I'm so excited to announce that The Breeders will be included in a new dystopian box set. The books included are awesome. Check them out. All for a crazy low price. Read below for an awesome giveaway.

Read these bestselling tales of survival against the odds, dark worlds, dystopian regimes and heroic rebels.

Shattered Worlds features six full-length novels from bestselling authors. Immerse yourself in post-apocalyptic civilizations and bleak near-futures where hope still lives.

The Books:

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Elle Casey – Apocalypsis Book 1: Kahayatle

My name’s Bryn Mathis. I’m seventeen years old, and I live in a neighborhood outside of Orlando, Florida. I live alone because my dad died almost a year ago, along with all the other adults in the world. I’m almost out of food and the gangs of kids that roam around my town are getting more vicious by the day.

It’s time for me to leave and find another place to live … a place where I can find food and shelter … a place where they won’t be able to find me.

Alone, it might have been possible; but now I’ve got company. I’m worried that I don’t have what it takes to get from here to my final destination.

And I have no idea what might be waiting for me when I get there.

Shalini Boland – Outside

A post-apocalyptic romance thriller.

The world of the future is divided by Perimeters: high-security gated communities where life goes on as normal. If you’re inside you’re lucky, if you’re outside life expectancy takes a nose dive.

Riley is fortunate to have been born on the right side of the fence. But her life of privilege comes crashing down when someone breaks through the Perimeter and murders her sister. She forsakes her own safety to go in search of the killer. Luc decides to go with her otherwise she’ll be dead before she’s past the security gate. But what awaits her outside is more unbelievable than she ever expected.

Cut to the present day where Eleanor’s world is falling apart. This time next year, civilisation won’t be quite so civilised . . .

Zoe Cannon – The Torturer’s Daughter

When her best friend Heather calls in the middle of the night, Becca Dalcourt assumes it’s the usual drama. Wrong. Heather’s parents have been arrested as dissidents – and Becca’s mother, the dystopian regime’s most infamous torturer, has already executed them for their crimes against the state.

To stop Heather from getting herself killed trying to prove her parents’ innocence, Becca hunts for proof of their guilt. She doesn’t expect to find evidence that leaves her questioning everything she thought she knew about the dissidents… and about her mother.

When she risks her life to save a dissident, she learns her mother isn’t the only one with secrets – and the plot she uncovers will threaten the lives of the people she loves most. For Becca, it’s no longer just a choice between risking execution and ignoring the regime’s crimes; she has to decide whose life to save and whose to sacrifice.

It’s easy to be a hero when you can save the world, but what about when all you can do is choose how you live in it? An Amazon dystopian bestseller, The Torturer’s Daughter is a story about ordinary life amidst the realities of living under an oppressive regime… and the extraordinary courage it takes to do what’s right in a world gone wrong.

Scott Cramer – Night of the Purple Moon

Abby, 13, is looking forward to watching the moon turn purple, unaware that deadly bacteria from a passing comet will soon kill off older teens and adults. She must help her brother and baby sister survive in this new world, but all the while she has a ticking time bomb inside of her–adolescence.


Sarah Dalton – The Blemished

A beautiful world comes at a price…

In a world filled with stunning clones Mina Hart is Blemished. Her genes are worthless and that takes away her rights: her right to an Education, her right to a normal life and her right to have a child.

Mina keeps a dangerous secret which she never thought she could share until she meets Angela on her first day at St Jude’s School. But their friendship is soon complicated by Angela’s adoptive brother Daniel. Mina finds herself drawn to his mysterious powers and impulsive nature. Then there is the gorgeous clone Sebastian who Mina is forbidden from even speaking to…

The Blemished is a frightening take on a fractured future where the Genetic Enhancement Ministry have taken control of Britain. It will take you on a ride filled with adventure, romance and rebellion.

Book one in the popular YA dystopia series ‘Blemished’.

No matter how you slice it, book launches are hard. There's no easy way to do it, but there are several steps that can make the process bearable and make you, the happy author, contented to just pop the bubbly when the happy day arrives. Below is the list of eleven things I did before my book launch. It is hard to say what any one thing would have done by itself, but as a joint effort, my book, The Believers, was able to make it into the #1000s on Amazon rankings and my first book, The Breeders made it to #500. Pretty successful in my mind. 

