Ebooks Special at $2.99

Hi everyone,

I am running an ebooks special on my novels this week. They're priced at only $2.99. (This price may take a day or so to filter down to Apple and some other ebook stores I distribute to through Smashwords.)

You can find the books here:
Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/6glbcjz
Barnes and Noble: http://tinyurl.com/5sx4ngr
Smashwords: http://tinyurl.com/658grho
The books are also available at Kobo, Apple, Sony and most any major ebook store. (Note: "Waiting" is available only at Amazon for now. That will change next month.) All of my works are DRM-free.

Blurbs here: http://www.qkellybooks.com/p/my-books.html

People often ask me which of my novels they should start with. Good question, and the answer really depends on a lot of factors. Generally speaking, though, if you like series, I have three books in the "Strange Bedfellows" series ("Strange Bedfellows," "Three's a Crowd," and "Victoria's Very Awkward Love Story"). "Third" may be good if you like historical fic and/or sci-fi. It's also a Lammy and GCLS finalist--if you put stock into awards. "The Odd Couple," "Waiting" and "Strange Bedfellows" also won/finaled for GCLS or Rainbow Awards.

List of novels on sale:
"Strange Bedfellows" (Book 1 of series)
"Three's a Crowd"  (Book 2 of series)

"Victoria's Very Awkward Love Story"  (Book 3 of series)
"Waiting"
"All in the Family"
"Third"
"The Odd Couple"
"Switch"

HOW to Avoid Reading Reviews of Your Own Works

I wrote here about not reading reviews of my own works anymore, and it's turned out to be my most popular blog post. It's also gotten me a few emails from other authors who say they plan to not read reviews anymore.

This blog post will deal with the "how" aspect--HOW not to read reviews. I thought all I'd have to do was stay away from my books on Amazon and similar sites, and in the case of Yahoo groups I belong to, if anyone posts a review of one of my books, just simply not click on that message.

Guess what? That isn't enough. Turns out that friends and fans are in a way, the trickiest aspect of this. I'll explain, starting with the friends/fans angle.

HOW TO AVOID READING REVIEWS OF YOUR OWN WORK:

1) Make sure that friends and fans who email and talk with you a lot are aware of your plan--AND tell them specifically that if they read bad reviews of your work, you don't want to hear about it. The thing is, ALL of the reviews I've heard about came from friends or fans who wrote me to complain along the lines of: "I just read this review of your book XXX. This reviewer is so off base and doesn't know what he/she is talking about. She actually said ABC XZY."

Okay, technically, that isn't reading the review, but the principle (for me, anyway) is that I don't want to hear about reviews that don't offer any constructive criticism or whatnot. The first couple of times this happened, just the fact knowing some of my books had these apparently terrible reviews was enough to make me gloomy a few days. That was exactly the mood I was trying to avoid by not reading reviews.

So, you tell your friends and fans what's up. Also say that if they read a review they don't agree with, they can best help not by emailing you and letting you know, but by leaving a comment on the review explaining any points of contention and/or clicking "No" on "Is this helpful?"

2)  Plan ahead. Get your book links stored in a central place and don't lose them. That way, you won't need them later. A few times, I didn't have links for books and had to go to Amazon to get the link again. In these cases, I was able to copy and paste the link before the page loaded, but this won't always happen. (Have a paper to block the screen!) What I do after a book is on sale, on whatever site--Amazon, BN, Kobo, Smashwords, CreateSpace, whatever--is copy and paste the link and put it in a file. There, I have the link if I need it. Not necessary to revisit the product page.

3) Author Central--yeah, this one kind of blows. Author Central is necessary to make sure all your books are grouped under the right author name. There's pretty much no way to log into Author Central (an Amazon property) without seeing aggregate star reviews. Again, this isn't reading reviews per se, but it's the principle of seeing a rating (IMO, that's a basic review in itself). What I've done since I decided to stop reading reviews is just not going to Author Central anymore. I'm taking the risk that my more recent books aren't linked to the older books. I can only hope that the Amazon computer (as it often does) is able to make the link itself eventually.

One way around this is to have someone else (spouse, friend, etc.) do the adding, but the site may be difficult to navigate for people who don't know it.

4) Goodreads. This goes back to #2 and having a link for your book. I like to have my Goodreads link, so what I do once a book is for sale is manually add it to Goodreads, copy and paste the Goodreads link, put it with the sale websites and make the announcements on a few Goodreads clubs that my book is available. Hopefully I won't ever need to return to that book's Goodreads page. This, of course, also necessitates never visiting your author dashboard, changing your author profile pic, etc. Too bad sites don't give authors an option like: "Don't show reviews and ratings!" ;-)

5) Cut down on your browsing for books in your genre (or eliminate such browsing). My #1 inadvertent way of seeing star ratings of my own books has been when I'm looking at a lesfic book in my genre, and one (or more) of my works is under "Also bought." You CAN position the page so that only the top half of these "Also bought" covers shows, but that takes some time and conscious effort to do. You're in trouble if you click on the sample because then in the right-hand column, there are "Also boughts" with the star ratings, and some of these books may be yours.

