Gentle reminder #freebook

My book tour will continue this week. I don’t have anyone for today. I’m just going to drop some cover art and talk about my current promotion, because it’s for a limited time.

***

Blurb: The Lanternfish crew completed their original mission, but got exposed to a more global problem. An entire continent is at war, headed up by a head-strong young king with dreams of power, and pushed from behind by a mysterious religious order known as the Fulminites.

Rather than let their country fall under the iron boot of conquest, James and his crew set sail once more to see what kind of muscle Lanternfish can lend to the war effort. Acting precariously under an unofficial charter as a privateer, even his allies aren’t always his friends.

HMS Lanternfish explores new worlds on its way to war, and drifts considerably off course. It features an international crew of characters, and for fans of the first book, the root monsters are back, too. Tall ships, a few con games, martial arts, and everything you loved about the original book is all returning.

Hoist the colors and wheel out the guns. Lanternfish is taking to the high seas once more.

***

That’s the new book and you can get it for 99¢ for a limited time.

I won’t expect you to jump into the middle of a trilogy if you haven’t already read the first book. Amazon came through on my free days. Therefore, you can also get Voyage of the Lanternfish for free, but only this week.

HMS Lanternfish: 99¢ for a limited time.

Voyage of the Lanternfish: Free until Friday.

I’m going to mention that Serang is also part of this world. It is a stand-alone title and is based upon one of the more intriguing characters in the series. Her book isn’t on sale, but if this week plays out well, I could do something with it later this month to keep the momentum going. Here’s a link for her book.

Assessing 2016

I managed just under 2000 words this morning on my novel. I've reached a point where I need to decide whether he goes through the next section alone, takes up a sidekick, or gathers a small band. This means I need to think about it for a while. I'm leaning toward the sidekick, because it prevents his talking with the yak who is his mentor. It also provides someone to protect and worry about. I know where he goes, and what he faces, but any extra tension is always welcome.

Because of this, it's time to work on my 2016 assessment. This is kind of a personal “good, bad, and ugly.”

I wanted to read more mainstream stuff in '16, but never read a single one. Independent fiction kept me pretty busy, and I need to change that. Branching out is always good for learning, and inspiring the muse. I did manage one graphic novel, and enjoyed the heck out of it. Graphic novels don't exactly qualify as mainstream in my book though. I want to get back to Jim Butcher and Cheri Priest.

I wanted to expand my footprint into Facebook. I did this in the form of a Lisa Burton profile, and an Entertaining Stories page. Lisa is more popular than my page, go figure. I try to keep them a bit different, and a few Otto videos went on the Entertaining Stories page that Lisa never got. I'm still learning here, but I'm having a good time. It's a great way to find old sci-fi artwork, classic cars, inspiration for Lisa Burton posters, and bulldog images.

As far as the blog goes, my number one post was a short fiction trick. I wish I could repeat this, because it has over 3000 views and counting. In fact, the subsequent post about how Flipboard drove most of this traffic was in my top ten posts. My third most popular post was “We go Spying With Lana, on Lisa Burton Radio.” (1200 views and counting.)

It seems like anything with Lisa is a popular post. I don't even have to include a graphic, and the writing cabin type posts are popular. It probably means nothing from a promotional standpoint, but it makes me think I must be getting her strong personality into the posts.

I've heard from the more chatty folks that Lisa Burton Radio produced a spike in sales for them. This is kind of a plus/minus for me. Lisa has a hell of a time getting enough guests to keep her interviews going. Places to promote books seem to be getting more scarce, and these interviews are the only ones like them that I know about. I want to keep them going, but need authors who want to take advantage. I'll just mention here that it's absolutely free, and I share them on Stumbleupon, Flipboard, two Facebook sites, and I tweet them out frequently.

An interesting observation is how popular posts involving the Rave Reviews Book Club were. My Block Party stop was the eighth most popular post of 2016. (I'm a fairly prolific blogger so that's a great number.) My top twenty is filled with posts I hosted as part of blog tours associated with RRBC. The obvious thought is that RRBC drives traffic, and they support. If any of you are inclined to make a 2017 business plan you ought to consider joining us.

