Jute's Charmed Life Trilogy -- Finished!

Yes, I'm finally done publishing the Jute's Charmed Life middle grade trilogy. I just put the last book up on Amazon and CreateSpace.

 To celebrate, I'm giving away the first book for free (Kindle version only) on Amazon through the end of the month.

My kids have been begging for more Jute to read, but I'm not sure when or even if I'll revisit the Jute story again.

In the mean time, I'm happy to have finished, to have crossed all the t's and dotted the i's. I'm not sure how much marketing I will do for these. Marketing is a time sink, and something I've discovered I don't have much patience for. That said, without more marketing, I'll  lose money on the project. I'm not too worried about recouping my costs: cover art (I'd recommend Heidi Sutherlin as she did a wonderful job), shipping, one round of editing, etc. It's been a labor of love and so I'm happy.

I know that one way to get more sales would be to run ads on the various sites and networks that cater to ebook readers. I have yet to look into the costs, but I suppose this is where the money math begins. Is it worth spending more on ads to generate more sales?

I've sold over 100 copies of the books, and over 700 over 1000 people(!) have downloaded the free copy of the first book. I'm assuming there's a market for middle grade books written with advanced/smart readers in mind. Book 1 has received a lot of great, positive reviews. I've also gotten some confusing 3 star ratings.

For me, the next milestone with the books would be to actually receive a "royalty payment" check from Amazon. Because I did not elect to use electronic banking with Amazon, I need to meet the payout threshold ($100) before I get a check. I'm hoping that happens early this year. Fingers crossed!

Next Up: Lessons Learned Part 2