New Release!!

So, after way too much procrastination and foot dragging and other assorted delaying tactics, I have a new release.  Accomplice, which I know I've mentioned on the blog before (I have tags to prove it!) is up on Amazon.

It can be pre-ordered now, and will be released as an ebook on November 25th.

Here's the official verbiage:

All the new widow Jessica Kingsbury wants is a quiet new life away from the Hollywood spotlight that made her infamous. But the paparazzi aren't the only ones interested in dredging every sordid secret they can from her past. 

All FBI agent Noah Grayson wants is to uncover the mastermind of a blackmail plot that touches the nation's highest ranking politicians. All the clues lead straight to Jessica's late husband, who died under suspicious circumstances. Though his instincts tell him that that the beautiful model is no criminal, he can't help but wonder how much she knew about her dead husband's business dealings. 

Then a diamond necklace with ties to the blackmailer is stolen from the Kingsbury mansion, and Jessica begins receiving death threats. She must decide whether she can trust the handsome agent with her secrets and her life, not to mention her heart.

Missouri Sales Tax and Amazon Associates and Me

Last week I received a fun little notice from Amazon.com.  It reads:

Greetings from the Amazon Associates Program.

We are writing from the Amazon Associates Program to notify you that your Associates account will be closed and your Amazon Services LLC Associates Program Operating Agreement will be terminated effective August 27, 2013. This is a direct result of the unconstitutional Missouri state tax collection legislation passed by the state legislature and signed by Governor Nixon on July 5, 2013, with an effective date of August 28, 2013. As a result, we will no longer pay any advertising fees for customers referred to an Amazon Site after August 27 nor will we accept new applications for the Associates Program from Missouri residents.

Please be assured that all qualifying advertising fees earned prior to August 28, 2013 will be processed and paid in full in accordance with your regular advertising fee schedule. Based on your account closure date of August 27, 2013, any final payments will be paid by October 31, 2013.

While we oppose this unconstitutional state legislation, we strongly support the federal Marketplace Fairness Act now pending before Congress. Congressional legislation is the only way to create a simplified, constitutional framework to resolve interstate sales tax issues and it would allow us to re-open our Associates program to Missouri residents.

We thank you for being part of the Amazon Associates Program, and look forward to re-opening our program when Congress passes the Marketplace Fairness Act.


Sincerely,

The Amazon Associates Team

In case you've never noticed, or never cared, all of my book links and some of the ads that I keep on my blog (and all the booklinks I use on my author website) have my Amazon Associate id embedded in them.  It's a feature that ought to mean nothing to the few people who click on those links, but that adds up to a few cents here and there in my pocket.  Up until next week, if you click on one of my links and actually buy something, then Amazon pays me a small referral fee--a percentage of around 4%-7% (depending on what the link is and how many folks have bought stuff with my links recently)

It's not a lot. I'm not a high-traffic site.  I just don't get that many clicks or purchases.  But it's not nothing. 

So here's the deal as far as I understand it (keep in mind, I'm not a lawyer or tax expert or anything similar):  because I'm a resident of Missouri, if Amazon were to continue paying me advertising revenue on those clicks, then they would have to collect Missouri sales tax on all the items that get sold as a result of those clicks.  They don't want to do that.  Therefore they are yanking my Amazon Associates account (along with all the rest of Missouri resident accounts) and not allowing any other Show-Me's the opportunity to make a few bucks by referring folks to their site.

Joy.

I'm not really sure what to think. I'm not really mad at Amazon--they are clearly making a decision that is best for their business going forward.  I'm not entirely sure I understand all the ins and outs of sales tax calculations. I'm definitely not against sales taxes, so I'm not sure I'm mad at Missouri.  I live here and benefit from the services that all that tax money buys.

I am peeved that Missouri was already taxing my Amazon Associated referrals as income.  But since that wasn't enough, they also want to collect sales tax from Amazon because they see me as a physical presence where Amazon is doing business.  Or I was adding to their "nexus" helping bolster their bottom line.  I suppose in a very tiny way, I was helping bolster Amazon's bottom line. But moreso, I think I was addinag to my own bottom line, and helping to promote individual items that Amazon sells--aka books.  And I've long been peeved at the stupidly complex layers of sales taxes that states, municipalities, towns, taxing districts, etc apply.  Sheesh, come up with a singular number and go with it, people.  You shouldn't need degrees in math and law to understand a sales receipt.

