Narrow or wide? How to decide? #SelfPublishing #KU #Monopoly

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

 

Self-publishing offers an author a lot of freedom. You’re no longer bound to the schedule of a publisher; you can release your books whenever they’re ready, or according to a strategy related to your personal future plans. A self-published book does not need to fit neatly into genre-based pigeonholes. You can write and publish work that reflects your creativity and vision, rather than the often rigid categories that supposedly define “the market”. Furthermore, self-publishing can spare you sometimes painful fights with house editors about words, phrases or content that violate the house style rules. You, the author, are in the driver’s seat, and your book is 100% your own.

On the other hand, you become responsible for many critical decisions. What should the cover look like? What categories and keywords should you use? How should you position the book, with respect to your other work as well as the competition? What price should you set? How should you promote the book? All of a sudden you’re not just the author, but also the publishing executive and the marketing manager.

One thorny issue facing any self-publishing author at the moment is whether to go narrow or wide. Everyone knows that Amazon commands the largest share of the ebook market. “Going wide” involves publishing and selling on other platforms as well as Amazon, for instance Barnes and Noble, Kobo and Google Books. If you want to go wide, there are a variety of sites that will publish and distribute your books to a range of online vendors, including Smashwords and Draft2Digital. In return, they take a cut of the royalties (but a smaller percentage than a regular publisher). As an alternative, you can upload your book independently to different sales sites, which takes more effort but can result in somewhat higher returns as well as better control over format.

“Going narrow” means publishing exclusively on Amazon, enrolling your book in KDP Select and Kindle Unlimited (KU). You may publish and sell a print version of your book, but the ebook version must not be sold anywhere else.

KU is a subscription-based model for reading ebooks. Rather than paying for books individually, KU members pay a monthly fee (currently about $10) in order to download and read an “unlimited” number of books. (In fact, I believe there are some restrictions on how many books you can be reading concurrently, but I have not been able to find the details on the Amazon help pages.)

Since readers don’t purchase books under the KU scheme, Amazon pays authors according to the number of pages of their books that KU members read. The actual unit is called KENP (Kindle Edition Normalized Pages), a quantity which is calculated based on a (secret) algorithm. Authors receive a certain amount of money per KENP; the amount is also a secret and varies over time, but is some fraction of a cent. Note, by the way, that Amazon systems must periodically access individual readers’ Kindle devices or apps in order to compute KENP.

Many authors swear by KU as a way of making more money. It does seem that KU reads do not reduce the number of outright purchases by much. KU subscribers are a different population from purchasers. On the other hand, by going narrow, an author risks losing sales from readers who prefer to buy from other sources. This includes a segment of the reading public who actively avoid Amazon for various reasons including the company’s monopolistic tendencies, their intrusiveness and their indie-author-unfriendly policies. In the interests of full disclosure, I will personally confess that I fall into that segment.

My personal experience with going narrow is very limited. I have one book, a boxed set, available in KU. Since I released that book, in February 2020, it has logged 22,217 KENP. The payment for this has been $54.22. So I’m getting about 0.0025 cents per KENP. The book is about 600 pages, so the page reads translate to roughly 37 sales. The purchase price is $4.99 and the royalty percentage is 70%, so if I’d actually sold these copies, I would have received $3.49 per copy, or $129.13.

Of course, it’s not likely I would have sold all those additional copies. As noted above, KU subscribers wouldn’t necessarily purchase the books they download as part of the program. Like all “unlimited” subscriptions, Kindle Unlimited encourages readers to take a chance on merchandise they’re not sure they want, because there’s no penalty to downloading a book but not finishing it. In addition, KU subscribers have an incentive to consume as many books as possible in order to “get their money’s worth”.

It is clear though, that Amazon itself saves money when authors go narrow. Given the current KENP formula, for a complete KU read of Vegas Babes, they only have to pay me about $1.50, which amounts to a royalty rate of 30% - rather than the 70% I get for an outright purchase.

Still, there’s a segment of the reading community that loves to see the words “Free on Kindle Unlimited” splashed across a book banner. It’s not really free, of course, but once a reader has paid the monthly fee, they will tend to forget that.

