It’s the big day, the big…big…BIG day! After three years of writing, endless revisions, beta readers, advanced readers, and stress out the wazoo, Portals is finally launched and into the world! Right now, it’s exclusive to Amazon and you can get it here. (I’ve got it on new release pricing right now, for $0.99, but that will only last a few days.)
What’s this wonderful cover holding inside? Well, since you asked…
The world sees the portals as an invasion. For Lysa, they’re an invitation.
The portals appeared without warning. Every thirteen minutes they take a thousand humans, leaving exact duplicates in their place. Now, chaos reigns and no one is sure anyone is still the person they knew. Whoever is sending the portals is destroying human society without firing a shot.
Not everyone thinks the portals are a prelude to invasion. Lysa, a student far too bright for her own good, believes the portals might even be something wonderful. There must be a logical reason for the portals, and that means something alive and thinking on the other side of those shimmering holes in our reality. Her burning curiosity leads her to do the unthinkable; she leaps through a portal meant for another.
What she finds is a galaxy teeming with life, worlds beyond imagining, and two terrible truths: Earth is in danger, and the portals are a one-way trip. Stranded in an alien civilization, Lysa will have to use her ingenuity to find a way home and warn Earth before it’s too late.
Sound good? I sure do hope so!
Now, for the confession. I’m very excited about it, but also worried beyond any measure.
When I decided to take my time with this one, I knew I was taking a huge risk and a hit. Amazon works on churn. That old saying that if you don’t publish, you perish may have been meant for scholarly pursuits, but it’s far more true on Amazon than it ever was in research circles. But, love trumps money for me, so I took the hit and stuck to my guns.
In many ways, that means I’m starting over. Amazon’s terminator-style algorithm has forgotten I exist. Factors inside the algorithm must be tickled all over again. How many reviews I get, how many are positive, how fast they happen in comparison with launch day, and how quickly people read the book once they open it will all determine if the algorithm counts Portals as a “good book.”
That will decide if it shows the book during searches, includes it in suggestions on people’s screens…and most importantly of all…if it will get a leg up in becoming “sticky.” That’s the word most authors want to hear most in reference to their books. They want sticky books. Sticky as toffee melting on your hands or pine sap in your hair.
So, there’s my confession. I’m going back to obsessively refreshing the Amazon screen now to see what happens. Let’s all keep our fingers crossed!