Sales were about the same as last year for me. While this isn't bad, it includes two new publications and much more promotion on my part. It appears I'm working harder to accomplish the same thing. Is this just the market, the volume of available titles, my perspective getting tired, what?

A big part of my promotion kind of fell together and grew into something I never expected. A group of authors and I formed Story Empire as a way to mutually promote our paranormal themed books in October. It's grown into much more, and has potential for more growth. I'm looking forward to seeing just how far we can take it. I have a theory that we'll expand to more than just paranormal.

My pals and I at Story Empire went on a massive paid blog tour for our paranormal titles. This involved giveaways of Amazon gift cards, and in my case two book blasts. Quite frankly, I could have sold more books on a friends and family tour. Most of the host sites appeared to be dead zones that only host blog tours. Nobody is going to follow a site that never offers anything but blog tour posts. There is no interaction, and very little action happened beyond the authors thanking the host for having us.

I was impressed with one of the book blasts, and might consider them for a tour host in the future. More research is required for blog tours these days.

I also wasn't impressed with the giveaways. Turns out there are people out there who chase gift cards. They have no interest in the wares being promoted, only getting into the contests. In my mind, the contest is to add a little fun to the tour, and possibly increase the interaction. This isn't the way it worked out. I have a new plan for contests from now on.

I got invited to participate in an anthology. I'd never done anything like this, and it was educational. There is no money in it, but the exposure is pretty good. This is something I'd like to do again, depending on the theme. I'm probably not going to write a Valentine's Day love story, but if a group wants to do some science fiction or something, I would consider it.

I did a bunch of giveaways, 99¢ sales, and Amazon advertising with mixed results. All of them moved books in varying degrees, but they didn't seem repeatable. Whatever worked once, failed six months later. This might be because of timing, the quality of the advertisement, or the marketplace. I probably need to keep trying these.

My short fiction during October, called Macabre Macaroni, is also hard to assess. Maybe it's because I don't want to admit what I'm seeing. Every comment was encouraging, even those who thought I ended the first one too soon simply wanted more of a good story. The odd thing is the number of views. They started strong, then went down with every subsequent post. This can't be about the quality of the stories, because I'm tracking views not likes or comments. Viewers didn't show up in the first place. What it could mean is that people are just tired of them. Maybe some thought it was just the same story trucked out over and over because of the Lisa art.

The Idea Mill. These aren't nearly as popular as I would like. These posts don't even show up until I get to number 81. I love them, but maybe it's time to retire them. Many of my followers are writers, but not as many are speculative fiction writers. There were a lot of textile posts both from antiquity and in modern science. There were also a lot of primate observations. I featured one cryptid, and a railroad line that carried the dead. All of the comments are positive, but they're all from my regulars too. Asking for shares might help, maybe I need a new thing for the blog.

I finally found a way to make Twitter functional. When you follow too many people, the stream of information is like trying to drink from a firehose. I learned about pinned tweets, and am trying to keep them relatively fresh. When I check my notifications, anyone who appears to be supporting me causes me to share their pinned tweet. Not everyone has a pinned tweet, but it sure is handy. I find a lot of them that are six months old though. In that case, I delete my tweet, then immediately retweet it. My hope is that it goes out fresh in the timeline of my followers. Everyone should be using pinned tweets if they have books to promote. Remember to keep them freshened up though. I think I'll freshen up mine right after this posts.

Two new publications. I released The Playground, a novel, and The Experimental Notebook of C. S. Boyack II, a collection of short fiction in 2016. The novel was just a blip on the radar. I'm disappointed, because I really like it and I think the style added something to this kind of story. Playground also produced one of the most fun characters I've ever written, and my first anti-hero. The second Notebook exceeded sales of the first one. I have some evidence to show that it produced a few sales of the first one after readers finished it. This is great news. Now what to do with the information? Is one title simply better than the other? Is short fiction making the surge I predicted last year? Is human interest leading us away from novel length works? I don't know, but will probably keep producing both.