Mostly, I’ve gone wide, because I want anyone who is interested to be able to buy my book. As noted above, I personally don’t have a Kindle or buy ebooks from Amazon. I read 5-10 books per month. Knowing how important this is to authors, I try to review almost everything I read. Since I’m active on Goodreads and host a lot of authors on my blog, I frequently encounter books that sound interesting. If the book is available on Smashwords or Kobo, I’ll consider buying it. However, if it’s exclusive to Amazon, that kills the notion. Hence, my fellow authors are losing out on reviews from me because they’ve chosen to go narrow.

I don’t want my own potential readers to have the frustrating experience of wanting to acquire my books but finding that Amazon is the only source.

I know I’m not neutral on this topic. I recognize that many of my author colleagues have made a good deal of money by going narrow. It’s your decision – and it’s not irrevocable, since you have the option to remove your book from KU after ninety days.

I’d like to finish by presenting some interesting data. I just ran a contest for members of my email list. To enter, they were required to send me a message answering three questions:

1) Approximately how many books do you read per month?

2) Where do you get your books? (Amazon? Other online sites? Bookstores? Garage sales? The library?)

3) Do you have a Kindle Unlimited subscription now or are you considering one?

I received 26 entries. (I have about 300 people on my list.) They read an average of 11 books a month, with a lot of difference between readers (minimum 1, maximum 30).

The majority of respondents (16 or 62%) get books from many sources including Amazon. Other sources mentioned included BN, Kobo, Google, ARCs from authors or publishers, BookFunnel, yard sales, brick and mortar book stores, and libraries. Seven respondents (26%) mentioned only Amazon. Three people (12%) did not mention Amazon at all.

Only six people (23%) said they had or were considering a KU subscription. One or two said they really loved it, since they read so many books. One person said she was considering dropping it, because she didn’t read enough to make it worthwhile.

Finally, I got a couple of comments that, I have to admit, mirror my own feelings about Amazon. One person, in response to the third question, said: “No, I like to keep my books and hate to think they're tracking me.”

Another reader said: “No, I do not have Kindle Unlimited nor do I plan to get it because a couple of years ago Amazon banned me from leaving any type of reviews, so why should I pay to read on there?”

So: narrow or wide? It’s not a straightforward decision. By choosing to go narrow, you’re probably gaining some new readers, but you may be losing others.

I will leave you with this thought: Amazon wants you to go narrow, not only to freeze out the competition, but because they can pay you less per book than they’d have to if you went wide.

Here’s another consideration: what will happen to authors (and readers) when Amazon is the only place you can buy ebooks? Prices will go up. Royalty percentages or per-KENP payments will go down. It’s inevitable. Monopoly is never a good thing for either suppliers or consumers.

That’s enough to clinch the decision for me. Your mileage may vary.

A bit of holiday romance - #Homelessness #Self-publishing #ChristmasRomance

 

For my post today, I have a bit from my story Slush: A Holiday Romance. This title represented my very first foray into self-publishing, nearly five years ago.

A lot of books under the bridge since then! I’m still fond of this gentle tale, though, about a rich guy who’s rescued by a homeless young woman.

You can get a copy (only 99 cents!) at Smashwords, Amazon, BN or Kobo.

Blurb

Hot shot Boston lawyer Ian Pierce has everything but peace of mind. Christmas Eve finds him alone, wading through the slush to his BMW so he can drive back to his lonely luxury apartment. Then everything goes black. He awakens with an aching skull to find himself in a freezing, boarded-up garage occupied by a street kid. At first he blames the dodgy-looking youth for his troubles, but before long he realizes the raggedy girl who rescued him from the gutter may well be a Christmas angel in disguise.

Excerpt

“Hey, mister – you okay?”

The youthful voice filtered down the deep, dark hole to Ian’s flickering awareness.

“Urgh.” That was his own voice, a groan that kicked up pounding echoes in his head. Irritated by his own incapacity, pushing the pain aside, he tried again.

“I – uh – I don’t know...” He forced his heavy eyelids open, blinking to dispel the maddening blurriness, and tried to focus on the pale face hovering over him. “What – what happened?”

