Mistletoe, Stories & St. Jude's

The Holiday Season is upon us!
And that means lots of work for women who put together decorations, cookies, presents etc. What better way to relax and do something special for yourself than feeding your mind and heart with happily-ever-after Christmas stories? Get lost in a romance? Read a book that warms your heart?

Snuggle up by a fireplace with a mug of hot cocoa, burrow in to a mohair blanket and open this Christmas anthology by USA Today Bestselling and Award-Winning Authors.

My contribution to the anthology is Christmas in Crystal Creek, the story of a country singer trapped in a small town over Christmas who meets the town doctor and is convinced to give the ultimate Christmas gift to a child in need. The book was originally written as a screenplay to be considered as a Hallmark movie.

Every year I put together a box set for charity and this year, the anthology will be donating most of the proceeds to St. Jude Research Hospital where no child is denied treatment regardless of medical insurance. It's a wonderful cause and all ten of us are proud and excited to see how much money we raise for the hospital and research center. Aside from taking out the cost of advertising and the cover and other incidental expenses, everything goes to St. Jude's.

Every purchase is a donation.

99 cents for 10 Heartwarming Christmas Books

No Brainer

Get Your eBook Copy Here!

Amazon bit.ly/XmasAMZN

Nook bit.ly/XmasBarnes

iTunes bit.ly/XmasiTune

Kobo bit.ly/XmasKobo

KIM HORNSBY is an Amazon Bestselling Author best known for The Dream Jumper Series, which is optioned for film, with over 400 reviews on Amazon at 4.5 stars.
Sign up for her newsletter to keep posted on news and freebies and contests or follow her on Amazon.

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GET YOUR GHOST ON!

Fear of the unknown is a powerful emotion.
What's more unknown than paranormal? And that includes ghosts. Bwwwaaaaaa...
I'd like to say my new novel series is really spooky and scary but it's more suspenseful and amusing than filled with horror and fright. There will be spooky moments because it's about a woman inheriting a haunted house, but the book is also about her trying to cope with being newly blind and discovering her new life as a blind paranormal investigator.
As the title of the series mentions, there is a ghost and I'll let you figure out how that entity comes into her life and what that ghost does for her.

Find DEAD AHEAD on  AMAZON, 

                                                    NOOK, 

                                                                KOBO, 

                                                                           iTUNES 

                                                                                  and MORE.

Dead Ahead - Book 1, is a 3-hour read at 40,000 words (half a novel) and is on Presale now for only 99 cents. The book launches SEPT 6th.
I'm not sure if the price will go up but it won't go down. That I know. It's been read by my team of beta readers and typo hunters with great excitement. Everyone loves Bryndle Moody and can hardly wait for Book 2.

"Such a fun read! Can't wait for the rest of the books." Chetty M

"Oh Kim, I love this story and Bryn is awesome and the storyline is awesome I think that’s why I’m dying here cause I wanted more!!" - Donna B

"The book is wonderful! It is definitely going to be an interesting series and I look forward to it." - Lavisha P

"I have to say that I really enjoyed this and look forward to seeing what comes next!"  - Sandie K


If you like ghosts, mysteries, snark, paranormal, affordable books, humor with your mystery or just me, I can highly recommend you take a chance with DEAD AHEAD.

Here's a sneak peek of the first 2 pages to see if you like it:

Chapter 1

Five months ago, I was perfectly capable of more than descending a staircase on my own. I often took two stairs at a time.

These days, I must be helped down stairs by my younger cousin, Eve. Being dependent on someone else 24/7 was on my This Totally Sucks list, along with having someone buy my groceries and lead me to a car I can no longer drive. And, although this next one doesn’t keep me from functioning, I have a large cut on my face that’s “healing nicely,” according to the plastic surgeon. The wound I originally called "Frankenscar," runs from my cheek to my chin and is responsible for introducing me to scads of doctors and nurses at Seattle’s Swedish Hospital in the last few months.

There have been many adjustments since the accident, not the least of which was the loss of my soul mate, Harrison Moody. But, I can’t talk about Harry. Not yet. I’m trying to concentrate on the positive, as suggested by everyone who knows me. Including the woman helping me down the stairs, Evelyn Xio Primrose, a woman with whom I used to share that last name until I married Harry last year. Then I became a Moody.

My name is Bryndle Moody and I have a Youtube show called Moody Paranormal Investigations. Ghosts are my specialty. They love me. In the biz, I’m known as a medium, but I like the more badass term Ghost Hunter, even though my small team of investigators hunt to help ghosts, not annihilate them. I’m a bit of a celebrity in paranormal circles. At least I used to be.

