Saturday, December 1, 2012

Kindle Fire Giveaway Part 2

The contest has started...here's the post on twitter if you want to re-tweet. https://twitter.com/ryejames77

I can track anything posts or likes on my blog, twitter or facebook. But if you are making entries via book sales or likes on Amazon...just send me an email so I can add your entries.

Tell your friends!

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Kindle Fire Giveaway!

I'm hereby announcing a contest that will run the entire month of December. The grand prize winner will receive a Kindle Fire ($159 value). 2nd place winner will get $15 Amazon gift card. 3rd place winner will get $10 Amazon gift card. The winners will be picked and anounced on Sun. Jan. 6th.

You can enter a variety of ways. The breakdown of entries is as follows:

1 entry for a like on twitter @ryejames77
1 entry for a retweet of this contest that I will tweet on Dec. 1
1 entry for a like on Facebook  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rye-James/175127015906405
1 entry for a comment left on this blog or facebook
1 entry for a like on my Amazon author page http://www.amazon.com/Rye-James/e/B002BMETHK/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1
2 entries for each book of mine purchased (email me invoice or screenshot of purchase)
16 entries for purchasing all 7 books (2 bonus entries--email me invoice or screenshot of purchase)
5 entries for leaving a review of a book on Amazon, B&N, Kobo (email me to let me know where it appears)

E-mail me with any questions or to confirm your entries at ryejames77@aol.com


You can do just one of the above...or you can do all of them. This contest is international. No purchase necessary. Winners will be contacted Jan. 6th and will have 1 week to claim their prizes. If no reply is received within 1 week a new winner will be picked. All winners will be picked using Random.org. Good luck!

Monday, November 12, 2012

The Protector

Just wanted to let users of Kobo and B&N know that my book The Protector will be available on those platforms in a few days. It was exclusive to Amazon but the sales there have been putrid and not worth keeping it there exclusively. It's got a few more days and then will be done. I'll throw up another post when it's actually live on the other sites. I'd appreciate everyone checking it out.

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Update

Haven't posted in a while. Just wanted everyone to know I'm still alive and kicking! For those wondering what I've been up to...I haven't been doing a whole lot of writing. The good news--my wife is pregnant and we're expecting our 3rd child in March. The bad news is my wife is now also unemployed as her position was terminated. So I've had to do other things to bring more money into the household which cut down drastically any writing time I'd normally have. It would be nice if I made enough money from book sales to live off it and therefore be able to write at the drop of a hat but unfortunately that's not the case. I have been kicking around more ideas for the stories I've already got started so hopefully in the next few weeks I'll be able to add to them. I'd like to get a few more books out next year but we'll see if that's feasible. I'll try to check back in soon. Thanks for reading!

Sunday, February 26, 2012

More Numbers

The whole family is sick other than me so all I've had to do today between taking care of 3 people is run a few numbers between getting up and down. Here are my 2011 sales on Kindle:

1) The Assassin
2) Escape
3) Bounty Hunter
4) Deadlock
5) Day of the Assassin
6) A Soul Worth Taking

I even took it a step further and analyzed my all-time sales since my first book in 2008 and their percentages.

Amazon Kindle   80%
Paperbacks         7%
B&N Nook        6%
Mobipocket        5%
Smashwords       1%
Apple                 1%

I was surprised that paperbacks came in at #2, even though it was a distant second. I would expect going forward that Amazon will continue to be where the majority of my sales come from. Mobipocket has ceased operations so that is no longer in the equation. I imagine the Kindle will continue to be at least 80% of my sales unless I can make a bigger dent into the Nook store, but it seems harder for unknown authors to make a mark there.

Just some numbers I thought were interesting and figured I'd share.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

The Protector

The Protector is out! Pick up your copies at Amazon or Barnes and Noble. Here are the links:

The Protector
Drobania is on the verge of a rebellion. The leader of the rebel forces is a great warrior named Todel and was once the comander of the empire's elite guard unit, The Protectors. The rebels have been raiding the lands of neighboring countries in hopes of embroiling Drobania in war, allowing them to take over. In order to stop the rebellion it's decided by Drobania's Queen and Council that the best way to end it is to eliminate their leader.


