A Free Book, A New Look, and New Markets for the Toxic World Series!

As you can see from the photo, my cover designer has switched out the cover for Radio Hope, Book One of my post-apocalyptic Toxic World series. The old cover was a bit flat and this one has more pop. I hope you like it.

I've also taken the series out of Kindle Select and published it wide. You can now find the series on Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, Scribd, and many other outlets. Click on the title to find a list of links for Radio Hope. Hitting on your favorite store will take you to that title and the rest of the series.

Also, I'm giving away The Scavenger, a novella set in the Toxic World, for free on all those venues. Click on the link to grab your copy today!

Two Free Lockdown Reads!

Bored during lockdown? Have a couple of free ebooks on me! Through the end of this weekend I'm offering my novel The Last Hotel Room and my novella The Scavenger for free.

The Last Hotel Room deals with the Syrian refugee crisis and is based on several refugees I interviewed in Iraq and Morocco.

He came to Tangier to die, but life isn’t done with him yet.
Tom Miller has lost his job, his wife, and his dreams. Broke and alone, he ends up in a flophouse in Morocco, ready to end it all. But soon he finds himself tangled in a web of danger and duty as he’s pulled into scamming tourists for a crooked cop while trying to help a Syrian refugee boy survive life on the streets.
Can a lifelong loser do something good for a change?

The Scavenger is set in my Toxic World setting for the series of the same name.

In a world shattered by war, pollution, and disease, a lone scavenger discovers a priceless relic from the Old Times.
The problem is, it's stuck in the middle of the worst wasteland he knows--a contaminated city inhabited by insane chem addicts and vengeful villagers. Only his wits, his gun, and an unlikely ally can get him out alive.
Set in the Toxic World series introduced in the novel Radio Hope, this 10,000-word story explores more of the dangers and personalities that make up a post-apocalyptic world that's all too possible.

Enjoy!

The Scavenger: Post-Apocalyptic Ebook Free Through May 22

I'm offering my post-apocalyptic story The Scavenger for free on Amazon for the next five days.

This story is a 67-page adventure set in my Toxic World series, which starts with the novel Radio Hope. The Scavenger a standalone story, but it gives a different perspective on some of the places and characters that appear in Radio Hope.

The blurb is below:

In a world shattered by war, pollution, and disease, a lone scavenger discovers a priceless relic from the Old Times.
The problem is, it's stuck in the middle of the worst wasteland he knows--a contaminated city inhabited by insane chem addicts and vengeful villagers. Only his wits, his gun, and an unlikely ally can get him out alive.
Set in the Toxic World series introduced in the novel Radio Hope, this 10,000-word story explores more of the dangers and personalities that make up a post-apocalyptic world that's all too possible.

I'd like to get it in front of as many eyeballs as possible. So please, between now and Monday, May 22, feel free to share, like, tweet, etc!

The Scavenger: Post-Apocalyptic Ebook Free Through January 22

I'm offering my post-apocalyptic story The Scavenger for free on Amazon for the next five days.

This story is a 67-page teaser for my Toxic World series, which starts with the novel Radio Hope. The Scavenger a standalone story, but it gives a different perspective on some of the places and characters that appear in Radio Hope.

The blurb is below:

In a world shattered by war, pollution, and disease, a lone scavenger discovers a priceless relic from the Old Times.
The problem is, it's stuck in the middle of the worst wasteland he knows--a contaminated city inhabited by insane chem addicts and vengeful villagers. Only his wits, his gun, and an unlikely ally can get him out alive.
Set in the Toxic World series introduced in the novel Radio Hope, this 10,000-word story explores more of the dangers and personalities that make up a post-apocalyptic world that's all too possible.

I'd like to get it in front of as many eyeballs as possible. So please, between now and Sunday, January 22, feel free to share, like, tweet, etc!

More Honest Numbers from a Kindle Giveaway

Back in March I blogged my numbers for an Amazon free promotion of my post-apocalyptic novel Radio Hope. Click the link to see the data. I just finished another giveaway, this time for The Scavenger, a 10,000 word short set in the same world. It also includes the first three chapters of Radio Hope as a teaser.