I’m known to my Youtube followers as Moody, which is appropriate as I attempt to adjust to not only being a young widow but being as blind as a bat. This expression, I have recently found out, isn’t accurate. Bats are not blind. I looked it up online with the help of my vocal software that translates screen to audio.

As I walked to the car, on Eve’s arm, I thought how this day was getting stranger every hour. First, I woke to my mother, Rachel Primrose, calling my cell phone to say her neighbor and friend, Mrs. Giovanni had died mysteriously.

 “I watched the ambulance take her away just now. Horrible. She was such a good neighbor.”

My mother wanted me to come over to do a reading. “Why not let the police handle it?” I asked, knowing better than to engage with her but I was fuzzy from sleep and temporarily forgot her history of being a dangerously aggressive Budinski.

“They think she died in her sleep but that daughter of hers…”

“I’ll call you later,” I said, ending the call. My mother and I have a complicated relationship. That doesn’t stop her from calling me three times a day. Or me from hanging up on her at least twice. We have a strange dependency on each other.

Then, while I was walking from the houseboat to my car an hour ago, a crow landed on my shoulder. Eve screamed when she saw the big thing alight on me, but I happen to love crows. I once befriended one, who could say “Shut the god-damned door.” It flew away after a few days of hanging around my uncle Ogden’s house, where we lived temporarily. They are so incredibly smart. If my telepathy wasn’t dead-in-the-water right now, I might have known why this morning’s crow came to me. I’d often read my dog Hodor’s mind. But, I didn’t get anything from the crow except that it thought I was its private launch pad. I just stood very still, enjoying the moment with the weight of a large bird on my right shoulder until Eve shooed it away.

“Scram,” she said, after her little yelp to see a large black bird on me.

Eve is very protective, sometimes taking her job as my assistant a little too seriously. I later wished she’d gotten a photo of the crow sitting on the shoulder of my favorite pleather jacket. I choose to not wear real leather, but you can. I don’t judge. I eat hamburgers so go figure.

With social media such a big deal now, and me a business owner, I was constantly telling either Eve or my tech guy, Carlos, to take a picture for our Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter accounts. Today was no different except I was too thrilled to have the weight of a crow on my shoulder I didn’t dare say anything. You could say Moody Investigations is as big on social media as we are on ghosts. Youtube is our livelihood, our bread and butter.

On the drive to Seattle’s downtown, I wondered if the crow was Mrs. Giovanni, then realized that was not possible. It was a strange thought, even for someone who believed in some pretty wacky stuff.

The next unusual event occurred when we arrived at the lawyer’s office, were seated and were told that I’d inherited a house from someone I had no recollection of ever meeting. I’d previously been informed there was something left to me in this woman’s will and I’d thought maybe as a fan of the show she’d left me a weird statue or a favorite black cape. But the woman, Belinda McMahon, had left me a house. On a piece of property. In Oregon, which was the next state over. I didn’t know yet if the house was a dilapidated shed on a sliver of swampland but the fact that someone wanted me to have her house was both touching and mysterious. Unless the house came with a curse.

Unfortunately, the lawyer, a man named Sheldon Rinkle, (who Eve had secretly renamed Seldom Wrinkled,) knew nothing about the structure, only that I was the recipient of the house.

The deal was that if I accepted the house, I couldn’t sell it for five years. I immediately wondered how many years of upkeep I’d have to contribute to warrant inheriting real estate. And how much I’d need to spend on taxes. Then, Mr. Wrinkled told me five years’ worth of taxes and repairs had been factored in to an account his office was paid to manage.

Very mysterious.

Walking across the parking garage, I suggested Eve and I pretend to both be blind when we saw a car coming. “Keep your eyes open a little to tell me if they look horrified,” I said. But no cars approached, and I didn’t think Eve was totally on board with my little joke. Knowing her, she’d think it was unsafe for her to even partially close her eyes in a parking lot.

To Be Continued...

Find Moody & The Ghost - DEAD AHEAD on  AMAZON, 

                                                                                NOOK, 

                                                                                KOBO, 

                                                                                iTUNES 

                                                                                and MORE.

NECESSARY DETOUR is On Sale!

Amazon Encore, an Amazon Imprint, has put my book Necessary Detour on sale at 99cents!
Ever wonder what it feels like to be a celebrity rock star?

With 151 reviews at 4.6*****, this Romantic Suspense #1 Bestseller is a great bargain.

