Merch Girl is FREE July 25 – 29!

If you’ve been wanting to read Merch Girl and haven’t had a chance to download yet, do it now while it’s free!! As part of my Kindle Select subscription, I am able to give readers the chance to purchase my book for free for 5 days. So what are you waiting for? Download it here now through July 29:  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CN0HNQO/

 

About Merch Girl:

Seventeen-year-old Lacey Kind doesn’t have the guts to talk to cute boys, isn’t a size two, and would rather stay home and listen to music than go to a party. But in the summer before her first year of college, she ends up thousands of miles away from home, in the back of a tour bus, underneath the body of the hottest teen rockstar in the country.

When Lacey and her best friend Trina sneak into a Boston nightclub to see their favorite band, they not only get to watch their rock gods perform for the first time, but score a chance to meet the guys too. Lacey’s heart races as she comes face-to-face with her idol, nineteen-year-old lead singer, Logan Shire.

The girls charm their way into being hired to sell merchandise on Lansdowne’s first summer tour. As “merch girls” Lacey and Trina quickly find themselves transported from their ordinary, suburban life to an exhilarating few months on the road. But they soon realize that life on the road isn’t always a smooth ride…

Self Publishing – Lessons Learned Part 2

So, it’s been a little over 2 months since I self-published my debut Young Adult novel, Merch Girl on Amazon using their Kindle Direct Program. Here are some things I’ve learned along the way. To read Part 1 of my lessons learned about self publishing, click here. 

Categories Matter

Amazon gives you the option to choose two categories for your book. I chose Teen Romance and Coming of Age when I launched my book. I believe that I chose the correct categories, because Merch Girl cracked the Top 100 in the best sellers list, and even the Top 30 in the Hot New Releases lists in both categories. This helped with the visibility of the book tremendously. 

Sales May Drop After 1 Month

Because of the visibility on the Hot New Releases list, Merch Girl was purchased much more than I ever imagined it would be. However, after about a month, the purchases did drop slightly. I played with the categories a bit, and it seemed that the book was doing better in Teen Romance than in Coming of Age. So, I removed it from the latter and categorized it instead under Music since the book is about rockstars and concerts. The book actually placed in the Top 10 best sellers in the Popular Music and Pop Culture Categories immediately. Exciting, right? Yes, it was cool to be a best seller again, but I kept it in the category for about two weeks and realized that it wasn’t helping sales at all. In fact, i think they were slipping because of it (less visibility to the type of readers I was trying to attract). 

I decided today to add it back into the Coming of Age category and see how it goes. I’m also planning on using my “free days” that Kindle Select gives you for being exclusive with them for 90 days. I’ll report more on that experience after the free days are used!

Happy categorizing!

Bands to Watch – Before You Exit

I haven’t done one of these in a while, and it’s mainly because I haven’t found a band to blog about for quite some time! However, through the magic of Twitter, I stumbled upon a pretty cool up and coming band from Orlando called Before You Exit, or as their faithful fans refer to them, BYE.

They’re totally adorbz and their sound is poppy mixed with a little electro punk in the vein of Hot Chelle Rae and early Jonas Brothers. The band is made up of three brothers (similar to my fave band in the universe, Hanson) consisting of: Connor McDonough, 19, (Vocals/Guitar), Riley McDonough, 17, (Vocals), and Toby McDonough, 15, (Vocals/Synth/Guitar).

They are currently on tour with Cody Simpson and you can find more info on their website here: http://beforeyouexit.com/ 

Check out their video for the single I Like It Like That and let me know what you think!

 

And, if you’re a music lover and like to read, make sure to check out my Young Adult novel, Merch Girl, available on amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CN0HNQO

New Novel in the Works!

My brain never stops thinking up new manuscript ideas. I tend to base my books off of things that I’ve experienced or know about, ie., I was a merch girl and interned in the music industry which brought about the idea for Merch Girl, the novel.

My major in college was Public Relations and I ended up becoming a publicist after I graduated. I love my day job in publicity – it’s hard work, but it’s exciting and there’s never a dull moment. I once got to walk Miley Cyrus down the red carpet during a gala event…that was such a career highlight for me! We talked about our dogs and I introduced her to the media from People Magazine and Entertainment Tonight.

Anyway, this experience got me thinking… what would happen if a junior publicist was in charge of handling a Hollywood heart throb who was a notorious troublemaker/player/all around bad boy? Sounds like a great plot for a book, right?? 🙂 Well, that’s the premise of my New Adult work-in-progress. I don’t want to share any nitty gritty details yet, but it’s been a lot of fun writing this one. It’s much steamier than Merch Girl! The main characters are in their early 20’s so I feel like I can get away with being a little more graphic.

If you’d like to check out some photo inspiration for this novel, click the link to my Pinterest board here. You’ll see that I’m basing the lead guy off of someone who looks like Zac Efron or Louis Tomlinson….hot, right? 🙂 Can’t wait to share more with you guys in the future!!