Suzanne Rogerson's Blog, page 41

#WordlessWednesday St Anne’s Hill #Fungi #Toadstool #photo

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#Tuesdaybookblog A Year and a Day – Isabelle Broom #Bookreview #Romance

This is my first book review for a long time. I’m a bit out of practice, but here goes…

I won a paperback copy of A Year and a Day in a Rafflecopter giveaway run by Brizzlelass. I was instantly drawn to the idea of a book set in Prague as it’s a bucket list destination for me. After reading this, Prague has moved even higher up on my list!

But before I get to what I think, let’s start with the beautiful book cover and the blurb…

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Welcome to a city where wishes are everywhere

For Megan, a winter escape to Prague with her friend Ollie is a chance to find some inspiration for her upcoming photography exhibition. But she’s determined to keep their friendship from becoming anything more. Because if Megan lets Ollie find out about her past, she risks losing everything – and she won’t let that happen again . . .

For Hope, the trip is a surprise treat from Charlie, her new partner. But she’s struggling to enjoy the beauty of the city when she knows how angry her daughter is back home. And that it’s all her fault . . .

For Sophie, the city has always been a magical place. This time she can’t stop counting down the moments until her boyfriend Robin joins her. But in historic Prague you can never escape the past . . .

Three different women.



Three intertwining love stories.



One unforgettable, timeless city.

My Review

This is an addictive read. The way each chapter alternates between the three viewpoint characters – Megan, Hope and Sophie, draws you in completely. I spent a few late nights unable to put it down.

The characters are all likeable and each story thread is compelling and believable. It’s great how each character has their own chapter, but are often with or bumping into the others characters once they all meet in Prague. Megan is the main character of the three, and Ollie (her friend / potential love interest) is definitely my favourite character. I connected with Megan the most perhaps because she is obsessed with photography (I also love taking photos), although I found her reasoning a little nuts and infuriating at times.

There are plenty of heart-warming moments in A Year and a Day, and plenty of times when it reduced me to tears.

Prague really comes alive; you can almost feel as if you are there in the freezing, magical city.

I did guess where much of the plot was going, but that didn’t stop my enjoyment of the story, rather it’s good to be proved right.

In all, A Year and a Day is a brilliantly entertaining novel that I recommend to anyone who enjoys romantic fiction. I will be looking out for more books by Isabelle Broom and look forward to escaping into other parts of the world in her stories.

I rate it 4.5 stars (5 on amazon / goodreads).

 

#Weekendwanderings Llama Park – East Sussex #Llama #photos

For my first weekend wander in a long time, I’d like to show off a few photos from our family visit to The Llama Park in East Sussex. It’s a great place to spend a couple of hours in some very beautiful English countryside.

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This Llama is very tame and friendly, and wanders loose around the grounds. There are lots of Llamas and you can even take part in a Llama walk.

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I love the cheeky little Alpacas.

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But my highlight of the day was seeing this peacock admiring his reflection, or perhaps sussing out a rival.

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Feeding time was my daughter’s highlight.

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If you are looking for a few hours of fun with some very friendly animals, check out the Llama Park.

Next week I hope to share some pictures of the historic ships at Portsmouth’s Dockyard.

The Lost Sentinel 99p / 99c #KDP #kindle countdown deal and blog update http://mybook.to/LostSentinel

Hello everyone.

I can’t believe I’ve been away from blogging for the whole summer holidays. The time has flown by while I’ve been busy working on book 2 in the Silent Sea Chronicles and attempting to entice the kids away from their XBox’s with days out and holidays. Now they’re both back at school, it’s time for me to get serious about finishing The Sentinel’s Reign ready for publication in 2018. I also plan to take part in NaNoWriMo this year and beat the 50K word count.

I’m hoping to make a slow return to blogging over the next few weeks with book reviews, photo posts and a guest post from Colleen Story about research and how she approaches it for fiction and non-fiction. I will also be reviewing her new book ‘Overwhelmed Writer Rescue’. It’s a brilliant self-help book and I can’t wait to share my review with you.

In the meantime, I’m really pleased to announce the new kindle countdown deal for The Lost Sentinel has just gone live this morning. You can pick it up at the bargain price of 99p / 99c for the next week Amazon universal link.

I’m hoping to achieve the same success as the previous countdown deal for Visions of Zarua. See my results post from July. This time I’m trying out a few new ad companies. If it goes well (or maybe if it doesn’t) I’ll share the results with you next week. I’m keeping my fingers crossed as The Lost Sentinel is feeling a bit like a neglected child at the moment while I’ve been so busy working on the sequel.

Please pick up a copy in the countdown deal, or read it via kindle unlimited. And as ever, if you would consider leaving a review you’ll make this indie author…

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…this happy!

Enjoy your day.