Things I did before book launch:

1) Set up a BookBub promo .99 cent for my first book. Book Bub is a very popular subscription service. For a fee they push your book out to tens of thousands of subscribers. Plan at least a month ahead and be prepare for rejection. My other book was denied because it was a relatively new title and I am a relatively unknown author. (I was super lucky and got this approved the day after my release. ) On another note, I used a Kindle Countdown Deal for The Breeders which let me keep 70% of the royalties instead of 35%. Since I sold almost 800 books in four days that is a huge savings. I highly recommend using Kindle Countdown Deal. 

2) Contacted all my blogger friends and awesome book people to ask for blog space. I send out one contact email to all the people who I know might want to help. I keep a running list all year long of who those people are so I don't have to scramble when release time comes. Book bloggers are awesome and so are all my other indie author friends. You have to be willing to reciprocate when they have their launches, but I love helping all my indie friends. 

3) Posted first chapter on my website. I did this two weeks beforehand. I also did a cover reveal about a month or two before. Countdown posts on social media with the release date in them were scheduled about once a week. 

4) Did a pre-email to my newsletter group letting them know when the book would release. I have about 200 on my newsletter list. Not a ton, but a good start and all of them have asked to be notified so they are likely to be some of the first to buy. 

5) Did a follow up email to my newsletter group on the day of the release. Just as a gentle reminder. I kept it light and short. I was releasing on Black Friday and knew some of the turkey hangovers and shopping sleep deprivation could cause them to forget. 

6) Did several posts via Facebook and Twitter announcing the release date. 

7) Set up a paid review tour for January. I am doing this through Kismet Tours who did a great job with The Breeders book tour. I wish they could've fit me in before the release date but alas. Always plan way ahead.

8) Sent out ARCs to reviewers who were asking for them. My book blogger fans are some of the best people in the world and I love them. 

9) Joined an author co-op with some awesome ladies of Indie Speculative YA. More to come on this. 

10) Did a giveaway of signed copies on my website. Hopefully you entered. Hopefully you won. If not, stay tuned for more swag and prizes. 

11) Paid for a Facebook Ad on my release day so that all my Facebook fans and their friends would see the post. Everyone wants to know, right?

There you have it. My framework for a release. I did these things in stages and had everything ready to go so all I had to do on release day was spread the word and check my stats. I've done three book launches so far, but I am sure there are some of you more seasoned than I. I'd love to hear from you. Sound off below. 

As you may know, book marketing is a regular topic on my blog. I've been guerrilla marketing my books for a year now and have tried many strategies. To learn about other tips you can try part 1,  part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7 and part 8 at each respective link. 

As I am sure you are aware, Google AdWords is quite the behemoth when it comes to advertising these days. Pay-per-click advertising is being used by shoe stores, plumbers  and psychologists all over the world. Business owners sign up, customize an ad, and target it to customers based on very specific criteria. In twenty-five characters or less, you construct a sales pitch and link it to your website or include a phone number. Viola, you'll be racking in the cashola. Or so you hope.

With Google's monster reach and seemingly endless stores of data, you can see how powerful this might be. But, could it work for books? How do you par down a 90k novel into a twenty-five character blurb? Do people who click on Google Ads then go on to buy books? I had thought no, but then I read an article discussing a man who makes a living helping people use Google AdWords to sell novels. (I link to him only to illustrate that he exists. I did not work with him, nor am I endorsing his services in any way.) So, I thought I'd do my own little experiment to see if I was missing the bright glittery Google boat. 

Step One: I read up on Google AdWords. Here are some websites that I found helpful: Newbies Guide, The Savy Book Marketer. I had some prior knowledge from when I'd used this service for another business, but I felt very confused about many aspects of AdWords. Let me be clear, this system is not for the technologically challenged. There are all kinds of tools and buttons that made me feel like I was back in my college level statistics again. Right off the bat I was inundated and overwhelmed. Since I have minimal time for marketing, I did not spend countless hour researching. This may be my biggest downfall when dealing with Google AdWords and may also explain why there are people paying others to help them create ads. 

Step Two: I wrote my ad. I did some research on keywords and use their handy-dandy keyword planner. This is a cool tool that lets you know which keywords are searched most often. So instead of "novel" you might choose "fiction" in your ad. This is helpful and I wish I'd had more time to play around with the keywords. That being said I wrote my ad. Here it is. 

• Fast-paced Dystopia Novel
• amazon.com/Breeders-Series
• 121 five star reviews. Only $2.99
• "Absolutely devoured this book!"

Then I gave it a $25 budget and sent my little ad baby into the world. 

