Did all that marketing work?

Well,,, maybe 'all that' marketing isn't really correct. But I did do some marketing for my latest book, The Stuff of Legend. You'll find the details in my previous post, The Joy of Marketing. But in summary:

• I enrolled the book in NetGalley for all of March
• I posted a headline ad at the Romance Reviews
• I bought a book blitz tour through Book Unleashed which took place on 27th March

The purpose of all this was to try to increase sales, and to obtain additional reviews. At the beginning of the month I had three reviews on Amazon. Since it seems to be the only place I sell much, it's the only place I check.

It's early days, I know. March is not quite finished, and the book blitz ended a few days ago. I'm told that the book blitz entry appeared on forty-two sites, with a reach of at least 250,000 (without retweets and so on). 3,190 people ended the $10 Amazon gift card giveaway.

So how has this activity affected sales, and reviews?

• I have no new Amazon reviews
• There has not been a sales spike (huh) for TSoL but I have noted a tiny uptick in sales for previous books in the series
• I have had a handful of friend requests on FB and follows on Twitter

Do I feel I received a reasonable return on investment? At this stage, no. I think I can reasonably assume that I would have made as many sales if I'd done nothing at all.

Would I do another blog tour/blitz? No. This is not at all a reflection on Book Unleashed. The event was conducted in a professional manner, and forty-two sites is good coverage. I did not pay extra for guaranteed reviews, or other options offered by the company. But then, my books are not aimed squarely at the romance market. Years ago I signed up for a blog tour, and the organiser refunded my money because she couldn't get enough tour hosts to sign up (Science Fiction, you see).

Would I put a book on NetGalley again? No.

What would I do instead? <Shrugs> Spend more time taking photographs.

The joy of #marketing

(c) Stock Unlimited

I've said often enough in the past that blog tours have lost their punch in the saturated ebook marketplace. But I've recently released The Stuff of Legend, and if sales were delivered via an IV drip the patient would be wise to be very worried. I do diddly squat in the way of marketing, so that might have something to do with it. 

What to do? 

Well, despite my protestations that reviews really don't matter, they do as far as visibility on the Zon is concerned. My first move was to enroll the book for Netgalley via Broad Universe. But Netgalley doesn't guarantee reviews, and even if reviews are forthcoming it might take time. 

While I was busily gazing into my navel trying to come up with some other clever ideas, an email arrived from the Romance Reviews talking about a new blog tour site offering reduced rates. I know a lot of authors have done well through TRR (the Romance Reviews), so I thought I'd give this new operation a try. It's called Book Unleashed. The site looks thoroughly professional, and since the email promised exposure on TRR I figured all I could lose was a few more dollars. I selected the one-day Book Blitz (scroll down on the website for the details).

I was reminded that I had some outstanding credits on TRR, and popped over there to use them for a  headline ad. Here's the info on that one. I'll confess I think that TRR is aimed more at the sexy end of the market and it's strictly a site for romance readers (hence the tile), so m y book may be a bit too science fiction for them. But hey. What's going to happen?

I've covered a few bases. Now to see what happens. Netgalley is happening now (here's the link to the book.) The headline ad will appear in the next few days. The book blitz event will be happening on 27^th March. Here's the link. I'll report on what, if anything, happened after the date.

The Stuff of Legend

When history professor Olivia Jhutta receives a distress call from her parents, she sets out into space with their business partner, her grandmother and injured Confederacy Admiral Jak Prentiss to find them. But she’s not the only one interested in the Jhutta’s whereabouts. The Helicronians believe Olivia’s parents have found an ancient weapon which they can use to wage war on the Confederacy.

Jak goes on the trip to fill in time while he’s on enforced leave, helping Olivia follow cryptic clues in what he considers an interplanetary wild goose chase in search of a fairy story. But as the journey progresses and legend begins to merge with unsettling fact, Olivia and Jak must resolve their differences and work together if they are to survive. The two are poles apart… but it’s said opposites attract. If they can manage to stay alive.

