Ksenia Anske's Blog, page 40
July 2, 2015
Stand on your own
I have just noticed that writers are complaining online about KDP Unlimited now paying per page read or something like that. It doesn't apply to me as my books don't qualify for the program (becauseI give them away for free on my site), so I wasn't paying much attention to this talk, but right now EVERYONE EVERYWHERE is talking about it, so I thought I'd add my piece of mind to the conversation.
I invite you to stand on your own.
DISTRIBUTE YOUR BOOKS YOURSELF AND RELY ON PEOPLE...
The social media engage/disengage battle
Yesterday I caught myself on noticing how "I'll just check my phone realquick" turned into 30 minutes of lost time. I'm usually pretty diligent about sticking to theroutine of DO NOT ENGAGEONLINE UNTIL YOUR WORK IS DONE, but I'm only human so I slip. For some reason this particular slipreally got under my skin. It was evening and Iwas so tired that I had no energy to exercise or to meditate. My day was packed and I hoped to combine the two into one biking session w...
June 30, 2015
Market your book your own way
This will be ridiculously funny (I'll be mostly making fun of myself) and only moderately useful (more of a moral tale of what not to do). As you have seen, my second little book of tweets arrived, and I have screamed about it everywhere. Which was a good thing because it prepared me for marketing The Badlings, which should be ready this week or the coming week, and about which of course I will also scream everywhere, albeit louder. (Screaming equals marketing, by...
June 29, 2015
Blue Sparrow 2 is published!
Look at this! The second book of my tweets is here! Not only is it choke-full of wisdom, it's choke-full of amazing illustrations by local artist Jeff Bergstrand. There are lots of birds and cats and even a boob. I dare you to buy the book and tell me where you found theboob, and what you think it represents. Now, as you remember, the first Blue Sparrow started out on Twitter. You guys asked for it. Blue Sparrow 2 hasalso been done per your request (you see what I do for you??). I probably w...
June 28, 2015
Pricing your self-published books
Are you ready of a long tearful saga about pricing your self-published books? You better be. Go get your popcorn, I'll wait.
All done? Good. Let's proceed.
This will be the opening of acan of worms, talking about pricing. Not very appetizingbut necessary to suffer through. I wrote a little bitabout thishere, and now I'll expand on it more as there are so many little variants that even if you want to set the price for your book at a specific number, say, $4.99, you might not be able to. This st...
June 24, 2015
GRANDMA'S REVENGE, a short story by Peter Ustyugov & Ksenia Anske
Illustration byZaczarowana Walizka
Well, it happened again. Peter wrote another story. Actually, we wrote it together (see if you can spot the places that are mine), but it was him about 70%, I'd say. Maybe 73.65%. Yeah, that sounds about right. Anyway, we were eating lunch. Russian shchi! So we started talking about soup, and he came up with this idea about a boy who has to eat soup but doesn't eat soup, and his grandma gets angry at him for not eating soup. Then it got really weird, and...
Why it's a bad idea to over-edit
There is a reason editors exist, and I think that reason is simply the need to slap writers' hands and stop them from editing where no editing is needed.
So I'm proofreading The Badlings, right? And this thing has already been through 5 drafts and 2 editing scrubs and is supposed to be final, then I catch this clumsydescription that is very important. It shows a major world change, yet I glossed over it. Here it is (WARNING!!!Spoilers.):
"A faint ahhh went up from them, and for an instant they...
June 21, 2015
Happy Father's Day, Papa
Sad day today... not that Father's Day is celebrated in Russia, but it is in US, and I'm reminded of my father. I don't know if I'll ever see him or my little sister again (she is on the right). Ever since I started having panic attacks, was suicidal, and finally remembered that he sexually abused me and confronted him about it 5 years ago, he cut me out of his life, as did my sister (she told meI'm crazy and made it all up to hurt him as he is now old and can't bite back, at least that's wh...
June 18, 2015
Why writers shouldn't leave the house
SinceI'm between booksand waiting for final revisions on The Badlingsfrom darling Sarah Liu, my editor, Ihave decided to go on a little adventure. In other words, I took my sorry ass out of the house. I didn't have to, but I thought it would be nice. I had it all planned. I thought I wouldread House ofLeaveswhile on the bus (enjoying the fuck out of it, by the way) while on my way tothe bank to deposit a check, the treasure of $11 I got from some company for some settlement for something. I...
June 16, 2015
Distributing your self-published books: CreateSpace + IngramSpark
"Hi Ksenia.I'm researching which way to go with self-publishing and am veering toward CreateSpace.[I heard]you use them with your books but that you are looking at Ingram for libraries and bookstores. I didn't realize that you could use both, but what I liked about Ingram is that they have access to the bookstores.Did you get your own ISBN #'s? I've read that is the way to go.I'd appreciate any guidance you can give me."
Thank you for reaching out, Mandy.I suppose it's time I summarize my exp...
