The Summer Heat Has Me Going Crazy

The summer heat has me going crazy. A new free trial coming soon. Stay tuned for something to ease those hot summer sweats...

Not Sure What Got Into Me: Free Trial

Not sure what got into me. After taking most of April off from promotions, I decided to do a free trial of Remote Control: What You Want When You Say What You Want. It is a bit different from the usual fare—a touch of HEA, a touch of psychological gamesmanship—and hopefully a bit of fun for your next wild night. Pick it up on your Kindle and leave a review—good or bad—if you are so inclined.

Seeking Questions

Ever since the publication of Seek: The Erotic Lives of Christian Wives, I've been thinking a lot about the topic of Christian wives. As I work on the second book of the series, I am curious as to what you are thinking? What burning questions do you have about the secret erotic lives of Christian wives? What are your secrets? What questions can I answer in future volumes?

The structure of the second novelette of the series is shaping up to follow a similar format. The women of Lonely Oak Baptist Church travel to the city, hitting a convention, and the fun ensues. Jen finds new outlets for her risky and risqué thrills. Liz and Chelsea learn to share. And Sarah...well, Sarah is Sarah, out on the prowl and after the experiences she missed when she was tied down by a pledge and a purity ring.

What would you like to hear about?  Leave a comment, or email me at heather dot vivant at gmail.

Finding My Audience: Update on the Journey

I've been writing and publishing on Amazon for a little over 100 days now as an open learning experiment. By design, I've released a wide range of my writing, works of differing lengths (ranging from a 4,200-word short story to a 16,000-word novelette), differing target audiences (male vs. female) and content ranging from softer, happily-ever-after (HEA) to the more down and dirty. I've done timeless stories as well as topical ones.

I wanted to throw a lot of different formats and works out there to find an audience, to see what generated interest.

The market, however quietly, has spoken.

Over the last few weeks, I've found that The Hen Party and Seek: The Erotic Lives of Christian Wives have found an audience. A small one, but a consistent audience nonetheless relative to my other works. Due to the dearth of feedback, I don't have a handle yet on who is reading this, but I suspect that the target market for those two stories—stories of wives exploring their wild sides—is very close to the so-called "mommy porn" demographic that has rocketed the "Fifty Shades" trilogy to the top of the charts.

Consequently, I will likely be adjusting my release plans to focus more on this audience, and move on to the second book of "The Erotic Lives of Christian Wives" as we follow the wives on their weekend adventure to a certain steamy hotel and conference. The characters—Jen, Sarah, Liz and Chelsea—are starting to grow on me, and inhabit much of my creative thinking. The rest of their story demands to be told.

Check out all my work on my Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.com/Heather-Vivant/e/B006VMGGZE

Price Drop on Seek:The Erotic Lives of Christian Wives

As a temporary experiment, and coinciding with the trial of March Madness: The Secret Sex Life of a Sideline Reporter during the real March Madness, I am dropping the price of Seek: The Erotic Lives of Christian Wives to $2.99 for a limited time.

I plan to make a more detailed blog post later about an experimental pricing model I want to try at the end of this experiment. Stay tuned.

Seek: The Erotic Lives of Christian Wives Book 1 Now Available

The novella Seek: The Erotic Lives of Christian Wives is now available for Kindle.

The wives of the Lonely Oak Baptist Church are seeking what they’ve lost.

Jen lost her will to compete with the sexual braggadocio of a fellow church member, and seeks her competitiveness one wild night at a bachelorette party.

Liz lost her Kindle full of erotica, and seeks to get it back. With interest.

Sarah lost the newlywed spark in the bedroom, and seeks solace in the comfort of the assistant pastor’s special counseling.

Seek, and you shall find.

Seek: The Erotic Lives of Christian Wives (Book 1) is the introductory novella in a series telling the stories of the secret erotic lives of the wives of Lonely Oak Baptist Church as they push the boundaries of their sexuality.

Three stories bring them together on their journey of discovery.

Chapter 1: The Hen Party

Jen’s fed up. The braggart Bible study leader Kim takes willful submission to her husband to the extreme, constantly shares the most intimate details of her over-the-top sex life, and Jen can’t keep up. Jen finally decides to give Kim something to talk about by taking a walk on the wild side at a bachelorette party, and finds herself on stage (and on her knees) before the stud stripper Tyler, with a decision to make.

