Sky Treader in Print?

Yep!  Well, not quite yet.  I've only just submitted it, and have to wait for it to go through approval before I can order the proofs.  It's small — like, children's book small — which is part of the reason I chose Sky Treader for my test book.  Depending on how easily the process goes from here, and how well I like the proofs, I plan on staggering print releases with Kindle releases.  I could, in theory, release both the Kindle and the print versions at the same time, but that would mean I'd always have to have a second book in buffer, since I'm placing the first 1000 or so words of the next book at the end of each one.

I'd been told that the covers tend to be tricky to set up, but I actually found that the easiest part of the process.  Since I have .psd files of all my covers, it was just a matter of expanding it from just a front cover to a full cover, and my designs are simple enough that it took about 20 minutes.  The hardest part was figuring out that I had to flatten the image before exporting it as a .pdf, as required by the printer.  In fact, the hardest part of the whole process was figuring out why Word thought I wanted all of my text to be vertically centred.  I only ever have problems like that when I use someone else's template, but I've tweaked it enough that I'll be able to use it for all future titles without that problem.

Amazon Ads, part 3

The message from my last post is gone, and even better, my stats are now steadily rising, instead of bouncing all over the place.  It actually got fixed a few hours after my last post, but I wanted to hold off and see if it stayed fix.  Which it seems to have done.

With it being fixed, I've been able to work on my targeting a bit more.  Now that I have somewhat accurate data (it still only seems to update once every 12 hours), I've been able to fiddle with my targeting a bit more.  I spent about 20 minutes yesterday adding more products to my list, and have already seen results.  This time yesterday, it showed just over 400 impressions. Since going through and changing my targets, I've got just under 1200 impressions, and one click (still no sales, but I wouldn't expect a sale off of the first click).

What I find interesting is this campaign started the same day I began promoting listings on Etsy, and the impressions on both sites seem to be fairly close to one another.  It's just a strange coincidence that has nothing to do with anything, but it gives me a bit of a benchmark.  Amazon is a much bigger search engine than Etsy, but I'm also bidding a little higher for a few of my Etsy listings.  I'm kind of wondering how long they'll stay at similar ranges, and when one of them will finally overtake the other.  In a strange way, I almost expect Etsy to out-perform Amazon, but we'll see.

Amazon Ads, part 2

First, I'm going to start with this:

Data Inaccurate

Metrics data is currently reporting inaccurately. Data for your campaigns will be available in full when this issue is resolved.

 

 

This is what's appearing at the top of my campaign page right now, and other people are saying the same.  We're wondering if this might have something to do with the magically resetting stats which make it impossible to track your clickthrough rate.  I'm hoping this is the case, because I need to know at least somewhat how effective my targets are.  But I've seen my impressions bounce from 10, to mid-60s, to low-20s, and now back up to the 80s.

Which is still absurdly low.  But I went around checking out what books are being promoted where, and I'm finding the most ridiculous targeting I've ever seen.  Since I'm targeting Sky Treader to a bunch of Thor comics, figuring people who like Thor will probably be into fiction about Norse deities, I went clicking around the titles I'm targeting.  And I'm finding everything from Gothic romance to bizarre plays about hair... or something.  I'm wondering if these people are targeting by category, and then selecting every single available category.  Because while I'm sure there is some overlap between Thor and Gothic romance, people probably aren't going to go looking for Thor and then suddenly change their minds about what they want.

I've been seeing this everywhere too.  Even on the books within my genre, I'm seeing the most random things being promoted.  

Right now, the low impression rate isn't bothering me, because it's nothing out of pocket.  But I'm looking forward to see where it winds up later this summer.

Amazon Ads

There's been some talk about these things on several message boards lately, so I've decided to start a campaign and see how well it goes.  Something I put off for a very long time, because well.  Let's be real here, Amazon's whole KDP system is really opaque and difficult to wrap your head around sometimes.  The minimum amount you can spend on advertising with them is $100, which put me right off.  I had assumed this was an up-front fee for ads in targeted emails.  Which I would definitely pay for, if I had that kind of money to just spend all at once.

But it's more like Baby's First AdWords.  In which I mean it really doesn't give you any anaylitics, which is also kind of a deterrent.  There's no way to know how your targeting is working, and which of your targets aren't performing.  For which I suppose the solution is to just have all the targets you can possibly have.  More on this later, because despite this, I've decided to try it with Sky Treader.  It's on a pay per click model, which means I only pay if people click my ad.  I've set my bid at 5¢ per click, so I just have to have one sale per 40 clicks to break even.  Which are just about the only analytics Amazon gives you. 

They tell you how much you've spent, how much of your budget is remaining, your number of impressions, your number of clicks, and your number of sales.  Which apparently all like to reset at random, or so I've heard, so I'll have to keep a close eye on it.  Either way, I will still be able to see my sales on the main dashboard, so it's not like I'll be going at this completely blind.

