For anyone following me who is subscribed to Kindle Unlimited, here is a list of some science fiction and fantasy books that are available for borrowing (including those by yours truly). The list updates monthly, so you might want to check back regularly!
Tag Archives: amazon
Top 100 for The Witch
The Witch is in the Top 100 Kindle Short Reads for Science Fiction & Fantasy! Thanks to everyone who gave it a try! For anyone who hasn’t yet, it’s just $0.99:
Luule is born with a speck of blue in her gray eyes, the vivid blue of magic. But magic is feared, and those who wield it shunned. Luule grows up fighting for acceptance in her village, her only encouragement that given by her loving mother. When her mother dies, Luule is left truly alone. Struggling to endure harsh winters, she works harder than ever…until a foreign army invades. With magic-wielding enemies bearing down on them, Luule must make hard decisions quickly not only to survive, but for the chance of winning a better life for herself. Come find out which way the Winds will blow…
SALE: The Wizard of Suomen
The Wizard of Suomen eBook is on sale for $0.99 (reg. $2.99). Only three more days!
Elof arrives at the border war hoping that rumor has exaggerated the trouble he is walking into. To his dismay, the rumors are true: the conflict is a bad one, and his new commanding officer is a magic-user just like their enemies. Despite the difficulties, Elof and his comrades are holding their own when disaster strikes: the King agrees to negotiate with their magic-wielding invaders. Now Elof must decide if he can trust the King’s own wizard, and put everything on the line to prove the enemy’s treachery and defend his country. Come find out which way the Winds will blow…
New Release: The Witch
The Witch is now available on Amazon!
Luule is born with a speck of blue in her gray eyes, the vivid blue of magic. But magic is feared, and those who wield it shunned. Luule grows up fighting for acceptance in her village, her only encouragement that given by her loving mother. When her mother dies, Luule is left truly alone. Struggling to endure harsh winters, she works harder than ever…until a foreign army invades. With magic-wielding enemies bearing down on them, Luule must make hard decisions quickly not only to survive, but for the chance of winning a better life for herself. Come find out which way the Winds will blow…
(A short story in the Land of Winds series.)
Quick Update
While I don’t post as often as I’d like to anyway, I’m going to be especially busy for the next couple of months (mostly with fun things, fortunately!), so posts may be even leaner than usual. But I’ll still try and get in a couple of reviews and some writing updates.
Things are getting nice and green outside, though, and it is finally spring! It’s nice to listen to the birds and the frogs calling while I work on things.
I will say that print copies of The Wizard of Suomen will be available soon! The ebook is $2.99 on Amazon, if you are looking for a good sword-and-sorcery.
~Ethelinda
Woo-hoo!
For anyone who has downloaded The Wizard of Suomen over the last few days, you helped make this happen:
Thank you! It feels really good to hit the Top 100 lists, even in the Free rankings.
For anyone who hasn’t grabbed it yet, it’s still free until 11:59 PST on Wednesday, April 4, so it’s not too late!
FREE: The Wizard of Suomen
The Wizard of Suomen is free on Amazon for the next 5 days, from March 31-April 4. Give it a try risk-free!
When Elof Kálmári arrives at the border in southeastern Suomen, he hopes that rumor has exaggerated the trouble he is walking into. He has heard that this conflict with their neighboring country is serious, and that his new commanding officer is a magic-user. To his dismay, both rumors are true. Elof struggles to deal with the unfamiliar, destructive magic wielded by their enemies and his own leader, General Virtanen. Then disaster strikes: the enemy gains access to the very heart of Suomen, Suomen’s King makes a series of increasingly unwise decisions, and uncertainty and mistrust divide their allies. General Virtanen, Elof, and his comrades must put everything on the line to keep the King alive and give their people a fighting chance against a powerful enemy. Come find out which way the Winds will blow…
Self-Publishing Tip: Careful with Categories
There’s definitely a learning curve to this self-publishing business, even if you’ve done your research beforehand! I’ll post some tips as I figure stuff out. Something I ran into (publishing as I currently am on Amazon) is to be careful with what categories your book gets placed into. This is undoubtedly a rookie error on my part, but I will learn more about this process and get better at it. 🙂
For this, I’m especially referencing the categories that Amazon chooses to put your book into based on keywords that you select during the uploading process. They have a chart in the Help section on KDP that helps you pick these. For example, I wanted The Wizard of Suomen to appear in the Fantasy>Sword & Sorcery category, so not surprisingly I had to have the words “sword” and “sorcery” appear in my keywords. So far, so good.
My mistake was in not paying enough attention to the other keywords I was using, and whether or not Amazon used them to determine any other categories. Because of this, TWoS ended up in Fantasy>Myths & Legends>Norse & Vikings.
The first problem with being in the wrong category is obvious: I don’t want to give potential readers a false impression of what my book is about. Although it is inspired by Finland to a certain extent, TWoS is definitely not a Vikings kind of story, so this was not a good category for it from that perspective.
The other problem was one that I had not considered, though, which had to do with the sales rankings, and how I viewed them. “Norse & Vikings” is a fairly small category on Amazon, with not too many books in it. Because of this, even my few early sales were enough to boost me into the top 100 bestsellers in this category, which in turn pulled up my ranking in “Sword & Sorcery,” etc. For this reason, it was tempting to leave TWoS in the smaller category, in the hopes of that trend continuing! But having the categories be accurate is more important, so I changed my keywords so Amazon would remove it from the “Norse & Vikings” category, which they duly noted and did. And then my sales ranking took a BIG hit, which was very disheartening to watch!
So, if you’re getting your first book up on Amazon, be careful of the keywords and categories. That way you’ll not only show up to the right potential readers, but also you won’t have to go through the disappointment of seeing your sales rank improve, only to have to undo it all!
~Ethelinda
ethelinda writes 