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Holiday Gift Exchange – Book Lovers Blog Hop

Book Lovers Blog Hop = Free eBooks & Swag

It doesn’t matter whether you’re on Santa’s naughty or nice list, all you have to do this week for free eBooks & nifty book-related swag is hop through the links on this page:

The Holiday Gift Exchange – Book Lovers Blog Hop

But don’t hop away, yet. *This* post is one of the blog hop stops!

My Gifts to You

Since this holiday blog hop caters to book lovers, I created a freebie highlighting my favorite independent bookstore: Booked Up in Archer City, Texas.

Booked Up is a labor of love created by the award-winning Texas author, Larry McMurtry. My freebie features an excerpt about the famous bookstore from my best-selling travel guide, Unexpected Texas. However, since my book does *not* contain any photos, I’ve added a whole bunch of pictures snapped during my writing research trip to Archer City, Texas.

How to Claim Your Gift

Simply leave a comment on this post sharing a holiday travel memory and I’ll email you a copy of my free ebook, Unexpected Texas: Larry McMurtry’s Booked Up (with photos!) [UPDATE: My blog is not accepting comments for some unknown reason right now, so until I get this fixed, if you’d like the freebie, simply email me & I’ll send it your way. Thanks!]

I hope you enjoy learning about Booked Up. If you’re ever in north Texas a trip to Archer City to see this one-of-a-kind independent bookstore is definitely worth the effort!

Just so you know, my freebie will run from today all the way through New Year’s Day.

$100 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway

Also, to have a chance of winning a $100 Amazon Gift Card, enter the Rafflecopter drawing at the bottom of this blog post.

Hop Along with Me & Be Sure to Tell Your Friends!

Once again, this link to see what other authors are giving away this week: The Holiday Gift Exchange – Book Lovers Blog Hop.

Holiday sale through New Year's Day! (photo by Tui Snider) — Holiday sale through New Year’s Day! (photo by Tui Snider)

My Other Holiday gift

I’m also offering my latest book project, The Lynching of the Santa Claus Bank Robber, for only 99 cents through New Year’s Day. Please note that this is a pre-order for the Kindle version. The eBook will be officially released on March 1, 2015. (Exciting news! As of this writing, it is currently #9 on the Amazon Best Sellers List for West South Central Travel!)

After New Year’s Day, however, the price will continue to climb as launch day approaches!

Here’s a brief description:

“In December 1927, Santa Claus came to town – and proceeded to rob a bank! Tui Snider’s latest book, “The Lynching of the Santa Claus Bank Robber” follows this true crime story from one strange-but-true event to the next.

From genteel women vomiting from sheer disgust, phony paralysis, a mysterious blonde, and a doctor declaring that one bandit’s breath smelled “too good” for him to qualify as insane – a crazy chain of events leads up to the mob hanging of a very bad Santa in small Texas town.”

a Rafflecopter giveaway

To be free, or not to be free? That is the book marketing question!

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I’m an Angsty Little Hamlet!

“To be free, or not to be free, that is the book marketing question—
Whether ’tis Nobler for indie authors to suffer
The Slings and Arrows of Amazon’s algorithm,
Or to take Arms against a Sea of freebies,
And by opposing, end them? To download, to sell—
No more; and by sell, to say we end
The Heart-ache, and the thousand Marketing shocks
Authors are heir to? ‘Tis an extroversion,
Devoutly to be wished. To buy, to sell,
To write, perchance to Sell; Aye, there’s the rub,
For in that point of sale, what reviews may come,
When readers shuffle off this merchant’s coil,
Must give us pause.” ~Tui Snider, channeling Hamlet through the perspective of an indie author

Scarborough Renaissance Festival in Waxahachie, Texas, (photo by Tui Snider)

Major Marketing Question: What’s Free Got to do with It?

Pardon my bastardized Shakespeare, but I’m an angsty little Hamlet this month as I launch my latest book, Paranormal Texas.

Why, you ask?

Paranormal Texas is my second book release, and so it was much easier this time around. I learned from my mistakes and did a few things differently. Other tasks remained the same, but I whizzed through them simply because I had done them before.

The research, writing, cover creation, front matter, back matter, and all the million little steps required to turn a big pile of words into the pages of a book – all that makes sense to me now. All those skills can be honed, honed and even turned into a recipe of sorts to follow again and again.

Because of this, I feel fairly competent when it comes to creating a book.

However, when it comes to marketing a book, I turn into an angsty little Hamlet as you can see by the soliloquy above.

Why offer a book for free?

For one thing, since I’m enrolled in Amazon’s KDP program, I can offer my book for free for up to 5 days in each 90 day period that it is available for sale.

But why?

Why offer my book, Paranormal Texas, for free after putting so many hours of writing and research into it? Is this a smart move, even if it’s only for a short while?

