It’s been a while. The March 17th launch of Hunters came and went, so let’s take a look at the news…

As I mentioned above, the Hunters launch happened.
And as Borat would say…

The pre-order for the ebook went great, and since then I’ve been selling something like a book every few days. It’s not JK Rowling numbers, but it’s better than I thought.
The weird thing is though, that the sales have skewed in a strange way. While the pre-order was heavy on the eBooks, since then the Paperbacks are outselling it on a 2:1 basis. Which is odd.
I truly expected it to be the eBook dominating the sales due to it’s relative cheapness and the size of the book. I figured that the kindle version would be more digestible.

Apparently, I was wrong.

The big reason for this I think, is that the paperback has been selling to family and friends. Those who maybe would like a material copy of it. The big issue therefore is getting it into the hands of strangers. Hence I’ve made a few changes this week.

FIRSTLY – I now have a Jon Ford Author Instagram account.
I wish I could take credit for it, but it’s mostly the work of my wifey. Jess is running it and is doing an amazing job. It looks great. Click on the piccy below to find me…

If you’re conversing with me over there, then there’s a 50/50 chance you may be talking to Jess. Don’t worry, if you are, you’ll know it because she’ll tell you upfront!
She’s using the Instagram as an outlet for her creative impulses and a place to talk about the books we’ve read and loved. Hop on over and check it out for that and all the latest Songbird news…

Speaking of which…

The book is available on Amazon (I guess you know that by now!), but what I’ve done this last few weeks is create a ‘SmartLink’ that I can link to things like the logo above so that when you click on them it’ll automatically direct you to the Amazon of your region.

Go on…try it.

It’s a gamechanger, because now I don’t have to put up a dozen links for Amazon.co.uk, and Amazon.com, etc. Just click and be directed.

Now this was where I found out something fascinating. I can see exactly how many clicks that link gets and from where! Behold…

What’s super interesting is the total number of clicks I’ve gotten. In the 3 weeks or so since I set it up, it’s been clicked on 1,115 times. So I KNOW people have been to Amazon and seen ‘Hunters’. However that’s only translated to around 20 sales, and – as I mentioned above – they’re pretty much all Paperbacks.

So why is my conversion rate so low? Like 1.8% bad.

Is it the blurb? The book length? The price?

So this week I addressed some of these things.

First thing first, I did a little asking around, and got some opinions on how I could amend the blurb. Maybe make it more enticing. Some of the feedback said I should concentrate on matching the blurb to the cover. As the coverart features Gayle, then maybe the blurb should feature her too.

So as an experiment, I changed the blurb to read like this:

Let’s see what happens!

I’ve also attempted to kill two birds with one stone when it comes to addressing the price and length. Again, advice from the Twitter brain-trust said maybe I’d fare better putting Hunters on Kindle Unlimited. The theory is that larger books go down better there, and obviously they’re free to subscibers. I get paid per page read.

So… Hunters is now available on Kindle Unlimited.

I’ll keep you posted as to the results of my great experiment!


Work continues apace on Blood to Earth as we target a July/August launch.

The book has now been through Nikki‘s edit and is back with me. The first draft WAS about 161k words, but after she worked her first round of magic, it came down to around 160k.

Now I’m deep into a comprehensive edit and have it down around 158k. It’s VERY SLOWLY coming into shape. I’m aiming for it to be around the same size as Hunters (so around 148k) which means I still have a bunch to whittle out of it. But it’s getting there, and I’m REALLY excited for it.

Not much more to report on this front at the moment, but I’m hoping to have it with Beta Readers in the not too distant future.


LOOK!!!!!

Yes, that graph is pretty much the same as last time.

Sorry.

Work has stopped on Tooth & Claw at the moment as I concentrate fully on the edit of Blood to Earth.
It is a shade over 40k words now, though, so it’s maybe about a 1/4 done in it’s rough draft form.