Now the fun starts.  I'm pretty sure that my e-book of Call the Rain has a link to The Paris Affair (note how I'm not including links, LOL).  And my website and blogs are littered with my associates ID.  And Facebook. And who knows where else I've managed to post links.  I assume they'll still work with the associates account going away, but I have a few hours of cleanup to do.

Free Book for Mother's Day Weekend

Call the Rain will be free on May 11th and 12th!  Download! Read! (Maybe even rate it!).

Free on Kindle May 11 and 12, 2013

Release Day!

Pssst...did I mention I released another book?

This one is traditional fantasy with a (sweet) romance.  It's novella length, clocking in just over 30,000 words. So about a third of a full-length print book.

Yes, yes, I know. A little different than The Paris Affair.  If you've been around this blog a while, you're probably not surprised in the least. I'm a shameless genre hopper.*

Anywho, here's the cover, the blurb, and the link to buy on Kindle (hint: Prime members can borrow it for free!). 

Blurb:

The water beckons…

Illista and her sister fled their homeland when invaders killed their parents and tried to enslave the girls’ innate water magic. Now disguised as servile Waki, Illista serves the Segra people on the dusty high plains, far from the warm oceans of her childhood.

One night, lured by the siren song of the Segra’s sacred lake waters, Illista sheds her Waki disguise for a swim and becomes witness to a murder attempt on the Segra chief’s only son and heir.

War looms…

Joral’s marriage to the daughter of another tribe will seal the peace between the warring nations and strengthen both halves of the Segra people against invaders from the West. When he is poisoned and nearly drowned on the night of his betrothal, a mysterious sprite of a woman saves his life.
Was the attempt on his life the workings of a rival, or was it tied to the sudden arrival of Western mercenaries who seek the missing water witches?

A secret revealed…

When Joral discovers Illista’s secret, will he sacrifice her to secure peace for his people? Or will he follow his heart for the sake of a water sprite who may be the Segra’s only hope for restoring the rains to the drought-ridden land?

*FYI, I do have a follow-up or two to The Paris Affair in the works, including a holiday-themed short that is in work, and a sequel on the drafting board.  Did I mention genre-hopping? Because in the middle of the Paris sequels, I'm planning a little romantic suspense and maybe some sci fi.  And I have a sequel or three to Call the Rain also on the drafting board. It's a big board, ok?

The Business of Writing

Learning to run a writing business is fun in a totally geeky sort of way. Since getting The Call last September, I've dealt with contracts, promotion, taxes, accounting, graphic design, web design, networking....and a little writing also. Each new challenge is scary. Fun-scary. And I have no idea whether I'm doing anything right.

This is the second year that I have claimed writing expenses on our tax return, with no income to go with it :) My first royalty check from The Paris Affair is coming sometime later this winter or early spring. So, I got a nice little warning from TurboTax (our accountant of choice until taxes get too complicated) saying that our audit risk is high. Oops :)

One of my resolutions for this year is to be better organized about tracking income and expenses, so I bought a copy of Peachtree Accounting software. Before you jump on the bandwagon, I will warn you: for my purposes, so far I think it's like hiring a master carpenter to hang some pictures on the wall. Totally overkill as a spreadsheet would be sufficient. But, I found a 2010 version for under $5 on clearance, so the worst I've done is waste my time. And it has a ton of online help that walks you through accounting principles, so I think I"m actually getting a bit of an education. Not bad for the money :)

On the promotion front, I've been trying a variety of approaches while trying to stay in line with my projected income (aka: promoting on the cheap).  I've done a handful of blogs (here, on the Soul Mate Authors group, and a couple of guest blogs elsewhere). I've given away a couple of copies of my book. (I have a giveaway running this week over on the SMP Authors site). I've tried to be on twitter and facebook, but my playtime there has been limited by the day job (where I've been working longer hours than normal) and the night job (where my munchkins deserve better than to see me over the top of my phone or laptop screen).

