#KindleCountdownDeal - At only $0.99, it should work. Right?

I have to be honest, I must be terrible at this promotion stuff! I booked in a Kindle Countdown Deal and then forgot I had done it.

The crazy thing is it is only $0.99 until the 16th February via Amazon US. I think I meant to buy a promo for this & forgot! Oops...

In fairness, last time, the paid promotion did not go ahead so I was a bit disheartened. I seem to see lots of other authors getting a lot of reviews & downloads and I constantly wonder where I am going wrong.

I am not convinced that the Amazon deals (free or countdown) work at all anymore, unless you pay for advertising. I came across this blog, which shows just how successful a BOOKBUB advert can be. I am yet to get accepted by them unfortunately. Pretty incredible results though...

In 2012, when I first tried a free promo, I was able to get hundreds of downloads without doing anything extra. Now, if I get more than 10 downloads for the free promotions of the anthologies I'm amazed. If anyone has managed to successfully sale sell hundreds of books without promoting please share your success.

Since I decided to price HYBRID again (and we are talking about $0.99/ 99p) I have had some sales - thank you, whoever you are - but have found most of them to happen via Smashwords. So, I wonder what is going on with Amazon? The price of eBooks seems to be rocketing all the time and most traditionally published books now seem to be £8-10. Publishers do have to cover their costs, but this seems extreme. I think the paperback is usually cheaper! And you can share those.

Needless to say, I have actually paid for some promotion slots next week for HYBRID to try to keep my sales alive, purely because I can't resist. Mentally, I always say... "one last attempt!" But, its obvious that something is going wrong. Maybe, vampires are dead... literally! Ha ha

I should just "keep on writing" (thinking of NEMO here)

So, if you have any suggestions on how to keep this series alive please let me know. I know some readers have requested more books, and I do keep wondering whether to focus on that.
Decisions...

The entire Trilogy is on offer until the 16th Feb so if you're interested please download. 
AMAZON link.

You can download all the books via other retailers... click on the links provided.

Thank you again if you read my blog and thoughts.

All the best,
Vanessa

p.s. I have to actually look back at the reviews to remind myself that it has been popular with some readers...

"Vampire stories have been banned from my life due to my overactive imagination. Those creatures have frightened the life out of me countless times so I began this book with a sense of nervousness. Now, I'm hooked. There's nothing too intimidating about the vampires in Vanessa Wester's book and now I want to know what happens next. Good story telling and beautifully written."
Amazon Reviewer

"Steven Thorn has just started at Southampton University. He is confident, honest, hard-working and intelligent. When he bumps into Caitlin Chance, he notices an instant connection. Something he has never experienced before. Steven has spent pretty much most of his life keeping himself to himself.

Yet, a few months into his first year and unbeknown to Steven, his entire life is about to change. His family have a past, that even he wasn't aware of. Until now. Will Steven cope with the change in his life, or will his entire world come crashing down?

Hybrid is book one in The Evolution Trilogy written by Vanessa. Complications and Return are the following two books, with a prequel Emily available to also download (see bottom of page for download links).

The story is told from the viewpoint of Steven Thorn, in third person narrative. I felt like I am on the outside of his life, watching it. I could see and feel what he was going through, whilst being safely out of the way.
Vanessa has used two main settings for the story, Southampton UK and the Amazon Rainforest. The way that story transitions between the two countries is really well written. The journey, for the reader, was smooth. Vanessa took us on a journey across the world in order to travel between the two places.
Hybrid definitely falls into the 'world of books' as a paranormal romance. Anyone that knows me, knows that I tend to avoid romance stories. This book works out perfectly for me - if you chuck a bit of supernatural (or paranormal, whichever you prefer) or a murder into it and I'm all in.

I'm trying something new with this review, in that I am going to try and evaluate the book in just three words. So, here goes... Hybrid is Interesting, Beautiful and Conserving. The story is extremely interesting, the take on a story that has been written over and over by many an author is completely different to any other that I have read (and I have read a lot of books in this genre). The way that Vanessa describes the surroundings and the settings, including the characters, makes me feel as though everyone and everything is beautiful to look at (even though they may not be). The final word I have chosen is Conserving. The reason for this word is that I feel that Vanessa has managed to keep a conserved approach throughout the whole story. I am hoping this will expand more in the following books. I love the fact that the information has been reserved, and we (as a reader) have only been fed the basic information that we need to know. Very much like the main character, Steven, to give something away to us would indeed give something away to him."
Amazon Reviewer