Saying goodbye to 2014 and charging into 2015 #SkyeUnbound

It is nearly the end of the year, and I haven’t written quite as much as I would have liked to prepare. Especially given the schedule I have decided to give myself for the next year, but I’ve always found that I function much better with my head down charging toward deadlines with reckless abandon.

I wrote my final papers hours before they were due and the trend continues.

I have plans for big changes in 2015 and lots of projects to share. Maybe they won’t all happen at once, but my goal is to set myself up for what I hope will be some positive changes and a successful year.

Projects:

Irrevocable Boxset will be released soon! If you want to receive an email when the book goes live be sure to sign up for my mailing list! I will be running a special introductory sale, so if you haven’t picked up these books yet, now will be the perfect chance.

And I have a (currently) secret project coming up that’ll release sometime in early 2015. I’ll be releasing more information about it later this month–as soon as it has an official title. 😉

Goals:

I want 2015 to be my year of organization! At least to be more organized than I am now. Since I have most of my accounting in order, next I want to tackle my business plan and new marketing/social media plan for the year. Woohoo!!

As part of my new branding platform goals, I came up with the tag #SkyeUnbound because that’s how I feel as an author–unbound to explore my creative worlds with my characters. I’ve decided not to be bound by a single genre or to force limitations on myself or my characters. And, I’m also trying to be a more open person in the new year.

I just set up my first Instagram (skyecallahanauthor) account and will be exploring that world as well as focusing on my Facebook accounts, especially the Reading Hangout Group–where I can hangout, chat, and share projects with readers. You’ll also find me actively on Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest.

So, I invite you to come hang out with me, chat, share your ideas and interests, and enjoy the ride of 2015!

#IWSG: I can only be me

It’s that the first Wednesday in the month again, which means Insecure Writer’s Support Group Wednesday. Thanks to our noble Ninja Captain Alex J Cavanaugh, it’s time to share our fears and insecurities, or support and assistance. Doesn’t matter which.

If you’d like to join, click here.

Be sure to link to this page and display the badge in your post.

Our hashtag is #IWSG

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No, no, no! I’m not ready for it to be the first Wednesday of the month, because I’m too insecure to write about being insecure.

Or maybe I just have the winter blues and need to take another long walk through the woods. A bit of all of the above, I suspect.

Last time, I talked about my insecurities for my then upcoming book, Bend, Don’t Break. This month, I’m happy to report that my freaking out was useless. There were some readers who were disappointed because it wasn’t as dark as the first book, because it had a different feel from the first book, or because my hero and heroin were separated for the first big chunk…. there’s always something.

However, there was also a large chunk who liked it better than the first book and many who liked them equally. Overall that’s a total win! Will it keep me from freaking out about the next book? Oh, I suspect not, but it goes to show yet again, that you’ll never please everyone and all you can do is follow your gut.

I’m supposedly taking this month off, but for me that means I’m not setting any hard deadlines (except maybe getting everything ready for taxes, which I’m sure will be awesome ). Instead, I want to try to focus on being more sociable–possibly the most terrifying part of any project when you have social anxiety.

So, hello world! I’m trying to get to know you better. 🙂 

It’s easy writing characters and their conversations and reactions, but when it’s me on the line and real people interactions…. yeah, not so much. I have no idea what to say, how to start a conversation, or where to go after the conversation begins. I’m sure I’m not the only socially awkward person out there–where are you fellow anxious people?

Okay, I think that’s enough yammering on for one month. I’ll see you all on your blogs and in the comments. 🙂

A Tale of Two BookBubs

Marketing–I think as authors we all have mixed emotions when it comes to this word. One one hand it can be a necessary evil, but sometimes it can be fun. But either way, it takes a lot of planning. And it’s especially scary to jump in and pay what seems like a huge amount of money for a one day ad, which is why I decided to sit down and jot out some notes on my experience.

I’m not one to talk about sales figures or income or all of that jazz, but in order for me to give you any idea of how my ads worked out, I’m going to crawl out on a limb and do just that. I can’t guarantee that anyone else will have similar results, and I’ve rounded just to make the numbers easier to work with, but this was my experience with BookBub.

