Cover reveal - a new cover for Whisper Falls

Whisper Falls has a shiny, new look.

If you're wondering why, the reason is simple. The original publisher of the Whisper Falls series returned all publishing rights to me. I'll be making them available online through e-retailers. I'll receive all royalties; no sharing anymore (Yay!) But part of this agreement required that I change all of the covers.

Since I loved the covers for books 2 and 3, I asked their cover designer--Lisa Amowitz--to create a complete new set of covers.  And she agreed!

Today, we are revealing the new cover for Whisper Falls.

This e-book will be released on September 15, and I've set the launch price at $2.99 .

If you already have Whisper Falls, this is the same book. Just a lower price and new cover!

August news - paperback available and another giveaway

Here's a quick update for August.

Wish You Were Here is now available in paperback! You can order on Amazon only.

On Darynda's blog today, there's a post on how names were picked for the characters in The Possibility of Somewhere.  There's also a giveaway of an ARC (US only). So check it out!

Lastly, just a heads-up, the small press that originally published the Whisper Falls series has returned the rights to me. They'll appear out of print for a week or two. I'll have them available again as soon as possible.

For readers, this news doesn't change much:

• The overall story in the Whisper Falls trilogy is the same. Other than some light editing to clear up typos or grammar-ish things, these books won't change (although I might have a deleted scene or two to release.)
• All three books will be receiving new covers.
• The price will be lower for e-books.
• The price will be higher for paperbacks (but not much).
• I've been working on two new companion novels. One will take place 2 years after Whispers From the Past--and it will feature Mark and Susanna's friend Benita (the cellist). The other book will take place in 1771 and feature two secondary characters from Susanna's past, Abigail and Nathaniel Eton. I hope to have at least one of these books done in 2017, but no promises.  I have another book that's already scheduled to release in Fall 2017, which I have to finish first.

 

ARCs giveaway for Julia Day's YA contemporary romance

The Possibility of Somewhere by Julia Day releases in 3 weeks!

We'll have giveaways, guest posts, and Q&As as we launch the book on September 6th. First up is a rafflecopter giveaway of 4 signed ARCs (to US and Canada addresses only).

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Watch here for more ways to celebrate!


About the book: The Possibility of Somewhere is a YA contemporary romance, set in a fictional North Carolina coastal town. Advance reviews say:

• "Raw and intense, yet sensitive and touching. This is a story that will keep you hooked till the very end." - Vanessa Barneveld, author of This Is Your Afterlife
• "Julia Day's modern day tale of Romeo and Juliet meets Pride and Prejudice will touch your heart." Katie McGarry, bestselling author of Pushing The Limits 
• "An engaging read ... full of drama." - School Library Journal

Want a sneak peek? Read this excerpt.

PSA about Sean's cancer

If you've read the I Wish series, you'll be familiar with Sean, one of the main characters in Wishing for You. Early in that book (spoiler alert), you learn that Sean has testicular cancer.

I found an article about testicular cancer in my newsfeed today--and now I'm passing it along as a public service announcement (PSA).

Testicular cancer is the most common cancer in young men from ages 15 - 34. According to the American Cancer Society, if detected early, the five-year survival rate is nearly 99%.  If it has spread, depending on where it's metastasized, the rate drops to 73%. So please browse the 8 Silent Signs of Testicular Cancer, and make sure the men in your life (regardless of age) know.

Giving away signed ARCs of POSSIBILITY OF SOMEWHERE

So, it's my turn to give ARCs away (US only mailing addresses.)

I have 4 copies of The Possibility of Somewhere that I'm giving away.  Now through next Monday--August 1--you can enter for a chance to receive one of these 4 copies.

You have 2 ways to enter:

• follow Julia Day (my other pen name) on Twitter - @AuthorJuliaDay
• Retweet the message below on twitter (you may retweet once per day to increase your chances)

Follow @AuthorJuliaDay or RT for chance at signed ARC (thru Aug 1--US only) POSSIBILITY of SOMEWHERE http://bit.ly/2a4QsyF

More ARCs for The Possibility of Somewhere

We're only 7 weeks away from releasing my first YA contemporary romance!

For U.S. readers: St Martin's is giving away 50 ARCs of The Possibility of Somewhere this week. Enter on goodreads to see if you can win 1 of these copies.

Fun with numbers and graphs - part 1

Recently, I've had the opportunity to combine my day job as a software engineer with my night job as an author.  I used my programming skills--with some help from Robert A., a graphics expert--to analyze how well my I WISH series was selling after I paid for a promotion from Bookbub (a company that provides e-book promos for authors.)

As you'll see in the graph below, the pertinent dates to remember are:

• January / February 2016: the sales for I Wish and Wishing for You were languishing
• March 9: the Bookbub promotion ran with I Wish discounted to $0.99
• March 14: I returned I Wish to its regular price of $2.99 

So my primary interest was to discover: what effect did the promotion have on my book sales? 

To begin, I collected sales data from Amazon, B&N, Apple, and several other e-tailers. Then I ran some analysis on the data and produced a set of graphs to visualize what happened.

In the graph below, I've plotted unit sales for six weeks before the promotion as well as six weeks after.

1. The first red arrow on the graph marks the day that the promotion ran.
2. The second red arrow highlights when the book returned to regular price.

On promo day, there is an expected spike in unit sales. Over the five days following the promotion, the unit sales decline, but they are still much higher than before the promo. But the interesting--and unexpected--result is that the higher sales of I Wish continued after I set the price back to normal.

But there is an even happier conclusion we can see in the above graph. Unit sales through May 1st never dip to the pre-promotion levels--a result that has remained true until this day.

This second graph represents the effect that the I WISH promo had on its sequel, Wishing for You. Note that the sequel remained at regular price throughout the promotion period.

The first red arrow shows promo day. There is a mild spike that lasts for several days before going into a slight decline.

Approximately two weeks after the promotion, we see a new spike! As an author, I hope that the second spike means they've read book 1 and enjoyed it enough to buy the sequel.

After the second spike, sales remain somewhat sporadic, but still higher than before the promotion. Just as I experienced with I Wish, I can confirm that the unit sales of the sequel remain higher even 4 months after promo day!

 
Moral of these graphs: I have been delighted with the results of this promotion. The Bookbub ad created an expected spike in unit sales during the promotion period. Since then, unit sales for Book 1 as well as its sequel have been consistently higher than before the promotion. I am a satisfied Bookbub customer!