http://www.amazon.com/Eyes-Like-Broken-Edges-ebook/dp/B00C8BL9FY/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368308732&sr=1-1&keywords=eyes+like+blue+fire
I'll be offering Eyes Like Blue Fire for free on Mother's Day and the following Monday. Please feel free to grab a copy and if you know a mom who'd like a little gothic horror laced with romance feel free to give her a copy :)!
http://www.amazon.com/Eyes-Like-Broken-Edges-ebook/dp/B00C8BL9FY/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368308732&sr=1-1&keywords=eyes+like+blue+fire
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So here's a pic of my very own personal copy of Eyes Like Blue Fire which I finally had the money to afford, woohoo! I'm happy to say that it seems to have turned out rather nice. You might not be able to make it out but if you're wondering it isn't a standard paperback size but one of those oversize numbers with really nice quality binding and gloss. Susan, I think I must have picked the size right above yours because it seems a bit larger. It's actually rather pretty and well worth the price. The later part of this post is more for me than anyone else. I just have to get it out of my system because I'm driving myself up a wall. I have to say that I'm really frustrated at the moment. It's not that I'm one of those folks with no patience and way too much time to bitch and moan about my lot in life. I really try to do a lot to stay positive but right now that's only getting me so far and I want to vent a little. I have been doing as much as I can for this book. I'm doing interviews, blogs, lots of networking and even reducing the price of the ebook copy ( I can't afford to knock down the cost on the paperback one honestly) but so far none of that work seems to be paying off in serious dividends. I've talked to a lot of writers about it and apparently the sum of my sales has exceeded the sum of many writer's sales that first year (8 ebooks and one paperback so far) and while that's a bit comforting I also have to say it's a little disheartening. Let me tell you why. As a newly published author in the crazy world of self/indie publishing I have to do all of my promotion on my own and that means that I have to dig up places to market, ways to get the word out and do all kinds of networking to get just a little attention for my book. It doesn't sound like a lot but trust me it can be very time consuming especially for a mom of two (one less than a year old no less). In many ways self-promotion alone is an 8 hour a day job, toss in things like breastfeeding, baby care, teething, homework with the first grader, reading time with the two of them, cooking, cleaning, little league baseball and trying to find time with my fiance and really it all turns into a 12-16 hour day with very little room to breathe. The other bit is that while other writers might be shelling out for things like review copies, adspace, book covers, promotion and driving themselves to signings I'm rather limited. I can't be the only writer out there who sees an ad for book promotion, clicks on it and then lets out a big sigh of dissapointment when they see the price tag. I literally have no money to invest in those sort of things. In fact even if I was selling more than I am I don't know that I could afford to throw what I got back into such things precisely because I could really use it for the sort of everyday stuff that others take for granted they can buy like laundry soap and gas for their car (haha if I had or could afford a car that is). What it boils down to is that I feel like I'm putting out tons of energy and time is slipping through my fingers when I could least afford for that to happen. The fact that I'm not seeing a lot of payoff for that actually hurts quite a bit. In fact it puts me in mind of that year of freelancing I did during which I really was working 16 hours a day and losing way too much time with my son. I NEVER want to lose time with my kiddos like that again. The look in his eyes every time I had to tell him I was working and couldn't play killed me! That being said, I really can't quit. I've spent something like 12 years trying to get Eyes Like Blue Fire completed and struggled for what seems like forever to find someone to read it over and tell me if my writing was worth investing in. I was one of those writers who struggled with whether or not I could do it for way too long (my self esteem was through the floor when I started) and therefore suffered long lapses in my writing cycles( That's how you wind up with 5 books in progress and only 1 complete for years folks. If you don't believe in your work you're your own worst enemy!). With all of that lost time on my writing career I have to do a hell of a lot of make up work and in order to get myself motivated I decided to self-pub ELBF, the book that had been holding me back. Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful for everything my readers, the folks who added my book to their tbr shelves and Facebook fans have been doing to help me out, I'm just feeling a little worn thin. I don't expect to sell a ton of copies (nor should you feel bad if you're not interested or you can't afford one. As a fellow reader who'd love to help out tons of her favorite authors, I understand). I am a rational person and I get that first books don't always do well and that they're even less likely to do so in the indie market. I even get that many indie writers fail miserably and not all of them for lack of good or even great writing. Nor do I think I'll throw all of my books into the indie fire for that very reason (some of my better contenders will be getting submitted the old fashioned way) but if I could see some future in this writing gig I'd feel a hell of a lot better than I've been feeling the last couple of weeks and I wouldn't be so tempted to drop it all. Anyway all of that's off my chest and I hope you wont hold it against me Got a promotion out there today :) http://cynthiashepp.wordpress.com/2013/04/30/eyes-like-blue-fire-promotion/
and a giveaway too: GIVEAWAY! AMANDA HAS OFFERED ONE MOBI COPY FOR GIVEAWAY! TO ENTER THIS GIVEAWAY, ASK AMANDA A QUESTION. IT CAN BE ABOUT HER BOOKS, WRITING…OR ANYTHING THAT MAKES YOU CURIOUS. FOR TWO SHOTS AT EXTRA ENTRIES, PLEASE LIKE HER ON FACEBOOK. MAKE SURE THAT YOU TELL ME THAT YOU DID SO THAT YOUR EXTRA ENTRIES WILL COUNT. ENDS 5/2 Did an interview with awesome gang. Here it is if you'd like to read it: http://awesomegang.com/amanda-lyons/
Thanks to my fellow writing friend Susan Simone (seriously go check her out! Here's her page: http://susansimone.weebly.com/index.html )you can now come to my website to get info on me, my books and whatever might be going on with any of it. Let me know if there's anything you think I can do to improve the page or any info you'd like to see displayed. Overall I'm pretty happy with what we have up and it'll be nice to see it all fill up as I get more of my writing out there. I'm still keeping pretty busy trying to do all the promotion I can for Eyes Like Blue Fire and hopefully offering a good overall impression on it and any future writing that remains waiting for me on my computer. I have lots to work with over the next couple of years and I hope you'll enjoy it all.
You remember that old saying about the one legged man in a certain kind of contest? Yeah that was me today. It's all for the better though. I did quite a bit of self-promotion stuff and hopefully that will give me a little more exposure for Eyes Like Blue Fire and set the ground work for later books too.
I'm seeing some interest from folks but so far the sales have been low and I'm hoping all of my work today will help me with that. If you aren't a writer you wont know but there is a TON of self promotion work that needs to be done to sell a book and that goes double for those of us in the indie and self publishing markets. I did (I think. To be fair my mind is a bit fried at the moment) four author interviews, several book blurbs, three or four author promotion requests, a review request and a lot of research on what else I could be adding to my self promotion arsenal.I actually also have a few other things bookmarked to do later as well. Suffice is to say that I hope it all pays off. All of that plus my two kiddos and all the usual craziness here has left me pretty tired. If you read my book please take the time to tell anyone you know that might like it and post a review on any of the book pages or sites you take part in. Thanks :) So I've finally published that book I've been working on for what feels like forever. Let me tell you it's pretty surreal and I can't help but keep checking to see how many sales I've made because I'm anxious to see how it does now that I've finally let it go out into the world on it's own.
Eyes Like Blue Fire was always one of those books that I kept pretty close to myself, protecting it in a way not unlike what I do with my children when someone unsettling walks past. In a very real way it IS in fact my baby. It's also quite a lot of ME. Raven and Katja are actually two parts of my being. This is probably clear with Katja and less so with Raven who is also a bit of the man of your dreams type and over the years took on a bit of my fiance too. I can't help but be a little critical of them now with my adult perspective versus the "I know the world sadness" I had when I wrote the first draft as a lonely teen. I do happen to know however, (having started the 2nd book of Broken Shades) that they do grow much as I have grown through experience and the passing of time. And so here is my first story about them. I was once told that reading Eyes Like Blue Fire was a little like reading a fairy tale in the modern world both because of the style I used and because of some of the events involved. In some ways I think that applies to a lot of my work. It's true precisely because I don't stick to any one genre when I write and while I may not always have happy endings in my books and stories, there DOES happen to be a certain poetic justice or moral to the tale. Like maybe I'm trying to show you something that you hadn't thought about before. I hope you'll enjoy reading my first book and that you'll want to stick with me when I get more of the series done. Maybe you'll even enjoy some of the my other books as well. |
Amanda M LyonsMs. Lyons is an author of fantasy, horror, and an avid reader of all genres. Archives
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