Sassy Texas Author, Jinx Schwartz, Shares Her KDP Select Experiences

Jinx Schwartz at her boat desk

Jinx Schwartz has written eight books, including five in the award-winning Hetta Coffey series. Hetta is a sassy Texan with a snazzy yacht, and she's not afraid to use it!

Raised in the jungles of Haiti and Thailand, with returns to Texas in-between, Jinx followed her father's steel-toed footsteps into the Construction and Engineering industry in hopes of building dams. Finding all the good rivers taken, she traveled the world defacing other landscapes with mega-projects in Alaska, Japan, New Zealand, Puerto Rico and Mexico.

Like the protagonist in her series, Jinx was single, with a yacht, when she met her husband, Robert "Mad Dog: Schwartz. They opted to become cash-poor cruisers rather than continue chasing the rat, sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge, turned left, and headed for Mexico. They now divide their time between Arizona and Mexico's Sea of Cortez.

And now, Jinx Schwartz shares KDP Select with us:

Kindle Direct Publishing been berry, berry good to me by Jinx Schwartz     

Thanks for inviting me to participate in your new exciting blog. Since Book Beat Babes concentrates on tips, trends and secrets in books, publishing and promos, I'll share my KDP experience.

The title of my piece dates me, but many of us remember the Saturday Night Live skit with Garrett Morris as Chico Escuela, a baseball player from the Dominican Republic. Had it aired today, the catch phrase, "Beisbol been berry, berry, good to me," would probably go viral.

I share Chico's sentiment; Amazon's KDP program came along at a berry great time for me.

But first, here's a little timeline in my book career:

1. Wrote the Great American Novel, self-published it in hardback. Hint: Do not do this.

2. Okay, at least my GAN (The Texicans) was picked up by Books in Motion for Audio. Admittedly this was tantamount to winning the lottery, considering it was my first book AND self-published when the self-part was still a derogatory term.

3. Undaunted by dismal sales, I wrote more books and published them with iUniverse (when they were still relatively cheap): Sold a couple here and there.

4. Was picked up by a small publisher who re-pubbed all of my books, and some new ones. This publisher made money selling ME books, which I did my best to flog off on friends and relatives, and at book signings.

5. Had a parting of the ways with publisher. They were loathe to even put my books on Amazon, nor ebooks in Kindle format. A slow learner, I went INDIE and decided the join authors smarter than me who had already jumped on the Amazon train.

6. Still foot-dragging somewhat, I went with Smashwords for more distribution, but at least put my books into Kindle format. Sold almost nothing except through Amazon. October 2011 until June 2014: sold a grand total of 450 books...all on Amazon.

Well, duh. Lemme think, what should I do? Oh, yeah, how about I sign up with KDP Select?

Life in the freebie lane.

July 2012:   Gave away 18,145 books and sold 428. Note: See 6 above: I sold almost as many books in one month than I did in the previous seven.

If I had a day job, I still couldn't give it up, but in a little over a year I've sold almost 8000 books, and given away 250,000. Could have done better if not for a four-month speed bump: see below.

Social media been berry, berry good to me, as well.

And if you don't think social media sells book, I have this bridge over a swamp in Florida I'll sell you. We spent four months on our boat in Mexico last winter and without Internet, my sales SANK, not a term one who lives on a boat part-time uses loosely.

It was not until an August freebie this year (almost 50,000 downloads) and going with Book Bub and a bunch of other promo sites, that I am back in bidness.

My final take? Well, nothing in this business is final, but for now Amazon seems to shine, and I've hitched a ride on their star. Did I sign up for Matchbook? Yep. Why? Why not? My print books are through Createspace, so why not sell some? To me it seems a win-win.

About the Hetta Coffey Series:

Book One, Which Starts It All 

A note here: I have five books in my Hetta Coffey series, and freebies work well for series. I have no idea how a stand-alone would fare by a relatively unknown author such as I. I also have a boxed set of the first four in the series, and it is selling well.

Hetta Coffey is a sassy Texan with a snazzy yacht, and she's not afraid to use it!
She's a globe-trotting civil engineer with a swath of failed multi-national affairs in her jet stream.

Plying the San Francisco waterfront, trolling for triceps, her attention is snagged by a parade of passing yachts—especially their predominantly male skippers—and experiences a champagne-induced epiphany: If she had a boat, she could get a man.

In spite of a spectacular ignorance of all things nautical, Hetta buys her dream boat, but a shadowy stalker, an inconvenient body, and Hetta's own self-destructive foibles, give a whole new meaning to the phrase "sink or swim!"

Where you can connect with Jinx Schwartz:

Jinx's Blog: http://bit.ly/PSAAxI

Website: http://jinxschwartz.com

Amazon author page: http://amzn.to/QpYtAR

Twitter: @jinxschwartz

Facebook: http://on.fb.me/YJ7hXT

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