Free Promo a Success (in my opinion)

Alright, Friends and Family and followers of a blog-type nature (that would mean friends as well...)

My Free Promo just ended and my goal for the two days was to have 1000 people download my book so that many more will (hopefully) like it and be willing to buy the sequel when it comes out later this year... and so people will tell their friends about it for the current novel. It also helps my seller ranking and gives me a good chance of getting more reviews on Amazon (reviews are the gold every indie author is hoping for---beyond the actual gold... or rather cash... they might gain for selling---and with your help I landed 1083 new readers and finished my promo in Amazon's top 20 free (considering there are thousand of books free at any given time... that was pretty epic for me.) Thank you.

Thank you so very much for supporting, re-posting, and sharing the links my wife and I have shared. It's made a difference for us. Please don't stop sharing about the book. $2.99 is pretty reasonable for a nearly 500 page book of sheer awesomeness ;-)

This will be my last TODTOL book post for a while (until the paperback is coming available). I just really wanted to say thank you to all of you who have been helping make this dream a reality.
Merry Christmas (or I guess looking at the clock... it's actually Boxing Day now---I should be in bed).

One last bit. If you decide you want to review my book (which I would really appreciate), please don't give any indication of knowing me personally.... Amazon has already deleted two really great reviews because they thought the reviews were biased (since they were from individuals they could connect back to me somehow).
And if you haven't already, if you'd go to the book link and click like, that helps me out too (just not as much as actual reviews).

Okay that's all the TODTOL business I'm going to be talking for now. The next post will be something frivolous or sentimental or possibly of a cat nuking a small grassland... you know, something utterly unrelated ;-)

(Um... one last last thing... What sort of content would you guys be interested in seeing here on the blog? Just curious)

I love you guys!

Geno

Merry Christmas Eve... day!

Hello All ... and Merry Christmas!

Been a few days since I've had any thing to post here... mostly because I was wrapping up the eBook fiasco.

So now....

In honor of the holiday (and having gotten the error's in my novel fixed and a complete read through finished to double check), my Christmas present to any who would like to accept is...

A free copy of my Epic Fantasy novel "Through the Dark Wood" (free today and tomorrow) and if you're interested in poetry my companion book "Poems of Darlandis andCairemia" is free for the next 5 days. Call that a Merry Christmas Week present... or for my Canadian friends, my Merry Christmas and Boxing Day bonus!

I just want to say thank you to all of you who've been so supportive in this process. It means the world to me. And it makes me feel loved. 

Thank you.

[Side note: If you purchased the book while it was a mess, Amazon should be contacting you within 4 weeks with a download link to the corrected content.] 

So... uh... that's all for now.

Merry Christmas!

Geno

Oh... the mixed emotions

Oh the mixed emotions... As I have posted a few times there were some issues with my book and a file conversion between two softwares... Well... I just discovered today that somehow... I  mixed up which was the good file and which was one of my previous versions. Soooo...  I have no idea how many people have purchase ones that I thought were the corrected file and were not. The word omissions that happened make it hard for me to follow along, and I know the book inside and out.

So... My book is selling really well, but I don't know how messed up the bulk of the files have been. I've added the most updated file I know of today, and I know that one still has a few issues that I'm working on, but I had to take a break and express this bundle of stink to you.

I've had 8 people request refunds from Amazon and I've dropped off the best sellers list. I'm working diligently to ensure the file is completely fixed (and now because of the mix up I'm having to do it again).

I'm still optimistic about the future of the novel... I just really didn't want to have to redo this work a second time before asking Amazon to update everyone with the new content (which takes about 4 weeks).

So... there you have it. I'm still driving toward the goal. But... I hit a significant hiccup.


Thanks for your patience.

Geno

I'm stunned... Thank you!

It's been a busy week, and I feel I've neglected my poor blog long enough. I've spent more time hanging out with Facebook than GenoWrites.blogspot.com. I'm sorry, Blog... and Blog-reader. To make up for it I'm posting the coolest news I've had about my writing yet.

I posted on Facebook last night that I was in the top 100 (98 to be precise) in Amazon's Epic Fantasy Category. This morning I woke up and anxious to see if I'd lost any ground (which I sort of expected I would have), I discovered I had moved UP to the #82 spot in Amazon's Epic Fantasy category.

WHOOOOO HOOOOOO!!!

I mean... WHOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

(ehem) Sorry....

I'll recompose myself.

But, I sort of can't help myself... because as I looked, I realized that being #85 put my book ahead of authors like #88: Robert Jordan (wheel of time, book 7), #83: George R. R. Martin (Song of Ice and Fire, book 4), and.... #92: (dun dun dunnnnnn) Stephen King (Dark Tower, book 7). [I add the "dun dun dunnnnn" for dramatic effect because even though all three are impressive, Everyone knows Stephen King]

Annnd... I'm stunned. I giggled a little (like I was 4 years old). I chuckled after that (like... I don't know... a chuckler...) then I just stared at the screen, and I can honestly say I'm not sure how that is happening since I've only sold 5 more since 1am (not that that's anything to shake a stick at...)

I'm just stunned.

I include the screenshot to the left here, because I wanted to show you (and have it on record to prove to myself) that it actually is in the top 100 paid in Epic Fantasy. (Wow... tears come to my eyes.)

I started this wondering where my writing would go. I still wonder where it will lead... but for now it's on Amazon's best sellers list and I am... ... ... —I'd say speechless, but anyone who knows me knows that would be an inaccurate statement.

