Ruth Nestvold's Blog, page 19

Goals for the final quarter of 2015

I’m a bit behind here in posting my goals for this quarter. Mostly it’s because of the translation, but here’s an even better excuse:

Cannstatter Volksfest 2015

Those are my granddaughters at the second biggest Volksfest in Germany. Only the Munich Oktoberfest is bigger.

Which proves that I am not working all the time. :)

My goals for this round are going to look a lot like those from last round, just with a few completed taken off the list, and a few new ones added. I never manage to eve...

Testing more ad sites: 99c sale of Chameleon in a Mirror

I have another 99c Countdown Deal on one of my books going this week, this time for my time travel, Chameleon in a Mirror. BTW, it also got a very nice review recently at The Reading Head. :) Anyway, here’s the lineup for the ads:

Oct. 5 – Ereader News Today ($20) – 26 sales so far
Oct. 6 – Book Goodies ($5)
EbookStage? (free) – I have a question mark on this one because they wanted me to post a Tweet which Twitter rejected as spam. As a result, I’m not sure if they will actually promote th...

Gaetano goes to Prague for #WIPpet Wednesday

I skipped last week again and opted for a quarterly wrap-up instead. The thing is, I really have to concentrate on getting this translation finished, and blogging is not high on my list of priorities at the moment. But I will continue posting excerpts at least every other week. Not only do I want to keep in touch with other WIPpeteers, I also like the way it keeps me focused on this project.

So for today I’m giving you three paragraphs from Facets of Glass for the 3 in the day of the month....

You win some, you lose some: 3rd quarter writing goals wrap-up

My main goal for this quarter was to get back into better habits regarding the writing. I’ve been semi-successful in that respect. Part of what has helped is my new goal to write at least 100 words a day, even if it’s late and I just finished the day’s translation. Because sometimes, if I start getting into it, 100 turns into 200 or 300 or more. I’m not quite up to the 2500 words a week regularly that I wanted to achieve at the beginning of this round, but last week it was 1900, and the week...

From Earth to Mars and Beyond #free through tomorrow!

Until recently, this collection of eight of my previously published sf short stories, including the Nebula nominated “Mars: A Traveler’s Guide”, was available wide through most stores where eBooks are sold.

And it sold about 2 copies.

So I pulled it from other venues and put it into KDP Select, which means I can also give it away to my loyal readers. Through tomorrow, Sept. 23, you can download the collection free from Amazon.

Here the description:

“From Earth to Mars and Beyond” is a co...

Arguing about a mirror for #WIPpet Wednesday

I am slowly getting back into the swing of things again. Not only did I do a lot of marketing organization and research last week, finish my weekly page counts on the translation, and makes lots of jam and jelly out of a small percentage of our tons of apples (as well as relish and pickles from zucchini and cucumber), I also got 2700 words written. :) That’s not where I want to be yet, but given that it is fall, and there’s lots to do in the garden, I’m inclined to cut myself some slack and b...

Starting Out as an Indie Author: Alexa rankings for eBook ad sites

A couple of days ago, I blogged about the results of my most recent 99c sale — which went better than anything I’ve done since the last time I took out a BookBub ad, oh so long ago. It appears I’m getting a bit savvier about where to advertise.

So how do you go about deciding if a place is worth it for you to plop down the hard earned money you’ve made elsewhere in the hopes of someday making enough from writing to quit your day job? Well, I’m glad you asked that run-on question, because I’...

Chuck Wendig on why social media is a misunderstood opportunity for writers

The wonderfully foul-mouthed (foul-texted?) Chuck Wendig wrote an excellent post post about how writers should use social media:

http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2015/09/09/social-media-for-writers-is-a-misunderstood-opportunity/

Go forth and read! At the least, you should get a smile or two out of it. :)

Tagged: Chuck Wendig, social media

Effectiveness of ads for a 99c promo: Results for Yseult

Last week, I had a 99c sale for Yseult running, for which I took out several paid ads — none of them BookBub. *g* I promised to provide a summary of the results once the promo was over.

Here are the ads I took out and the dates they appeared:

Book Barbarian – Aug. 31 ($8)
Booklovers Heaven – Aug. 31 (Free)
Manybooks.net – Aug. 31 (Free)

Books Butterfly – Sept 2 ($50)

Bargain Booksy – Sept. 4 ($40)

For the week, I spent a total of $98 for advertising. At the beginning of the promotion, Yseul...

Back to the Evil Dowager Princess for #WIPpet Wednesday

Even with all the guests gone, I’m *still* not back to serious writing. As some of you may have already noticed, I have a 99c sale on Yseult running this week, the first marketing gig I’ve set up in a couple of months. While I have a number of ads running, I have also been doing some of the standard social media stuff.

I also tried to get a Facebook ad set up for Chameleon in a Mirror today, to test the clickability of the new cover image. Steep learning curve there, since I’ve never done a F...