Readers Love Series!

If the above statement is true, why do so many publishers cancel series before they're completed? I'm sure you've seen promising series get cut off at the knees, and you've always wondered what happened next. Maybe you've been the author of such a series, with readers asking for more and your publisher telling you it's not viable.

And, indeed, the publisher may be right. They have established marketing methods for bookstores, specific print runs to commit to, and more bright, new, shiny books to publish that might do better than your third one.

Enter the indie author, who, instead of targeting the tried-and-true paperback markets, will primarily sell ebooks online… and still make a living.

Yes, many an indie author creates paperback files, too, often uploading those to Amazon's Createspace dashboard, where books will be printed as ordered. And, while some sell paperbacks like gangbusters online, many of us sell virtually every single paperback by hand in our local areas. We may still think it's worth having them available.

But back to the topic. What does being indie have to do with series? Several things.

1. Indies are writing for the future, not the present. That may seem backwards when it's in traditional publishing that a book may take two years to get to market after it's written and approved, while an indie may write, edit, and publish a book in just a few months.

Still, each indie is only concerned with one career: his or her own. We know it takes time to build any business. We don't juggle the needs of multiple authors and an office building full of staff. It's just us and any editors, cover designers, etc, we may contract for specific duties as we can afford them.

Every time we release a new book in the series, it draws attention to the previous titles. Sales tend to go up on all of them. Nothing ever goes out-of-print these days—to the distress of many authors with bomb-proof traditional contracts. This is a bonus for indies. A new reader who discovers us in book two, or three, or four can click over to Amazon or another online bookseller and, with a few more clicks, purchase and download all previous books in a minute or two.

2. Indies can price ebooks to sell through a series. We have the luxury of offering a low barrier to entering our story worlds by pricing the first book lower than the others, or even free. An impulse buy/download will often result in sales of the other books in the series. Not always, of course, but many indies have experimented with this tactic with success.

3. Indies can adapt a series or lengthen it to suit the readership. Planned a series about three sisters, and the stories are selling like gangbusters? Add three cousins and expand the series to six books. Want to add a novella, a short story collection, and/or a Christmas tale to the mix? Go for it. We can listen to our readers and turn on a dime.

4. Indies can "value-add" to a series. I've had the opportunity to both contract an audiobook of my first book, Raspberries and Vinegar, and to submit it to a digital box set called Love Brings Us Home that also contains books by six other contemporary romance authors. This box set has been doing really well. Psst, if you haven't picked up your copy yet, hop to it! It won't be available much longer.

I've done some of this with my Farm Fresh Romance series since regaining the rights to them last summer. I republished the first two, Raspberries and Vinegar and Wild Mint Tea, in July and released the third, Sweetened with Honey, in November, four full months earlier than had been planned by my publisher.

I thought and prayed and noodled over the original idea then decided to expand the series to six books by adding more friends to the mix. I've just completed the first draft of Dandelions for Dinner and have every expectation of releasing it in early March, while continuing to write the fifth and sixth books. This will not only give more books for existing fans to purchase, but increase the number of entry points whereby new fans may discover them.

With the upcoming release of Dandelions for Dinner and the dissolution of the box set, I plan to place the first book at "permanently free" to draw more readers into the series.

I love hearing from readers who are invested in my Farm Fresh Romance series.

Here's what one reader had to say:

"I literally had moments where I missed this group of characters now that I've read all the books in this series so far… love the stories - each character is distinct from the others, which sometimes isn't true in series. These are not remakes of the former books. I love the entire atmosphere on this farm."

What do you think of series, both as a reader and as a writer?

BOOK REVIEW

Today I'm pleased to review Valerie Comer's, Raspberries and Vinegar.  The book is billed as "farm fresh fiction" and it is fresh and funny and definitely farm. There's lots of muck and mice and other things country. The story zips along with engaging characters and unexpected plot twists. Instructors of creative writing often use the metaphor, "get your characters up and tree and throw stones at them." In, Raspberries and Vinegar we do find the heroine up a tree although no stones are involved.