BookBub is one of the biggest services for ebook price promotions that I know of (if not THE biggest). For at least the last year, I’ve heard some people touting the greatness of being able to get a BookBub.

There have been so many times that I’ve thought about doing it, and then I looked at the prices….

• $500 to promote an Erotic Romance sale priced at 99 cents!
• $90 to promote a Supernatural Suspense sale priced for FREE!

So my brain goes into calculations (actually, I pull up my calculator because I suck at math). On Amazon, you get 35% royalties at the .99 price point, so about .35 per book (rounded up). So, I’d have to sell almost 1430 books to even break even with the first ad.

1430 books–that’s possible right, with the right marketing, which I should get from BookBub–and according to BookBub stats, they average 2,010 sales for such an ad, so I should definitely be good.

The problem was coming up with the initial $500 to cover the ad–and I’d never sold more than 1000 copies of any book at any price, so it seemed a little far fetched until I released Irrevocable.

It did fairly well on its own–netted me a couple thousand, and was receiving good reviews. So, I talked my husband into letting me invest the money into a BookBub ad. They gave me September 14, and so I lowered the prices and waited…

Before the sale even ran, my sales more than quadrupled from the lowered price alone. Irrevocable, which was 2 months old at this point was selling anywhere from 20-50 copies a day, once the 99 cent price hit, I sold more than 200.

Within the two days after the ad hit, I sold more than 4500 copies. And sales remained double to triple what they were before the sale even after the price returned to normal. I hit overall bestseller lists on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. And not only did I make my money back, and see a profit, I also gained new reviews, more subscribers to my mailing list and increases in numbers on all of my social media accounts.

So, with my paranormal series, I decided to repeat this “test” and I got another BookBub ad for Fractured Legacy and sale priced it for FREE. Now, this time I knew I’d be shelling out $90 for the ad and making nothing during the sale. But, I had a second book in the series that came out right before the sale, and I was banking on the ad selling that book.

So, back to the numbers;

Fractured Legacy, had been almost stagnant since I released it over a year ago. I think I’ve made maybe $200 from sales. Maybe.

The day of the ad, I had more than 16,000 downloads. 16,000!! And this wasn’t the first time Fractured Legacy was free, the last time I did this I had about 2000 downloads over the course of a week. Since the ad, I’ve had more than 32,000 downloads on Amazon alone.

And, the day of the ad, I sold more than 100 copies of the sequel, Beyond the Divide, which was also discounted at 99 cents for the release. Since then, Beyond the Divide has continued to sell, with nearly no other marketing going on aside from a small blog tour. I’ve made the cost of the BookBub ad up and turned a profit just from sales of this book alone. The series had gained more exposure, getting unsolicited reviews from book blogs with large followings–not something I ever expected for this series since I believe it appeals to a much smaller niche audience than my romance works.

Overall, my experience with BookBub was a positive one, and I hope my experience helps you decide whether or not this would be a good investment for you. Of course, I can’t guarantee that everyone will have the same experience, and you might want to talk with other authors to get their experiences.

If you decide to try it yourself and get approved, be sure to set up the sale price well enough in advance that you won’t be having a panic attack they day before (especially if your ad date falls on a weekend). With the Irrevocable ad, I ended up only having Amazon and Barnes & Noble included because Kobo and iTunes didn’t change the price in time.

 

 

IWSG: It has been a while

It’s that the first Wednesday in the month again, which means Insecure Writer’s Support Group Wednesday. Thanks to our noble Ninja Captain Alex J Cavanaugh, it’s time to share our fears and insecurities, or support and assistance. Doesn’t matter which.

If you’d like to join, click here.

Be sure to link to this page and display the badge in your post.

Our hashtag is #IWSG

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It seems lie it has been months since I’ve put together a good personal blog post, but honestly the last few months have run together in my head to the point that it has all gone to mush.