That’s a good question, and one I’ve pondered long and hard – usually around 3:00 a.m. when the marketing side of my brain wakes up specifically to annoy me with niggling little details. After a whole lot of insomnia, I very nearly chose to not to offer Paranormal Texas for free at all.

But then I launched the book, and online sales were slow (offline is another story!) So last Sunday, I arranged it so that Paranormal Texas is available for free from Sunday, October 12 through Wednesday, October 15.

Of course, the moment I sealed the deal, online sales picked up.

Hey, I’m not complaining, but what’s that all about?

Murphy’s Law? Maybe it’s because Halloween is around the corner? I don’t know! Whatever the case, as of yesterday both of my books, Unexpected Texas, and Paranormal Texas, were side-by-side in the #3 and #4 spaces on Amazon’s Best Seller’s list for Dallas – Fort Worth Travel.

Yippee!

My reasons for going free

So… back to the original question, why should an author offer their book for free on Amazon? Here are my personal reasons:

1. Later reviews appear as an Amazon verified purchase:
I sell a lot of paperbacks directly to people – way more than I do through the Amazon site. Since I purchase these books straight from CreateSpace, they don’t count towards my Amazon sales ranking. Still, some of these folks have told me they want to leave reviews on Amazon. If they have also downloaded a digital version, their review will show up as an Amazon verified purchase when the time comes – and a verified review always looks better than an unverified one.

2. Attract new readers:
Since the book is free, someone who is on the fence about what my books have to offer might take the plunge and buy one.

3. Spur more sales:
It sounds counterintuitive, but over and over I read about how offering a book for free helps boost subsequent sales.

4. Attract attention to other books:
Now that I have two books for sale, offering my newest one for free may help attract readers to my other book, Unexpected Texas.

Grab a Free copy of Paranormal Texas for yourself

If you’ve read this far, why don’t you go ahead, click this link and download Paranormal Texas for free for yourself!

Please leave a comment, too, if you decide to download the book. Makes me feel good. :)

Also, if you enjoy Paranormal Texas, I hope you will eventually leave a review on Amazon and/or Goodreads, as well. If you don’t enjoy it? Move along… there’s nothing to see here!

Unexpected Texas Book Signing – You’re Invited!

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Ms. Kalliope can be very distracting! (photo by Tui Snider)

Book Signing this Saturday

I’ve got good news for my Row80 writing check-in! This Saturday, March 29, 2014 I will be in downtown Fort Worth, Texas with paperbacks of Unexpected Texas in hand, ready to sign and sell. The venue is a funky furniture shop called There’s No Place Like Home (855 Foch St, Fort Worth, TX 76107), and I will be there from 6:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. If you are in the Dallas – Fort Worth area, I hope you will swing by and say hi!

This Saturday is perfect for a book signing, since it’s also the Fort Worth Art District Association (FWADA) Spring Gallery Walk. I’ve been to these gallery walks before. They are lively, fun, and well-attended. Plus, many places (including my venue!) serve wine and snacks.

Thing is, I’ve never done a book signing before. Aside from the obvious (bring a bunch of my books and a pen), I’m not sure what to do.

Should I offer prizes?

Here’s one idea I had: I could ask people to sign up for my email newsletter and randomly pick one of them to win a prize. What do you think? Beyond that, I’m not sure what to do, besides have fun and chat with people.

What are your book-signing tips?

This is where *you* come in. What advice do you have for me? I would really appreciate input from readers and writers alike. Please leave a comment with your 2 cents worth, specifically:

As a reader, what makes a book signing interesting to you?

As a fellow author, what have you learned from in-person book signings of your own?

What is Row80?

ROW80 is short for A Round of Words in 80 Days. It was created by the author, Kait Nolan, who describes it as, “an online writing challenge that knows you have a life.”

Basically, ROW80 is a way for writers to connect online and share progress on their writing goals. Click on the aforementioned link for more information. To join in and cheer on other ROW80 writers, check out the A Round of Words in 80 Days website. You may also simply click on any of the blog in the following list:

Unexpected Texas Update: Prize Winners & #1 on Amazon

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Unexpected Texas is an Amazon Best Seller! (photo by Tui Snider)

My Row80 & Unexpected Texas Update

On March 2, 2014 I officially released my quirky travel guide Unexpected Texas on Amazon as both a paperback and Kindle version.

For the next 8 days, Unexpected Texas toured the web on a whirlwind book release blog tour. A variety of interviews and reviews appeared on the following blogs to help promote my book. It was so much fun!