Chapter 2: How Liz Lost Her Kindle

Liz takes pride in leading the Christmas choir, not just for the glorious music, but for the escape she finds at choir practice to arrive early and partake of her favorite guilty pleasure: her Kindle full of erotica. When she loses her device, the secret stash of smut it contains could put her reputation at risk. And how she finds it again opens her eyes to new delights.

Chapter 3: Ask

Sarah’s new marriage is a bust in the bedroom. At an early age she donned a purity ring and remained chaste (more or less) until her wedding night, only to realize what the pledge of abstinence cost her by not being able to sample the wares before committing for eternity. Sarah seeks to remedy the situation, and finds herself in the office of the new assistant pastor, who is very willing to counsel her with what she needs.

Seek: The Erotic Lives of Christian Wives (Book 1) is a novella of approximately 16,000 words and is intended for readers 18+. It contains multiple M/F and F/F scenes of a sexual nature. Portions of this work are also available in the short story The Hen Party, also available for the Kindle.

Coming Soon: Seek (The Erotic Lives of Christian Wives, Book 1)

I've submitted. Completely. Everything I have to offer.

And now the protracted delay of gratification begins

Not that kind of submission, silly. I'm talking about the submission of my first novella, Seek: The Erotic Lives of Christian Wives, Book 1. And in this case, my master is the firm but loving hand of the KDP Select program. They delay in gratification comes from having to wait 12 to 48 hours for approval. With luck, it will hit the virtual shelves tomorrow.

Writing this particular novella was a lot of fun. Based on the characters from my popular "The Hen Party" short story,  Seek continues the tales of the Christian wives of the Lonely Oak Baptist Church fulfilling their wildest sexual desires, bringing them together in only the way carnal knowledge can.

And in just a few hours, these desires can be yours as well.

A Little Wonky

My blog is getting a little wonky, a little writerly if you know what I mean, but I had to pass along this great blog post today from Phoenix Sullivan about the ins and outs of how the Kindle Direct Publishing free trials work, and the hidden benefits of running a free trial.

Not all books will benefit. Not all books will achieve the downloads needed when free to compare favorably to other books in their categories. Not all books will resonate with readers and benefit from a free run whether they're in Select or not, whether they get prominent category placement or not.

I'm currently writing works that are far out in the fat tail of the publishing world.  That being said, many of Phoenix's insights apply even at the extremes.  I have now run two free trials with moderately successful results given my low expectations. As I learn more with each passing day, it is now apparent that the apprenticeship at this craft will be a long one.  I advised today on Kindleboards that building an audience is a marathon, not a sprint, and that it takes time to get out of the doldrums of free trials with several hundred free downloads to numbers greater.

There is reason to hope, even as the Kindle Store becomes the new slush pile of the publishing world. Why am I hopeful? Because there is a huge, untapped audience out there who don't yet have e-readers. And of the ones who do have Kindles (and the ones to come), many of these readers haven't yet signed up for Amazon Prime, which is looking to foster additional new readers and new income for writers.  I'm amazed to read reports of genre authors with borrows ranging in the upper three-figures per month.

Although the payment rate for borrows for January hasn't been set yet, it could very well turn out that a few of us in the fat tail slush pile who are trying to claw our way out and find an audience could make as much or more from borrows than from actual sales.  The wisdom of the crowds from an informal survey seems to put the January expectation at around $2.10 to $2.20, although my latest assessment is that it will be closer to $1.75.  We should learn the final answer this week.

By this time next month, I hope to have my first longer work in the store, what currently looks to be a 15,000-word novella serving as the first book in a new series, and which will be my first entry at a higher price point.  It's time to step things up.

There's a marathon to run.

Update on the Remote Control Trial

I try to be transparent about how it's going as I learn the publishing game. Last week, mid-week, I offered Remote Control: What You Want When You Say What You Want for free with the thought that the "alsobots" (customers who bought X also bought Y) would kick in before the weekend and before Valentine's Day, netting a boost in sales.