Buy the book: Amazon  Google iBooks  Nook Kobo  Print

The #Kobo #Review Fail

Although Amazon is the big cheese in book publishing/selling, I'll say right off it isn't perfect. It is not the author's best friend. The recent scandal about Kindle Unlimited (go HERE and HERE, but keep an eye on your blood pressure if you get through both AND the comments) and the top new releases show how scammers are taking as yet unpunished advantage of Amazon, and the continually diminishing payments in KU with its demand for exclusivity have put my hackles up. That said, it is still the marketplace that pays me most.

And let's face it, there's no serious competition. Other retailers have been slow to adopt the often groundbreaking methods of Zon to provide an exceptional service to readersr. 1-Click purchasing to get a book straight on your Kindle, a loaning system that works for readers (but not necessarily so great for authors these days), a straight forward, easy option for authors to publish ebooks and print (it's the one platform where I NEVER have an issue with uploading or formatting) - yep, Amazon has a lot to offer. B&N have clearly given up, with their latest decision to withdraw from the UK. The Smashwords interface and Meatgrinder continues to suck. I've pulled my books from Google Play because of their random, unexplained and no-warning price changes that can affect my book prices elsewhere. I don't understand the All Romance eBook rebate thing, and I don't sell anything there. I only get sales from iTunes via D2D - not having a Mac or an Apple account makes them unfathomable to me.

The only real alternative I see to Amazon right now is Kobo, and I do still have my issues there as an author. At this moment I also have an issue with Kobo as a reader, and it's one that affects authors too. Authors love and want reviews, right? But what happens when Kobo rejects your review and won't tell you why?

I don't know about most people (when I posted about the problem on Facebook most didn't even know you could post reviews on Kobo. Now that's another problem for a start) but I've now wasted a lot of time on this issue and made zip progress. So I'm about to give up. I've wasted precious time, and an author whose book I enjoyed is missing out on a review. This has been ongoing for over two weeks now.

So, my issue with Kobo?
1. Their 'guidelines' - listed as review writing tips - are vague and no help in identifying exactly what triggered the rejection. Plus you can only find those when actually writing a review (at least, after searching Help and looking around their website, that's the only way I could find them. Please point out my blindness if that's wrong).
2. When I finally got someone to talk to me via email (after several auto responses and invitations to 'chat' - no. I don't chat. I want email) they gave me their more specific but internal review guidelines...which still didn't tell me what the actual issue was.
3. After removing three things I thought might be triggering the rejection, resubmitting, and hearing nothing for over a week, another rejection. Bearing in mind I've posted other similar reviews before and since, AND at all the other retailers (including Amazon who can be temperamental and random with review deletions) without ANY issues.
4. Their appalling lack of a decent 'contact us'. A form for reporting ereader faults only is...unhelpful.
5. Their Twitter account @KoboHelp was way more responsive...but after discussing it up to and including sending them my actual review, they went silent. I've messaged them again twice. I got one reassurance that they were looking into it the first time. Then nothing.

So here's the review that posted everywhere else, and the crossed out bits are what I cut from the edited review that I submitted (and that also got rejected), with the new sections in blue. Can anyone tell me what's getting it booted? (PS, this is taken from the Goodreads version where the spoiler is hidden-for the retailers, the hide option is not available so the spoiler is in full).

Please excuse the peculiar phrasing which is due to Kobo's oversensitive review algorithms.
What I liked:
Grab some tissues and hold on tight! This final installment packs some serious emotional punch (one reason I generally go for SFR over straight SF, but here you get it without the romance), as well as a real adrenaline-laced ride through violence, more betrayal, sacrifice, and emotional awakenings. Basically all hell breaks loose. I finally forgave Caleb for being such a jerk as this a-hole twat of a reluctant hero has finally turned himself around from someone I hoped would die long before the end of the series to one I could cheer and feel for. Clean, crisp and gritty writing, with a couple of good twists towards the end, plus a satisfactory conclusion that wraps up the four books but leaves intriguing openings for more. Frankly I would love more of One's adventures, but could let Caleb fly off into the sunset because I can only see him reverting after all the character growth in the four books (and I don't want to see that).