"Necessary Detour thrills with a rush of page-turning suspense and sexy twists!"
 ~ Ann Charles, USA Today Bestselling Author of the Deadwood Mystery Series


Here's the first few lines of the book to see if you connect with my writing style:

Click Here to Find the Novel on AMAZON  www.bit.ly/NecDet

Chapter 1

Goldy walked onstage to the thunderous screaming of the Los Angeles crowd. The explosion of applause inside the Staple Center was the tangible evidence of their love for her; love that had fueled her drive over the years to get to this point. Soon she would desert them.

      “Necessary Detour,” she mouthed off microphone, not waiting for Burn’s reaction. They hadn’t played the hit song since she and Burn vowed to never give it credit again. But tonight, it was the only appropriate song for their final encore. If someone was going to kill her, she’d damn well have the last word.

     Grabbing the downstage microphone, she scanned the front row of the Staple Center Arena. “You are insatiable!” she shouted to the 60,000 people who were on their feet, shouting for their beloved rock star to do one more song.

      “Necessary Detour!” Burn yelled to the band. “1,2,1,2,3.” The opening chords filled the cavernous arena and the crowd roared.

     Goldy wasn’t smiling as she strutted along the cat walk, spotlight in her eyes, staring out at the sea of pumping fists. “If you’re out there Shakespeare, this one is for you.”

     The intro played twice before Goldy jumped into the lyrics she’d written about her stalker who’d become known as ‘Yellow’ by the band – named from a fan’s feeble attempt to emulate Goldy’s platinum hair, kohled eyes, thigh high gold boots and signature arm cuffs. It was pitiful to watch Yellow let her fan worship overtake her and jeopardize her Goldy’s life.

     “You think you got me.

     You think we’re done.

     I’ve only started

     And it’s not fun.

     You make me see,

     The other side

     It’s not pretty

     But I’m not one to hide”

     At first it was amusing to see Yellow in the front row of Goldy concerts around the LA area. The band commented on how she must blow every paycheck on tickets. Then everything changed.

     After a show in Pasadena, Goldy was signing autographs for a group of fans when Yellow pushed her way to the front and flicked out a pen knife. In gushing adoration, she asked Goldy for an autograph in cuts on her scarred forearm. Two body guards reached to grab her but Goldy held them back with a single look, then took the penknife from Yellow’s hand and closed it. She girl was obviously high on something, rambling about how she’d never be complete without something permanent from Goldy.

     “I’ll sign your arm but with a marker.” Goldy’s voice was audible only to Yellow.

     “No. Cut me!” Tears streamed down the young girl’s pitiful face. Her eyes were as big as poker chips, her hair teased and wild.

     A bodyguard moved in to take the knife, lurking just between the two women, as if ready to spring.

     “What’s your name?” Goldy asked.

     “My name is Goldy.”

     “No, my name is Goldy. What’s your name?”

     Just as the bodyguard moved in to take the fan’s arm, her face changed frighteningly fast, as though rejection had arrived to take her under. Her gaze measured Dwayne, the towering guard, as if planning how to take him on. She spit a huge gob of saliva in Goldy’s face and made a record breaking exit, disappearing into the mass of fans. Dwayne radioed security but she was gone.

     “You say you love me

     But do you know

     That all you bring

     Is the need to have control

     I’m done with looking

     For your face

     You can stay down

     In your hiding place” 

     A warrant went out for Yellow’s arrest when she planted a bomb under Goldy’s tour bus. ‘Necessary Detour’ hit number one on the charts and shortly after, Yellow quietly slit her wrists in the front row of a Goldy concert and bled to death.

     The next few bookings were cancelled while Goldy questioned her own sense of morality. After a week of soul searching, America’s beloved rock icon dropped the song from her repertoire.

     One way or another, this would be the last time anyone would hear her sing these words.

     “I’m giving back

     The fear you want

     We’re ending this now,”

     Goldy’s voice rose with intensity as she jumped an octave.

     “It won’t be long….”

     Burn’s guitar screamed as he poured himself into a frenetic guitar solo.

     Prancing across the massive space that she’d owned for two decades, Goldy had to believe that Shakespeare wouldn’t take her out with a bullet. Shooting wasn’t his style. What had he meant in the last letter, saying he’d take her out at the end? Maybe it was written only to create false confidence.

     Goldy gestured to the crowd, not knowing if she was staring into the face of the demon. Tonight she dared any one of them to take her on.

     “It’s a necessary detour,

     No more spinning round,

     It’s a necessary detour

     Now you’re going down

     You shouldn’t have started this,

     I’m fighting back,

     Shouldn’t have taken on

     The qualities you lack,

     I’m here to warn you,

     You better give,

     If you don’t walk away

     You’re not gonna live

     To tell the tale of me,

     Because this detour’s…necessary”

 

     A dozen FBI agents peppered the audience, looking for anyone suspicious; anyone who looked like they might have written six months’ worth of heinous letters that threatened to torture Goldy with unimaginable creativity. Trickling acid along her face, then watching her melt was Shakespeare’s style--capture, torture, then relish in the hours, possibly days, that it took him to claim her life. That was his “fondest wish.”

