The Final Book in Cosy Mystery Series is Released!

WOW. Four years ago when I began the St. Ives Book Club Mystery Series with Advertisement for Murder, it was a fun project that kept me busy while I was submitting my Young Adult manuscript to agents and publishers. Amateur sleuthing in small town Ontario was supposed to be a little side gig while I got on with my real writing. 

Hah! Ten books later, I learned so much and had a great time in the process.

In the four-year span of writing the series, I experienced personal tragedy, immense joy and a global pandemic thrown in just to keep things interesting. Through it all, I had the St. Ives book club to keep my spirits up. 

But now we come to the end. The last book in the series is launching December 5, 2023 on Amazon and in Kindle Unlimited.

The Final Chapter

An iron-clad confession. A closed case. But the wrong man is in prison. 

Elliot Marks is convinced the real killer of a missing CSIS agent is still at large and will kill again if he isn't stopped. The amateur sleuthing of the St. Ives Book Club comes full circle in the Abercrombie library at will be their final meeting. As he did in the beginning, Elliot suggests they forgo reading about murder and prevent one instead. 

 

But when the deductive genius of Marks leads him to brand a harmless and respected member of St. Ives society a serial killer, Avery Holmes and the book club wonder if they made a mistake. 

Elliot will not be talked out of testing his theory to the limit. Time is running out. He knows he must act swiftly to prevent another murder before the final chapter.

-----------------

Thank you for sticking with me for all these years. I'm going to take a break for a year (2024) to work on other projects, returning in 2025 with a new mystery series. 

I wish you peace and joy in this holiday season and in the New Year. 

Best wishes,

Nadine 

Kobo, Apple, Barnes and Noble and Google Play are getting a Cozy Mystery Series!

Yep, I'm doing it. I'm taking the first three books in St. Ives Book Club Mystery Series to Kobo, Google Play, Barnes and Noble and Apple iBooks this Fall 2023!

• Advertisement for Murder (Oct. 18)
• Death Knocks Twice (Oct. 30)
• Dead to the World (Nov. 27)

For those of us who don't understand what this means - Kindle Unlimited is a subscription service for book lovers. For a monthly fee, subscribers can borrow 10 (or is it 20 now?) books in a month. For big readers, this is an economical choice. 

For authors who enroll their books in the program, we cannot publish anywhere else for 90 days. In exchange, we're paid a percentage for every page of our books that are read. It's a great way for a new author to gain readers and fans for their series. However, it means we are not spreading our wings to other retailers.

I decided to wait until St. Ives Book Club Mystery was almost finished and reads had plateaued in Kindle Unlimited before moving the series out. It's like seeing a series on Netflix but it's not available on Prime. That sort of thing. 

I'm excited to introduce readers who frequent the other bookstores to the St. Ives Book Club amateur sleuths. The last book in the series, The Final Chapter, will be released in Kindle Unlimited Dec. 12, 2023 as usual. 

If the series does find readers in other markets, I'll move all of the books out of Kindle Unlimited gradually throughout 2024. 

IN OTHER NEWS:

The Missing Foote Mystery : Book #9 in St. Ives Book Club Mystery Series is out now!

On Amazon and in Kindle Unlimited

One country fair. Two dead bodies. Hundreds of suspects.

Avery Holmes is chagrined when the debut of her thriller, The Spy Wore Heels, is held at Northumberland County's Agricultural Fair but when a body is dug up during the plowing match, her book launch goes from bad to worse.

Agent Lannister Foote vanished last year under mysterious circumstances that CSIS analyst Elliot Marks refused to investigate. That the missing Foote turned up (literally) is not surprising to Marks. But who is the killer? A farmer's field hints at someone local. Someone they all know. Someone who is at the scene the moment the corpse is unearthed.

Then another body is discovered in the corn maze - this time bizarrely hung up like a scarecrow. The fair-goers and organizers are starting to panic.

​​​​With the sprawling five-day event under threat and pressure from the big commercial farming interests to solve the murders and fast, the St. Ives Book Club rally together to uncover a shocking secret. 

LAST BUT NOT LEAST:

THANK YOU ARC team members (advance reader reviewers) for reading this series and leaving reviews on the various book sites that we all love. You have helped readers decide to take a chance on a new mystery (and me) and we all appreciate it! 

