Time for a GIVEAWAY!

EDIT: I clearly underestimated how many people are out there just downloading free ebooks without much promotion on my part. I've just about made my June 19th goal, and there's still more than two weeks to go! So, I've decided to increase the overall goal to actually make it a challenge. I've also increased the number of winners, and added another way to gain entries!

My novel, Sorry's Not Enough, has been published! But that doesn't mean I want you to stop reading my free short story collection. No way! This morning I just passed 3,000 free downloads of Consenting Adults on Amazon.

Thank you to all who have downloaded it so far! If you enjoyed it, I hope you'll take a moment to leave a review on Goodreads or Amazon or wherever you downloaded it from. Now, about that giveaway...

I've decided that once Consenting Adults reaches 6,000 15,000 free downloads on Amazon, I'll give away a few prizes! There are three prizes:

• A $15 gift card to Amazon or the bookseller of your choice, plus a digital copy of my novel, Sorry's Not Enough (2 winners!)
• A $10 gift card to Amazon or the bookseller of your choice, plus a digital copy of SNE (2 winners!)
• A digital copy of SNE (5 winners!)

The goal is to reach 6,000 15,000 Amazon downloads by midnight, June 19, 2013, which is three weeks from today. So that's roughly 615 downloads a day. Easy, right? I think so, too! If we reach the goal sooner, perhaps I can sweeten the pot with additional prizes....

So, how do you enter? The only requirement for entry is to comment on this post (please use the Rafflecopter widget to enter) but you can earn additional entries by following on social media and tweeting about the giveaway, and I hope you will.

To entice you a little more, here's some more info about Consenting Adults, the free book we want people to download.

This collection of five short stories is a literary quickie that looks at romantic relationships in various forms, from the tame to the erotic.

The title story, "Consenting Adults", explores the eroticism of an enthusiastic "Yes!" between lovers.

"The Haricot Verts" peeks in on a tense moment between a couple where she can't seem to say what's on her mind.

"The Reluctant Exhibitionist" follows a young couple learning to open up and share their fantasies without embarrassment.

"The Adventures of Sasquatch" is the story of a single mom - and her big feet - reclaiming her inner princess.

"Between the Lines" shows what happens long-hidden desires sizzle to the surface between two near-strangers.

And some info about Sorry's Not Enough, the book you can win:

Charlotte learned at an early age that people – including family – are capable of hurting you so bad "sorry” will never be enough. The obvious solution is not to let anyone close enough to do any damage, and she's doing just fine with that until a summer writing workshop brings Steven into her life. Seemingly immune to Charlotte's Stay the Hell Away from Me pheromones, he uses his wit and good looks – or what Charlotte would call his obnoxious ego and his stupid good looks – to win her over. The unexpected summer romance screeches to a halt when Steven's job creates an ethical dilemma for the couple. Sorry doesn't begin to cover the hurt feelings.

Despite the secrets Charlotte's keeping and the renewed passion with which she pushes him away, Steven can't let her go. And so the cycle of their relationship begins. Over the course of four years they share moments as passionate lovers, periods of warm friendship, as well as months of barely-civil tension.

When no amount of time or distance, and no number of men, can make her forget the comfort of Steven's arms, Charlotte must dig into her painful past and face the man whose betrayal destroyed her capacity for trust to begin with. And by the time she finds the courage to do so, will “sorry” be enough to get Steven back?

Since you only win if the Consenting Adults is downloaded, please share with your friends! Tell your work colleagues, your siblings, maybe even your parents if they're cool like that. Leave a review. Paint it on your chest. Get a tattoo. Just kidding, don't do that.

Are you ready? Get set... GO!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Free Short Stories, and Novel Release Date

A brief update on my publishing journey! I've been super busy. First, I've released a collection of five short stories so that anyone not familiar with my writing can get a feel for it. Best of all - the collection is FREE!  The five short stories explore romantic relationships of both the more tame and the more erotic varieties. One reviewer had this to say:

Mouthwateringly hot, insightful and emotionally revealing! Did I say HOT?

Consenting Adults is available at Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Amazon, Kobo and more.

Secondly, my "official" release date for my novel, Sorry's Not Enough, will be Monday, Memorial Day, 5/27/13. Check back here then for links to be able to purchase the ebook on various websites. And in case you forgot, here's the cover again, and a quick blurb:

Charlotte learned at an early age that people – including family – are capable of hurting you so bad "sorry” will never be enough. The obvious solution is not to let anyone close enough to do any damage, and she's doing just fine with that until a summer writing workshop brings Steven into her life. Seemingly immune to Charlotte's Stay the Hell Away from Me pheromones, he uses his wit and good looks – or what Charlotte would call his obnoxious ego and his stupid good looks – to win her over. The unexpected summer romance screeches to a halt when Steven's job creates an ethical dilemma for the couple. Sorry doesn't begin to cover the hurt feelings.