     Burn’s ripping guitar wrapped up the instrumental, once again proving he was one of the world’s best guitarists. He’d been an unintentionally horrible husband – negligent and unfaithful. Everything they’d been through as a couple had been necessary to achieve this end result, though, and being Goldy had been a sweet ride for a very long time. Too long, in some ways.

     She moved to stage left where a stray bullet wouldn’t hit anyone else. If Shakespeare chose to break character she sure as hell didn’t want an innocent to suffer. With one verse left, Goldy pulled the microphone away from her lips to make a powerful run to the end and, as she did, a shot of electricity domino’ed from her hand, along her arm and hit her torso like a jack hammer. The pain was formidable. Goldy’s brain got the message and her hand flew open to drop the microphone on the stage floor. Her first thought was to finish the song. Get the last line beyond her lips. Pretend nothing is wrong.

     As she ran to Burn’s microphone, she was acutely aware of the other one lying behind her on the stage like the pariah it now was. Soon the FBI would be all over the stage, if they weren’t already running toward her. Goldy noticed Agent Gateman waving frantically from his post offstage, two seconds from shutting everything down.

     She shook her head and him, her steely gaze telling him to wait. Her left arm hung limp as she picked Burn’s microphone off the stand with her right hand. The band continued on like the pros they were and, hearing the approaching notes, she took a deep breath.

     “It’s a Necessary Detour,

     You gotta know

     It’s a Necessary Detour

     This detour’s ……..Necessary!”

      Goldy’s punched the air with her good arm, positioned her legs wide apart with her head tilted back. This had always been her trademark pose. It punctuated the final moment of any concert. The band laid their instruments on the stage and came out from behind, clapping with the audience in their adoration of Goldy.

     With the emotion of the moment and the pain in her arm, she fought tears. Moving upstage to the edge, she held her arms out to receive their love, then brought the microphone in to her words. Her arm still worked, it just felt strange, weakened. “Goodnight everyone!” she shouted above the din. “I – HAVE – LOVED – YOU!” Gold confetti rained over the masses and as always in the final moments of her concert, Goldy reached to get something from a security man and spun a gold Frisbee into the crowd. A disc that contained a voucher for a family vacation in Hawaii.

     Applause filled the arena’s rafters. “Goldy! Goldy! Goldy!”

     The rock star waved one last time to the people who’d been her reason for almost everything in the last twenty years and then turned to leave the party while she was still having fun. Cradling her arm, Goldy ran offstage and was immediately flanked by two paramedics who caught her just before her multi-million dollar backside hit the floor in a faint.

CHECK IT OUT! 99 Cents!

    www.bit.ly/NecDet

ENJOY, my friends!

Kim 

Christmas Entertainment for Women!

I believe in entertainment.


When the world looks grim, having something to laugh at and enjoy, is worthy and necessary. I used to sing for a living. That felt like I was giving people a moment of pleasure, maybe even helping some forget their troubles for a brief time. Now I write novels. My audience can be entertained whenever it suits them, not having to come to a show of mine.

For years, I haven't admitted that I write romance novels. And some would say my books are light on the romance. I don't write formulaic romance where the hero is introduced on page 3 and the first kiss happens by page 10, etc. I write stories where the romance creeps in, almost organically.

I recently spoke at Bouchercon -- The World Mystery Conference -- on a panel about Romantic Suspense and when questioned why I write this genre, I said that love makes the world go round and I think if you are compelled to write suspense, having a romance in the story balances things out so the only message is not "Watch Out--the World is a dangerous place!" but something more hopeful.

I want women to know that the world is full of love too. And not just romantic love but familial love, neighborly love, even stranger love. I don't mean a one night stand either. Yesterday I had a conversation with a stranger where we found common ground and exchanged information that may make life better for a family member of mine. It was ten minutes of sharing information, out of nowhere, in which both the stranger and I ended tearing up. These moments are everywhere when you remain open to listening and taking time.
For that reason, I write a romantic story line in every book. No woman in need of good love is left behind. She gets her happily ever after when I'm in charge. And there are no shades of grey in my books, just plain grey. And no hiding behind fetishes and calling it love. No degrading college girls with light torture. I want my readers to feel pampered, lovely, not frightened. I want to show empowerment and possibilities.