I am looking for readers to review for Kobo, Google Play, Barnes and Noble and Apple. If you like to read murder mystery for free (that is on the cosy side of the spectrum), subscribe to my newsletter The Butler Didn't Do It  and get a free short story, Long Shadows Fall, to sample the series and my writing style. Then, if you would like to read the first three in the series for review on the sites listed, contact me through the newsletter and I'll be in touch. 

HOW TO BECOME AN ARC READER:

1. Subscribe to The Butler Didn't Do It

2. Download your free copy of Long Shadows Fall

3. Reply to newsletter with request to be added to the Team

4. I send you the link to download your books to review

5. Read. Review. Post on your favourite retailer site. 

Traditional Cozy Mystery for October!

 

Click here to PREORDER

RELEASE DATE: October 10, 2023

Amazon and in Kindle Unlimited

Book #9 in St. Ives Book Club Mystery Series

🔎

One country fair. Two dead bodies. Hundreds of suspects.

Avery Holmes is chagrined when the debut of her thriller, The Spy Wore Heels is held at Northumberland County's Agricultural Fair but when a body is dug up during the plowing match, her book launch goes from bad to worse.

Agent Lannister Foote vanished last year under mysterious circumstances that CSIS analyst Elliot Marks refused to investigate. That the missing Foote turned up (literally) is not surprising to Marks. But who is the killer? A farmer's field hints at someone local. Someone they all know. Someone who is at the scene the moment the corpse is unearthed.

Then another body is discovered in the corn maze - this time bizarrely hung up like a scarecrow - and the fair-goers and organizers start to panic.

​​​​With the sprawling five-day event under threat and pressure from the big commercial farming interests to solve the murders and fast, the St. Ives Book Club rally together to uncover a shocking secret. 

A Psychic Paranormal Cozy Mystery Release!

The idea for Sixth and Sensibility came to me way back in May of this year. Like its namesake, Sense and Sensibility, I thought it would be fun to put an impulsive psychic with a skeptical realist and see what happened. 

With murder. And mystery. Because of course. 

The third book in A Gracie and Gideon Mystery is out Tuesday September 5, 2023 on Amazon and in Kindle Unlimited. (Available for preorder now!)

One Vexed Vampire rounds out the trilogy, finishing the first chapter of Gracie Dare's story while leaving the door open for the series to continue at a later date. 

I started the series as a fun writing project for the summer and it was a blast. I'm trying to challenge myself as an author to experiment with new genres. Paranormal mystery is not what I usually read. I don't like books with magic, for example. But a psychic amateur sleuth in a quirky book publishing company with an attractive but cranky book editor? Yep. I can get behind that. 

 

ONE VEXED VAMPIRE

Just when I thought I was getting my psychic mojo back, a vampire has to stroll into town.

There is no such thing as vampires. Ghosts? Of course. Vampires? Please. 

Unfortunately, Mortimer Drake didn't get the memo. The long-lost love of Hazel Ripe, one of Arcania Press's authors, stumbles out of the Maine woods claiming he's being hunted by a vampire. He disappeared fifty years ago and has been living as a hermit until he became the prey of a bloodthirsty man with fangs. 

The non-existence of vampires is something my skeptical editor, Gideon Tate and I can agree on. However, my sixth sense informs me loud and clear that something dark is chasing the old hermit. 

Gideon thinks my "gift" is on the fritz until Mortimer's body turns up - bloodless - in an old cemetery. Then dead chickens begin to turn up in Mirror Falls and suspicion falls on sweet Hazel Ripe! If it wasn't for the belladonna growing in her garden or the fact that she's an expert in bloodletting, she might have a chance of clearing her name. 

For once, Gideon is forced to think outside the box and accept my help. Naturally, with my ESP, I'm confident I'll have the job done by sunset. 

With the launch of Hazel's book fast approaching and everything on the line for Arcania Press, I soon discover there is nothing natural about this mystery. 

PREORDER YOUR COPY HERE 

Paranormal Cozy Mystery for Summer!

