The sales of my self-published ebooks have just crossed over the 3 million mark!!!  To say I’m astonished and amazed would be only a few of the adjectives I could use to describe this accomplishment. And I really want to thank the readers who have purchased many titles from my extensive booklist. Some people have written me to say they’ve read every single book, and I am deeply honored and touched by the support. 

As some of you know, my self publishing journey began in January of 2011 when I published SUMMER SECRETS, a story of three sisters, an around-the-world sailing race, a lot of secrets, and one man determined to uncover them all.  Summer Secrets had been originally published by NAL, but rights had reverted to me, so I decided to self publish the book. I loved the story, and I knew I had a lot of fans who hadn’t been able to find it in the bookstores before it disappeared. The first few weeks sales were slow. I didn’t really know what I was doing, and the self publishing world was very new at that time. There was a lot less information available for self publishing authors, so there was a lot of trial and error involved and a steep learning curve. As part of that learning curve, I watched videos on how to use Photoshop so I could make my covers, I studied every how-to-format an ebook article that was available (not as many as there are now), and I got my book up at the various retailers. 

As I said the first two months were slow. I put up another couple of books during that time period. I played around a lot with my cover choices, sometimes changing them a couple of times. And I also played around with price points. I did all the social media I was already doing for my traditionally published books. I dedicated myself to learning how to publish and sell ebooks. I read everything I could. I talked to all the retailers whenever I could find them, and I studied what other successful self publishing authors were doing. 

Then something wonderful happened, SUMMER SECRETS started to sell and sell and sell. It eventually hit #1 on B&N and a month later hit #1 on Amazon, and then the biggest feat of all, it hit #1 on the New York Times EBook List. It also hit #3 on the NYT Combined
Print and Ebook List, even though there was not one copy in print available.  What was even more amazing was at the moment that SUMMER SECRETS hit #1 on Amazon and the NYT, DON’T SAY A WORD hit #1 on B&N. I had three top spots with two different titles. I went on put another fourteen titles on the USA Today and New York Times Bestseller Lists for a total of 48 weeks. 

My husband was as incredulous as I was. We’d been accumulating a lot of college debt for our kids, and his construction biz had a hit slow down after the economy crashed, so I was very motivated to make money on my writing. I think having that pressure probably helped me focus and just put my head down and work as hard as I could. 

I was lucky that I had some backlist books to start with. Now I’m self publishing original books and loving every minute of it. I recently completed THE WISH SERIES: A SECRET WISH, JUST A WISH AWAY and WHEN WISHES COLLIDE. The books all stand alone but are connected by the theme of wishes. My new series is THE CALLAWAYS: ON A NIGHT LIKE THIS and SO THIS IS LOVE are currently available. The third book in the series will be out July 2013!

I enjoy running my own business, having control over what I write and how frequently it comes out. I was always a fast writer and wrote more quickly than publishers could publish me. So I no longer have to space out a series over 3 years, I can do 3-4 books a year and keep my readers happy! 

I’ve probably worked harder the last two years than I did at any other time in my life, but the rewards have been great! I’ve learned a lot, and the most important thing is to keep writing books. New material always drives sales, much more than any number of amazing tweets or FB posts. Social media/promotion are important but only as an adjunct to the most important thing which is writing more books! 

I also have to give a shout-out to the wonderful retailers who are supporting self publishing and making it so easy for writers to bring their books to market. There are wonderful people working at Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and Smashwords. And I truly appreciate all the the time they spend supporting and helping authors. 

If you’d like to chat with me about self publishing, feel free to email me at barbara@barbarafreethy.com or join me on Facebook or Twitter! 

Until then, Happy Reading!

I’m excited to report that THE WAY BACK HOME has been nominated for a RITA for Best Contemporary Single Title Romance of 2012 by Romance Writers of America. The winners of the RITA contest will be announced on Saturday, July 20, 2013 at the Romance Writers of America National Conference in Atlanta, GA. 

If you haven’t had a chance to read the book, I hope you’ll check it out. It features Gabe Ryder, who appeared in Garden of Secrets (Book #5 in the Angel’s Bay Series), but THE WAY BACK HOME is a standalone novel. You don’t have to have read the Angel’s Bay books in order to enjoy it. 

THE WAY BACK HOME also received a STARRED REVIEW from Publishers Weekly! 

“Freethy’s skillful plotting and gift for creating sympathetic characters will ensure that few dry eyes will be left at the end of the story.”

Read a story synopsis and more reviews here! 

The second book in my Callaway Series, SO THIS IS LOVE, will be released on March 26, 2013. The story features Emma Callaway, a fire investigator, and Max Harrison, a hot-headed police inspector, whose working relationship is as hot as the fires  they’re investigating. More details to come!

If you haven’t read the first book in the series, ON A NIGHT LIKE THIS, read a description here.

I’m so excited to announce that RYAN’S RETURN just received its 500th review at Amazon with an average rating for all reviews coming in at 4.5 stars! This is one of my favorite books and I’m thrilled that readers are loving it as much as I do.

In case you haven’t read this one yet, here’s the back blurb.  I hope you’ll check it out! You won’t be disappointed!

Famous photojournalist Ryan Hunter has come back to a family torn apart by mistrust and resentment’to the father who disowned him, to the brother who betrayed him, to the little bou who shares his features. Ryan, the charismatic “bad boy” son, has returned’stirring up past conflicts like a whirlwind . . . and throwing Kara Delaney’s fragile, passionate heart into turmoil.

Kara has struggled back from a disastrous marriage to build a new life for herself and her little girl—a peaceful existence now jeopardized by vicious, small town politics, by her daughter’s fanciful ghost stories… and by Ryan’s return. Now nature’s impending fury threatens to expose long-buried secrets. And Kara must join with the enigmatic, misunderstood Ryan-to discover the truth that will save their families … and to explore a dangerous, irresistible love as mighty and enduring as the onrushing river.

RYAN’S RETURN is a standalone novel of approximately 100,000 words.

ON A NIGHT LIKE THIS launches my new connected family series called the CALLAWAYS. The Callaways are a blended, Irish family — a yours, mine and ours kind of clan. Or a little bit like the Brady bunch. The mom had two daughters, and the father had four sons, and together they had twins! Each of the eight siblings will be getting a story, and there may be some other tie-ins as well as the series goes along.

The Callaways have a long standing family tradition to “serve and protect” and many of the men and a few of the women have served as San Francisco firefighters. Burke, the oldest son, is a firefighter in San Francisco. Aiden is a smoke jumper out of Northern California, and Colton, the baby of the family is just finishing up paramedic training and hoping to get a job as a firefighter. Emma is an arson investigator, and her story is featured in book two, titled, SO THIS IS LOVE. Others serve and protect in different ways. Nicole is a teacher and a mother. Drew is a helicopter pilot with the Coast Guard, and Shayla is finishing up medical school in her quest to be a doctor. And then there’s Sean, the rebel musician who seems quite out of step with the rest of his dedicated family, but he has his own story to tell.

I hope you’ll enjoy reading about the Callaways as much as I’m enjoying writing about them. The first book ON A NIGHT LIKE THIS is now on sale at all ebook retailers and can be purchased in print from Amazon.com. SO THIS IS LOVE will be released on March 26, 2013, and two more books will out in the summer and fall of this year.

I hope you’ll check out the Callaways!