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Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Write your own dream



Have you ever had a dream?

I mean something that you really HAD to do? That was how The Lost Relics began with me.

I'm so grateful to have readers, like you who have downloaded Rise of a Guardian. I hope you are finding it enjoyable.

I remember the day I decided to write a book. It had been something I'd always wanted to do, but kept using the curse word "someday". Do you ever find yourself doing that? Well, I remember sitting down in my big overstuffed brown recliner and I began writing my bestseller. It was about the Fountain of Youth. And guess what happened...nothing. I couldn't even write the first chapter, because it wasn't the right story.

I learned something after I'd spent about a month trying to force myself to write a story that just wasn't there. Sometimes you have to approach your dreams from a different direction, but you NEVER quit.

I was driving home one day from work, I was tired, discouraged and desperate to fulfill my goal. Then an image came to my mind. It was a person, a woman. She had silver eyes. Almost immediately a story began to form in my mind. A story about long forgotten realms, each with a different race of human. Each race had special talents that make up different characteristics of our minds--each using a different area of the brain.

The Lost Relics was born. Did I write it in a month--2--3--a year? No, the story took 3 1/2 years to smooth out and develop. I can't tell you how many drafts I went through, and how many beta readers saying it wasn't there yet.

The point is, what is your dream? What are you willing to do to achieve it? Would you work at it for 3 1/2 years? Five? A decade?

I hope so, because you never know what will become of it or how it will shape your life. I promise from experience fulfilling a goal you've always dreamed of is the most rewarding experience and journey, that's how I feel anyway.

People like you are making mine come true, you're like a dream master! So just some food for thought; even if writing a book isn't on your to-do list, I challenge you to stop swearing with the word "someday" and start working toward that thing, that golden nugget, you've always wanted!

I can't wait to hear about it! What is something you've always wanted to do? I love hearing the amazing things people set out do to. It just takes getting started!

All the Best,

LJ Andrews

Thursday, September 1, 2016

My week Book Launch Stats


(This image was taken at 9:30 am Sept. 1st. 113 sales by that time, and still climbing)

Well my books have been live for over a week now. I thought I would share some information on my book launch and what I've been doing to get the word out.

First off, download amounts. As of this morning around 9:30 I have a total of 443 downloads of my free book for the last 8 days. Rise of a Guardian is #2 in one of it's categories and #3 in the other. I'm very pleased with these numbers as I haven't done a ton of paid promotions. 

Steps I took to spread the word on the launch:

-Before I announced to the world I announced to my family. The night before I officially launched on the internet and social media my books were live and I sent emails to my ENTIRE family (this means cousins and aunts/uncles) I asked for their help in sharing my emails to their lists, but also my social media posts that would be occurring the following day. 

I am very blessed with supportive family and many of them responded and sent it to all their contacts. 

-Launch day: 
I announced on my blog, Facebook author page, twitter, and my personal Facebook page. I supplied every single link and I saw a lot of print books sold quickly (surprisingly) then slowly the eBooks on the various retailers (kobo, nook, iTunes) began to creep in. 

I also emailed my small but growing mailing list, specifically for my writing. I asked these people as many of them have read the book to please leave a review. I didn't get much of a response on that honestly, but I do have a great review up there that makes me smile. My family, who has purchased the books, tried to leave a review, but Amazon has found they had a connection with  me and would not allow their reviews. This is bummer, but at the same time I understand why Amazon has to monitor reviews (no one likes fake reviews)

-Today I participated in a huge mailing list promotion with other authors and my numbers are increasing by the hour. It cost $20 USD to participate and my book gets in front of hundreds of other author's mailing lists for a a period of time. I am only promoting Rise of a Guardian in this mailer. It is the free book. I am using this to hopefully get people interested in my books, not because I don't think it's worth money, but I wanted people to read the series. Trinity Rises is currently listed at $3.99.

Paid sales: They have been very little, but I have made $20.00 USD in royalties at this point and have sold about 10 of my paid books. I hope to see an increase in sales as the hundreds of free downloads have time to read Rise of a Guardian, and the hope of any author is they want to continue the series and move on to the other books. 

Tomorrow I am running a promotion with BKnights on Fiverr. I've heard excellent things about them and many of my author friends get a surge of downloads on their promotion day. This promotion cost me $10. 

I am loving this so far, although I am not an overnight millionaire, it has been so satisfying to see people actually downloading my books and finding it interesting. I hope to gather more reviews as people finish the book because reviews help authors so much to be visible. 

Here's to hoping the downloads continue and more and more people get lost in the adventure of the Lost Relics.

Happy Writing

LJ Andrews