Sixth and Sensibility 2: A Gracie and Gideon Mystery

Releasing August 8, 2023 on Amazon Kindle and in Kindle Unlimited

Preorder is available now!

One Wily Witch

Opposites attract when psychic, Gracie Dare, inherits a peculiar publishing house and a skeptical (but hot) editor is tasked with showing her the ropes. 

A girls' night out in Mirror Falls is not like they are in Los Angeles. Mead is served instead of mojitos and spells are cast instead of karaoke. As a formerly famous psychic to the stars, I was confident these soccer-moms-turned-witches couldn't summon anything more than a hangover. How wrong I was. In the middle of an incantation, a 400-year-old witch makes an appearance, scaring the leader of the coven to death.

Or was she?

Gideon Tate, my skeptical editor and debunker of supernatural phenomenon says I'm wrong a witch was involved, and he's willing to bet Arcania Press on it. It's a bet he's going to lose because my sixth sense tells me that his fiancee is up to her neck in this mystery and he's going to need my help to get her out of it. 

As if that wasn't enough, my ex-boyfriend has taken a sudden interest in me and a missing formula that promises to be worth billions. I really don't have time for a broken heart when my inheritance is on the line. You don't have to be psychic to know I may not have a choice.

Free Cozy Mystery June 15 - June 19

 Free on Amazon for a limited time only:

The Body in the Ravine: A St. Ives Book Club Mystery

When Veronica Wakefield-Brice finds a body hanging from a tree in the ravine behind her stately mansion, the matriarch is thoroughly put out. The victim was a teller of tall tales, and though his death appears to be a suicide, it's odd that he's missing his shoes. Too odd for Elliot Marks and the St. Ives Book Club who find themselves matching wits with a unexpected killer.

-----------

Set in the tiny hamlet of St. Ives, Ontario, a murder mystery book club discovers they have a taste and talent for solving unsolved crimes. Led by the brilliant and eccentric Elliot Marks, five active retirees and two young reporters unearth secrets that certain residents of the cosy village would prefer remained buried.

New Series! New Release!

 Hey peeps.

What are you still doing here?

Head on over to the website for current events. www.nadinedoolittlebooks.ca

But since you are here, how about a little light reading for the summer? I started a new series mostly for fun and to let loose creatively. The first book in the series is out today!

Sixth and Sensibility: One Dead Devil

Psychic to the stars, Gracie Dare's life is falling apart when she inherits a small publishing company in Mirror Falls, Maine, and must contend with a grumpy (but hot) editor who has made it his mission to debunk psychics. 

Publishing books on arcane knowledge wasn't how I imagined spending my newly-single mid-thirties either, but Gideon Tate seems hellbent on making me turn tail and run back to Los Angeles.

He wants to force me out so he can publish how-to manuals that solve real-world problems. Even though he can't solve his own real-world problem of how to get his fiancee to live in the same town as him.

There is something my smoking hot editor doesn't know about me. I'm psychic. His job? To debunk psychics, and he's very, very good at it. 

So when one of our authors turns up dead, I know it's murder - mainly because the newly deceased won't stop talking about it. 

How am I going to convince the deeply skeptical Gideon Tate of that? I said I was psychic - not a miracle worker. 

It is a paranormal cozy mystery set in Maine with a dash of romance, quirky writers, small town, dead people, mystery and a few laughs. Book two and three will be released in July and August. If you haven't joined my newsletter, please do. You'll know what's going on delivered to your inbox. 

Happy June!

Cozy Mystery Free Book Sale

Dear Readers,

Maybe we're in a recession or maybe not. Maybe a pandemic is still raging or maybe not. Maybe the world is going to hell in a handbasket and maybe it'll keep turning awhile longer. 

The nice thing about aging is you start to feel like you've seen this movie before, and while the storyline isn't your favourite, you know the ending and just can't get worked up about it. 

Experience has taught me that it softens the ride when we all help each other out. My tiny contribution to the general well-being of my fellow humans is St. Ives Book Club Mystery, in which six retirees and two young reporters solve cold case murders. The tone is light but not melt-in-your-brain light. Some brains crave something to chew on that won't keep them up at night. Like a late-night snack that is both satisfying and digestible. 

