Now on Preorder: CAT'S MEOW

This has been a busy week. What I was thinking when I scheduled two books two weeks apart?

All right, I know what my unrealistic brain was thinking.

•  The books are expected to be short novellas—20K to 25K words each. Easy peasy. (Didn’t happen. Aaron’s Annulment Bride came in at 36K words and Cat’s Meow at 28K words.)
•  I can finish up the first book WEEKS before it has to be uploaded on Amazon, and have half of the second book written before the first one is published. (Didn’t happen. I was working down to the wire on the first book—past the wire, as it turned out, since I missed the TIME of the upload deadline which has caused my readers who bought my first book on preorder all kinds of problems. Fortunately, that has all been fixed. I didn’t start the second book until two weeks ago.)
• For Aaron’sAnnulment Bride to work, Andrea needed a friend to help her get away from a bad situation. Catherine in Cat’s Meow was that friend. They traveled together, went to a few of the same events after they arrived in Jubilee Springs, but their stories are entirely different.

Now that worked!

Anyway, I put my life on hold, much to the chagrin of my husband and a few others, and finished Cat’s Meow, plus got it edited and uploaded on Amazon with three and a half hours to spare.

Whew!

Victorian Patriotic Postcard

Cat’s Meow was such a fun story to write. I don’t want to give too much away, but let’s just say there was something in the air around where I live that forced me to empathize with one of the characters. 

Like Aaron’s Annulment Bride, Catherine’s story takes place the same long Independence Day weekend in 1881. In that year, July 4th fell on a Monday. A lot took place from Friday, July 1st when several women showed up in Jubilee Springs until that Monday.

Here is the Book Description for 

Cat's Meow:

     Catherine “Cat” Everett has lost everything. She finds and adopts an abandoned, half-grown kitten. Unbeknownst to Harold Calloway, the man she has been writing to in Jubilee Springs with the intent of marriage, and enduring the disapproval of the railroads who do not allow pets to travel in the passenger areas, she decides to bring the kitten with her.

     When she arrives in Jubilee Springs, Catherine immediately falls in love with tall, lanky miner, Harold. She wants to marry him, but there is one “meowly” little problem.

Enjoy!

To purchase Cat's Meow at its $.99 preorder sale price through Tuesday, July 4, 2017, CLICK HERE. After that, it will resume its regular price of $1.99. 

All Sweethearts of Jubilee Springs books are also available on Kindle Unlimited for at least three months after publication.  

To read and enjoy all of the books in the Sweethearts of Jubilee Springs series, please sign up and follow us on Amazon by CLICKING HERE.

If you are on Facebook, please join the Sweet Americana Book Club by CLICKING HERE.

And, we would love you to follow Sweet Americana on Twitter by  CLICKING HERE.

 

I'm Still Waiting...on Amazon!

Today is the day Aaron's Annulment Bride should have been raised to the regular price of $1.99. In order to meet the agreement made by the authors of the Sweethearts of Jubilee Springs series, I will finish this blog post and then make the change--which will become effective within a matter of a few hours.

Once again, I am so, so sorry I messed up so bad. I sincerely apologize to those readers who purchased my book on preorder and got caught in my mistake. If you are not aware of the idiotic mess-up I pulled, you can read about it by CLICKING HERE. I guess that proves I can write about characters with their weaknesses and mistakes because I have experience.

I also bought a copy of my own book before I was able to get the corrected version uploaded and active (at 1:24pm PDT on 6/20)--you know, the version with ALL the chapters and the version that had been edited to correct (hopefully) ALL errors. I marked it as Version 2, which is supposed to signal Amazon that it had substantial changes. 

That said, now that I uploaded the corrected version along with designating it as having had substantial changes, I sure wish Amazon was faster about sending out those emails notifying my readers of the same.

I know in the past, I have received emails stating that an author's book has had substantial changes and then given me instructions on how to upload the current version. Since I know I have gone into a book on my Amazon account and used a link to upload the most current version, that is why I previously gave the instructions I did. I was hoping that would have happened with my book by now. Unfortunately....I'm still waiting.

Hmmm.... The good folks at Amazon and I must not think alike.

If you were one of my loyal readers who got caught in that preorder snafu of mine, I want to make it right by you. Please send your email address to me at zinaabbott AT gmail DOT com. You may also find the link to my email on the About Us page on my website. Please send me your Amazon order number and the date of purchase, and I will send a replacement copy of the book to you along with instructions on the easiest way to get it on your Kindle.

If you downloaded a copy of the book using Kindle Unlimited, the version you received should have been updated. No action on your part should be necessary.

Here is how to find your Amazon order number and purchase date for Aaron's Annulment Bride.

1.  Go into Manage Your Content and Devices on your Amazon account.

2.  Click on the second box (menu box) just to the left of the book title.

 

 3. Here is where you will find the menu of options for the book. If Amazon gave us a link to update to the most current version of the book, it would be here. Since it isn't as of yet, please click on the link for Order Details.

 

4.  Here you will find the Order Number, Date and Price of your purchase. Please send that information to me. Perhaps the easiest way if you do this on your computer is to use your "snipit" tool to create a jpg image, and insert that in your email.