“I think you were mugged. I found you unconscious in the alley, lying in the gutter next to some fancy car.” The teenager had a thin face with a toothy grin. A knitted Bruins cap pulled low over his ears hid the kid’s hair. His breath condensed into white clouds when he spoke.

A shiver wracked Ian’s body. Even that slight movement exacerbated the throbbing at the back of his skull. Damn, it hurt! And it was freezing in here!

“Where am I?” Ian tried to sit up, impatient as always with any kind of weakness. “Ow – shit!”

He sank back onto something yielding, breathing hard. A damp smell of mold assailed him, mixed with hints of motor oil and wood smoke.

“Better not move,” the kid counseled. “You might have a concussion.”

Ignoring this advice, Ian managed to work himself into a half-sit. The softness beneath him was an old mattress, covered with a stained woolen blanket. He leaned against a plywood wall. Cold seeped through the thin barrier from the winter night outside, all the way through his coat and his shirt. His back muscles cramped and he shivered again. He glanced around the dim, crowded space, noting that the other walls and the floor were bare concrete.

“Here – try this.” The younger man grabbed a thick wad of newspapers from a pile in the corner

 

“Tilt forward – yeah – that’s right.” He slipped the papers into the space between Ian’s back and the wall. They worked surprisingly well as insulation. The kid smiled, showing those even white teeth once again. “Better now?”

Ian nodded, then regretted it as the pain in his head surged. “How did I get here?”

The teen’s laugh was high and girlish as he gestured toward a rusty supermarket cart parked near the door in the plywood partition.

“You’re joking!”

“Nope. A sled might have been better on a night like this, though.”

“But how... why...?”

The kid gazed at him, hands on his hips. “I couldn’t leave you there in the slush, could I? You would’ve froze to death, no question.”

Ian peered more closely at his savior. The teen – well, he might have been twenty, twenty one at most – looked plump in his miscellany of sweaters and sweatshirts. Underneath the bulky layers, though, he was slightly built. His hands, wrapped in orange mittens, were small. Bright red long johns showed through the holes in his ragged jeans. Despite the inclement weather, he wore no boots, only dirty sneakers, which looked soaked through. That observation made Ian realize how wet and cold he was in his own clothing.

He shivered again. “Don’t you have any heat in here?”

The kid shrugged. “I could light a fire, I guess. I don’t like to do that too often – makes it more likely someone will figure out I’m in here. But I suppose nobody’s going to be prowling around on Christmas Eve, ‘specially when it’s so miserable out.”

He dragged a battered oil drum with a deeply dented lid into the center of the room and started piling on bits and pieces of wood from a box near the newspapers. Then he crumpled some of that paper onto the top and struck a match.

The merry flames made Ian feel marginally better. The ache in his occipital region faded a bit and the numbness shrouding his brain cleared. He began to remember, brief impressions at first, then whole scenes.

Coming Out as a Lesbian Author - #lesbian #amwriting #genrerules

I’ve always been attracted to women (as well as men). My first three novels, Raw Silk, Miranda's Masks and Nasty Business, all include F/F scenes. As a neophyte erotic author, I wrote what I found arousing, and that meant including lesbian interactions.

Then, around 2006, recognizing a new opportunity and a changing publishing landscape, I began producing mostly erotic romance. I rapidly discovered that the constraints in this genre are far stricter than for erotica (which is how I labeled my earlier work). A romance novel is identified first and foremost based on the genders of its protagonists. Heaven help the author who strays away from that primary identification! Romance readers (apparently) want to be warned about what they’ll find inside the covers. If the book claims to be M/M, you’d better not include the slightest hint of heterosexual hanky panky (even involving secondary characters), or you’ll incur the wrath of readers and reviewers. Meanwhile, I found that compared to the enormous popularity of gay erotic romance, the market for F/F erotic romance appeared to be tiny. When I asked the people on my email list how they felt about lesbian stories, many expressed zero interest and one or two went so far as to tell me they found sexual interactions between women to be “icky” (a response I found deeply depressing).