    Summary: Josephine Shaw and two other women, have bought a run-down farm and are determined to restore the land, build a straw-bale house and pursue an earth-friendly lifestyle. Their ambitions reach into the community as well as they try to persuade others to live pesticide-free and buy local.
     Their neighbour, Zachary Nemesek isn't particularly sympathetic, but then, he's only here until he can find a job in the city, treating cats and dogs. He isn't interested in a country veterinarian practice, or sustainable farming. Yet, despite himself, Zach is interested in Jo, if only she weren't so hot-tempered and single-minded in her pursuit of the rural ideal.
       With faith and prayer and a splash of vinegar, Comer takes her readers and her characters on a bumpy ride to happily-ever-after.

    I heartily recommend Raspberries and Vinegar.

Valerie Comer’s life on a small farm in western Canada provides the seed for stories of contemporary inspirational romance. Like many of her characters, Valerie and her family grow much of their own food and are active in the local foods movement as well as their creation-care-centric church. She only hopes her creations enjoy their happily ever afters as much as she does hers, shared with her husband, adult kids, and adorable granddaughters.
     Valerie writes Farm Lit where food meets faith, injecting experience laced with humor into her stories. Raspberries and Vinegar, first in her series A Farm Fresh Romance, released in August, 2013. It may be purchased at Chose Now Publishing
AND Valerie will give away a digital copy to one lucky reader, anywhere in the world. To enter the draw leave your name and e-addy in the comment box. Draw closes on Saturday, Aug 31 with the winner announced on the Sunday Edition.
    
  

Alice Valdal is a farm girl herself and bits of farming lore find their way into her writing.   Next week she'll enter her best roses in the Saanich Fair.  She's also a gardener, singer, knitter and servant to her two cats.  For more, visit her web page at   www.alicevaldal.com 

The Woes & Joys of International Marketing

Marketing books is a tough enough proposition when you're attempting to reach readers in your own country, but when you'd like readers around the world, it's even more difficult.

My first solo novel, Raspberries and Vinegar: A Farm Fresh Romance, released a few days ago from Choose NOW Publishing, a brand new small publisher in the USA. I'm Canadian. Because I live within a 15-minute drive of the American border, I have some options that other Canadians (and other foreigners) don't have. For instance, I could have my box of author copies shipped to a post office box just south of the border and bring them across myself. From past experience with Rainbow's End, that little trip saved me about $60.00. Well worth it.


Talking to the border guard revealed that, while I can bring the books into Canada, I can't take any of them back across into the US and sell them at conferences or book signings. When that time comes, I'll have to order more books and never bring them into Canada in the first place. (I have a box of Rainbow's End sitting in the home of an American friend these days for that reason.)

Then there's the issue of mailing giveaways. While folks in the USA can mail books within the US for under two dollars using media mail, I don't have a similar option within Canada. Popping a single book into the mail costs me about ten dollars, more if it's overseas, making giveaways prohibitively expensive when coming from my stash.

Because my book is my publisher's first release, she's learning the ropes, too, as we take these steps. She doesn't have the option of testing the international stuff on a different release later. She knows how important it is to sales to have a presence on amazon.ca and Kobo via Smashwords (Canada's most popular e-reader). She's jumped through a bazillion hoops to make it all happen.

We have a Goodreads Giveaway on until August 15, but only for US addresses. Again, we're operating on a slim budget and can't afford the additional expenses of international shipping, even to Canada. However, I'd be thankful if you put my novel on your to-read shelf at Goodreads! And enter if you can.

Raspberries and Vinegar: A Farm Fresh Romance is available via several different digital formats, though. Situations like this helped drive me to prefer reading e-books over paperbacks. How about you? Does the availability of books in your country determine your reading habits?

One thing we're doing that is accessible by anyone worldwide is our Facebook Launch Party tomorrow, August 6, at 9:00 p.m. EST. Accessible, but perhaps not practical for your time zone. Still, if you can make it to the party, please do! Bring an item of local food (something that is local to you) and join the chat. From there we'll move into a webchat, but the entire party is scheduled for only one hour. You'll have to "like" my author page to participate.