So, a brief update…

In July, I released my first big selling book–as in the first book to not only meet, but exceed what I was making at the day job. And then, I made a huge leap of faith by quitting my day job and writing full time at the end of August. Since then I’ve added two more books to my line up–one was released in October, Beyond the Divide, and one to be released this month, Bend, Don’t Break.

That’ll make five books total since I started publishing, and I’m still edge of my seat, scared out of my mind at every step.

With the paranormal books, it’s not as bad, because those aren’t yet my big sellers, and that’s more my fun, lower stress, play time. I enjoy writing the romance just as much, but there’s more pressure there, since right now that’s my livelihood.

In September, Irrevocable became a bestseller on Amazon (peaking at 27 overall) and Barnes & Noble (peaking at 6 overall), and it was the most astonishing experience of my career. I laughed and cried, and everything in between. And now I come down to releasing the sequel, Bend, Don’t Break, and it’s utterly terrifying. I think the second book is exponentially more intimidating than the first because you go into it knowing that readers are going to have preconceived notions and expectations after reading the first book and getting to know the characters.

And it’s all exacerbated since the second book feels so different from the first book–a different character’s POV and very different circumstances that aren’t as gritty or dark as the original. I let it get to me for a while, but then I sat down, knowing that I had to write the story that my character had to tell. And after letting go of my own preconceived notions, I ended up with a story that I love, and after all the fretting, the advance readers so far are enjoying it as well.

What I’ve learned…

1. Trying to force a story in a box will simply leave me banging my head against a desk–I have to go where the characters go.
2. No matter how much I love and believe in my story, sitting around and waiting to see how it will be received will probably always drive me crazy.

But there’s only one writer I can be. I can improve the craft and learn new things, but I’ll still be me–and I love that.

Kaylyn Anderson (Fractured Legacy Series) #Museday

Kaylyn Anderson is another of my characters from the Fractured Legacy Series–the one most of the chaos seems to revolve around. 

After a short stint working for their uncle’s bail bond recovery business, Kaylyn and her sister Cole were recruited as paranormal investigators with Aicil. Three years later,her first encounter with her new boss, Jonah Troyer, didn’t go so well for Kaylyn. In part because she was being terrorized in her dreams by an unknown entity, but also because she’s stubborn and set in her own ways (much like Jonah, really). 

Kaylyn is another of my characters with an affinity for snakes and owns a pet corn snake named Frank (he’s named after a snake I caught as a kid).

Favorite color: Red

Favorite drink: Iced Coffee

Favorite food: Chicken and dumplings made from the family recipe

Education: B.A. in History

Beyond the Divide will reveal more about her past, and why she’s so stubborn and closed off from most people. She can be trouble, but she’s a fun girl to share my brain with. 

 

 

Life is my Muse #Museday

Oh, Museday, what shall we talk about today?

I have a hard time answering whenever people ask me what inspires me or if I have a muse. Generally, life is my muse. It comes in details and situations I don’t initially pay attention to, or things I dismissed as mundane and shuffled to the back of my mind where they grew until they became something special.

Most of the time, I don’t know where the ideas came from, and I love it that way! I don’t need to know how my brain works or where it picks up the little nuggets that it turns into stories, I just need to know that they’re there.

I think Rod Serling said it best…

Skye Callahan’s New Writing Nook #SkyeDreams

I put off writing my weekly update until I got off work and came home to finish working on my new writing nook! Since I’ll be writing full time, I revamped my space and added a new taller bookcase to house all of my books and trinkets.

I still have a few things to add–I definitely need to throw some of my Bruce Campbell trinkets into the mix 😉

Maybe I can find an extra wall to hang my swords…

I only have one day of work left before I’m writing full time, so hopefully the space will come in handy. I have my desk for serious work and my bean bag to relax and write with my wall of inspiration surrounding me.

While I was working here, my husband also set me up a little nook in the living room with another bookcase (I have 3 total in the house) a little table and another bean bag and lots of pillows. I’d much rather be spread out on the floor than anywhere else, so I love having my little nooks to work in.

