Saturday, April 5, 2014

Free Series Starter Promotion at iBooks Features Dozens of Smashwords Authors

Apple iBooks this week introduced an international merchandising promotion in the US, Australia and New Zealand spotlighting free series starters.  Smashwords-distributed books make over 80 appearances in the promotion.

All featured Smashwords authors are taking advantage of Smashwords' new Series Manager merchandising tool, which we launched back in September.  As I mentioned in September, Series Manager enables authors to attach their titles to series, which makes it easy for readers to easily identify books within a series, or across related series.  Just as importantly, series metadata gives Smashwords retailers greater flexibility to promote books within a series.  Apple's FIRST IN A SERIES promotion is one such manifestation of the new merchandising opportunities now available to Smashwords authors thanks to Series Manager.

In the US iBooks store, featured Smashwords titles are organized under categories of Mysteries and Thrillers, Romance, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Paranormal Romance and Teen Fiction.  Please join me in congratulating the following Smashwords authors for their inclusion in this special merchandising feature:

Mysteries & Thrillers
Russell Blake - Night of the Assassin
Stephen Leather - Natural Selection
Mike Wells - Passion, Power & Sin
JD Nixon - Heller
Al Rennie - Clearwater Journals
Odette C. Bell - Trouble & Treasure

Romance
Lacey Weatherford - Crush
Lili St. Germain - Seven Sons
Lauren Blakely - The Start of Us
DW Cee - Emily's Story
Melody Grace - Untouched
Lisa Scott - Flirts! 5 Romantic Short Stories
Callie Hart - Deviant
Erica Stevens - Kindred
Rucy Ban - All My Life
Danelle Harmon - The Wild One
Abigail Strom - Cross My Heart
Lilianna Anderson - Too Close
Lily Graison - The Lawman
Anne Marie Novark - The Doctor Wears a Stetson

Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Frankie Rose - Sovereign Hope
Jason Halstead - Child of Fate
T.M. Nielsen - Dimension Shifter
John H. Carroll - Rojuun
G.P. Ching - The Soulkeepers
Jeffrey A. Carver - Neptune Crossing
Odette C. Bell - A Plain Jane
Joseph Lallo - Bypass Gemini
Randolph Lalond - Origins
Edward Crichton - The Last Roman
Jonathan Moeller - The Tower of Endless Worlds
Maree Anderson - Seer's Hope
Joseph Lallo - The Book of Deacon
TC Southwell - The Queen's Blade
Brian S. Pratt - The Unsuspecting Mage
Richard L. Sanders - The Phoenix Conspiracy
Sarah Woodbury - Daughter in Time
Michael Wallace - The Dark Citadel
TC Southwell - The Queen of Arlin
TC Southwell - The Broken World
Tara Brown - Cursed
Jessica Sorensen - Darkness Falls
Michael R. Hicks - First Contact (In Her Name: The Last War)

Paranormal Romance
Nicky Charles - Bonded
Erica Stevens - Captured
Kira Saito - Bound
Jessica Sorensen - Shattered Promises
Addison Moore - Ethereal
Rebecca Ethington - Kiss of Fire
Tenaya Jayne - Forbidden Forest
Claudy Conn - ShadowLove Stalkers
Maree Anderson - The Crystal Warrior
Lacey Weatherford - Of Witches and Warlocks: The Trouble with Spells
Kristen Middleton - Blur (Night Roamers)
Tara Brown - Cursed (Book 1 of the Devil's Roses)
M. Leighton - Madly
Rachel Higginson - Love and Decay

Teen Fiction
Chanda Hahn - UnEnchanted
GJ Walker-Smith - Saving Wishes
Quinn Loftis - Prince of Wolves
Amy Miles - Forbidden
Tracie Puckett - The New Girl
Jessica Sorenson - The Fallen Star
Julia Templeton - The Deepest Cut
Penelope Fletcher - Glamour
Kira Saito - Bound
Shelly Crane - Significance
Erica Stevens - Kindred
Melanie Nilles -  Starfire Angels
Kaitlyn Davis - Ignite
Christie Anderson - Deep Blue Secret
K.A. Tucker - Anathema
Devyn Dawson -  The Light Tamer
M. Leighton - Blood Like Poison: For The Love of a Vampire
Sophie Davis - Talented
India Lee - Hidden Gem
Elaine Pierson - Growl
Claire Farrell - Verity
M. Leighton - Madly
Jessica Sorenson - Ember
Jamie Campbell - Ignite
Sandra Thompson -  The Ghostly Grammar Boy
Alicia Michaels - The Bionics
Ashlyn Daube - The Circle


Most of the titles above are also featured in Australia's and New Zealand's FIRST IN A SERIES FREE promotion.  As a bonus, Australia/NZ features an additional category for Fiction, which includes the following Smashwords authors:

Free Series Starters - Fiction

Shayne Parkinson - Sentence of Marriage
Brian K. Larson -  The Secret of Crystal

Congratulations to all featured authors, and thanks to the great team at Apple for their tremendous support of Smashwords authors!

If you're one of the lucky authors above, be sure to celebrate with your fans.  Right mouse click the titles above to copy the direct hyperlink to the book.   Just a quick reminder also to refer to the store as either iBooks (‘Download on iBooks’) or the iBooks Store (‘Available on the iBooks Store’), and not iTunes.

7 comments:

  1. That series manager's been a great idea, glad Apple's taking advantage of it so well.

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  2. Any chance webpage links might be added to the books in this list? It'd make it easier for would-be readers.

    For some reason, Apple doesn't think it important for people to search for ebooks with a browser. They'd rather you use their apps. But it's easy to get those links:

    1. Search for the book in the iBooks app on a Mac.

    2. Right Click on the title and select Copy link

    3. Paste that link wherever you want.

    For instance, the first book in that list is:

    https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/night-of-the-assassin/id493356490

    --Michael W. Perry, author of My Nights with Leukemia, which can be found at at: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/my-nights-with-leukemia/id690916827

    It'd be great if Apple made a book's samples available on those webpages as un-DRMed epubs. It'd be great for those who'd like to gift the book to someone else.

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  3. Glad to see Apple embracing this, especially after the DOJ price fixing suit.

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  4. Yay! Many thanks to Apple for promoting two (!!!) of my books, and to Smashwords for letting me make the books free to begin with.

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  5. Wow! I really appreciate Smashwords making it so easy to go free to help promote my series of books. The series manager really helps the readers find our books, too. Great that Apple is using it to the best advantage for all of us.

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  6. Already have the first book in my series free.

    https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/kissed-my-once-future-love/id732317247?mt=11

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  7. Wow--didn't know and this is fantastic.

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