Camp NaNo and Trying for Lucky 7 while marketing my 6th book

On February 5th, the third Duffy Barkley adventure in Uhrlin, Duffy Barkley: the Third Charm, was published. Now it is being offered on Goodreads with a chance to win one of three autographed paperbacks.

https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/177180-duffy-barkley-the-third-charm-tales-of-uhrlin-3?utm_medium=email&utm_source=giveaway_approved

If you are interested in the other books in the series, they are available on Amazon, or can be ordered by your local bookstore. http://www.amazon.com/Dixie-Dawn-Miller-Goode/e/B004458ES2/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1457742536&sr=1-1

Goodereads Giveaway Winners announced

If you signed up for a chance to win one of my picture books through the Goodreads Giveaway program, Thank You.  I was offering 4 copies each of both picture books and I was overwhelmed by how many people thought they looked interesting enough to go through the hoops required to sign up. 1727 people total. Unfortunately there could be only 8 winners.  I wish I could afford to share more now, as I think of each copy out there in the worlds a hard working ambassador, teaching kids to love books and telling the world to look at what else I have written.

 For the Rainbows Around Us book of colors

The Winners are

Kathryn D. of Merseyside GB
Wheeler C. of Espanola NM
Arvinder S. of West Midlands, BG
and
Jan B. of Everett, WA

And the winners for Moonrise are

Alan B. of West Sussex GB

Kkritika V. of Haryana India

Greg D. of West Midlands GB

and

Christina D. of Hamilton, New York

Again, Thanks to all who participated and spread the word.  Now hoping for at least a couple book reviews posted.  Fingers Crossed.

Two New Book Giveaways Via Goodreads, Children's books this time

 I love words and pictures, and have before this ventured to put my novels out into the world but hesitated over my paintings and photographic collections.

 Then at the end of August I published two kids picture books, and yesterday my first tangible copies of the books arrived in a brown box left on the front stoop.  I usually say porch, but Grandma called it a stoop, and she feels tied to these successes because she read picture books to me all through my childhood.

 I am giving 4 copies away of each book, through Goodreads giveaway program and both links are below. Hopefully that will get me a few book reviews but I won't hold my breath, because book reviews are hard to get, even when people read and love your books.  Not all readers want to write anything.

If you want to see about al 5 of my books then I am also including the link to my Amazon author page

 https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/106796-moonrise?utm_medium=email&utm_source=giveaway_approved

https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/106794-rainbows-around-us?utm_medium=email&utm_source=giveaway_approved

http://www.amazon.com/Dixie-Dawn-Miller-Goode/e/B004458ES2/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1409941162&sr=1-1

Rainbows Around Us: A Celebration of Color

Authored by Dixie Dawn Miller Goode

List Price: $15.00

8.5" x 8.5" (21.59 x 21.59 cm)

Full Color on White paper

62 pages

ISBN-13: 978-1500991944 (CreateSpace-Assigned)

ISBN-10: 1500991945

BISAC: Juvenile Nonfiction / Art / General

This book includes photographs and words to help children celebrate the beauty of the world around them. It is designed to be read aloud to a young child just learning their colors, and read by older children as they gain independence. There are a few brief definitions of more complex color theories including, shade and tint and monochrome pictures.

CreateSpace eStore: https://www.createspace.com/4973800

Rainbows Around Us Kindle

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00N54953G

Moonrise: A Love Song For My Babies

Authored by Dixie Dawn Miller Goode

 

List Price: $12.00

8.5" x 8.5" (21.59 x 21.59 cm)

Full Color on White paper

26 pages

ISBN-13: 978-1501000201 (CreateSpace-Assigned)

ISBN-10: 1501000209

BISAC: Juvenile Fiction / Bedtime & Dreams

A lullaby and finger paintings for my sons, and granddaughter, and the children you love.

CreateSpace eStore: https://www.createspace.com/4974953

Moonrise Kindle http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00N5FQK9M

This looks like more than 5 but there are covers to books still in progress as well as the ones I have in print and kindle.

Double Time is a Free Ebook on Kindle this Week

My third book is a departure from the fantasy world of Uhrlin and the young boy named Duffy Barkley. This is the start of what I hope to see evolve as a series of historical fiction for middle grade student. Double Time on the Oregon Trail is being featured in a Goodreads Paperback giveaway from August 27th to September 4th.  Those are my brother's and my Dad's birthdays, but they could be significant to you in that you could enter to win one of five free copies of this book in which two 15 year old girls, traveling across North America, 152 year apart, sometimes read each other's journals thanks to the lap desk they both own.

to sign up to win one of the 5 copies in paperback you should be able to find the link at this address

http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/29525-double-time-on-the-oregon-trail

Then if you want a for sure copy in kindle format, there will be five days when you can upload it for free as a kindle ebook from August 31 to September 4 at

http://www.amazon.com/Double-Time-Oregon-Trail-ebook/dp/B008G3JZB8

and of course, if you have kindle prime you can always get the ebook for free, otherwise it is normally $3.99

Why would an author who has been working on one project for 13 years, be willing to give away that work? Partly because after keeping anything to yourself for 13 years, it is time to share; partly in the hope that if anyone reads it for free, they will talk about it, tweet about it, buy a copy for a young friend or family member, or post a review on Amazon or Goodreads. I know that the $3.99 kindle price is what people pay willingly for a cup of coffee but it is not easy to choose which of the many kindle books to put your money on,

 and those reviews help tip the balance in one books favor over the many others it is competing against.

Does it work?  I'm still not sure.  I've sold a few hundred paperback copies and a handful of the kindle versions of the Duffy Barkley books, and in their free days, people uploaded several hundred copies in Germany, Great Britain and the USA, I got about 9 positive reviews, mostly on Amazon and Goodreads, and I got a few nice write ups on book review blogs, but the very best reaction I have gotten was the day I went to substitute teach at Pine Grove Elementary School and the 5th grade girls ran up to me.  They quickly demanded, not that I tell them who I was subbing for, or what we were doing, but when I was publishing my next book.

Some of my friends who are authors feel that the giveaways are cheapening the market so much that no one will want to pay for the work of an author, and some feel that people who get a lot of free kindle books probably get more the next day and rarely ever read them.  They could be right.  

I love writing, I love having someone tell me that they enjoyed the story I had to tell. I rarely make enough in any given month from my books to buy more than a cup of coffee and another book for me, but i will never stop writing until I can't do anything, because who I am at heart, is a storyteller, a recorder and sharer of the beauty and wonder there is in being human on this beautiful blue planet.