Look at what a friend of mine made!

Thomas Manning (author of Energize) kindly made this for me! I love it!

Suffice to say, I will be going back to him to make further banners as I write more books...

As you can see, awesome!

One down, four to go!

The first signed book collection has been claimed! The decryption of the journal page was emailed to me today at 15:38, and the answer was correct!

There's still time though to claim one of the other 4 prizes - remember I am offering signed copies of the first 3 Benjamin Knight books to the first 5 people to correctly decode the secret message.

Once all of the prizes have been won, I will be posting the names of the winners to my blog, so hurry up before you miss out!

Here is the code again for those that missed it -

Email me via my website (www.jackson-lawrence.com) once you have it all figured out!

New Light Competition

As part of the release of Book 3 in The Chronicle of Benjamin Knight, the epilogue of the book contains a competition that also leads into the fourth book. As part of a desire to make it fair to everyone, I have decided to post the competition here also for anyone to enter (like most competitions these days, no purchase necessary!).

First, here is the code sheet that readers have to decipher...

As noted in the book, the first five people to contact me with the correct decryption of the code (via my website www.jackson-lawrence.com) will receive signed copies of the first three books in the Benjamin Knight series!

In addition, I still have review copies available for people if they want them (available in epub, mobi and pdf format) and I'm happy to provide copies of books 1 and 2 to go along with them. Please leave a comment below or contact me via the website, with contact details and the format required.

Good luck!

New Light is Now Available!

Available now on Amazon Kindle!

The wait is finally over. New Light is now available to buy on Amazon kindle and will be available in paperback within the next week. Advanced Review Copies are still available, but if you would like to see it in all its glory, visit the links below!

UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/New-Light-Chronicle-Benjamin-Knight-ebook/dp/B00J2CGSOY/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_t_1_J2Q6

US http://www.amazon.com/New-Light-Chronicle-Benjamin-Knight-ebook/dp/B00J2CGSOY/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1395140177&sr=8-3&keywords=new+light+benjamin+knight

Next project

While New Light is being tidied up, I have started work on my next project.  No, sorry, this isn't Book 4 of Benjamin Knight (which will be called Oracle for those of you who are interested).  Instead, I've decided to write something else for a little while.  My next book will be much shorter and aimed at younger readers (6+ or there about).

First, the cover (maybe)

 

 

What do you think?

 

I haven't found any other books that deal with an 8 year old Werewolf and her adventures at a new school with new friends, but if you know of any please let me know!

 

Anyway, comments please?

New Light is Done!

Just a short note to my readers and followers!

New Light (Book 3 in The Chronicle of Benjamin Knight) is finished.  I have gone through it and reduced it from its 126,554 first draft to its 112,262 word final draft.  It is now in the hands of a beta reader, making sure that it makes sense (hopefully!), before it goes off to my editor and proof reader to make it ready for release.

I am hoping to have it available late March/early April on Amazon Kindle and a few days later in paperback.

If anyone is interested in a free Advanced Review Copy (ARC) please drop me a line or comment on this post.  At present, it will be in its unedited format, but I'm happy to give them out later if you'd prefer.

Anyway, having a few days off playing South Park - The Stick Of Truth before I start on my next project!

A Literary Experiment

Everyone knows the slogan 'Sex sells'.   Whether you're looking at sales rankings, or watching Twitter posts fly by with advertisements, one constant among them seems to be erotica.  Is the slogan true?  Is erotica that popular?  I wanted answers, so I decided to try an experiment.

I spent less than a week writing an erotic novella and, using a pen name, I published it on Amazon (I won't mention the title here, but if you are interested in reading it, just drop me an email and I will send it over, discretion assured).   Less than 5 weeks later, here are the results.  To compare sales numbers, I'm going to use my action/adventure series, The Chronicle of Benjamin Knight.

Let's have a look at the results:-

US and UK only (other regions numbers in single figures or zero)

Book 1 – Knightfall

Time to write – 20 years (on and off)
Words – 105,000
Published April 2013
Sales = 101
Free KDP give-aways = 2711
Sales per month (avg) = 10
Reviews = 22

Book 2 – Darkest Before Dawn

Time to write – 6 months
Words – 98,000
Published  August 2013
Sales = 46
Free KDP give-aways = 482
Sales per month (avg) = 8
Reviews = 5

Book 3 – Erotica

Time to write – 3 days (yes, really)
Words – 25,000
Published February 2014
Sales = 16
Free KDP give-aways = 906
Sales per month (avg) = 14
Reviews = 0

Yes, that's right.  A fairly generic piece of erotica (by which I mean nothing more than what most consenting adults would have experienced themselves at one point or another), which took me just 3 days to write, has already sold 16 copies.  This in just under 5 weeks.

This is in contrast to a complex and interwoven tale that I have written, spanning a series of books, with characters that I have worked hard to try and make as believable as possible within the rules of the world I have created.

So it would appear that sex definitely sells, and I would be very keen to hear thoughts from other authors.  Do we all need to start including sex scenes in our novels to increase our sales?   How do your sales compare?

Starting at the end of March, I am putting Knightfall in a countdown sale instead of free KDP select days, so I will let you all know if that does any better.  In the meantime, thanks for reading, and feel free to share your opinions!