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THE QUEEN OF MAGES now available!

Ankari

Hero Breaker
Moderator
Benjamin,

What are your thoughts about using wattpad.com as a venue for showcasing your work? Perhaps only the first 5 chapters or so. I hear other authors using wattpad for a teaser to help promote their sales.
 
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Dunno; I've never looked into wattpad before. From a quick glance, it looks similar to goodreads. I've got an author page on goodreads and have been participating in a fantasy fiction group there. I got lucky and made a sale when another member posted a description of her ideal book, and it was more or less exactly what I'd already written! I PM'd her and mentioned it, and she went ahead and bought a copy.

I might check out wattpad eventually, but I can't spend too much time dealing with a million different ways to market my work, or I'll never get anything else written. :)
 

Ankari

Hero Breaker
Moderator
It's not like Goodreads. Its a site that authors posts their works on. Some authors will post their whole works, but others just post 4 or 5 chapters. You can then post links back to Amazon and Nook. Logically, it makes sense to use as a marketing tool.
 
I think I can justify a $3 expense next week. Care to pitch me?

What do you think about your book? How does it rank against other novels in your opinion? Does it make you excited (in a non-"I just published a book OMG!" way)? What about it gets you going? What book on the market today is the most like it in your opinion?

P.S.:
Also, I checked out the affiliates thing, and it really only takes about 5 minutes to set up, then a 3 day wait to get approved. But they immediately give you access to links you can use to sell your book. Seems pretty painless. I set it up and now my links on my website are affiliate links. I also made a privacy policy page so people can see that I am an affiliate and that trademarks belong to the people whose trademarks they are. I'm not Steerpike, but I believe I set it up correctly. If you want to model yours after mine, you can find it here: Privacy/Legal - Zero Angel's War of the Ages. I basically just copied and pasted from Amazon's trademark page and added in the rest of the companies too for good measure. ...really need to file for an LLC sometime...
 
I think I can justify a $3 expense next week. Care to pitch me?

What do you think about your book? How does it rank against other novels in your opinion? Does it make you excited (in a non-"I just published a book OMG!" way)? What about it gets you going? What book on the market today is the most like it in your opinion?

Well, I certainly think it's fantastic, and much higher quality than the overwhelming majority of self-published crud out there. ;) In terms of what current books it's most like, I'm actually not sure; thematically and tonally the closest I can think of is Bujold's Sharing Knife series, but that's a few years old. (One interesting dilemma of writing in my spare time is that because I spend most of my spare time writing, I spend very little of it reading, so there's a lot I have to catch up on...)

It's epic low fantasy with a magic element that drives the plot but is not overwhelming. There's no bearded wizards throwing fireballs at each other every five seconds.

The characters find themselves in complicated, grown-up relationships; there's political shenanigans, ambushes, escapes in the dark of night, and one large-scale battle. There's four main POV characters, two women and two men (two pairs of nobles and their servants). The book spends a little while getting to know the characters before the main conflict kicks in. Then the s*** hits the fan... and then there's a resolution to that, and things seem to settle down, and then a much, much bigger pile of s*** hits a much bigger fan. :)

I don't know what in particular you look for in a fantasy novel, so I'm not certain how to customize my pitch precisely. So I'll just say this: I'll beg you to spend 5 minutes reading the preview (on my blog or on the Amazon product page), and see if you feel like you want to continue. If not, then at worst you've lost five minutes. But I think you'll find it a good read at the very least, even if it doesn't necessarily capture your imagination. (Not every book appeals to everyone!)
 

Telcontar

Staff
Moderator
I am currently reading QUEEN OF MAGES:

A) Yes it is better than most of the drek that people self-publish
B) It is easily worth a measly $3 dollars
C) Go buy it
 
Well, I certainly think it's fantastic, and much higher quality than the overwhelming majority of self-published crud out there. ;) In terms of what current books it's most like, I'm actually not sure; thematically and tonally the closest I can think of is Bujold's Sharing Knife series, but that's a few years old. (One interesting dilemma of writing in my spare time is that because I spend most of my spare time writing, I spend very little of it reading, so there's a lot I have to catch up on...)

It's epic low fantasy with a magic element that drives the plot but is not overwhelming. There's no bearded wizards throwing fireballs at each other every five seconds.

The characters find themselves in complicated, grown-up relationships; there's political shenanigans, ambushes, escapes in the dark of night, and one large-scale battle. There's four main POV characters, two women and two men (two pairs of nobles and their servants). The book spends a little while getting to know the characters before the main conflict kicks in. Then the s*** hits the fan... and then there's a resolution to that, and things seem to settle down, and then a much, much bigger pile of s*** hits a much bigger fan. :)

I don't know what in particular you look for in a fantasy novel, so I'm not certain how to customize my pitch precisely. So I'll just say this: I'll beg you to spend 5 minutes reading the preview (on my blog or on the Amazon product page), and see if you feel like you want to continue. If not, then at worst you've lost five minutes. But I think you'll find it a good read at the very least, even if it doesn't necessarily capture your imagination. (Not every book appeals to everyone!)

Thanks for the pitch. I just wanted to hear what you had to say about it, and I think that with a little editing you probably have a good "back cover blurb" for Amazon if you were still looking for one ;)

I'll pick it up without even bothering with the preview. It's only $4 after all (in America at least!). Keep up the good work!

...and I shouldn't have used the word "current". I should have used the phrase, "currently on the market/available for purchase". I don't have time to keep up with most current stuff either -_-
 
What? Do I have to pay more (I live in Europe) than 4 dollars? Why?

People were talking about VAT taxes in non-America areas, so I assumed that applied. Check out the Amazon link and see what price you have to pay, if it is more than 3.99 US Dollars (approximately 3.18 euros?) , then chances are there are extra taxes associated. Someone said that there was over $2 of taxes with a Netherlands purchase I believe.
 
People were talking about VAT taxes in non-America areas, so I assumed that applied. Check out the Amazon link and see what price you have to pay, if it is more than 3.99 US Dollars (approximately 3.18 euros?) , then chances are there are extra taxes associated. Someone said that there was over $2 of taxes with a Netherlands purchase I believe.

Yeah. Turns out Amazon has to charge VAT in certain countries, so they just pile that on top of whatever the sticker price is. I have no way to control it.

All told it's not more than a couple bucks (Euros, etc.) more than the sticker price, so I think it's still a good deal ;)

ALSO! Someone who's active on Goodreads wrote up a lengthy (and I do mean lengthy–1,600 words) review which she posted on her blog as well as on the book's Amazon page. I can't say I agree with everything she wrote, but it's an entirely fair review with a good deal of insight.
 

ThinkerX

Myth Weaver
Ok...read the sample and the last review.

My first observation is 'magic' seems to be something very new on this world - we actually seem to be watching it come into existence. Bit of a change from the usual.

I didn't mind the descriptions or the continual parade of minor characters, but then again I'm 'old school' where such inclusions were the norm.

As to characterization, at least from the sample, I have to agree with the review.
 
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