'Maranatha' Up for Grabs Again

Amazon's new 'up to 5 day freebie promotion' option has gone down a blast with us lately. We think it's the best thing yet devised for Amazon Kindle-based book promotion, on the grounds that our latest piece, 'Angel of Vengeance', shifted nearly a thousand units in its 5-day period and has already gone on to out-sell almost everything else in our Kindle catalogue to date in only two weeks.

A few months after we first started these promos, we'd like to offer readers another chance to snap up a free copy of the very first FWB title, 'Maranatha'. The promo starts on the 12th October and runs for 5 days inclusive thereafter.

As ever, you can get the 'Trinity Chronicles' freebie via the following links:

for Amazon US readers

for UK Kindle fans

The 'Trinity Chronicles' Giveaway

As the last instalment of our 'summer of freebies', we're offering for free - for 3 days only (commencing 19th July, ending on 21st July) - the Amazon Kindle editions of the first 2 books in the 'Trinity Chronicles' series:

Maranatha and Venus in Saturn.

In the meantime, thanks to everyone who's helped support us this far!

Freebies and Promotion: A Few Thoughts

So our recent experiments with Amazon Kindle's free promo service has come to an end - wherein we offered most of our Kindle novels and comic books for free for a limited time to see what kind of effect it would have on sales.

Boy, were we overwhelmed! - shifting over 700 copies in only a few days, and also securing our first ever 'sales' in foreign territories. In fact, we reached out to all of the Amazon European sister sites: .de, .es, .it and even .fr all accounted for a significant number, though it's fair to say that they were mostly our comic books, rather than the prose works - graphic works will always cross cultural boundaries better than the purely written word, although quite what they may make of the peculiarly British humour of Arf and Mo is anyone's guess...

It's been an interesting time, in which we saw our books briefly chart very high on the Amazon Free Kindle lists, with our comic books both reaching the top spots in all their categories. Seeing our books at the No. 1 ranking was quite a buzz. And as a 'loss leader', our free offer for Maranatha has already sparked some interest in the pay-for prequel, Venus in Saturn. It's also made Chaz think about the idea of producing something to be offered permanently for free on the Kindle store - perhaps a collection of shorter works, or a novella of some sort (he does, after all, have a good many ideas of all sorts floating around the place).

In short, it's been a fascinating experiment, and opens up a very interesting future for FWB and its products. You may recall a post on this very blog not all that long ago where Chaz basically discounted the whole idea of the Kindle book reader as having any real impact on the publishing world any time soon - well, he's more than happy to revise that view now, seeing how times have well and truly changed!

No doubt we'll continue to pick up the long-term effects of this promotional period for some time to come. Interesting times, as they say.

More Summer Freebies!

As part of the current Fenriswulf Books 'summer of Freebies' (i.e, testing the waters with Amazon's new promotional services), we're giving away - for nothing - the first issue of Arf and Mo in Kindle format. The promo lasts throughout 8th July and ends on the 10th at midnight Pacific Standard Time.

US readers can grab their copy right here.

You can also pick up, for a limited time only (throughout the 8th and 9th July), The Black Flag graphic novel for exactly £0.00! Don't delay - snatch one up today!

Over the last week or so we've given away hundreds of copies of 'Maranatha' and Episode 1 of 'Sundancer's Regret' - even managing to shift our very first foreign copies on Amazon.de! - so it's been a rather interesting exercise in getting our material out there.

Another Exclusive Amazon Kindle Freebie: 'Maranatha'

Well, because the free Amazon Kindle promo of 'Sundancer's Regret' went down such a storm, we've decided to do it all over again, this time with the first ever Fenriswulf book release - 'Maranatha', the second volume in the 'Trinity Chronicles' series. Catch the freebie online between Thursday Jul 05, 2012 and Friday Jul 06, 2012 (that's Pacific Standard Time).

UK readers can grab their copy right here.

The Origins of 'Maranatha', The Trinity Chronicles and Fenriswulf Books

I'm a sucker for anniversaries, even if they mean nothing in themselves - but it is exactly six years since I started writing in earnest what would later become my first (self-)published novel, 'Maranatha', and lead to the foundation of Fenriswulf Books and this very blog.

Inspired by a Discovery Channel documentary on the Holy Spear of Jesus (of which I'm watching an old video recording at this very moment), I could never have known just how serious that work would become. Nor quite how heavily that documentary would inspire the book and the rest of the series - from the metallurgical examination work undertaken by Dr Robert Feather (that which is attributed to the brilliant but erratic young scientist, Vanessa Descartes, in 'Maranatha'), the mythical origins of the spear and its history, and the subplot of the heroic Roman legionary commander, St. Maurice. The Hitler connection wasn't ignored either but, knowing it was rather suspect and slightly cornball, I played down that aspect as much as I could while keeping the concept of a dreaded 'Fourth Reich' as a publicity tagline.

That hour-long TV programme sent me scurrying to my vast collection of books on King Arthur, the Grail, the Templars, unorthodox Christianity, alchemy, and medieval European history, but even they weren't enough to provide me with the deeply-layered and complex treasure hunt of a plot that I sought - well over a hundred internet webpages also contributed to the conspiracy which pulled Professor Tomas de Carranza, Dr. Emanuel Khalamanga and Vanessa Descartes together. The developing plot convulsed more than a dying serpent possessed by the Devil, but that was part of the fun - for there were times I had no more idea of what was going on, or why, than any of my characters did. It's not a method of plotting that I can recommend to anyone, but it works for me and from my recent correspondences with other writes, I know I'm not unique in this habit.

So, six years on and 'Maranatha' still hasn't made my fortune or my name as a writer, but it continues to sell, and despite a couple of less than ecstatic reviews, nobody has, as yet, actually disliked the book, and the intended entertainment value remains undiminished, it seems.

And as I write this, I consider the future of de Carranza and Khalamanga, and the others. I have dozens of pages of notes for the sequel, 'The Keys of Heaven', and I expect I shall, sooner or later, find myself drawn back to that world of dark religious conspiracy, personal faith, history, myth and science. In any case, I'm sure there will be plenty of exciting twists and turns to come.

'Venus' on Kindle!

'Venus in Saturn' is now live on Amazon Kindle - in the standard text-only edition without any illustrations. Chaz has experimented by dropping his royalty share on this one to see if the lower price will attract more sales. In any case, this is still dark and creepy stuff - the darkest Chaz has ever written.

US Customers can get it here.

Our UK customers can download it here.

The third volume in the Trinity Chronicles series is now in production, and sees the return of many old characters from the first two books.

Maranatha Makes it to Kindle

It took a while to get the official Amazon-branded e-book out there, but Chaz has now released Maranatha in Kindle format. This edition is branded with the 'Trinity Chronicles' series title, foreshadowing the release of Venus in Saturn later this year and the second book in the series:

for Amazon.co.uk customers;

for Amazon.com customers.

The whole practice of uploading and conversion takes a little longer than that of Lulu.com, which is pretty instantaneous, but was still completed inside 48 hours.

Promoting and marketing e-books seems to be somewhat easier than pushing print copies, and Chaz will soon be turning his attention towards certain online groups and communities devoted to this very practice. Details of his experiences in this field will follow in due course...