They say you should listen to your readers. So for many years, I suppressed my desire to write F/F tales or scenes. It was hard sometimes. For instance, my romance novel The Ingredientsof Bliss has a bisexual character whom I just adore, a kick-ass French police detective. As I worked on my first and second drafts, Toni kept coming on to my heroine Emily, and Emily so wanted to respond— but I knew I couldn’t allow myself to give in to that temptation. Even so, my editor insisted I further sanitize their relationship. I was so frustrated!

Things have changed though. I’ve switched almost entirely to self-publishing my work. That means I can write what I want—what inspires me personally. I’ve also concluded that my stories actually sell better when I write from the heart, rather than according to someone else’s formula.

So I’m proud to say I’m an author of lesbian fiction (as well as gay fiction, and soon I hope, transgender fiction). I’m delighted with my three F/F books out this month. Meanwhile, my upcoming novella More Brides in Vegas includes lots of delicious girl-on-girl scenes.

Romance rules are not going to keep me in the closet any more!

From Coconuts to Confessions - #Contest #SriLanka #Vietnam @AdamMannAuthor

 

By Adam Mann (Guest Blogger)

About twenty years ago I was just finishing working on a project in Sri Lanka when I came across a book in Colombo entitled “an historical relation of CEYLON” which had been written and published in 1680. I’m not a historian, but the title intrigued me and led me to find out about the history of that area, and I also had the time and facility to visit some of the places mentioned in that book. It was a bit like surfing the web – one place led to another, and some of the recorded history in that region went back thousands of years!

The descriptions of people at those times – both men and women – began to make me think about their real personal lives. They must have had families! But recorded history is usually very quiet about their wives, concubines and mistresses, or indeed their husbands and lovers.

At that time I was living on the edge of a coconut estate in North West Sri Lanka, just before I moved to a new project here in Vietnam.

What a change!

I was suddenly confronted with hoards of beautiful ladies, who did nothing to hide their shapes and everything to make themselves more attractive, presumably to the opposite sex.

I had started to write novels based on the history I had discovered about the Indian sub-continent, and I was trying to find a traditional publisher, and fortunately managing to avoid the vanity press. So I still had my manuscripts intact.

I read the books again, and began to wonder again about their social and family lives. I also managed to “surf the web” as then the internet was slowly developing, and I found that people were writing about anything!

Now I’d better explain. My parents and their parents weren’t Victorian, but pretty close to it. Sex was a taboo subject. Simply, one didn’t talk about it – although they all must have participated in it or their children, including me, wouldn’t have existed.

This intrigued me and I must confess I wanted to dip my “finger” into the local society with all those lovely ladies, and I wasn’t short of volunteers!

I thought that language would be a problem, but in that climate nobody needed to talk about anything.

I steered away from people in my office, and friend’s offices. I also stayed away from the ‘red light’ areas. I was working in an agricultural area where reproduction is fairly close to the surface, and people are more than happy to talk and joke about it. But I was too busy working to manage to meet any participants for what I had in mind. In fact I was too busy for the next fifteen years before I completed my first manuscript.

I wrote my first adventure novel based on a man meeting several ladies at an embassy reception, which is also a location where ladies dress to kill!

I arranged for my hero in this book to meet his heroine several times socially before either of them decided that closer inspection, with or without clothes, would be a good idea.

Then I found online that several “on line” publishers had emerged, and the electronic novel had been developed – now called an eBook. I needed a front cover and again the web came to my rescue as I managed to buy several pictures of semi-dressed or undressed ladies. I taught myself to add the title of the book and the name of the author to the cover.

I also found several publishers who offered eBooks and printed paperbacks on the market, and they also had art departments who produced much better book covers than me. They also employ a team of the essential editors and proofreaders.

Today, with the New Year upon us I have looked back on my life and productivity over the last twenty two years:

Three murder or mystery novels.

Three historical novels.

Ten novella eBooks from on-line publishers, like eXtasy, Phaze and

Global Publishing and,

Twenty two eBooks that I have self-published using the name Butterfly

Books as I couldn’t wait for the publishers to make a decision.