What I didn't like:
*spoiler alert! Don't read this section if you don't want the ending given away* 

[Well. It's a minor niggle, but the ending didn't sit entirely right with me. I think it's more because I'm perfectly willing to kill all my characters at the end of a non-romance, so maybe I expect other authors to do it (and there's really no reason why they should!). And the vague hints of romance/light romantic elements throughout weren't exactly resolved either - there's still an opening there for potential future books. Maybe I'm just too set into the SciFi romance groove to accept a non-romance ending when I felt the story was heading that way. That said, it wasn't enough to even justify taking off a half star, and didn't spoil my overall enjoyment.]

In conclusion:

I feel like One ripped out my heart and squished it, before giving me a hug! This was a seriously good conclusion to the series, and a real tear-jerker, as well as providing some dark, acidic humor and high-adrenaline action. Those hoping for a romantic ending might be disappointed, but for fans of scifi action adventure who aren't offended by the sex explicit bedroom scenes and foul language, this is perfection. Recommended for those who like Firefly/Farscape certain space opera series starting with F.

Full disclosure: I received a free advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

###

Any ideas? Maybe the full disclosure thing? IDK.

Update: I received this via Twitter -

"Thank you for your continued patience. We have reached out to our web team and it would seem that this is currently a known issue. Unfortunately, until this is resolved you may continue to have issues submitting your review without it being denied. This is a system issue but please note that we are working adamantly to resolve it."

I'm guessing that means there's a problem with their automated system and perhaps not the review itself after all, but I'm not really all that much the wiser so I said so -

"It seems that quite a few reviews are being automatically rejected by the system. We are looking into this matter and working to resolve it. We apologize that you believed our team was rejecting your post..."

So there you go. I've still waiting for two further Kobo reviews to go live (I uploaded them before the second rejection) but they could get caught in this problem, and repeatedly rejected too. I'll let you know. But your best option if you want to talk to Kobo is very clearly the Twitter account.

Status Update

I'm pushing to get the revisions done on Reunion by the end of this week as my monsters break up for the spring holiday on Thursday and I'll be taking my usual social media/work respite. The release date is still 21st May, but the sheer amount of words I've had to add so far (almost 10K) is starting to scare me!

I'm also signed up to edit my June project for this April's Camp NaNoWrimo. I need deadlines! Another downside of being indie is I don't work well to deadlines I set myself, not even release dates. If anyone would like to volunteer to stand over me with a cattle-prod to get things done, I can pay in cookies...

Quickshot releases in just 9 days! If you haven't pre-ordered it, you can find it at all the links below the cover. With the scandal over KU I decided to pull it from Amazon exclusivity and go wide, and finished uploading it to other retailers last week (phew!).

A Space Opera Short Story
Goodreads | Webpage
Amazon | ARe | Smashwords
iTunes | Kobo | B&N

Restless In Peaceville (my YA paranormal with zombies) and When Dark Falls (my dieselpunk superhero romance) are now both out of KU and back up at most retailers (I think I'm just waiting on B&N for Restless. As per usual). This means you can't borrow my books anywhere at this point in time. I'm sorry about that. The KU system sucks for me, and nowhere else is currently offering a subscription service that works. If you want to read my books for free, I can only suggest signing up as a reviewer at Manic Readers or The Romance Reviews site - I'm currently updating and reloading my titles there and added Quickshot and Keir's Fall - or my YA works (currently excluding Gethyon) are available at YA Insider.

AND Keir's Fall is currently up at NetGalley to read and review for free HERE. Working for a review site is a fantastic way to get books for free without using pirate sites, harming authors and opening your computer to viruses or getting your financial info hacked.

Happenings

The Little Things Blog Hop is in full swing until the end of March. Over 100 participating authors and over 50 prized to be won! Click the banner to visit my post on the hop and find the link to the next.

From next week I'm taking a two week break as my monsters are on holiday, so my next two posts will be on automatic as I share some info and excerpts from Quickshot. Enjoy!

Imagining The Future #amwriting #scifi

copyright depositphotos

A few months back (August last year to be exact), Laurie talked about the difficulty of writing SciFi and keeping ahead of technology. We live in an era where science fiction from a few decades back has become or is becoming science fact. While faster than light travel is still theory and very early experimentation, and the first tentative steps have been taken in matter transmission and cloaking devices, a few years ago these were still very much fiction. And now scientists are working on them.

