In the last week I have worked hard on completing a 2nd edition of BLOOD MOON. Due to some unforeseen formatting issues on the Kindle Fire, I went back through the whole book and fixed all 1000 numbered SAT words for a better reading experience. I also added the blurb after the cover so that readers can be reminded why they bought my book in the first place. :-)
The updated version has now been uploaded to Smashwords and Amazon.
For those unfamiliar with Smashwords, it is a website where authors can upload their books for sale and distribution with numerous book sites such as Barnes & Noble and Apple's iBookstore. It will take a bit for those additional distribution channels to have my book available for sale. Once that happens, you should be able to buy my book in any format you want.
Smashwords sells my book also in multiple formats. You can visit the link below to purchase BLOOD MOON at their site:
Smashwords Sales Page for BLOOD MOON
I will keep you updated once my book is available at other sites.
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Blood Moon available for purchase in PDF format
Today marks the day I can now offer my book, Blood Moon, for sale in other venues. I gave the Amazon KDP program a shot for the first 90 days, and now I am branching out into other formats and websites.
If you notice in my sidebar, there is a PayPal button. You can now purchase the PDF version of Blood Moon directly from me, the author, for the same 99 cents I was charging at Amazon.
The PDF version is a slightly better version, if you ask me. Originally, I had footnoted all 1000 SAT words with the definitions at the bottom of each page. That way, as you read, you could find your definitions and move on. Unfortunately, due to formatting issues with e-books, I had to scrap the footnotes and only leave numbered SAT words throughout the text.
If you use a traditional Kindle reading device, you can hover over each word and let the Kindle dictionary help you with the definitions.
For those who were waiting for other formats, please click on the BUY NOW button in my sidebar. Once I receive payment, I will deliver the PDF directly to your email inbox.
My next challenge is getting Blood Moon uploaded for Barnes & Noble, the iBookstore, and other online resources for books. Thank you for your support and happy reading!
If you notice in my sidebar, there is a PayPal button. You can now purchase the PDF version of Blood Moon directly from me, the author, for the same 99 cents I was charging at Amazon.
The PDF version is a slightly better version, if you ask me. Originally, I had footnoted all 1000 SAT words with the definitions at the bottom of each page. That way, as you read, you could find your definitions and move on. Unfortunately, due to formatting issues with e-books, I had to scrap the footnotes and only leave numbered SAT words throughout the text.
If you use a traditional Kindle reading device, you can hover over each word and let the Kindle dictionary help you with the definitions.
For those who were waiting for other formats, please click on the BUY NOW button in my sidebar. Once I receive payment, I will deliver the PDF directly to your email inbox.
My next challenge is getting Blood Moon uploaded for Barnes & Noble, the iBookstore, and other online resources for books. Thank you for your support and happy reading!
Monday, August 19, 2013
Adventures in Gold Mining
My husband and I took a short camping trip over the weekend to try out our new sluice box. Yes, you read that right, we bought a sluice box.
For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated with finding treasure. Probably runs in the family as my mother was the one who took us places when we were kids to 'find' things: yard sales, gold panning in California Gold Country, etc.
Over the years I have searched for emeralds in North Carolina, diamonds in Arkansas and now I'm into gold. Probably because I happened to live in an area of the U.S. where there is lots of gold to be found. Or at least, there USED to be a lot of gold to be found.
A few years' back, we took a trip to Montana and did some gold prospecting in an area where you were allowed to try your hand at panning on public lands. We found a few itsy bitsy flakes and brought home a bucket of dirt that we meant to pan through at our leisure. It's still in the garage, but, hey, we can take our time, right?
This weekend, we headed out into the wilderness to camp in a meadow that is near a decent-sized stream. At the end of this stream there are the remains of a gold mining town. So, there is definitely a reason to believe there is gold along this stream. How much and where it can be found is the mystery.
We bought the sluice intending to power through the pay dirt and find ourselves some major gold. After reading the very basic instructions that came with the sluice box (basically, 'put your sluice box in the river and dump dirt into it'), my husband tried to find some useful instructions on You Tube. We were looking for angles or water speeds or *anything* that might actually be helpful. What we found:
1) Lots of videos by scary-looking men with bad facial hair that claimed everyone else's videos were crap.
