Killer Femmes

A few months ago I was honored to be asked to join four other authors in creating an ebook bundle. We called our bundle Killer Femmes: 5 Irresistible Crime Novels From Around the World and we are offering it at the amazing price of 99¢. Yes, that’s not one book, but FIVE complete novels for that price. It is ONLY in e-book form, but as you know, anyone with a laptop or mobile phone can read an epub or mobi file using free downloadable apps. Although I linked to Amazon for the title above, the online bookshops carrying our book are Amazon, Barnes&Noble, iBooks and Kobo.

The other women writers in this bundle have all been traditionally published, and they are far more successful than I am, so I was really jazzed to be invited to be in such company. I mean these are award-winning authors with huge numbers of fans. Each book in the bundle is part of a series, and we hope that by marketing to our separate individual fan bases, we’ll sort of cross-pollinate and perhaps pick up some new fans each.

Now you know who the Killer Femmes are…what are the books like? Libby’s novel Easy Innocence is the first in the Georgia Davis PI series, featuring a smart young Chicago cop hunting for the murderer of a suburban high school girl. Zoe Sharp’s hardboiled thriller Killer Instinct introduces Charlie Fox, a beautiful but lethal ex-soldier who rights wrongs in Lancaster, England using semi-legal methods. Julie Smiths’ Louisiana Hotshot sends hip young poet Talba Wallis deep into New Orleans’ rap scene to unmask a killer. Sujata Massey included The Flower Master, set in Japan. Rei Shimura is sent to flower arranging school in Tokyo and gets tangled up in the murder of a snippy teacher.

Marketing one’s own books is one of the most difficult parts of this self-publishing business. I’d much rather just write the books than have to go out there and publicize them. But back in the old days when I was going on book tours and having to sit at a card table in some Waldenbooks at a mall and direct customers to the restrooms, it was all much more difficult. There are lots of inventive ways to market on the web that don’t require so much shilling for oneself. I love the idea of authors getting together to help each others’ sales.

In this case, I can state unequivocally that this is a heck of a deal. Even if you only end up liking one of the books in the bundle, it’s a deal.

The second tidbit I want to share with you is that Libby, the great marketing mind behind our bundle, has put together a contest. From today through July 25, you can win a $100 or $50 e-Book Gift Card to the bookseller of your choice simply by entering on the Facebook Page for Killer Femmes. For those of you who love contests, the word is the odds of winning are excellent (translated that means we don’t have very many entrants yet), so why don’t you give it a shot.

And finally, for those who have been following the travels and travails of this blogger, we are finally settled in Chino, California for the next two months and I will be able to do the one thing that I think will sell more books than anything else I can do: write the next book.

Fair winds!

Christine