'Tis the Season -- Holiday Books at their Finest!

I never really noticed a lot of "Christmas" books in past years. I've seen them before, yes, but this year, everywhere I turn there seems to be a Christmas book coming out!

It MIGHT be because my OWN first Christmas book means I'm paying more attention, but that's only a wild theory :-)

I thought I'd highlight some of the ones I'm seeing that look REALLY good and are definitely on my to-do list.

 

 

 

   

(uh, those last two were a little self-serving...I know!)

WRITING a holiday themed book was interesting. I had to get in the "Christmas" spirit in July, which was kinda funny since the hook of my book revolves around the heroine celebrating Christmas 365 days a year! It was, for me, a bit easier too, because part of the "theme" of the is pre-decided -- It's CHRISTMAS!

So what about you? Have you ever thought of writing a holiday themed book? Do you enjoy READING holiday themed books? Have your read any of the above books yet?? Any other christmas-themes novels/novellas you'd recommend?!?

I dunno, I'm just in the mood to chat CHRISTMAS today, so fa-la-la-la-la and ho-ho-ho!! 

*************************************************

Krista is a follower of Jesus, a wife, a mother, and author of Sandwich, With a Side of Romance, A Side of Faith and A Side of Hope. AND nnow the author of A (kinda) Country Christmas! She blogs about finding JOY in the journey of LIFE at http://www.kristaphillips.com. She is represented by Sarah Freese of Wordserve Literary.

What do authors REALLY do on release day?

This is a FUN week for me!! My FIRST ever boxed set released on Tuesday! I teamed up with 7 other authors to put together a Christmas set of novellas (I chatted about that trend in my last post!)

Release days are an interesting thing! There is SO much hype and emphasis going up to the day -- but what happens on the ACTUAL day?!?

I thought for fun, I'd ask a few published authors how they typically spend their release days!

My question:

What does your release day look like? Do you have a party, do you sit around in your pajamas and eat chocolate all day as a reward? Do you go out to a special celebratory dinner? Or do you spend all day on Facebook/twitter???

Answers: 

Kristy Cambron - Author of The Butterfly and the Violin - 
I don't check sales rankings that closely on launch day. I monitor regularly, but don't spend too much time watching. First book, I had to work 12 hours at my other job, so kind of lost that day. LOL! With my second book, I had an awards luncheon and spent time with friends at a coffee shop. Next book... Not sure! Guess I'll be wherever God wants me that day. It's a blessing of a day for sure and I love we get each one!

Carol Moncado - Author of Hand-Me-Down Princess
I obsessively check the KDP Dashboard while sitting around in my PJs pretending to work on the next book. Unless I'm at work. Then I'm dressed in nice jeans and a nice shirt and check as often as I can.

Janice Thompson - Author of Every Bride Needs a Groom
What she (Carol) said ^^^

(pretty sure Janice didn't think I'd use her ditto comment --- but little did she know.... :-) :-))

Pepper Basham (RESIDENT ALLEYCAT!) - Author of The Thornbearer
I work on release days HOWEVER, I make sure I am taken to my fav restaurant for dinner so I can have my fav meal and dessert (mass amounts of chocolate). I don't check sales that day much because I'm usually at work, but I celebrate with my AlleyCats - who also help promote the release and make me feel special!

Reba Stanley - Author of A Promise Kept
I exhale....then breathe in the air of sweet relief. And when that fifteen minutes is over, I am busy scheduling and marketing. I'm always looking for new ways and places to market my books.

Jody Hedlund - Author of Luther and Katharina
Release day is always a special day! On a personal level, it's the culmination of a lot of hard work, and I enjoy being able to have the moment of celebrating the accomplishment. But on another level the release day is a way to officially launch the book to readers and start lots of buzz about the book. So, while I don't have a party in literal sense, I do try celebrate online with my readers. Every release is a little different but usually involves giveaways and chatting with readers on Facebook. For example last week with the release of Luther and Katharina I did a giveaway each day on FB and had trivia questions about Katharina and graphics with Martin Luther quotes that readers could share. (I may or may not eat extra chocolate cake to celebrate too!)

For me?

Let's see. I spent this release day on Facebook WAY too much. I splurged and went and got me some lunch instead of eating a sandwich at home. (I KNOW! WILD GIRL!) I may-or-may-not have sneaked a few pieces of candy out of the for-halloween-only candy stash. I stressed a little too much so ended up with a headache and so--- TOOK A NAP --- on release day. I think that was God's way of trying to get me to give it to him.