As a consequence of this, I've become much more careful about browsing lesbian books in general. When I do it, I am very aware of other titles' placements on the page. I always scroll down slowly in case one of my books is there, and if it is, I never scroll far enough down to see the star rating.

6) Proceed with caution. For example, I recently dipped my toe into audiobooks. I'm using ACX to start with two of my short-story collections. One thing I had to do in the application process was enter the book's ASIN so the program could find it in the Amazon system. I had a paper over the computer screen for this (paper covered the estimated area where star ratings might show up). Turns out at this point, you don't see the star ratings (YAY!). This made me happy, so I thought: "I'm home free from now on."

Nope. On the very last step of the application, the aggregate star ratings do show up. Fortunately, for the two collections I was setting up, the star ratings were high (4.7 of 5 and 4.3 of 5). So now I know the approximate place where I need to hold up a paper to block my view on this last step OR pull my wife in to handle that last step so I don't see anything.

Yeah, companies don't make this easy, do they? ;-) But with some time and tenacity, you can figure out little tricks such as these to avoid reading reviews of your own works. It's way been worth it in my case. My mental health has been so much better.

Happy reading and happy reviews (I hope!). :-)

"Victoria's Very Awkward Love Story" Is Out!

"Victoria's Very Awkward Love Story" is out! So far, it's available through these channels:

Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CBG208G

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/305401

Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/victorias-very-awkward-love-story-q-kelly/1046465647?ean=2940016778129

Kobo: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Victorias-Very-Awkward-Love-Story/book-0J4e9xqibkmkq_-dPR9EJg/page1.html?s=UoFN0aoxM0qkRzc4PfRcsg&r=1

Print: (Createspace) https://www.createspace.com/4241228; will take a few days to get into the Amazon system.

Excerpt below. For a blurb, go here.

Chapter Eight

At four a.m., Felicianna pretended she had to pee. She creaked her bedroom door open, snuck a glance into the living room, saw nothing but dim shadows and Victoria under the blanket, and padded to the bathroom. She pulled her boxer shorts down and sat on the toilet.

She’d never quite gotten to sleep, and after the latest batch of sirens, she heard Victoria walking around. Checking out the fridge.

Well. No pee. No light-yellow stream. No piss.

“Come on,” Felicianna muttered, and finally, a trickle began. Grew stronger but didn’t last long. Felicianna wiped, pulled her shorts up and washed her hands. She was either one of the dumbest people alive or…well, one of the dumbest people alive. Why didn’t she just ask Victoria to get in bed with her? They both wanted it, and nothing sexual would happen. Victoria was right that no one had to know. Not Elena, not Frances, not Brenda. Felicianna and Victoria were consenting adults. What they did was their business. Wasn’t anyone else’s business.

Fine. Felicianna would do it. And regret it later, like she regretted most of the decisions she made in the wee hours of the a.m. During the day, her mind kept busy enough. Her body kept busy enough. At night, her body and her mind got so lonely they ached. At night, Felicianna relived the past until she wanted to scream.

She gargled her mouth with Listerine. Tiptoed to the doorway connecting the living room and the hall. “Victoria?” she whispered.

Silence.

More insistently: “Victoria?”

The figure under the blanket bolted upward. “Oh shit. Did I oversleep?”

“No, you’re good.” Felicianna edged a couple of steps into the living room. “I thought that if you couldn’t sleep, you could…you’re welcome to try the bed. For whatever little time before your alarm goes off.”

“With you?”

Felicianna swallowed. “If you want.”

“What…what time is it?”

“A little after four.” Felicianna didn’t let herself think or worry or agonize anymore. She simply went to the couch, sat and wrapped her arms around the woman she’d started falling in love with a few months ago.

END OF EXCERPT

Relationship (Self-Esteem?) Advice

Today, I am donning my therapist stethoscope. What's that, you say? Shrinks don't get to scope? Well, shoot. I'm gonna keep it on anyway because it makes me look all sexy and smart and professional. Besides, this truly is a matter of the heart.

