99¢ BOOK OF THE WEEK

Saving Spirit Bear -  Eco-Warriors Book 1

‘til Aug. 18 at

https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003DS6LEU

Kimberley James hopes her new assignment will jumpstart her stalled career with a New York corporate relations firm. Her client wants to develop a mega ski resort in northern Canada. Her job is to convince the current owners of the land to sell. With millions of dollars to be made, it seems like a done deal. Until she runs up against Jonah Baker.

Baker is part owner of a lodge on the land and an ardent environmentalist. He's not about to permit a development that threatens ancient rainforests and the habitat of the rare and endangered Spirit Bear for any price.

Kim begrudgingly respects his principles before profit, but cannot allow a tree-hugging, bear-loving zealot to derail her fast track to success. Jonah admires her determination and worldliness but will fight to the end to stop a materialistic corporate climber from destroying something rare and unique.

Spirit Bear is the first in the stand-alone series ECO-WARRIORS.

WATCH THE VIDEO TRAILER HERE

https://animoto.com/play/3s6oDePiIg0QowsLxJsuWQ

Many sites I post my books on have a question and answer component - the readers ask the authors questions. I've never actually asked a question of any author whose work I've read, though sometimes I pose them in my reviews, and I've never received a question from a reader.

Most of these are stock questions generated by the site.  The questions that aren't I've come to believe are also bogus - asked by a friend or even the author themselves with hopes the answers will spark some sort of dialogue or?

We are a desperate lot, aren't we.

Here's a question I often ponder and so I asked myself and am sharing the answer with you. If you find this exercise slightly distasteful than consider yourself partly to blame for not asking me your own questions.

How's that for rationalization?
 

QUESTION: How did you come to write your first novel, Saving Spirit Bear?

I had a plan to become a successful, published author.

I would begin writing romance novels because they have the most readers of any kind of fiction and are the easiest to get published. This is not to say authors of genre fiction aren’t good writers. I have subsequently learned writing within the confines of genre is more difficult than doing otherwise.
 
Back to the plan.

Once I had a bit of a publishing track record traditional publishers of mainstream, literary fiction would be more likely to consider me. Right?

Saving Spirit Bear was my first novel. The theme I wanted to explore was whether the end ever justifies the means? I wanted to present real moral dilemmas for both the protagonists and the antagonists not just the desire for profit or power. For example, is it all right to compromise your integrity if the goal is just and noble?

As well as presenting a satisfying romance, I hoped to address this issue by introducing a subplot about an environmental issue, in this case endangered species and destruction of their habitat, something I feel strongly about.

The story's about Kimberly James, an ambitious, young, junior executive in a New York corporate relations firm who sees an opportunity to advance her career by doing whatever's necessary to push through the development of a mega ski resort in Canada.

Jonah Baker is part owner of a lodge on the land of the proposed ski resort. He's an ardent environmentalist and not about to permit a development that threatens ancient rainforests and the habitat of the rare and endangered Spirit Bear for any price.

Kim begrudgingly respects his principles before profit, but cannot allow a tree-hugging, bear-loving zealot to derail her fast track to success. Jonah admires her determination and worldliness, but will fight to the end to stop a materialistic corporate climber from destroying something rare and unique.

You likely know the rest of this story because genre literature is formulaic and if you read romance you know what's going to happen. If you don't and you want to find out go to my Amazon Author's Page at http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003DS6LEU and buy a copy.

Anyhow, after striking out with agents and traditional publishers I sent Saving Spirit Bear to three e-publishers. All of them wanted to publish it. I chose one and rationalized my failure to attract any real publishers by saying e-books were preferable - less impact on the environment.

It would be an overstatement to say sales were mediocre. Reviews were almost non-existent. No agents or traditional publishers came knocking on my door.

At the time I was a member of the local chapter of Romance Writers of America (eighty-five women and two men). Since I wasn't getting any significant reader response I asked the published writers in my RWA chapter what they thought the problem(s) was?

Saving Spirit Bear, I was told, was not popular with romance readers for a number of reasons. I didn’t introduce the love interests soon enough. My ‘Happily Ever After’ was lukewarm or not at all. I needed to ‘sex it up’. My subplots overshadowed the romance. My heroes lacked testosterone. My heroines didn’t show enough vulnerability. My words were too big, my plots too real, my characters too unlikable. My stories were out of control.

However, I was encourage by my publisher who dubbed the book Eco-Fi (environmental fiction) and asked for two more with a similar theme for a series entitled Eco-Warriors.

There was never any question about letting the lack of success of my first novel defeat me. I love to write - successfully or otherwise and during the process of writing Saving Spirit Bear I experienced glimpses of something very exciting - the story following it's own course and the characters taking on lives of their own.

I eagerly set about writing my second novel but I was worried. Would I find my next story and it's characters restricted by the confines of this genre?

Next Question: Did you find your next story and it's characters restricted by the confines of this genre?

The answer is forthcoming.



Stay calm, be brave, watch for the signs

30

Two pre-order promotions for the re-issues of Saving Spirit Bear – What Price Success? and Loving the Terrorist – Beyond Eagleridge Bluffs, plus the Kindle Scout nomination promotion for The Widower, and, don’t forget, the corresponding blogs and tweets – it’s been a busy three months.

What do I have to show for it? One sale.

