Not Fair

All right, dear readers, today was supposed to be the last day of the Ursula Challenge. So far, I have sold 8 Kindle books. Three at the regular price, and five at the completely ridiculous price of 70% off. No other types of eBooks sold. The last I heard, Nor Iron Bars a Cage had sold 4 print copies, of which two were from the sale. That is a total of 12 books.

Now, I did agree that I would wait for the paperback report, and that may bump up the numbers a bit, but I’m completely unworried they might push it over the top.

“But, Caprice,” you whimper, “what happened to the new release of Blood and Brine on March 1st?”

I said from the very beginning that I would not be responsible if Blood and Brine was not released for sale in time for the contest. That was completely out of my hands. I turned in all my edits and rewrites ahead of deadline.

HOWEVER, never let it be said I didn’t give my challengers every possible advantage. The last report from my publisher was that the ebook would be available on March 1st and that didn’t happen. Therefore, in the spirit of totally unfair play, I am making yet another conciliatory gesture. I am extending the eBook deadline an extra 72 hours. I will even leave the count open on the other two eBook titles until the end of this extension.

Blood and Brine is now LIVE on Smashwords and Amazon. Barnes & Noble will take a while. Smashwords carries the nook file, so there’s really no excuse if you want it right now. You say you don’t know how to side-load? Do you have a teenager? I bet he or she can do it. If not, I have a tutorial page that walks you through. It is NOT hard. Really.

Nor Iron Bars a Cage and Blood and Brine are both at regular price (which is still HALF of what paperbacks cost), but The Duke’s Handmaid is participating in a big promotion at Smashwords for Read an Ebook Week. It’s 50% off with their special code. (See link for details.) All books are regular price at Amazon, but everyone had a chance to get them for 70% off last week. I will not feel sorry for the bargain hunters.

The original deal:
If I sell 100 eBooks between Feb. 3rd and March 5th, at FULL price, then I will sing “Poor Unfortunate Soul” from “The Little Mermaid” and post it on YouTube.

The New Deal:
If I sell 50 books of any kind between Feb 1st and March 8th, even when they have gone on sale for 70% off for a full week and even when I extend the deadline to give everyone a chance to buy my newest book, I will post the song.

No, it’s not “fair”. It’s slanted heavily in favor of my challengers. I’m magnanimous like that.

Book 1: The Duke’s Handmaid [Kindle] [paperback]

Book 2: Nor Iron Bars a Cage [Kindle] [paperback]

Book 3: Blood and Brine [Smashwords] [Amazon]

Click here to find all three books on Smashwords. (The anthology Aquasynthesis contains my prequel short story “Fettered Soul”, but most of the stories are by other Splashdown authors. I encourage you to pick it up while you’re there, but it doesn’t count towards the Ursula Challenge.