Tuesday 20 May 2014

Lords & Ladies Box Set

Box Set £1.99

Yesterday I released my first Lord & Ladies box set and, as all the stories were 30,000 words novellas, I decided to put four titles in this one. Lord Atherton's Ward is very high on the Kindle historical romance charts and I was not sure if putting the book in this box set was a good idea. I have a feeling that the readers who buy box sets are not the same as the readers who buy single titles – anyway, I hope this is true.
I now have five box sets available – two at £1.99 and three at £2.99. As always it's a moot point whether to have everything priced as low as possible and sell more copies, or to price according to the length of the book (as I do) and make about the same in royalties.
I think that novellas should be cheaper than full-length books and this is why I price is I do. However, I know other Regency writers who sell well with box sets at £4.99 and full-length books at £2.99 – sometimes I wonder if pricing books to go devalues and somehow in the eyes of readers.
What do you think?

Sunday 4 May 2014

Another Birthday - Why Don't I feel My Age?

New garden bed.

Mary Berry's Lemon Cake
Yesterday was my birthday and I celebrated by inviting my friends and family to afternoon tea. I love to bake and spent a small fortune on new trays etc from Lakeland in order to be able to make the things in Mary Berry's new book.
I have to accept the fact that I am old in years (I could hardly have celebrated my golden wedding if I wasn't) but I don't feel any different mentally than I did 20 years ago.
In fact, if anyone had told me 20 years ago that I would be successful, multi-published novelist making more money from royalties than I ever did as a full-time teacher, I wouldn't have believed them.
I'm living the dream – spend my time writing, have a wide circle of wonderful writer friends, a one year old grandson as well as two adult grandchildren. Admittedly I do miss living in five acres of unspoilt woodland, but I don't miss the dilapidated, dark, old cottage that went with it.
Having buses and trains within 5 min of the house in one direction and stunning country walks and the river 2 min in the other, more than compensates.
If it wasn't for the fact that my husband, 14 years older than me, suffers from poor health and we can no longer take holidays abroad, and neither can I leave him overnight, I would say that my life is far better than it was 20 years ago.
By the way, the cake is delicious and I'm just going down to have another slice and a cup of hot chocolate before going out to lunch. The diet starts tomorrow!