The Results: In seven days my $25 budget had been spent. Each click cost me between $0.39 and $2.89. Now, remember I only make $2 if I sell a book. If an ad costs me more than I get in sales revenue, that is a problem. In hindsight, I think I need to make my budget less than 3 dollars a day. You live and you learn, I guess, but this isn't play money I'm messing with. This is my hard earned cash (and, people, boot season is fast upon us and Mama needs a new pair of shoes). All joking aside, my ad seemed to work and was clicked on. My sales saw no boost that week. I actually sold about six books less that week than any other week that month. My budget limited my exposure, but again, I am not able to spend endless amounts of cash on a strategy that hasn't really proven will pay the bills. If I spent more time and energy learning the ins and outs of Google, I might make more money. Then again I might not make any. If someone clicks, Google takes my cash regardless if I make a sale or not. 

The Conclusion: I am really not convinced Google AdWords can sell books. If you have A LOT of time to research this very complicated tool, it MIGHT be worth something. Then again, you'll never really know how much it sells because all you know is they clicked on the ad. There's nothing to tell you if they bought your book. 

So, what about you? Any luck with Google AdWords? Sound off below.

Today I'm happy to host fellow indie writer and all around person extraordinaire Megan Thomason to my blog. Megan is revealing the cover to her book arbitrate, the thrilling sequel to daynight. Here's the blurb to pique your interest. 


Remember The Second Chance Institute (SCI). Earth's benevolent non-profit by day, Thera's totalitarian regime by night. They’ve stepped up their game on Earth and on Thera—infiltrating political parties, preying on the downtrodden, and planning offensive maneuvers. And they’re handing out more “second chances” than ever before. The SCI’s abuse of their charter leads to Arbiter oversight and bitter consequences.

Remember Kira Donovan. Broken, burdened, and evading those who wish her harm, Kira enlists the Arbiters’ help when forced to return to the clutches of the SCI and her angry, estranged love.

Remember Blake Sundry. Exiled, determined, and packing an agenda, Blake seeks assistance on Earth and Thera to use his newfound knowledge to bring down the SCI.

Remember Ethan Darcton. Overworked, emotional, and holding a grudge, Ethan hunts down his stolen property, but finds himself in awkward territory, stuck between the Arbiters and the SCI.

Full of action, competing agendas, romantic entanglements, humor, twists and turns, arbitrate is Megan Thomason's third installment in the award-winning daynight series after daynight and clean slate complex (a daynight story).

Praise for daynight:

2012 Book of the Year Award Finalist-Young Adult Fiction, ForeWord Reviews

"Sure to win over YA readers looking for a dangerous, dystopian adventure story" --Kirkus Reviews

"Gripping young adult dystopian novel; compelling conflicts; high stakes; powerful narrative; surprises keep coming; strong writing; page-turner; engaging characters; Readers will be hungry for the sequels.”--BlueInk Review (starred review)

 Author bio:
Bestselling, award-winning author Megan Thomason lives in paradise aka San Diego, CA with her husband and five children. A former software manager, Megan vastly prefers writing twisted tales to business, product, and marketing plans. When she isn't typing away on her laptop, she's reading books on her phone--over 600 in the last year--or attending to the needs of her family. Megan's fluent in sarcasm, could potentially benefit from a 12-step program for road rage, struggles with a Hot Tamales addiction, loves world travel & fast cars and hates paperwork & being an insomniac.

Amazon link for daynight, Facebook, Twitter,  Goodreads 

Readers, I'm so excited to finally share with you the project I've been working on. It's called Darkest Worlds: A Dystopian Anthology and it's just what it sounds like, a kick-butt compilation of six novellas from today's top indie dystopian authors (I know, how did I get in there, right?). The anthology rocks, but the best part of it all is being able to work with some really top-notch authors. I've carved out a special place in my heart for these five fantastic ladies and you will too. The anthology will drop mid-September for a killer price and here's the best part: all proceeds go to a charity helping grow literacy in inner city youth called Girls Write Now. 

Here's the blurb to get you interested and stay tuned for release information.

Nessa: A Breeders Story by Katie French, author of The Breeders: Eighteen-year-old Nessa knows what it’s like to be an endangered species. Growing up in a dying world where nine out of ten babies are born male, she survives by trusting no one. When Marlin, the nineteen-year-old gunslinger, kills the man who has been keeping her enslaved, Nessa decides he might be her meal ticket. What she doesn’t realize is love is still possible, even in their decimated world.

MOON by S.K. Falls, author of World of Shell and Bone: Loyalty. Obedience. Patriotism. Moon Stewart has no doubt that the New Amanian way of life is the right way. The only way. But was there ever a time when she felt differently? In this companion novella to the dystopian bestseller World of Shell and Bone, the secrets of Moon’s past are revealed, giving readers a glimpse into the mind of their favorite antagonist.