If you’ve read this far please take a look at some of these books:

My first: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KZMIEEW

My latest: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0776ZTXVQ

My website: http://www.adammannauthor.com  

From a personal point of view I did mention that I lived and worked in Vietnam, but not in Hanoi. I have always preferred mountains to the coast, and I’m not too far from the highest mountain in Vietnam known as Fansipan, which is 3,143 meters, or 10,312 feet, above sea level, and is a favourite destination for tourists. At this mountainous location the residents are from ethnic minority groups, like Huong or Dao, who actually account for fifteen percent of the total population, but many don’t speak Vietnamese as their family language.

On recent visit to Sa Pa with my wife we stopped at a restaurant in the town for dinner, and I was momentarily delayed in the restaurant paying the bill. When I went outside I saw my wife was buying a locally made memento. The vendor was a local Huong lady wearing her traditional and colourful clothes, and my wife who is from the ethnic majority Kinh, both Vietnamese, but both haggling the price loudly in English!

Excerpt from my latest eBook:

I’m often asked to leave an excerpt from one of my books. I like offering these and the following is extracted from the beginning of one of my latest novellas:

It was very early morning when the flight finally arrived in Taipei, and Charlie walked with Sue-Ling to the Arrivals Hall.

“Wait a minute,” she said and disappeared into an airport shop.

“Here,” she said a few minutes later, “something from Taiwan so that you remember me!” and she laughed.

He handed him a small locally made toy farmer.

As she was standing close to him he kissed her forehead, and she blushed, but made no effort to move away.

“Bathroom,” said Charlie, and Sue-ling took his bag and said, “I’ll wait for you,” which was kind of her.

She watched him walk away, and made a mental note.

Tall, she decided, probably six feet, brown wavy hair, slim build, intelligent and with a lovely smile. She guessed he’d be late thirties.

She knew he wasn’t married as he’d told her during the flight, as she’d told him she was nearly thirty and single, but she had also said there was an old boyfriend waiting for her at home.

Charlie, for his part, thought about this charming and attractive lady he’d met on the flight. She was quite tall compared to other Taiwanese ladies, kept her black hair shoulder length, wore thin gold ring earrings, and was still very slim. But with winter clothes covering her he could not tell anymore. Still she did have a lovely smile with sparkling black eyes.

Sue-ling was waiting for Charlie, and she gave him her bag as she in turn went to the ladies washroom.

“Wrong way round,” thought Charlie, “I should have asked her first!”

And he admonished himself, and when she came back she was a bit deep in her own thoughts. They walked on together.

“You have to go that way, but I’m going over there,” Sue-ling indicated the overhead signs, “Oh yes, here’s my mobile phone number so if you give me a ring sometime, and then I’ll have your number,” and she handed him a small card.

“Good-bye Sue-ling,” said Charlie, “thanks for your time and help on the flight.

Sue-ling smiled and on tip toe kissed Charlie on his right cheek, and she walked away.

Charlie followed the signs leading to the Departure Hall, but was still thinking about her.

He dialed her number in his mobile phone, and it rang;

“Is that the attractive lady I met on the flight from Vancouver?” he asked into the phone.

“No, sorry, I can’t see her around here,” she replied, “but I’ll give you a call if I do.”

Readers will have to buy this eBook to read what happened next so try this link at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077QDKWC1 Or at Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/760958  

Links to all Adam’s books:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/author/adammannauthor.com

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/ButterflyBooks
 

And at Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and other eBook retailers.

Try Adam’s website: http://www.adammannauthor.com  

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AdamMannAuthor

Contest:

Readers are probably aware that most of my books are based in Asian or African countries where I have lived and worked.

Please send Adam the names of any country from Asia or Africa and the correctly spelled names of ONE of the languages that they speak, apart from English.

The author will send free copies to the first five readers in any format they like: epub, mobi (Kindle), lrf, pdf, pdb.

Don’t forget to send the author your email address, or you can send a Direct Tweet to @adammannauthor

Good reading and please have a happy and successful 2018.