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The KDP Countdown deal Results are in! #indie #indieauthor

Well, I’m astounded by what a little advertising can do. These aren’t the massive results others have achieved, but it is the BEST I have ever done, and the best Visions of Zarua has ever done. I’m ecstatic, and my self publishing verve has been restored!

So how did Visions of Zarua do during the 99p / 99c countdown deal?

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The deal ran 20th to 27th July 2017

Day 1 – My efforts consisted of Tweeting, blogging, Facebook, Instagram – the usual suspects.

COST = MY TIME. SALES = 0

Day 2 – BKnights

COST = $11. SALES = 3

Day 3 – My Facebook Ad: Aimed at 15-30 age group male/female in UK and US with interests in reading, fantasy etc. Total of 9 interests.

COST = £6. SALES = 0

Note – I picked this age group as they had shown the most interest in previous ads. There were 1,169 people reached – 16 likes and 1 link click (to Amazon book page). 12 photo quote clicks were recorded – obviously having the photo quote took away from the amazon link click. (A few days later I invited these people to Like my facebook page.)

Day 4 – Bargain Booksy Ad

COST $40. SALES = 24!

Finally making progress, although I haven’t covered my costs. There were 21 sales in the US and 3 in the UK. 

Day 5 – Facebook Ads attempt 2

This time I ran two ads, 1 US and 1 UK. I upped the age range 16-65+ male/female. I reduced interests to 4.

I also used the Amazon book page as the direct link for the Ad, rather than have the universal link in the wording of the ad as before.

US 14 likes, only 2 link clicks (234 people reached)

UK 2 likes, 21 link clicks. (470 people reached) No idea if these resulted in sales.

COST = £8. SALES = 10 (5 UK / 5 US) – Maybe a result of Bargain Booksy and / or facebook ad?

Day 6 – Booksends

COST $35. SALES = 28

Very happy with these figures!

DAY 7 – Bookrunes.

COST = $25. SALES 9.

I was interested to give Bookrunes a shot as they advertise to UK, US, Australia and India. Even though the deal doesn’t run in all those countries, it’s still very much needed exposure.

And guess what,

Day 8 = 3 sales in Australia!

Extra: Amazon Marketing Services

I also ran an AMS ad throughout the whole KDP countdown deal. The results take a few days to finalise, but so far it looks as though it received 1847 impressions, 1 click and 1 sale. That sale cost so far $0.07. I have a profit WOOHOO! However, that’s the worst an AMS ad has ever performed for me. It was a sponsored product ad with 48 keywords, but they would not let me mention anything to do with the sale or price in the ad so that doesn’t help matters. I also still have an ad running for Visions of Zarua all the time, so the two ads will have been very similar.

The deal has ended, but I have my fingers crossed that more sales will trickle in over the next few days / weeks.

Final Thoughts

Over 8 days Visions of Zarua sold 77 copies. 17 UK 57 US and 3 AU.

I may be out of pocket but it doesn’t matter because 77 new people own my book and countless others have seen it! Even though I haven’t hit any bestseller lists, I’m still happy with the results.

In the past I’ve sold in Canada, Germany and been read in India – so I really can say that Visions of Zarua has been read Worldwide. If I hadn’t had the guts to self publish back in 2015, no one would have seen my work, and no doubt I’d be out in the real world right now trying to find a job that fits in with school hours and term times – boring!

Instead, I’m fully pumped and ready to get on with book 2 in the Silent Sea Chronicles so I can start this crazy business all over again.

P.S – Thanks to my blogging friends who gave me words of advice and encouragement when I had a wobble a few weeks back.

P.P.S – I’m still desperate to get some reviews for The Lost Sentinel (and Visions of Zarua). I want to try a repeat experiment with countdown deals for The Lost Sentinel soon, but it only has 4/5 reviews on Amazon and some ad sites require 10+ reviews. Can you help?

If you’ve read either books, please consider reviewing them on Amazon. If you would like a reviewers copy, please get in touch.

Now I’m planning a whole week without the internet – well almost. I’ll still be checking my emails, wordpress comments etc, so please add your thoughts and comments. I love to interact, that’s what makes this whole thing worth the effort.

Thanks for reading!

Visions of Zarua Amazon link

The Lost Sentinel Amazon link

#KDP Countdown deal Visions of Zarua is 99p http://mybook.to/VOZ #fantasy #epicfantasy

Good morning everyone!

Today I wanted to let you know that Visions of Zarua is just 99p during its Kindle Countdown Deal 20th – 27th July. Here’s the link if you’re interested in learning more – Amazon UK / US.

Visions of Zarua is a dual timeline fantasy following the story of two wizards who live 350 years apart.

Paddren is the reluctant hero of present day Paltria, while Jago is a junior wizard who lived 350 years ago when the problems first beset the magical city of Zarua.

Steeped in mystery, with plenty of magic and murder along the way, this is a fast-paced action adventure on an epic scale.