That's 2016. Some things worked, some didn't. Some did nice things I never expected. The idea is to keep what works, and do new things to replace what doesn't work. Sometime in the first week of 2017, I'll put out a business plan. It's always nice to have a roadmap.

Don’t get left out

Lisa Burton, the robot girl here tonight. As Craig's personal assistant, I am the one who put together most of his current promotions. I'm also the spokesmodel for his writing career, but there is no new poster to go along with all the stops he's been making. Although we do have a poster for his Macabre Macaroni stories.

I decided to put my insane sign shaker skills to help with the promotions. Craig thinks I'm silly, but I can toss this thing in the air, spin around and catch it. Robotic precision baby.

First, let's talk about The Playground. This is Craig's latest novel, and it has a decidedly Halloween vibe going for it.

Basically, some nutjob created a social network that targets children. He's brainwashing them to create his own homegrown army. To speed things along, he turns to the occult.

There is this girl who becomes one of the victims, and you get to follow her through the story as her life gets darker, and more desperate.

Then there is the doctor lady. She's a cancer survivor, and is avoiding a return to work by helping end-of-life patients. She takes a job with this goofy old guy, and catches a parasite. It's not just any old parasite though, this one allows her to see into the world of shadows. She has the ability to talk to ghosts, see demons, and that kind of thing.

The next generation software goes missing, so the crazy business guy sends this huge thug after the culprit. This guy is kind of a force-of-nature, and is not to be taken lightly.

The whole thing becomes a chase for the missing software, but in a dark paranormal kind of way. You know, good guy chasing bad guy to fetch the prize before the little girl does something she can't recover from.

Anyway, Craig has The Playground on sale for 99¢ through Friday. Get it now, at the sale price, just in time for Halloween.

Craig also had a story chosen for an anthology called Macabre Sanctuary. There are ten short stories from some incredible authors, and they all have a freaky paranormal thing going on.

Miraculously, there isn't a single werewolf or vampire in the whole book. I told you these are some creative folks, and there are other things out there that are just as spooky, maybe even more so.

Macabre Sanctuary can be read in small bursts, like coffee breaks or while picking up parts for your own robot. At the price of free, what are you waiting for?

But wait, there's more! Craig and several of his friends formed a new blog called Story Empire. They are on a huge blog tour right now called The Paranormal Bar & Grille.

To drive interest in the tour, each author is running a scavenger hunt. I know, crazy right? All you have to do is go to The Paranormal Bar & Grille and click the author links at the bottom of the page.

These links will take you to the individual scavenger hunt for whatever author you choose. It's about too easy. Just answer a few questions on each site to enter. All the answers are found in the Story Empire Book Library.

There are a bunch of Amazon gift cards to win, and the occasional e-book of the winner's choice. Odds are pretty good right now too, so get your entry in.

But wait, there's more. Oh, I already said that. But wait, there's even more than more.

On The Paranormal Bar & Grille page, you will find a link to that massive blog tour I told you about. If you click on it, you can see all the stops along the route, and there will even be book reviews. At the bottom of that page, there is a Rafflecopter for a big old honkin' $30 Amazon gift card.

You have a pretty good chance of winning, but you've got to enter to win.

Let’s saddle up and chase some demons

I may have mentioned that I'm doing a bunch of October promotions. Some are in groups, some are solo efforts, and some involve host blogs. This one is all on me, but it might benefit you. My book, Panama, is going to be free all this week. There are always some quirks with Amazon, and international date lines, but it should be free by the time this posts.

This is actually my most reliable selling book. It only spiked once and that was a long time ago. It regularly sells a copy here and there, and folks seem to like it.

The dawning of the twentieth century was a strange time. There were unexplored areas of the world. There were wild Indians, places an outlaw could escape, and radar couldn't find ships at sea.

Steam power ruled the day, and the industrial revolution was in full swing. Europe was mostly ruled by monarchs, before World War One changed all of that.

The French wanted to build a canal across the isthmus of Panama in what was then Colombia. This was no light undertaking, and workers died in the thousands from diseases, and more than a few industrial accidents.