It turns out that just a few hours ago today (Saturday afternoon), my second round of alsobots were updated. So far, no post-free sales, but I expect that to pick up. What I've noticed though:

• Going free mid-week in February didn't generate as much activity as going free in January with "The Hen Party".  Down about 25% in free downloads in the US, and about 30-40% in Europe.
• I'm concerned that some of the Amazon system glitches may have affected performance slightly, although it is more likely it is a difference in the combination of the work itself and the time of the trial.
• Placement on the alsobot lists isn't quite as good in terms of being on the first page or two (presumably due to lower free trial sales), but the quality of associated works is higher.
• I think the slightly higher price ($1.29), the different cover (more detailed and interesting, but less visually arresting in thumbnail form) and the long title may hurt a bit.

The best time for erotica sales and borrows appears to be Saturday through Monday, so the verdict won't be in until sometime next week.  Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, the glitchy sales updates have allowed me to make great progress on my first erotic novella where I enter the world of "The Hen Party" and go even deeper into the lives of those crazy Christian wives gone wild.  Look for a release sometime before the end of the month.

Psssst: Remote Control Going Free Wednesday and Thursday

Just in time for Valentine's Day, Remote Control: What You Want When You Say What You Want is going free Wednesday and Thursday in the Kindle Store if you want to do a little exploring with me in my erotic short story, a tale of cybersex, menage and romance.

Based on the success of my previous free trial, I wanted to try it again on a story with a little more of a romantic element to the sizzle. Let me know what you think, and be sure to leave a review if you liked it! Act fast! Tell your friends! Supplies are unlimited! At least for the next two days. It's a great story to share with your partner to set the mood for the upcoming weekend.

And if you're a sports fan or consorting with one who loves hoops, don't forget to check out March Madness: The Secret Sex Life of a Sideline Reporter as sideline reporter Chloe Severeid gets the scoop for the evening's game...and a little extra. I'm trying to decide whether to go "full novella" on Chloe's story. Tell me what you think!

Guess the Kindle Direct Publishing Borrow Payment Rate

In addition to geeking out on erotica, I geek out on numbers.

So sue me.

I posted a thread on Kindleboards tonight asking people to estimate what they think the rate paid for borrows will be for January for the Kindle Select program.

If you have followed such things, the December pool was $500,000 and paid $1.70 per borrow. For whatever reason (larger user base, or better performance), Amazon raised the pool to $700,000 for January. Later this past month, they announced that the pool would be $600,000 for February.

To register your vote, leave a comment here, or post on the Kindleboards thread at this link.

For what it's worth, my guess is $2.10. As of this post, the wisdom of the crowds says the amount is $2.72.

(By the way, feel free to check out my story The Hen Party which recently went onto a Kindle Select promotion and did well, presaging my forthcoming novella regarding Christian wives gone wild.

Final Results of the Trial

Kindleboards is down due to service provider issues, so I'll post the almost-final verdict on the free trial of The Hen Party here before sharing it there.

The Hen Party is my first published work, a 5,500 word story about Jen, a Christian wife who attends a bachelorette party with the girls from her Bible study group, and gets a little wild.  The story debuted in the Kindle Store on December 27th, but netted only a single sale prior to the free trial.

I ran a two-day free trial last Friday and Satuday.  The final figures are now in: 606 free downloads, 481 in the US, 102 in the UK, 10 in Germany and 3 in France.  I reached as high as #82 in the free Fiction>Erotica category, and around #784 in the overall Kindle Free store, getting into the top 30 in the free UK Fiction>Erotica category, and top 25 in both Germany and France for the free store.

Later on Sunday, "The Hen Party" had earned some linkages in the "Also Bought..." recommendations for other stories that had been offered for free, which produced some benefit in sales as the story returned to its $0.99 price.

My expectations from having read about the effect of other free trials is that my total sales would equate to around 2% of the free copies given away.  Based on the free numbers, I estimated I would have around 12 sales.  As it turned out, "The Hen Party" sold 17 copies this week, and had two borrows.  Of these sales, two-thirds of the sales came on the first two days after the trial.  By the end of the 5th day, additional sales had returned to the earlier rate.  But the two day boost put the story at around #22,000 in the paid store for a couple of days.

There was a small halo effect for the other works.  During the trial, I sold another copy of Remote Control: What You Want When You Say What You Want and one copy of March Madness: The Secret Sex Life of a Sideline Reporter.  That's close to what the baseline rate is for those stories, so I would say there's little effect, particularly since those stories have little in common with "The Hen Party".