2) Lots of videos by scary-looking men with bad facial hair using mike set ups that only picked up the sounds of rushing water, rather than any helpful advice.
3) Lots of videos by scary-looking men with bad facial hair giving no useful advice whatsoever about: how to keep your sluice box from filling up with dirt, how to set up your sluice box in the stream so that water funnels into it properly, how to angle your sluice box with rocks to keep it at the correct slope and to keep it from floating away.
After several hours of trying, we did end up running dirt through our sluice. It did result in a lot of black sand in the carpet beneath the metal grid. We maybe found a tiny flake of gold that we proudly brought home in our snuffer.
I gave up around 2 o'clock. My husband kept going (as men are wont to do when they have a goal in mind) and finally moved to a new spot on the stream that afforded him lighter material with a lot of visible black sand and a better set up for the sluice that resulted in less dirt build up.
To some, the experience may have been a failure. But, instead, we have renewed enthusiasm to keep trying. Once we have mastered the sluice box, we just need to find the right spot on the stream to start raking it in.
For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated with finding treasure. Probably runs in the family as my mother was the one who took us places when we were kids to 'find' things: yard sales, gold panning in California Gold Country, etc.
Over the years I have searched for emeralds in North Carolina, diamonds in Arkansas and now I'm into gold. Probably because I happened to live in an area of the U.S. where there is lots of gold to be found. Or at least, there USED to be a lot of gold to be found.
A few years' back, we took a trip to Montana and did some gold prospecting in an area where you were allowed to try your hand at panning on public lands. We found a few itsy bitsy flakes and brought home a bucket of dirt that we meant to pan through at our leisure. It's still in the garage, but, hey, we can take our time, right?
This weekend, we headed out into the wilderness to camp in a meadow that is near a decent-sized stream. At the end of this stream there are the remains of a gold mining town. So, there is definitely a reason to believe there is gold along this stream. How much and where it can be found is the mystery.
We bought the sluice intending to power through the pay dirt and find ourselves some major gold. After reading the very basic instructions that came with the sluice box (basically, 'put your sluice box in the river and dump dirt into it'), my husband tried to find some useful instructions on You Tube. We were looking for angles or water speeds or *anything* that might actually be helpful. What we found:
1) Lots of videos by scary-looking men with bad facial hair that claimed everyone else's videos were crap.
2) Lots of videos by scary-looking men with bad facial hair using mike set ups that only picked up the sounds of rushing water, rather than any helpful advice.
3) Lots of videos by scary-looking men with bad facial hair giving no useful advice whatsoever about: how to keep your sluice box from filling up with dirt, how to set up your sluice box in the stream so that water funnels into it properly, how to angle your sluice box with rocks to keep it at the correct slope and to keep it from floating away.
After several hours of trying, we did end up running dirt through our sluice. It did result in a lot of black sand in the carpet beneath the metal grid. We maybe found a tiny flake of gold that we proudly brought home in our snuffer.
I gave up around 2 o'clock. My husband kept going (as men are wont to do when they have a goal in mind) and finally moved to a new spot on the stream that afforded him lighter material with a lot of visible black sand and a better set up for the sluice that resulted in less dirt build up.
To some, the experience may have been a failure. But, instead, we have renewed enthusiasm to keep trying. Once we have mastered the sluice box, we just need to find the right spot on the stream to start raking it in.
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Letterpress - a game for word lovers
I just got back from a 10-day vacation to visit family. My sister, who plays Words with Friends with me quite regularly, announced she had bored of the Scrabble-like game after discovering Letterpress. She has had a rep in our family for skilled word slinging ever since beating my mother at Scrabble when she was 13.
At her encouragement, I downloaded the game to my phone.
I am not one who enjoys reading detailed instructions for games of this sort. I like to wing it and see if I can figure out how to play before I worry about the finer points of beating my opponent. I don't care if I lose multiple times because it is more about using my brain than beating someone. (although winning is a nice reward for using my brain...)
