Ruth Nestvold's Blog, page 5
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...
Creating Aliens by Deborah Walker
A nice article about creating alien species for science fiction!
When I first started writing, I read Orson Scott Card’s advice about creating aliens in How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy. Card discusses developing the evolution of the distinct biology of an alien species, and how that imagined evolutionary process informs both an individual’s thoughts and actions and the aliens’ culture.
That was advice I could really sink my teeth into. I’ve written a fair few aliens...
September 21, 2017
Yseult on Sale for 99c through Oct. 20!
In anticipation of the upcoming release of the Pendragon Chronicles prequel novel, Ygerna, I have lowered the price of Yseult to 99c through October 20.
Amazon
B&N
Kobo
Apple
Smashwords
Google Play
And no, I still do not have a release date for Ygerna. My editor’s computer died, which has set her back several days while she transfers data and sets up the new computer.
This kind of thing is why I really don’t like doing much pre-release promotion. Not everything is in my hands, and if an e...
September 19, 2017
A Good Resource for eBook Sale Sites
I haven’t had a lot of time recently to update my various pages for places you can advertise eBook promos, so I thought I would share this site I found:
https://blog.reedsy.com/book-promotion-services/
It has an especially nice feature that you can click a button to only show free sites.
I should soon have news on the publishing front regarding Ygerna. Just waiting for the file back from the editor. 
August 29, 2017
The Visibility Gambit
Kindle Unlimited has received a fair bit of bad press over the last couple of years – some of it from me – but I want to balance that by looking at the positives.
Most pertinent is KU’s popularity with readers, meaning there can be huge opportunity for authors. Especially so if you make full use of the tools Amazon gives you, and understand that it’s all about visibility.
Enrolling in KU comes at a well-documented cost: exclusivity. But it’s the potential benefits I want to fo...
August 21, 2017
Group Promos for August: Free YA Books and 99c SFF
These days, the ROI for paid advertising seems to be getting worse and worse, so I’m trying to put more of my energy into group promos and building my mailing lists. Plural because I’m still experimenting and haven’t settled on a provider yet. OTOH, I may eventually stick with multiple newsletters to keep readers with different interests apart. I had so many unsubscribes from my main mailing list earlier this year when I announced the publication of Starting Out as an Indie Author that I got...