Instant Gratification

Okay, I admit it. I’ve been known to complain about the flood of self-published drek in the last few years. The mountain of poorly edited crap available in online stores has made it well-nigh impossible to be noticed as an author. It’s easy (and trendy) to blame one’s literary obscurity on the self-publishing revolution. If all those #%*$ authors actually had to find publishing companies to release their stuff (the argument goes), there’d be fewer books swamping the market, and the ones that did get published would be higher quality.

Well, I have to ‘fess up. I’ve gone over to the dark side. I’ve now self-published three titles, and I have to say, I can understand the appeal. Bringing a book to market by yourself is so fast, so easy, so close to painless, that I wonder why there aren’t a hundred times as many self-pubbed titles out there (though I’m certainly glad there aren’t).

I still see the appeal of working with a publisher. The more eyes that look at a manuscript before it goes live, the more chance there is to catch those nasty typos and grammaticos. The covers I’ve created for my self-pubbed volumes can’t begin to compete with the work of a professional graphics artist. Publishing companies already have a audience of readers looking for new authors in the genres they put out. Some publishers actually do quite a bit to publicize their authors’ releases, supplementing the inevitable self-marketing effort.

Furthermore, it’s not a level playing field. The big retailers give better deals and more visibility to publishers than to self-pubbed authors, and the bigger the publisher, the better the deal. There’s still some stigma associated with publishing your own books, largely due to the fact that a lot of self-published fiction is in fact pretty awful. (Then again, I’ve read some pretty terrible books from established publishers as well.)

Balanced against these advantages, there are definite downsides to the more traditional route. It can take considerable time—often months—to get your book out the door with a regular publisher, because you’re only one of many authors with whom they’re working. The bigger the publisher (and thus the larger its clout), the longer the typical delay between submission and release.

In addition, writing for a publisher can be constrain your creativity. You have to produce the kind of books they want to sell, the books they believe their readers will buy. You must follow their rules. Personally I’ve found this rather difficult with erotic romance publishers. My writing is frequently romantic, but violates a lot of the conventions of the genre. It has been a struggle at times for me to warp my stories into the shape required.

In contrast, self-publishing is instant gratification! You can submit your book in the morning and have it available for purchase by the afternoon. If you follow the formatting instructions (which are definitely not rocket science), it’s a snap. 

 

Meanwhile, as long as you don’t break any laws, you can publish exactly the book you want to write. What freedom! There’s no guarantee anyone will buy your books, of course. You have to market them like crazy, or they’ll simply vanish in the vast sea of self-pubbed titles, thousands released daily. But if you write for your own satisfaction—if you want to create stories outside the rigid boxes of genre—self-publishing is a breath of fresh air.

I haven’t yet produced any self-published novels. I’m a bit worried about the formatting issues in a full-length manuscript. And given how long it takes me to write a novel, I’m still nervous about throwing it into the self-publishing swamp if I can find a suitable publisher.

But then, I have a couple of novel ideas that I suspect no publisher would touch. If I ever write those books, self-publishing will be the only option.

For the first time, I am not dependent on somebody else to get my work out into the world. That’s comforting. Freeing. And slightly addictive.

Cold, But Not Heartless

By Aurelia T. Evans (Guest Blogger)

I am an overly emotional person, except when I’m not.

Sometimes my emotions get so intense that the only solution is for some enterprising up-and-coming technician in my brain to turn the switch off for a while. The technical term is ‘dissociation.’ Authors are no strangers to dissociation. It’s practically a job requirement, not a symptom. The only problem is when it extends beyond when I’m writing and into my real life. The numbness, the inability to feel anything but emptiness, disconnected—it sure beats feeling like I’m stuck in the bottom of Jame Gumb’s Silence of the Lambs pit. It lets me stay functional. But it has its own problems, as you might imagine.

Most of my characters find themselves in the grips of powerful emotions. Sex magnifies everything. From passion to anger to fear to love, romance and erotica lends itself to torrents of feeling.

Julia is different.

She’s not the first character I’ve written who’s lost her memory. Tora, from Wolf Girl (coming out at the end of the year), has her memory wiped away by an external force. She’s a creature of pure emotion, since that’s all she has. Julia, from my vampire serial Bloodbound, took quite a different turn. When awareness returns to her, she’s cold, numb, emotions as stripped away as her memory, although not stripped away because of her memory.

