And At Long Last, The Trade Paperback!

Yes, the paperback of Vanity, Vengeance & A Weekend In Vegas is here!! Right now it's only available on the CreateSpace eStore (an Amazon company) but next week it'll be available on the regular Amazon site and then in a little over a month you should be able to get it on Amazon or have your local bookstore/library order it for you. Because I'm not mass producing this I had to price it at $14.99 which is about standard for a trade paperback (they are normally priced between $13.95 and $16.99). Still I would have liked to have offered it at an extreme discount like I did with the ebook which you can buy for $3.99. I know times are tough. Nonetheless for those of you who like to read the old fashioned way (like me) the paperback is available for you at a standard, if not seriously reduced, price.

I have to say, I got a certain thrill out of holding the book in my hand for the first time.  I've published six books through my New York publishing house but this is the first one I've ever published all on my own without support (with the very important exception of the help I got from Zee Monodee who designed my cover). It was a totally different experience. Harder...but in some ways more rewarding. And the reviews are just FABULOUS. As I said in my last blog, I hope to sell enough of these to keep the adventure going but if I don't then at least I know Sophie's going out with a bang.

So once again, you can now buy the latest Sophie Katz Mystery as a paperback on CreateSpace, or as an ebook on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Kindle and Nook books can be read on your PC, Android or on any of your Mac devices (MacBooks, iPads, iPhones and so on). I'm working to get an ebook available for those of you who have Sony or Kobe readers but for reasons completely out of my control that's taking some time and I will have to price it at $7.99 on the Sony & Kobe ebook sites (so sorry!).  If sales are phenomenal I'll have the book translated into French for my many French readers.

But of course the question I keep getting asked is, when will it come out in audio? The answer is that it depends on how many ebooks and paperbacks I sell. Sales don't have to be phenomenal for me to have the start up costs to have the book recorded but they have to be very strong. So if you're biting at the bit to listen to Sophie during your next road trip get your ebook/paperback reading friends to buy a book. Hopefully, together, we can make this happen.

And for those of you who have been supporting Sophie since she was first introduced to the world in Sex, Murder And A Double Latte, those of you who have bought all the books and raved about them to your friends; thank you. Without you Sophie wouldn't have survived to fight another day.


Kyra Davis
Bestselling Author of:
The Sophie Katz Murder Mystery Series, 
and 
SO MUCH FOR MY HAPPY ENDING

The New Sophie Katz Mystery Is Here

For those of you who don't know, Vanity, Vengeance & A Weekend In Vegas is now available at Barnes & Noble and Amazon in ebook form that can be downloaded to your Kindle, Nook, PC or any Mac or Android device. It's selling for $3.99 and it went "live" on March 2nd.  To be honest it's been a bumpy ride. I rushed to make my deadline and didn't spend nearly enough time editing it and although I handed it over to someone to check it over for editing issues they also didn't have enough time to be as thorough as they would have liked so I had to make the corrections and reload it...which was stressful. Also, I discovered that all the different ebook distributers have different formatting requirements and figuring out how to follow everybody's very specific formatting rules was a very steep learning curve. I screwed up a few times and again, had to reload it.  Trying to get the cover to fit everyone's specifications is still giving me a headache (although I do have it all worked out now for all the ebook versions). Then I started to get emails from readers asking if I could make it available for their Sony and Kobe eReaders. To do that I'm going to have to publish through yet another distributor and reformat again by their requirements and I have to price it higher through the Sony and Kobe outlets because there are certain policies that this distributer has and policies that Amazon has about those who choose to distribute through Sony and Kobe and...well, it's complicated... and it gives me a headache.

So that probably doesn't sound like a very auspicious beginning. But there was one very big highlight to all this: the response I've been getting from readers. I have been inundated with emails telling me that Vanity, Vengeance & A Weekend In Vegas is by far people's favorite Sophie book. The vast majority of them told me that they gave up sleep because they simply couldn't put the book down. I've gotten positive responses from readers about my other books but never have so many of them written the exact same four words to me: "This one's the best." Even people who have never read a Sophie book before in their lives are emailing their praise. The reviews on Amazon are AMAZING.

That's gratifying. I worked hard on this book and it means the world to me that I was able to add a little joy to so many of my readers' lives. Plus I actually agree with them this time around. This is my best book and that's good. The future of Sophie really depends on how this does or doesn't continue to sell but if I don't continue the series I'm at least glad to know that she and her fabulous group of friends truly shine in this most recent adventure.

I am still working on getting the book up on the Sony and Kobe sites and as soon as I get the proof of the paperback version of the book I'll be able to green light it and make it available for sale through Amazon, Barnes & Noble and several other retail locations. If you want to buy it through your local bookseller rather than online your bookseller of choice should be able to order it for you.

The question I get the most is: "When will it be available for audio?"  I know that a huge portion of my readers have fallen in love with the Sophie Katz audiobooks. Past sales have proven that. In fact they've enjoyed such success that I think many of my book listeners would find it jarring if the books were narrated by someone other than the truly fabulous Gabra Zackman who has been the Sophie book reader since the beginning. She's a very talented professional actress and at this point she is Sophie. But I can't pay her salary and the recording costs unless I sell enough $3.99 ebooks and $14.99 paperbacks.  To be honest, I don't expect to sell a lot of paperbacks (although I'd love to be surprised by a different outcome) but the ebooks are going to be essential in providing start-up costs for the audiobook.  Hopefully we'll be listening to Sophie again soon.

So that's about it. The formatting and editing errors have been corrected on the $3.99 ebooks being sold on Amazon and B&N and can be downloaded on pretty much every device with the exception of Sony and Kobe readers. It will eventually be up on Sony and Kobe sites (but for complicated reasons it will be a bit pricier there) and the paperback really will be out soon.

But the bottom line is this: Sophie's back.

Kyra Davis
Bestselling Author of:
The Sophie Katz Mystery Series
and 
SO MUCH FOR MY HAPPY ENDING