If you haven't started the series yet, but would like to, there is no time like the present. Advertisement for Murder is free on Amazon from November 9, 2022 to November 13, 2022.

Pick up your Free copy HERE:

Advertisement for Murder

The sixth book in the series, A Deadly Case of Blue, dropped today and is available until November 13, 2022 for $2.99. After that, the price goes up to $3.99. Dig through the couch cushions and place your order to save big. 

The series can be read out of order if you are okay with getting to know characters mid-series. I know I am. I've read  almost every series mystery out of order, just grabbing what I could from the library. St. Ives Book Club Mystery is in Kindle Unlimited if you have that service. 

Pick up your Discounted Copy HERE:

A Deadly Case of Blue

 

St. Ives Book Club Mystery is also available in print from Amazon. My plan is to sell on other retailers in 2023 and look into audio books as well. Writing the series consumes most of my available brain cells at the moment ... which is the downside of aging. 

Happy reading and I wish you a blessed Remembrance Day!

St. Ives has a new mystery!

 

The Body in the Ravine

Book Five in the St. Ives Book Club Mystery Series is out today! This new release is on special offer for $2.99 until August 19, 2022 when the price reverts to the regular $3.99. 

When Veronica Wakefield-Brice finds a body hanging from a tree in the ravine behind her stately mansion, the matriarch is thoroughly put out. The victim was a teller of tall tales, and though his death appears to be a suicide, it's odd that he's missing his shoes. Too odd for Elliot Marks and the St. Ives Book Club who find themselves matching wits with a unexpected killer.

CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR COPY ON AMAZON 

Available in Paperback and Ebook

This summer has been incredibly busy and fun, and is far from over. I'm travelling this August to see family and though that part will be great, getting organized to travel is not. Plotting a murder is less stressful.

When I come back, I'm tucking into A Deadly Case of Blue, in which an elderly lady comes to the Book Club with an unusual request. She thinks she might have murdered someone but can't find the body. Sweet, befuddled Hattie Hudson asks Elliot Marks if he wouldn't mind looking for it?

Sign up for my monthly newsletter The Butler Didn't Do It to hear about sales and new releases, and pick up your copy of Long Shadows Fall, a St. Ives Book Club Mystery short story. 

CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE BUTLER DIDN'T DO IT

Have a wonderful August and happy reading!

 

From the Easter Bunny: Free Cosy Mystery Book!

To celebrate the launch of The Killing of Honey Gable and to introduce new mystery lovers to the quirky world of the St. Ives Book Club, I'm running a free promotion of the first book in the series, Advertisement for Murder.

The promotion runs from April 16 to April 20, 2022. Available in Amazon marketplaces only and in Kindle Unlimited as well. 

I hope you fall in love with the peaceful hamlet of St. Ives and its homicidal secret life as much as I enjoy writing about it.

New Book in Cosy Mystery Series Now Available for Pre-Order!

After telling my newsletter subscribers I was nervous to put a book up for pre-order - I have put The Killing of Honey Gable up for pre-order 'cause that's how I roll!

The novel is almost finished. I have two chapters to write, then a final pass before it goes off to my trusty proofreader. Pre-order means I can let readers know it's coming but it also means if I drop dead before the final file is uploaded, it'll just be hanging there. The unfinished, not-quite-perfect novel.

This is the thought that plagues me at three o'clock in the morning. (That and what the heck are they putting in Temptations that the cat needs a fix at that hour??) 

Pre-orders make me nervous but I bit the bullet this time because so many authors in my genre use pre-orders for their readers who are eager for the next book and might not be informed when it's released.

I'm also hoping the deadline refines my thought process (which is another way of saying I spend less time dreaming about the story and more time writing it) and I can make this a habit. 

Pre-orders are not available for print (for indies) at this time but you can order your ebook now and it'll arrive to your Kindle or ereader on Launch Day - April 19, 2022.

The ebooks are Kindle Unlimited Select titles. The print version will arrive on April 19, 2022. If you enjoy what you have read so far in the series, please leave a review! We hate to ask but there is almost no opportunity to advertise books without reviews. 

So I am asking. I love hearing from folks who enjoy the series - please let the world know through your social media or by writing a brief review. And thank you!

