Ruth Nestvold's Blog, page 49

Moving forward on City of Glass, some thoughts on story length, and a new cover

Not too much to report this week. I’m enjoying writing the new version of “City of Glass” a lot, exploring avenues in the story world I couldn’t when I thought I had to keep it at short story length. When selling a specfic short story to traditional markets, the best chances of making a sale are for stories under 5,000 words. Some markets won’t even consider stories longer than 4,000 words. Since most online and print mags pay per word, it makes a lot of practical sense. For print mags, the s...

Upcoming book blast / group promo: Looking for book bloggers!

Speculative Fiction Books and Authors

MASSIVE Giveaway Coming Soon!

We are coordinating a special promo blitz for all SF/Fantasy lovers! Get in on the giveaway by hosting the promo on your blog, just sign up your blog in the Linky below! You will be sent all promo info via e-mail.

Edit:

My blog won’t display the linky, but you can go here to enter!

A new round of goals for the new year

I have to admit, this year I didn’t make any New Year’s resolutions, not a one. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have goals. I have plenty, and with a new Round of Words, it’s time to organize them a bit.

As usual, I’m not quite sure what I will be able to accomplish in the next 80 days, or even what will work for me going ahead, so my goals are sure to see some revising in the weeks to come. But one thing I have decided on, given my recent Fast Draft Fail — I’m returning to lower word count goa...

A new book for a new year: From Earth to Mars and Beyond

Happy new year, everyone!

To celebrate 2013, I got my new collection of stories, From Earth to Mars and Beyond, finished and uploaded to Amazon:

This one won’t be going into KDP Select, since several of the stories are available online, and that would violate the rules of Select. We’ll see what success I have marketing it without. I don’t have the new book up in other stores yet, but I will try to do that in the next few days.

As I already mentioned over on Facebook, I’ve been a bit frustrate...

Cover for new SF collection

I’m looking for feedback on the cover for a new collection of science fiction stories.

What do folks think?

I’ve been meaning to get this collection up forever, but I’ve allowed myself to be distracted by various other projects for too long. This time, I’m determined to get it up by the end of the year!

Holiday Greetings from Kindle Board authors by KeithDraws

I shared this already on Facebook but forgot to do so on my blog. Enjoy!

Ebook trials and tribulations: Fixing the Kindle Paperwhite bug

Recently, I had a “rash” of returns, 3 for Yseult and 5 for Shadow of Stone within a couple of days. I try not to let that kind of thing get to me too much, but then on one of my regular visits to the Kindle Boards, I noticed a topic entitled “Returns” and read it. One of the authors there suggested that an increase in returns might have something to do with the “Kindle Paperwhite bug” — which I had never heard of before. The post conveniently linked to another topic discussing the bug in det...

Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and another free ebook!

For Christmas, I’m giving away my novel Shadow of Stone. It was featured today on Michael Gallagher’s “Free Kindle Books and Tips” and it’s getting off to a pretty good start. If you miss it today, it will also be free tomorrow.

The holiday giveaways continue tomorrow with my short story collection Dragon Time, which will be free Dec. 26-27.

I got something of a Christmas present myself yesterday, a new review of Yseult on Amazon. It was extremely detailed and well-founded, went into the Arth...

Another Round of Words: Fast draft fail and a new project

This past week, I gave up on the fast draft course I was taking. But since the course instructor was mostly absent, it wasn’t much of a loss, other than the thirty-five dollars I paid for it. I’d been hoping for some regular tips and encouragement on increasing writing speed and outwitting the editor; instead, we were all on our own, posting our daily page counts and wondering where the instructor was.

But everything is a learning experience, and I’m hoping I can try some fast draft writing o...

First sales on Kobo and B&N; and some more free books

As of yesterday, my first books are now live on Kobo:

Yseult: A Tale of Love in the Age of King Arthur on Kobo

Never Ever After: Three Short Stories on Kobo

And, amazingly enough, I have already made my first sales on both Kobo and B&N. A whopping one book each, but hey — Never Ever After has only sold about a dozen copies total in the last few months on Amazon. Ever since I got the review stating that the writing was like that of a middle-schooler, the sales of that little collection have drie...