When I first thought up Zombie Girl, I'd planned it as near future SciFi - just 100 years from now. Looking back over the past century, it's not so hard to imagine how life might be in another (though I often wonder if we'll make it that far some days). Even though ZG is a zombie dystopia, it's also, bizarrely, utopia. The city of the future is self maintaining and self sufficient. Almost sentient. It keeps its streets and buildings clean, provides state of the art medical treatment, environmentally friendly and automated transportation (on the 6th February, it was announced the British government was discussing the use of driverless cars in London), and synthesizes whatever food, clothing, medicines, equipment etc its inhabitants could ever need (3D printing is well on the way to this, and the first lab created replica food has been made). The city is close to being a living, breathing entity in its own right. On top of that, the inhabitants have an all-in-one communication and entertainment device - a One-Dee - that also gives them access to all the city's facilities (since first writing about this, the Apple watch has come out). Life would be truly idyllic...

...except it isn't, because that would be boring. Even in the utopian city portrayed in Logan's Run, people were still trying to escape to a mythical Sanctuary. And it still had its drawbacks - in this instance anyone over 30 is killed off. In Serenity, they used drugs to try and pacify their citizens, with appalling results (I won't say just in case you haven't ever seen the film, being as it's key to the whole plot). So is a true utopia actually achievable? Or will there always be some drawback that stops it from being a total paradise? What could possibly go wrong in a city that can cater to your every need? Well, a bioweapon that kills most of the population and turns the remainder into mindless cannibals maybe. The city couldn't anticipate or prevent something like that. Its programming doesn't allow for it, so it continues as if nothing happened, following the rules laid in by its creators. Adaptability is one advantage humans still hold over machines however well they're programmed. One day perhaps machines will learn that too, but not for this story.

Personally I hate cities. While I loved to visit events in London and go to Covent Garden, Greenwich and Camden markets, I loathe all the rush, the volume of dirt, rubbish, and people, the constant noise and traffic. I'm very much a country girl. So in some ways the city in Zombie Girl is the kind of thing I would dream of rather than what we have now, if we had to live in cities. But even though it solves the issue of dirt, poverty, the stress of modern living with its technology, would all human beings tolerate what is essentially a nanny state? Your every need catered for, but to never be allowed beyond the city walls, to build your own house, to have your own car, to have nothing to aspire to other than being one of thousands of solid citizens all at the same social, educational, and fiscal level? Would you give up? Want to escape?

YA Zombie Dystopia Novella
Goodreads | Website
Available from...
Amazon | iTunes | Omnilit
Kobo | Smashwords | B&N

Imagine waking up to find the world has ended, but unfortunately you’re not alone...

For Connor Innis, awakening from a year-long coma with no memories, no ability to move, and unable to speak was bad enough. Then he learns that a bioweapon set off a zombie apocalypse—for real—while he was sleeping, and the world he can't even remember no longer exists.

Rehabilitation might be torture, but far worse awaits him outside. All too soon, the hospital Mentor declares him fit to leave with nothing to go home to except a city full of mindless, flesh-eating monsters. That is, until he forms a strange relationship with the one he nicknames 'Zombie Girl'.

Happenings

My certificate for my Rebecca finalist Revived came last week, along with my first ever cash prize. Woot! I'm hoping to release it sometime in the next year, but it all hinges on finances from now on. One of the downsides of self publishing is all the editing and artwork needs paying for in advance rather than being dealt with by your publisher.

Zombie Girl: Dead Awakened released at most online retailers on the 15th February.
Quickshot, my hot space opera short, is now available to pre-order (Amazon exclusive), with a release date of the 31st March.