Okay then. I know plenty of people who say stuff like this: "I'll never find a woman."  "Why don't women like me?"  "Why can't a woman treat me right?"  "I'm so undesirable, stupid and fat."  "No one wants me." Maybe you're one of these people, and if so, here's what you need to do. Basically, quit the pity party. Quit broadcasting in public how down you are on yourself. You ARE smart and gorgeous and desirable. Even if you don't think you are. You are. I promise.

Here's the thing. As long as you're so down on yourself, finding the "right" woman will be difficult. Why? Bottom line: if you can't treat yourself right, why should anyone else? Certain kinds of people are drawn to people with lower expectations of themselves, and that doesn't make for a tasty dish (though it can make for a dramatic dish). Saying in public that you suck is likely to turn off exactly the kind of person you probably are looking to attract.

So. Take a few days to whine about yourself, but try to save it for private occasions. And then! Then find stuff to like about yourself. There IS plenty to like. Trust me. 

You still can't find anything to like? No problem. Fake it. Yep, that's right. Fake confidence. People are drawn to confident people. (Note: confidence is not arrogance. Arrogance is almost as much as a turn off as pity partiers.) Given enough fakery time, you may find that your confidence is turning into the real thing and that you're attracting a more-appropriate caliber of person.

You go, girl!

More Sales Info

I did a post last month detailing my top five sellers for the month on Kindle U.S. and Kindle UK. Figured I'd do the same this month. Why not?

*****

Amazon U.S. -- March
1. THREE'S A CROWD -- Strange Bedfellows Book 2
2. LOVE'S SPELL
3. MISS LUCY PARKER AND OTHER SHORT STORIES
4. STRANGE BEDFELLOWS 
5. WAITING

A few things to take from this. (Do check out my earlier post for further observations.) This list is pretty much the same as it was last month. Some place numbers changed and "The Girl Prince and Her Princess" dropped out (it would be tied for #6), but pretty much the same, yep. It's good to see what I am calling a "reverse effect" propelling some sales of "Strange Bedfellows." That is, books later in a series driving sales of earlier books in a series. I wonder if "Victoria's Very Awkward Love Story" (Strange Bedfellows Book 3) will have the same effect.

Two other observations of books not in this top 5. "Third" was named a Lammy finalist, and its sales have more than doubled across all platforms. I also did a price drop on my novel "Switch" ($6.99 to $2.99 for "Read an Ebook Week"), and sales on "Switch" soared (across all platforms also). I'm heartened enough to keep it at $2.99 for the time being. It's making way more money at $2.99 than it was at $6.99. 

*****
 
Amazon U.K. -- March 
1. THE OLD WOMAN AND OTHER LESBIAN STORIES (by a large margin)
2. WAITING
3. (tie) LOVE'S SPELL
3. (tie) THREE'S A CROWD -- Strange Bedfellows Book 2
3. (tie) MISS LUCY PARKER AND OTHER SHORT STORIES

Not much to say here except that the months-long freebie effect "The Old Woman" had is still reaping benefits. (See earlier post for details.)

The Banana Phone

I started on a short story earlier today. It's along the lines of some of the wackier shorts in my collections, and I thought I'd share the first 580ish words. Unedited, etc. so forgive the lack of polish. The tentative title is: THE BANANA PHONE. This will be a light lesbian romance (girl meets girl).

****

THE BANANA PHONE

Chelsea was forty years old and liked banana phones. Yeah, she was one of these weirdos who pressed a banana to her ear before she ate the fruit. “Hello?” she would chirp. If she was alone, she’d carry on a few sentences’ worth of conversation, her end only:

“Yes, this is she.” PAUSE. “Certainly, I’m available to organize your closet.” PAUSE. “Let me make sure and check my schedule. How’s next Tuesday? Great! Buh-bye.”

If someone, such as her mother or best friend was with Chelsea, Chelsea would exclaim “Hello!” into the banana phone and look expectantly at the other person. Usually, the other person played along.

On a Saturday morning in mid-September, Chelsea awoke and performed ordinary bathroom ablutions. She dressed for her usual weekend-morning jog, a four-miler through her residential neighborhood.

Underwear. Sports bra. T-shirt. Running shorts with a soft fabric liner. Socks. Shoes.

In the kitchen, Chelsea grabbed an empty water bottle and stuffed four ice pieces through its opening. She filled the rest of the bottle with tap water and took a swig.

Yum. Good stuff. She loved water. None of that soda pop poison, nope. And forget bottled water. It was tap water dressed up in fancy names such as Shining Creek or Diamond Stream. Studies showed as much.

Chelsea tore a banana from its cluster. She’d gone shopping yesterday and bought five bananas yellow as the sun.
“Hello?” she said into the banana. PAUSE. “Oh, I’m fine. Just going for a jog in a minute.” PAUSE. “I slept great. How about you?”