Truth be told, I’m struggling a little on this one to find the ‘arc’. It’s very much going to delve into the resolution of the Vampyrii civil war arc, the clash between Lyssa and Sebastian for control of New Victus. It’s going to feature a lot of Damian and Lyssa, and a couple of new characters I’m introducing. I’m having a little bit of a dilemma in one of the story ploy points I was initially putting in and am now on the fence about.

Don’t worry, though, I’ll work it out.

In the meantime, I have the cover art done by Marlena ready to go. You may have seen it on the Homepage banner, but here it is for those who missed it…

Isn’t is amazing?

Meet Damian Dane, in his Human form and his Dire Wolf alternate form. Prepare yourself for some Werewolf on Vampyrii action! Grrrrr!

In other news…

It’s been a bit of a quiet month in regards other news. But I REALLY want to point you at my last BlogPost, which is the start of a new series of features I’m planning to do with the authors of the books I read of my ‘To-Be-Read‘ list (you can see the list by clicking HERE!)

Anyway, the feature is called INDIE DEEP DIVE and the first one I did was with GrimDark author, Halo Scot about her astonishing book ‘Edge of the Breach‘, the first book in her ‘Rift Cycle‘ series.

I URGE YOU to check it out. Just click on the image of her book below…

Finally, did you all listen to my interview on ‘The Tiny Bookcase’?

If you DID listen then you’ll know I wrote an extra chapter for Hunters.
Billed as ‘Chapter 58 1/2 – My Collection‘ you can now find it here on the website… CLICK HERE TO READ!

But that’s not all. The winners of my Launch Raffle (Steve and Chris) both won a copy of the ‘Black Edition’ of Hunters, which has that chapter put into the book. It arrived this week and here it is in all it’s glory…

They look fantastic, and are winging their way over to the winners this week!
(Sorry for the delay!)


That’s all for this week. Until next time folks…

Love & Books

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28 Comments

  1. Mitch

    Thanks for the update on the book sales. I wondered how you were doing. I also wondered how Kindle Unlimited worked. Interesting that you get paid by number of pages read. The cover of book 2 is awesome!

  2. Lucy

    It’s so interesting to see the number of people who have looked at your book and from what part of the world they are from. I love seeing numbers and data like this, so thanks for sharing! Congratulations on a successful launch! 🙂

    • Jon Ford

      Thanks, Lucy. Now I just have to get people to keep buying it! LOL
      I’ll keep sharing the numbers as I go. 🙂

      • JennieP

        Do you have a new update? How many people have read it on Kindle Unlimited? I read a lot of books this way. I find a new author and then go buy other books that are not on KU.

        • Jon Ford

          ARGH! I need to get a new update out! It’s been far too long. Apologies.
          Short version… Blood to Earth is currently on track for a late September/early Octover release. (It got delayed as I suffered a kidney infection, and my editor Nikki has been dealing with some stugg too!)
          The first book in my new Superhero series (The Femme Fatales) is almost done in first draft, so I’m hoping it’ll be out near Christmas.
          Plenty to look forward to. 😀

  3. Ashlynn

    That’s really interesting that Kindle Unlimited authors are paid by the pages read. That encourages me to get started on my backlog of Kindle Unlimited books! I’m curious, does it come out roughly even for your profits if people purchase the book outright versus you getting paid via Kindle Unlimited?

    • Shel

      I did not know how that worked either. I have enrolled and canceled Kindle Unlimited numerous times. I find it hard to find something that interests me on there. I’ll have to go pick up Hunters now. I wondered why some of my favorite authors (been around a while) aren’t on there.

  4. Paytin

    I really enjoyed Hunters, so I’m excited for Blood to Earth to come out 🙂 Do you know about when in Autumn we can expect the book? I’m hoping it doesn’t launch the same time as finals start! 😛

    • Jon Ford

      It’s currently in it’s second edit, sooooo I’m hoping for a late July/early August.
      When’s your Finals? LOL

      • Mitch

        That is awesome news Jon! I thought it would take a bit longer. You really are rocking the series. How long in between the second and third book? I think that making readers wait too long is bad news. I’m glad Blood to Earth isn’t a long wair.