The First Unforgivable Thing by Zoe Cannon, author of The Torturer’s Daughter: When a dissident working undercover as an interrogator finds himself in an interrogation room with the only girl he’s ever loved, he chooses to defy both the totalitarian regime and the resistance by helping her escape—but she has an agenda of her own…

The Keeper by A.G. Henley, author of The Scourge: a finalist for the Next Generation Indie Book Award. Peree knows his duty as the new Keeper of the Water Bearer, Fennel, is to make sure his people get every drop of their share of the water she collects when the flesh-eating Scourge roam the forest. He will motivate her, distract her, do anything he can to keep her working. He knows his duty is to his people and his people alone. What he doesn’t know is that he’s falling in love with her.

Survival Lessons by Kate Avery Ellison, author of Frost: A young Farther prisoner named Eva escapes into the monster-filled wilderness of the Frost with a band of fellow inmates, all of whom are harboring secrets…but little do they know that Eva has secrets of her own. Set in the world of The Frost Chronicles.

clean slate complex by Megan Thomason, author of the daynight series: Homeless Alexa Knight agrees to help the do-gooder non-profit The Second Chance Institute in return for medical care for her sick mother. The SCI is wooing the poor and downtrodden into their Clean Slate Complexes–where “everything is provided” from jobs to food, shelter, clothing, and education. Unfortunately, as with all things that sound too good to be true, there’s a catch…


Katie French
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Katie-French/192856087473564
Twitter: https://twitter.com/katielfrench
Blog: http://www.katiefrenchbooks.com

S.K. Falls
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/skfallssc
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skfallssc

Zoe Cannon
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ZoeCannonAuthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/cannonzoe
Blog: http://www.zoecannon.com

A.G. Henley
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorAGHenley
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AG_Henley
Blog: http://www.aghenley.com

Kate Avery Ellison
Blog: http://thesouthernscrawl.blogspot.com/p/the-frost-chronicles.html
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Katiewriting

Megan Thomason
facebook: www.facebook.com/daynight.series
Twitter: twitter.com/megan_thomason
Blog: www.meganthomason.com

Girls Write Now
http://www.girlswritenow.org
The Girls Write Now mission is to provide guidance, support, and opportunities for at-risk and underserved girls from New York City’s public high schools to develop their creative, independent voices, explore careers in professional writing, and learn how to make healthy school, career and life choices.

It's officially been a year since I released The Breeders. It's been an amazing ride and I am so happy I've gotten to share my dream with the world. To celebrate I'm offering a signed first edition paperback copy on GoodReads. Enter below and good luck!

Have you been saying, "Gee, I really wish I had a signed copy of Katie French's books. How could I ever get one?" Well, friends, there's good news. This week I'm offering a signed copy of Eyes Ever to the Sky through good reads. Enter below. Next week, we'll celebrate The Breeders book birthday with some more fun giveaways. Good luck!

As you may know, book marketing is a regular topic on my blog. I've been guerrilla marketing my books for almost a year now and have tried many strategies. To learn about other tips you can try part 1,  part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5 and part 6 at each respective link. 

I've waited a while to write this post mainly because I wanted to give myself some emotional distance from my experience at NetGalley. For the most part, I want these blog posts to be informative and help authors like myself to better market their books. I do not want this to be a rant post that is neither helpful nor informative. That is why I've waited a month to describe my experience with NetGalley. I will do my best not to rant. 

Before we begin, let me give you some information on NetGalley. Here is a blurb straight from their own website. 

"NetGalley is a service to promote and publicize forthcoming titles to readers of influence. If you are a reviewer, blogger, journalist, librarian, bookseller, educator, or in the media, you can use NetGalley for FREE to request and read titles before they are published. Publishers can upload their galleys, plus any marketing and promotional information, and interact with members in two ways: * By approving member requests from our catalog of titles * By inviting members to view titles using our email invitation widget. "

NetGalley for the last many years was limited to traditionally published authors, so when I learned they were opening their doors to indies I was very excited. Another door opened to my Indie brethren. (No longer would we be kicked out of country clubs or hissed at on the street. We were being promoted from the kiddie table to the grown-up buffet.) Not only do I like doors opening for indies, but I also like the prospect of real, vetted reviewers checking out my title and posting reviews. I know well the mantra "The more reviews you have, the more sales you have." I figured my new release would be perfect for this. I'd get lots of professional reviews posted to Amazon and it would help my sales. Voila. What could go wrong?