“Excuse me? Who is this?” A deep, growly male voice.
Chelsea blinked. Dropped the banana and whirled in place. Her kitchen was the same as always. Lazy waves of sunlight rolled through the windows, and the kitchen table sat on four unthreatening legs. All the windows were closed. Her neighbors’ voices never carried.

“Who is this?” The same deep, growly male voice. It seemed to come from the banana.

Which was impossible.

Chelsea’s gaze fell upon the blue CHIQUITA #4011 COSTA RICA sticker on the banana. She pressed a desperate finger to it. End call! End call!

She waited a few moments before venturing a: “Hello?”

Nothing.

She sagged against the counter and sucked in a relieved breath. Her heart jerked back to life, and she took a tentative bite from the tip of the banana. It tasted the same as any other banana. Certainly no deep growlies.

Chelsea decided that something close by must have picked up a radio signal. She had been about to eat a banana, damn it, and a strange voice wouldn’t stop her.
She bit into the thing with gusto.

*****

Later that day, Chelsea went out to dinner with her parents, then to their house to play cards. She arrived home about eight p.m., and her stomach rumbled. Her parents were early birders—had to be at restaurants by five p.m.

Chelsea peered at the cluster of four bananas. She’d told no one about the surprise voice. Had somewhat managed to convince herself it never happened. Her mind had played tricks on her.

“I won’t let bananas scare me,” she muttered, and ripped a banana from the pack. She forced the fruit to her ear but said nothing. What if the man talked to her? Or what if a different voice did? Chelsea clenched her teeth, and for the first time she could remember, proceeded to eat a banana without saying hello first.

*****

Strange Bedfellows Book 3 -- Victoria's Very Awkward Love Story

"Victoria's Very Awkward Love Story" (in other words, Strange Bedfellows Book 3) is done with the beta process for the most part. Reception has been great! I'm thrilled, and even better, the betas who haven't read the first (or second) "Strange Bedfellows" say this book can function as a standalone. This is probably the fastest book I've written, but in all honesty, parts were written before. In these incarnations, Vic was paired with different leads, depending on the incarnation. I couldn't get anything clicking, but seems like finishing "Three's a Crowd" (Strange Bedfellows Book 2) finally got me on the right track for Vic's story.

I anticipate release in about a month, perhaps a bit before. Some betaing and final editing remains. In about a week or so, I'll probably post the first one or two chapters.

Here's the cover. One of my favorite covers!

One of the betas (a new beta to me and who hadn't read any of my works) said she couldn't envision this book having a happy ending given the setup but that I managed to pull off the impossible. Yep. That's what I do for most of my novels. I  put characters in impossible situations and have them deal with them realistically and pragmatically. And lo and  behold, life does work out! ;-)

So, now that this is finished for the most part, what's next for me writing-wise? A "SB" Book 4? Probably not right away. I did have a novel (perhaps novella) in progress that I stopped working on to focus on SB3. Had to, because Victoria and Felicianna kept bothering me--these pesky gals wanted their story told ASAP! I may go back to that novella or start completely new on a project. Who knows. I do have a feeling that when I write SB4, it'll focus on Elena and Frances. I'm ready to have their POVs back, especially Frances's. And as one subplot in SB3 shows, they're about to have a quite major life change. I have a few additional "life" curves in mind for them too--like one of Frances's parents dies and the other parent moves in with Elena and Frances after an unsuccessful stint with Frances's brother.

Here's the preliminary blurb for "Victoria's Very Awkward Love Story": Why would Victoria Dourne strike up a friendship with Felicianna Grey, the woman who almost ruined the lives of Victoria's mother and stepmother? What started as mere curiosity on Victoria's part has developed into much more. She and Felicianna have been chatting online a few months, and Felicianna thinks Victoria is a twenty-five-year-old secretary from Chicago, not the eighteen-year-old girl she is. They’ve bonded over the fact they’re both in love with women they can’t have. They’ve even engaged in cybersex with each other. The online thing is getting old, though, and when Felicianna shows signs of losing interest, Victoria figures the time has come to tell the truth—in person.

Felicianna is horrified when Victoria confesses all. An eighteen-year-old girl! The stepdaughter of Felicianna’s former best friend. The daughter of a woman Felicianna despises. This was what happened when Felicianna took risks. When she decided she could trust someone.

Victoria begs Felicianna to give her a chance. Just one chance. A dinner. If, after that, Felicianna still wants Victoria to stay away, she will.

Can Victoria persuade Felicianna to look past the trappings of age and circumstances to find her way back to the woman she thought she knew online? Can Victoria and Felicianna surmount their many, many obstacles?