Ever the optimist I have uploaded The Widower to both Smashwords and Amazon as a pre-order which will be released March 6, 2016. That gives you plenty of time after paying your Holiday bills to save up 99¢ for this e-book.

I’m not sure about the wisdom of such a long pre-order period but since when did wisdom factor into anything I do regarding writing?

If you don’t think you can afford it (and, let’s face it, you haven’t before) you might want to click enter on the widgets in the previous blog or visit these sites and enter my Goodreads giveaway for two each of the above mentioned books as paperbacks.

https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/164880-saving-spirit-bear

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27032523-loving-the-terrorist

Contest ends January 8, 2016

I haven’t tried Goodreads before because their giveaways are only for actual books and I’ve been too cheap to offer up the books and pay the postage – which is like adding insult to injury in my opinion.

What’s changed? Did I suddenly come into a windfall?

Goodreads claims they’re the largest site for readers and book recommendations and that 40,000 people enter their giveaways everyday.

Four books x 40,000 views x 30 days … let’s just say I’m curious as to how many people actually request my books.

Watch for my year end blog coming soon entitled A Year of Futility.

Stay Calm, Be Brave, Watch for the Signs.

The re-issue of my novel Spirit Bear is now available for pre-order.

This was my first novel and though far from stellar it deserved better than to languish on my publisher’s website. So when the contract expired I yanked it and have re-issued it as an indie publication, both in paperback and e-book.

Will it do better? Let’s just say it can’t do worse.

I fixed a few typos, tweaked the front and back matter, designed a new cover and added the word “saving” to the title. It’s now called Saving Spirit Bear.

I began by using Amazon’s Createspace to publish the paperback version. I find this platform pretty straightforward and the turn around time remarkably quick. Unfortunately, Createspace does not have a pre-order option, so the paperback is out there and available for $7.99.

I took advantage of Kindle Matchbook, Amazon uses the same files from Createspace to publish a companion e-book on Kindle Direct Publishing. The only condition is you have to sell your e-book for $2.99 or less.

It’s too easy, really.

KDP has a pre-order option so I’m trying it out.

The book-marketing gurus tell you this is the best way to “gimmick” yourself onto the New York Times bestseller list – briefly. The deal is you promote your book in advance as a pre-order and the day the book is released those pre-orders are converted to orders all at once. That could give you a real bump in the ratings – maybe enough to make it to a bestseller list.

If you make it to that esteemed position, however briefly, you can legitimately(?) promote yourself as a bestselling author, forever, on any book you write. You’re not saying the book is a bestseller, only that at one point in time the author had a bestseller on the New York Times bestseller list – thus, a NYT bestselling author.

And saying a book is written by a New York Times bestselling author evidently sells more books.

Can this possibly work?

Only a couple of months ago my novel, The BIG PICTURE – A Camera, A Young Woman, An Uncompromising Ethic had two sales in one day and my author rating jumped from 2,593,668 to 173,973, a gain of 2,419,695 points.

So yes, I would imagine this gimmick can actually work.

In my quest to become a New York Times bestselling author I’ve also lowered the pre-order price to 99¢ from $2.99.

I’ve also published Saving Spirit Bear on Smashwords which allows you to set up a pre-order account without even uploading a book. The price there is also 99¢ during the pre-order period, after which the e-book will be $2.99.

From now until November 8, 2015, when the e-book edition of Saving Spirit Bear becomes available, I’ll be trying to find ways (like this blog) of letting readers know about this pre-order deal.

Here are the links to pre-order Saving Spirit Bear:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0150PMX0Y

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/575296

Both KDP and Smashwords allow me to check to see how the pre-orders are flooding in – or not, so I’ll keep you posted.

I’d like to become a New York Times bestselling author, but I’d rather not do it manipulating sales figures and ratings. However, when I read all the excellent independent authors whose books are abandoned in the backlists of Amazon and Smashwords for no other reason than the lack of publicity I realize I have to give this a try – for them as well as myself.

Stay calm, be brave, watch for the signs.

30

Video book reviews of self-published authors now at

Not Your Family, Not Your Friend Video Book Reviews: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH45n8K4BVmT248LBTpfARQ

My new novels, FOREST – Love, Loss, Legend and The BIG PICTURE – A Camera, A Young Woman, An Uncompromising Ethic are available on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003DS6LEU and as e-books at https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/raglin

Read Reviews https://readersfavorite.com:book-review:39014

Visit my publisher’s website for excerpts from, and a buy link to my Eco-Fi series ECO-WARRIORS Book 3, Not Wonder More – Mad Maggie and the Mystery of the Ancients http://www.devinedestinies.com/?route=product%2Fauthor&author_id=92

ECO-WARRIOR Book 1,

Saving Spirit Bear is available at

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003DS6LEU

ECO-WARRIOR Book 2, Loving the Terrorist - Beyond Eagleridge Bluffs is soon to be re-issued.

More of my original photographs can be viewed, purchased, and shipped to you as GREETING CARDS; matted, laminated, mounted, framed, or canvas PRINTS; and POSTERS. Go to: http://www.redbubble.com/people/rodraglin

View my flickr photostream at https://www.flickr.com/photos/78791029@N04/

Or, My YouTube channel if you prefer photo videos accompanied by classical music

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsQVBxJZ7eXkvZmxCm2wRYA