#GrabYourWallet : Another Reason for Indies to Publish Everywhere

Posted on November 19, 2016 by Amber Foxx

Whatever our politics, we should be a nation of readers. Reading increases empathy , creates a mental flow state, and reduces stress. This post is about making sure readers can find the books they want in the places where they choose to shop. For participants in the #GrabYourWallet boycott, Amazon is not among the places where they choose to shop. I’m not telling anyone whether to participate or not, just informing authors and readers of some options.

Some authors I know are always tuned into political news, while others do their best to tune it all out. If you’re in the latter group, you might want to read this, in case you don’t know about a movement that is boycotting companies they have identified as selling Trump brand products. Amazon is one.

If the boycott gets momentum—which it might, since slightly over half the country didn’t vote for Trump—that could make a dent in indie authors’ sales. Readers who are boycotting Amazon need to find our books elsewhere. After all, Amazon isn’t the only place to buy books.

Boycotters (and others) can read on a Nook or install a Nook app on a Kindle or on a laptop. They can buy e-books from the iTunes bookstore and read on iPads, or buy paperbacks from independent bookstores. Or buy e-books from Kobo, Smashwords, Inktera, or ScribD, as long as they have an e-reader that reads e-pub formats or have Adobe Digital Editions software installed on their laptops. But they can’t boycott Amazon and still buy your books if you’re in KDP Select.

I’ve always felt strongly that authors should make their books available widely and not give one company a monopoly on their work. The more booksellers are competing in the marketplace, the better for the health of the book business and the more secure indie authors will be. Being published everywhere, I still might lose some sales if boycotting readers who own Kindles don’t take their business to the other retailers, but some might take one of the routes I listed above. I hope they will. Everyone needs to keep on reading.

Ready for a good book?

All the books reviewed on this site are widely available, and although the lists by genre have not been expanded for a while (I’ve been busy writing, reviewing and doing my days jobs), all of them include books that are published beyond Amazon.

Amber Foxx

Bargain Boxed Set from Ten Great Mystery Writers

Posted on May 2, 2016 by Amber Foxx

Sleuthing Women: 10 First-in-Series Mysteries is a collection of full-length mysteries featuring murder and assorted mayhem by ten critically acclaimed, award-winning, and bestselling authors. Each novel in the set is the first book in an established multi-book series—a total of over 3,000 pages of reading pleasure for lovers of amateur sleuth, caper, and cozy mysteries, with a combined total of over 1700 reviews on Amazon, averaging 4 stars. Titles include:

Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun, an Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery by Lois Winston—Working mom Anastasia is clueless about her husband’s gambling addiction until he permanently cashes in his chips and her comfortable middle-class life craps out. He leaves her with staggering debt, his communist mother, and a loan shark demanding $50,000. Then she’s accused of murder…

Murder Among Neighbors, a Kate Austen Suburban Mystery by Jonnie Jacobs — When Kate Austen’s socialite neighbor, Pepper Livingston, is murdered, Kate becomes involved in a sea of steamy secrets that bring her face to face with shocking truths—and handsome detective Michael Stone.

Skeleton in a Dead Space, a Kelly O’Connell Mystery by Judy Alter—Real estate isn’t a dangerous profession until Kelly O’Connell stumbles over a skeleton and runs into serial killers and cold-blooded murderers in a home being renovated in Fort Worth. Kelly barges through life trying to keep from angering her policeman boyfriend Mike and protect her two young daughters.

In for a Penny, a Cleopatra Jones Mystery by Maggie Toussaint—Accountant Cleo faces an unwanted hazard when her golf ball lands on a dead banker. The cops think her BFF shot him, so Cleo sets out to prove them wrong. She ventures into the dating world, wrangles her teens, adopts the victim’s dog, and tries to rein in her mom…until the killer puts a target on Cleo’s back.

The Hydrogen Murder, a Periodic Table Mystery by Camille Minichino—A retired physicist returns to her hometown of Revere, Massachusetts and moves into an apartment above her friends’ funeral home. When she signs on to help the Police Department with a science-related homicide, she doesn’t realize she may have hundreds of cases ahead of her.

Retirement Can Be Murder, A Baby Boomer Mystery by Susan Santangelo—Carol Andrews dreads her husband Jim’s upcoming retirement more than a root canal without Novocain. She can’t imagine anything worse than having an at-home husband with time on his hands and nothing to fill it—until Jim is suspected of murdering his retirement coach.

Dead Air, A Talk Radio Mystery by Mary Kennedy—Psychologist Maggie Walsh moves from NY to Florida to become the host of WYME’s On the Couch with Maggie Walsh. When her guest, New Age prophet Guru Sanjay Gingii, turns up dead, her new roommate Lark becomes the prime suspect. Maggie must prove Lark innocent while dealing with a killer who needs more than just therapy.

A Dead Red Cadillac, A Dead Red Mystery by RP Dahlke—When her vintage Cadillac is found tail-fins up in a nearby lake, the police ask aero-ag pilot Lalla Bains why an elderly widowed piano teacher is found strapped in the driver’s seat. Lalla confronts suspects, informants, cross-dressers, drug-running crop dusters, and a crazy Chihuahua on her quest to find the killer.

Murder is a Family Business, an Alvarez Family Murder Mystery by Heather Haven—Just because a man cheats on his wife and makes Danny DeVito look tall, dark and handsome, is that any reason to kill him? The reluctant and quirky PI, Lee Alvarez, has her work cut out for her when the man is murdered on her watch. Of all the nerve.

Murder, Honey, a Carol Sabala Mystery by Vinnie Hansen—When the head chef collapses into baker Carol Sabala’s cookie dough, she is thrust into her first murder investigation. Suspects abound at Archibald’s, the swanky Santa Cruz restaurant where Carol works. The head chef cut a swath of people who wanted him dead from ex-lovers to bitter rivals to greedy relatives.

Buy Links

Kindle Nook Kobo iTunes

*****

My thanks to Lois Winston for providing the guest post above. I was eager to promote this set, knowing her work and that of some of the other authors included. I can always count of members of Sisters in Crime for polished, masterful mysteries. Happy reading!

Amber Foxx

March #Sales E-book #Bargains in Mystery, Suspense and Thriller

Posted on March 14, 2016 by Amber Foxx

The following books are bargains right now. Everywhere, not just Amazon. Book title links go to Goodreads for more about the books. Sales links take you Barnes and Noble, Kobo, the iTunes bookstore, and/or Smashwords. Review links go to my reviews on this site. (I didn’t review my own book, of course, so there isn’t one for The Calling. See Goodreads for reviews.)

Mystery mixes with political intrigue for an American in Poland