If you like words - the more complicated, the better - then you will love Letterpress. I won't describe how you play the game, because it takes a bit of time to catch on. In fact, I'm still catching on. The basic premise is that you spell the longest word you can in order to capture letters on the board. Once a word has been played, it cannot be played again. If you can add 'ed' or 's' or 'un' or 'in' or any number of suffixes and prefixes to a word that has been played, you can capture all those letters. So it helps to know lots of word building tricks.
Here is the link to their website:
http://www.atebits.com/letterpress/
I have an iPhone, so I am not sure if it is available for other smart phones.
You have no idea how addicting this game can be. A quote from my sister when she first showed me the game, "If you're wondering how many games you can have going at once, I found out. It's 50."
LOL.
At her encouragement, I downloaded the game to my phone.
I am not one who enjoys reading detailed instructions for games of this sort. I like to wing it and see if I can figure out how to play before I worry about the finer points of beating my opponent. I don't care if I lose multiple times because it is more about using my brain than beating someone. (although winning is a nice reward for using my brain...)
If you like words - the more complicated, the better - then you will love Letterpress. I won't describe how you play the game, because it takes a bit of time to catch on. In fact, I'm still catching on. The basic premise is that you spell the longest word you can in order to capture letters on the board. Once a word has been played, it cannot be played again. If you can add 'ed' or 's' or 'un' or 'in' or any number of suffixes and prefixes to a word that has been played, you can capture all those letters. So it helps to know lots of word building tricks.
Here is the link to their website:
http://www.atebits.com/letterpress/
I have an iPhone, so I am not sure if it is available for other smart phones.
You have no idea how addicting this game can be. A quote from my sister when she first showed me the game, "If you're wondering how many games you can have going at once, I found out. It's 50."
LOL.
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Do Facebook Ads Work?
In the last couple of months since the release of my new book, Blood Moon, I've been attempting various ways at marketing myself. There are so many books out there and so many good writers. One book scores while another book bombs without any real rhyme or reason that I can see. I am pretty confident saying it doesn't really depend that much on one book being better than another. There are LOTS of well written books.
(Side Note: Case in point would be the book, The Cuckoo's Calling, which was barely scraping by in the sales department. Then the word was out that the author was J. K. Rowling and sales skyrocketed. Was her book somehow better than other crime novels because it was written by her? I am dubious. But her name has built-in marketing power.)
Today on Facebook, I accidentally clicked on their marketing link. I'd never considered an ad on Facebook. I think I've maybe clicked twice on ads I see in the sidebar. But I found myself thinking, "What the heck?" What could it hurt to try?
So I created a Facebook ad this morning for my book, The Ninth Curse. I chose to only pay for clickthroughs, rather than impressions. Who knows if an impression does anything at all? An impression probably works better for a product that has a multi-faceted ad campaign, and I was only going to be advertising on Facebook.
I set my daily advertising budget at $2.22. That would allow for 3 clickthroughs per day. The total period of my advertising will be 30 days. So even if I spent my entire budget, I would be well under $70 for that month of advertising. Not bank-breaking, by any means.
Not sure if this will do anything to boost sales, but I thought it would be an interesting experiment. I'll keep you updated on my results over the next month.
UPDATE: After only 1/2 hour of my ad being available on Facebook, I have had 3 clickthroughs! This suprised me. Also, I clearly do not understand the cost per click. Although I had 3 clickthroughs, I've only used 74 cents of my $2.22 budget for the day. It looks like the price per click varies depending on a number of algorithms I don't understand. We'll see if any of the clickthroughs result in an actual purchase!
Today on Facebook, I accidentally clicked on their marketing link. I'd never considered an ad on Facebook. I think I've maybe clicked twice on ads I see in the sidebar. But I found myself thinking, "What the heck?" What could it hurt to try?
So I created a Facebook ad this morning for my book, The Ninth Curse. I chose to only pay for clickthroughs, rather than impressions. Who knows if an impression does anything at all? An impression probably works better for a product that has a multi-faceted ad campaign, and I was only going to be advertising on Facebook.