AND if you would like to get my books for FREE - subscribe to my newsletter and join my Advance Reader Copy team. If you enoy reading and writing honest reviews to post on Amazon and/or Goodreads, then come on down! I would love to have your input. 

Subscribe to The Butler Didn't Do It Here (And get a free copy of Long Shadows Fall.)

Pre-Order The Killing of Honey Gable from Amazon Here

THE KILLING OF HONEY GABLE - DUE FOR RELEASE APRIL 19, 2022

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B09VFR93R2

A bus abandoned fifty years ago. A missing six-year-old boy. And a killer in danger of being unmasked.  

The long, quiet winter is over. A decades-old hit and run cold case sparks the St. Ives Book Club to life when the bus involved in the accident is discovered abandoned in a forest. Folk singing sensation, Honey Gable, was on the way up when she was run down after a performance at St. Ives Theatre. A tragic accident? Or did one of the six people who fought with Honey that night take their hatred to homicide. A clue is discovered, leading the amateur sleuths on the trail of a killer who will stop at nothing to conceal his or her identity. Poking into this cold case will be like poking a hibernating bear.

Set in the tiny hamlet of St. Ives, Ontario, a murder mystery book club discovers they have a taste and talent for solving unsolved crimes. Led by the brilliant and eccentric Elliot Marks, five active retirees and two young reporters unearth secrets that certain residents of the cosy village would prefer remained buried.

Cosy Mystery Book Release!

Christmas has come to St. Ives and it is murder. 

Tis the season of goodwill toward all men...

No one in St. Ives sheds a tear when the reviled Bernie Dixon falls to his death from the belfry of the clock tower right before Christmas. Murder is out of the question. The only access to the tower was locked and Bernie had the key in his pocket when his body was found. At first glance, death by misadventure is the obvious conclusion. But when the St. Ives Book Club is approached by his widow to investigate, the amateur sleuths discover first glances can be deceiving. As the villagers celebrate with parties and tree-trimming, Elliot Marks leads his gang of crime solvers on a hunt for a killer.

Set in the tiny hamlet of St. Ives, Ontario, a murder mystery book club discovers they have a taste and talent for solving unsolved crimes. Led by the brilliant and eccentric Elliot Marks, five active retirees and two young reporters unearth secrets that certain residents of the cosy village would prefer remained buried.

Buy it Now on Amazon!

Subscribe to my brand-spanking-new newsletter THE BUTLER DIDN'T DO IT  to keep informed of upcoming releases and access the freebies I have planned in 2022. It's a short and snappy read, published the first Thursday of every month. I hope to see you there!

Seeking Cosy Mystery Reviewers!

 Read more. Pay less. 

Join in the fun. Become a reviewer on Booksprout starting with  DEAD TO THE WORLD due for release December 7, 2021. 

This is the link: https://booksprout.co/arc/80590/dead-to-the-world

Click it and find out whodunit before anybody else! It's easy. Download an Advance Reviewers Copy in .mobi, .epub or PDF. Read. Review. Post when the book is live. 

St. Ives Book Club Mystery is exclusive to Amazon until February 1st. It is what it is. I tried but exclusivity is not my jam. 

Tis the season of goodwill toward all men...

No one in St. Ives sheds a tear when the reviled Bernie Dixon falls to his death from the belfry of the clock tower right before Christmas. Murder is out of the question. The only access to the tower was locked and Bernie had the key in his pocket when his body was found. At first glance, death by misadventure is the obvious conclusion. But when the St. Ives Book Club is approached by his widow to investigate, the amateur sleuths discover first glances can be deceiving. As the villagers celebrate with parties and tree-trimming, Elliot Marks leads his gang of crime solvers on a hunt for a killer.

Set in the tiny hamlet of St. Ives in Southern Ontario, a murder mystery book club discovers they have a taste and talent for solving unsolved crimes. Led by the brilliant and eccentric Elliot Marks, five active retirees and two young reporters unearth secrets certain residents of the cosy village would prefer remained buried.

Canadian Cosy Mystery Cover Reveal!

You know that old saying "Don't judge a book by its cover"? Yeah, well, it wasn't written by a self-publisher. I'm on my third cover for the St. Ives Book Club Mystery series. The retired covers are still out there because I made paper copies and thus forever will be haunted by my old "what the hell, it's only a cover" covers. 