I put a lot of research into this one, and it's where I learned that a dose of reality helps sell the fantastic. There are period appropriate celebrity cameos, and with the exception of one, they were where the book represents when they appear in the story.

Ethan and Coop are old friends. They both served in different cavalry troops, because Coop is black. The black cavalry were called Buffalo Soldiers by the Indians. They wound up on San Juan Hill together in the Spanish American War. Both of them have experience with paranormal goings on, and that's why President Roosevelt approached them. There is something unspeakable going on at the canal construction zone.

I spent a considerable amount of time dealing with the prejudices of the era too. Coop's life and viewpoint are different than Ethan's.

Most of the construction workers were chasing fortune and glory. They came from all over the world in pursuit of high wages. I went out of my way to make my construction zone an international community.

The boys run into plenty of magical issues when they get there, and I tried to make that international too. You'll find a bit of witchcraft, some shamanism, and even some hoodoo along the way. The problem is all caused by a demon, but there is a power behind him that must be dealt with. Right in the middle of their project, the Panamanians decided to try for independence. This brings the Americans, the Panamanians, and the Colombians into some tense situations.

To make matters worse, there is a Carlist rebel who is trying to gain the former Spanish colonies back for his want-to-be king. The Carlist movement involved someone who arguably could have been king of Spain. This is called a pretender to the throne, and they still exist to this day. I know some of you get into this stuff, and you might appreciate the Wikipedia brief.

I stumbled across this post the other day, and saved the link for you. They are extracting an entire steam train from underneath Lake Gatun. This lake was created as part of the workings of the canal. The post I had went down last night, so I Googled another one for you. Check out French trains.

So there you have it; a strange mixture of the old world and the new. A strange mixture of cultures, and magic. If you're up to the task, grab your straw hat, holster your six shooter, and saddle up. This week the books are on me, and I hope you enjoy Panama.

 

Goodreads Book Giveaway: A Thousand Yesteryears by Mae Clair #mystery #suspense #Mothman

Hey gang, Mae Clair is releasing her book, A Thousand Yesteryears very soon. I've been excited about it for some time, because it includes the Mothman. Here is your chance to win a copy of the book by entering a Goodreads giveaway. I'll let Mae tell you about it. Just look at that wonderful cover.

A huge THANK YOU to Craig for allowing me blog space to share some exciting news. Kensington Publishing is doing a Goodreads Giveaway for a paperback copy of my upcoming release, A THOUSAND YESTERYEARS. There will be two—count ‘em two—winners. The giveaway is open now through February 29th (how cool, a leap year). If you’re interested, you can enter here: Goodreads Giveaway!

A THOUSAND YESTERYEARS is a tale of mystery and suspense centered around events that took place in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. You’ll discover a small river town plagued by tragic history and rumored sightings of the Mothman—a terrifying creature said to haunt an abandoned WWII munitions site.

The characters are everyday people facing extraordinary circumstances—secrets, betrayal, murder. I hope you find the blurb intriguing:

Behind a legend lies the truth…

As a child, Eve Parrish lost her father and her best friend, Maggie Flynn, in a tragic bridge collapse. Fifteen years later, she returns to Point Pleasant to settle her deceased aunt’s estate. Though much has changed about the once thriving river community, the ghost of tragedy still weighs heavily on the town, as do rumors and sightings of the Mothman, a local legend. When Eve uncovers startling information about her aunt’s death, that legend is in danger of becoming all too real…

Caden Flynn is one of the few lucky survivors of the bridge collapse, but blames himself for coercing his younger sister out that night. He’s carried that guilt for fifteen years, unaware of darker currents haunting the town. It isn’t long before Eve’s arrival unravels an old secret—one that places her and Caden in the crosshairs of a deadly killer…

~ooOOoo~

A THOUSAND YESTERYEARS releases on April 26th, but the ebook version is already available from Amazon and all other major book sellers. If you’d like to pre-order you can find a complete list of links here.

In the meantime, I invite you sign up for the paperback giveaway at Goodreads and tell your friends! The Mothman Cometh!