I set my daily advertising budget at $2.22. That would allow for 3 clickthroughs per day. The total period of my advertising will be 30 days. So even if I spent my entire budget, I would be well under $70 for that month of advertising. Not bank-breaking, by any means.
Not sure if this will do anything to boost sales, but I thought it would be an interesting experiment. I'll keep you updated on my results over the next month.
UPDATE: After only 1/2 hour of my ad being available on Facebook, I have had 3 clickthroughs! This suprised me. Also, I clearly do not understand the cost per click. Although I had 3 clickthroughs, I've only used 74 cents of my $2.22 budget for the day. It looks like the price per click varies depending on a number of algorithms I don't understand. We'll see if any of the clickthroughs result in an actual purchase!
Monday, July 15, 2013
Marketing Yourself is Hard
I am not a social butterfly kind of person. I have a small circle of peeps that I interact with (mostly family) and I'm cool with that. However, I think that limits my capabilities at marketing myself... which stinks.
Many writers are introverts. Possibly because we express ourselves better on 'paper.' I do a better job of explaining myself in the written word than I do speaking off the cuff. In fact, I've been known to put my foot in my mouth more times than I care to remember. Introvert does not mean silent. At least, not in my case.
Combining limited social skills with introversion results in a horrible marketer. I feel self-conscious talking about my books, promoting myself with guest blog posting, or mentioning the fact I'm an author. I carry around business cards with my book cover and a blurb on the back, but keep forgetting to hand them out or feel goofy doing so. I need to figure out how to get over this!
I think my book, "The Ninth Curse," is just as good as many books out there for sale. Although I was published with a reputable smaller publisher (thank you, Samhain, for taking a chance on me), my sales were pretty anemic. I didn't expect big things, but I was hoping for slightly better sales once my book made it onto Amazon and was available as an e-book.
Honestly, I believe the biggest problem I had was very few reviews. I've had an acquaintance or two who bought my book tell me they enjoyed it, but they did not take the time to review it. Frustrating to say the least. You really need a LOT of reviews in order for someone to believe that a new author has the chops to write a good book.
The other thing I have heard is that the best thing you can do is to write another book. Recently, I uploaded a new book to Amazon. Self-published as an experiment. Blood Moon is in the same genre as The Ninth Curse, paranormal, but is directed at a teen audience. Without the backing of a publisher, I am definitely floating in a huge sea of self-published books. I am not sure if this really helped me at all.
On the one hand, I enjoy sharing my writing with anyone willing to take a chance on it. On the other hand, I get frustrated that I haven't done a better job of getting the word out there about my books. I suppose I should just get back to the writing, since I'm better at that part. Either I need to ditch my loathing of promoting my work, or I need to stop complaining about it.
For all those readers out there my plea is that you write a review if you love a book. That's the only way an unknown author even stands a chance to sell her books. So, please, take the time to write a review today. The author will be grateful for it.
Many writers are introverts. Possibly because we express ourselves better on 'paper.' I do a better job of explaining myself in the written word than I do speaking off the cuff. In fact, I've been known to put my foot in my mouth more times than I care to remember. Introvert does not mean silent. At least, not in my case.
Combining limited social skills with introversion results in a horrible marketer. I feel self-conscious talking about my books, promoting myself with guest blog posting, or mentioning the fact I'm an author. I carry around business cards with my book cover and a blurb on the back, but keep forgetting to hand them out or feel goofy doing so. I need to figure out how to get over this!
I think my book, "The Ninth Curse," is just as good as many books out there for sale. Although I was published with a reputable smaller publisher (thank you, Samhain, for taking a chance on me), my sales were pretty anemic. I didn't expect big things, but I was hoping for slightly better sales once my book made it onto Amazon and was available as an e-book.
Honestly, I believe the biggest problem I had was very few reviews. I've had an acquaintance or two who bought my book tell me they enjoyed it, but they did not take the time to review it. Frustrating to say the least. You really need a LOT of reviews in order for someone to believe that a new author has the chops to write a good book.
