From my pal, Lilian

o          If you’re a fan of thrillers, adventures and chases and stuff,
Then do yourself a favour – invest in “Ferris’ Bluff”.
Once you’ve started reading, you’ll be rooted to the spot
As the action just keeps going and the pursuit is getting hot.
There’s even a little sweetener for those who like romance
But I won’t give it all away –buy the book and take a chance.


“Ferris’ Bluff” by Fred Limberg, as recommended by Lilian (Verse_Artiste) Kendrick

Yesterday...no, not the Beatles song

Yesterday I was just hanging out on my boat in the marina, sipping an icy Negra Modelo (or 2) and listening to a ballgame on the radio.

Bliss.

I felt like I was taking a break from work, believe it or not. If you've got an e-book recently published online you know what I'm talking about. Hours of bouncing from link to link, forum to forum, trying to get a handle on just where the readers are lurking so you can give them an e-pitch...

It's kind of fun and interesting, for sure...but draining. And you never know if it's working. Short term, a couple of sales overnight feels like a victory, though maybe a small one given the hours you were clicking away. 

Long term? Who the hell knows.

Back in the day, when I was starting up the plumbing company, I was the master of what was called
Guerilla Marketing--you know...non-traditional ways to advertise. What are the non-traditional ways to promote on the internets? For cryin' out loud, what are the traditional ways to advertise?

Also back in the day, the best advertising was 'word-of-mouth'.  I have no doubt the same is true here in The Matrix...no doubt at all. I just need some mouths, I guess, which brings the conundrum full circle.

But it beats waiting for a rejection letter or e-mail for a book you KNOW kicks ass by a mile...and gives you a perfectly good reason to open another icy beer...

The "VALUE" of your work

I got into a discussion yesterday about pricing and the value (or lack of it) of a book. It got me thinking about all sorts of things, business related and ego related.

When a new product is launched the maker has to entice and encourage others to try it, and thus choose that product over another that might be similar. Let's use crackers as an example, because as we all know, most writers are a little bit crackers.

There are lots of different crackers already on the market. Some are salty, some cheezy, some good for you, some wholesome, some not so wholesome. Your new cracker is similar to the others of it's kind, comes in a similar sized well-designed package, and should have a similar shelf price to the Ritzy ones and the Elvin ones. Eventually, you'll get that price because you've produced a really good cracker but when it's introduced you need to nudge the buyer into choosing your new cracker over an established brand.

You could offer a money back guarantee, but in truth...that's implied and available with every sale, anyway.

You could pack 20% more crackers in the box for the same price, and with crackers, that is a good incentive.

Or you could have a sale. You price your new crackers at 20 or 30 or even 50% less than the other crackers on the shelf. People notice! They say,"what the heck, I'm gonna give these a try!" and they buy a box.

You don't make any money on that sale (not with crackers, anyway) but lo and behold--the customer liked your crackers! They served them at a party! They mentioned them to a person or two or three.

Suddenly you get a call from the market that they are out of your crackers and they want to order more!

And this new batch is priced at or near(er) the price point of the Ritzys and the Elfies!

The VALUE of the product didn't change, merely the cost. So it is , I think with e-books.

I see nothing wrong with pricing Ferris' Bluff at 99 cents, other than the fact that my ego takes a hit with every sale! It's not going to be that price forever, and as it gains an audience and continued 5 star reviews, a price of $2.99 or whatever the market will both bear and allow (think about that one!) is not out of the question.

Oh, I forgot to mention that when the crackers went on sale the Ritzy's and the Elfies were a little pissed off cause, see, that strategy cost them some sales in the short term...and if the quality of MY crackers remains high, it will cost them market share in the long run.

Hey, that's business.

Enjoy reading Ferris' Bluff at a bargain price. Choose to spend your precious reading time with MY book, not somebody else's.

Just don't read it in bed...the crumbs, you know....

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0058U7X4I

From Amazon.com/UK

5.0 out of 5 stars This is so good., 6 July 2011

By 

I bite - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ferris' Bluff (Kindle Edition)

My first taste of a Kindle book and, wow, this one blew me away. Fred Limberg puts together a story as carefully as a brain surgeon, wielding words like a laser scapel, sharp, insightful and pin-point accurate. The prose is a joy to read and the plot builds like the layers of a well-constructed pyramid. And don't think the apostrophe in the title is misplaced; it's not, as becomes apparent as the story unfolds. It's a variation of the stranger-comes-to-town genre. Ace soon falls foul of the town's 'Boss-hog' and soon uncovers enough hidden chicanery, murder and greed to satisfy the most ardent thrill-seeker. Ace puts himself on the line bringing his past to town with a final satisfying scene where good whups evil.
Great characters in Ace, Annie and Leets, great action throughout, keeping the reader glued to the screen. Love and tenderness has a place too with two wounded souls finding each other in the mayhem of a small town in Arkansas. At the price, you get much more of a bang for less than a buck. Buy it, read it, love it.

Wouldn't it be nice...

Wouldn't it be nice if there was a place on the big honking internet where a person who likes to read thrillers could log on and see what's new and tempting?

Just, you know...thrillers.

Oh, wait, there are about a thousand of them...damn it! And that's not counting the 800 pound gorilla that is Amazon, the 600 pound orangutang that is B&N, and the pesky chimp that is Smashwords!