Despite the secrets Charlotte's keeping and the renewed passion with which she pushes him away, Steven can't let her go. And so the cycle of their relationship begins. Over the course of four years they share moments as passionate lovers, periods of warm friendship, as well as months of barely-civil tension.

When no amount of time or distance, and no number of men, can make her forget the comfort of Steven's arms, Charlotte must dig into her painful past and face the man whose betrayal destroyed her capacity for trust to begin with. And by the time she finds the courage to do so, will “sorry” be enough to get Steven back?

Goodreads Giveaway for The Fall

Fellow Elephant's Bookshelf Press author Judy Croome is sponsoring a giveaway of 20 print - yes, PRINT! - copies of The Fall: Tales From the Apocalypse.

Hop on over to Goodreads to enter. Ends January 1, 2013.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Fall

by Matt Sinclair

Giveaway ends January 01, 2013.




See the giveaway details

at Goodreads.

Enter to win

On a Trans-Atlantic Flight

I was thrilled to get a message from a fellow writer the other day who had just finished reading The Fall. He said he really enjoyed my story in the anthology. It's flash fiction, really. It's quite short. We talked for a little bit, and the conversation turned to the fact that my first published short story also had a flight theme. The story was originally published online with Divine Dirt Quarterly, which is now out of print. So I thought I'd post the story here for you all to read. If you like this one, I'm sure you'll enjoy my story "Flight Plans" in The Fall.

On A Trans-Atlantic Flight

I used to think I could see God in the clouds. Not in an indefinite expanse of clear blue, calm and crisp and quiet, desperate in its infinity, but somewhere up there, among the water vapor masses between us and eternal sky. Not in gray and grumpy nimbostratus, nor fine feathered cirrus, but in a fair weather cumulus blanket and the sun beams like knitting needles that pierced it, the ends of which, I was sure, illuminated some somber earthly occasion - corporeal cessation. But certainly God was in the clouds, sending forth that sun vector to call an angel home.

Necks craned and twisted, bodies pressed forward against restraints just for a glimpse out of the small windows of a 757. My first flight. Even as we lifted from the ground, the Earth tried to pull me back, urging me not to endeavor to things for which my body was not made. Or perhaps the weight on my chest was God, knowing the human race was too curious for its own good, placing a firm hand of protection, holding us close, leashing our titanium bird lest we flew too close to the sun.

My head swam, unsettled by artificial air pressure, though it may have been the sight of the clouds that did it. Nerves and terror and elation and uncertainty coagulated in my stomach. Expecting a breeze, a mist, a warm breath on my cheek, I considered holding my breath, eyes squeezed shut, as white opacity filled the tiny bubble windows. Curiosity, though it may or may not have killed a cat, overtook my timidity, prying open my expectant eyes just as the clouds broke.

Did you know the sky goes on forever anyway, that you could follow it and it would never lead you anywhere, not to peace, nor to happiness, nor to god, and did you know that the sun knits blankets of cumulus clouds to shield my fragile and naïve heart from such despair? I used to think I could see god in the clouds. But there, above it all, atop a secular cumulus quilt, I saw that my geometry was all wrong: the gilded shafts I had been certain were line segments, with an Alpha and Omega – originating from the hand of a benevolent god and ending far below, soul escalators bringing the dead into eternal bliss - were instead rays, of all things, capped at one end by the stinging sun, extending onward forever.

On a trans-Atlantic flight, I searched urgently for validation, winged hope. I found only science and weather, impressive but not divine, water vapor polluted by a need to push our limits, to stretch, to disintegrate our mortal restrictions. Puffs of little substance whose mass is no match for the hard nose of human determination, pierced by a persistent sun whose light will outlast even the clouds as it is reflected back, changed by the tangible clutter of temporal curiosity, fractured, bounced, splintered, and so on, et cetera, ad infinitum.

I may never fly again.

Announcing: The Fall

Remember the Spring Fevers anthology from earlier this year, which included two of my short stories? Well, editor Matt Sinclair and Elephant's Bookshelf Press have done it again. The Fall is a collection of fourteen stories about the apocalypse. While many are dystopian in nature, the anthology also includes touches of "humor, romance, and the promise of new beginnings." While Matt has already revealed the cover on his blog, I thought I'd share it again for anyone who hasn't seen it yet. Without further ado, I give you....

