Lightning Strikes Twice...

Hey all, It's Robin again as Michael is once more tied up (not physically - although I've considered chaining his ankle to the desk) and can't post. What's he up to?

• He has the final copy edit changes in for Hollow World and we want to hit the early July release date for the people on Kickstarter
• The Crown Tower is just over a month away and Orbit's PR team is scheduling a blog tour so he has a number of blog posts to write.
• He's approaching the final scenes in Rhune and is always pretty focused when he's at this part of a novel

On top of all that he is signing up a storm...He got in (and shipped out) the author signature pages for the limited editions of Unfettered.  And as if that wasn't enough signing, he also has to put his mark on hundreds of bookmarks and posters for the Hollow World Kickstarter.

Normally, we would just let the site sit dormant - but something exciting has happened that is worth posting about. Theft of Swords has once again been selected as the Kindle Deal of the Day for the Science Fiction & Fantasy Category. For today only it will be on sale for $2.99 which is significantly lower than it's $9.99 list price.

For those that don't know, this is a highly coveted promotion that usually produces an incredible signal boost to an author's visibility and discoverability. Michael was fortunate enough to get this last December and here is just one of the results from that time around:

Screen shot taken December 12/24/2012

Yep, if only for a brief period of time Michael was the third most popular author in fantasy.  It also put Theft of Swords in the Amazon top 100 for a few days. (It got as high as #17) and a lot of readers learned about The Riyria Revelations because of the Kindle Daily Deal. For those that aren’t familiar with...

It’s a program where Amazon takes one book (or sometimes a group of books) and deeply discount it for 24 hours. They actually currently run 4 daily deals (general interest, science fiction & fantasy, romance, and children’s books). 

If you already have a print or audio version, and want to pick-up the ebook this would be the perfect time to do so.  But it also provides a great opportunity for sharing Riyria with your friends and loved ones. At less than $3, it costs less than a Starbucks Cappuccino and Amazon makes it easy for you to gift an ebook. Here’s how it works.

1.    All you need is the email address of someone you want to send the book to.
2.    On the right side of the screen you’ll see a button to give as a gift

 3.    Then just fill out the form.  You can either have the email sent to you in which case you can print it and place it in a card or give to someone in person, or you can forward the email to someone far away. There is also an option to send the email on your behalf and you can add a personalized message. (You can even buy it, and have it auto-delivered on the date you specify.

4.    The person who receives the gift can download the book anytime they want…they don’t have to receive it on the day of the Daily Deal.  If they already have Theft of Swords, or just don’t think it’s the right book for them…they can accept a gift card instead and use the money to buy something they would rather read.  

NOTE: Even people without kindle ereaders can read a kindle ebook.  Amazon has a kindle application and their software runs on ipad, iphones, blackberries, computers, tablets, and just about anything with a screen. So even if your friend or loved one doesn’t have a kindle…they’ll still be able to read the book.

So, if you’ve enjoyed Riyria, or maybe you’ve heard of it but haven’t purchased yet, today is a great time to do so.