Author Liesel K. Hill's Musings on Fantasia...
Showing posts with label Updates. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Updates. Show all posts
Monday, January 20, 2014
3 Tips for a Great KDP Promo
And guess what?
I got 1328 downloads over two days! Whoo-hoo! (Check out the screenshot below.)
As of Sunday night, I'd only sold eight additional copies at regular price, but that's actually more than I sold during all of November, so I'm happy with the outcome. Hopefully I'll get more over the next two weeks as well. Plus, being that this is book 2, I'm hoping it'll give me a bump in sales for book 1.
Overall, even though the numbers may be much smaller than what other authors do, I'm calling this a success. Yippee! :D
I'll probably do a more detailed post about it later (I have a second promo for a different book later in the month, and I'd like to gather more info before posting about it) but the basics of what I did are as follows.
1) Scheduled the promo through kdp.amazon.com. You have to enroll your book in KDP, which means it has to be exclusive to Amazon for 90 days. After everything's all squared away, you can schedule your free days.
2) Submit to as many free book listing sites as possible. I did about twenty-five. Most of these don't guarantee a listing. They get so many submissions that it's all dependent on how much time and space they have. To be guaranteed a listing, you have to pay a small fee. The fee, for most of the sites, is extremely reasonable (between $5 and $15) but I'm still recovering from Christmas myself, and I wanted to see how far the completely free ones would take me.
For a great list of free sites, check out THIS POST. It also has a list of Facebook pages you can list your book on during it's promo days. A handful of those didn't work for me, but I just did the ones I could and didn't worry about it.
3) Promote, promote, promote on your free days. I enlisted the help of friends, facebook acquaintances, and fellow authors, who were all very supportive. Many people re-posted for me. Of course there's also Twitter, Google Plus, and all other platforms. But be careful not to spam.
And the result: 1300 + downloads, which is more than I've done in a single week before for any book before. I'll continue to experiment and see what works.
Anyone have any other tips for success during a KDP Promo?
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Book Review: Ender's Game + NaNo Updates!
I didn't mention it yet, I don't think, but I'm trying to finish the second book in my Street Games series for NaNo. I'd started writing it before November, but I only had about 5,000 words. I think it will be longer than 55,000--more in the 70-90,000 range, but I think I can finish it, or if not that, come very close.
I'm tentatively calling book 2 Desolate Mantle.
Yesterday, I wrote 4898 words, which puts me at 12303 for NaNo and 25,997 for the novel.
For more info on book 1, Dark Remnants, click the link. It's currently priced at $0.99, though that will probably change when I finish book 2.
Meanwhile, I did manage to finish a book last week! (Yeah!)
I finally got around to reading Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card! I could swear I read this book as a kid, but now I kind of don't think so. Maybe I picked it up but never actually read it. I have a pretty good memory and I think it would seem at least vaguely familiar to me if I'd read it before. And it didn't. Not at all.
But, no worries. I have now read it and actually saw the film right afterward, over the weekend. I'll review it here tomorrow, so come back to see what I thought.
As for the book, I freakin' loved it! I didn't go into it thinking I'd like it so much. It's was just fascinating! I'm not very familiar with Card's work, despite knowing very well who he is (we share a religion) but I can say now with absolute confidence that Orson Scott Card is a genius.
Ender is the youngest of three children. But he lives in a society that limits most families to two children in order to control the population. His parents had to get special permission to have him. He thinks they only did it to put him into school. Card does a good job of showing that, even though Ender thinks his parents never truly wanted him, the opposite was most likely true. Ender just can't see it. When he is asked to join battle school, he feels obligated to do so, so that as a "Third" he will not be an embarrassment to his parents.
There's a lot of sadness in this book from the get-go. Ender's older brother, Peter, is mean and violent, showing serial killer tendencies such as killing small animals. Between him, and other bullies at school, Ender gets beat up a lot. He's small, but smarter than most, which is why he makes it to battle school and why he's often the object of bullying. There were parts that brought me to tears. (I'm looking at you, scene-with-Valentine-on-the-lake).
This may sound like a typical anti-bullying middle grade read, but it's not. Not at all. The science is interesting, but it's really being inside Ender's head and seeing him run through all his strategy that makes the book truly addictive. The characters are young children (Ender is six as the book begins) but they are so intelligent, that they think like adults. So they have more book smarts than most normal adults will attain in their lifetimes, but they still have the emotional vulnerability of children. Sorry to keep quoting Mr. Spock, but simply fascinating. I really couldn't put this book down. I totally loved it and would recommend it to absolutely anyone. Totally gonna go shove it down my younger brothers' throats and tell them to read it or no Thanksgiving pie for them! Okay, I really won't. I'm not that mean. But I am going to tell them to read it. Because everyone should read this book once. Especially young boys.