The free downloads progressed at a rate of about 16 an hour on the first day, dropping to around 10 an hour by the end of the second day.  Most of the sales activity appeared to be between 6PM PST and 6AM PST.  Historically, I tend to see more sales on Sunday through Tuesday.

The free trial period produced no additional sales of anything in Europe, which is easy to explain.  First, the volume of free European downloads was very small (<20% of the total free sales), and while it produced reciprocal also bought recommendations, I'd maybe expect 20% of 2%, or perhaps one sale every two weeks.  Second, the subject matter (Christian wives gone wild) may be more popular in the US based on differences in religion in the culture.  Finally, I'm unclear as to who the 13 readers were in the foreign language stores who bought the book.  Bots?  Expats?  Students seeking to learn English?

No one has reviewed any of my stories yet.  Reviews offer social proof and create a visual enticement to purchase, and I suspect that a story or book that has favorable reviews that then goes on trial will see both more downloads as well as more sales following the end of the promotion.  Some authors appear to have learned this and are creating bogus reviews of their works (note when an author has single reviews on all of their works, each with five stars and the same reader reporting).  I refuse to do that, and would prefer to exist without reviews or accept my lumps rather than create a misrepresentation.

Overall, my expectations for the promotion weren't high, yet the KDP Select free promotion still performed better than I expected as an unknown author writing short stories.  Over 600 people have a copy of my story! Maybe some will read it!  Maybe one will review!

Stats update

Look for an update on the "week after" statistics and lessons learned on Sunday.  Until then, a few anecdotal data points to tide you over.

• A KDP Select free couple of days produces downloads in Europe, but apparently has little residual follow on.  The cause of this may simply be not enough free downloads to get onto the "also bought" lists, although Europe combined accounted for about 19% of my total free downloads.
• It appears to take about 48 hours to show up on the also bought lists in the US, although I didn't time it exactly.

A rough rule of thumb for translating Kindle Store rank into sales:

• Top 1000 free threshold seems to be about a sustained 15 downloads per hour.
• A 20,000-25,000 paid store ranking seems to correspond to around 5 purchases per day.
• Anything around 80,000 is probably doing about 1 purchase a day.
• Beyond 80,000, a book/story hasn't sold anything within the last 24 hours.  The farther down you go, the more days since the last sale.  No sales rank: no sales ever.

Early Report

Early report on the two-day free trial of The Hen Party.

Had a little over 600 free "sales". Sold a couple of copies of my other stories, although based on their normal rate of sales, I think this was in line with what would normally be expected.

I sold copies in the US, UK, DE and FR stores. The numbers from Germany were surprising to me. I actually reached a pretty high category-specific ranking in both the French and German stores.

I was briefly in the top 100 for Fiction-->Erotica, topping out at around #82.

After the sale ended, I had several more sales, enough to take an unranked story and move it to around #30,000 in the paid store.

What I've learned about the distribution of sales and titles:

• A single short story sale is usually enough to get you into the high five-figures in rank.  If there are no new sales, this ranking drops about 40K spots per day.
• A sustained rate of around 15 to 16 sales per hour is enough to get you into the top 1,000 in Kindle-->Free, and into the 80s in Fiction-->Erotica.
• For the erotic story, the US is anywhere from 80% to 85% of total sales. I was surprised, thinking that the rate would be higher for an English language title.
• The first day of the free trial produced the highest rate of sales.  Performance tapers off after day 1.
• There may be a residual effect for purchases of other works in your catalogue, but I didn't see a strong correlation.
• Most of the benefit appears to accrue to the story given away, after it comes off free.
• All of this is subject to change--I have to wait a week to get the actual post-free sales figures.

Overall, I'm happy.  Coming from nowhere, this managed to take a title that hadn't sold anything and turned it into a profitable title.

Stay tuned for more details as the aftermath becomes clearer.

