Confronting the Demon: on SALE for 99c October 12 ONLY

The gates to hell are thrown wide when Alloran is betrayed by his best friend, Ladanyon, and framed for forbidden magic. He is hunted by the guards and the wizards both, tormented by the gruesome murder of his friends and loved ones, and crippled by fear for the living.

Now Alloran must face his demons, or damn the woman he loves.

Also featuring bonus short story 'A Magical Melody'

Genre – High Fantasy (17+)

Length – 110 pages

Published – September 24th

October 12th Indie-Vengeance Day Special! 

“Ballintyne gives wonderful descriptions and I found myself becoming lost in the magic of her words in a picturesque world with every turned page”  Bella Doerres

“The power-packed action will leave you breathless and the eerie suspense will make you chomp on your own nails, beware!” Satarupa

“With imagination and detail that paints a full scene for the mind’s eye, Ciara takes us on a short but exciting journey into a world of magic, love and demons from hell.“ Miranda Wood of DustyKatt’s Stuff Reviews

“I actually enjoyed a good fantasy novel that didn’t take days and days to read, but still offered the opportunity to get caught up in its world and story.” - Tracy Riva Global eBook Awards Judge

~Amazon Kindle~ US $2.99 99¢ | UK £1.93 £0.77

~Trade Paperback~ Amazon US | Amazon UK

In honour of Indie-Vengeance Day Ciara Ballintyne is offering up “Confronting a Demon” for the sale price of 99¢
On October 12^th after more than a year of planning, more than a dozen bestselling indie authors from around the globe (seriously!) will gather in Dallas, Texas for a once-in-a-lifetime signing and meet-the-author event; Indie-Vengeance Day.
Come join authors from the U.S, Canada and Australia and meet some of the most notable and recognized writers in the indie author movement.

Goosebumps prickled her arms, and she hugged herself. Demons. Why did he have to mention demons? She didn’t want anything to do with demons. I want to pretend that day never happened.

Before she thought it all the way through, she deposited herself in his lap, slipped her arms around his neck, and tilted her head up to kiss him.

A raucous cheer erupted from the sailors. She glanced over at the men saluting her with upraised tankards. Heat burned all the way to her hairline. She ducked her chin and looked away but refused to move from Alloran’s lap. The men shouted out obscenities. Or were those suggestions? The heat in her flaming cheeks intensified as she pulled her hood up to hide her face.

Alloran sat rigidly, staring down at her with an unreadable face.

She pouted. ‘I haven’t seen you in three months, and you don’t even have a kiss for me?’ Provoked by the continued catcalls, she wriggled her hips against him. Leather slid across coarse cloth. What is he wearing?

He seized her by the shoulders, pressing his fingers into her flesh hard enough to bruise. Another squeak escaped her throat. Her mouth tried to find words, but nothing came. He bent his head and brought his lips to her ear.

‘Is this a game to you, Gisayne? A game? This is my life. I haven’t just been vacationing somewhere, I’ve been running for my life, from Ladanyon, and from your father!’

.

Ciara Ballintyne was born in 1981 in Sydney, Australia, where she lives with her husband, two daughters, one masochistic cat, and one cat with a god complex.

She holds degrees in law and accounting, and has been a practising financial services lawyer since 2004. She is both an idealist and a cynic.

She started reading epic fantasy at the age of nine, when she kidnapped Castle of Wizardry by David Eddings from her father. Another two years passed before she began her first attempts at the craft of writing. Confronting the Demon is her debut book.

She enjoys horse-riding, and speculation about taking over the world. If she could choose to be anything it would be a dragon, but instead she shares more in common with Dr. Gregory House of House. M.D.

Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 The book tour for “CONFRONTING THE DEMON” By: Ciara Ballintyne is now accepting tour hosts.

The Book tour will take place on Monday through Friday. 12/2/2013 - 12/13/2013. 

If you are interested in participating in this tour, please fill out this form.

Hosted by:

What Would You Pay For A Book? What Do You Charge For A Book?

I’ve always had views about book pricing. I won’t buy a book priced at $0.99, because if that’s all it’s actually worth, then it’s not worth my time. The exception is a book on sale at $0.99 – in principle, anyway, because I still don’t think I’ve ever bought in that case either. 

