I have a present for my fans. I hope you like it.
For the last decade, I haven’t celebrated Christmas. As a business owner, it’s always a horrible time of year (until now). The selfishness of the holidays shines through, leaving those of us struggling to make a living on our own caught between holding up the holiday spirit and going broke. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard, “Well, I’ll make it up next month, but I need to buy my kids some presents – do you mind?”
Now, I’m a caring and generous person. My husband says it’s my greatest fault. I don’t mind, not really. Not until my own family starts to suffer. Unlike so many others, I rack up credit card debt paying the utility bills because my expected income just got “postponed” for Christmas. It’s the downside of a luxury market, and I knew this going into it (and into my previous job) but it still leaves my feelings for the holidays a little bleak.
Until this year! For the first time since 2007, I not only have money when I expected to, but have a little bonus holiday stash set aside. This is all because of my fans! So many of you have shared my work, liked an ad on facebook, shared a book sale, or re-tweeted one of my series. A year ago, I was a newbie author, thrilled to be making a little spare cash from these stories. Today, I have lights up on my house, a tree with presents under it, and plans for an amazing New Years celebration.
I still don’t really celebrate Christmas. I celebrate the winter holidays. After so long, it’s become a tradition for us to relax on Christmas day and give gifts for the New Year. It’s our way of saying goodbye to the past and looking forward to upcoming opportunities. That doesn’t mean that I don’t love the idea of Christmas. Knowing I am finally in a position to enjoy it?
Well, I kinda want to do something back for the people who have brought me this far. All of my fans – whether they bought one book, picked up a freebie, or read every single work I’ve ever written – deserve a little something. I don’t have much to give, so I’m giving you a sale.
Starting December 21st through December 25th (yes, Christmas Day) BloodLust will be free. Pick it up for yourself, give it as a gift to a family member (you know, the one who just got that new kindle?) or send it to the people you work with. They don’t need to know it was on sale! Share the series, get your own copy, and spend that dead time while you’re waiting for the kids to pass out, the turkey to cook, or the football game (do they have that? Sorry, I don’t follow football) to end. Doesn’t matter what you plan to do, here’s a free book for supporting me!
But wait, that’s not all! (I always wanted to have a real reason to say that.)
The rest of the series will go up for just $0.99 in the USA and £0.99 in the UK. On December 22nd, it will be Instinctual, Rise of the Iliri #2. The 23rd will see Defiance, Rise of the iliri #3 go on sale, and on Christmas eve, December 24th, Inseparable, Rise of the Iliri #4 will also be just $0.99 or £0.99. That means that if you haven’t started the Rise of the Iliri series yet, you can buy the entire thing for just $5.96! Trust me, that’s a LOT of reading for six bucks.
Sadly, Amazon only offers sale prices to the two stores. I keep hoping my other international friends (Hey, Canada… I’m looking at you! Australia, I haven’t forgotten you either!) get these options soon, but I’m not going to hold my breath. To make it up to you, Kitty Cox and I have decreased the price for the Gamer Girls series in all marketplaces.
And I know this isn’t much, but I don’t know most of you. I only know what you’ve done for me – read my books. I can’t just hand you a thank you card. I can, however, make it a little easier to get a few more books in your library.
All too often, we authors get in the mindset that our readers owe us. We beg you to review the books, harass you to share the word, and pester you with listings for our upcoming novels. We honestly don’t mean to, we’re just that excited. So, think of this as my way of saying thank you. It’s not much, and I know many of you have read these books already, but if you wanted to own them permanently (as opposed to Kindle Unlimited) or decide to gift them to others, dropping the price is the least I can do.
I hope this makes your holidays a little happier, because you all have done that and more for me. I can’t remember the last holiday season I was this happy. You all are the best fans an author could hope for.