: "…" ~CTP Gals

We know we're a little bit nutty. ;0) 

SHOW ME THE PRIZES! 

Check out all of our amazing books on our website at: http://www.cleanteenpublishing.com. Did you know that if you don't have an e-reader, you can download our books on most smart phones, tablets and computers? 

  

ENTER NOW for your chance to WIN BIG! 

(Contest Ends on New Years Eve!)

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FREE on Amazon Kindle...INVISIBLE!!!

Would you like to get a copy of my newest book, INVISIBLE, free on your Kindle? 

Stop by Amazon on November 8th-9th, that's TODAY and TOMORROW, to get your copy of Invisible FREE on your Kindle!

And if you enjoy Invisible, please consider leaving a review on Amazon or Goodreads. Authors love to hear from their readers!!

So, hurry over to Amazon right now and get your FREE copy of Invisible !!! 

AMAZON

Invisible FREE on Amazon!!!

Would you like to get a copy of my newest book, INVISIBLE, free on your Kindle? 

Stop by Amazon on November 8th-9th to get your copy of Invisible FREE on your Kindle!

And if you enjoy Invisible, please consider leaving a review on Amazon or Goodreads. Authors love to hear from their readers!!

So, mark your calendars now to get your FREE copy of Invisible November 8 & 9 on 

AMAZON