Alliance of Independent Authors Member News. Bulletin #23

Every Wednesday ALLi will tell the world about our members' latest book launches, news, awards, freebies, workshops and updates on the writing life — our #WriterWednesday (#WW) update.

Ingrid Ricks

I found out yesterday that my memoir, Hippie Boy: A Girl's Story made the New York Times eBook Bestseller List!   It reached #20

You can find Hippie boy: A Girl’s Story in the different stores:

Amazon UK: Amazon US: Barnes and Noble: Kobo: Smashwords:

Ingrid Ricks has an  inspirational personal story to tell about a fight against a devastating degenerative eye disease, a trip to South Africa to write about AIDS orphans and writing her coming of age memoir,  Hippie Boy, and making a living as an author.

“I finally achieved my dream to publish Hippie Boy in the fall of 2011 and have since published two more memoirs. I've also co-founded a teen mentoring/publishing program that helps teens find their voice and power by writing and publishing their stories”.

Mary Maddox

My novel Talion will be on sale next week from June 9 through June 15.

Talion by Mary Maddox is reduced from $2.99 to only $0.99 from June 9 through June 15. 

Talion is available from:
Amazon: Barnes and Noble : iBooks : Kobo

“A Turn of the Screw meets The Silence of the Lambs”
–    Dan Hagen, The Charleston Times-Courier

“Gripping and relentless”
–    Roxane Gay, author of Ayiti

Steven O'Connor

Books Direct are hosting a paperback giveaway of Steven O'Connor's EleMental (young adult sci-fi). They have also interviewed him about his recently released follow-up, MonuMental.

The future. It's all about friendship, love … and dangerous video games.

You can enter the book giveaway and check out the interview here.

Joanna Penn

My novel Pentecost is now available as an audio book. It's a deal done with a small press, Gryphonwood in the US for my audio rights only.

Dianne Ascroft

On 16th June, the eve of the G8 meeting in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland many people may be curious about the county where it is being held. So I've chosen that day to celebrate the release of my recent ebook, Fermanagh Gems. As part of the celebration I am offering five free copies of the ebook to the first five readers who post comments on my launch blog post, Celebrating Fermanagh Gems, which will be posted on that day 16th June at 9am GMT.

Fermanagh Gems is a collection of six articles about places, institutions and people in the county at significant moments in their existence: Marble Arch Caves on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the opening of its show cave, Belleek Pottery on its 150th anniversary, the Graan monastery during its centenary year, Headhunters Railway Museum at the end of its first decade and Frankie McPhillips, an Enniskillen craftsman who has carried on the Irish fly-tying tradition for the past thirty-five years.

Hope you will pop in to my blog for the launch!

Summer Van Vynckt

My debut novel Choices of Fate is releasing, under my pen name S. Simone Chavous, at the end of this week . It will be available for purchase through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords.

“On her own since the day she turned eighteen, Alexa Ryan has made a comfortable life for herself, but she has an unusual condition that has forced her to keep everyone at a distance.

Ethan Kellar has spent his entire life running from his destiny.  A powerful seer prophesied his role in events that would change the fate of the world. A role he was determined to reject, until the night Alexa fell into his arms.

Drawn to her in a way that he has never experienced and believing she is the key to preventing the prophecy, to giving him a choice, Ethan decides to reveal everything to her.”

Amy Shojai

StoryCartel.com features my newest book ComPETability: Solving Behavior Problems in Your Multi-DOG Household for the next two weeks — FREE in exchange for an honest review.

This is a new method for increasing discover-ability. I used this originally last fall as a new (free) service when my thriller released and garnered about forty new reviews. StoryCartel.com now has some fees attached, and I'm not sure how well the nonfiction will do–but I will keep y'all posted.

Also, I'd like to announce my upcoming Webinars to those interested. These take place on Saturday afternoons (Texas time) but are recorded/available for two weeks to view/listen at your leisure. The links go to the description and registration pages.

Lights! Cameras! Action! Media Training for Writers (and Others) is June 15.

Just The Facts: Create Winning Nonfiction Proposals is June 22.

Francis Guenette

Disappearing In Plain Sight will be free as a download on iTunes this Friday 14th of June and Saturday the 15th of June.

“Sixteen-year-old Lisa-Marie has been packed off to spend the summer with her aunt on the isolated shores of Crater Lake. She is drawn to Izzy Montgomery, a gifted trauma counsellor who is struggling through personal and professional challenges. Lisa-Marie also befriends Liam Collins, a man who goes quietly about his life trying to deal with his own secrets and guilt. The arrival of a summer renter for Izzy’s guest cabin is the catalyst for change amongst Crater Lake’s tight knit community. People are forced to grapple with the realities of grief and desire to discover that there are no easy choices – only shades of grey.”

Taylor Fulks

I’m Taylor Fulks~Author of My Prison Without Bars .

I met Orna Ross at the BEA in New York last weekend when I received a 1st Place Award in the Indie Reader Discovery Awards for my book in my category (Sexuality/Relationships).

I’m self-published from necessity. My Prison Without Bars is dark, disturbing and very graphic…a taboo novel with a taboo subject*Child sexual abuse* but written as a fictional memoir. I was told by several in the industry that it was just another one of “those kind of books” and that I should trash it and write something else.

So, in November of 2012, I published with Createspace. Since that time, I’ve had a KDP free promo that garnished 8,000 downloads of my book, 127 reviews (114 -5 stars, 10- 4 stars, 2-3 stars, and my personal favorite 1-1 star) a 4.6 average rating on Goodreads, and TOP 100 in my two categories for over sixteen weeks now. My sales for one of “those kind of books” have been growing exponentially each day.

If you are a member of  The Alliance of Independent Authors and you would like to showcase your work on our Writers' Wednesdays, please send it it [email protected] to reach me no later than the Friday preceding the Wednesday you would like it published.