As you know, Kuomat’s story, Shines Now, and Heretofore, is releasing May 21, and thank you very much to those of you who pre-ordered it. Shines Now has picked up a decent number of preorders, which I greatly appreciate because that will boost its rankings for the first few days after its release.
I’ve also hit Publish for the paper edition, so that should be live by the time you see this post, or at least sometime this weekend.
As you might perhaps expect, the original trilogy is going to be on sale for the next few days.
The Year’s Midnight is set to just $0.99
Of Absence, Darkness is set to $1.99
And As Shadow, A Light is set to $2.99
This is a different way to run a sale, because it’s the first time I’ve run a sale on a “wide” series rather than a series in KU. That means that I have to guess how far in advance to lower the prices because I can’t tell Amazon to lower the prices at midnight on the correct day. Instead, I have to lower the prices by hand and wait for Amazon to follow through, which usually takes only twenty-four hours or less but can (there’s a clear warning) take up to three days. I also have to go over to Draft to Digital and lower the prices there, and really I’m not sure at all how long they’ll take to re-set the prices on every possible platform, so more guessing. Also I’m dropping the prices at BVC just to be complete.
I’ve set up various promotion services starting the 20th and going through … hmm, looks like the 23rd. That’s why I’ve tried hard to drop the prices far enough ahead to make absolutely sure those promotions services will find the books discounted on the days they’re supposed to be discounted. Otherwise you lose the payment and don’t get the promotion.
I don’t expect a huge boost because the only way to get a big boost is by setting the first book free, which again, I can’t do because this series isn’t in Kindle Unlimited. But I’ll leave the prices down for a few extra days or maybe even a couple of weeks and see what happens. I won’t leave the prices down that low for long because — one more disadvantage of not having them in KU — I can’t set the royalties to 70% unless the prices are over $2.99.
But saying I don’t expect a huge boost doesn’t mean I don’t expect SOME boost. I’m hoping to see a decided uptick for the original trilogy and therefore fairly decent sales for Shines Now over the next few months.
And, regardless of everything else, I’m sure looking forward to seeing Shines Now go out into the world! I hope you enjoy it!
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Great! I picked up the first book, which I thought I had — but it must have been on Amazon, not my favorite way to get or read books — and the new one. Can’t wait to read it!
Loved it! The book is exactly to my taste- I love displays of competence and I teared up towards the end. I do wonder (as I have in the past) how Jenna managed to disguise her blue eyes in the Death’s Lady trilogy, and I wanted to savor the captain’s shock and see a little more, but other than that it was perfect. I wish it had gone on forever.
I’ve ordered my copy & I’m looking forward to reading it!
Also, thank you for recommending The Hands of the Emperor on your blog. I’m really enjoying reading it this week!
Alison, hush! I don’t want to have to come up with an explanation for that tricky bit of disguise.
Natalie, great, I love hearing that someone loves a book I recommended.
I’ll have to pick up a paper copy to round out my Death’s Lady collection – I’m really looking forward to this one!
Would you consider putting the omnibus on sale around the ~$6 that the three individually currently cost? I generally prefer an omnibus when I can get it, and it seems like that would get you the higher royalties as well…
I didn’t think of that, Ailis, but sure. Boom, done! By tomorrow sometime, you should see the omnibus at a lower price.
Is Shines Now not on Book View?
Didn’t find it by searching Shines Now or Rachel Neumeier. Your name search brings up Sphere of the Winds, Door into Light, and the first three Death’s Lady books.
Right, Kim, sorry, Shines Now is scheduled at BVC, but is not there yet. The publishing schedule was packed till later in the year.
Thank you! Squirreling away books for a summer vacation where I will hopefully have time to read at my preferred pace (a book and a half a day, give or take…)
I reread the first three books before reading Kuomat. So great! Now I’m wishing for another book! You did say in the endnote that there’s notes for a possible sequel. Crossing my fingers….
I had a lot of difficulty getting Book 4 onto my Kindle. Not sure why. It pushed book 3 instead a couple of times and book 4 wasn’t showing up as part of the series. Finally got in on there, although I’m not sure what ended up working. Very odd. Unfortunately, probably not specific enough a problem to be actionable, but wanted you to be aware in case more data points appear.
Thanks, Allan; my guess is problems that randomly appear for a book that is very new and that get smoothed out over time. Certainly KERAUNANI had that peculiar issue with handing readers the Review Now page after chapter 11. No one admitted being able to fix this problem, but the problem apparently fixed itself eventually.
Thanks, Jenny! Maybe in a year or two, or three, I’ll get to that. I’d kind of like to. I have all kinds of scenes in mind for it … and a basic plot … so I hope so!