Mid-Winter's Eve Giveaway Hop - Win an #Amazon Gift Card!

Ah, friends, readers, and family...it's that time of year where we go to parties and quite possibly collect presents! For stopping by my page, Santa has left everyone a present! Many thanks to I Am A Reader, Not A Writer and Oasis for YA for hosting this incredible giveaway hop.

Please feel free to collect a FREE copy of the Into the Shadows at the following locations!

Amazon

iTunes

Kobo

Smashwords (also for NOOK)

In addition, for stopping by, you also get a chance to enter a giveaway, sponsored by me and amazing author Megg Jensen!

Grand Prize

$200 Gift Card to Amazon.com

Use it to purchase your very own Kindle Fire so you can read all our books OR anything your heart desires that Amazon provides! Plus ebooks from Megg Jensen and Moi, including the Song of Eloh Saga and the Into the Shadows Trilogy.

Prize #1

4 ebook copies of the Song of Eloh Saga by Megg Jensen

Prize #2

4 ebook copies of the Into the Shadows Trilogy by Karly Kirkpatrick
(includes Into the Shadows, Darkness Rising, and After Dawn)

How do you enter for these glorious prizes, you ask? Why, it's simple! Fill out the information below on the Rafflecopter form. You may receive extra entries for following our blogs, our Facebook pages, and signing up for our newsletters. Please be aware, you can only sign up on ONE of our blogs. The entries all go into one big happy Rafflecopter pot. So if you sign up here, don't sign up again at Megg's page. And you must be 13 or older. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

When you're finished here, be sure to continue on on the blog hop! Happy Holidays and may the odds be ever in your favor!!!

Adventures in Epublishing: 10,000 Sales and Counting...

Well, I've gone and done it. I've sold 10,000 copies of my books. I'm not writing this post to brag (okay, maybe just a little), but I want to give those of you out there pursuing self-publishing this information. For the last two years (more like 2 1/2) I've been reading every post by successful authors, desperate to glean any morsel of useful information I could from said people. I still do! And while I have no idea if or how this might be helpful for you, I'll put it out there.

As I reported in August, 2012, my sales really picked up with the release of the Into the Shadows sequel, Darkness Rising, in June. The sales from Darkness Rising really pushed my sales numbers ahead and After Dawn, the trilogy finale, which has only been out 3 weeks, is also doing well. I've noticed numbers for the second book, Darkness Rising, have dropped off quite a bit. Into the Shadows is still free, but those downloads are a little slow as well. In general, the fall has been much slower than the summer was for me, but sales are still moving along nicely.

If I've learned anything from the sales run in the last six months, it's that it pays, literally, to have a series. Bloody Little Secrets comes in second to the Into the Shadows Trilogy as a decent seller, but mostly overseas through Apple. US sales have slowed. I plan to write a sequel for it though, so perhaps that will help its sales when the next one is ready. As for my other titles, my short stories manage about 10 sales a month, and surprisingly, my edgy YA Contemporary, The Green is my worst seller. Even with the new cover I guess it just suffers from the fact that it's a stand-alone book. I've tried marketing it, and it's currently in Select on Amazon, not that it's helped it one bit. I've already used 3 of the free days but that has caused no improvement in the matter. Even in terms of reviews, it has never received a bad one. It's just one of those unexplainable mysteries, I guess.

I released a new project today, the Grimmdale High Series, which is a series of short novelettes (10-15K words each) which feature a complete story/episode in each one. Traditionally, shorts don't sell nearly as well as novels, so we'll see if the concept takes off and increases sales. I only purchased the first two covers, so depending on the response, I can decide how much time I'll commit to the series. The beauty of self-publishing is you can experiment all you want!

In terms of income, if you followed me in August, you saw that my income was quite good. Since June, I've not dropped below $1,000 a month. I've not made as much as I did in June and July, but it's been steady.

Feel free to leave any questions below. I'm happy to answer whatever you've got on your mind!

Happy writing!

K