As usual when I do a promo, I tweeted and blogged about it, and I bought an ad in Book Barbarian, a newsletter catering to fantasy and science fiction fans. It goes out to more than 12,000 subscribers and my ad was posted on their Facebook page, which has 12,867 fans. The ad cost $25 and ran on May 6. Here are my numbers broken down by country:

Thursday, May 5: US (47), UK (3), Germany (1), Spain (1)

Friday, May 6 (Book Barbarian ad): US (616), UK (1), Germany (1), Netherlands (1), Canada (1), Australia (1)

Saturday, May 7: US (118), UK (2), Germany (1), Canada (1)

Sunday, May 8: US (52), UK (1)

Monday, May 9: US (29), UK (1), Canada (1)

TOTAL: US (862), UK (8), Germany (3), Spain (1), Netherlands (1), Canada (3), Australia (1)

GRAND TOTAL: 879 downloads

As you can see, there was a major spike on the day of my ad, and a sizeable tail for the following day. That launched me into the top five in two categories, where I remained for the next couple of days.

Otherwise the giveaway was rather lackluster. I have a couple of explanations for this. First off, this was the fourth time I've done a giveaway for this title, meaning quite a few people who search for this genre have already downloaded it (or decided they're not interested!). Second, note that my categories are in Kindle Short Reads. When Radio Hope got in the top ten for post-apocalyptic novels, that led to a lot more downloads than I'm seeing this time. It's been shown time and again, with my data and others, that readers prefer full novels to shorts. It appears that considerably more people are checking the top free books in novels than in Kindle Short Reads. I'm one of those people!

It's also interesting to note how few downloads I had outside the US. Normally about 15% of my sales on any given month are to the UK, with another 5% to the rest of the world combined. But for this giveaway non-US downloads accounted for only a little more than 2% of the total. The Radio Hope giveaway also didn't do so well beyond the US. I have no idea why this is the case, although part of it certainly is that low initial downloads kept me from getting into the top ten of these markets, hurting visibility and stifling downloads.

So was it worth the $25 I paid for the ad? Yes. Getting my book on 879 devices will lead to a lot more readers, some of whom will go on to buy the other books in my series. These giveaways are part of an ongoing process to raise the profile of my writing. There won't be any overnight successes, but a gradual climb upwards. It's already been heading that way thanks to my previous giveaway.

I hope this helps some of my fellow writers out there!

Free Post-Apocalyptic Story!

I'm offering my post-apocalyptic story The Scavenger for free on Amazon for the next five days, May 5-9.

This story is a 67-page teaser for my Toxic World series, which starts with the novel Radio Hope. The Scavenger is a standalone story, but it gives a different perspective on some of the places and characters that appear in Radio Hope.

The blurb is below:

In a world shattered by war, pollution, and disease, a lone scavenger discovers a priceless relic from the Old Times.

The problem is, it's stuck in the middle of the worst wasteland he knows--a contaminated city inhabited by insane chem addicts and vengeful villagers. Only his wits, his gun, and an unlikely ally can get him out alive.

Set in the Toxic World series introduced in the novel Radio Hope, this 10,000-word story explores more of the dangers and personalities that make up a post-apocalyptic world that's all too possible.

It's free on Amazon US, Amazon UK, and all the other Amazons. Enjoy!

Free post-apocalyptic fiction!

My post-apocalyptic novelette The Scavenger is a free ebook on Amazon through Friday, November 27. This standalone novelette is part of my Toxic World post-apocalyptic series. So go ahead and grab yourself a copy, and feel free to share!

A blurb is below:

In a world shattered by war, pollution, and disease, a lone scavenger discovers a priceless relic from the Old Times.
The problem is, it's stuck in the middle of the worst wasteland he knows--a contaminated city inhabited by insane chem addicts and vengeful villagers. Only his wits, his gun, and an unlikely ally can get him out alive.
Set in the Toxic World series introduced in the novel Radio Hope, this 10,000-word story explores more of the dangers and personalities that make up a post-apocalyptic world that's all too possible.

Pick it up on Amazon, Amazon UK, and any other branch of the store.

The Scavenger free through March 8!

My post-apocalyptic novelette The Scavenger is a free ebook on Amazon through March 8. This standalone novelette is part of my Toxic World post-apocalyptic series. So go ahead and grab yourself a copy, and feel free to share! A blurb is below:

In a world shattered by war, pollution, and disease, a lone scavenger discovers a priceless relic from the Old Times.
The problem is, it's stuck in the middle of the worst wasteland he knows--a contaminated city inhabited by insane chem addicts and vengeful villagers. Only his wits, his gun, and an unlikely ally can get him out alive.
Set in the Toxic World series introduced in the novel Radio Hope, this 10,000-word story explores more of the dangers and personalities that make up a post-apocalyptic world that's all too possible.

Free Post-Apocalyptic Ebook and Kindle Countdown Deal!

Hello from Worldcon! I'm in London at the world's largest, and oldest science fiction convention. I'll be turning 45 here on Saturday, surrounded by science fiction fans. There are worse places to to grow old.