A Space Opera Short Story
Goodreads | Webpage
Amazon inc KU 

There's still time to enter the Goodreads giveaway for Keir's Fall, and Keir is still up at NetGalley to read and review for free HERE until the end of the month.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Keir's Fall

by Pippa Jay

Giveaway ends February 29, 2016.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

I am shortly to be joined by a second published author in my household! My 11yo entered a fiction contest via his school (grudgingly, it has to be admitted - his whole class had to write an entry) for the Young Writer's Time-Travelling Tales mini saga competition. They were only allowed to use 100 words or less (something which I struggle with even for a blurb or synopsis). Work was selected from the hundreds of entries based on imagination, perception, expression, and creative use of language. I've no idea exactly how many entries were received or how many selected for publication - I only know his made it into the Essex and Kent publication - but apparently each book will be sent to the British Library and other libraries across the UK and Republic of Ireland, releasing 31st May 2016. Of course I've ordered a couple of copies. Considering 11yo is not an aspiring author and I only found out about the whole thing by checking his bag for homework (he doesn't like doing that either), I'm stunned. Imagine if he decided he did want to write... O.o With my eldest set on publishing too (though in her case it's finishing anything that's holding her back), we could one day be a multi-author household!

Status Update
At the time of this posting, I'm coming to the end of my time away from social media for the half term holiday. Hopefully I've got some reading done so I can post some new reviews next week (and hopefully topped up my vocabulary too). I'll be back to my regular Tuesday slot here at Spacefreighters as well.
Reunion at Kasha-Asor is still in second round edits. The June project is still awaiting the first round. My word count is dropping, though mostly because of chopping out redundant scenes in Reunion while writing some new ones. It's unusual for me to do a slash and burn type revision on a work that's gone into edits, but sometimes it happens.

Ping Pong
Congrats to Donna on the release of her second novel - Trouble In Mind - on the 16th!
Good luck to Greta with her new WIP.
And how are edits going, Laurie? Strength!

Not Waving But Drowning #amwriting #amediting #amfreakingout

Ohmygosh, I am drowning in edits and rewrites. I screwed up my schedule royally by deciding to re-release Zombie Girl and release Quickshot. So now I have edits for an entire novel due out June, rewrites and edits for a novella due out 21st May (which I'm also planning an event for), a short story to release in March, and somehow I have to fit writing in there. By the time the June novel is out, I'll have to dive straight into Keir's Shadow (Book Three of Redemption) because I'd like to release that May 2017, but it's 80K mess of a novel that needs a complete overhaul before I can even think about sending it to Dani. 

And in the real world, my daughter has reached the point in her school life at the age of thirteen where she needs to decide the exam subjects that will shape/make her future career. Eeep! She's stressed and we're stressed for her and about her. Too much pressure at her age! My eldest boy is also rapidly approaching the move from junior to senior school. He's on the autistic spectrum, and while it hasn't affected his learning ability (he's a maths genius), it does impact his social skills and ability to deal with changes. He also doesn't deal with his own stress very well, and it can lead to explosive outbursts that are difficult to accept or handle for those unfamiliar with him and/or his condition. His current school has been fantastic in supporting him, but the transition might well give him good reason to slip back and bring back his anxiety issues.

So this is a short post. Next week is school holidays which has become a no working/no social media time for me, for the sake of my kids and my sanity. I need to have Reunion complete by the end of March to stop me freaking out over release dates. The June novel - well, if it goes into July/August, I don't mind but it's the knock-on effect for Keir's Shadow that bothers me. And I'd still like to release my Rebecca finalist Revived and finish that pesky winter SFR in time for this December. But I'm not holding my breath. In the meantime...

Happenings

Want to read my books for free? Well, there's a couple of ways you can do that completely legitimately over the next couple of months. Keir is up at NetGalley again to read and review for free. Keir's Fall will go up next month (March). And there's a print edition of Keir's Fall up for giveaway at Goodreads. I've also started a Read To Review sign up HERE which you can join to automatically receive ARCs of my future books before they release to the rest of the universe.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

     

Keir's Fall

by Pippa Jay

Giveaway ends February 29, 2016.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

On the 10th I'm part of Liza O'Connor's Blue Men from Space blog, and there's a contest!
On the 11th I'm guesting at Dawn's Reading Nook and talking about five killer kisses.
On the 17th Keir is taking part in the Great Pick-Up Line at The Delighted Reader blog. It's a month long event with giveaways.
Did you vote for Keir in the Hunky Hero-fest and enter the giveaway? There's still time. Go HERE.

Status Update
Last weekend I revealed the covers for both Reunion and Quickshot. In case you missed them...

Space Opera Short Story
Goodreads | Webpage
Amazon inc KU

Aren't they glorious? Again, these are the awesome work of my wonderful cover designer Danielle Fine. Check out her services HERE.