I decided this autumn to compile a group of 12 happy, holiday romances to sell at rock bottom price, everywhere. I wanted to offer something fun and satisfying this year. We need it, Ladies. It's been a stressful year as a nation, as caregivers and as women.
On November 14th, we launch that set of 12 novellas (shorter than a novel and longer than a short story) but if you want to make sure you get your set now, feel free to go to the site where you buy ebooks and reserve your copy. It'll be auto-delivered to your inbox on the morning of the 14th and then you can start reading. And being entertained.
Our catch phrase has been "Fall in Love this Christmas"
Links at the bottom for sites like Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

I wrote a brand new novella with never-before seen main characters but borrowed Pepper from my Dream Jumper series as a best friend. My holiday romance is set on Maui and occurs during the evacuation of a community in the path of approaching lava from Kilauea's volcano. Two people end up on Maui at a mutual friend's house for Christmas and find themselves perfectly matched.

I like to write about people who've hit bottom and are trying to pick themselves up to make something of their lives.

Here's a sneak peak from the center of my novella, Maui Kalikimaka:

 ****

He’d just slipped in to the steamy water of the outdoor hot tub when Lena came around the corner in a turquoise one-piece swim suit. Even though Lena probably looked great in a bikini, she looked breathtakingly beautiful walking across the deck to the hot tub in a one-piece suit. Kalani was a sucker for long legs. She’d pinned her long hair up and carried a towel at her side and walked like a model on a runway. He had to stop himself from whistling. That would have been the old Kalani, the one who used alcohol for bravery, like a shield. The new Kalani realized he didn’t have the right to openly judge a woman’s physical appearance with his cat calls and whistles. Still, he greatly admired Lena’s physical appearance.

She didn’t make eye contact with him but slipped quietly into the steamy water. Even though the outside temperature was the low-seventies, the hot water was a nice contrast and judging from Lena’s sigh as she sank into the bubbling water, she thought so too.

“Are you one of those people that like to go from the hot tub to the pool?” He tried to not stare at her look of sheer relaxation and pleasure.

“Probably not,” she smiled. “I haven’t had enough to drink for that.” Lena looked over to him. “I’m not sure if that kind of humor is distasteful to a recovering alcoholic. I’m sorry.”

The world was so full of references to drinking alcohol, Kalani hadn’t really noticed. “Not to me. I only know that I can’t drink alcohol any more, but, like a lot of alcoholics, I have no problem with other people drinking.”

“Was it hard to give it up?” Lena swept the water back and forth in little waves towards her chest, sending ripples over the tops of her breasts.

“Yes, and no. By the time I realized that I was on a destructive path and had lost some very important people in my life, I’d hit rock bottom.” He remembered the morning he woke in a strange tourist woman’s bed at a Kona coast hotel, with no recollection of how he got there, or where his dog was. The feeling of having hit an emotional brick wall, told him he’d gone as low as he ever wanted to go. “Drinking was slowly ruining my chances for having a great life and if I wanted to make something of myself, it would have to be without alcohol. I went cold turkey, started going to meetings, and haven’t had a drop since that day. It happened two days after I told you I was hot stuff in bed, if you need a reference.”

Lena smile at him kindly. “I knew you’d had a lot to drink that night we met, but I still found something about you that was sweet.”

Their eyes locked and then Lena looked away.

*****

I wrote Kalani as a recovering alcoholic because it's a theme of interest to me and shows great strength by overcoming an addiction. Strangely, a review on our Amazon site asks what this author (me) actually knows about alcoholism. I was married to an alcoholic, my two best friends are in the program and family members go to regular meetings. I think I have a pretty good understanding of the disease.









If you're reading this and would like to experience that feeling of falling in love at Christmas, you'll get a copy of Romancing the Holidays. I hope you feel thoroughly entertained and pampered when you read these stories!

12 Novels, 13 Bestselling Authors, plus Christmas Recipes

A portion of the proceeds goes to the Breast Cancer Research Fund

Here's where to find the Box Set of Novels - Romancing the Holidays

KOBO

Nook 

Amazon

Apple 

Happy Holidays, Everyone!

KIM HORNSBY is an Amazon #1 Bestselling Author who lives in Seattle, writing Suspense and Romance. Find her on Amazon to see how she opened shows for Jamie Foxx and The Smother's Brothers in Hawaii, then became a novelist.

Sign up for Kim's Newsletter to get info on FREE books, new book launches and Kim News!

www.bit.ly/KimHNews

Box Sets - Hitting the USA TODAY Bestseller List!

Is it better to say 'box set' or 'boxed set' ? because these are the things that keep me up at night while I worry about my boxy set that's for sale on Amazon.
Last week we hit 269 in Paid Amazon Books, which our group thought was GREAT and we're still at #1 for Mystery Anthologies even though we are pushing 2,000 ten days later in Amazon books.

