Jennifer Lyon

Archive for the 'The Proposition' Category

Friday, February 6th, 2015
New Covers for The Plus One Chronicles Series

As promised, I’m going to talk about why I’m doing new covers for The Plus One Chronicles Series. If you want to skip all this, you can scroll down to the bottom and see the covers. Or you can read on to see my reasoning/explanation. Okay, for those of you still reading, I debated doing this for a long time. This is a risk, I’m investing a good chunk of money in the covers—I need five of them.
–A new cover for each book: The Proposition, Possession and Obsession.
–I need a new 3D cover for The Plus One Chronicles boxed set
–And because not all vendors take 3D I also need a flat cover.

And then I need to reformat the files with the new covers and do some promo. All told, once I’m done, I’m going to spend a thousand or more on this.

So why am I doing it? There are several reasons, so let me start with some background. Last year alone, at iBooks, I sold 103,000 copies of The Plus One Chronicles Series. That’s my biggest vendor, but I’m giving you an idea of what kind of sales I had at one vendor.

By the end of last year and into this year, it’s dropped dramatically (down to hundreds and tapering off) as is the natural course of things. It’s the law of diminishing returns. Let’s not get into a bunch of economics here, the basic premise is simple: Buying excitement and motivation is high in the beginning and sales track up, and if all things remain the same, sales then plateau and fall. (A simplified explanation for MY purposes).

So basically, with all things being the same, I’ve reached the audience I’m going to reach for the most part. Sure I’ll get a few more, but not a lot. But if I change things up, I’m hoping to reach a NEW audience for this series. This means rebranding the series to go outside the reach I currently have. And part of that reach is the covers.

Covers mean a LOT in sales. They are one of our strongest tools to catch reader’s eyes. Story blubs, tag lines, and other promotional tools are useful too. But covers, particularly in this social media world where readers are scrolling through life and we only have one to three seconds to catch their attention, covers are key. As the old adage goes: A picture is worth a thousand words. A cover will, I believe, stop a scrolling reader to take a second look.

And a second look can add up to more sales.

So I decided it was time for new covers to see if I can breathe new life into the series. So here are the things I was looking for with a new cover.

1) Branding. The old covers, I think, were beautiful but they were very different. The first one showed a dessert, the second one showed a sensual woman, and the third a couple. They lacked cohesion and didn’t quite tell the story of the series. One could easily believe it was three DIFFERENT stories, not one over-arching story told in three segments. The new covers show the same couple on each book. And shows the progression of their relationship: First they are looking at each other in The Proposition which shows the beginning. In Possession they’re turned toward each other, clearly growling closer, and in Obsession they are intimately together, clearly in love. This gives a stronger concept an emotionally erotic love story.

2) My name and bestseller status. I am an international bestseller, and my name has become my brand. I had to get over my resistance and put that on the very top of my covers like a smart businesswoman.

3) All the titles and cupcake emblems are in the same, creating a more uniform brand.

4) The older cover for Possession was in the “dungeon” at Amazon. What that means is that it was suppressed in the search engines with an adult only tag due to the cover. Amazon has tightened their cover restrictions. I’m hoping the newer covers will be okay, however I want to say that I’m not complaining. Amazon has the right to make their rules, and I can choose to use them as a vendor or not. I choose to use them, and if these covers get tagged, that’s life. A side note: I’ve been in long discussion with another vendor, and so far we have not agreed on terms. I’d never bad mouth that vendor either—they have the prefect right to set their terms. This is business, not personal.

5) Late this year (or possibly early next year if things don’t go as I hope) I want to launch a new series that will be very loosely tied to the Sloane’s world in The Plus One Chronicles. Freshening up the covers could possibly bring new interest. It keeps my name alive while I get new books ready to release. And having The Plus One Chronicles more clearly branded will separate it from the Shattered Illusions series, but my name and bestseller statues will connect the two. So if someone reads the new series the Jennifer Lyon, International Bestselling Author, and search for more books by me, they’ll find The Plus One Chronicles.

6) THE ONE THING I DON’T WANT TO DO—trick readers who’ve already bought the books into buying the new ones. The titles, release dates and blurbs will all be the same. I’m openly discussing this to get the word out and will probably put both covers labeled “original” and “new” on my website.

So to wrap it up, I basically felt that the covers I was using had gotten a little stale, and freshening up the series with new updated ones might breathe new life into the series and reach an untapped readership.

It’s a risk. I have no way of knowing if it will pay off, but that’s the beauty of self-publishing—I’m in control, and I can try new things as long as I determine that I can afford the risk if it doesn’t pay off.

I expect the new covers will go up in most places in a week or two. After a month or so I’ll report back with the best numbers I can to let you know how it’s working.
And now…here are the covers!

The Proposition, Possession and Obsession designed by Patricia Schmitt

3SamplePlusOne_allthree_C

The Plus One Chronicles Boxed Set; 3-D version

Sample revised boxed set PlusOneBox_c (1)

The Plus One Chronicles Boxed Set, flat version

PlusOne_BOX_FLAT

Friday, May 2nd, 2014
Happy Friday and News!

