Safe Harbor puts the bite on Dracula

Yesterday, I offered readers the opportunity to download Safe Harbor from Amazon onto their Kindles, tablets, iPhones, PCs and laptops — free of charge. It was my chance to introduce readers to a new novel by an unknown author and get them building the buzz.

I pulled out all the stops on social media. It was a wild and wonderful ride. I haven’t had so much fun since I ran a poll on this blog in November in which you selected Safe Harbor’s book cover.

The giveaway started at midnight. When I first checked Amazon’s Best Sellers’ Ranking in the middle of the morning, I was #3,707 in popularity in the entire Free Kindle Store, and #77 on the Free Suspense Best Seller list. Throughout the day, my ranking steadly went up. And when I called it a day after 11 p.m. EDT, Safe Harbor was #243 in the store, and #10 in Free Suspense. I was ahead of Tess Gerritsen’s Freaks at #25 and putting the bite on Stoker’s Dracula at #5. I was also #12 in the Thriller category.

And I had 781 downloads. That means 781 people had Safe Harbor in their hands last night.

Today is the last day of the free promo. At just before 10 a.m. EDT, Safe Harbor is now #217 in the Kindle Free Store, and holding at #10 in Free Suspense and #12 in Free Thriller. I’m aiming for the top place in Suspense and Thriller by the end of the day. And for the top 100 in the Free Kindle Store.

Now to knuckle down and make that happen.

#Dracula #RosemaryMcCracken #ImajinBooks #mystery #BramStoker #TessGerritsen #thriller #SafeHarbor #Kindle #Freaks #suspense #free

Tweethearts

Today I joined a writers’ tweet team, one of the latest ways of informing your circles about what’s hot and what’s not. I’ve heard that tweet teams can dramatically boost book sales because there’s great power in numbers.

After I posted my Tweets about Safe Harbor, I helped other writers promote their books by re-tweeting their messages about their author interviews, book sales, contests, freebies and giveaways.

I’ve heard complaints that all this is very time-consuming, but I didn’t find it overwhelming. You’re only on a team for a day at a time, and there were about 70 of us today. I sent out my RTs in two batches, one in the morning that took about 30 minutes and another in the late afternoon that took about 15 minutes because I’d got the hang of it by then. But I suppose if a lot more people get involved, it could get out of hand.

If you’re feeling really generous with your time, you can search on Twitter for #WLCAuthor, the hashtag all posts are required to have, and RT some there as well.

I came across a blog written by one of the writers on today’s team. He said he pays his 16-year-old son $20 a week to RT for him every day. All this writer has to do is compose and post his tweets. He even suggested that others hires his son to do their RTs.

Now, to see whether this team work produces results…

#RosemaryMcCracken #ImajinBooks #Twitter #womensleuths #tweetteams #SafeHarbor #mysteries

Yes, there are good financial advisors. Great ones, too!

When Safe Harbor made its debut as an ebook yesterday, I spread the word to a number of people in the financial services industry.

I’m impressed with a great many of them. They’re committed, caring people who help their clients realize their dreams. And they work in a challenging business. Investment markets can be murder these days.

They sparked the idea for Pat Tierney, the central character in Safe Harbor. She cares about her clients and gets a lot of satisfaction from helping them. She’s a champion of small investors and little guys in general.

So, yesterday, I emailed some of the financial professionals I know and told them about Safe Harbor. I wasn’t sure what their reaction would be. After all, reading about a character who does a job that’s similar to yours could be a busman’s holiday.

But the response was great. Just about all of them got back to me and wished me success with the novel. Many said they would download the ebook to their Kindles or iPads later in the day. Some said they’d hold off until the paperback comes out on April 15 because they prefer “old-fashioned books.” One wondered if the financial advisor in the book was the hero or the villain. I assured him that Pat Tierney was an advisor with integrity.

I like the people I’ve met in this industry. They have a great sense of humor and they’re people people. That’s because the work they do is based on building relationships with their clients, getting to know their needs and their goals, not just making their money grow.

Safe Harbor is, in part, a tribute to them.

#financialadvisor #ImajinBooksf #RosemaryMcCracken #SafeHarbor