Visions of Zarua is a standalone fantasy with 18 reviews and an average rating of 4.5 on Amazon UK. On Goodreads it has 26 ratings with an average of 4.27.

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I’m excited about the countdown deal this time around as this will be the first time I’ve used any paid Ad services apart from AMS to promote it.

For those Indie authors out there interested in using Ad sites, I’ll blog about the results in the near future. I don’t have high expectations of  making my money back, I’m just hoping for a few downloads and some more exposure of both Visions and The Lost Sentinel.

LEARNT SO FAR: You can’t just set up this kind of advertising on a whim, which of course is exactly what I tried to do. Some sites need you to book a date weeks or even months in advance, and many require a certain number of reviews as well. That’s a great form of quality control, but doesn’t help when you want to promote a newly published book. My advice – get organised in advance!

I have my fingers crossed this next week of promos sees a few sales. I’ll leave you with a couple of quotes about Visions of Zarua from Amazon.

Thrilling and dark fantasy novel that really keeps you gripped from beginning to end!, 27 Jan. 2016       MPB

Highly recommend for fantasy, magic and mystery fans!, 27 May 2016       Sarah

Wonderful 3-dimensional characters in an epic fantasy, 12 July 2016       Barb Taub

A Thoroughly Enjoyable Sword and Sorcery Based Epic Fantasy, 28 Dec. 2016       BrizzleLass

Thanks for reading.

I’ve just purchased my #wordpress blog domain! #indieauthor news

That’s another item ticked off the To Do List!

It may not seem like much to some, but I’ve finally signed up for my WordPress blog domain.

My website is now officially suzannerogersonfantasyauthor.com.

It’s another small step on my writing and blogging journey, and I just wanted to share the news.

I haven’t looked into all the benefits yet, but I hope readers with have a smoother look around my site without any ads popping up. I’ve also got more space to download photos; followers of my blog will know I love taking pictures and the free memory was getting dangerously full.

Next on the list may be setting up the dreaded email subscriber list!

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Have your brought your domain name? Have you found any added benefits?

Or have you any items on your To Do List that you keep putting off?

#WordlessWednesday Garden #photos from June 2016 #flowers #beetles

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The Lost Sentinel – 1 month after publication & 1 day left Goodreads giveaway

Well it’s a month today since my second fantasy novel was published, so I thought why not have a recap.

Firstly, the Goodreads worldwide giveaway to win a paperback copy ends tomorrow, so check out the link if you want to be in with a chance of winning. Over 1,150 people have already entered so I’m really pleased with these numbers.

Goodreads Book Giveaway


The Lost Sentinel
by Suzanne Rogerson

Giveaway ends July 17, 2017.

See the giveaway details

at Goodreads.

Unfortunately, The Lost Sentinel seems to have become lost in the sea of books, and neither the blog tour nor the local book event has done much to improve its exposure. I’m trying not to lose hope, but I am beginning to regret the decision to self publish – why didn’t I at least try a few agents first! I made a list, had everything in place (letter / synopsis), why didn’t I go for it?

At least Visions of Zarua is still being read on Kindle Unlimited and there is a link to the new book at the end, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed people will want to download The Lost Sentinel as well.

I would love to get more reviews on Amazon for both books, especially when Amazon takes down reviews for no apparent reason and then reinstates them a few weeks later. I’m talking about poor Susan on Booksfromdusktilldawn – she’s a dedicated and genuine book reviewer who had all her reviews removed – I hope they have resolved this for her now. I know the UK ones are back up at least.

I have a couple of promo ideas in the pipeline; kindle countdown deals, an Amazon US giveaway, and hopefully a feature in a local publication. After that I’m planning to take a step back and recharge my blogging battery whilst I focus on finishing book 2. There are only so many setbacks an author can take, and I don’t want to lose my love of writing.

If you are a reviewer who would like to review either The Lost Sentinel or Visions of Zarua, click on the covers to be taken to the Amazon page to find out more. Please get in touch via the comments or via my contact me form on the blog.

Thanks for your time, and have a great Sunday everyone!

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#WWWBlogs Question for #indieauthors & #readers about #KDP & advertising

I’m about to set up another Kindle Countdown deal for my book Visions of Zarua. In the past I’ve run a few ads on AMS, Facebook and Goodreads but I wouldn’t say they had resulted in many sales.

I want to ask;

Readers how / where do you discover books and are you more inclined to buy a book during a deal period?

Indie Authors where have you advertised your countdown deals and have they resulted in a good sales? In fact, while we’re on the subject where do you advertise your books whether it’s a promo or not.

I have a limited budget and there are so many sites to choose from, so I’m looking for some guidance. My genre is fantasy, so I’m looking to target readers of fantasy fiction.

Please get in touch and start a discussion on the difficult subject of advertising.

Thanks for your help!

P.S. I have blogged before about my experiences with KDP and if this time turns up any good results I’ll be sure to share them with you.