I'm... humbled.

Thank you to anyone and everyone of you who have bought my book. This wouldn't be happening without you. I can write a book, but you have to buy it to make it a success. And you are buying it. That's amazing.. and again I'm stunned.


Thank you.

My wife and daughter thank you.

My Illustrator thanks you too... I'm sure.

I'll be sure to follow up your kindly purchases with a worthy sequel (mostly written already... still need art and have some more chapters to write, but I'll get it to you in 2013.)

It's funny... I look at the sales and to my mind it's really still coming in at a trickle, but apparently, to Amazon's algorithms, it's "best selling".

The thing that strikes me most is... the more my book is purchased, the more people will think of Zam, and Griss, Graffeon, Tearis, Galwen, Elyon, and Raine, Corben and Tara, even Raim Sabbar as "real" Characters... in the way that I can turn to someone and say,

"Yeah.... It's like when Gandalf told Bilbo, 'I'm looking for someone to join me in an adventure'" and those names... those characters... elicit an emotion and a mental image for the person I'm speaking to.

The first person (one of my pre-readers) who ever referenced Zam's name to me in conversation, startled me.
Because... I could hear in his voice the depth that Zam had landed in his heart. It wasn't just a name he'd heard or read somewhere. It was an individual he had connected with and loved. And... that floored me emotionally... to think that a character (or characters, creatures, and places) that I imagined would fill another person's heart and mind in that way—and now, as you are putting me on the best sellers list, they'll fill many more—I am simply amazed.

and again... I'm stunned.

All I can say is... thank you.

Geno

Paperback soon to be

I require sleep... but I couldn't go to bed without first at least putting a smidge of info out there.
Sounds like I'm cooking: a smidge of info; a pinch of worked-really-hard-and-slept-too-little-the-last-few-days; a dash of dreaming... and voila!

Files have been submitted for the paper back creation. Within 48 hours I'll be contacted for the next step. A proof copy will follow, and shortly after that, physical copies of Treasures of Darkness Treasures of Light, Book One: Through the Dark Wood.

I'm excited! And sleepy....

Good night, All

Geno

amazon.com/author/genoallen

Simply Inspiring

I'm making the slow crawl through the mine field of preparing my paperback for publishing. After the modest fiasco of the first week of the eBook launch I'm being much more cautious. I'm still pulling the late nights and early mornings trying to get this book out there for the world to read, and it's pretty daunting. What with maintaining my day job, my family---including my 15 month old daughter (beautiful, intelligent, and amazing 15 month old, but still 15 month old)---and... well that would be enough actually, but add to that the learning curve of the publishing world, and I do feel a bit like I'm making my way across a barren landscape pock-mark with the craters of mines that have already gone off and my bleary eyes are trying to see any tell-tale signs of mines ahead... I'm tired, thirsty, and looking forward to reaching the other side of this war zone where the biggest enemies are my desire to rush and my fears of facing this industry that has told so many "you won't make it". But I survived the last explosion and Through the Dark Wood is making daily progress... with only 2 returns from the issues the eBook had. 
[sidebar: I'll be trying to get Amazon to update purchasers directly it takes roughly 4 weeks for them to do it though.]

So, the distance is narrowing, but the process is harrowing, and I needed a refresher this morning. And, so I come to the reason for the title of this blog.

I went to read through the reviews on my books published thus far. Still only two for Through the Dark Wood, but I'm getting more reviews for "How to be a Hero" and that is a wonderful thing too. Because... this morning... needing a refresher... I read the following review:

"Loved it - by Tanya Glover - This story was simply inspiring! My oldest son and I read it together (he is 12 years old) and it not only held his attention, it had him asking questions about what we were reading. The bottom line is that there are fantastic lessons to learn in this story and I am looking forward to hearing more from this talented author."

It brought a tear to my eye. That review right there... is 75% of why I write. There was a day I wondered if my writing would ever inspire people. Miss Glover just told me that it does.  

And that simply inspires me.

I needed that.

I can cross this field. And the distance feels that much shorter now.

For any who would like to write a review... I do read them and they help in more ways than one.

Thanks! and have a grand day!

Geno

Only took a week... but Whew!

Here we are. It's bedtime, but I wanted to shoot a message out there about TODTOL before I sleep. I believe everything is the way it should be with the book. All the omissions should be fixed. So, as the post title says, Whew! I'll be doing a full read through myself over the next day or two to catch any possible errors, but I really believe were there. Big thanks to JC for his diligent reading and documenting of errors.

As of this post I have sold 26 copies of the book. So, anyone that has purchased the book before today, or anyone who finds the errors in their copy of the book, please message me here and I'll make sure you can get a corrected copy. Thank you for buying and reading the book.

Geno

Almost completely fixed

Well hello again!
Just dropping a quick line out in the blogosphere to say I've had a chance to go through all but chapters 6 & 7 and correct the bizarro word omissions that took place. I have a fear that chapter 6 will have some significant omissions, because one of the proper nouns it kept omitting was Zamora, and his name is mentioned numerous times in that chapter. I'm committed to having all the corrections done before this day is out, and when I'm done it takes about 12 hours to be updated, So. It will be right  and purchasable the right way by tomorrow at the latest. Right now I have a speaking engagement to get to.

Thanks for reading.... and thanks for your patience with my first real novel launch.

Geno