Hair-pulling, tweaking and gnashing of teeth later, I've settled on this design for the series. If you are a lucky owner of one of the old covers, well, that's what you get for being an early adopter.

Lord, I hope this is my last foray into covers. Trying to nail the cosy-amateur-sleuths-vibe is not easy. Without cats, cupcakes or witches in my books, I didn't fit in with the other cool kids in the cosy mystery section of my favourite book site. (Goodreads)

While I'm here, the third murder mystery in the series, Dead to the World, is coming out in November, exact date is still to be determined. But follow me on Amazon to be notified when it releases. 

When Bernie Dixon falls to his death from the belfry of the St. Ives clock tower while ringing in the Third Night of Christmas, the book club is approached by his widow to find out if his death was indeed an accident - or was it something far worse?

 

New Book Launch Day!

A St. Ives Book Club Mystery

Death Knocks Twice

 

The St. Ives Book Club is at it again when one of their members discovers human remains in Lucinda Pye's field. The grisly discovery turns out to be Professor Gower Pye, Lucinda's common-law husband, who disappeared after a fractious dinner party at the farm seven years ago. St. Ives's amateur sleuths have questions. Why was Gower not found by before this? If the professor of medieval studies was murdered, who did it and why? Their questions lead them to an abundance of suspects. Eight guests at the dinner party had reasons to wish Gower dead. A scandalous tell-all memoir, a tawdry affair, a bitter family feud and a reputation destroyed surface as motives to kill. But if the professor was murdered that October night seven years ago, how do they prove it? And if they can't prove it, how can they accuse? When a second body is found, the gang knows that if they fail, a killer will go free. 

Set in the tiny hamlet of St. Ives in Southern Ontario, a murder mystery book club discovers they have a taste and talent for solving unsolved crimes. Led by the brilliant and eccentric Elliot Marks, five active retirees and two young reporters unearth secrets certain residents of the cosy village would prefer remained buried.

Available on Amazon in ebook and print. Click on the title to be taken to the product page. 

Death Knocks Twice

Make mine a cozy mystery series, please.

It has been 5 years since I published my crime fiction series on Amazon, Kobo, Google Play, Barnes and Noble and Apple iBooks. Since that time, I've been ghost-writing, writing under a pen name, trying out genres, testing my skills and pushing myself out of my comfort zone. Some stuff worked, some stuff didn't. Some stuff worked for readers but not for me, and vice versa.

It was fun and educational. But after five years of experimentation, I started thinking about killing people--cozy mystery-style. To scratch that itch, I wrote a traditional mystery (also known as a 'whodunit') and it morphed into a full-blown series with five titles in the pipeline.

A St. Ives Book Club Mystery is set in a tiny hamlet in Southern Ontario where a murder mystery book club decides to try their hand at solving cold cases.

Who killed Jenny Blake?

In the gentle hamlet of St. Ives, a killer roams free.

In 1975, seventeen-year-old Jenny Blake was found strangled in the ruins behind the abandoned St. Ives Abbey. Her murderer was never caught. Forty-four years later, an advertisement in the local newspaper draws seven people, including Avery Holmes, to the home of Elliot Marks with the purpose of forming a murder mystery book club.

Within minutes of the first meeting, Marks puts forward an intriguing proposal: Instead of reading about murder, why not try solving one - beginning with who killed Jenny Blake?

Was it her ex-boyfriend, the brilliant but withdrawn Jesse Sutcliffe? Or Duncan Carmichael, the attractive local politician who was dating Jenny at the time of the murder? Or was it the eccentric Elliot Marks himself, who is hiding his connection to the dead girl. For Avery Holmes, poking into an old murder case is a risky proposition. After all, waking a killer who thought he or she had gotten away with murder could lead to ... well ... murder.

Advertisement for Murder is available for pre-order on Amazon. Launch date is October 1, 2019.

