BloodGifted Sale - One Day Only 99c

Have you ever had a dream?
A holiday to some exotic location, a romantic adventure or meeting the love of your life?
Well, my dream is to become a NYT best selling author.
And right now that seems so remote -  a fantasy, like the stories that I write about never ageing.
But, some dreams can come true.
Last weekend, I attended the Books By The Bridge event where I got the chance to meet some NYT best selling authors and they shared with me how they had achieved it.
It takes time and hard work, and lots of sales.
Like my heroine, Laura, who is thrust into a strange new world, I'm asking you to help thrust me into the world of the best sellers.
So, how can you help? If you haven't bought BloodGifted, go buy it today at a one-day-only special price of 99c.

Buy BloodGifted here - Amazon
If you've already bought and read it (you wonderful person, you), please leave a review. Even if it's only one sentence.
Thank you for helping me achieve my little fantasy.
May all your dreams come true.

Tima Maria Lacoba

PS As a thank you to any who purcahse a copy of BloodGifted and/or leave a review, I'll send a gorgeous Dantonville charm bracelet. You can even choose your own colour. Just email me a pic of the Amazon purchase receipt and/or your review.

Vampire Chronicles

I was thrilled this year to be asked to contribute to a boxed set of paranormal stories by several best selling authors: AM Hudson, Kia Carrington-Russell and Alisha Basso. Each in their own right has enjoyed success in their genre, so it was an honour when I was approached to add one of my books to this supernatural set.

Since we aimed to offer this boxed set for free, I decided to contribute my novella Laura's Locket, the prequel to BloodGifted. It's a good introduction to my Dantonville Legacy Series and explains the strange connection between Laura and Philippe, and the reason for the tragic climax at the end of Book One. I never intended Laura's Locket to ever be more than 99c, so I really lose nothing offering it free as part of a boxed set.

I absolutely love the cover with its dark, gothic atmosphere and hints of mystery, suspense and romance. If that's what you enjoy reading, go now and download your FREE copy.

 

Buy Links: Amazon  Google Play  Barnes and Noble  

My First Year's Sales as a Debut Author

I'm no maths wiz, and I hate tallying figures and doing tables, but this is exactly what I found myself doing this past week. I was curious to see how I did in my first year as a debut author, and to give other indies an idea what to expect - unless of course you're Hugh Howey or Amanda Hocking, then disregard these figures entirely.

Because I have not as yet discovered how to use the pie charts and graphs on my laptop, (yes, call me a techno-neanderthal), I've resorted to using the good-old fashioned table. My maths teacher would be proud of me.

As you can see, my first book - Bloodgifted - was published October 2013. My second book - Bloodpledge - wasn't released until May 31st. 2014, and my short story - Laura's Locket - came out February 2014. Hence the N/A in some of the columns.

I tallied all sales info from October 2013 through to the end of December 2014. It made sense to include those last two months.

These figures also include sales from all online retailers where my books are listed - Amazon, Smashwords, Apple, Kobo and Barnes & Noble.

I didn't enrol Bloodgifted into Amazon's Kindle Unlimited program until October, so I could take advantage of the lead up to the Christmas period.

Well, here it is -

                  Number of Books Sold on Amazon & Smashwords 2014

Year	Month	eBooks			Kindle Units	Free	Total
2013		Bloodgifted	Bloodpledge	Laura’s Locket	Bloodgifted	Laura’s Locket
	Oct.	39	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	39
	Nov.	18	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	18
	Dec.	16	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	16
2014	Jan.	13	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	13
	Feb.	9	N/A	6	N/A	N/A	15
	March	6	N/A	4	N/A	N/A	10
	April	4	N/A	2	N/A	N/A	6
	May	7	2	2	N/A	N/A	11
	June	24	23	4	N/A	N/A	51
	July	13	10	2	N/A	N/A	25
	August	17	14	5	N/A	N/A	36
	Sept.	19	9	6	N/A	N/A	34
	Oct.	33	9	2	15	404	59
	Nov.	66	7	N/A	20	121	93
	Dec.	18	18	3	29	N/A	68
SW		51	21			1132	72
Total		353	113	36	64	1657	566
P/bk							83
Total		353	113	36	64		649

*SW - Smashwords

*P/bk - Paperback

Total paid ebooks sold       502

Total KU units                      64

Total paperbacks                 83

Total                                  649

Total Royalty payments - $1388.44

I didn't include free units in the overall count, and kept the paid sales separate from KU units. That way I can tell what readers are preferring, and how my sales might possibly perform when I eventually pull Bloodgifted out of KDPS. 

It's nice to see paid sales exceeded KU units. 

If I deduct the November and December sales I still managed to sell 488, which is good when some sources state most indies are lucky to sell 100 books in their entire career.

As a totally unknown author, with no backlist, no fan base or publisher (and with no help from BookBub) I'm thrilled with these results. Hey, I can pay my gas and electricity bills from my royalties alone. 

Bring on 2015. 

If anyone has any questions on anything in the above table, just drop it in the comments section.