Reunion at Kasha-Asor, my planned release for 21st May and a side story in Keir's Redemption series, is in second round edits but also undergoing a partial rewrite. My planned June release is with me for first round edits.

Quickshot is now up for pre-order and due to release 31st March (link under the book cover above), and will be Amazon exclusive for at least the first 90 days (my apologies to the non-Kindle peeps. However, if you'd like a non-Amazon edition, here's the deal. Buy it from Amazon, send me proof of purchase and the actual format you need, and I will send it to you. Or you could sign up to my Read To Review list HERE, although you will need to have reviewed at least one of my other titles before).
Zombie Girl: Dead Awakened is also up for pre-order, due to release at most online retailers on the 15th February (links under the cover in the right hand side bar).
And Keir finally hit 50 reviews on Amazon US. That last one was a long time coming! I thought it would be stuck on 49 forever. Um, did I mention I have an obsession with numbers?

Ping Pong
Next week I'm trading places with Donna as her second novel - Trouble In Mind - releases on Tuesday! So I'm moving over to Friday for the week. I'm also taking time out from the internet as my monsters have their half term holiday, so any posts/tweets will be running on automatic.
See you on the flip side! Um, that's the 23rd of February in translation...

Why Zombie Girl is back #YA #zombie #dystopia

Original cover

After much inner deliberation, last week I took the decision to put my last missing ex-Lycaon Press title back up. It's been sitting on my hard drive gathering virtual dust since Breathless/Lycaon closed May 2015, and I'd had no real inclination to re-release it at the time.

Why the change of heart? Well, things happened. I originally wrote Zombie Girl specifically for Lycaon's call for YA short stories after the whole thing came to mind while I was at a music concert for one of my daughter's favourite bands. It released 22nd April 2015, just nine days before my publisher shut for good, and just as I reached the final stretch of writing book two for the April Camp NaNoWriMo. Bummer.

Despite the fact BP/LP let us use the edited versions of all our books for free, Zombie Girl was the only one of my five titles with them that I decided not to put back out with the rest. I'd already planned to re-release my debut novel Keir in May after the sale of that publisher resulted in my rights reversion, and suddenly I was another five titles down that would still need artwork paid for in order to re-release them. So I ended up re-releasing one novel, three novellas and a short story over May because they'd proved they were earning money, while Zombie Girl hadn't had the chance to. It was a killer month! Afterward, with the shock of BP/LP's closure finally setting in and the exhaustion of redoing and republishing five titles, I was done. My thoughts on Zombie Girl had changed, and I had other commitments.

But nine months on, I figured Zombie Girl should be out earning her keep. It was edited, and I thought that just for once I'd do my own cover and re-release it (FYI, in the end the marvellous Danielle Fine actually took my makeshift attempt and turned the rough draft into a polished gem). Zombie Girl: Dead Awakened was uploaded Thursday for a release date of 15th February. I wish I could put everything out that quick and clean!

I don't expect huge sales and I'm not pimping it (I already did the launch with Lycaon last year, so I'm not willing to do it over). The next book won't be coming out any time soon either, I'm afraid. I have other priorities and budget commitments until next year.

But I did learn some reassuring things during the upload. Despite managing to bodge up my pdf file five times (I kept checking through and finding things like I hadn't made the blurb the same size font as the rest, line spacings differed, I'd missed a link - stupid little things, really), I had ZG formatted as Amazon, general, and pdf galleys in half a day. It took me just three hours to upload it to Amazon, Draft2Digital, All Romance eBooks, Kobo, and Smashwords, and to check the resulting files. Aside from a slight hiccup at ARe (trust me, that's really minor compared to my usual battle with them), it all went perfectly (yup, even the Smashwords MeatGrinder, though I'm actually more familiar with that than conversion at any of the other distributors).

For the first time ever my D2D files were perfect on the first attempt. And to cap it all, Amazon had my pre-order live in a couple of hours, SW within an hour, and Kobo by the end of the day. Even iTunes was live in less than 24 hours, with B&N finally crawling in over the weekend. Kobo did make me hunt for my title after an email informing me that it was live (for a moment I envisaged the seven weeks of repeated emails trying to get a previous title to show up in their search engine *shudders*, but it popped up by itself). And the crowning glory came from Amazon in telling me I had 0 possible spelling errors during its conversion of Zombie Girl. Woot! (Normally it at least highlights my invented technological terms if nothing else, or takes aversion to a character name).