That, and I need someone to geek out about it with. :D So yeah, go read this one. And then you can see the film. :D Come back tomorrow for my review of that story medium for this book. :D
Has anyone else read Ender's Game? How did you like it?
I'm tentatively calling book 2 Desolate Mantle.
Yesterday, I wrote 4898 words, which puts me at 12303 for NaNo and 25,997 for the novel.
For more info on book 1, Dark Remnants, click the link. It's currently priced at $0.99, though that will probably change when I finish book 2.
Meanwhile, I did manage to finish a book last week! (Yeah!)
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But, no worries. I have now read it and actually saw the film right afterward, over the weekend. I'll review it here tomorrow, so come back to see what I thought.
As for the book, I freakin' loved it! I didn't go into it thinking I'd like it so much. It's was just fascinating! I'm not very familiar with Card's work, despite knowing very well who he is (we share a religion) but I can say now with absolute confidence that Orson Scott Card is a genius.
Ender is the youngest of three children. But he lives in a society that limits most families to two children in order to control the population. His parents had to get special permission to have him. He thinks they only did it to put him into school. Card does a good job of showing that, even though Ender thinks his parents never truly wanted him, the opposite was most likely true. Ender just can't see it. When he is asked to join battle school, he feels obligated to do so, so that as a "Third" he will not be an embarrassment to his parents.
There's a lot of sadness in this book from the get-go. Ender's older brother, Peter, is mean and violent, showing serial killer tendencies such as killing small animals. Between him, and other bullies at school, Ender gets beat up a lot. He's small, but smarter than most, which is why he makes it to battle school and why he's often the object of bullying. There were parts that brought me to tears. (I'm looking at you, scene-with-Valentine-on-the-lake).
This may sound like a typical anti-bullying middle grade read, but it's not. Not at all. The science is interesting, but it's really being inside Ender's head and seeing him run through all his strategy that makes the book truly addictive. The characters are young children (Ender is six as the book begins) but they are so intelligent, that they think like adults. So they have more book smarts than most normal adults will attain in their lifetimes, but they still have the emotional vulnerability of children. Sorry to keep quoting Mr. Spock, but simply fascinating. I really couldn't put this book down. I totally loved it and would recommend it to absolutely anyone. Totally gonna go shove it down my younger brothers' throats and tell them to read it or no Thanksgiving pie for them! Okay, I really won't. I'm not that mean. But I am going to tell them to read it. Because everyone should read this book once. Especially young boys.
That, and I need someone to geek out about it with. :D So yeah, go read this one. And then you can see the film. :D Come back tomorrow for my review of that story medium for this book. :D
Has anyone else read Ender's Game? How did you like it?
Monday, March 18, 2013
Top Ten Movie Countdown Blogfest, End of Blog Tour Thank-Yous + Announcements
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Another Landmark for me!
Whoo-hoo! Another landmark for me! This past week, both my blocks passed the 100 follower mark! (Actually, if we're being technical, Musings on Fantasia passed it the week before that, but I decided to wait until my other blog, LKHill , which was just five or six followers, behind suite!)
Thank you so much to all my lovely readers! I greatly appreciate your time, comments, and confidence! If I had anything to give away, yet, I totally would! I've decided that my 100th readers for both blogs (I have their names) will receive a free, signed copy of my book when it comes out in a few months!
Thank you all for following! :D Happy Tuesday!
Monday, July 30, 2012
Dragons and Fantasy
I know my fantasy world will have dragons. In fact, I started thinking about this story based on two things: 1) my love for the Game of Thrones story, 2) a short story I wrote for a contest. I wrote the story about a little boy and a dragon. I did it to challenge myself because I'm actually HORRIBLE at writing short stories. (Entirely too long-winded). The League of Utah Writers was having their annual contest and I decided to challenge myself to write a short story for the contest.
Of course I love fantasy and I've been wanting to explore dragons for some time. So, I put the three together and wrote a short story about a boy and a dragon. I entered it into the contest, but I won't know how it did until mid-September. (I'll let you know! :D)
Anyway, I gave it to my writing group and they really liked it. They said it was interesting and asked if I was planning on turning it into a full novel. I won't lie and say it hadn't crossed my mind, but their encouragement helped me build excitement and I've been planning scenes ever since then.
Anyway, I think I'm still weeks, if not months away from beginning the writing, but I thought I'd get some input. I won't tell you all the awesome secrets of my world-building, but here's a few:
1) (As previously stated) There are dragons. I haven't worked out all the details yet, or how exactly the dragon magic will work, but I know they have a very loyal, symbiotic relationship with the humans. Only certain humans are born with the magic to become dragon riders, etc.
