Not So Sure About This....

Okay, I've got company on my Amazon page, since about a week ago. At first I thought it was pretty cool, but now I'm not so sure.... I feel like I'm at an author's signing, but I'm seated beside a seasoned bestselling author that everybody knows about, and unfortunately I'm the unknown newby.

Amazon has this program called "Better Together" which I actually considered purchasing to advertise my book, but it turned out to be quite expensive, and with no guarantee of sales. For that much money I figured I could do a lot of other types of advertising that might be more effective. What I didn't consider was that another author might decide on "togetherness" with me. To be honest, I doubt my new seat mate chose me, but Amazon did. This is a real compliment, for sure. Amazon saying that her new bestselling book (and she has several others) is comparable to mine and we should be paired is a good thing. Unless ... yes, unless those who clicked on my book with intentions to buy get distracted by her astounding sales and forget about my worthy well-written book trying to grab a bit of the spotlight.

I keep hoping that readers will do what I think they were supposed to do - buy both of our books. But since she appeared on the scene, my steadily increasing sales figures ... well ....

Hey, but she's a guest, and if nothing else I should at least try to see why Amazon chose to pair her with me. I may even have to buy one of her books, see if I agree. And good grief, she does have over twenty-two pages of listings on Google. (I stopped reading at that point.)

And no, I won't say who she is. You'll have to go on Amazon and check out my book site.... And while you're there, maybe you could buy my book. Or yeah, hers too if you must....

HER LAST LETTER - by Nancy C. Johnson (that's me)

I'm sure she's a very nice person.

P.S. If you would like to guess, her initials are C.G.

Update: I have a new author next to me now, Jan Coffey. And my former page partner was Cindy Gerard. :)

Visit my website to read a FREE EXCERPT of my mystery romantic-suspense novel, Her Last Letter.

http://www.nancy-cjohnson.com/

Books are available online at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and can be ordered through most bookstores.

About the Free EBooks

Someone from Edmonton, Alberta downloaded one of my free EBooks today. I have no idea where this person (whose name I will not mention, of course) found out about my free book offer. I know I didn't advertise in Alberta certainly....

When my website was designed, I had no idea I would be as curious as I am now to know details, but I would love to know the chain of events that led this person to find my site and decide to download my book. (If I had known how curious I would be, I would have included an area on the download page for adding this information. Of course, I could still change it.)

Several people (okay, ladies) downloaded my book in India too. I didn't advertise there either. I can only guess that somehow they found me on the web. But I would sure like to know how. Did someone just happen across my website, and then tell a few friends?

And many from the U.S. have downloaded my book ... in the north, south, east, and west. This I can sort of understand, as I did some target advertising in certain cities. But though I advertised in those certain cities, many books were downloaded in states I did not advertise in. Hmmm, how did that happen?

I guess I'll never know, and I guess it doesn't matter. I guess all I can do is keep trying to get the word out, and keep marveling each time someone from a distant city, perhaps on the other side of the world, finds my book....

Of course, if any of you happen to be reading this now, I hope you enjoyed the book!

And please, write and let me know how you found me! Nancy :)

Visit my website to read a FREE EXCERPT of my mystery romantic-suspense novel, Her Last Letter.

http://www.nancy-cjohnson.com/

Books are available online at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and can be ordered through most bookstores.

Already August

Summer is going by way too fast. Already it is August and I barely remember July. I am enjoying the new table and chairs out on the deck a lot though. I forgot how much I liked sitting there just outside the kitchen. For several years now since we threw out the old wooden table and bench seats (they rotted and fell apart) the deck has been devoid of a place to sit. I did use the set out on the lawn once in a while, but the mosquitoes would get me in the evening, and it was more of a production to go back and forth. With the table on the deck, I can run out for a few minutes and drink my coffee or tea, then run in again to do something else. It's more like an extension of the kitchen itself. It looks nice from the kitchen too ... kind of invites you to go outside and relax for a minute.

The relaxing part of my life seems to have disappeared lately. Now I have to spend time trying to get the word out about my book. Not that I mind that much. It's just new to me. I try to look at it as a challenge. It's just odd trying to promote my own work. Though I am confident that I wrote a good book, it's wierd to always be doing the "buy my book" or "read my book" thing. It feels so self oriented, and of course it is. It would be easier and far preferable to write books and leave the marketing to someone else, but if I want people to read my books, I can't take a backseat and hope someone else will do all the work for me. If I want people to find me, I have to do the uncomfortable thing and promote ... promote ... promote.