Which was fantastic because when I woke up this morning I was greeted with THIS!

Yup. That little ol' novella collection made #1 best seller of Christian fiction collections on Amazon -- and in the top 500's of the OVERALL Kindle-paid list! My FIRST book to get that coveted little orange flag under its reviews and to break top 1000 on Kindle!

No clue how long it will stay that way.

But I'm calling this release day a rousing success and giving ALL thanks to God!

I'd LOVE for you to go check out the collection if you get a chance! It's only 99 cents!!

Let's Chat!!

PUBBED authors -- I'd love for you to share how YOU spend your release days!!!
PREPUBBED authors -- Close your eyes and imagine your PERFECT release day. Come on. I KNOW you wanna dream about it. What does it look like??

*************************************************

Krista is a follower of Jesus, a wife, a mother, and author of Sandwich, With a Side of Romance, A Side of Faith and A Side of Hope. She blogs about finding JOY in the journey of LIFE at http://www.kristaphillips.com. She is represented by Sarah Freese of Wordserve Literary.

A New Trend: INDIE BOX SETS

You all know me.

I'm Krista. Miss Trendy and hip, right?

(For those of you laughing hysterically -- I will get you back!)

I'm actually a little behind the times on this trend--like most other trends, but I digress.

In the Indie world, box sets of ebooks are a huge "thing" right now. Have you see them? They are these fun sets of oodles of books for one super low price of usually like 99 cents.

And my FIRST indie box set, a collection of NEW Christmas novellas titled Love's Gift, is available TODAY for preorder!! My book is the last one, A (kinda) Country Christmas!

I'd (sorta) LOVE for you to go check it out! It's only 99 cents and will also be available for FREE on Kindle Unlimited on its release date, October 19th, so if you're a subscriber of that, mark you calendar!

Since indie box sets are a newish thing, I thought I'd take a second to explain a little how it works.


TYPE OF SET

There are a ton of options when it comes to the set. You can do a LIMITED TIME set or a forever set. You can do a set with your own books, or one with fellow authors. You can box together new books or previously published books. You can do novels, novellas, or eshorts.

For the purpose of this post, we're talking about sets with fellow authors, because that's where the biggest benefit comes from (in my humble opinion.)

THE GOAL

The MAIN purpose of the box set is PROMOTION.

Yes, it'd be fabulous to make some money on the set. And many indie sets ARE making a decent chunk of change off them, even with splitting it many different ways. (In Love's Gift, there are 8 authors. For each 99 cent sale. The profit off that sale is about .35 cents. Split 8 ways.... that's a lot of books to sell!)

BUT!! We'll have EIGHT authors promoting with vengeance the same book. Eight authors with different platforms and reaches. That is 7 times the number of people, theoretically, that we could have reached on our own. (Obviously some have bigger platforms than other so that will vary.)

The exposure and platform building potential for this is quite big! A LOT of indie authors are reaping in the benefits of boxed sets, and many traditional authors are also joining the bandwagon as well!

THE MONEY STUFF

So how does it all work? Each set of authors will set it up a little differently. But basically, one author usually serves as the "publisher" of the book for the agreed upon timeframe. We use Amazon's KDP program to publish the book. I'm serving as the publisher for Love's Gift, so will be our accountant and will disburse funds as I receive them from Amazon. Expenses are split and/or paid out of profits. All authors are listed as authors in Amazon.

EDITING

Again, lots of leeway here. Our set decided to make each author in charge of having their own work edited, then before the set was finalized, each book was proofread by another member of the team to add another layer of quality assurance to our product!

We did the same with covers. Each author was responsible for their individual cover (because will also will be able to publish our works individually as well!) and then we worked on the overall cover design together! Many sets elect to hire an outside designer. Since there were quite a few cover-savvy people in our group, we did it ourselves to help keep costs down.

Want some other examples of some AMAZING indie author sets available?

Here are just a few!!!

*************************************************

Krista is a follower of Jesus, a wife, a mother, and author of  

Sandwich, With a Side of Romance,  
A Side of Faith
A Side of Hope.

A (kinda) Country Christmas -- Part of the Love's Gift Collection

She blogs about finding JOY in the journey of LIFE at http://www.kristaphillips.com. She is represented by Sarah Freese of Wordserve Literary.