Free Books! Who doesn't love them?

Freak of Nature-

Donate Body to Science. Check. 

When seventeen-year-old Kaitlyn checked the box, she never suspected she’d have her life–and her body–stolen from her. She awakens one day in a secret laboratory to discover that her body is now half-robot and is forced to hide her own secret: that she still has human emotions and a human mind. If the scientists who made her find out, they’ll erase what remains of who she was. 

Kaitlyn finds an unlikely ally in Lucas, a handsome, brilliant scientist who can’t get over the guilt he feels knowing she was once a vibrant, beautiful young woman. He never expected a science project to affect him the way she does. As he tries to help her rediscover her past, he finds himself falling for the brave girl struggling to find her place and acceptance between the human and computer worlds. 

FREE until Jan 15th!! AMAZON

Coexist: Keegan's Chronicles 

Sixteen-year-old Keegan is struggling to keep her huge secret from her friends—she's an elf, descended from a long line of elves that live in secrecy alongside humans.   
  
In elfin society, mates are predetermined but not allowed to meet until they are eighteen.  Against tradition, Keegan's brother Thaddeus told her Rourk's name because his visions warned him she'd need Rourk's protection, especially since Keegan will play a key role in the coming war between the dark and light elves. 
  
Rourk finds himself drawn to Keegan's side every time she thinks his name. He wants to talk to her but remains in the shadows, silently guarding her every time she mentally beckons him. A twist of fate thrusts the two of them together when Rourk is forced to step up his protection and make his presence known. 
  
An ancient prophecy deeply entwines Keegan's family and the future of their society. Somehow they must find a way to thwart fate and win the battle...without losing Keegan. With war brewing, and dark forces aligning, will Keegan and Rourk ever have the life together that they both desire? 

FREE! AMAZON

Dark Promise

Rylie has it all - great friends, dream boy, loving family. But on the eve of her sixteenth birthday, her perfect little world shatters. A stranger claiming to be her real mother appears with a secret: Rylie is a faery whose powers will be unleashed on her birthday. Captured and forced into a new life, Rylie struggles to keep everything she loves and discovers a terrifying truth: some promises cannot be broken.

FREE! AMAZON

You can find out more about me and my books at www.juliacrane.com!

Holiday Time

Wow, I'm a really bad blogger :/ I always swear I'm going to get better at it and never take the time to put my focus there. I'm a very private person by nature I think that is why I find blogging so intimidating. I also worry that I'll make grammar errors etc. I wish I had a full time editor on hand... 

Anyways, I'm sitting here getting ready to try to get in my daily word count looking at the fire, stockings hung, and christmas tree trimmed and thinking how lucky I am. It's so amazing that I am able to do what I love for a living. And I've met so many amazing people through this crazy process. I guess I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you, to everyone that has given me a chance. There are so many books out there the fact that you choose mine to read means the world to me.

When I first published Coexist I recall thinking, if only five strangers read my book I'll be thrilled. That was my goal five random people seeing my book and deciding to purchase. I never dreamed that over 150,000 people would click buy. I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season.

Gratitude Giveaway!

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Deal reached?

Seems Amazon and Hachette have finally reached an agreement.

Amazon and Hachette Reach A Deal on E-Book Pricing

Would be interesting to see the details, but doubtful it'll be fully made public. 

Literary Enemy No. 1

A great article on Vanityfair about the Amazon vs. Hachette drama.  Read it here.

If you think that anything over a couple of pages online is tl;dr (the article is six pages), I've included some of my favorite bits below.

When Amazon first appeared, in the mid-90s, mailing books out of the Seattle garage of its founder, Jeff Bezos, it was greeted with enthusiasm. The company seemed like a useful counterweight to the big bookstore chains that had come to dominate the book-retailing landscape. 

How times have definitely changed!  Where I'm at we only have a Books-A-Million.  The Borders shut down and the nearest B&N is an hour south in Nashville.

Amazon launched the Kindle in the fall of 2007. It was not a revolutionary concept (it was merely “the iPod for books”) nor a revolutionary technology (Sony had already used e-ink in several readers) nor a particularly attractive item (with its thick plastic body and rows of keyboard buttons, it resembled nothing so much as an early-80s PC). 

Time does fly!  It seems like yesterday when I first saw the Kindle and eventually bought one for my husband (2009).  Back then I wasn't "into" ebooks and still preferred to read on paper.

In 2013, e-books accounted for about 27 percent of total adult books sold. In the U.S., revenue from e-books is now about $3 billion annually. Amazon controls about two-thirds of this market. It also controls about two-thirds of all print books sold online. It is the biggest bookseller in the world.

Wow!  Those are some crazy numbers.  I can attest that Amazon is my biggest market with about 75% of my sales coming from them.  Now if only I could get a bigger slice of that $3 billion!

Before too long, Apple claimed a 20 percent share of the e-book market, and publishers, happily, were able to set their prices—usually from $12.99 to $14.99. Despite the higher prices, the e-book market continued to grow.

In comparison, Apple makes up about 10% of my sales.

Losing the fight over margins would be an immediate blow to the publishers’ profits, but losing control over pricing could be fatal. “If Amazon succeeds,” said Wylie, “they will lower the retail price—$9.99, $6.99, $3.99, $1.99. And instead of making $4 on your hardcover, you’ll be making 10 cents a copy on all editions. And, Keith, you will not be able to afford to write a book.… No one, unless they have inherited $50 million, will be able to afford to write a serious work of history, of poetry, of biography, a novel—anything. The stakes are Western culture.”

I find this paragraph the most ridiculous in the entire article.  Yes, I'm sure he was exaggerating to make his point, but the $50 million amount is so outrageous as to be insulting.

If the Kindle didn’t have any books on it, guess how many Kindles would be selling,” Wylie said, putting up his fingers to indicate zero Kindles. 

Obviously a very "traditional publishing" mentality.  Let's discount all the public domain books and all the "self-published / small publisher" genre books.  While the market wouldn't be as nearly robust as it is without the traditional author books online, and that the ebook market might have taken longer to gain it's current size, the truth of the matter is that ebooks were an inevitable evolution.

The next day I flew to Silicon Valley and visited Amazon Lab126, the Amazon subsidiary that develops all of the company’s Kindle products. A tremendous amount of thought and research has gone into these devices. At Lab126 there is a “reading room,” where test subjects are asked to read on various devices for hours at a time. They are filmed and studied. People reading in a chair will, naturally, hold their Kindle differently from people standing up (on the subway, for example), but even people sitting in a chair will shift their positions over time. Eighty percent of page turns are forward, by the way, but 20 percent (20!) are backward. 

That's pretty neat.  Would love a job where they pay me to read books!

Another big player is Apple, which, after its bad experience with the anti-trust lawsuit (Apple lost in court but is appealing), seems ready to try to compete again through the medium of its iBooks Store. The company has sold 237 million iPads and an astonishing 550-million-plus iPhones. Amazon, on the other hand, has sold something like 80 million Kindle devices, both e-readers and tablets combined. 

Wow!  Those are some huge numbers.  Even the "small" number of Kindles at 80 million is insane.  I would be very interested to see what the majority of my readers use as their preferred e-reader.  I know most of you purchase from Amazon, but I know that I also read on my iPad mini with the Kindle App.  Feel free to post your device of choice in the comments!

Fatal Abduction Pre-Order Giveaway!

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Self driving cars

The latest in robots and automation. Seems as if  GM will have a slightly limited version of the self-driving car Available in certain Cadillac models within two years!  Two years is crazy.

Technology Takes the Wheel

Once that hits the market I think we'll see rapid progress across the board from all manufacturers. Exciting!