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COLD-BLOODED – The Mattie Saunders Series – Book 2

June 11-15

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

The Reptile Refuge where Liz volunteers has been closed by police while they investigate a suspicious death that took place on the premises. Desperately needing a home for her reptiles, she reaches out to an old friend from high school, Mattie Saunders, and asks if it's possible to temporarily board them at Saunders Bird Sanctuary? 

Mattie knows she should be more concerned with the circumstances but sees it as an opportunity to reconnect with her friend, as well as help some animals in distress. It's only after two members of the RCMP drug squad confront Mattie in a coffee shop and suggest that Liz's involvement at the refuge was more than looking after its inhabitants.

The refuge's owner, Leborg Kovacevic, used the facility as a front for his drug trafficking business, and not only Liz was Kovacevic's partner but also his partner-in-crime. Breaking the law isn’t the only risk Mattie’s taking, her life might also be in danger considering the company she keeps.

Too late she finds out Liz has something in common with the pythons, geckos, and iguanas she's seeking shelter for.
They're all cold-blooded.

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FREE E-BOOK. MAY 27 & 28, 2021

The Rocker and the Bird Girl.

Book 1 in The Mattie Saunders Series

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

Meet Mattie Saunders…

Quick-tempered, intolerant, and defensive, Mattie Saunders loves birds, but not so much people. A childhood spent in one foster home after another has made her wary of commitment as evidenced by an absence of close friends and difficulty with intimate relationships. Instead, she's filled her life rescuing and rehabilitating exotic birds people buy as pets and then abandoned.
Experience Mattie's heartaches and happy times as well as personal and professional triumphs and tragedies as she grows from a young adult with a passion for birds to a controversial expert in the field of ornithology.

The Mattie Saunders Series: Romance and action combine with provocative themes for an exciting and entertaining exploration of contemporary culture and issues.

The Rocker and the Bird Girl – Book 1

The Saunders Exotic Bird Sanctuary, a not-for-profit rescue, rehabilitation and re-homing establishment for exotic birds people buy as pets and then abandon, is out of money. In an effort to raise some so her birds won't be homeless yet again, owner Mattie Saunders reaches out to Bodine, the lead guitarist of the bad-boy rock band Seditious. She's learned he has a macaw as a pet and since it's obvious he's wealthy she hopes he'll be sympathetic and use some of the money he now spends on his hedonistic lifestyle to help these precious, beautiful creatures. They're hardly birds of a feather, but Mattie's not about to kill the goose if it promises a golden egg.

Sex, drugs and rock 'n roll have taken their toll on Bodine, lead guitarist and songwriter for Seditious, the chart-topping, outrageous rock band. He's just playing the part until something better comes along. The problem is what's better than being a rich and famous rock idol? Certainly not helping some overzealous young woman save exotic birds, even if his best friend is a Blue and Gold Macaw.

★★★★  "... a seriously non-traditional love story"
   The Rocker and the Bird Girl … a seriously non-traditional love story. Written by an environmentalist, the novel not only paints a sweet picture of hearts in tune, but offers respect for the breathtaking gift of the colorful birds of the rainforest. Raglin's words caution the reader to study the serious consequences of pet adoption, while creating a heart-warming novella that contains just the right amount of romance.
   - Reviewed by Lisa McCombs for Readers' Favorite

Download your free copy now at

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

OFFER ENDS AT MIDNIGHT, WED., SEPT. 30, 2020

The BIRD WITCH

The Mattie Saunders Series - Book 4

FREE TIL SEPT. 30, 2020

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

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When cultures collide...is love enough?

Can you love someone whose worldview is different from yours? Who is committed to a cause that excludes you because of your race? Simon is an Indigenous person dedicated to the struggle for justice for First Nations people. Mattie loves him but is love enough?

Birds are dying. At the Saunders Bird Rescue and Sanctuary where rescued parrots abandoned by their owners are rehabilitated and re-homed, a deadly virus has them dying in Mattie's hands. In the midst of this outbreak, she's called to investigate a mortality event where dozens of starlings fly into the pavement as if committing suicide.

Mattie needs Simon's support, but after spending weeks at a remote protest site, as soon as he returns home he begins working with Wendy Walters, the attractive, ambitious Indigenous politician on her re-election campaign. Mattie's just about had enough.

When Simon proposes a vacation on the Mexican Riviera, Mattie sees it as an opportunity to recover from the death of her beloved birds. She's also hopeful it's an indication Simon's reconsidering his priorities.

She didn't realize while on vacation he'd want to attend the Conference of Indigenous Peoples in Chiapas. Mattie's annoyed but decides to indulge her passion and do some tropical bird watching rather than attend a boring conference.

But Simon's conference turns out to be anything but boring when a deadly firefight erupts between the Mexican Army trying to arrest suspected terrorists and revolutionary Zapatista's.

Now Simon is missing, and Mattie is determined to find him, but to do so she must first escape being kidnapped by corrupt Mexican police and avoid abduction by vicious cartel members.

The fourth book in The Mattie Saunders Series, The Bird Witch combines romance and action with environmental themes for an entertaining and thoughtful exploration of contemporary culture. 

Last year I blew my book marketing budget on entering writing contests, a total of $305 including entry fees, books and postage.

Two good things came out of that experience. One was a positive and insightful review by Judge Number 54 of my novel Abandoned Dreams that I entered in The 26th Annual Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards. The other was the understanding the entire contest thing was a waste of money, or, to put it another way, it was a lot of money to spend for one review.

Though I have no evidence to prove it, I am convinced most, if not all contests are nothing more than revenue generating opportunities for writing platforms, groups and publications. 

