Ruth Nestvold's Blog, page 20

Promoting your 99c sale revisited: Yseult, A Tale of Love in the Age of King Arthur

About two years ago now, I pulled Yseult and Shadow of Stone, my two big doorstopper Arthurian novels, from KDP Select and went wide with them. Unfortunately, I was never able to get any traction with them on other sales sites, even with a couple of permafree titles. So when Amazon changed it’s payment model for borrows, I pulled them from all other sites and re-enrolled them in Select. At official KENPCs (Kindle Edition Normalized Page Count) of around 1000 pages each, when those are books...

And the winner of the Chameleon cover contest is:

I have tweaked the cover a bit in accordance with some of the comments I got here and on Facebook, so it isn’t exactly the one you voted on and/or rated, but it is still (for the most part) the winning design.

On the Help Me Choose My Book Cover site, it barely won, and on Rate Book Cover it comes in a little behind design A — but it also has more ratings, none of them negative. And on Facebook, this design won hands down. So when I count that feedback in, things look much clearer than on t...

Cover voting for Chameleon in a Mirror now open!

I’m late, but at least I’m showing up for the party. :) So, as I predicted, I haven’t gotten a lot of writing done in the last week. I’ve done a lot of visiting with the visitors, kept up on the translation, and managed to write at least 100 words a day on Shards of Glass, to make sure it stays in my subconscious so that I can jump right back in when things calm down here again. I have also set up a 99c sale for Yseult for next week, for which I had to get the promotion organized. Also, my da...

Call to Arms – Book Marketing Results

Ruth Nestvold:

This is a great analysis! Sharing to my blog, where I can keep an eye on it. :)

Originally posted on Nicholas C. Rossis:

Following my Call to Arms, a number of you responded by sharing with me your book marketing experience. I now have about a hundred responses by some fifty authors. Although some of the responses were expected, there were quite a few surprises in there for me.

Methodology

For anyone wishing to take a look at the raw data, you can download this Excel spreadshe...

More covers, more progress, and more from Gaetano for #WIPpet Wednesday

As I pointed out in my last post on this blog, the cover of Chameleon in a Mirror didn’t do so hot at a cover rating site, so I decided to try a couple of alternatives. I’ve been tweaking them a bit since, and here are the results:

Do let me know what you think! When I have a chance, I plan to upload them as well to the cover rating site to see if they do any better, but the next week and a half is going to be crazy. We have a number of guests from the States arriving, and there will be a...

Starting Out as an Indie Author: Be Willing to Make Changes

More than once in this series, I have pointed out the things an author might want to take a critical look at if her book isn’t selling — assuming she is doing the marketing work to get the word out in the first place, that is. :) Without regular marketing, all the fabulous book blurbs and pretty covers are nothing, since no one will see them. (If you have not yet read my post about what to do if your books aren’t selling, it’s available here.)

The simple summary is this: in my opinion, the m...

Book covers and an enchanted hero for #WIPpet Wednesday

I missed last week again, sorry. I was finalizing the paperback version of my latest collection of short stories, Oregon Elsewise, containing previously published works set in the state where I grew up — and that in many ways still feels like home. While I was at it, I decided to also finally put together the new paperback version of Almost All the Way Home From the Stars, the collection of published science fiction stories I wrote with Jay Lake. The original paperback version was done by Dra...

Travel theme: Grey

The last couple of days, I’ve been putting together the paperback version of my short story collection Oregon Elsewise, and when the “Travel theme: Grey” post popped into my inbox, I figured I had to participate again. Here’s the pic of the Oregon coast I used for the cover:

Cannon Beach from above, Oregon

A few more greys for good measure:

Weil der Stadt, Germany

Reykjavik, Iceland

Gothafoss, Iceland

Tagged: Germany, Iceland, oregon, travel

Rate your Book Cover

Ruth Nestvold:

This is a great new resource for indie authors for figuring out how well your covers score with readers, Sadly, it looks as if I too will have to redo the cover I uploaded there for Chameleon in a Mirror, if the votes are any indication. :(

Originally posted on Nicholas C. Rossis:

I’m currently finishing my second collection of short stories. In fact, once I’m done editing the last story, the book will be ready!

However, I still need to design a book cover. Lorelei Logsdonrece...

What I Miss About Traditional Publishing

Ruth Nestvold:

Good post by Deborah Cooke about some good things regarding the traditional publishing experience. During my stint with traditional publishing, I didn’t experience most of these advantages (too short), but it’s always good to try and maintain a balanced perspective.

Originally posted on Deborah Cooke & Her Books:

Although I am now an indie author, I was traditionally published—i.e. published by big publishing houses based in New York City—for twenty years. It was almost exactly...