Runic Awakening now available on Kobo and Nook!
I just published Runic Awakening on Smashwords, which will make it available on Kobo, Nook, Apple, and many other vendors! I'm interested to see how these other vendors compare to Amazon, who I've been with exclusively for the last 6 months.
Ending my exclusivity with Amazon means, unfortunately, that it won't be available on Kindle Unlimited. I consider this an experiment of sorts, to see if I can reach a significantly wider audience by publishing through Smashwords. If not, I'll go through Amazon KDP Select again, making it available on Kindle Unlimited.
As usual, I'll let you know about my progress, and I'll keep you posted on how well things are going with Smashwords!
Runic Awakening Audiobook Approved!
The audiobook for Runic Awakening is approved! It will undergo quality checks through Audible and Amazon, then will hopefully be available for purchase in 10-14 business days.
Runic Awakening Audiobook Update
The audiobook for Runic Awakening is nearly complete! Nick Cracknell, a narrator from the UK, is lending his unique voice to the series. The full narration is complete, save for some editing, and should be available soon on Amazon, Audible, and iTunes!
Hunter of Legends
I've included a bar graph for the progress on the first book in my new fantasy series, located on the home page of my site. I'll update regularly as I write!
In addition, I'm working on the fourth book in the Runic Series, and will keep you updated via the progress bars and here in my blog.
New Book Series!
I've started working on a new book series, in addition to the fourth book in the Runic Series! It's a totally different story and world, but still fantasy. I'm very excited about it, and will be posting a progress bar graph for it soon. I'll keep you updated on my progress on both books!
Runic Vengeance Ebook Now Available!
The third book in the Runic Series, Runic Vengeance, is now available on Amazon!
Runic Awakening Featured on eBookDaily!
Runic Awakening, the first book in the Runic Series, has been featured on eBookDaily!
Runic Vengeance Preview Available!
A preview of the first chapter of Runic Vengeance, the third book in the Runic Series, is now available. Click here to read it!
Runic Vengeance Update
Book 3 in the Runic Series, Runic Vengeance, is closer to completion!
I've finished the final draft and am making final edits now. The book will be complete this month, and after I publish it, I'll be working on book four - already 20% written - and book one of a new series.
I promised myself to write unique book series for each of my children, and seeing as how I recently had another son, I have a promise to keep! I'm very excited about the new series, and can't wait to get started.
To keep track of my progress on Runic Vengeance, check out the bar graphs on my home page. I update it on a semi-daily basis.
Narrator found!
I found a narrator for the Runic Series audiobooks. His name is Nick Cracknell, and he did a superb audition. He's a former Shakespearean actor and has done work in ads and film, as well as audiobook narration.
I'm guessing Runic Awakening will be done by end of March or early April. Runic Revelation and Runic Vengeance will follow!
The Runic Series Audiobooks
I've decided to publish audiobooks through Amazon's ACX site. ACX offers authors the ability to submit the books so that voice actors can read a sample of the text to audition for the role of narrator.
After you choose a narrator, you submit an offer to them. There are two basic options: offer 50% of your royalties to the narrator, or pay an amount per finished hour of work and keep your share of the royalties. I chose the second option. You can also choose whether or not to give ACX exclusive rights to your audiobook, in return for a greater percentage of the royalty. If you give ACX exclusive rights, it publishes to Amazon, Audible, iTunes, and wherever else it wants.
I found ACX easy to use, and got a little over 60 auditions in a matter of a week. I think I've found my narrator, and am excited to start development on the audiobook for Runic Awakening! I'll be using the same narrator for the second and third books as well. I suspect that the audiobook for the first book will be available by April of 2017, but I'll keep you updated!
Audiobook Version?
I'm considering publishing an audiobook version for Runic Awakening. There's a few options available, and I'm researching them now. I'd love to do the entire series in audiobook format, if it's something readers are interested in having. If you have an opinion, let me know in the comments section!
Runic Awakening Featured on Indie Author News!
Runic Awakening was just featured on Indie Author News! Click here to read the article.
Google Adwords Update
I stopped the Google Adwords Express campaign a month ago, and found no drop in sales. When I tried restarting the campaign, it was far more expensive. Whereas before the cost-per-click was around 20-30 cents, now it is over $1 per click for the same ad. In addition, I found minimal change in sales. I believe that the ads helped to develop initial organic growth, and now they are too expensive to continue using.
As a result, I'm running campaigns on various book promotion websites. I plan on doing these promotions in a "throw a bunch of noodles on the wall and see what sticks" approach. I'll keep you posted on the results!
Runic Awakening on Sale!
The Runic Awakening ebook is on sale on Amazon.com for $0.99 for a limited time only! The sale will run from January 9th to the 15th.
I've also run a promotion on BookBongo.com, and I'm looking to run more promotions on sites like Indie Author News. I'm interested in how effective these kinds of sites are; I'll let you know how it works out, as usual!
New Book Series in the Works
In addition to working on the third book of the Runic Series, I'm also hard at work creating the first book of a new fantasy series. I'll have more information on this new series once I've finished the third book...and I'll also be hard at work on the fourth novel in the Runic Series.
I'll keep you posted!
Update on Runic Vengeance
Hope everyone had fun on the holidays!
I've resumed working on the third book in the Runic series, Runic Vengeance, with a...well, with a vengeance. It's in a bit rougher shape than the previous two books were, but I'll do my best to have it available by Spring of 2017. Here's the cover, designed once again by James T Egan from Bookfly Design!
Call to Action!
I've been having issues with in-text images on Amazon KDP for Runic Revelation. I have four jpg's in the middle of the book. They showed up on the KDP previewer and in the HTML and MOBI files I tested. So naturally I published the book. Imagine my surprise when I tested the book on my Samsung Galaxy 6 Kindle app, and found that the images didn't show up!
After a bit of research, I realized that I must not have inserted the images into my docx document...I had copy-pasted them. So I inserted them and tried again...with some success. This time, the images showed up on my Kindle reader, but not on my Samsung Kindle app. I've tried just about everything, but they still don't show up. Quite frustrating!
At this point, I put a link to an email address on my Amazon description page for the book in a call to action for my readers to let me know if they're having issues with images not showing up. If I can't fix this in a reasonable time-frame, I may have to remove the images altogether. They're not essential to the book, but I do use images quite a bit in the third book, so it would be advantageous for me to find a solution.
If anyone has an issue with the images in Book 2, please email me at author@runicseries.com.
Images Issue Fixed (Mostly)!
There are several images in Runic Revelation that weren't showing up in the Kindle version. It has been fixed for most platforms, but I'm still having an issue with the Kindle app on Android. I'm working to fix it!