A small band of soldiers is sent to the mountains to find Todel, who is unmatched in battle, and kill him. The man in charge of this band, Taidyn, is the current commander of The Protectors, and the only man capable of killing their former leader. Though Taidyn reluctantly accepts his orders, he is unsure if he is able to complete his mission. The reason....Todel is his father. Will Taidyn be able to kill his father? Or will he succumb to his temptations and join his father's fight against the empire? Taidyn will embark on a mission to save not only the empire, but himself.

Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/The-Protector-ebook/dp/B0078ISENM/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_t_1
 
Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-protector-rye-james/1108814972?ean=2940013901414&itm=2&usri=rye+james

Saturday, February 11, 2012

The Protector cover

Here it is, courtesy of Streetlight Graphics, the cover for The Protector.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

2012 Goals

I probably should've posted this 4 weeks ago, but better late than never, right? For those wondering about those Kindle sales from my last post, don't worry, it'll be posted this week. But until then, my goal for this year is to get 3 books released. The Protector is a definite, the cover's being worked on now, and is being edited. It will definitely be out by March. The Crew will most likely be the 2nd one. At the rate I'm writing, The Crew should be done writing by mid-March, at which point it can be edited and the cover done. I'm shooting for July-August release. The 3rd book will most likely by The Woods. It was actually supposed to be next after The Protector, but writing The Crew has been going so smoothly that it's gone past it. Even so, I'd like to release one book of The Evil Series each year, so if The Woods got released later in the year, that would be accomplished. I'm shooting for a October-November release for that. I'm typically not the fastest writer, as I tend to edit as I go, if there's no hiccups it's possible I could get a 4th book out...maybe. No guarantees on that though.

My other goal, as it is for every writer, is to get more sales. My sales for Barnes and Noble, after a good start, have been horrible. Somehow, I need to find a way to reach those readers. Similarly, I need to increase sales at Amazon. At times they're OK, at times they're slow. I haven't got that one breakout book yet that catapults me, maybe this year it'll happen. You can never predict how a book will connect with people though so we'll see.

Friday, January 13, 2012

2011 numbers part 1

At the end of the year I look back and tally up all the numbers from each platform and see how each book did. So far, everything's totaled, except for the Kindle sales....which make up a large majority of my sales. Nevertheless, I figured I'd share the rankings of the books across the other platforms (Nook, Smashwords, Mobipocket) I get the reports each month but looking at them all together, it's not what I thought it would've been. Here are the rankings excluding Amazon:

1) Escape
2) Bounty Hunter
3) The Assassin
4) Deadlock
5) A Soul Worth Taking
6) Day of the Assassin

I found several interesting tidbits from this. First, Escape has always sold the best on Mobipocket, but I didn't realize it was selling the best on Nook as well. Second, sales on Nook started off well from Jan. through Mar. but fell off a cliff after that. I'm not sure what happened but they've never picked up after that either. Part of it may be that I've found it very challenging marketing to Nook owners. Somehow, I've got to get those numbers to pick up. My next post will be with the Kindle sales in which I fully expect The Assassin to take over the top spot. Stay tuned.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Website

Just wanted to let everyone know that I am working on changing the website a little bit. The current website is a little bland and boring so I wanted to spruce it up a little. So far, I've added a direct Twitter feed to the main page as well as uncluttering the front page. I've changed a couple sections already. I'll be taking down the short story on there and listing all my books along with links to where to buy them (Amazon, BN, etc.). I'm also adding a Future Works section to keep everyone informed on what's in the pipeline. This page will have the titles, along with what the story's about, word count, percentage to completion, and what status the book's currently in (editing, writing, etc.). I think that'll be a cool feature to follow. I've also added a review/interview section for people to see what interviews I've given and some of the reviews I've received. I've also put in a Connect With Me area where people can find me on Twitter, Facebook, Blog, and Email. Hopefully these changes will make the site better. Any ideas or suggestions feel free to drop me a line.