Also for promotion, I am playing with online ads.  My web hosting service had a bunch of ad credits that I could use, so I've been playing with Facebook and Google ads. I might have Yahoo credit I could claim as well.  It's a bit difficult to see how useful the advertising really is. Authors get a small amount of visibility into Amazon rankings of their books, and my publisher can share stats if I ask. But though I am attempting a few tricks to track which clicks result in sales, I don't know if the ads are helping much. So far, I would bet that if I were paying the ad money out of my own pocket instead of a free promotional credit, that I would probably spend more than I am earning from it. I am treating this as on-the-job-training :)

For online ads, you can either use ugly-looking text-only ads, or come up with fancy-looking graphics. Hiring a graphic designer's not in the budget (though I know a couple of them who would be awesome), so I'm polishing up my Photoshop skills.  And contemplating making Romance Trading Cards.  A lot of authors I know also print bookmarks, and though I'd love to do that (I can never get enough bookmarks), they seem like a strange kind of promo item for a digital release. I might do them anyway, as time permits (maybe with a QR code with the digital buy link?) Hmmm...

The only bad part about all this is that I'm not spending a lot of time writing. My "season" is coming up, though. I typically pump out  a lot of words in November, and then again during Lent. No religious association here, but for some reason the mid Feb-mid April timeframe has worked well for me to really get writing. Late spring and summer have been good times for me to revise.

Links and Links to Links

There are a lot of social media sites these days. I am attempting to get set up on some of them as Writer-Kristi. I'm sure there are more, but here is my list so far:

Amazon Author Page
Goodreads
Facebook Page
Twitter

At some point, I should probably quit playing with websites and start writing again. Right?

The Paris Affair Now on Amazon Directly

The Paris Affair has been available from the publisher's website since Wednesday. From there, the "buy" links will download straight onto your Kindle or Nook (or allow you to save a file for loading separately, for folks like me who have non-wifi enabled e-reader...).

But as of this morning, my book is also for sale directly on Amazon's website! Discoverability is a good thing! The image below is the buy link.

B&N should be coming soon.

I'm not in it for the swords...

...but you could be.

The fabulous Jeannie Lin is giving away Butterfly Swords (the metal, weapon version) as part of her launch celebration to celebrate her debut book Butterfly Swords.

I mean, I could be in it for the swords. My husband would love them (I think they would go nicely with our collection of dragons, the katana, and my suit of armor).

I could be promoting because Jeannie is a friend and critique partner. And RWA chapter-mate. And natural born teacher and generous with her time (she presents talks at our chapter, is giving an online class on the RWA pro loop soon, talks at nationals).

But no, I'm promoting Butterfly Swords because it is an awesome book. I know this because I got to read a beta. (neener-neener) :) Seriously, its an awesome book.

Or, I could be in it for the swords.

In any case, go check out her beautiful website, her book trailer, read an excerpt and while you're at it, pre-order yourself a copy.

A Sci Fi/Romance giveaway

I'm all about reading up in in the genres that I'm writing. Over at Expanding Universe, they're giving away 36 copies of a 3-book e-book collection from Sharon Lee and Steve Miller called The Dragon Variation. If you're interested in Sci Fi Romance, go enter. My name's in the ring. And if I don't win, then their books are still in my TBR list.

The best kind of promotion

My friend and critique partner Amanda Berry is giving away a copy of her debut book, June Silhouette Special Edition LA Cinderella on her blog. Click on over and comment for a chance to win.

Here's the official blurb:

Career-driven accountant Natalie Collins wasn't the type to wish for a Hollywood hero to rescue her. She preferred life away from celebrity glitz. Too bad the man who drove her wild was an A-list actor.

With her understated beauty and brains, Natalie was the one person Chase Booker could trust. He could see the strong, sexy woman beneath her shy exterior, and she stirred a blinding passion in him that made it easy to forget that they were from different worlds. But when she was in his arms, their worlds were dangerously close to colliding….

I got to read a lot of this book while it was in progress, and it is funny, sexy, and charming, just like her Hollywood hottie hero Chase :)