Frost Kay's Blog, page 6

Giveaways, giveaways, & more giveaways!

What do you like to read?Fantasy? Young Adult?Are you a hardcover collector?There's a giveaway for you:http://www.theyashelf.com/giveaways/t... two more days to enter!P.s. I may have entered as well, the books are saaaaweeet!Thrillers & Mystery?There's a giveaway for you:http://www.megancrewe.com/blog/?ks_gi...! There's only two more days to enter!Steam Punk & Fantasy?Are you a paperback hoarder?Well, I have a giveaway for that too!There's a giveaway for you:http://theyafanclub.com/giveaways/win...FREE books?Duh, we all love free books!What about a FREE Kindle?Another dumb question. Lol. Just go enter already.There's a giveaway for you:http://blog.ravenpublicity.com/free-w...Good Luck!

100 Books under $2.99

Calling all book addicts, bookaholics, bookworms, bookdragons, bookish peeps, and bibliophiles. What do we like better than books? BOOKS THAT ARE ON SALE SO WE CAN BUY MORE BOOKS, OF COURSE!I love Genre Crave's book fair. They do this every month and it's absolutely killer. I stock up on books that I have been coveting, and seize the opportunity to discover some new awesome authors. This month I collected ten new books spanning five genres!I have a one click problem. Don't judge me."Hi, my name is Frost, and I'm a book addict." And proud of that, I might add.Check it out! But don't wait to long, or you'll miss out!http://beccahamiltonbooks.com/march-b... book hunting

March Book Challenge

If you're anything like me, you breath books, or at least read them like other people change underwear. Lol. To much information?Any who, I joined a special book challenge for the month of March- eight books in four week, a drop in the bucket, really.  Each week prizes are given away for completing the challenge. Intrigued?How does one participate in the challenge you may ask?1. Read said books- those who have Rebel's Blade, you already have an advantage!2. Click link: http://www.ripleypatton.com/monthly-g.... Answer 3 questions associated with said books.4. Win giftcards for MORE books!So overall pretty darn easy! On a side note, all the challenge books are on kindleunlimited as far as I know. So if you're short on fund this month, you can still participate if you're a frequent flier of KU like myself.Who knows, you might discover your new favorite author or book series!Happy reading!Frost Kay

Rebel's Blade is Live!

Rebel's Blade released last week and the response has been overwhelming. I didn't sleep for the first three days, I swear. Soooooo...I have couple cool things to share with ya.1. Rebel's Blade was just published as a paperback! So if you desire a paperback copy click the link below:Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/Rebels-Blade-A..., if you're a hardback collector like myself,  a hardcover version of Rebel's Blade will be available in the next 3 weeks.~Giveaway~If you you've read Rebel's Blade post a screen shot of your purchase for a chance to win a pair of pearl earrings inspired by RB!Enter: https://www.facebook.com/313539982360... Project~I have something in the works that will knock your socks off! I seriously can't wait to share it with y'all. Give me a couple weeks and I will share!Think sirenidae... how's that for a teaser? Lol.Lots of love,Frost Kay

Fantasy Maps

Who loves maps? Are you one of those readers that references to the map when reading? Or gets upset when you flip to the front of the book and discover there isn't one? Because I am.I love them with a capital L, and it drives me nuts when there isn't one for a fantasy series. I mean, I have a crazy imagination, but it's nice to have a little something to go by. My obsession with maps led to designing a map before I began writing the Aermian Feuds. My map has literally sat on my desk for ten months now. Three days ago I realized that I hadn't made a digital copy.So the search began for a map program. Let me tell you, there are a million beta programs out there with some real potential, but I wanted something with great reviews. One kept popping up: Profantasy. So I decided to give it a go.If you're a gamer it is amazing for maps, but there is definitely a learning curve. After many hours, and endless youtube tutorials, I finally had a map. It looked good but it wasn't anything like I imagined. It was stiff, and it didn't look like art. Again, not a bad thing, just not what I wanted. BUT if you want to design a castle or dungeon, Profantasy is killer. I could spend hours designing rooms. Also, it is reasonably priced.I scoured the internet, lurked on  many gaming/fantasy websites, and picked other authors brains. Still nothing new. I happened to log into Youtube, and a Photoshop design video was suggested. I clicked on it, and am so  happy I did. It was the holy grail of all map making tutorials!!! It took me about 6 hours to design my map, but that was amidst caring for the wee beasties, homework, and making dinner. It turned out exactly how I imagined.The tutorial is simple and easy to understand but it is tedious. You have to set time aside and focus on what you're doing, or you will miss a step. Each layer is extremely important to achieve the overall look.I hope this helps so of y'all!Lots of love,Frost Kay