As with Spring Fevers, the cover was designed by the super talented Calista Taylor. The Fall will be released October 29, 2012. Make sure you snag your copy so you can read my flash fiction piece, Flight Plans.

Short Stories and the Novelist: A Marketing Tool

Most of us probably started off writing short stories, either on our own or as class assignments as kids. Some may still write short stories for our own enjoyment, or maybe to sell to magazines or for contests. But short stories are sort of the red-headed stepchild to the novelist, aren't they? Agents don't generally rep short story collections. They aren't the most lucrative market. (If you are looking for places to publish short stories, Duotrope is a great place to search.) I'm here to tell you that short stories may be more beneficial to you as a novelist than you think.

By now we all know that the digital side of publishing is a huge part of the market and that it's easier now than ever to put together your own eBook. Self-publishing is well within reach for all of us. (Agented authors with book deals may need to check with their publishers and read the fine print of their contracts before self-publishing anything, to avoid any fiasco like this one.) Any of us can self-publish a few singles, or a collection of short stories. This makes the short story a relatively quick and easy tool in your arsenal. Here are a few ways to use short stories to your advantage.

Pre-Launch

Are you an indie or self-publisher about to release your first novel? You've written a great book, have a nice cover, have carefully crafted your short blurb and product description, have been working on your social media presence and building a following, and have decided on a price you feel is both competitive and fair to you as the writer. But you might still be worried about how to better entice readers to buy your book–the one by an author they've never heard of—instead of, or in addition to, the latest release by one of their favorite, well-known authors. Readers can certainly "look inside" on Amazon and sample some of your writing that way. Or you could offer a little something else.

My FTWA buddy Pete Morin took this approach before the release of his novel, Diary of a Small Fish. The month before he published Fish he released a free short story on Smashwords. A free short story or collection of shorts gives potential readers a way to read something of yours, from start to finish, and get a feel for whether they'd like to read more. Hopefully the answer is yes! And once they know you can satisfy their imaginations through an entire story arc, they won't be as hesitant to spend money on your novel. You're no longer an unknown to them. Some authors will offer the first book of a series for free, then charge for the rest, banking on this same theory that the free book will lead to more sales for the others. If you aren't writing a series, consider writing a short story or two to offer for free prior to your book's release.

Between Books in a Series

YA author Elana Johnson's debut novel, Possession, was published in June of 2011. The sequel, Surrender, was released last month. During the year between the two books, Elana released two shorter stories related to the series. The first was an exclusive short story, available as a free download through her website, and the second was what she calls a "bridge story," which is an eBook exclusive. Both of these were her own ideas that she executed with her publisher's support. She explained to me via Twitter

The first one (Insider Information) was my idea. We needed their permission to use butterflies and ice on the cover. They liked what I was doing, and so we (me and agent) pitched the idea of a "bridge story" to them. They ran with that, and produced the second story (REGRET). So one is free (my self-pubbed one) and one is $1.99.It's hard to tell for sure, but she believes "it seems to have worked a bit" in terms of keeping readers interested in the series and keeping up the excitement prior to the release of the second book. 

Elana shows that using short stories to renew and sustain interest in a series isn't for self-publishers alone. You can make it work with traditional publishing as well.

Bonus Material

Do you ever watch the deleted scenes or alternate endings from movies when you get the DVD? I do, when it's a movie I really enjoyed. Have you ever read a book and wanted to read more about the character's lives after the book was finished? Maybe you wanted to know more about some of their back story, stuff that wasn't really related to the novel itself. Or maybe you wondered how it would've turned out if a character had made this choice instead of that one.

You've wondered about it with books you've read. So why don't you write it for your own books?

If you've gotten good feedback that readers love your characters and your story, it's not too far-fetched to think they might enjoy some bonus material. Maybe you had to delete some scenes you liked but that didn't suit the novel for whatever reason. Or perhaps you've been dying to write an alternate ending. Or a short story about one of your characters as a child. There are a lot of possibilities there. If you're self-publishing, there's really no limit to what you can do. If you have a contract with a publisher, you'll need to work out what you can and can't do on your own, and what they would or wouldn't be willing to work with you on.

You may be a novelist, but don't discount the value short stories could add to your career. They can help you entice readers if you're relatively unknown, sustain the enthusiasm for your writing and characters between releases, and help you continue to satisfy readers even after they reach THE END.

Have you used short stories to complement your novels in these, or other, ways? Do you have any tips for others looking to use this technique?

This post originally appeared on From the Write Angle, under the title Your Writing Repertoire: the Long and Short of It.