Just wanted to share that The Torc is on sale until New Years! Get it now for less and enjoy the start of something great! Click on the photo to follow the link to Kindle. Or you can find it for other devices here.
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Under Jupiter is Now in The Kindle Store
So I’ve been incredibly busy with life and getting ready for the Under Jupiter release! The good news is that Under Jupiter has finally made it up onto the Kindle store! But the BEST news is that UJ is FREE on June 20th and 21st! If you love Young Adult books, then make sure to grab your copy while you can. And please consider leaving a review when you’re finished! Click HERE to go to Amazon and download now!
Hurrah!
JEH
A Brief Review of the Kindle Scout Program
If you’ve been following along on my self-publishing journey of my latest novel, Under Jupiter, then you already know that I submitted it to Kindle Scout. Well, the news is in and Under Jupiter was not selected for publication by Kindle Press. In all honesty, I didn’t expect it to be. Why? Because during my 30-day campaign and scout participation, I came to a firm conclusion on one thing: Kindle Press prefers highly popular fiction. And guess what, a teen novel about colonizing the solar system is not popular fiction.
Overall, I had a good Scout experience. It was fun and addicting to follow along with my daily page views, and I liked seeing my book at the top of the Hot and Trending list. Also, I nominated books like mad during my 30 day sprint, since I was on the website anyway, and I ‘won’ three new e-books, which should be released sometime in the near future. I found Kindle Scout to be a fun website as a reader, since it takes no time at all to scan and nominate your favorite proposed titles.
As a writer, I found Kindle Scout to be slightly beneficial to my exposure. My books had slightly more downloads while my latest work was up on Kindle Scout (which I think is partially due to more readers who don’t know me seeing my name). I’m planning to release Under Jupiter this weekend, at which time Kindle Scout will send an email out those people who nominated my book and let them know it is for sale. I’ll post an update after I’ve done this to say whether or not I get a sales boost from that feature.
As for what’s next, I’m working away on The Torc. Would I submit it to the Kindle Scout website? Probably not, because I felt Kindle Scout mostly just added a bit of a delay to my release schedule, and I’m too excited to share The Torc with the world.
What do you think? Do you like reviewing book previews on Kindle Scout?
JEH
Writing 365,000 Words in a Year Update #25
Well, I’m not going to post my word count table this week, because I’m feeling pretty horrible about it. Overall, I’m still 18,000 words behind my target. The good news is that I haven’t fallen any further behind this week. I’ve come to realize a few things about achieving a daily writing target:
- Writing multiple times in a day helps me reach my 1,000 words/day goal. I find in one “sitting” I can easily write 600 words. Which translates to needing a minimum of 2 writing sessions in a day (preferably morning and night).
- Focusing on how behind I am only makes me not feel like writing. It is much easier if I remind myself that I’ve already written well over 200,000 words since September 1, 2017! Go me!
- Trying to catch up (write 18,000 words) in one day or one weekend is an unachievable goal with how my life is currently set up (day job, kids, etc.). It works much better if I just tell myself to keep pushing for another couple minutes after I reach my 1,000 word goal. This often gets me to 1,100 or even 1,600 words in a sitting. Which means that I’m slowly catching up, bit by bit.
So, that’s what I’ve learned this week, and that’s what I’m focusing on. I’m still distracted by my Kindle Scout Campaign for Under Jupiter. I’ve got 4 Days left and I haven’t made it onto the Hot and Trending list for even a single house. Please help me out by nominating if you haven’t done so already. This is your shot at getting my book for free, and I will be eternally grateful. Just go here.
Other good news is that I’ve finally broken through my writer’s block and found an idea that I love. I’m going to share some details as I work on it. It’s kept my word count high this week, and so far the story is lovely and so fun to write. I can’t wait to share more details with you.
Also, I’ve been doing a bit of gardening (and less going to the gym, but I figure all that squatting time counts for something, right?). Here’s some pictures of my flower boxes.
Have a great week!
JEH
Under Jupiter Now On Kindle Scout
It’s there! It’s up and shining in the spotlight. Head on over here to check it out, or click on the link on the right, and read the prologue, the first chapter, and take a sneak peek into chapter two. Under Jupiter will be up on Kindle Scout until May 30th, so you can go back and view it again anytime, or share it with a friend. Don’t forgot to nominate the book for a change to get a free copy if the ebook if it’s chosen by Kindle Press!
Black Depths Book 4 Is Now Here
I had such a busy weekend preparing Doomed Seas for Release today! I’m so excited for this. Doomed Seas is Caesar’s story, and is kind of a jumping off point for Black Depths Series, which means, if you haven’t yet read the other books, it doesn’t matter. You can start right here (at least I think so, but maybe I’m wrong since I’m so ingrained in this world). I love the cover, I love my pirates, and I just love writing and self-publishing, since it means I’ve been able to control the Black Depths world from start to finish.
Now Reformatted!
Doomed Seas is currently up on Smashwords and Amazon, and as soon as Smashwords finishing the checks, it should be up on Kobo, Nook, and iBooks. I’ve made Tales of a Redheaded Sea-Witch (Black Depths Book 1) permanently free on Smashwords, Kobo, Nook, and iBooks. It isn’t free on Kindle yet, as I’m not allowed to set that, and I need someone to report they found a lower price elsewhere, so if any of you lovely readers feels like doing me a favour, I would greatly appreciate it.
Anyway, not that Doomed Seas is done, I can focus on the final push to finish Twisted Currents, Book 5, and the last book of this section of the Black Depths Universe (though possibly not the end, as I have a few more stories I would like to write, though it may take a long time for me to get around to them). I need to wrap up Black Depths before NaNoWriMo, because this year I have a marvellous fantasy planned that I can’t wait to write. As a writer, it’s always wonderful to be able to embark on something new, and I’m really looking forward to that.
I see that there are a few new reviews up for the books since the last time I checked. I love this! Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to put up a review for any or all of my books that you’ve read. I cannot say how much authors need and love and crave reviews! If I could give each of you a hug, I would!
Okay, later this afternoon I’ll finally have my review for Empire of Storms up. I finished it last week but just have no had enough time to put my thoughts together. If you haven’t read the latest in Sarah J. Maas series, you probably won’t want to read the post, even though I try not to get too spoiler-y. I just love talking about books.
JEH
