Ruth Nestvold's Blog, page 4
January 21, 2018
January 2, 2018
New Year, Old Problem: Innocent Author Rank-Stripped For Third Time
Another important post for indie authors. *Sigh.*
Kristi Belcamino is really being messed around by Amazon. Yesterday morning, she was rank-stripped for the third time, and it appears to be happening every time she puts a book free – even before she hits the promo sites or moves up the charts.
Back in September, Kristi was one of the unfortunate (and innocent) authors who were unfairly rank-stripped by Amazon for several weeks. She had a BookBub promotion which catapulted her u...
December 2, 2017
BookBub CPM Ads and Wide Distribution
Great info here! I may have to finally dip my toes in the water with BookBub CPM ads.
I decided a while ago that I was going back wide with all my books. Sales were pretty anemic to begin with (readers don’t magically discover books), but then I put together a little marketing plan. I don’t want to invest too heavily in pushing my historical novels until I have a couple more books in my series out, but I was curious to experiment with a few different approaches for pushing wid...
October 25, 2017
Ygerna now available as paperback!
I realize that some of my readers still only read in hard copy, and I apologize that it takes me longer to get the paperback out than the ebook. The formatting is much more complicated, however. I’ve been considering getting the new add-on for Vellum, but I’m a bit worried about spending $100 for something without being able to test what the results will be.
So I continue to use the template I bought from Joel Friedlander. It takes a bit of copying and pasting, but I’ve been very satisfied w...
October 23, 2017
A Tale of Two Marketing Systems
Very good analysis of the different strategies needed for going wide or going with KDP Select.
Lots of people right now are asking themselves whether they should leave Kindle Unlimited.
I’m generally agnostic on it, and I think writers should do what is best for them and their books, but there’s no doubt this is the big question of the moment.
That’s partly down to falling pay rates, Amazon’s inability to deal with scammers and cheaters, or the increasing concern about having...
October 20, 2017
Amazon’s Hall of Spinning Knives
I read about an incident of this on Kboards just today, and I was reminded of the Pageflip controversy, and my own recent attempts to prove that I have the rights to my own novella, Looking Through Lace. It seems that Amazon has gone from taking writers seriously to relying on canned responses, making it nearly impossible to resolve issues like this. Sigh. I used to be a huge defender of Amazon …
Phoenix Sullivan is well-known in the indie community – I’ve known her myself sin...
October 9, 2017
Ygerna a Hot New Release!
Yes! I haven’t even started the big ad push for Ygerna yet, and it is already a Hot New Release in Arthurian Fiction on Amazon! Here’s the screen shot to prove it:
And you saw right — that is Stephen King behind me. 
October 3, 2017
Runnin’ Down a Dream: RIP Tom Petty
Just before going to bed last night, I heard that Tom Petty was in the hospital. Then this morning came the sad news that he was dead.
Tom Petty is one of those artists where I have almost every album. When I started listening mostly on my computer or ipod, I ripped all of my favorite songs and added them to my mp3 collection. Sometime after attending the Clarion West Writers Workshop, I deliberately chose “Runnin’ Down a Dream” as my theme song — because hey, if you want to be a writer, or...
September 29, 2017
You Can Win Without Cheating FFS
Another great post by David Gaughran.
Most self-publishers will agree: it’s getting tougher out there.
If you are in KU, then you’re pretty much dependent on one income stream and if Amazon sales dip or you run afoul of the Hall of Spinning Knives for whatever reason then you are totally boned. And it’s getting so competitive in KU that it seems to take more titles and quicker releases, along with multi-pronged marketing campaigns – which can be complex and/or expensive – to g...
September 26, 2017
Ygerna Available for Pre-order!
I am thrilled to announce that Ygerna has been approved for pre-order on Amazon — in record time! It will be available for a special launch price of only 99c through October. After that, it will go up to $2.99.
Uthyr destroyed her life. Now she wants revenge.
When young Ygerna first meets Uthyr, Pendragon of Britain, she is dazzled by the handsome and famous warrior. But when Uthyr interprets admiration as consent and takes her by force, Ygerna’s hero worship turns to hatred.
And she will...
