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