For any posts pertaining to Valor of the Healer
Hey you guys! Fellow Carina author Susanna Fraser is hosting me on her blog with a guest post. C’mon over and chat with me about SF/F that’s congenial to romance readers, won’t you, in the name of multi-genre diplomacy?
And while you’re over there, do check out Susanna’s work if historical romance is your thing. I highly recommend The Sergeant’s Lady and A Marriage of Inconvenience.
THIS GIRL!
Second Place YES B’Y
I still have no idea how many copies I’ve sold so far since the release date. And for the curious, I still won’t know for a bit yet what this month’s actual sales numbers are. The only ones I can monitor in real time are the approximations provided for Amazon numbers by novelrank.com. Harlequin/Carina authors have a portal we can log into to get data, but I’m still new enough in the system that it’ll be a bit yet before any actual sales data shows up there. The site doesn’t update in real-time like the portals I use for my self-pub deployments do. I don’t expect to see any numbers there at least until the end of May, since I’m expecting royalties to occur on a quarterly basis, and it takes time to aggregate the numbers.
Still, though, this is encouraging! Whatever my actual sales numbers are, they are clearly “more than zero”! My goal with Valor is not hugely ambitious–if it performs better than Faerie Blood in sales numbers (and I’m lucky to hit two digits in any given month with Faerie Blood), that’s pretty much all I’m asking at my stage of the game. And so far things are looking good.
This does not suck. <3 Thank you to all who have bought the book so far! I hope you're enjoying it!
Some of you loverly people have been kind enough to report in that you’re quite liking Valor of the Healer, for which I thank you from the bottom of my heart! If the spirit moves you, please consider rating and/or reviewing it somewhere suitably visible. It will help. At the level at which I operate as an author, word of mouth is critical to try to encourage others to boost my sales.
Amazon remains the best and highest visibility place to rate and/or review a book, but Goodreads would be good, too. I haven’t gotten much yet in the way of ratings or reviews at Goodreads, and Amazon has nothing at all.
Also, don’t forget that if ebooks aren’t your thing, Valor IS also available as an audiobook. Ratings and/or reviews on that would also be awesome.
And of course Faerie Blood is still available, and because Valor‘s selling for $2.99 at the moment, I’ve put Faerie Blood at the same price. So now’s a really good time to grab the ebook if you haven’t already. Also, I DO still have a small number of print copies available: seven, to be precise. The only way to get Faerie Blood in print is still to talk to me directly, so if you want one, do let me know. I’ll be happy to mail it to you! The best and fastest way to pay me for a copy remains Paypal.
Questions? Talk to me!
And as always, a roundup of everywhere you can buy both books is available on Valor’s official page and Faerie Blood’s official page. Thanks all for your ongoing support!
Some of y’all may have seen me gushing about this on the social networks over the weekend, but in case you didn’t: Audible finally let me have my free copy of the audiobook for Valor of the Healer!
I started listening to it, and I’m here to tell you, Internets–goddamn, it’s weird and wonderful to be hearing somebody else reading words that came out of my very own brain. I didn’t even have to do anything to make this audiobook happen, other than fork over a pronunciation guide. And then magic happened and suddenly OH HEY I HAVE AN AUDIOBOOK.
I’ve listened to it up to partway through Chapter 5, and am really impressed by Gia St. Claire’s reading. She doesn’t nail everything–some of the pronunciations of this or that name are occasionally wrong. And she’s making most of the male characters sound too old and gruff by comparison to how they sound in my head. She’s better with Rab and Kestar, possibly because they’re younger males, and Rab especially should sound young.
But that said? She is very good at at least giving the different male characters distinguishable voices. She’s also a very expressive and engaging reader in general.
And oh god you guys, she’s amazing doing Faanshi. When I got to a particular very tense scene in Chapter 5, I actually teared up a bit listening to it. And I wrote these words. It’s not like I didn’t know what was coming!
I’m going to listen to the rest of it, all the way through, despite the strong urge to jump ahead to more of my favorite bits. Because my having written all of these words does not in the slightest diminish the childlike glee of hearing somebody else tell my own story to me!
So highly, highly recommended for those of you who may not find ebooks to your tastes, since this is the other means of getting a copy of Valor until such time as Carina decides to print it! And I’m not even just saying this because Audible will fork over a buck for every copy of the audiobook they sell (because they will!). I’m saying it mostly because Gia St. Claire is doing a fantastic job and I encourage you all to go check out what she did with my book!