My excitement stems from this being an unheard of occurrence. Formatting, converting, uploading and checking the various ebook files is probably one of the most mind-numbingly tedious parts of being an indie author, and one I've come to loathe (for most of my self pubbed titles, Dani has actually formatted the digital galley for me, and she does all the print ones--check out her services HERE--but the ex-BP titles I did by myself (addition - Tethered was formatted for me by the lovely Gayl Taylor, formally of Breathless Press, and her official page is HERE)). But the smoothness of this particular title made it much more gratifying. Dare I hope I've actually got the hang of this author thing? At least this particular aspect of it anyway...

Zombie Girl: Dead Awakened--a YA dystopian zombie novella set a hundred years in our future--is now available for pre-order at the retailers listed under the book cover, with a release date of 15th February. You'd better start running!

YA Zombie Dystopia Novella
Goodreads | Website
Available from...
Amazon | iTunes | Omnilit
Kobo | Smashwords | B&N

Blurb:
Imagine waking up to find the world has ended, but unfortunately you're not alone...

For Connor Innis, awakening from a year-long coma with no memories, no ability to move, and unable to speak was bad enough. Then he learns that a bioweapon set off a zombie apocalypse—for real—while he was sleeping, and the world he can't even remember no longer exists.

Rehabilitation might be torture, but far worse awaits him outside. All too soon, the hospital Mentor declares him fit to leave with nothing to go home to except a city full of mindless, flesh-eating monsters. That is, until he forms a strange relationship with the one he nicknames 'Zombie Girl'.

Previously published by Lycaon Press, 22nd April 2015.

WARNING: contains swearing, and some moderate gore and violence.

Happenings

Want to read my books for free? Well, there's a couple of ways you can do that completely legitimately over the next couple of months. Keir is up at NetGalley again to read and review for free. Keir's Fall will go up next month (March). And there's a print edition of Keir's Fall up for giveaway at Goodreads.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Keir's Fall

by Pippa Jay

Giveaway ends February 29, 2016.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Yesterday Keir took part in the Hunky Hero-fest over at Audra Middleton's blog, where he was interviewed about the new-to-him concept of Valentine's Day. It put him into a bit of a panic, I must say! The event is continuing over the whole of February, with giveaways included, and there's a vote for the best hero. Needless to say I'd love you to go vote for Keir.
On the 11th I'm guesting at Dawn's Reading Nook and talking about five killer kisses.
On the 17th Keir is also taking part in the Great Pick-Up Line at The Delighted Reader blog. Again, it's a month long event with giveaways.

Status Update
Reunion at Kasha-Asor, my planned release for 21st May and a side story in Keir's Redemption series, is in second round edits but I'm currently brainstorming some ideas with Dani (my editor, designer and all round hero) and Laurel (editor, proof reader, and general sounding board). My planned June release is now back for first round edits. My proposed 31st March release, space opera short Quickshot, has been given a glorious cover by the talented Dani Fine (seriously, it is totally awesome and HAWT!) despite the highly demanding requests I made for my two MCs, so that should be releasing on schedule. If the February SFRB Presents goes ahead I'll be doing a double cover reveal for Reunion at Kasha-Asor and Quickshot.

These will bring my published works up to 15 titles, with Keir's Shadow (Book Three of Redemption) a definite release for 2017. Anything else will depend on having the funds to pay for editing/cover art. At the moment I'm focusing on a few more bits and pieces for BristolCon in October, including having to pay for accommodation and transport. I'm not risking my old car again, so I'm looking at hiring something that will hopefully ensure we'll get to the convention this time!

Ping Pong
Best of luck to Donna as she approaches launch day for Trouble in Mind on the 16th February.
Hugs to Laurie as she battles with her edits.
Seems both Greta and I were feeling featherbrained last week with us both posting on the topic of birds, though admittedly her ones would probably eat mine for breakfast... >.<