$2.99 is another favourite price point because that gets the writer the 70% royalty offered by Amazon, but still, it’s an awfully cheap price for the amount of effort that actually goes into a book. 

I’ve long believed that selling books too cheaply results in them being undervalued by readers. There is anecdotal evidence than readers don’t value free books – many people collect free books and never read them, probably because something they’ve paid for always takes priority. There’s been no real expenditure of effort for a free book, so it can wait.

My opinion was somewhat vindicated when I saw some people questioning why a medical text was being offered for the price of $99 – I suspect they were spoiled by cheap ebook prices on Amazon, as well as having no clue about intellectual property.

I have been harbouring the hope that eventually readers would cotton on to the fact that you get what you pay for, and start avoiding $0.99 books as assiduously as I do in favour of something priced a little higher and hopefully of a better quality.

Then I read this article, by Dean Wesley Smith - http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/?p=7891

The author has strong opinions about pricing, and even offers a suggested pricing structure. He’s been around the traps a bit, having published over a hundred novels in thirty years and hundreds and hundreds of short stories across many genres. He wrote a couple dozen Star Trek novels, the only two original Men in Black novels, Spider-Man and X-Men novels, plus novels set in gaming and television worlds. He also co-wrote the novel for the NBC miniseries The Tenth Kingdom, and wrote novelisations of a dozen films, from The Final Fantasy to Steel to Rundown.

The article is worth reading, but if you don’t have the time, this is his suggested pricing structure in a nutshell:
 

— Novels

• Front list, meaning brand new. Over 50,000 words. $7.99
• Shorter front list novels, meaning 30,000 to 50,000 words. $6.96
• Backlist novels, meaning already published by a traditional publisher. $6.99

— Short Books

• Short books, meaning stories from 8,000 words to 30,000 words. $3.99

— Short Stories

• Short stories … 4,000 to 8,000 words. $2.99
• Short stories under 4,000 double with another bonus story… $2.99

— Collections

• 5 stories $4.99
• 10 stories $7.99

I like his prices. I’d pay them, as a reader, but then I’m coming from the perspective of an Australian reader, conditioned to pay $22 for a trade paperback , so these prices are still cheap as chips. Hell, $9.99 is cheap as chips.

There is a sweet spot for pricing, but that doesn't mean
everything should be priced there - for example, a
short story priced at $9.99 probably wouldn't sell much.
Your prices need to match what you're selling!

I think these prices are fair, but I’m not convinced that many readers, still spoiled by abysmally low book prices, will yet pay them – although I still hope that in the future they will.

I’ve just released my novella, Confronting the Demon, which I had originally planned to price at $1.99. This article suggests $3.99. I compromised at $2.99, and decided to see what happened, and use this as a guideline to pricing future books. It’s still early days as yet, but I’m getting upwards of 15 clickthroughs to the Amazon store each day, but usually no sales from that. I’m getting people to the book page, but they aren’t buying. Is it the price? Or something else?

So tell me what you think:

• Would you pay the suggested prices? If not, why not?
• Would you pay $2.99 for a novella including a bonus short story (totalling 30,000 words)?
• What do you think is a fair price for ebooks?
• How do you price your ebooks?

I’ll be signing copies of Confronting the Demon at the IndieVengeance Day Book Signing in Dallas, Saturday, October 12, 2013 from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM (CDT). Register here - http://www.indievengeanceday.eventbrite.com/.

Blurb - Confronting the Demon

The gates to hell are thrown wide when Alloran is betrayed by his best friend, Ladanyon, and framed for forbidden magic. He is hunted by the guards and the wizards both, tormented by the gruesome murder of his friends and loved ones, and crippled by fear for the living. Now Alloran must face his demons, or damn the woman he loves.

A Magical Melody

When a lethal spell is stolen from a locked and warded room, Avram must hunt down the thief before the song of power buries a city of innocents beneath a thousand tons of ice.

Links to Buy Confronting the Demon - How would you like to read?

Trade Paperback

My eStore $6.99

Amazon $6.99

Amazon UK £4.39

On my Kindle

US Kindle Store $2.99

UK Kindle Store £1.93

On my computer

Download Kindle for PC

US Kindle Store $2.99

UK Kindle Store £1.93

Coming soon on Nook, Kobo, and Apple devices.

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