And I can’t wait to see what she did with Chapter 14. 😀
Um, Internets? I just found a thing checking my Google Alerts. Somebody check me here. I’m not seeing things, right?
I’m not seeing MY BOOK mentioned in an article on usatoday.com?!
Because it sure as hell looks like I’m getting mentioned. Down at the bottom, in an article predominantly about shapeshifter paranormal romance, BUT STILL.
I… wha… um. I think I need to sit down.
*sits down*
ETA: Because seriously, people, this isn’t even COMPUTING in my head! I’m all “wait wait WHAT? People who AREN’T ME, and who DO NOT ALREADY KNOW ME, are aware that this book now exists? As an actual THING that can be bought and read? And they’re POSTING about it? On a site that people outside of fandom might actually browse?”
With a side helping of “wait wait wait I’m the ‘fantasy’ after-dinner mint in an article otherwise all about paranormal romance?!”
This is what just happened to my head, Internets:
GIR’s Head Explodes
In Mammoth News
First up, I promised you all another handout of a copy of Valor of the Healer to a randomly selected commenter from the poll to name my mammoth! I am happy to announce that that winner is… Jessica! Who, based on comments I saw dropped on Dara’s signalboosting of the poll, is 
jessie_c
Second, for those of you who didn’t see me announce this on the social networks this morning, the poll to name the aforementioned mammoth is, in fact, CLOSED! I got a whole boatload of creative suggestions, and thank you all for submitting them. There was a particular hard, protracted battle between the top three names, but in the end Fred G.’s choice prevailed. And so I am also quite happy to present to you genius billionaire play-mammoth genderqueer philanthropist Jean-Claude Mamut!
Jean-Claude Mamut
Asked about the honor of this naming, Jean-Claude was quoted as saying, “Merci beaucoup à tout le monde! Oui, I am very grateful for all who voted upon my name. It is a man’s name, c’est vrai, but sometimes I am Jean-Claude, and sometimes I am Jeanne-Claudette, or Jean-Claudette, or Jeanne-Claude. I am a very small mammoth, but I am legion and in me there are multitudes. If you are not sure how to call me, you have but to ask.”
Further asked about how exactly a French-Canadian mammoth wound up in a gift shop in a British Columbian museum, only to be purchased by a perky blonde author and fangirl from the States, the mammoth of the hour replied, “Ah oui, that is a long story and there is not enough whiskey to tell it properly. I will say now only that it involved many fermented berries, three other mammoths, an ice floe, and eighty-nine traffic cones.”
And, asked if sie had anything further to add, our mammoth finished, “Not for me, merci! Anna, she is the storyteller. Please buy her new book Valor of the Healer so she can afford to buy me more fermented berries. And maybe a small herd of my fellow mammoths.”
Fred G., who came up with the mammoth’s name, has been given his copy of the book!
Other Giveways in Progress
But wait, there’s more! If you missed out on the poll, there are now two other active giveaways running for the duration of the week–and therefore, two more shots to win your own copy of Valor of the Healer!
I have a post up on Carina Press’ blog right over here, where I’m talking about the challenges of writing Faanshi as a character, and how to portray the strength of a young woman who is neither physically strong nor outspoken in the slightest. Come over and tell me about your own favorite female characters who’ve shown strength in unexpected ways, and I’ll put you in a random draw for another copy of the book!
And on a much lighter note (because at Anna the Piper Enterprises, we try not to get too SRS BZNZ unless absolutely necessary), I also have this giveaway going! Because Carina put up some promo tweets about me today, and I feel that it’s not fair that THEY get to have all the fun talking about me. So spread your own ‘fun facts’ about Anna the Piper for yet another way to get a copy of the book. These ‘facts’ do not even have to be TRUE, and in fact, the lulzier the better. ;D
Thank you all for your ongoing support of the book!
My promo post for Valor of the Healer has just gone live on the Carina Press blog! If you’re feeling inclined, c’mon over here and see what I’ve got to say about the challenges of writing Faanshi as a strong female character when she’s not obviously strong at first glance. I want to hear about your favorite female characters who are strong in unexpected ways, and I’ve got another giveaway of Valor of the Healer running in conjunction with that post as well!
So clickie, won’t you? Faanshi and I want to hear from you!