Among other things, I am planning to sign up with a company that does a heavy duty email campaign and use an ad I wrote recently. I hope it will encourage people to buy my book or to at least download the free e-book. It doesn't cost much and is "spamless." I won't be annoying a bunch of people who don't want to receive offers in their email. I'll give it a test run and see how it works. Fortunately, it's a month to month thing, so if I don't get results, I can easily cancel.

I have several other ideas too. I might try a few of those as well, if not now, after I see how this email blitz thing goes. I want to be able to know what works and what doesn't.

If anyone has any great marketing ideas for me, my ears are open. If you can't write me here, use the contact link on my website. I would appreciate any help you might offer.

Thanks, Nancy

Visit my website to read a FREE EXCERPT of my mystery romantic-suspense novel, Her Last Letter.

http://www.nancy-cjohnson.com/

Books are available online at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and can be ordered through most bookstores.

My Website is finally live!

Actually, my website was live a week ago, on July 11, my birthday. So, I had something to celebrate! It was a nice day for me too, met my sister for lunch in Birmingham at one of my favorite restaurants, and then we sat and talked for a couple hours, always fun. Our waiter was very nice, even gave us a great dessert free. I'm trying to think of the name of it, right on the tip of my tongue, a sort of soft sweet vanilla pudding with a thin crust and delicious strawberries on top of that. It was wonderful, full of calories I'm sure, but hey, it was my birthday. Then I had dinner out with family at another of my favorite restaurants, a chain, but still great. Unfortunately, they took my favorite entree off the menu, and that wasn't cool, but replaced it with a very similar dish, so I wasn't too disappointed.

So ... now if anyone wants my free E-Book or my Paperback or CD, they are easy to access. Someday I would love to offer an audio book too. I love audio books myself, especially if they are well done. I would make sure mine was of great quality when the time comes.

I have lots to do still, but don't feel as frantic as I've felt for the past year, trying to get mine and my daughter's website launched, plus finish my book and get that out. It's nice to slow down a tad, even though I know there is still lots to do. No one will buy my Paperback or download my E-Book if they don't know it exists. My placement on Amazon is pretty good, so I'm hoping people will be able to find me now. And I added "Search Inside the Book" also, so that they could read a bit of it. I always like to do that before I buy a book, read the first few pages, then flip through and read a few more. I also put a free ad on Craig's list yesterday, a local one. Then for fun, I tried to put a similar ad on Craig's list London, UK . It didn't take, but the local one didn't take either until I submitted it a second time, so I'll try to do that again today. It would be so cool if someone in London downloaded my E-Book, or bought my book on Amazon. I can't ship outside the U.S. from my website, too costly at this point, but Amazon can.

Well, I need to get going on my "to do" list for the day. Please take a look at my website and tell me what you think. You can leave comments on my contact page. I think you'll find the home page is especially cool. Nancy

Visit my website to read a FREE EXCERPT of my mystery romantic-suspense novel, Her Last Letter.

http://www.nancy-cjohnson.com/

Books are available online at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and can be ordered through most bookstores.

Sunday afternoon

It's Sunday afternoon and I plan to spend the rest of the day outside once I finish this post. It's going to be a short one as I don't really have much in the way of news today. I did talk to Ginger who is a great lady who offered to help me promote my new book, Her Last Letter, once my website goes live. She and her husband John floated over on their pontoon boat and stopped by and talked for a little while. The action is crazy out on the lake today, boats flying back and forth, and the water is a perfect temperature, cool but not too cool. I should go jump in the lake, or go float on a raft, or even take the kayak out. That's the great thing about living on a lake, you don't feel the need to head to the public parks, and people like to drop by and keep you company.

There is a nice breeze coming off the water, and we need that as the temps will reach the mid-nineties today. My daughter Angie and her fiance Marty are coming over, and we'll barbecue chicken etc. and just relax and enjoy. I do love summer!

I think my website will be completed this week, just a few little blips keeping it from going live, should be resolved soon. I can't wait! Nancy

Update - Website live as of July 11, 2007

Visit my website to read a FREE EXCERPT my mystery romantic-suspense novel, Her Last Letter.

http://www.nancy-cjohnson.com/

Books are available online at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and can be ordered through most bookstores.

