Smugglers, Cheap Books & Movies

Tonight, I launch Book 4 in a fun series, Moody & The Ghost. It's about a blind paranormal investigator who can see in the presence of the ghost of a Spanish Sea Captain from the 1850's.
It's a love story entwined in supernatural occurrences, set among smuggling practices back then.

My readers love it and I wish I had tons of money to promote the series because I think women (and maybe men) need light-hearted, fun entertainment that challenges their minds.
Hoist the Jib has the investigator time traveling and although it was confusing to write the story, my early readers tell me it's not confusing as a reader. But then, I have intelligent beta readers. :)

Check out Hoist the Jib for only .99. I guarantee you will get a dollar's worth of entertainment from the story. If you want to start at the beginning of the series, where Bryndle Moody begins to cope with blindness from an accident and inherits a haunted house, read DEAD AHEAD. Then keep on going through the 99 cent books to Hoist the Jib which launches June 25th on Amazon only. I loved writing the book. Bryn is snarky, strong, funny, and easy to identify with.
Find the book on AMAZON here

In a moment of generosity, I lowered my book prices this weekend. For the first time EVER, Necessary Detour is under $2.99. For this week, it's only .99. This is the romantic suspense that has reached the top 5 in all Kindle and is my most successful book about a rock star hiding from a stalker at her lake house.

I lowered the price of The Dream Jumper's Promise, one of my favorite books ever written in it's complexity and love story. My agent wants me to push this book again seeing she's trying to sell it as a TV series. Yes, you heard me. She is trying to get the story on TV! It's been optioned for film but now we're wondering if it wouldn't make a better TV series.
All my books can be found on my Amazon page here:
 www.bit.ly/kimamzn

Speaking of movies, I'm headed to Spokane, WA. today to be an extra in a movie tomorrow. I really want to be on the set of this movie being produced by my agent and her company and really want to support this great project. The movie is called Home Sweet Home and is an Inspirational story about a young woman faking her faith to meet the head of a ministry who builds houses for deserving community members. The movie stars Natasha Bure and I believe will be on the air later this year. I'll report in on this blog in a few days with photos to show you my debut in the movie industry.

I promise to not be like Phil and Gloria in Modern Family in their stint as extras.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hqq_d8P-2rc

As far as I know, my  movie Christmas in Mistletoe Lodge is filming in Atlanta next month, but I'm so far out of the loop, I have no information on that yet. I'm still waiting to hear from the producers if they greenlit the movie yet. So, I'm going to another screenwriter's set to support her!

Have a great week everyone and I'll see you in the movies!

KIM HORNSBY is the bestselling Amazon Author of The Dream Jumper's Promise, Book    1 in a Supernatural Suspense series. She lives in the Seattle area and writes stories for       women about overcoming tragedy, adversity and coming out the other end.

Find her on Amazon Books.

www.twitter.com/kimhornsby
  www.facebook.com/kimhornsbyauthor

To Swag or Not Swag...

Are you an author or a reader?
Authors, do you take promo materials to conferences or book signings to give out and if so, what?
Readers, what do you like to secure at a reader conference?

I once made 400 DREAM necklaces to put in registration bags for the writers at a conference I attended. Sometimes I have book marks. I've used pens, recipe cards, even little chocolates with the book cover on the packaging. Who knows if anyone sees the promo and goes to the site to buy books BUT, if you can spare a hundred here and there, it never hurts to give out free stuff.

Book signing- with Author David Schoonover. I gave out chocolate!

Especially if you put your web site link on the material. Or, at least your name.
It's never a good idea to hand out freebies if the recipient can't remember who gave it to them. That makes pens a good idea because they are a useful item with room for lettering.  I have a purple sparkly pen from author Sabrina York and that thing travels all over the house, then to my purse, my car and back in to my office. That pen is a great example of money well spent.

My DREAM necklaces weren't a genius idea because they did not have my name of them, BUT, I had fun making them and packaging them with my name and info and liked the finished product. I got loads of tweets and posts in about them before they went in to the registrant's bags at InD'Scribe Con in California a few years ago. For the posts alone on social media, I'm glad I spent the money, even if no one ever thought afterwards, "This is a nice necklace that Kim Hornsby gave me. I think I'll buy her book about dream jumping."




I like recipe cards, maybe because I love to eat. I like to get recipe cards too. Unfortunately, my favorite recipe cards have what I like to call half-assed promo on the back. On these ones to the left, I did a wacky bad job of lining up my books and left off my web site! (Imagine me hitting my head with a one of my books.)

Postcards had web address on back!

When I go to a conference where I'm teaching a workshop called Channeling Your Inner Rock Star (confidence in public speaking) I like to bring mini guitar key chains. I wish I could tell you that they are inscribed with my web site link but they are not inscribable. I just like to hand them out and tell people that they are rock stars in their own show.

Swag, as promo material is called, is something that might not pay off, but then again, it might. Are you willing to take a financial risk and hope to sell some books? Maybe not get a return for your investment? Do you consider getting email addresses an ROI?

If you decide to buy bulk key chains, pens, bookmarks, or make stickers to put on stuff you hand out, just make sure your swag makes the recipient want to know more about you and your books and won't be finished off that night with no thought given to you or your books later.



KIM HORNSBY is the bestselling Amazon Author of The Dream Jumper's Promise, Book 1 in a Supernatural Suspense series. She lives in the Seattle area and writes stories for women about overcoming tragedy, adversity and coming out the other end.
Find her on Amazon Books.
www.twitter.com/kimhornsby
www.facebook.com/kimhornsbyauthor