2) There will be other creatures, such as unicorns. (Eyebrows up and down in rapid succession).
3) There are no mountain ranges in this world. I have a specific reason for this--a plot device I'll work in--but it comes from the fact that I live quite high in the Rockies. To live in a world without mountains would be all KINDS of bizarre to me. Hence...
4) There will be all kinds of lore, lost legends coming back to life, kings, queens, knights, adventure, and romance. (Of course! It's high fantasy!)
Although I know I have a lot of work ahead of me, I can't wait to get started!
So...what are the coolest world-building details YOU'VE ever come across? :D
Sunday, July 8, 2012
This and That
This weekend I attended a luncheon for all Jolly Fish Press authors. It was great! We got to meet some of our fellow publishees and put faces to, well...faces that we've only seen on Facebook profiles before now. It was so fun to talk with everyone and chat about all our soon-to-be out there work. I've got a few pictures (which I shamelessly pilfered from Facebook) below.
As I drove home, I thought about where I am and where I'll be going (writing-wise) in the near future.
I'm right at a point where many projects are intercepting and I feel like I'm doing a little bit of everything. Over the weekend, I finished the first draft of the second installment of Interchron. (It's okay if you need to read that again; it was a complicated sentence! :D) Of course it's by no means done. I have to go back through and put things in that I left out the first time through, simply because I was preoccupied with the action or other parts of the narrative. After that, I'll give it to my alpha readers and let it rest (for me, I mean) for 4-6 weeks. Then I'll go back through and do more serious editing once I have some space from it.
While my alpha readers rip that apart, I have another book--totally different genre of crime thriller--called The Botanist. My published for Kremlins said he'd take a look at it. There are no promises of publication, of course, but I thought I'd give him dibs. I want to do another editorial cycle on it, though. I haven't looked at that manuscript in months, so it's time I did. I'll probably send that to him (fingers crossed) sometime in September.
After that, I'll start getting the second installment of Kremlins ready. It's actually all written but I GUARANTEE it needs a lot of editorial love. Once I learned to edit myself, I went over book 1 with a fine-toothed comb, but I haven't touched book 2 yet, which means it's pretty raw.
I'm also trying to get more reading done. I'm a firm believer that anyone who wishes to be a successful writer should be devouring books on a daily basis. Unfortunately, I've been a bit of a hypocrite lately, so I'm trying to remedy that and chisel away at my To Be Read list a bit.
So, in short, I have plenty to keep me busy until the end of the calender year. A lot of it is editing, but that's okay with me. Sometimes it's nice to know that something is mostly written and you just have to fine tune it, rather that be uber-creative and come up with completely new stuff.
Anyway, just some this and that updates on my life. Everyone have a fabulous week! :D
As I drove home, I thought about where I am and where I'll be going (writing-wise) in the near future.
I'm right at a point where many projects are intercepting and I feel like I'm doing a little bit of everything. Over the weekend, I finished the first draft of the second installment of Interchron. (It's okay if you need to read that again; it was a complicated sentence! :D) Of course it's by no means done. I have to go back through and put things in that I left out the first time through, simply because I was preoccupied with the action or other parts of the narrative. After that, I'll give it to my alpha readers and let it rest (for me, I mean) for 4-6 weeks. Then I'll go back through and do more serious editing once I have some space from it.
While my alpha readers rip that apart, I have another book--totally different genre of crime thriller--called The Botanist. My published for Kremlins said he'd take a look at it. There are no promises of publication, of course, but I thought I'd give him dibs. I want to do another editorial cycle on it, though. I haven't looked at that manuscript in months, so it's time I did. I'll probably send that to him (fingers crossed) sometime in September.
After that, I'll start getting the second installment of Kremlins ready. It's actually all written but I GUARANTEE it needs a lot of editorial love. Once I learned to edit myself, I went over book 1 with a fine-toothed comb, but I haven't touched book 2 yet, which means it's pretty raw.
I'm also trying to get more reading done. I'm a firm believer that anyone who wishes to be a successful writer should be devouring books on a daily basis. Unfortunately, I've been a bit of a hypocrite lately, so I'm trying to remedy that and chisel away at my To Be Read list a bit.
So, in short, I have plenty to keep me busy until the end of the calender year. A lot of it is editing, but that's okay with me. Sometimes it's nice to know that something is mostly written and you just have to fine tune it, rather that be uber-creative and come up with completely new stuff.
Anyway, just some this and that updates on my life. Everyone have a fabulous week! :D
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