Neglecting my riding and writing

Hello,
I've been neglecting both my bike riding and writing this blog, and actually I should start zeroing in on the topic for my next novel. I do this all the time though, and eventually I hit on an idea that sticks and it becomes my new book. So I'm not going to worry about it, and besides, I need to promote my current novel before moving on to something new. I've been pushing myself hard lately, working on the website particulars and a million other things, and that's why I decided it was time to do a ride with my fellow Wolverines (Michigan bicycle group).

So this morning I drove over to Beverly Hills (Michigan) and did 42 miles with the gang. I haven't been riding much compared to the kind of riding I've done every year for the past 15, so I was a little worried about keeping up. I know I'm not in shape, and that wouldn't be much of a problem except that everybody else is! I've probably done less than two hundred miles since spring, barely anything. Riders talk a lot about miles, how many miles they rode on a given day, how many for the season, how many for the year. Oddly, other riders are actually interested in this stuff, unless the rider in question goes on and on about it. Gives them a chance to mention their miles, for the day, for the season.... You get the idea.

Anyway, the flats were fairly easy and I kidded myself into thinking I was okay. We hit the first set of hills and I struggled, but didn't fall behind ... too much. We usually stop for coffee and a sweet roll midway, and I was fine until we were about two miles from the stop, then I bonked some and lost the group, but knew the rest of the way fortunately so it wasn't a problem.

But on the way back my lack of conditioning really began to show, and when we hit Kirk in the Hills, normally a fun set of ups and downs, I fell apart. I literally almost fell over I was going so slow on one hill. I lost the group again, but fortunately my friend Steve took pity on me (he knows I don't know the way back at all) and led me out. The group stopped and waited around the corner, which was nice of them. Steve and I would have missed them totally, but they yelled out to us and we were able to rejoin them. I plan not to let this happen again, and will keep a better riding schedule. I don't like it when people have to wait for me. Plus it's my fault, not theirs, that I haven't been riding. It's also a lot more fun to ride when you're in shape, less heavy breathing, cramping etc.

But I'm glad I went. I missed everybody, and it hasn't felt normal lately. I love to ride, especially with my group. It was a great day! Nancy

Update - Website live as of July 11, 2007

Visit my website to read a FREE EXCERPT of my mystery romantic-suspense novel, Her Last Letter.

http://www.nancy-cjohnson.com/

Books are available online at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and can be ordered through most bookstores.

I finally have High Speed Internet!

Hello everyone,
Yes, I know getting High Speed Internet isn't a really big deal to most people, but it is to me. I don't like to admit this to myself, or to anyone else for that matter, but I tend to make changes very slowly and only after much consideration. I am one of the least compulsive people I know! Dial up was just fine with me, and like those turtle people on t.v., the Slowskis, using a slow connection wasn't much of a problem for me at all. It was a problem for those who wanted to get a hold of me though. Since I'm on the Internet more than usual lately, my phone just rang and rang and rang ... no answering machine ... nothing. I never heard it, of course. Plus, I didn't miss getting any of the telemarketing calls (I mean, who would?) and I got a lot done because I wasn't interrupted. But I couldn't watch videos or listen to audios and it was very frustrating when something interesting presented itself. If you've never had dial up, you wouldn't be aware that audios and videos are impossible to listen to or watch. It's like trying to watch someone with the hiccups trying to talk!

The nice thing is that it isn't going to cost a lot more than we were paying before, and we get better t.v. programming too. We even get an assortment of free movies, some of them pretty decent.

My book, Her Last Letter, is available on Amazon now. And Angie and I uploaded the cover image recently and it looks really good! It's also available at barnesandnoble.com, but the cover image isn't up yet. We're planning to take care of that this weekend. My website is almost complete, just taking care of some shipping and handling details needed by PayPal. It's a lot more work than I thought it would be. I want to offer the most reasonable shipping possible, and also the quickest. I worked a lot on that the last few days, and I think I have it just about under control.

Well, it's late and I'm exhausted. So, I think I'll get to bed. Been on the computer too much tonight. Nancy

Update - Website live as of July 11, 2007

Visit my website to read a FREE EXCERPT of my mystery romantic-suspense novel, Her Last Letter.

http://www.nancy-cjohnson.com/

Books are available online at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and can be ordered through most bookstores.