Author bio:

Mae Clair has been chasing myth, monsters and folklore through research and reading since she was a kid. In 2013 and 2015, she journeyed to West Virginia to learn more about the legendary Mothman, a creature who factors into her latest release.

Mae pens tales of mystery and suspense with a touch of romance. Married to her high school sweetheart, she lives in Pennsylvania and numbers cats, history and exploring old graveyards among her passions.

Look for Mae Clair at the following haunts:

Website

Blog

Twitter (@MaeClair1)

Google+

Facebook Author Page

Amazon Author Page

Goodreads

Pinterest

Newsletter Sign-Up

 

 

To give away, or not to give away…

That is the question, on my mind today. I’ve been seeing a lot of posts and articles around the internet about what to charge for our work, working for exposure, and holding giveaways.

The best one this week was from super-blogger Kristen Lamb. It addresses the idea that aggregators want our content, they make money on it, but we are expected to provide it for the exposure it brings. Everyone reads Kristen Lamb, but in case you missed it, this is the link.

I’ve written before about my experiences using Kindle Countdown Deals, and the free days I’m allowed under the KDP program. I was not, and am still not impressed. Once upon a time I held a free day for Panama. It went high enough up the charts to get into the high teens. (the free chart.)

I watched like a hawk. I never received a single review out of the hundreds of copies I moved.(Close to a thousand, actually.) I have a hunch that free was appealing, but actually reading the book wasn’t high on the list. The day after it went back available for purchase, sales were a flat line. Panama still sells to this day, but in drips and drabs.

Yet this is what we’re told to do to gain exposure. So what’s a writer to do?

I won’t do the free days any more. My books are pretty cheap as it is. You can’t buy a coffee in most shops for less than what I charge for a book.

I still give out free copies, but it’s on my terms. I’ve never refused someone who asked. I’m just not likely to give away electronic crates full of them any time soon.

I believe in providing free content, and do it in other ways. All of my writing cabin tales could be looked at as little free stories, even though they contain word metrics and other issues I’m dealing with as a writer. The most recent example was Lisa Burton blasting into space with her rocket-pack. (In celebration of finishing a short story involving that rocket-pack.) I also post some micro-fiction during October every year.

I haven’t gone down the path of creating a newsletter. If I did, I would certainly include some original micro-fiction. I just don’t want to force feed it to anyone. It’s here on the blog sometimes. You can check the categories in my sidebar if you need a fix. There’s even a vignette that led to my current effort, The Yak Guy Project. The Muse category holds all of my writing cabin posts. The Short Stories and Vignettes category has a few items too.

I also have the Lisa Burton paper dolls as a permanent feature. Print as many as you want. They aren’t fiction, but they are free.

As an ebook guy, I can’t do the Goodreads giveaways. I’ve never failed to participate in any RaffleCopter type project I’ve been invited to.

I’ve also written things upon request for other bloggers. This is more one-on-one, like asking for a copy of a book. The other blogger didn’t sell what I provided and offer me exposure. I like to think we both benefited from the shared effort.

Personally, I don’t think skipping the freebies is hurting me. Maybe one of you will convince me otherwise.

Right now, I’m of the mindset that marketing myself is just as important as marketing any single title I have. I have a few crazy ideas that I’m mulling over right now. If nothing else, they will be unique. Watch this space.

Let me hear from you. Have you benefited in any tangible way from making your books free? Did this bread cast upon the waters come back to you? Would you write something, then donate it to a “for profit” operation to gain exposure? (Not the same as donating to a charity.) Did you benefit from doing it in any measurable way?

Back-To-School Book & Blog Block Party

Today it’s my turn at the Rave Reviews Book Club’s big party. The party runs all through the month of September, and it features some cool prizes. One of the first things I’m supposed to post is whatever today’s prize is. I’ll do that, but first I want to tell you about this great club.

RRBC is made up of authors and readers. We support each other by helping spread the word about each other’s books. I’ve been the beneficiary of this support on several occasions. I was a Push Tuesday recipient. I was promoting Panama at the time, and my Twitter feed blew up before I even got out of bed. I entered a little friendly competition regarding blogging about the club and won that about six months later. My prize was a week long blog tour all set up by folks who know what they are doing. Last week I was selected as Member of the Week. It was good timing with my book release, and I doubt there’s anyone left on social media who hasn’t seen my cool cover.