I hope this blog posts at the correct time. The server is doing some maintenance over night so it may be delayed. If the blog shows up late, that’s why. For once it’s not my fault, LOL

And here’s my news: I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve sold the Brazilian Portuguese rights for THE PROPOSITION (book 1 of The Plus One Chronicles) to Editora Charme Publisher in Brazil. I’m really excited about it! The editor there contacted me, and then we were half way through negotiations when my Internet crashed. Thankfully I was able to email the editor through my phone and let her know. She was very understanding and patient. We just concluded and signed the deal yesterday.

Between this deal and the German one, Kat and Sloane are turning into world travelers :-) I can honestly say that I never imagined this happening when I sat down to write these books. All I cared about was finding the best way to tell their story that meant so much to me.

My weekend will be all work. Real Life keeps infringing on my writing time, and I know edits for THE COWBOY MARINE  (I just got work that we’ll be changing the title) are coming my way soon. On top of that, Ryan and I are still working on the audio for POSSESSION. We’re almost there, though!

What are you doing this weekend?

Friday, March 7th, 2014
Happy Friday!

It’s already Friday again! So hard to believe. I’m expecting a good weekend because Bailey is coming tonight (I’m writing this blog on Thursday night) to stay the weekend, and I’m going to my local RWA chapter meeting on Saturday. Wizard says he and Bailey will hang out and do serious male bonding :-)

Also, I approved the audio for THE PROPOSITION so hopefully that will be up in a couple weeks. I’m so impressed with Ryan as a narrator/producer that I’ve contracted with him for the next two books, POSSESSION and OBSESSION.

I have to make time to write this weekend too!

What are your weekend plans?

Friday, November 1st, 2013
Late Happy Friday!

Wizard and I ran out of candy! It was insane– 7 1/2 bags of candy gone in about an hour and a half. Then we had to hide :-) So I didn’t get my blog up.

This morning I discovered that someone (WIZARD!) had set aside some candy in one of the cupboards so now we still have candy in the house.  Sigh. At least I went to the gym, that’s something, right?

Okay first a little news that made my day yesterday.  THE PROPOSITION was on Galley Cat (an industry blog) with the header SELF PUBLISHED AUTHOR JENNIFER LYON AMONG TOP PAID iBOOKS. You can link to it here

So awesome! I actually didn’t see it, my formatter (love her!)  did and forwarded it to me.  Once aqain, I’m stunned, humbled and grateful.

And I also wanted to let everyone know that Silver Jame’s book SEASON OF THE WITCH is up at Amazon here 

Season of the Witch Silver James

 

I have to get my copy!

This weekend is all work for me.  However next weekend I get to go see some old friends so I don’t mind sacrificing this weekend to work!

How was your Halloween? And what are you doing this weekend?

Wednesday, October 16th, 2013
Wednesday Worthy

I can’t keep up! Okay let’s get some of the promo stuff out of the way.  For the OBSESSION Blog Tour schedule, check my home page The grand prize is a $50.00 electronic gift card, and the two runner up prizes are $25.00 e-gift cards.  Sometimes the posts don’t get up when they are scheduled because the blogs are run by real people with real lives :-)  I’m grateful to each and every blog hosting this tour and appreciate their work!

And secondly, all three books in The Plus One Chronicles; THE PROPOSITION, POSSESSION and OBSESSION have been in the top 50 contemporary romance list at iBooks (iTunes/Apple). This list changes daily (I think) so it may shift by the time you all see this.  But I’m thrilled. It was a surprise because my sales there have been modest, and then started trending up over the last month and soared when OBSESSION came out.  It’s an interesting market study–it seems a chunk of people waited for all the books to come out before buying.

Lastly, I’m slacking at answering comments. I see them–I just don’t always answer.  I’m truly sorry. I swear I mean too. But for weeks now, I’ve been working until bedtime (often getting nowhere!) and something has to give. Like all the dust in my house.  Even my vacuum cleaner misses me.  And FYI to Logan and Becky, the H/H in THE COWBOY MARINE–you two are driving me crazy.  Can’t we all just get along and write a nice simple not–too-freaking-sexy story? Is that too much to ask?

But I digress…

Enough of all that! Let’s move right into our Wednesday Worthy. Now it looks to me like some witch tried to “capture ” this guy and he’s highly amused by the puny attempt.

bigstock-Portrait-of-a-handsome-muscula-50502593

 

So what do you think? Is he worthy?

 

 

Wednesday, July 3rd, 2013
Cover Reveal & Wednesday Worthy!

Many of you know I belong to a group of authors called Rock*it Reads We are a collective of authors who are both traditionally and indie published. Three of us; myself,  V.K. Sykes and Juliana Stone have published sports romances and done well individually. In fact, V.K Sykes hit the USA Today list. So we got together and decided to contribute one of our sports romances into a super hot bundle. Introducing…

PLAY HARD

Three sexy sports romances that bring the heat!

PlayHard_final_600x1013

 

I’m excited to join with these talented ladies in this endeavor. These days, self published authors can work together to cross promote and support one another.  But it’s also a way for readers to get a taste of new-to-them-authors for a reasonable price. For me, it’s a pleasure to introduce my readers to both V.K. Sykes (who also write as Vanessa Kelly), and Juliana Stone. I love working with them on this project and hope to do so again in the future!

PLAY HARD will be on sale July 15th. I’ll keep you all up to date.

Now lets switch gears to Wednesday Worthy. I’m trying to find new models, so here’s my latest discovery:

bigstock-Portrait-of-a-cool-young-sexy--45776614

So what do you think?

 

JenniferLyon.com