I've also set my campaign to run for the maximum allowed time: six months, and selected the option for my budget to be spread out evenly over that time.  I'm looking at a maximum spend of about $16 a month, which is far more reasonable.  That would be a minimum of 320 clicks, from which I should be able to make eight sales in order to break even.  In reality, with my low, low bid, I probably won't wind up spending even half that amount per month. 

The reason I've set my campaign up to span six months is with the speculation that my impressions, clicks, and sales should gradually increase over time.  This system is brand new, and lots of people are using it.  People who are promoting to every single category on Amazon with little regard to target demographics.  And because they're competing with everybody else, I'm seeing average bids of upwards of $1.00 on several message boards.  By taking the low-risk approach of a low bid and marathon campaign, rather than a sprint, I may only wind up spending a dollar or so for the first few months.  As everyone else depletes their budget and their campaigns end, I'll still be there with my 5¢ bid, still making $2 for every sale instead of 50¢.  If it looks like it's working for Sky Treader, I'm going to set up a campaign for several other books, using the same model.  If it seems like it is going to somehow cost me more money than I'm making back, I can always end the campaign without being charged my full budget.  But if I can't make a single sale off 40 clicks, there's something wrong with what I'm selling, and not with the ad I'm running.

Dwarf's Ransom, and what's next

Just a reminder that there's one week left before Dwarf's Ransom releases.  You can pre-order it here.

You can also pick up Sky Treader for free for five days, staring March 1st.  Both will also continue to be available on Kindle Unlimited.


Now that I've finished with Dwarf's Ransom, I've been fiddling with the next one a bit.  I'm not entirely sure where it's going to go, but it will involve Fenrir and Jörmungandr, and possibly a trip to Muspelsheimr.  I have a few other ideas, and plans to introduce someone I've been wanting to bring in since this series' original inception as a web serial. 

I also have something else in the works with Sigrid, a character we meet in Dwarf's Ransom.  I don't know when her story will come out, since it's the sort of story that seems like it's only interesting to me, at least for the moment.  Maybe her story will become interesting later in the year.

Dwarf's Ransom now available for pre-order!

Dwarf's Ransom is now available on Amazon for pre-order, and will be available to purchase or borrow on March 1st.

Jari, a young dwarf from an isolated kingdom, is sent out to find his trouble-making brothers. After being saved by a stranger from being trampled by a horse, Jari finds himself with a new companion in this strange land. As they search for Jari's kin, they find more trouble made than either of them had anticipated. Soon, Jari's missing brothers are implicated in the murder of a god, making their return home all the more urgent. But when they are finally found in a distant land, troubles only seem to get worse for Jari and the companions he's picked up along the way.

Also featuring Loki and Odin, Dwarf's Ransom explores Nidavellir and gives a glimpse of Jötunhemr as the three of them find their paths intersecting.  While Jari looks for his brothers, Odin searches for Kvasir's murderers, and the only thing keeping them from murdering one another is Loki, caught in the middle.

You can find Dwarf's Ransom on Amazon.

Deceived by a God now on Amazon!

Loki is travelling; wandering aimlessly across the realms when he meets a young elf named Óttarr. He strikes a bargain with the elf to do some work in exchange for a bed for the night, a meal, and a chance to bathe. Rather than doing the work he promised, Loki decides to bathe first, and takes Óttarr with him to help. It isn't long before Óttarr comes to learn Loki never intended to do the promised work at all, and had his own motives for their meeting.

Available for $2.99, or to borrow for free with Kindle Unlimited.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00T8IBXSI

A History of Magic

 

Las Vegas is a city in flux. People come and go, either because they think they can win it big and leave all their problems behind at the tables, or because they feel like whatever they're missing in their lives, they'll find it under the neon lights and marquees of the Boulevard. For those who were born there, it's just another city where college is too expensive, jobs are too few, and very little happens.

Carly is one of those few, struggling to finish a degree she doesn't know what she'd do with when she got it. To distract herself from the stress of college life, she goes to club meetings at an off-strip magic shop, where amateur magicians gather and show off for one another.

Gunnar meanwhile brings his act from Iceland to Las Vegas, and finds himself in need of a new assistant. When an audition in an off-strip hotel brings them together, Carly soon finds there are things more stressful in her life than college credits when she gets caught up in the middle of keeping her dream job and keeping her life in one piece in the wake of Gunnar's ulterior motives for moving out to the desert.

A History of Magic is now available on Amazon for $4.99, or you can read for free with your Kindle Unlimited subscription.

Branching out

I am about to start an experiment, of sorts.  One which I hope will go well.  Over the last week or so, I've been talking to people about erotica, and the possibility of partaking in a little side venture there.  Since I've already taken a crack at the romance genre, and then completely deconstructed and subverted it, I figure it might be a bit of fun to try this as well.

Erotica will not be published under the same name as my more mainstream stories, but it will feature the characters and settings from Lay of Runes.  This is because they're the only characters I really care enough about at this point to devote to a series of sexual shenanigans.  You'll be able to find information on the new pen name on this page.