I’m only giving away one prize today, but I think it’s a good one. I’ve already pre-paid for a one year membership to the Rave Reviews Book Club. I’d like to encourage folks to join, and this is my attempt. If you’re already a member, I’ll extend the winner’s membership for another year. You can check out the club at this link: RRBC. The way to enter is to leave a comment here today. Winners will be posted here tomorrow. I already won a free book, and they notified me by email too.

I’m supposed to tell readers about my wares today. I’ll just say that I write speculative fiction and leave it at that. There’s more info in my sidebar and on the ‘about me’ page. I want to have some fun at this party too. So here we go:

***

Dawn filtered through the trees just east of the writing cabin. I gathered up an armful of stuff from the refrigerator and shoved it into a cooler before dragging it into the paranormal office. Nothing too scary, a few shrunken heads and one old hand of glory.

I made sure the Will O’ the Wisp was safe in its bell jar before yelling up the stairs. “Lisa*, can you throw the Raven of Doubt in here too before we lock the door? I don’t want any of our visitors to walk away with a head full of doubts.”

Lisa and Doubt

“No problem, boss. Then I’ll set up that cask of Dwarven lager for your guests.”

“Oh my God, what are you wearing?”

“You said it was a party.”

“That’s more red carpet than what I had in mind.”

“Fine. I’ll change then. Maybe you prefer overalls and my straw hat.”

“There’s no time. Cars are coming up the driveway right now. Is my tie straight?”

“You look fine. Relax, the cabin’s nice this time of year. I haven’t seen a wolf since the migration last Spring. I even put all your carnivorous plants in the basement. You don’t want one belching in front of your friends.”

“Okay, you tend the bar, and try to stay out of trouble. I’ll mingle and have some fun today.”

“You need it. You’ve been wound up like an eight day clock.”

“What did you say?”

“I said, don’t forget to tell everyone about the free paper dolls at the top of the page.”

Good idea, the ‘Look Free Stuff’ tab. Okay, remember to smile. As my spokes model, we want people to like you.”

“Everyone likes me. It’s you I’m worried about.”

*Lisa Burton is the main character in my first novel. She’s a robot, and serves as my assistant out at the writing cabin these days. She’s also the official spokes model for Entertaining Stories.

***

I hope everyone enjoys my stop on the party tour. Have a beer, look around, click some book covers. Avoid the basement.

My new book, The Experimental Notebook of C. S. Boyack is on pre-order right now from Amazon. This is a book of short stories and micro-fiction. I’m only asking 99¢ and would really appreciate a few more early sales. Amazon will deliver your books tomorrow. (That’s why I picked today as my party stop.)

In October I’m running a blog series I call Macabre Macaroni. This involves me posting a new micro-fiction every week for the month. I’m asking folks to contribute artwork to display with the stories. The theme is Macabre Macaroni. I will include all of your links when I display the art. If I only get one, I’ll display it every week. If I get too many, I may have to do a separate art post to cover them all.

Note for Jason Zandry, kids can send in stuff too. The stories will be more Goosebumps than Stephen King.

Tacky stuff is welcome here too. If you want to send me a macabre picture you made by glueing dried macaroni to a board, I’ll display it. Maybe some of you have mad photoshop skills and can create a dish of maneating macaroni, send it over. Macaroni with tentacles or medical waste would be awesome. I’d love to see what you come up with. Let’s avoid anything that might be adult themed though, please. Artists are welcome to contact me at: Coldhand (dot) Boyack (at) gmail (dot) com.

Ya’ll come back now.

Update: To bring closure to the contest. The winner of the fully paid membership in Rave Reviews Book Club is Ali Isaac. Wonderful addition to our book club.

Day one of my big giveaway

Today is the first day of my three day book giveaway. This is the day to get Wild Concept free for 24 hours only.

