Rising Storm Announced

We're fully into summer in Keeneston! The days are long and hot and the sprinklers are on full blast! A perfect night for me is to grill out and have dinner on the deck. I enjoy the sound of the cows behind our house and sip some Rose Sister Special Ice Tea as I read at night.

Coming in Mid August will be the second book in the Bluegrass Brothers Series, Rising Storm. In Rising Storm Marshall discovers love is not always smooth sailing. But, with the help and advice from the whole town of Keeneston, maybe he'll find his happily ever after.

To get ready for Rising Storm, make sure you read Cade's story in Bluegrass Undercover, now available in all ebook outlets and in paperback.

 For your Kindle

 For Apple

 For your Nook

For your Kobo

For your Sony Reader



Happy Reading!

~Kathleen

Bluegrass State of Mind is Currently Free!

I am currently able to offer Bluegrass State of Mind for free in all formats!  This promotion has been available on some outlets for a little over a week.  I have seen a tremendous response on Apple's iBooks and I am starting to see similar with Barnes & Noble.  Bluegrass State of Mind spent nearly all of last week as the #1 free download out of all Romance on iBooks.  AND Risky Shot and Dead Heat have both been in the Top 5 of all Romance on iBooks.  I am beside myself with joy that so many people are trying, and continuing to follow the Bluegrass Series.  Each one of you has absolutely made my day...  scratch that, you have made my year!  Thank you!  Thank you! Thank you!  I hope that you will pass along this blog entry to those you know.  2012 is shaping up to be a great year and I can't wait to see what else this year has in store.

Here are links directly to each site's listing of Bluegrass State of Mind:
Amazon Kindle
Barnes & Noble Nook
Apple iBooks
Kobo eReader
Sony eReader
Smashwords

Thank you again!

An Opinion on the Amazon KDP Select Program

First, I am thrilled to see Amazon include independent authors in this program.  It is a definite sign of the times to see the market opening up so much for all who love to write.  Amazon Prime is set to be a big hit in the near future.  The program is able to pull more potential readers into the eBook market by promoting their movies, music, TV shows, and now books.  One yearly fee for access to so much is surely going to secure many more Amazon customers.

One of the stipulations is that the author exclusively lists the eBook in Amazon’s Kindle Store.  While Amazon has been a strong source of sales for me, I cannot ignore the success I have experienced on Barnes & Noble.  I have seen some authors talk about only selling 10% as much on Barnes & Noble as they have sold on Amazon, and therefore it’s not a big enough market for them to consider.  In contrast to those authors, 46% of my sales are derived from Barnes & Noble and other outlets like Kobo, Sony, and iBooks. It would be crazy for me to let down 46% of my readers just to have a chance at a small share of that $500,000 per month.

More importantly, I would be doing my readers a disservice if I took my books down from Barnes & Noble and other outlets. It would be a disservice to readers from Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Sony, etc. who have taken the time to email me about how much they like my books. Why should I take my books away from them?  There are some creative ways to use a Nook tablet to download Kindle software.  But, if I told 46% of my readers that they had to go buy another device or hack their Nook Color, I am pretty sure we’d never see each other again. Furthermore, I have just enrolled in Operation E-Book Drop that offers my books for free to deployed active duty military through Smashwords. If I joined Amazon’s KDP Select Program, I would have to withdraw my support of this important program that I proudly support. I will gladly keep my books in the Kindle Store.  But for all of the reasons listed in this post, my books won’t be enrolled in the KDP Select program.

Readers are customers and they deserve quality customer service from the author.  That begins with access to your books.  I will keep my books listed with the online retail sites that ensure any reader can find the right format for their eReader.  A listing of each is here.

I applaud Amazon’s policy of inclusion for independent authors, but I must decline the invitation at this time.  Each of the readers that select my books are worth hanging on to.