Jen Minkman's Blog, page 7

Nothing below 4 stars... really?

Some of you may not be aware of this, but in order to be allowed to promote your book on big sites like EReader News Today, BookBub and Pixel of Ink, you have to have an average of 4 stars and at least 20 reviews on Amazon. Anything below 4 stars is rejected. A lot of authors with books that don't appeal to the masses but have a smaller target audience will never be accepted on those big sites. But how fair is the 4-star rule?

When I look at some Goodreads rating for absolute classics, I have to come to the sad conclusion that many famous books would be rejected by the big book sites too:

* The Great Gatsby : 3.79 average
* Great Expectations: 3.69 average
* Romeo and Juliet: 3.72 average (in fact, most of Shakespeare's plays wouldn't make the grade)
* The Scarlet Letter: 3.30 average.

I could go on all night, but I think it should be clear that a 4-star rating shouldn't be the main thing those book promotors look at. Or is Goodreads just a particularly harsh site? Newsletter for New Releases here: http://eepurl.com/x1X9P

Shadow of Time - Take One, Two and Three

... and this is how the cover for Shadow of Time has evolved from December till now! The first two covers were done by me and the third cover was designed by the insanely talented Clarissa Yeo. WHat do you guys think??

Newsletter for New Releases here: http://eepurl.com/x1X9P

... and this is how the cover for Shadow of Time has evol...

... and this is how the cover for Shadow of Time has evolved from December till now! The first two covers were done by me and the third cover was designed by the insanely talented Clarissa Yeo. WHat do you guys think??

A new jacket!

Ladies and gentlemen, my book has a new face! From now on, Shadow of Time will look like this! Big thanks to Clarissa Yeo who did my cover design.

Hard choices...

When I first published Shadow of Time, it had a self-made cover that isn't too bad and has a lot to do with the storyline. Many people liked the colors, but some had issues with the font, so I changed that a few weeks ago. However, the font wasn't the only thing readers had issues with - they liked the cover, but they didn't think it suited the target audience very well. Only AFTER reading the book did they think the cover matched the story. Now I'm the last one to recommend judging a book by its cover, but if truth be told, I do it too, albeit subconsciously. When I browse pages on Amazon, I frequently click on covers of books that look like 'generic' YA Paranormal books or YA Dystopian books, because I know what to expect. I'm all for originality (in fact, when I wrote Shadow of Time I was already determined I wouldn't get a book cover that looked like a dime a dozen) but maybe the originality should be in my writing and not in my cover art. So... I commissioned a cover artist I've worked with before (on a book cover for a book I still have to write, mind you < nothing like planning ahead) and told her what kind of book this was and what kind of message I wanted to convey while drawing in potential YA and NA readers. If all goes well, Shadow of Time will have a new & shiny 'face' before I run another promotional blog tour in the first week of June (coinciding with my next release, 'The Island'). I'll keep you posted!

Spring Fling! Come one, come all for a giveaway of two e...

Spring Fling! Come one, come all for a giveaway of two e-copies of Shadow of Time, a clean paranormal romance set in Navajo Nation. Enter your details in the Rafflecopter below to win.

Hannah and her brother Ben are spending their summer vacation in Arizona. Josh is Ben’s best friend from the Navajo reservation, and Hannah hasn’t seen him in years. When she meets him again, she falls head over heels for him, but Josh is strangely distant and seems to be hiding something from her. When she starts having strange nightmares about historical events in Navajo Nation in which Josh is always present, she is determined to find out what is happening to her... and what Josh’s secret exactly is.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Poetry sells!

... at least, when you're selling some other stuff, too. I always hear authors talk about how having a lot of books for sale out there helps to sort of 'cross-pollinate' your sales: once a reader likes one of your books, they tend to buy more books written by you. Unfortunately, Shadow of Time is currently the only YA Paranormal novel I have on Amazon. More will follow, but not until December 2013, so no cross-pollination there.

Imagine my surprise when I suddenly saw a small spike in sales of my poetry chapbook 'Songlines'! (and by small I mean, from zero to 4 sales a month :) Heck, someone even BORROWED it - in the Kindle Owners Lending Library, you're entitled to borrow one free book a month, and someone chose my chapbook. Unfathomable.

I can't wait to see what happens when I actually DO publish books in a similar genre. My next gig will be a YA Dystopian Novella called The Island - available from June 1st onward. Not exactly the same genre, but at least it's YA. I'll keep you posted!

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The adventure on The Island

Three weeks ago, I decided to enter into a writing contest in my home country of the Netherlands. Young-Adults.nl, a new publisher, decided to run two contests at the same time: Paranormal Romance and Dystopian. At first, I had no doubt about which one I would enter - PR is my genre. But then, an idea for a dystopian started to tug at my mind. At 20,000 words, it would just about fit. So I started writing, and then got so enthusiastic I picked up a book cover from a pre-made cover site somewhere, and started sharing my idea on Facebook. Tons of people thought it looked really cool, so on I went - I made a book trailer. I am now writing the last chapter of my YA dystopian novella in Dutch, and then I will give myself two weeks to translate it into English. 'The Island' will be available from the first of June. If you like, you can already add the book to your to-read list, and I'll drop you a line when it hits the stores!

The Island

Do you like having signed copies of books on your shelf? ...

Do you like having signed copies of books on your shelf? Here's your chance to own my YA/NA paranormal romance novel 'Shadow of Time' with a dedication to you, the lucky winner :) Since I live in the Netherlands, I can only make the signed book available to readers from the EU, so my apologies to US readers... 
What is the book about?
All Hannah needs is a nice and quiet vacation after her first year of teaching French at a high school. She joins her brother Ben for the summer in their mom’s log cabin in Arizona. There, she meets Josh again, Ben’s childhood friend from the Navajo reservation. The little boy from the rez has grown up fast, and Hannah can’t help but feeling more for him than just friendship.
But fate apparently has something else in store for her. And it’s not peace and quiet. Night after night, Hannah is plagued by strange nightmares about the past of Navajo Nation and terrifying shadows chasing her. They seem to come closer – and why is Josh always present in her dreams?

Sometimes, the past has a way of catching up with you.
Read more on Goodreads...



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