#UnexTex Blog Tour Prize Winners

The book blog tour for Unexpected Texas was a blast! I learned a lot, had fun, and made some great contacts.
Today, I’m pleased to announce the winners for the prizes featured at each stop along my virtual book release tour. *drum roll please*

The following lucky folks are all winners:

1. Mark Oxner is the Grand Prize Winner. He wins: a paperback copy of my book, Unexpected Texas, an Unexpected Texas notebook, and a $25 Amazon gift card to support his reading habit.
2. Scott Shetler a.k.a. “The Quirky Travel Guy” wins: a paperback copy of my book, Unexpected Texas, an Unexpected Texas notebook for him to record anomalous events, a video of “Cowboys and Aliens,” and a packet of Yoda Post-It notes (because there is no try, there are only to-do lists!)
3. Leigh Reinert wins: a paperback version of my book, Unexpected Texas, an Unexpected Texas notebook, and a snazzy, laminated folding map of Texas (which I was so tempted to keep for myself!)
4. Gale Langley wins: a paperback copy of Unexpected Texas, an Unexpected Texas notebook, and a bag of sea salt caramel dark chocolates. Yum! The sea salt is a nod to the ancient sea which provides North Texas with high-quality salt reserves which are mined by the Morton Salt Company today, and from which the Salt Palace in the town of Grand Saline was built.
5.Katherine Boyer wins: a paperback copy of Unexpected Texas, an Unexpected Texas notebook, and the latest issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife. This ties in with the Athens, Texas chapter of Unexpected Texas in which I describe a visit to the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center. Not only do they have aquariums and a well-stocked pond, but they will loan you a rod and reel and teach you how to fish!
6. Pam Roberts wins: a paperback of Unexpected Texas, an Unexpected Texas notebook, and some really cute road trip stickers for scrapbooking.
7. Patricia Lynne wins: One Aunt Jemima apron, a zebra striped mani/pedi kit, a mini Texas Hold ‘Em game, & a paperback copy of Unexpected Texas. Each item in this quirky assortment references a woman mentioned in Unexpected Texas.

Once I have everyone’s snail mail addresses, I will send off all the loot.

A Successful Book Blog Tour

Everyone defines success differently, but I am happy with what I achieved with the #UnexTex Unexpected Texas Book Release Blog Tour.

Specifically, I’ve gained nearly 100 new Twitter followers, I’ve made new friends on Facebook, I’ve strengthened friendships with bloggers who inspire me, I’ve doubled the number of subscribers to my newsletter, I’ve doubled my blog traffic, and I’ve made connections that led to offline book-signings and speaking engagments (more on those in upcoming posts!)

I’ve also inspired at least 2 of my friends to get serious about their own book projects! That makes me feel great!

My Book is #1 on Amazon

Another goal I had going into this virtual book release blog tour was to hit #1 in the Amazon Best Sellers list for Dallas – Fort Worth Travel Books.

As you can see from the photo at the top of this post, Unexpected Texas is now officially an Amazon Best Seller! Yee haw! Rather than go on about how this makes me feel, I’d like to have the room for a moment:

What is ROW80?

ROW80 is short for A Round of Words in 80 Days. It was created by the author, Kait Nolan, who describes it as, “an online writing challenge that knows you have a life.”

Download Unexpected Texas for Free!

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Unexpected Texas is free today (photo by Tui Snider)

How to Download Unexpected Texas for Free

I put many hours into researching and writing Unexpected Texas, but today and tomorrow (3/9 & 3/10) I’ve made the Kindle version of my quirky travel book, Unexpected Texas, available for FREE. Why? Because I can!

Please Leave a Blog Comment Here

I have one small request: Please leave me a comment on this post if you decide to download Unexpected Texas for free. I would love to hear from you. Besides, today’s my birthday! :)

Amazon Reviews

Also, if you enjoy my book, please take a moment to leave a review for Unexpected Texas on Amazon. Speaking of Amazon Reviews, here are some excerpts from ones that are currently posted for Unexpected Texas:

” I would have never thought that Texas would be a place that I would want to visit (though I have quickly driven through several times) let alone spend time there, but her book makes me want to hop in my car and see these fascinating sites!”

“Whether or not you plan on going to Texas anytime soon, I highly recommend you pick up a copy of Unexpected Texas and entertain yourself with this adventurous and quirky book.”

“Unlike a standard travel guide that’s crammed full of information you’ll never use Unexpected Texas is a concise and focused guide that’s ideal for anyone interested in the odd, the overlooked, and the little bits of history that often don’t make the big picture.

Tui Snider’s writing is casual and friendly, the entries read more like postcards and letters from a friend than dry guide book entries.

The book focuses on the Dallas Fort Worth area but the two big cities don’t dominate, there are far more entries for the smaller towns in the area.

Unexpected Texas is extremely interesting and fun and hopefully just the first Unexpected Texas guide by Tui Snider.”

Download Link for the Free Kindle Version

Here’s the link to Unexpected Texas on Amazon.com. That’s where you can download the Kindle version for absolutely free today and tomorrow. I hope you enjoy my book and that it inspires you to do some exploring – wherever you happen to be!