Here's the story of a bunch of authors who came together to rival the big romance names for a few days.
Passion & Danger

Originally posted in May 2015

The only thing that the Tant Ten authors had in common back in March was me. I emailed a bunch of authors I like who might want to give me their first in a series book to practically give away to gain readers and possibly hit the USA Today List. All of the authors wrote suspenseful stories with romance. Some were straight Romantic Suspense, some were police procedural with elements of romance. Miraculously, nine of them did give me their books and I got busy making a box set with the theme Passion & Danger in common.
We're still waiting to see the USA TODAY Bestselling list this week but I'm not holding my breath. We didn't even come close to the success of a Contemporary Romance box set or the Erotic box sets that released the same week. (Only the Contemporary one listed, as it turned out.)

Here's a list of some things I believe I did wrong, followed by what I did right, keeping in mind that I'm not a well-known romance author, don't have a huge following in Romance, and am a confused publisher at best.

* I assembled writers who turn out quality work-- first requirement. Most of us are not necessarily the most prolific romance authors but writers with great storylines, characters and something to offer. I'm kidding about doing this wrong.
* I didn't know as much about publishing on sites other than Amazon as I should have
* My enthusiasm and confidence superseded my knowledge of this game
* I didn't ask each author for $100 for promo, I was just amazed that 9 authors said yes!
* I did not employ a promo company to do all the ads and marketing
* I should have set up more marketing during the 5 weeks of presales
* I used Smashwords for those sites that Draft 2 Digital didn't have (but I had to)
* I fumbled around on Google Play, trying to understand how to publish
* We went for 'James Bond' classy and used a 1/4 naked man on the cover, not 1/2 naked
* Major promo stopped after the first week of release
* I didn't play up the Sizzling, Sexy, Hotness angle -- that seems to sell books like crazy these days
* I assumed we'd hit the USA TODAY Bestseller List
* Not sure if this hurt us or not but we have books from Sweet to Sizzling, Humorous to Thriller
* I Should have approached other box set authors about Cross Promo earlier
* Many of us don't have newsletters or large email lists and that would have been helpful
* With more money, we could have gone to RT in Dallas to promote (The conference was on opening weekend for us--built in hundreds of sales!)
* We did not have a Facebook Release Party with prizes, and that might have been a mistake
* I should have included the cost of the cover in with the initial group funds, not taken it out of our first paycheck.
* I should have tried to publish to Smashwords Premium Catalogue 3 months before release to allow for all the problems and hold up.
* We should have published two weeks earlier and missed competing with 2 other blockbuster box sets.
*We offered books in the set that had been out for years, not new material
* We did not focus on Nook, Apple, Google, Kobo etc and might have lost sales there.
* We could have done blog tours to get the word out but didn't tap that as much as we could've

We might have used a photo like this instead, eliminating the woman, showing a full chest and suggesting more heat in the set.

What I believe we did right

* I chose authors who would really care if they hit the USA Today list, not those already on it. Hunger is a big motivator.
* We attached not one, but two worthy charities to the sale of books
* I got a USA TODAY Bestselling author Alexa Grace to do this with us
* I scored Toby Neal, not a romance author per say, with a huge following!
* I assembled a group of wonderful, diverse novels all with the common theme of Passion & Danger
* We used a wonderful cover artist The Killion Group to do the cover
* The cover turned out beautifully. Hairy vs Slick, Shiny Chest? Not sure
* With our limited budget of $300 we chose our ads carefully according to most bang for buck (list of sites next week's blog)
* We chose categories and key words strategically on publishing sites
* I got Amazon to price match because we had a large file with photos and wanted .99
* I used Draft 2 Digital for everything I could, not Smashwords
* On Author Central I played with description and Editorial Reviews sections to get larger print and I listed book descriptions here
* We printed postcards and chocolate coins to give out at RT (they arrived too late)
* We eventually set our sights on having fun with this, not worrying about listing
* We created a Google document for texts, FB posts, ad information etc
* We made a private FB page where we could talk, rather than emails
* We gave ourselves a cute name :)
* Everyone contributed in different ways-- some with marketing, some with editing, some with formatting, some with making ads, a book trailer, teasers!
* Everyone pitched in $43 for ads
* As the publisher/marketer I dropped everything for 2 weeks and sat at the computer obsessively watching sales and tweeting. I stopped writing and promo'ing my singles and sales suffered there but I believed in the long-term effects of this set for all of us.
* We eventually got a few reviews up there. Phew!
* I tried to model our page after one that was preselling like CRAZY! Even though it had all NY Times Bestselling Authors.
* After release, we contacted authors from the other box sets with crossover readership and tweeted for them.
* We launched on a Sunday, which I l believed was the USA Today List first day to count sales (it's a bit of a mystery)
* I made a trailer, which probably helped sales 

www.bit.ly/TantTen

                                                               Passion & Danger

I'm still not sure why our readers bought the other box sets and very few of their readers bought ours. Maybe because we weren't represented at RT, maybe because we aren't NY Times Bestselling Authors, maybe we missed some list or something, but that still baffles me. The first week we did not get their readers, but they got ours. Hmmm???