With Ferris' Bluff out there now my thoughts are turning to promotion and trying to think of ways to get people to notice the book and maybe buy it. I'm not close to worrying. Panic isn't even on the radar, but a guy has to wonder.

Oh, I'm sure there are any number of people who, for a reasonable fee, will tell me everything they think I need to know about promoting my book on the internets. I'd even consider hiring one if they would agree to take their fee on a per-book-sold basis. I don't think that's gonna happen.

I'm learning about the kindleboards and forums. That's kind of interesting but time consuming (what isn't?). I've found a listing of e-book reviewers to submit the book to. That's interesting too, but it immediately made me think of the bad old days of querying and querying and querying. I'll be doing it, though, because that seems to be what's done.

And no, I ain't worried about getting a bad review...not one bit!

For the first time since I sold my business (almost 6 years ago, now) I'm having to think about time management and prioritizing tasks. That sounds like work! It is work! This was not in the handout! Writing is supposed to be storytelling and communing with your muse and coming up with witty shit and quirky characters...not scheduling your day.

When's a guy supposed to write?
I got editing to do. When am I supposed to work on Dodge or First Murder?
How many hours should I spend on forums and blogs?
How often should I blog?
How many times can I pimp Ferris' Bluff on Facebook before people start hating me? (and how many books can I truly expect to sell there?)
Should I be tweeting? Tweeting sounds stupid. I don't tweet. Should I be tweeting?
What the hell is a blog tour?
I gotta make the final decisions about the design of Ferris' Bluff for the POD.
Back cover art...can't forget about that.
The lawn needs mowing. Can I strap my laptop to the John Deere and musti-task? Will the wireless internet thingy reach that far?
When's a guy supposed to actually write?

Well, I signed up for this so I guess the best I can do is just keep learning and plugging away and calling on 30 years of business skills (dusty, but not forgotten) to help me get it all done.

And maybe hire a kid to mow the grass...

3 FOR 3!!!! Ferris' Bluff is out there folks!

Stage one is now complete! 

Ferris' Bluff is available on Amazon (for Kindle only at present), through B&N (for the Nook), and through Smashwords for just about anything else you can read a book on.

I can't say enough good about my team--yeah, I consider them a team--Team Freddie!

Amy and Tina at 52 Novels are great to work with. Through a hail of gunfire, even, they tweaked Ferris' Bluff so it works on all the e-platforms and looks GREAT!

We had a little trouble getting the damn thing up on Smashwords, and we still aren't real sure why things just started working this morning, but it's up and available for sale. I have no doubts that it was my fault it got glitchy, but Tina sorted it out. If you are looking for folks to help you format your work I highly recommend them.

Props to my illustrator, Evan Simonet, for the cover art too. He's amazing. See, I had this picture I found somewhere--it's the one I used on Authonomy and have associated with Ferris' Bluff for a couple of years now. Well, I didn't own the rights to it. Evan turned it into a graphic, added Ace and Annie and the other stuff (I helped!...with suggestions only...) and came up with the complete cover. You can track him down at esimonet(at)hotmaildotcom if you think his cover art style would work for your book.

Some people have commented that it looks a little cartoonish. I guess some people think all book covers should fit some kind of photo-mosaic mold. I think its cool. I hope to hell it helps sell some books!

Kelley, my wife (aka the Sainted One), is also part of Team Freddie. She's become a pretty good critic over the years and gives me good advice early on now as I write these stories.

I've set the price for Ferris' Bluff at $2.99 for now on all three platforms, but if you buy it on Smashwords this weekend use the coupon code SK73M and it's only .99(why isn't there a cents sign on this stupid computer?).

What the hell...as soon as I post this blog I'm going to hop over and set the Kindle and Nook prices at .99(still no cents sign, damnit!) for the holiday weekend and into next week too! And be sure to leave a review when you're done.

Happy reading and have a wonderful 4th of July. I'm heading out on the St. Croix later today for a bit of boat floating, maybe a bit of fishin', and a couple of frosty adult beverages to celebrate!

                                       FERRIS' BLUFF...ONLY .99 CENTS!

Okay, it might take a little time for the price changes to show up on Amazon and B&N, I just found out. Hang in there!
 

2 out of 3 ain't bad...right?

Today's uploading marathon started out smoothly. I gotta tell ya', it's pretty exciting seeing your book cover pop up on Amazon. Maybe tomorrow it'll even actually be available for sale! I'm going Corvette shopping!

Kindle lapped my book up like a kitten slurping cream. B&N sucked it right up too. I had to jigger the cover size for them, but even techno-boob me managed to figure out how to do it.

And then came Smashwords. Curse you, Smashwords!

For the life of me I can't figure out where I went wrong, and ever-helpful Tina over at 52 Novels...she got the file loaded in a test upload just fine. No problemo. Not for Tina.

Well, I guess I'll try again tomorrow. Maybe I'll use an alias so they won't know it's ME trying to upload the damn manuscript. Yeah, that might work. I'll pretend to be Tina! I'll pretend to be knowing what I'm doing! All your internets will belong to me! BWAHAHAHA...

But 2 out of 3 ain't too bad...and I know my team will dive in and make it happen.

Join me in a cocktail to celebrate! Freddie got his book out!