In honor of Worldcon and my oncoming decrepitude, I'm running a special promotion for two of my Toxic World titles of post-apocalyptic books. Radio Hope is on a Kindle Countdown deal. It's usually $3.99 but for August 14-15 it will be 99 cents. On August 16-17 it will be $1.99. On August 18-19 it will be $2.99.

Also, my short story The Scavenger will be free August 14-18.

Grab these titles while they're cheap, and tune in next week for a full convention report and plenty of photos!

Looking forward to Worldcon, plus an upcoming giveaway!

On Thursday I'm heading down to London for the World Science Fiction Convention, otherwise known as Worldcon, this year hosted by Loncon. It's five days of panels, movies, special events, making new friends, and of course a giant dealer's room!

I'm doing a panel on Thursday, plus a signing on Saturday, the same day yours truly turns 45. Yipe!

I'll be writing up a full con report next week for Black Gate and will post the link here.

In honor of Worldcon and my oncoming old age, I'll be running a special promotion for two of my Toxic World titles of post-apocalyptic books. Radio Hope will be on a Kindle Countdown deal. It's usually $3.99 but for August 13-14 it will be 99 cents. On August 15-16 it will be $1.99. On August 17-19 it will be $2.99.

Also, my short story The Scavenger will be free August 14-18.

Honest Numbers about an Amazon Indie Ebook Giveaway

I recently had an article published at Funds For Writers in which I give honest numbers for my Amazon ebook free promotion. Regular readers of this blog will recall that I had a giveaway of my novelette The Scavenger, set in my Toxic World post-apocalyptic series.

There's a lot of bull spread by indie writers about their numbers, so I decided to post up some honest numbers. Check out how I did here.

Post-Apocalyptic A to Z: Quick update on my writing

I'm guilty of being a letter behind on the A to Z Challenge, but I plead Innocent Due To Writing! Just last week I finished the next book in my post-apocalyptic Toxic World series, titled Refugees from the Righteous Horde, which is book two after Radio Hope. At the same time I was promoting a free giveaway of my short story The Scavenger. I'll be writing an article about my experiences and what I learned doing this in the next week or so.

Right now I'm chilling out in Oxford on my usual Easter working vacation. I'm taking some time off the apocalypse to research a series called Trench Raiders, which will be a line of action books set in World War One. I'm also doing a bit of travel writing, so if I'm a bit slow with the A to Z over the next two weeks, it's because of a marginal case of burnout.

I hope there's coffee in the apocalypse. . .

Last chance to get The Scavenger for free!

Today is the last day to get my post-apocalyptic story The Scavenger for free.

This five-day giveaway has been an interesting experiment. I've given away a few hundred copies and I've already received three reviews. I'll be coming back next week with some hard figures and some thoughts on doing giveaway, but in the meantime, feel free to download the story!

Post-Apocalyptic A to Z: The Apocalypse!

This month I'm participating in the A to Z blogfest, during which I and hundreds of other bloggers work our way through the alphabet throughout April (getting Sundays off). My theme this year is post-apocalyptic books and films. I've always been a big fan of the genre and have written a post-apocalyptic novel called Radio Hope and a novelette titled The Scavenger.

Writers and filmmakers are full of ways to wreak our civilization. In The Road it appears to have been a meteor or comet strike. Back in the Cold War it was trendy to write about nuclear war. Now Zombies seem to be the main threat. I wrote about my own feelings about how we'll go under during the Choose Your Own Apocalypse blogfest back in 2012.

So join me for a month of worldwide destruction and woe, with a few hardy survivors trying to rebuild what we've lost, or destroy the last remnants of civilization. What are your favorite post-apocalyptic books and movies? What are some of the overlooked gems of the genre? I'm always on the lookout for more post-apocalyptic entertainment!

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons. It shows a ruined house in Fatxes, Spain. This village was suddenly abandoned in the mid-twentieth century. It was rumored that people left after a series of murders there, but no one knows for sure. Now it's considered an accursed place.

The Scavenger cover reveal, and I need help with my blurb

My brother-in-law Andrés Alonso-Herrero has come up with another fine cover for me. This is for a 10,000-word novelette called The Scavenger. It's going up soon as a promo for my Toxic World series and is set close to the action in Radio Hope. Here's a draft of the blurb below. I'd love your input!

In a world shattered by war, pollution, and disease, a lone scavenger discovers a priceless relic from the Old Times.
The problem is, it's stuck in the middle of a contaminated city inhabited by insane chem addicts and vengeful villagers. Only his wits, his gun, and an unlikely ally can get him out alive.