For 90 days, it will only be available on Amazon. The side hustle to writing is marketing and I'm experimenting with Kindle Unlimited. If the KU love isn't there, I'll release this title and subsequent titles to all retailers. It's not an easy call to make, choosing to be exclusive for 90 days. I could be making a mistake. We shall see. The print edition is out now and available on Amazon. I don't do Expanded Distribution anymore because I'm not interested in competing with third-party sellers for sales. A sale through them nets me 0.23. Um. No. So it's available in print through the regular Amazon channels for $8.99 and if you buy the print, you can pick up the digital for 0.99.

digital ISBN: 978-1-988003-63-4
print ISBN: 978-1-988003-62-7

And I'm back to writing mystery! (I wonder what is says about me that I'm happiest when I'm thinking about how to get away with murder....)

Happy October!

Kindle Unlimited and Me

I would've titled this post Kindle Unlimited and the Indie Author but every author's experience is different. Our books are different, our marketing skills are different---it gets really boring itemizing how different we all are. We're so hung up on trying to find commonalities when we share information that we can't see the forest for the trees.

Here is the forest:

Amazon is a book retailer. They also publish their own imprints. They're also a mechanism by which authors can self-publish their work direct to Kindle ereaders. They sell the devices as well as the books to read on the devices. They also offer subscription-based access to all books enrolled in Kindle Direct Publishing Select. They have margins.

Here are the trees:

The independent authors who have enrolled their books in Select. They give Zon an amazingly diverse catalogue to hook Kindle Unlimited subscribers and Zon gives them a platform with which to reach readers. Sure, almost everyone wants the blockbuster novels, but indie offerings are the "added value" component of the whole forest. The authors also have margins.

It's a happy, balanced ecosystem until Amazon has to increase its margins and then the authors inside the forest get squeezed. We felt the Amazonian boa constrictor squeeze this week when the KENP formula was changed and the value of our books decreased by about 60 pages. KENP stands for Kindle Edition Normalized Pages. Authors in Select are paid 0.0046 per KENP read. If Mary Sue borrowed my riveting mystery, Iced Under (511 KENP) in January, I would have been paid a $2.35 royalty. Now, I would be paid $2.07. The royalty on a sale is approx. $2.79.

Not too shabby, right? What's 72 cents among friends. And besides, isn't the idea we'll get readers borrowing our books and make a bit of money on the side? Hey, I drank the Kool-aid, I'm not judging.

The kicker is we have to promote and compete to get borrows with exactly the same zeal and expense that we have to promote to get sales. Time and money margins. Only these are not sales and your book is only available in one store, not four (or five if you count Google Play and I don't). And then you open your reports page and whoa nelly! You are down by a sum that you did not see coming.

Okay, so we've been "normalized" after not being normal. Or something. I was all in with Kindle Unlimited until I realized I wasn't building a sales record. I was knocking myself out to get borrows. Borrows are lovely when they're in a library and somebody--somewhere--has already paid for the book. But when you become dependent on them for income, borrows are like living in your mom's basement. Every now and then she threatens to sell the house.

It's been said that KU has cannibalized sales. It's also been said that KU has helped sales. I have no data either way. In my experience, I worked like a dog to promote my novels last year and came out about $10 ahead each month that I was in Select versus wide. Other authors report dramatically different results.

The upshot of all this analysis is no two books are alike. Look at your own book and take your own market and margins into consideration when you're deciding to go exclusive or wide with all retailers. If all else fails, experiment. I liked the convenience of Select but I like getting sales in other markets a whole lot more. I like building a sales history. I like getting my $2.79 fair and square.

My margins are chubbier now too and I like a chubby margin.

Peace out.

December UK Book Sale and Freebie News!

Oy! It's December and Christmas is bearing down on us like a semi and we are the deer caught in its headlights. To celebrate this wonderful season of joy (which I really do love--no snark--I'm a Christmas nut) I am holding a staggeringly gorgeous sale for UK mystery readers and a giveaway that's worldwide (Amazon-willing).

Here goes: In the UK - A Kindle Countdown begins for ICED UNDER on December 7 and runs until December 11th. The regular price in the UK is 3.71 pounds (if I'm not mistaken). The sale price is 0.99. (I believe that includes the VAT) Buy it now to give yourself a little treat and read it over the holidays. Merry Christmas from your Canadian cousin!