        • Jon Ford

          I’m planning on 2 books a year. So… Hunters was March, Blood to Earth will be August. Book 3 ‘Tooth & Claw’ should be out in March next year. That’s the plan I think, and so far everything is on track.
          I might have a couple of novella’s out in between too.

  5. Paytin

    When you said Autumn, I was thinking later in the season! I’m glad to hear that the book will be out sooner than I thought! 🙂

    • Jon Ford

      I’m halfway through the 2nd edit and not far away from the Beta Reader release. So I’m HOPING for a late July/early August release. I’ll keep you posted.

  6. Katie Edwards

    I have a friend who is also a sci-fi/fantasy nerd, so I sent her link to your novel. It’s right up her alley, really.
    She wouldn’t have bought it on her own, though. She questioned your star rating and felt it was too perfect. I thought that was an odd reason to get your hackles up as a reader, but nonetheless, it put her off. Interestingly enough, she’s glad that she listened to me and has become a fan of Lyssa Balthazaar’s.

    • Jon Ford

      Well, I only have a few reviews at the mo, so I’m sure that Star Rating will come down eventually. It can’t all be 5 Stars along the way. I think I’ve got about 16 ratings or something so far. I know about 8 of those are friends and family, the rest are strangers.
      It was SCARY when the first reviews and ratings started coming in from people I didn’t know and were hence unbiased.
      And she’s not the only one who’s a fan of Lyssa. There’s A LOT more to come from our Vampyrii matriarch in book 2!

      • JoKnight

        It seems bizarre to me to select or avoid books that way because it punishes talented authors with good reviews. Personally, I rarely look at the star rating. Whether a person will enjoy a story or not is highly subjective! I’d like to hear more about the marketing aspects if you get a chance, Jon.

        • Perry

          I could not agree more Jon. I don’t look at the star rating of books either. I look at the summary and decide from there.
          Why would someone not want to read a book that had a lot of stars?

  7. Athena

    I sub to Kindle Unlimited and make good use of it every month. It’s an affordable way to try out new authors. That’s how I found you.

      • Athena

        Honestly, what won me over at first was Becka’s all business demeanor as she classed up a werewolf. That’s when I knew I was about to have a good time. I love fantasy stories that carry me away into a whole different world.

        • Jon Ford

          I love Becka. She was originally just supposed to be a throwaway sidekick character, but I love writing her tiny bits in Hunters so much that she has an expanded role in Blood to Earth.

  8. Shantel

    Jon, have you gotten any flack for creating such an inclusive novel? I don’t think I’ve read a story that I could relate to so much, and that’s nuts considering we’re talking about wolves and vampires and the like. However, it’s not often though that you see queer folk depicted in such a normal way, like you did with Hunters. It felt good to read.

    • Scribble Me This

      I love that Jon allows his characters to just be. I support inclusivity, but sexuality shouldn’t be a character’s entire personality. I think few writers get that part right. Jon mastered that bit.

      • Jon Ford

        PHEW! I’m glad you think that, because that’s really what I went for. I didn’t want Allyson or Lyssa etc to be defined by their sexuality, I just wanted it to be a part of who they are. Lyssa, for example, is defined more by what she does as a Vampyrii leader. The fact that she’s bi-sexual is irrelevant.

    • Jon Ford

      Thanks, Shantel. That’s awesome to hear. No, no flak from anyone. Maybe I’m just not a big enough writer for anyone to aim flak at. LOL
      As I’ve said before, the characters are who they are. They live their lives in a normal way regardless of their race (Vamp, Were, whatever) or sexuality.

  9. AliciaA

    I love that I found this website. I found your book on Amazon. Of course I then looked you up and found this website. I have much to read! I love how you share and answer your readers. The personal touch is impressive. I can’t wait for your second book.

    • Jon Ford

      Well, book 2 is out! BLOOD TO EARTH is ready for you to read. You may have to wait for book 3 though.
      Thanks for the kind words, and welcome to my little corner of the internet! 😀

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