Shattered Rainbows

by Mary Jo

The Story:

Shattered Rainbows, book #5 in my Fallen Angels series, is currently free on most ebook platforms and will continue to be free for about another week.  I'm writing this blog partly to talk about the book, but also explain some of the marketing decisions that go into why a book might be free.

Shattered Rainbows is a favorite book of mine. (For the record, Romantic Times gave it a 4 1/2 star GOLD rating and it was a RITA finalist.) I could probably say that  almost anything I've written is a favorites, but that's especially true in this case. Lord Michael Kenyon is one of the most intense and tortured heroes I've ever written, and he has a lot of baggage to work through, complicated by the fact that he's a British Army officer and the battle of Waterloo is a key feature of the story. 

I have no idea why I'm fascinated by British military history in the Napoleonic period, but I keep coming back to it time and time again.  Partly that's because it was a 'good war,' fighting against an authoritarian Continental monster.  Lots of drama for stories!  Characters are tested in the crucible of battle, and in none of my books has that been truer than in Shattered Rainbows. 

 

I picture the heroine, Catherine Melbourne, as looking like Catherine Zeta-Jones at age 25. Orphaned and married very young, she "follows the drum" with her cavalry officer husband during the Peninsular wars, raising her intrepid young daughter and nursing wounded soldiers after the battles. During the tense pre-Waterloo period in Brussels, she and Michael are drawn together but she's married and both are honorable. The story gets more and more complicated from there! 

The title, Shattered Rainbows, is both a metaphor and a physical object, a silver kaleidoscope made by Michael's friend Lucien.  After a long and dangerous series of challenges, there's a happy ending, of course--that's why we read and write romance, after all!

The Marketing

If you're not familiar with BookBub, it’s a promotional website that sends daily emails about ebooks that are on sale in categories you've expressed interest in. I get romance, SFF, women's fiction, history, and other categories every day, and prices range from free to about $2.99.  The author gets to decide the price and what countries will have the sale price.  I always make my books available in as many countries as possible because all readers deserve bargain books.

For readers, A BookBub deal is a chance to discover new authors for little or no money.  For indie authors, getting a BookBub feature is a very fine thing because it's invariably profitable, though not as much so as it was in earlier years.  Ideally, the book will be first in a series so readers will want to read later books in the series. 

I've had several BB deals on Thunder and Roses, book 1 of the Fallen Angels, but BB likes to offer subscribers fresh options and no longer wanted to feature T&R, so I decided to offer Shattered Rainbows.  The series is based on a group of friends and they appear in each other's stories if there is a good reason for them to appear.  Shattered Rainbows is closely connected to the last two books of the series. Book 6, River of Fire, features Kenneth Wilding, a close officer friend of Michael's, and the hero of book 7, One Perfect Rose, is Michael's brother Stephen, the Duke of Ashburton. I think they make a nice trilogy if readers like the first of the three. 

BookBub has some other nice features. For example, if you choose to follow an author there, you'll be notified if that author has a new book. That's what happened when I released The Marriage Spell in May.  Followers were notified of the release so they could buy it if they were interested. 

This is one small corner of independent book marketing, which is a vast and complicated world.  There are many promotional sites and many places to find books. Writers want to be read and readers want to find new authors they can love.

 

When the system works, we all win! Do you have a favorite place to find new books?  Happy reading!

Mary Jo

Comments

[Mary M.]

Good topic to explore, Mary Jo. As much as I read, I'd bankrupt myself buying all the books, so I'm dependent on an excellent library system, physical and digital. At the same time, I want to support authors and publishers. So my remaining question is, do, and how do, those entities profit from my "free rent" system?

[Miriam B.]

Mary M, I'm not an author, but it's my understanding that borrowing books from libraries is still helpful to authors. The more that books are borrowed, the more copies will be bought by the libraries. And sometimes, books will be purchased by the libraries specifically because they're suggested by patrons. And even if you can't buy, maybe another patron will be inspired to do so after reading a library copy.

[Quantum]

I reviewed this book in 2018 on Audible UK

https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Shattered-Rainbows-Audiobook/B07KRPLTPP?qid=1686569370&sr=1-1&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_1&pf_rd_p=c6e316b8-14da-418d-8f91-b3cad83c5183&pf_rd_r=B8A6YQA4ARFKR3TFCHBA&pageLoadId=GMbxOQb9lULp1k0V&creativeId=41e85e98-10b8-40e2-907d-6b663f04a42d

One of my favourite series.

Brilliant!

The cheap ebooks on BookBub often have large discounts for the associated audio books when the ebook is purchased. I have a number of audio books obtained like this that I might not have bought otherwise.

[Karin]

It's been so many years since I read Shattered Rainbows in paperback, that I barely remember it. I picked up the free e-book and I'm looking forward to a reread. This blog, and a couple others I follow are my favorite places for new book recommendations. Sometimes I also see recommendations in authors' email newsletters. And I have so many favorite authors I follow, that just keeping up with their books is impossible, let alone finding new authors!
I subscribe to BookBub, but it usually is more helpful for finding sales of authors I already know about, rather than discovering new stuff. I rarely discover new books by browsing the library stacks, as I used to do many, may years ago.

[Mary Jo Putney]

Mary M, as Miriam B says below, borrowing library books does support author on future titles. Besides, few readers can afford to buy all the books they want to read, and few of us have enough bookshelves, either! Libraries are one of civilization's greatest inventions, and I think most writers want to see that people have access to books.

[Kareni]

I very much enjoyed Shattered Rainbows and the entire Fallen Angels series when I read them some years ago.

How do I find newly published books and new to me books, Mary Jo? Primarily from blogs, Reddit forums, the library, bookstores, and authors' mailing lists.

[Annette N]

Word Wenches - What are we reading - gives me introductions to new authors and thus new books. I receive newsletters from authors. And I receive Book Bub daily mails. I thank you for all the help you give us. And thanks for this free book.

[Mary T]

I have heard of BookBub but didn't know a lot about it. Thank for the info. I follow several blogs and receive several newsletters. Do still use the library, but these days it is on-line. Sometimes I just go out on Amazon and just scroll through their offerings. I do miss visiting book stores (used and new) and strolling through the library.

Nice thing about the library is that if I find a new (to me) author I check to see if I can find one of their books at the library to sample read. That's where I first met you Mary Jo. I don't remember which book it was, just that it was one of the books in the Lost Lords series.

[Mary Jo Putney]

Quantum, I like that now so many books are available in audio since so many book lovers like you prefer audio. I think Siobhan Waring has done a great job with audios. I have a couple of novellas narrated by her coming up.

[Mary Jo Putney]

Ah, Karin, library stacks! Those were the days. I agree that BookBub is most useful for snapping up bargains for authors that I may have in print, but I like having ebook versions as well.

[Mary Jo Putney]

Kareni, since you are our superstar contributor to our What We're Reading monthly feature, I'm not surprised that you have multiple sources to find new reads!

[Mary Jo Putney]

You're welcome on the free book, Annette. I hope you enjoy it. WE love exchanging favorite reads with our readers!

[Mary Jo Putney]

Mary T, libraries are such wonderful resources in so many different ways! I'm glad your library helped you to find me.