The other thing I have heard is that the best thing you can do is to write another book. Recently, I uploaded a new book to Amazon. Self-published as an experiment. Blood Moon is in the same genre as The Ninth Curse, paranormal, but is directed at a teen audience. Without the backing of a publisher, I am definitely floating in a huge sea of self-published books. I am not sure if this really helped me at all.
On the one hand, I enjoy sharing my writing with anyone willing to take a chance on it. On the other hand, I get frustrated that I haven't done a better job of getting the word out there about my books. I suppose I should just get back to the writing, since I'm better at that part. Either I need to ditch my loathing of promoting my work, or I need to stop complaining about it.
For all those readers out there my plea is that you write a review if you love a book. That's the only way an unknown author even stands a chance to sell her books. So, please, take the time to write a review today. The author will be grateful for it.
Friday, July 5, 2013
The cat came back...
We have two cats at my house. They don't get along that well. One is more of an outdoorsy cat that lives on our boat cover in the summer and sleeps in the garage most of the time in the winter. This cat, Mackenzie, is a great hunter and is lean and mean most of the time. Just this spring she actually killed a rabbit and dragged it through the cat door into the garage leaving only feet and a few other parts behind. So, yeah, she's pretty tough.
Our other cat is a mess. Arrow is overweight. She has asthma. She broke off her two bottom teeth somehow and had to have emergency surgery over Thanksgiving weekend last year to stop an infection in her gums. She doesn't jump well. She's more of a housecat who likes to think of herself as much cooler than she really is.
Yesterday morning my husband noted that he had not seen Mackenzie for a few days. We were trying to remember the last time she'd appeared in the yard (we have a pretty big, unfenced yard in the wilds of Idaho). My last memory of her had been a barbecue on Sunday night. I couldn't remember if I'd seen her come in the house to eat since then.
My husband called her outside before he left for work (yes, he worked on the 4th of July), but Mackenzie did not appear. Since I work from home, I took a couple of breaks during my day to look for her. I called her several times. Only Arrow appeared.
I was worried. We have coyotes and other wild creatures in our neck of the woods. Although Mackenzie is pretty adept in her outdoor lifestyle, you just never know when something bigger and badder might get the best of her.
Yesterday afternoon I was glad to see Mackenzie make an appearance to eat at the cat bowl! She walked in as if she'd been there all along. I was so relieved.
On our way to the fireworks display last night, we drove past a neighbor's hay field that had been recently cut. My husband mused that perhaps Mackenzie had been staked out near the field for the last few days taking care of the mice whose homes were exposed. That seemed like a reasonable explanation.
What a relief, though, to have our Kenzie Cat back home! We had something else to celebrate yesterday...the return of a good friend.
Our other cat is a mess. Arrow is overweight. She has asthma. She broke off her two bottom teeth somehow and had to have emergency surgery over Thanksgiving weekend last year to stop an infection in her gums. She doesn't jump well. She's more of a housecat who likes to think of herself as much cooler than she really is.
Yesterday morning my husband noted that he had not seen Mackenzie for a few days. We were trying to remember the last time she'd appeared in the yard (we have a pretty big, unfenced yard in the wilds of Idaho). My last memory of her had been a barbecue on Sunday night. I couldn't remember if I'd seen her come in the house to eat since then.
My husband called her outside before he left for work (yes, he worked on the 4th of July), but Mackenzie did not appear. Since I work from home, I took a couple of breaks during my day to look for her. I called her several times. Only Arrow appeared.
I was worried. We have coyotes and other wild creatures in our neck of the woods. Although Mackenzie is pretty adept in her outdoor lifestyle, you just never know when something bigger and badder might get the best of her.
Yesterday afternoon I was glad to see Mackenzie make an appearance to eat at the cat bowl! She walked in as if she'd been there all along. I was so relieved.
On our way to the fireworks display last night, we drove past a neighbor's hay field that had been recently cut. My husband mused that perhaps Mackenzie had been staked out near the field for the last few days taking care of the mice whose homes were exposed. That seemed like a reasonable explanation.
What a relief, though, to have our Kenzie Cat back home! We had something else to celebrate yesterday...the return of a good friend.
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