When I receive your email, I will get you the updated copy of the book without you and I having to wait for Amazon to send out the email notifying us of the substantial updates.

Once again, I apologize to all who bought my book on preorder and ended up with an incomplete copy. Live and learn .... Boy, has this been a lesson to not only keep an eye on the calendar, but also on the clock.

Doin' the Happy Dance

Yep! I'm doin' my happy dance. 

 In case you don't know why, it isn't just that I have a new book being published on June 20th. It is because I now have my big-time mess cleaned up. Hopefully, by the time most of my readers read the Sweet Americana Sweethearts post on the 20th announcing my book along with three others are now live, Amazon will have uploaded my revised manuscript, and all will be good.

If you didn't read my last post of true confessions on this blog of how I messed up big-time, please CLICK HERE. 

The corrected version I uploaded tonight as soon as I knew my book had become active I designated as version 2. That means, if you were one of my loyal readers who already bought my book on preorder, and you get the unfinished version on your Kindle or Kindle app, you should shortly get an email from Amazon notifying you that the manuscript has had significant updates. I'll say it has had significant updates, such as the other two-thirds of the story plus (hopefully) the grammar and spelling all cleaned up.

Whew!

Along with that email you should receive instructions on how to get the updated version.  Or, you can read my previous email that should tell you how to get the updated book once it is available.

If you bought the book on preorder all I can say is thank you, and please, PLEASE forgive the inconvenience. I must have missed the cut-off time by less than a half hour, but almost doesn't count. Believe me, I'll pay closer attention next time.

This book will continue to be available at the preorder sale price of 99 cents through Tuesday, June 20th, at which time it will go up to its regular price of $1.99. It is also available on Kindle Unlimited if you have a subscription to this service. 

To purchase a copy of Aaron's Annulment Bride from Amazon, please CLICK HERE.

Please be sure to stop by the Sweet Americana Sweethearts to learn more about the other three books being published the same day. 

Here is the book description for  Aaron's Annulment Bride:

     Aaron Brinks, son of the Jubilee Springs mercantile owners, has been living in a small room above his parents’ store even though he is employed at the Prosperity Mine. When the mine owners announce they have contacted a mail order bride agency, and will allot company houses to the first ten miners who choose a bride and pay her way, he decides it is time for a house of his own.

     Shy Andrea Draper must escape her father’s ranch. Her father has discouraged all potential suitors because he does not want to lose his unpaid housekeeper, laundress, and the cook for him and his men. Then there is the problem of Lloyd McCreary, her father’s foreman.

     Learning her friend intends to go to Jubilee Springs as a mail order bride, going with her seems Andrea’s only option for escape. She agrees to marry Aaron even though she knows she is not worthy to be any man’s wife. While trying to convince him to be married in name only until he gains title to his house, at which time they can annul the marriage, Andrea’s father shows up to drag her home against her will.

     Learning what he is up against, Aaron must decide if it is just the house he wants, or if he wants Andrea. 

I messed up big-time!

I messed up big-time!

I put my first Sweethearts of Jubilee Springs novella, Aaron's Annulment Bride on preorder several weeks ago. This was agreed to by those of us who are currently writing for the series. We wanted to have the book links ahead of time so we can share them in the back matter (the stuff after the story ends) in all our books.

All well and good, but I only put up enough to satisfy the preorder requirement, not my full manuscript (All right, confession time, here. I hadn't finished writing it or editing it.) I was keeping an eye on the drop-dead date which Amazon KDP warns authors about in a series of emails. Unfortunately, those emails don't warn of the drop-dead TIME.

So, yesterday, on the drop-dead date, I merrily worked on my final edits, not paying attention to the clock. I was still easily within the drop-dead date. However, when I tried to upload my manuscript complete with updated back matter, the drop-dead time had passed. 

I was locked out. Midnight had struck, and Cinderella had not left the ballroom....

What that means is, for those readers who bought my book on preorder, on midnight just before the 20th, the book as it stood the day I set up the preorder will download on their Kindle or Kindle app. Those readers will get only five chapters of my first draft, unedited, novella.

I plan to sit up all Monday evening and night. The minute my book becomes active and is downloaded on my Kindle (Yes, I always buy one of my books, just to make sure the formatting on the Kindle looks right.), I will upload a corrected manuscript with all the chapters and (hopefully) all the errors corrected.

If you were so kind as to buy Aaron's Annulment Bride on preorder, please be prepared to go into your Kindle account under "Manage Your Content and Devices." 

 
Click on the little menu box before the title. There should be a link to allow you to upload an updated copy of the book.

If you planned to read the book using Kindle Unlimited, I thank you and ask that you wait until the night of June 20th, or--better yet--June 21st to download the book on your Kindle Unlimited account. While you are waiting for me to clean up my big-time mess-up, there are Books 1, 2 and 4 in the series. (Mine is Book 3.) They should keep you busy for a few hours.

*  Please forgive me for any convenience.

*  Please don't give me a bad review because I goofed.

*  Please read and enjoy the Sweethearts of Jubilee Springs series. There will be more about this series on the Sweet Americana Sweethearts blog on the release date for the first four books, Tuesday, June 20th. Please stop by, sign up to follow the blog, and learn more about this new series being written as a collaborative effort by authors who write for the blog.