The link to the UK store is here: ICED UNDER Mystery Novel UK Store

The second offer is RAZOR WIRE Free Worldwide (unless it is not available in some markets which I have no control over). This time I'm going to include the link for the Amazon.ca store because I recently discovered the link to the Amazon.com store will default a Canadian shopper to the .ca store where she/her will then have to search out the book. (Right. Like that is going to happen.)

Maybe this explains why so few Canadians (at least the ones I hang with) know anything about Kindle Unlimited or the freebie books they can try out, or the great deals that are constantly on offer. Let's correct that right now.

Here is the Canadian link to the Free RAZOR WIRE book offer available December 16 to December 18: 
RAZOR WIRE Thriller Freebie Canada

I want to see downloads people! Read it when you have time and for God's sake, post a review. I had no idea how important those bloody things were until I tried to market a book that had no reviews. Human beings want to know what other human beings think of a thing before they'll try it. Go figure.

Here is the link to RAZOR WIRE at Amazon.com for our friends south of the border: RAZOR WIRE Thriller Freebie US

And my final instruction of the day is a tip I picked up from PD Workman on Kboards regarding this business of getting Canadian hands on free book offers: Simply change the amazon.com to amazon.ca to land on the book page and download the free book. I think this could work for just about any book you want to buy in your country's market.

Unfortunately, at this time Amazon does not offer Kindle Countdowns to the Canadian market. It is a real poo-fest. I'm saying it. A real poo-fest. My three Gatineau Hills Mysteries are set in Canada and they sell extremely well in my local market in print but I cannot break into my own country with the ebooks because the US price point makes Canadian readers nervous with our dollar. I don't blame them but I can't price lower except for sales. I simply cannot. There is a line that defines writing as a hobby and writing as a profession and on those three novels, the line is professional.

It's a pickle that I have to resolve in 2016. But I'm coming for you, Canadian mystery readers. I'm coming!! (In the meantime, download Razor Wire for free on the 16th and let's get to know each other.)

Happy Christmas and Happy Holidays to one and all.

Guess what's free today...

 

Razor Wire

FREE on Amazon today only. (reg. $2.99)

From the back cover:

Classical violinist Charlotte Dawson needs money. San Francisco tech boom billionaire, Daniel Razor, needs a companion for his agoraphobic stepbrother. Razor makes Charlotte an offer—one hundred thousand dollars in exchange for one year hanging out with the handsome, talented, but deeply troubled Joel Razor. The job is too good to be true. Charlotte accepts. Then Daniel Razor comes to her with a request that redefines the role of companion and Charlotte discovers the lengths she will go to realize her ambition. 

Set in fog-shrouded San Francisco, Razor Wire is new adult noir suspense in the tradition of Alfred Hitchcock. Originally published on Amazon in three novellas, Razor Wire is the first in a three-book series. Razor Close and Razor Edge will be published in 2016.

Winter Reading Book Sale!

Winter bites. Curl up in front of the fire with a good book. Hey, why not this one?

 "After a painful divorce, with her two daughters in tow, Sara Wolesley abandons her comfortable urban life to live in a rundown cottage on a frozen lake. But when she discovers the body of a missing child, she is drawn into the lives of three members of the tightly-knit village."

"This book kept me enthralled. There is one part where I actually felt the rising panic that was gripping Sara as matters began to spiral out of her control. So clever was the writing that I put the book down for a moment and tried to think how I could have resolved the situation, and I could only feel panic. The sense of place, the cold, the fear, and the isolation seeps into your bones as you read. Highly recommended."
Lizzie Hayes, Editor - Mystery Women Magazine (UK) July 2009 edition

Iced Under Countdown Deal Oct. 26-Nov. 1 USA only

Regular retail price: $4.99
Countdown Deal: $0.99 from October 26 (8 am PST) to November 1 (midnight)

An amazing bargain for Kindle readers (or get the app download for your Kobo and iPad, etc from Amazon). If you are a Kindle Unlimited subscriber, borrow it for nuthin'.

And folks--please consider leaving a brief review because those babies are word of mouth. If you hated the book, please say why. If you loved the book, even better--speak your mind! If it was "meh", no worries--your "meh" is another reader's "wow!" Your author thanks you.

Happy winter reading!