We went in to Launch Day with 600 presales on Amazon to dump on the first day. After the first week, we'd hit #1 on Mystery Anthologies, which looks good to have that badge at the bottom, and had 2,000 sales from all sites. The set reached 269 on Amazon books and held below 500 for most of that first week. At 2,000 sales we fell short of our 7,000 sale goal to hit the USA Today list, but we felt like with all the box sets out there this week, that was pretty dang good. There were some VERY heavy hitters in our genre! And some single titles/ single authors in Anthologies which is unfair.

For a bunch of non New York Times bestselling authors offering books that had been around the block more than once, I realized that we did GREAT!
Put some PASSION&DANGER into ur Life! http://amzn.com/B00VZ8XL48 10 books for #99cents Bestselling authors! #indieauthors RT pls

Using what I learned, I'm thinking of doing a box set of new novellas if someone doesn't ask me to be in their set before then.
Hey, if no one invites you to the party, have your own party, right?

Update: December 2015
We did not list, made some money and were able to donate over $1,000 to the Foundation for Thymic Cancer and the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. For us, that made everything worth it. I put in about 200 hours on this project and don't regret a minute of it.

No one asked me to join a box set, so I published another one late November. This time, I assembled Suspense Holiday-themed novellas, which isn't an easy thing to sell. Suspense doesn't thrive at Christmas BUT Criminal Christmas is doing really well in sales. We keep just inside the top 100 Holiday Kindle category and figure we're gaining new readers. As the publisher, I did not go full out for hitting a list. If I ever do a box set again (and I'm really too burned out to do that as the publisher!) I will definitely take a cut of the profits as the publisher or ask for scads of money up front. It's sooo time consuming.
Criminal Christmas is a set of 8 stories, 6 Novellas (4 BRAND NEW!) 1 Short Story, and 1 Full Novel. Only .99 and the set features Alexa Grace, Ann Charles, Misty Evans, Adrienne Giordano, Jacki Delecki, Lori Leger, Alicia Dean, Amara Draska and me, Kim Hornsby.

Criminal Christmas Available at Amazon Kindle

Kim Hornsby is the Bestselling Author of THE DREAM JUMPER'S PROMISE and NECESSARY DETOUR. Her books are mostly available at Amazon because she believes in shopping local.
www.kimhornsbyauthor.net
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USA Today Bestselling Author Goal!

Box Sets and Hitting Bestseller Lists!

Box Sets are the new Biggest Thing! And you know why an author would offer a book that took her 2 years of her life to write for only 10 cents? To hit the USA Today Bestselling List. Or any other list would be nice too.
That's the main reason authors are banding together in bunches of 10 to offer a book, but the other reason is almost as good--To cross market with other authors, gain readership through them, and get people hooked on their series by offering the first book virtually free.

I'm no different. I saw the Box Set train leaving the station and jumped on board!

KOBO

https://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/passion-danger

Barnes & Noble
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1121719397?ean=2940152175356

Amazon
Available on Most other ebook etailers!

Two months ago I researched these anthologies on Amazon, read blogs on them, studied covers, titles, and talked to authors who are already involved in a box set. I already was a year behind, seeing I wanted to get in a set last year this time. Feeling behind in anything always drives me to maniacal productivity.

I contacted a bunch of authors, whose books I loved reading, whose writing I respect greatly, and who write in a slightly similar genre as me. While waiting for these authors to think about my proposition I worked on a title.
In terms of search engines, I decided on the title Passion & Danger, having seen a lot of romance books starting with the word Passionate and knowing we would pop up in a reader's search. All the books I planned to have in the set had these two aspects in common. Passion and danger.
I was turned down by a few authors who either couldn't give me the temporary publishing rights, didn't have anything that wasn't already in a set, or didn't see themselves fitting in with the group. I appealed to my chosen few writers by asking them if they wanted to become a USA Today Bestselling Author. If they did, here is my plan. (insert my email here.)
Only one of us holds the title of USA TODAY Bestselling Author and she said yes even though her book has thousands of reviews on Amazon and might not need to join us for any particular reason.