ARC Team

I am sending ARC's out on March 1st, 2017. If you're interested in free books and reviewing, I    would love to have you on my team!Sign up: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FA...Thanks so much!Lots of Love,Frost Kay

Rebel's Blade Cover Reveal

It's Alive!Rebel's Blade is live!https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01NAVTG1W?... Peek:https://www.instafreebie.com/free/qct... feels surreal that I have a book on Amazon. I have a lot more appreciation and respect for indie authors. It takes so much hard work and dedication to indie publish.And without further ado here'sRebel's Blade:NOTHING IS BLACK AND WHITE​Secretly trained swordsmith Sage Blackwell steps up to run her family’s forge when her father falls ill. Sage desires to help the neglected Aermians but is bound by duty to provide for her own… Until, that is, she's offered a chance to make a difference.​THE REBELLION​Sage knows the risks; imprisonment or death, and yet, she's still willing to take them to protect her family. But when plans unravel, Sage finds herself facing the devils themselves, her sworn enemies, the princes of Aermia.​THE CROWN​Tehl Ramses is drowning; crops are being burned, villages pillaged, and citizens are disappearing, leading to a rising rebellion. As crown prince, and acting ruler, Tehl must find a way to crush the rebellion before civil war sweeps through his beloved kingdom. He'll do whatever is necessary to save his people. Yet, his prisoner is not at all what he expected.​ONE STORY. TWO SIDES. ONE GOAL: SAVE AERMIA

~BDWAB~ What's that?

What is BDWAB? Only the most awesome international book swap ever! Blind Date with a Book, or as I affectionately call it BDWAB, is an unique bookish community full of writers, authors, reviewers, bloggers, beta's, and those who have an unquenchable thirst for all things book.This special group started almost a year ago when a couple lovely gals came together over a love of dragons and thought that it would be fun to swap books.  Sometimes we can get into a book slump, or rut, where we read the same genre over and over again. We wanted to get out of our comfort zone so BDWAB was born. I think we started at around 25 members but now we have almost grown to 500 in just one year!How does such a magical thing work you may ask?Here is the answer: On the 1st of the month, each person that signed up is assigned a book date. You can either send them an ebook or paperback depending on your dates preference. A secret theme each month is picked and is revealed through a series of teasers. Sometimes we do special giveaway and the winner gets to choose the next months theme! The book swap is voluntary each month.So all in all, it is pretty simple. Send book, receive book.If you would like to join our corner of literary awesomeness here you go: https://www.facebook.com/groups/89712... for you trolls *squints* If you are looking to score a free book and not hold up your end of the deal then keep on going. You will be thrown out on your butt quicker that you can say supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

Newsletters

So when I was told I needed a newsletter I shrugged my shoulders and thought how hard could it be? Making a newsletter in itself isn't difficult but choosing a program that worked for me was where it got hairy.There are so many choices; Mailerlite, Mailchimp, Mad Mimi, ConverterKit, and the list goes on. So I turned to my trusty author friends and asked them. You know what answers I received? Everyone liked something different, go figure. So I set out to test them myself. So here is my experience:Mailerite: It had a decent program but was ridiculously expensive. If you go that route you might as well invest in ConverterKit in my opinion. This was my least favorite.ConverterKit: This was the most expensive program. I believe it was around $150.00 a month BUT a huge pro is that you can tell where your subscriptions are coming from. That's huge for marketing. I would suggest this if you have a huge base already. If you are just starting out as an indie author I would stick to something smaller and work up to that.Mad Mimi: This program appealed to me because of the drag and drop system. Their newsletters were breath taking and simple to make. They were similarly priced to Mailchimp; about $7.00 more a month. A major draw back for me was their subscription forms though. They were straight up ugly, not anything like their  killer newsletters.Mailchimp: This was the most financially reasonable in my mind. Your first 2000 subscribers are free so that's a plus. As we established before, I love things to look pretty and you can make their forms shine. They weren't as easy to use as Mad Mimi but with one youtube video I had no problem figuring it out.  This is what I chose in the end.I hope this helps a little bit. Here is video that breaks down Mailchimp's forms. Enjoy her awesome accent! A good accent makes life that much more interesting!

Stars Above! I have a Website!

I can't believe I am almost done! When I started working on my author website I figured it wouldn't be that difficult because in the past I have designed websites for others. Boy, was I wrong.  It is way harder to design for yourself!I tested out Wordpress first, and after five hours of messing with that pandora's box, I scratched it. Wordpress and I are like pickles and ice cream. They don't mix unless you're pregnant, a story for another time. My next endeavor was Wix, and I absolutely loved it! I did a lot of research and it paid off.Here is a video that helped me get a handle on how Wix works. I hope it helps!Xoxo,Frost Kay