Stats, After 22 Hours

Yesterday The Hen Party went freebie for two days. One more day to go. In case you're wondering, after 22 hours of the KDP Select Promo, here's where I stand in the rankings:

In the US:
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #957 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
#100 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Erotica

In the UK:
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #481 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
#29 in Kindle Store > Books > Fiction > Erotica

In Germany:
Amazon Bestseller-Rang:
Nr. 67 in Kindle-Shop > eBooks > Fremdsprachige eBooks > Englisch > Belletristik > Erotik

Incredible to me for my first story, and I hope it attracts readers beyond the free samples. You can't imagine how wet I get thinking about all those people around the world reading about the nice Christian wife Jen and her experiences and exploration at the bachelorette party for a fellow Bible study member. Hot times.

I'm considering posting more details about the trial over on the Kindleboards. If you're a reader and happen to stumble along here and don't want to comment, feel free to drop me a line on Twitter (@heathervivant) or via email (heather dot vivant dot gmail yet-another-dot com).

Peace.

"March Madness: The Secret Sex Life of a Sideline Reporter" Now Available

My latest story, March Madness: The Secret Sex Life of a Sideline Reporter, is now available in the Kindle store.

Follow the locker room adventure of Chloe Severeid, a fallen-from-grace sideline reporter just trying to scrape by while she learns the meaning of being double-teamed at the hands of a college basketball coach and the team trainer.

The Hen Party: Free For Two Days beginning Friday

Tonight I just submitted my third story for publishing, "March Madness: The Secret Sex Life of a Sideline Reporter". This is an early release of the first chapter of a novella I'm currently writing. It hasn't yet worked its way through the system, but should be available by the weekend. Check back for availability.

The big news, though, is that The Hen Party will be free on Friday and Saturday as I test out the KDP Select waters. I can't wait to see how that test goes. From what I've seen, this works very well for established writers, and writers with a huge inventory of books. I'm curious about whether this effect carries over to short stories (and erotica) and small but growing catalogues such as mine.

A Profile Emerges

More sales. Interestingly, Sunday night through Monday seems to be the peak time for my sales. As I mentioned earlier, I love to speculate about my readers. Amid the sea of choices out there, what brings them to my work? The Hen Party finally racked up a sale.

With the beginning of the week being a new prime sales time, I picture someone about to travel on business, loading up her Kindle for the long flight, picking a few quick reads she can enjoy curled up in some isolated corner of the terminal, or on the red eye when she's stuck between a doddering septuagenarian and a drowsy co-worker who accidentally nods off against her shoulder. Skating the thin ice of someone asking "What are you reading?" or worse, getting a glimpse of the cover art over her shoulder, she wishes she would have asked for a blanket so she could take care of business surreptitiously, but settles for prolonging the tension, until she finds herself in her hotel room, naked beneath the covers in a strange city, enjoying her read and a quick one before catching a few hours sleep.

She has to be up in the morning, working, and her portable library, a cache of erotica in the cloud, gets her through the week until she can return home, reload, and begin the cycle again next week...

New One on the Way

Flash of inspiration this week--my sports-themed series met one major milestone, with a teaser short story to be published this week. This will end up being the first chapter in my first published novella. I still have to put together a cover, test out a few titles and get the killer blurb written, but I expect that it will be up in the Kindle store by mid-week.

Meanwhile, check out my home page for my current stories at my Amazon author page.

Remote Control Now Available, and My First Sale

This weekend I published my latest story "Remote Control: What You Want When You Say What You Want" and managed to make my first sale. And there was much rejoicing!

Going about my day today, I found myself pondering about the day I might secretly bump into a reader and never even know it. Which Kindle owners do I encounter during the day who have a secret stash of erotica, furtively reading during their lunch break, the sordid covers of tattered paperback smut replaced with the anonymous drab black cover of their e-reader, the 2012 counterpart to the plain brown wrapper of yore? Could I spot a consumer of e-book erotica from a mile away, or are they the sneaky ones who blend in with their surroundings?

Regardless of who you are, dear reader, thanks for letting me share.

Suddenly Inspired by Raymond Carver

Today, Raymond Carver suddenly inspired me.  My next story is almost ready, with a subtitle echoing Carver: What You Want When You Say What You Want.  The sports-themed story has to wait, although it is near.  All of which pave the way for my first anthology and a new price-point.

I'm learning quite a bit with this foray into e-book publishing, although I still wait for my first sale. I'm going to try a promotion soon. With just a handful of followers and no army of readers, the long, slow march begins.  With plenty of experimentation.  (Just not the experimentation I'm more fond of writing about.)