Ruth Nestvold's Blog, page 27

Why the Sony hack is unlikely to be the work of North Korea.

Ruth Nestvold:

This has nothing to do with Indie publishing, but it does have to do with the dangers creativity is faced with in a digital age — an besides, it’s a fascinating analysis, with all kinds of food for thought, and maybe fiction.

Originally posted on Marc's Security Ramblings:

Everyone seems to be eager to pin the blame for the Sony hack on North Korea. However, I think it’s unlikely. Here’s why:1. The broken English looks deliberately bad and doesn’t exhibit any of the classic compr...

Important info: How Amazon’s sales algorithms work

Probably the biggest German site for indie authors, Die Self-Publisher-Bibel, recently did an extensive test of sales rankings on Amazon with books published deliberately for that purpose. They wanted to test three basic assumptions about sales algorithms used by Amazon:

– Price influences sales rank

– Enrolling in KDP Select influences sales rank

– The dynamics of sales influence sales rank

The results are eye-opening. Fortunately, they have also published an English version on their site. I...

The guard and the princess for #WIPpet Wednesday

Hi, everyone, I’m back! I still haven’t really gotten back into the swing of things as far as writing is concerned, with only a measly 800 words written so far this week. But on the family front, things are looking a lot better, and my head is free for creativity again. In the next few days and weeks, I will be working on reestablishing my old writing habits, and hopefully the word counts will pick up again. I still have some present wrapping to do, but I got most of that done while I was sti...

How Jessica Mitford Exposed A $48m Scam From America’s Literary Establishment

Ruth Nestvold:

Every now and then we need a happy ending, where those who are defrauding others are exposed. This is one of those stories.

Originally posted on David Gaughran:

Jessica Mitford took on the American funeral industry, the California Department of Corrections, and the Ku Klux Klan, but it was her 1970 exposé of The Famous Writers School which led to Time calling her “The Queen of the Muckrakers.” And if a courageous editor hadn’t reversed his decision to kill her story, it might nev...

Shadow of Stone on sale for 99c through Dec. 19 – and testing ad sites

In my on-going attempt to get back into the swing of things marketing-wise — and figure out what works in this new self-publishing era of Kindle Unlimited and various other changes — I set up a sale this week for Shadow of Stone, the second book in The Pendragon Chronicles.

For over ten years, there has been peace in Britain after Arthur and his warriors soundly defeated the Saxons at the battle of Caer Baddon. But sometimes peace is deceptive …

After a series of hard winters and famine, an al...

Russell Blake’s Six Things Successful Indie Authors Have

Great post the other day by indie thriller writer Russell Blake, who manages to earn six figures a year with his self-published books. This is how he distills the habits of a successful indie author:

What do all of these authors have in common, though? All these indies who are making serious, and in some cases, insane, bank? First, they publish regularly. As in once every few months, and in some cases, once every month. Second, they work in genres that will support them. While most of the top...

“Yseult, Part I: Two Women” now finally free on Amazon

As I mentioned a while back, in September I embarked on an experiment: splitting my almost 200,000 word monster book Yseult into episodes and making the first one free.

The problem was, Amazon wasn’t cooperating. The book was free on iTunes, B&N, Google Play, you name it — but no matter how many times I clicked on “tell us about a lower price” and how many people I asked to tattle on me, the price refused to budge, sitting there stubbornly at 99c. I published the first two episodes within day...

eBooks Could Finally Inch Past Print In 2018

Ruth Nestvold:

Of course, this is only for the US market, which the article states. Here in Germany, the ebook market is still a fraction of the print market.

Originally posted on TechCrunch:

PricewaterhouseCoopers analysts are predicting (again) that ebooks could soon edge out print as publishers’ most lucrative products. What does this mean? Essentially that a ebook popularity and pricing stabilizes, users will spend more on bits than they will on pulp. The resulting switch could be the final...

German translation of Viking Warrior now available

A couple of days ago, I posted the news on my German blog, but now Jud has also announced it on his blog. So I will now announce it here on my English blog as well:

Ein Krieger der Wikinger, my translation of Judson Roberts Viking Warrior into German, is now available on Amazon.de!

More about the project is available in German here.

Almost All the Way Home From the Stars #6 in Australia

In the middle of all the turmoil, I got a little consolation prize today:

That’s right, Almost All the Way Home From the Stars is #6 in Free Kindle Books in Australia. This is not a genre list, it’s free books overall. This is what it looks like at the time of this writing:

Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #6 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)

#1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Space Opera

#1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Scienc...