Do you have a special place you love to work?

 

Irrevocable Snippet, 3 “What the hell breed of trouble…” #8Sunday #Dark #Erotic

Hello fellow Weekend Writing Warriors!

This is from my WIP Irrevocable (which releases tomorrow!!), and starts just a few paragraphs after  last week’s post.

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They must have thought that my pause meant I was giving up, because the one holding my arm loosened his grip and I slipped free again, this time, planting a punch to the nose of another attacker. It took him a second to shake it off, but I was instantly restrained again by yet another. The man I’d punch snarled and ripped open my shirt, then pulled a knife from his pocket and flipped it open.

The room went quiet, and I froze, watching the silver tip of the blade move closer to my sternum.

Then, a single voice rose from the back of the room. “What the hell breed of trouble are you lot causing?”

The knife jerked away, slipping below the edge of the table and out of sight. I twisted my neck to figure out who they’d all stopped to stare at.

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That’s all for this week! Check out the rest of the posts by following the link at the bottom of this post.

Sometimes when you can’t go back, the only way out is to descend into the darkness.
my Captor
When I woke in that place, I just wanted to survive. But survival came at a cost, for which they demanded my will and body.
my Master
With pain came acceptance. Fully-dependent on the man who claimed me, I learned to appreciate what I had-life and relative safety.
my Protector
I watched him spill blood and tend my injuries. With betrayal came a revelation.
The only way out was to bring them all down or die trying.
Warning: This isn’t your rainbows and love sonnets kind of romance. This story explores topics of abduction and slavery, and contains explicit scenes of dubious consent, graphic violence and sex

You can TBR it on Goodreads and enter to win a signed paperback.

Visit the rest of the Weekend Writing Warrior posts. 

 

Irrevocable Snippet, 3 “They’d downright enjoy it…” #8Sunday #Dark #Erotic

Hello fellow Weekend Writing Warriors!

This is from my WIP Irrevocable, and a continuation from last week’s post.

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Apparently, they didn’t expect me to put up a fight, because aside from the hand tangled in my hair, no one seemed concerned with keeping a tight grip on me. Probably because they outnumbered me, and I assumed they would have no problem beating the crap out of me if I struggled.

They’d downright enjoy it.

Unfortunately, I didn’t fully consider how that scenario would play out. I bucked and managed to knee the one pulling on my waistband in the face. He grunted, but I can’t imagine I inflicted as much pain as did his retaliatory blow to my ribs. I sucked in air and rolled, curling around the injury and gasping for each painful breath as the sickening throb exacerbated my confusion.

This couldn’t be happening.

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That’s all for this week! Check out the rest of the posts by following the link at the bottom of this post.

Sometimes when you can’t go back, the only way out is to descend into the darkness.
my Captor
When I woke in that place, I just wanted to survive. But survival came at a cost, for which they demanded my will and body.
my Master
With pain came acceptance. Fully-dependent on the man who claimed me, I learned to appreciate what I had-life and relative safety.
my Protector
I watched him spill blood and tend my injuries. With betrayal came a revelation.
The only way out was to bring them all down or die trying.
Warning: This isn’t your rainbows and love sonnets kind of romance. This story explores topics of abduction and slavery, and contains explicit scenes of dubious consent, graphic violence and sex

You can TBR it on Goodreads and enter to win a signed paperback.

Visit the rest of the Weekend Writing Warrior posts. 

 

#TeaserTuesday Irrevocable: Naming Pet #DarkRomance #Erotic

 

 

Release Date: July 14 Sign up
Blog Tour: July 16-25 Closed

 

Sometimes when you can’t go back, the only way out is to descend into the darkness.

 

my Captor
When I woke in that place, I just wanted to survive. But survival came at a cost, for which they demanded my will and body.
          my Master
With pain came acceptance. Fully-dependent on the man who claimed me, I learned to appreciate what I had-life and relative safety.
                    my Protector
I watched him spill blood and tend my injuries. With betrayal came a revelation.
The only way out was to bring them all down or die trying.

 

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