Lisa Burton is a concept robot. Atlantic Robotics borrowed a page from Detroit and decided to make a showpiece robot. Lisa was designed to be as human as possible. She still has tons of whiz bang technology included though. This book explores prejudices from the point of view of the outsider. It still winds up being a science fiction adventure.

Here’s what people are saying:

 “Boyack has a character that has no backstory. There is no history to Lisa Burton, but Boyack takes this thing and breathes a fascinating life into it.”

“Enjoy and see how Lisa develops, roar with laughter, cry, shake your head, whenever it suits you. Lisa Burton is my favourite (book) character of the year 2014.”

“Boyack used great imagination with Lisa’s development and her personality leaped out of the book to me.”

 “This was a fun read and exciting adventure. It also offers some room for deep reflection on prejudice and what it means to be different. If you are looking for an entertaining read that will make you think about mankind’s journey beyond the natural, make you smile and make you cry, this is a neat little story to pick up.”

Give Wild Concept a chance today. It’s free for one day only, then it’s back to full price.

My free promotion theories

This is a reminder that my big promotion starts tomorrow. I’m biting my nails hoping I set it up correctly. There were no hours and minutes available. It will either last one whole day, or one whole second. My plan is for a whole day. (Fingers crossed.)

It is designed like this: I will give away a different book per day for three days. If you’ve been wanting to read one of these stories, now is the time to grab it. The adventurous among you are welcome to grab all of them.

Getting my name out there has always been a challenge. I’m a hardcore introvert, and talking about myself and peddling my product is difficult for me. I’m more at ease talking about your product.

A guy has to do something, and this is what I came up with:

Wild Concept is a bit of science fiction that stays close to home. It’s about an experimental robot who has been given emotions and feelings for the first time. Those of you who regularly read my blog know Lisa. This is Lisa’s story. It will be free tomorrow, December first.

Panama is set in the early 1900s during construction of the Panama Canal. Ethan and Coop are retired military men. Ethan was a Rough Rider and Coop was a Buffalo Soldier. One talks with ghosts and the other dabbles in magic. The president asks them to look into some mysterious disappearances at the construction zone. They are ill prepared for what they find. Panama wants independence, Colombia wants to keep them, there is a Spanish Carlist rebel planning a major invasion, plus the Spaniard is backed up by an army from hell itself. This one has been pulling in quite a few five star reviews. Panama is free on December second.

Arson is the story of Perry Wolfe. He is part of an elite group who fight fires in space. He loses his job to a freak accident and must rebuild his life. He goes to the ATF school to train as a federal arson investigator. While there he uncovers some clues to his sister’s murder and a corporate takeover using arson as leverage. This one is deeper science fiction, and has some sexual situations in it. Arson will be free on December third.

But Craig, don’t you have four books out? Yes I do. The Cock of the South is my first fantasy release. It involves fantasy races in a desperate bid to survive in a human dominated world.

Here’s how I envision this. They say no one will buy the cow if you give the milk away for free. I’ve always seen the world differently. Check this out:

Look! Four Spigots.

There are four nozzles on this thing, I have four books published. You can have the milk from three of the spigots, but have to pay for the fourth. That fourth spigot has some amazing milk too. Mmmm. Here, have a free glass and if you like it maybe you’ll want to try the special brand in tap number four.

I don’t know if there is any real value in seeing my name get popular for a few days. Amazon stats change fast, but if there is maybe my stock will rise.

Your free download helps me. Some of you have gone on record saying you’d rather buy the books, that an author deserves compensation. God bless you for that. Don’t feel bad about grabbing a free copy. It helps with my numbers just the same. This time of year brings its own financial crunch. Free reading has to be a bonus to everyone.

If you still want to buy them you can. The Cock of the South is still for sale, and each giveaway only lasts one day. Those of you using the lending library, or Kindle Unlimited can always read them for free. That way I get compensation and you spend nothing.

These titles are all ebook only. You will need a Kindle app. There is a link at the top of my sidebar where you can get one for every device imaginable, and the apps are free. Every self published author out there will thank you for trying a reading app.

These are the last free books from C. S. Boyack in 2014. Don’t miss out, get a free book starting tomorrow.