An enigmatic woman, a determined spy, and a design that could shake the foundations of Europe...
"Heartless" Cordelia Bering refuses every marriage offer she receives. Yet men still try to win her, drawn by her sharp wit and intoxicating green eyes. But Cordelia knows a marriage could reveal her deepest secret and truly endanger her life. Besides, she hasn't met a man worth considering, until...
Sebastien Thorne, a spy in the service of the Crown. One of the elite agents in the group known as the Zodiac, he comes to London determined to solve a mystery with roots on the Continent. He won't let anything distract him. But is Cordelia a distraction, or the key to the mystery? As he learns more about the "heartless" woman, he becomes embroiled in secrets, plots, and a design that could change the future...and Cordelia is at the center of it all.
We try to bring you free ebook downloads everyday at eBookHounds. Here are a couple of highly rated ebooks, from the Paranormal Romance and Teen and Young Adult categories. Free today!
‘I walk toward the sea. The endless surface of the water extends to the horizon, whichever way I look.
Our world is small. We are on our own, and we only have ourselves to depend on. We rely on the Force deep within us, as taught to us by our forefathers.
If I were to walk westward from here, I would come across a barrier – the Wall. Behind it, there are Fools. At least, that’s what everyone says.
I have never seen one.’
Leia lives on the Island, a world in which children leave their parents to take care of themselves when they are ten years old. Across this Island runs a wall that no one has ever crossed. The Fools living behind it are not amenable to reason – they believe in illusions. That’s what The Book says, the only thing left to the Eastern Islanders by their ancestors.
But when a strange man washes ashore and Leia meets a Fool face to face, her life will never be the same. Is what she and her friends believe about the Island really true?
Belle Bittner was sold to the highest bidder when she was just a child, sought for the magic lying dormant in her blood. She grew up as the adopted daughter of a wealthy vampire couple, and serving the child-trafficking Org seemed her only option in life. But Belle has other plans, and she won’t let anyone get in the way of her escape, even if it means betraying those who try to help her.
Desperate to stay free of an evil vampire who means to possess her no matter what, Belle decides she can use the protection of the flirtatious faery named Roon. The two of them flee to the faery realm where Rooney believes he can better protect her. What he doesn’t know is that taking the beautiful siren through the golden door will set off a cataclysm of events that will threaten the fabric of both the human and the faery worlds.
Separating myth from fact to decipher the truth about her powers could mean the destruction of the new life Belle’s trying so hard to build.
There was a time, a long time ago (and yes, I’m using an old grandpa voice here) when giving away free ebooks resulted in a spectacular spike in your sales. Correspondingly, one made a whole bunch of money. In the grand scheme of things, this time lasted about as long as a butterfly’s sneeze. Amazon closed the “loophole,” dropped the value of a free ebook download, and ended the binge. Thus, began the bemoaning of authors--to no avail.
All is not lost, however. No, you cannot make a three month’s salary in a few days of a free ebook promotion. But, one of the things that we continually research is what our subscribers (who we call “pack members”) and more importantly, what our prospective pack members search for when they want a new ebook. Far and away, some of the most searched terms are for “free ebooks,” “free Kindle ebooks,” and variations of those with some of the most significant categories such as Contemporary Romance, Mysteries, and Thrillers.
Now, you may say that what people may be searching on the web is not necessarily relevant to you as an author. After all, you aren’t as focused on driving traffic to your website as we at eBookHounds are. You would be correct, in part. It may not be directly relevant, but it absolutely underscores where demand is in the market. Free still (and always will) draw people in.
That is a nice segue to another topic for this blog post. You aren’t using your free ebook promotion to have that ebook come out of the promotion and rocket up the sales charts at Amazon. That doesn’t happen anymore, even when you have tens of thousands of downloads. What you need to contemplate using that promotion for is getting your ebooks in front of thousands of readers. Thousands of readers that otherwise would never had heard of your work. It should also drive home the point that you need multiple ebooks, in multiple series, if you really want to start making money. The one hit wonder with a bestselling ebook that then prompts them to write more is almost like a black swan event. Don’t even consider something like that happening to you. Instead, focus your efforts on getting 3, 4, and 5 ebooks in a series. Then, you can capitalize on the number of products on your shelves with a free ebook promotion.
We’re always here to discuss what we find on the “backend” of our own research and promotions for free ebooks. Contact us anytime at admin@ebookhounds.com and we’ll be happy to share what we discover on a daily basis!
We're Saying It--Go Ahead, Judge Ebooks By Their Covers
The saying, "Never judge a book by its cover," is old and fanciful, but it is certainly not applicable from a practical standpoint anymore. Let's just consider the plethora of ebooks that exist on Amazon alone at this point. Over 500,000! Or, let's consider what have become microcosms for how people consume these days. The front page of most news websites have 25+ links to stories on them. Facebook is an endless stream of short consumption videos and posts. Social apps like Tinder literally rely only on pictures. You may not like it (we may not like it), but it's largely about snap judgments based upon visual asthetics.
In that environment, are you really going to skimp on your ebook cover?
All That Work, And You're Skimping On Your Cover?
You've just taken months if not years of your life to get a story down, to edit it exhaustively, to have an editor review it, to get beta readers to review it, to perform more edits, and finally to try to get it published or publish it yourself. And, it doesn't stop there, by any means. You have to market now, develop a presence on social media, and build your brand. Are you really (really, really) going to skimp on the ebook's cover?
We certainly don't mean to be insensitive to people that may not have the means to pay $300-$500 to have a top notch cover done, but consider these options. (1) Start putting $10 per paycheck away for your ebook cover as soon as you start writing. In twelve months, you'd have $240 saved, which is half if not most of what you would need. (2) Start a Kickstarter fundraising campaign. Your friends and family would be glad to donate $5 each to the campaign, and get something fun in return. (If you really need help with a fundraising campaign for an ebook cover, contact us and we will try to help by posting your campaign to social media).
Make Your Cover Stand Out
Your cover is the ONLY visual representation of the quality of your story that a reader will have. Based upon how webpages are laid out on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Kobo, the book cover is also the first thing your potential readers will see. Put it this way, if you were trying to secure a date or a relationship on a website like Match.com, would you put a bad profile picture up?
Make Sure Your Cover Artist Enjoys Your Genre
If you're a professional contemporary romance author, could you write a horror novel if someone paid you to do it? Probably. But, do you think you'd really use your skills and passion to create the best horror novel possible? Probably not. Even if you wanted to, it's outside of the scope of your interests and knowledge.
Same thing with a cover artist. Some have done hundreds of thriller or action and adventure covers. They know what details work. They know what fonts stand out to readers of that genre. Most importantly, they love working in that particular genre. That love translates to a stand out cover for you. So, make sure to ask a potential cover artist if they have experience working in your genre, and if it's something they really enjoy doing!
Wrapping It Up
The entire reason we started eBookHounds was because we want authors to succeed. And, not just a select group of authors--the widest swath of authors possible. To compete with any other author toe-to-toe for sales, however, means getting the best ebook cover possible. Good luck!