Writing Julia was an interesting exercise. She’s not as easy for people to identify with, harder to pin down, harder to connect with because she can’t connect with herself. She’s a cold fish, a hard woman, bleached in mind and body. The qualities that appeal to the vampire love interest in question, Nathan, aren’t her stunning good looks or sparkling personality. Yet the vampire priest and I agree—she’s fascinating, especially the things going on beneath the blank surface of her thoughts. Because she’s far from empty.

Julia is damaged as a fallen family photograph. Something in her head is splintered. Bridges were destroyed long before her memory failed her. I find Julia darkly appealing, and I relate to her damaged side more than some of the other relatively well-adjusted characters that I’ve written. If someone wants a more connected character, I have plenty of others to choose from (since I have quite a few stories coming out this year and the next). Bloodbound is Julia’s story, the story of a woman whose coldness has helped her survive. And that’s how I like it.

The serial novel Bloodbound is my first attempt at self-publishing—it only seems appropriate that I get to start the process with an atypical protagonist. I’ve been making noise about indie publishing for a while, but I’m finally forcing myself to just do it. It helps that I have a banging cover—that’s one of the main reasons I’ve pushed myself to actually do it.

I’m nervous and cautiously excited, since self-publishing means everything’s on me. But erotica is fortunately an indie-friendly genre, and I have a wonderful support system for the process.

Allow me the pleasure of introducing you to Julia and some of the other characters in the first book in the Bloodbound serial, Blood Lost.

Blurb

Bloodstains on her clothing and bloodlust between the sheets, she’s never been more lost…and that’s why he chooses her.

As if wandering the streets in bloody clothes after losing her memory isn’t bad enough, Julia’s been kidnapped by vampires, then presented to Nathan, high priest of Dominion.

Nathan’s not interested in a bleeder, perfectly content with fellow priest Lucas as his companion, lover, and willing servant. However, when Lucas offers her to him, Julia’s endearing confusion and lack of fear intrigue him.

With nowhere else to go without her memories, Julia accepts his offer and embarks on a sensual but deadly journey into the world of Dominion and its arrogant, esoteric elite…as well as the darkness of her own desires and the mystery of her past.

Excerpt

“Get the fuck off me, you fucking leech, evil prick, wannabe demon!” Monica struggled, kicking her legs back and forth, trying to scratch the priest with her good hand, but he somehow managed to evade every single attack.

“You think you’re the first fighter I’ve brought to him?” the priest said, laughing. All the kindness had drained out of his demeanor, although the warmth of his voice made his cold declarations all the chillier.

Now would be the perfect time for Julia to try to escape while the priest distracted himself with Monica, but this time there was no chance of saving Monica if Julia left now. It wasn’t that there was no point in saving herself, but there was less point. She had nowhere to go, no reason to save herself when there wasn’t a whole lot of self to save.

And even if she wanted to try just for the sake of blind hope, the dust motes in the center aisle moonbeam were coalescing as Monica fought, her jabs becoming more focused but no less futile. Julia hesitated with one foot on the stage and the other off, the younger girl trailing behind her and clinging to her shoulder to hold her back.

“I think that’s quite enough, children.”

Monica stopped fighting and instead stared, stunned, at the man coming up the center aisle.

Like the priest holding Monica, this man appeared at first glance unobtrusive, his presence quiet. Like the priest, he wore the uniform, but his clerical collar was black instead of white. His skin was naturally tan but somehow still managed to appear pale, as though the color underneath the translucent golden layer had leached out. The priest’s smile was gentle, but this new man’s smile—though following the same curve—gave the impression of a stalking cat rather than a content one. Although he didn’t appear old, his hair was prematurely silver all the way through, as though touched by frost, with lowlights of slate gray near the scalp where the hair was denser.

And whereas the priest’s eyes were nearly black, this man’s were nearly white. They pierced instead of welcomed, and although she wasn’t proud of it, Julia lowered her gaze when they attempted to bore through to the mind beneath her skull.