I signed up in a co-op with several of my writer soul-mates. We each paid $350: three hundred for the NetGalley yearly subscription and fifty for the moderator who would set it all up and manage our request for us. That is a steep price point and it was a hard choice, but I figured it was worth it. I'd have reviews pouring in and I'd see the money back in sales. So I paid my money, uploaded Eyes Ever to the Sky and waited. 

Reviewers quickly requested copies of my book. Over a hundred people were approved. But as the days ticked by and the reviews trickled in, I started to worry. Why weren't more of the people who requested the book posting reviews? Why weren't many of them posting to Amazon, the site where I make my money? Why were so many of the reviews short or grammatically challenged? 

Here's the main problem I have with NetGalley. They claim on their website that the readers you are giving free books to are all "reviewers". They are all supposed to have a platform with which to share reviews. They are all supposed to know how to write a book review. As a reviewer myself, I know that learning to review takes time. Anyone can blab a few minutes about their feelings on a book, but it takes a certain learned skill to convey what you felt and why you felt it in a way that helps identify if this book would be a suitable purchase. Sadly, with some of the reviews I was receiving, they were not deft in this skill. I'll admit some reviews were down right mean and hurt my feelings. Others gave away spoilers RIGHT IN THE TITLE of the review with no spoiler warning. The worst part is, out of the nearly two hundred books I gave away, only a handful of reviews have made it to Amazon. So in essence, I paid 350 dollars to give my book away for nearly nothing in return. Well, I did get some bad feelings and some mediocre three star reviews. Honestly the whole thing felt like a gut punch. From Mike Tyson. Into a tiger's den. 

To be fair, NetGalley does allow you to pick and chose who you allow to upload your titles. I should've been more selective, but it is very hard, given the limited amount of information you get on these reviewers, to know if they'll a) even write a review or b) write one that won't give away your whole book. There will never be a next time with me and NetGalley, but if the universe somehow worm-holes into a Bizarro World and I forget my rotten experience, the one thing I would do differently is be WAY more selective on who I give books to. If you're considering the service, please take that one piece of advice. 

A few weeks ago I asked our NetGalley moderator to take my title down. It had been up for about two months and I couldn't take the abuse anymore. Sadly, I've already paid my yearly fee and have to eat the 350 dollars. A monthly fee would be much more helpful to Indies. You live and learn, but one thing is for sure, I'll know better next time. 

So what about you? What have been your NetGalley experiences? 

Book Marketing Part 8 - The Anthology

I've talked about The Scourge and its fabulous author, A. G. Henley, multiple times on this blog, so I am sure you will understand that I am very excited for its sequel The Defiance, due out in July. 

Here's the blurb to pique your interests.

THE DEFIANCE (Brilliant Darkness, #2)

Suspicion Trust. Fear Compassion. Hate Love.

Fennel and Peree learned the truth: the Scourge, and their world, is not what it seems. Now they need to convince their people that everything they believe is a lie.

An impossible task, especially when someone seems resolved to try anything—even arson and butchery—to destroy Fenn and Peree’s new bond and crush the frail truce between the Groundlings and the Lofties.


Unable to tell friend from foe and with the Scourge pushing both groups to the breaking point, Fenn must again decide how much she’s willing to sacrifice to ensure the people of the forest’s future.

Only this time, the price of peace may be too high to bear.


Publication Date: July 29th, 2013

Cover design by (the fabulous, professional, efficient) Robin Ludwig Design Inc.,http://www.gobookcoverdesign.com/.

Author Bio:

A.G. Henley is the author of the BRILLIANT DARKNESS series. Her first book, THE SCOURGE, was a finalist for the 2013 Next Generation Indie Book Award.

A.G. is also a clinical psychologist, which means people either tell her their life stories on airplanes, or avoid her at parties when they've had too much to drink. Neither of which she minds. When she's not writing fiction or shrinking heads, she can be found herding her children and their scruffy dog, Guapo, to various activities while trying to remember whatever she's inevitably forgotten to tell her husband. She lives in Denver, Colorado. Learn more at aghenley.com 

Author Links:

Website | Facebook | Goodreads

It's here, my second novel! I'm so relieved/thrilled/scared/peein-in-my-pants. This book has been a long time coming and I can't wait to hear what you think about it. To celebrate, I'm giving away a $25 Amazon gift card. Enter below. 


Buy the ebook on Amazon
Buy the paperback on CreateSpace
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