Aside from the monthly stipend I receive for facilitating creative writing circles, I am determined this year to make more on my writing than I spend. That brings us to my latest novel, The Bird Whisperer, the Mattie Saunders Series Book 3, launched on May 6 of this year.

The book was published simultaneously on Draft to Digital, Smashwords and Kindle Direct Publishing.

After five weeks that included giveaways on BookLikes and LibraryThing, an email campaign with a free coupon code sent to 276 people on my email list, and numerous tweets and Facebook postings of a similar nature all I had to show was nineteen free downloads and one four-star review.

I changed my strategy, What did I have to lose?

I decided to promote The Rocker and the Bird Girl, the first book in the Mattie Saunders series in hopes it might create sales for The Bird Whisperer. I decided to enroll The Rocker and the Bird Girl in KDP Select and coordinate two of the five free days this exclusive listing affords you, and free email blasts with Awesome Gang, PrettyHot and MyBookPlace.

June 22 was the day and I assume the free email blasts went out, but nothing happened on Amazon.

Since research indicates fiction sales almost always peak within the first two to six weeks of the release the window for The Bird Whisperer was running out. I decided to take a chance and spend some money. I booked The Rocker and the Bird Girl on Freebooksy and coordinated it with the three free days I had left on Kindle Select.

The genre I chose was literary, the email would be sent to 123,660 Freebooksy subscribers, and the cost was $60 USD.

I held my breath.

The day the Freebooksy promotion broke 1,033 free books were downloaded and my author ranking went from 715,187 to 85,209 for All Books; 41,906 for Kindle eBooks; 56,679 for Kindle eBooks Romance; and, 24,882 for Kindle eBooks Romance Contemporary. The following day there were 131 downloads, and 31 on the third day.

Giving away books is one thing, but my benchmark for success is, and always will be, sales. As of July 20, 2019, twenty days after the Freebooksy promotion, two copies of The Bird Whisperer had been sold. However, The Rocker and the Bird Girl had picked up one text review and seven ratings with a 4-star average. There may be a few more sales and reviews trickle in over the course of this month but beyond that I wouldn’t attribute them to Freebooksy.

With the Freebooksy promotion and expenses such as proof books, books for beta readers and postage I’m in the red $152.15 so far this year. So much for my 2019 goal to make more on my writing than I spend.

But then there are still five months to go.

Stay calm, be brave, watch for the signs

30

Author’s Amazon Book Page https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003DS6LEU

 What's more disappointing than launching a new book and getting no sales and no reviews?

Paying hundreds if not thousands of dollars for someone to launch your new book for you and getting no sales and no reviews.

Cold-Blooded, Book 2 in the Mattie Saunders series was launched with a pre-order on Smashwords on January 15, 2018.

The Mattie Saunders Series is what I now go back to when I'm between, or need a break from, the major novel I'm working on. Mattie is a modern young woman dealing with new adult issues of relationships, career and family as well as addressing the contemporary challenges confronting society.

I'm actually taking subjects right from the nightly newscast and examining them from a fictional perspective. Because my overriding concern is wild places, plants and animals there's also a subplot that examines this problem as well.

In Cold-Blooded Mattie deals with the opioid crisis, a crumbling relationship and the exploitation of reptiles by the exotic pet trade.

This series of novella's are fast paced, somewhat irreverent and short - about one hundred pages.

The book was published on February 23, 2018, as an e-book on Smashwords and Draft2Digital and as an e-book and paperback on Amazon.

At that time I sent out approximately two hundred and thirty-four emails to members of my Advanced Reading Team with a coupon code for a free download of Cold-Blooded from Smashwords. Follow up emails went out March 4th and 13th.

The launch continued with giveaways on BookLikes and LibraryThing beginning March 18. I use these two sites because they don't charge you to offer your book for free like Goodreads that now charges $119.

If I ever thought I'd have to pay to give my books away I may have reconsidered becoming an author.

I used Goodreads prior to them charging to list giveaways and despite having a far greater audience than these other two sites I never found it generated more reviews.

After a month, BookLikes had two people requesting Cold-Blooded and LibraryThing had twenty-six.

I use free coupon codes on Smashwords with both my ARCs and giveaways so I can see how many actually redeem the coupon. Totally coupons offered, 271. Totally coupons redeemed, 27.

To date, marketing for Cold-Blooded has generated two tepid reviews and no sales.

It is now May 13th and I've just generated a free coupon for The Rocker and the Bird Girl, Book 1 in the Mattie Saunders Series, on Smashwords. The strategy is by offering the first book in the series free, readers will purchase the second book. Here's the link if you're interested. It expires June 3, 2018.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/727720

I'm likely going to enroll The Rocker and the Bird Girl on KDP Select so I can take advantage of offering it free for five days over the course of the three month exclusive commitment to see it that will generate any interest in Cold-Blooded.

What's the take-away?

This is classic book launch marketing, something you can easily pay hundreds if not thousands of dollars for and I did it all free.

Okay, I got zero results, but if you're and Indie Author and considering investing in marketing your self-published book ask yourself, why should you expect a different outcome? Unless you've got a real good reason, consider going the free route as outlined here or you'll likely learn the hard way what's more disappointing than launching a new book and getting no sales and no reviews.

Stay calm, be brave, watch for the signs.

Links associate with this blog:

Author Amazon site https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003DS6LEU

Link for free copy of The Rocker and the Bird Girl https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/727720

BookLikes http://booklikes.com/giveaways

LibraryThing https://www.librarything.com/more/freebooks

Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway

Draft2Digiatl https://www.draft2digital.com/

Smashwords https://www.smashwords.com/

KindleDirect Publishing https://kdp.amazon.com/

Createspace https://www.createspace.com/