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Thursday, August 21, 2014

Indie bestsellers and what you should be reading


The indefatigable folks at GalleyCat @ mediabistro.com have produced another two lists of Indie bestsellers, one from Amazon and the other from smashwords (Nook et al aren't worth pursuing any more, and smashwords is getting so stodgy that really only Amazon counts).

Here is the listing ...

Amazon Self-Published Bestsellers for the Week of August 20, 2014
1. LOL Romantic Comedy Anthology Collection: “Love! Laughter! Pillow Fights! Here’s the very first issue of LOL, a NEW romantic comedy series! Enjoy 13 brand-new stories from your favorite NYT Bestseller and USA Today Bestseller romantic comedy and romance authors.”
2. Filthy Beautiful Lies by Kendall Ryan: “Meet Colton Drake…I have no idea why she auctioned off her virginity for a cool mill. Regardless, I’m now the proud new owner of a perfectly intact hymen. A lot of good that will do me. I have certain tastes, certain sexual proclivities. My cock is a bit more discriminatory than most. And training a virgin takes finesse and patience – both of which I lack.”
3. Mindfulness Made Simple by Calistoga Press: “A modern practice with ancient roots, mindfulness is widely recognized for its calming, healing, and restorative effects. Mindfulness and meditation can help you relieve stress, regulate your emotions, achieve focus and clarity, strengthen your communication skills, and cultivate an appreciation for what is most important to you. Based on centuries of experience and new techniques in the field of psychology, Mindfulness Made Simple shows how to bring mindfulness and meditation into your daily life.”
4. Debt Inheritance by Pepper Winters: “Nila Weaver’s family is indebted. Being the first born daughter, her life is forfeit to the first born son of the Hawks to pay for sins of ancestors past. The dark ages might have come and gone, but debts never leave. She has no choice in the matter. She is no longer free.”
5. Vain- Part Two by Deborah Bladon: “Posing nude for the illustrious Noah Foster seemed like an exciting escape from Alexa’s life. No one was supposed to find out, but when the one man who owned her heart, discovers her secret, everything changes. Alexa is not only caught in a compromising position but in a situation in which her past and present collide.”
6. Sweet Addiction by J. Daniels: “Wedding hookups never amount to anything. Those who partake in this wicked little activity know the rules. Get in. Get laid. Get out. There’s no expectation of a relationship. It is what it is. Dylan Sparks knows the rules. She’s familiar with the protocol. And she engages in the best sex of her life with a complete stranger at her ex-boyfriend’s wedding.”
7. Alpha Billionaire by Helen Cooper: “Alpha Billionaire is a sexy, thrilling and jaw-dropping three part novella serial. It was only meant to be one night. Evie Johnson was doing her best friend a favor when she agreed to work a bachelor party as a dancer. She hadn’t expected to meet a man like Grant Slate. A man so handsome and cocky that she couldn’t help but be attracted to him when he asked for a dance.”
8. The Fixed Trilogy by Laurelin Paige: “All three books of the NY Times Bestselling Fixed Trilogy are included in this bundle.”
9. Twisted by Callie Hart: “Sloane. How many times can a person fall down and still get back up? How many times can things go wrong before you just give up? I’ve lost everything. My home, my job, my purpose in life—everything has been turned upside down. But while life hasn’t exactly turned out the way I would have liked it to, I wouldn’t change a thing. If things were different, I wouldn’t have Lacey. I wouldn’t have Michael.”
10. A Whole New Crowd by Tijan: “Taryn grew up in a different world. Her boyfriend was a criminal. His older brother was part of a gang. They weren’t great people, but they were her family. Then everything changes when she’s adopted by a family in the neighboring town. New family. New friends. A new world. She’s elated. This is her chance for a new beginning, but secrets start being revealed and Taryn learns her new life has ties to her old one, ties that she’s not happy about. Her new family might not have been the lucky break she thought she had. Now she’s not only fighting to live that new future, but she’s fighting to survive as well.”
Smashwords Self-Published Bestsellers for the Week of August 20, 2014

And here is what you should be reading -- a book I picked up by accident for my Kindle, courtesy of a free promotion.

It's called My Granny Writes Erotica, and it's by Rosen Trevithick, who has also produced a children's series, and a book about how NOT to self-publish.

I had every intention of reviewing it on this blog ages ago, but somehow it got lost in the clutter on my desk. But then I was reminded by the title of the Amazon #1 in the list, LOL Romantic Comedy Anthology Collection.  (Is that title a joke? Anthology and collection mean pretty much the same thing, when stories are assembled into a book. Maybe redundancy is funny?)

But to return to Granny and her erotica, which is definitely LOL.  Betty Berry is a 65-year-old suburban housewife who has never had a dirty thought in her life -- until her husband quits, leaving her with his debts (along with a grisly coffin-shaped debt collector), his ghastly old mother, and a house that is about to be sold over her head.  To make matters even worse, Betty's bossy daughter arrives, having abandoned her own marriage.  So what is Betty to do?

All her life, she has dreamed of being a bestselling novelist, but her (serious, literary) novel has never seen the light.  Can she write her way out of her dilemma?  Can she make enough out of publishing with KDP to get out of this financial mess?  Inspiration strikes when her eyes land on the copy of Fifty Shades of Grey that her daughter has carried along.  It made a helluva lot of money, didn't it?  So why not try a new genre?

Forthwith, Betty embarks on the authorship of erotica. She might be woefully ignorant of the grubby details, but the dominatrix who has been tendering to her errant husband's base desires is keen to provide the needed info.  Still more hilarity is added when she gets unexpected backing from a manufacturer of sex toys, which adds a few zeroes to all that lovely moola from Mr Amazon.

It is surprisingly clean, and outrageously funny.  As a reviewer on Amazon commented, it is laugh-out-loud-on-the-bus reading.  I got through it in one evening, because I just couldn't put it down.

Give it a go.  You will thank me.

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