“My Master,” the priest breathed with religious reverence. “Kneel, woman,” he told Monica, but he truly addressed all three. “Kneel with me before your Master.”

“I kneel to no one,” Monica retorted. However, even she was shocked and awed by this unassuming man that somehow dominated the entire room just by existing, his appearance as average as it was inexplicably alien. She dropped to the floor when the priest buckled her knees with a solid kick.

The priest, too, knelt to honor the man, keeping a hold around Monica’s neck.

The younger girl collapsed not onto her knees but to the side, sobbing renewed as though she did not know how to stop. Julia forgot about her as soon as the girl released her grip on Julia and left her standing.

The white gold of the man’s skin was cool on her chin where he brushed his fingers like a frigid winter wind. Ever so gradually, he lowered his hand and she lowered herself with it. Anything to keep from looking into those eyes. He withdrew when she knelt at his feet.

“Rise.”

The priest gripping Monica stood in a single graceful motion, intimately familiar with the act. He pulled Monica up with him. The younger girl quivered as though she could feel the master’s chill from three feet away. She might not have even heard the man’s command as she proceeded to simply dissolve into a pool of exhaustion and fear.

Julia stood up and stepped back onto the stage, away from the man. She kept her eyes downcast, but not in deference.

“So these are the women you’ve chosen for me, Lucas,” the man said. He paced before the stage. Julia could hear that smile when he added, “I can tell you have reached the end of your patience with me, if these are the ones you have brought. Just picking them at random now, are we?”

“I tried picking them deliberately, but they were never what you wanted,” the priest, Lucas, replied. “I apologize if these seem like desperate selections.”

“Oh, I understand,” the man said. “It is frustrating when your Master cannot even articulate what he wants. How can you be expected to know what intangible quality might appeal to me, what a woman must have to feel right, when all you’ve ever known I liked was you?”

“Your commands have never been a chore,” Lucas protested.

“No, but you must indeed be at your wit’s end if that poor girl is any indication. Come now, Lucas, you already knew she was too young. And limp. A wisp of a thing not even fit for donation.”

The fine, shiny, black shoes paused before the despairing heap of the younger girl. That hand reached out and stroked across the girl’s forehead. Her sobs abruptly ceased, her eyelids fluttering. In a few seconds, she pitched forward. Her face almost hit the wooden stage, but the man caught and cradled it before laying her down. Her back rose and fell, which meant the girl was unconscious once more, not dead.

A mercy for all, Julia thought.

Bloodbound Release Schedule:

Blood Lost (Book 1) – February 14 (FREE!)

Bleeder’s Ball (Book 2) – February 28

Blood Pool (Book 3) – March 14

Blood on the Moon (Book 4) – March 28

Bleeding Heart (Book 5) – April 11

Bloodbound, the Complete Serial Novel – May 9

Links to Bloodbound Book 1
(The ones listed as not yet free may be free by the time you check!)

Smashwords, multiple formats, including Kindle (recommended, FREE): https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/519123

 

Amazon US (not yet free): http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TJ44EIC

 

Amazon UK (not free): http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00TJ44EIC?*Version*=1&*entries*=0

 

Amazon Canada (not free): http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00TJ44EIC?*Version*=1&*entries*=0

 

Apple (FREE): https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/blood-lost-bloodbound-book-1/id967111963?mt=11

 

Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1121218815?ean=2940046575934

Links

Bloodbound serial novel page:

https://aureliatevans.wordpress.com/bloodbound-serial/

Blog: https://aureliatevans.wordpress.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100006673185670&fref=ts&ref=br_tf

About Aurelia

Aurelia T. Evans is an up-and-coming erotica author with a penchant for horror and the supernatural.

She's the twisted mind behind the werewolf/shifter Sanctuary trilogy, demonic circus series Arcanium (publication starts April 2015), and spiritual gothic/urban fantasy series Meridian (publication TBD). She's also had short stories featured in various erotic anthologies.

Aurelia presently lives in Dallas, Texas (although she doesn't ride horses or wear hats). She loves cats and enjoys baking as much as she dislikes cooking. She's a walker, not a runner, and she writes outside as often as possible.