Thursday, October 17, 2013

e-book Cover Design Competition

So, last month I submitted the cover of An Untold Want to the e-book Cover Design Competition looking for feedback on my cover.  BTW, there is a wealth of information in the past competitions on how to create a good cover for an e-book.

Here's what I wrote as an explanation:

Nellie Williamson submitted An Untold Want designed by Nellie Williamson. “An Untold Want is a women’s literary novel. One of the motifs running through the novel is crows. Although the story takes place in modern times, there are diary sections from ancestors of the protagonist. The text on the cover comes from one of the diary sections.”


And here is the comment (understand the he doesn't comment at all on a lot of book covers):

JF: The bit of crow running off the top distracts more than it adds.

And yes, I can see that.  But I was pretty happy that there wasn't more of a criticism.  He typically doesn't hold back.  As with writing, if you put yourself out there, you need to be able to take the critique.

With that said, I probably would have still left the "bit of crow" at the top.  But I have learned a lot from his reviews, and appreciate his comments.


Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Maggie Sleeping, Beryl Rising

Now that An Untold Want is out there and being read, Beryl in the story I started working on last year around this time has made her presence known.

Several people--one in a Amazon review--have suggested that I write a sequel to An Untold Want, and I may do so sometime in the future, but right now I want to think of other stories.  And I'm not even sure where I would go with a sequel for An Untold Want, maybe follow one of the girls around.  But that's for later. 

The past few weeks, I've been working on Beryl's story,  on the structure, and details, have been letting backstory and life events percolate in my head, while finishing the memory quilt [will post photos when the quilt is done] I'm making for my sister-in-law's Christmas present.  You can't really watch TV while sewing, but you can think about stuff like plot lines.

And I had almost forgotten the joy of creating new characters and new places.  I want to explore where Beryl and Sinclair [potential love interest?] will go with their friendship.  Her background has expanded immensely in the past few months and I've figured out what I think is a clever way to bring in much of that backstory.

Anyway, I'm starting to enjoy writing again.  Not that I'm not loving the excitement of publishing, but for me it's always been about creating. 

So watch this space...  I don't think it will take me seven years to write this one.


Free Promotion Results are In

Sorry I haven't followed up sooner, but last week was crazy--work wise, book wise, and quilt wise. 

About the free promotion.  In the US, in four days, I gave away 4006 books.  During that time, I made it to and stayed consistently in the top three for free literary women's fiction/sagas.  I also hovered in the top 100 free the last two days. 

What I didn't know--until I stumbled across it last night--is that Amazon.com sales reports don't account for foreign sales/freebies.

Downloads in foreign countries:

85 on amazon.co.uk
6   on amazon.de
3   on amazon.fr
2   on amazon.es
2   on amazon.it
1   on amazon.co.jp
12 on amazon.in
23 on amazon.ca
2   on amazon.com.br
0   on amazon.com.mx

A grand total of 4142 books downloaded in four days.

Good, right?

Well, at the end of day two, I read a blog post that stated that free promotions are a waste of time.  Needless to say, this post had me a little down for awhile.  It said that people who pull down free books usually don't read them.  So I did some arithmetic [on my calculator because I can't add/subtract/multiply/divide] and found that even if only 5% of the people who pulled the book down for free read it, that's 207 people who I hope will enjoy it and talk about it to their friends. [I omitted the 0.1 person of 207.1, because s/he is probably distraught and not very well rounded.] 

So, contrary to what the blog said, I think this was a great opportunity to get my name out there.  And people are reading it.  I've already gotten several really good reviews from people I don't know, comments like "Great book. Best book I've read in a long time. Great writing skills by author. Can't wait to read her other books."

You can not imagine how good that made me feel.  And the other reviews, though longer, are just as nice.  Don't believe me? Go check it out yourself. 

So, with that said, I feel really good about the promotion and the fact that I've sold 24 books this month (paid for books).  It's a start.  An execellent start.





Sunday, October 6, 2013

An Untold Want - Free Promotion October 7-10




Starting tonight, soon after midnight, my novel, An Untold Want, will be free until midnight on October 10th or until it reaches #1 in free books.

An Untold Want is at http://goo.gl/LD9Wfm

It's only on Kindle.

Don't have a Kindle, you say. You can get free Kindle apps for your PC/tablet/smart-phone at http://goo.gl/O0YNvR or read it in the Amazon Cloud. I read on my smart phone all the time in doctor's offices or waiting for a tune-up on my car, you know, stuff like that.

Free promotions like this are a marketing tactic. Every free book looks like a sale after the price goes back to $2.99. So don't worry about it being free.



Please share this information with friends and family, so that I can start building a name and a financial cushion for retirement. Or I may have to come live with you when I retire.