Alexa Grace is a superstar of Romantic Suspense but also savvy enough to know that you can always reach more readers through cross networking. We had our star author for the first book!

Toby Neal is a marketing wizard, prolific author and writes fabulous, gritty crime/romance set in Hawaii. I was amazed and thrilled she said yes. Her Lei Crime Series is so popular, she has her own Kindle World! What?

Kristine Cayne has won so many awards in Romance and Suspense, that I can't list them all here. She's a top author at Amazon and her willingness to join us was another coup. Yowza!

Dana Delamar, another bestselling author, agreed to get on board with her awesome novel, which is book 1 in her bestselling series. Love her writing! And she agreed to help us with marketing, something she does as a sideline, along with editing.

Alicia Dean who was my editor for two books and writes multi-genre. She also writes for Kindle World and heads up Authors Helping Authors and many marketing groups. She is a go-getter! Alicia let us have her gorgeous novel that weaves in a paranormal aspect. Wow!

Then I asked Pat White, the Harlequin Intrigue author who got me into this kooky business in the first place and she gave us her fun romantic suspense. I read it years ago and laughed all the way through. We had our first humorous mystery. I couldn't believe my luck.

Diana Layne had huge success with book 1 and 2 in her Mafia series and was ready to release book 3. Luckily she saw this as a good way to market and we got book 1 for the set. It's a Bestseller with about 500 reviews and is a Golden Heart Finalist. Ca Ching!

Bestselling author and Louisiana writer, Lori Leger, was convinced to lend us one of her many novels and willingly offered to do the formatting, something I didn't want to take on (even if I could) and didn't exactly want to pay hundreds for someone else to take on. I loved this love affair and all the Louisiana/Cajun spice in all her books.

My critique partner, Christine M. Fairchild, is ready to release the much-anticipated Book 2 of The Goliath Conspiracy Series and let us have Book 1--An enormous Bestseller! Suddenly I had her kick-ass thriller to complete the set and I was doing the happy dance all over my house.

Add in my Award-Winning, Best-Selling Romantic Suspense, the first in the Dream Jumper series and we had ten tantalizing books of Passion & Danger.

Everyone began with a check of their formatting while I hunted for a cover photo. We had a huge decision to make that most women never give much thought to.

Hairy chest or clean-shaven chest??? This question occupied our emails and my mind for about two weeks while I polled women. I'd found an awesome photo that depicted our theme but the cover model had a hairy chest. Dare we?
In the end we decided on the picture of  gorgeous cover model, Harvey Stables with a sultry blonde, Amber, and had The Killion Group go to work on our cover.
Note: We needed a flat version too because of Apple and they supplied all the sizes and versions when it was done! See below.

We decided on a marketing budget, put money in the pot, and set to work figuring out what sites gave us the most bang for our buck.
Lori began formatting, careful to keep the file as small as possible because of Kindle's 3 KB rule for .99 books. We really wanted to offer this for .99 and as I type this I'm still not sure if we'll be able to reduce the file from 3.5 to 3. All photos of our covers had to go as well as back matter, front matter and such. Poor Lori. She was able to keep the file large for Draft 2 Digital, a new uploading service similar to Smashwords because they can take a huge file. They will also do all the converting for you and even will set everything up for CreateSpace, if you like. Having box sets in print is completely ludicrous because they'd have to cost over $100. but it's nice to know for single books.
We set a publishing date for May 17 and have given ourselves over a month to gain all the presales we can in that month. We anticipate a nice dump of sales on that day, chosen specifically because USA Today begins their weekly count on Sundays.

As I learn more about this process, I will let you know in installments, publishing along the way about the journey to USA Today Bestselling Status. One thing I learned that was disappointing is that another box set comprised of List Authors is releasing the day after us, hoping for NY Times Bestselling status. (They start their count on a Monday). We are not so lofty in our goal--USA Today is good for now.
 We have marketing set up that includes lots of sites that will advertise our book, although BookBub does not take multi-author box sets yet. We went with My Romance Reads, ENT and Kindle Books and Tips for the big ones and Awesome Gang, Indie Author News, Book Soda, Genre Pulse, EBook Booster, Choosy Bookworm and others.

 


If you're reading this, please consider buying our presale for your own enjoyment, as well as helping us realize our Indie Dream. Here's the current links with more to come:

KOBO

https://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/passion-danger

Barnes & Noble
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1121719397?ean=2940152175356

Amazon
bit.ly/10for99c

And here's a photo of very embarrassed me with Harvey Stables at a Romance conference. :) Everyone lined up to pose with the generous and polite Harvey.
More later...


Kim Hornsby is an Amazon Bestselling Author of Suspense and welcomes comments to this blog.