Fellow international authors, what ways have you connected with readers in different countries for promotional purposes? Readers, what are some of the ways we could connect with you? What are authors doing that's working? What's not working? Let's talk about it!

I'll give a digital version of Raspberries and Vinegar: A Farm Fresh Romance to one commenter (winner's choice of pdf, epub, or mobi format). If you'd like to put your name in the hat, please add your email address with your comment before Monday, August 12, replacing @ with (at) and .com with (dot) com.

"Void where prohibited; the odds of winning depend on the number of entrants. Entering the giveaway is considered a confirmation of eligibility on behalf of the enterer in accord with these rules and any pertaining local/federal/international laws."

Valerie Comer's life on a small farm in western Canada provides the seed for stories of contemporary inspirational romance and farm lit. Like many of her characters, Valerie and her family grow much of their own food and are active in the local food movement as well as their church. She only hopes her creations enjoy their happily ever afters as much as she does hers, shared with her husband, adult kids, and adorable granddaughters. Visit her website and blog to glimpse inside her world.

A Farm Fresh Romance

Perhaps most people don't think of farms when they consider the word "fresh." For those of us who love country living, though, the aroma of 15 piggies in their enclosure is more to be desired than the odor of vehicle exhaust pipes from packed city streets.


But what has that to do with romance?

I've met an urbanite or two with star-studded visions of rural life. They focus on the quietness—which can be hard to find when raucous birds are nesting in the eaves or the calves bawl, having been separated from their mamas, or when the rooster decides it's daytime at four in the morning.

They focus on milk warm from the cow, eggs warm from the chickens, and strawberries warm from the vine. They don't see the long, sweaty, backbreaking hours of haying and repairing fences and weeding gardens.

And yet, romance.

I know we are on the farm, my husband and I, because we can't imagine life elsewhere. We live in tune with nature's rhythms: day and night, sun and rain, planting and harvest.

A new farming rhythm has been discovered as some urbanites begin to crave the simplicity of farm life in their reading material. The Atlantic proclaims Chick Lit is Dead, Long Live Farm Lit, and voila, a new genre is born.

Interestingly enough, just a few days after that fascinating article released in May, I signed a contract for 3 novels in a Farm Fresh Romance series. Talks had been in the works prior to the article, of course, so the timing is merely a coincidence. And yet is anything a coincidence in the life of a believer?

I think not.

I think God has been preparing me for this day for several years, since he began to put these stories into my imagination. Yes, the first 2 books are written, which is a good thing, as the first one, Raspberries and Vinegar: A Farm Fresh Romance , releases August 1, 2013, from Choose NOW Publishing.


Would you enjoy Farm Fresh Romance? My series follows the adventures, romantic and otherwise, of three college graduates who move onto a reclaimed farm. They plan to take the rural area by storm with their sustainable lifestyle and focus on local foods.

Josephine Shaw: complex, yet singleminded. A tiny woman with big ideas and, some would say, a mouth to match. But what does she really know about sustainable living as it relates to the real world? After all, she and her two friends are new to farming.

Zachary Nemesek is back only until his dad recovers enough to work his own land again. When Zach discovers three helpless females have taken up residence at the old farm next door, he expects trouble. But a mouse invasion proves Jo has everything under control. Is there anything she can't handle? And surely there's something sweet beneath all that vinegar.

I'm so excited to share this book—and the entire series!—with you. Many parts of all three tales were born from my experiences and those of my friends and family members. We live the farm life every day, whether it's a day for digging manure into a garden bed or a day for sipping Raspberry Vinegar in the hammock.

This is my life, and I'm delighted to invite you in.

Valerie Comer's life on a small farm in western Canada provides the seed for stories of contemporary inspirational romance. Like many of her characters, Valerie and her family grow much of their own food and are active in the local food movement as well as their church. She only hopes her creations enjoy their happily ever afters as much as she does hers, shared with her husband, adult kids, and adorable granddaughters. Visit her website and blog to glimpse inside her world.