It’s Valentine’s Day, so you know what that means…
It’s release day for Snow-Swept!
This no-spice fantasy romance novelette is now available on Kindle Unlimited.
Featuring hearts in need of healing, grief, and a sweet romance that blooms alongside a gargoyle’s protective instincts, I can’t guarantee this little story won’t make you cry!
Welcome to The Lamp Post Society, where you’ll trade your true name for a roof over your head and solid wages. Oh, and you’ll also fight monsters.
My new quirky Victorian gaslamp fantasy, The Lamp Post Society, is now available on Kindle Vella! The Lamp Post Society is perfect for fans of W.R. Gingell and Suzannah Rowntree. This story publishes Wednesdays.
(Reminder: Kindle Vella is a serial storytelling platform on Amazon.com–meaning, sadly, it is still only available for US Amazon users.)
While London enjoys the progress of the Victorian Era, an endless series of disappearances plague the foggy streets of Elloc. The Lamp Post Society is on the case. Unfortunately, so is its newest and most oblivious recruit, Newfie Blake—and nothing can prepare him for the things that go bump in the night.
The Lamp Post Society is quirky, exciting gaslamp fantasy for fans of W.R. Gingell’s The City Between series and Suzannah Rowntree’s Miss Dark’s Apparitions series.
Cheers!
CKB
If you like sweet paranormal romance or no spice fantasy romance and can review on Amazon, stop and read this now!
My gargoyle romance novelette, Snow-Swept, is looking for ARC readers. You can get your copy on Booksprout. There are already less than 25 copies left with no plans to add more, so grab yours as quick as you can!
(Can’t review on Amazon? Preorder Snow-Swept for 99c or catch it in KU on February 14, 2023.)
Cheers!
CKB
A brand new group of Kindle Vella stories is on its way to you today!
This promo with serial stories in the scifi/fantasy, romantic fantasy and fantasy romance categories is available from today until February 28, 2023.
(Note: Kindle Vella is a serial storytelling platform currently available for US Amazon users only.)
Cheers!
CKB
I have a Valentine’s Day surprise for you all. Snow-Swept, a sweet, no-spice fantasy romance between a gargoyle and human, is arriving on Amazon (and KU!) February 14, 2023.
The novelette is available for preorder from Amazon for 99c.
Check out the pretty cover!
To learn more, please visit the book page for Snow-Swept.
And since word of mouth marketing is so powerful for an indie author like me, don’t forget to tell a friend or share on social media!
I came up with the idea for this story in a weekend and I’m so excited to share it with you all. This may just be a novelette, but it’s jam-packed with heart and emotion. I really hope you’ll love it!
Cheers!
CKB
The first Potions & Passions Kindle Vella promo is LIVE, my friends, and you can find it here. How excited am I?
This promo runs January 8 – February 7, 2023, and has scifi, fantasy, romantic fantasy and fantasy romance (aka romantasy!) titles. With 18 stories and 13 authors to choose from, the BookFunnel page will help you find your next Kindle Vella read!
You’ll also find my stories Stone Circles: A New Fairy Tale (based on Irish myth) and A Court of Swords and Sugar Plums (which I describe as The Nutcracker meets The Cruel Prince).
This is my first time creating a BookFunnel promo, and I look forward to helping everyone find some new Vella readers. As Vella authors, we’re usually scouring Facebook posts for readers with tokens to burn and interest in what we’re writing, so I think this makes a lot more sense for writers and readers both!
Wondering what the heck Kindle Vella is?
Kindle Vella is an Amazon platform for serial storytelling.
If you’ve never checked out Vella before, there’s a good chance you have some free tokens just waiting for you to claim them. Besides that, the first three episodes of every Vella story are always free to try. Pretty cool, right?
Every episode costs a certain number of tokens, depending on the length. As readers, you can like, follow (and even favorite, if you have paid tokens) the stories you love, so Vella incorporates a bit of social media into its platform in that way. You can still review stories, too!
Vella authors often break their stories up into “seasons,” which they may break up into separate stories (or not). Anastasis Blythe, whom I’ve interviewed and reviewed ARCs from, is a prolific romantic fantasy author on Kindle Vella, but there are LOADS of authors and genres to choose from.
The only downside is that this is still a relatively new platform, so it’s only available to US Amazon users. (I know, I have quite a bit of readership outside the US, but authors always have the option of publishing their stories 30 days after removing them from Vella, which IS my plan).
That’s all for now!
Cheers,
CKB
Update: Recruitment for this promo is now closed. Be sure to check out our next Vella promo in February!
To view January’s promo, visit the Potions & Passions BookFunnel page.
Attn. Kindle Vella Scifi/Fantasy authors!
I’ve put together this BookFunnel promo that begins January 8, 2023. Entries are due January 7th if you want to join.
(There will also be a February promo hosted by author Ophelia Wells Langley.)
Cheers!
CKB
Vella readers, rejoice! You can now read the next installment in the Season of the Fae series, A Court of Swords and Sugar Plums, on Kindle Vella!
Right now, the plan is to later publish this story as winter-themed novella duology, so don’t worry if you don’t have access to Vella. (Vella is still relatively new, and is currently for U.S. Amazon users only.)
Check out the full cover!
It’s the first book birthday for Lord of the Hollow Court today! A big thank you to everyone who preordered and all the authors who supported me along the way.
This book is a spicy romance for mature audiences. You can get your copy below (or read it in KU!). And if you hurry, that 99c price from preorder might still be in effect!
In this inaugural post of the Ask an Indie Author feature, indie fantasy author Ashley Evercott (Enchanting Fate) takes over the blog to solve a question every indie author deals with. Take it away, Ashley!
The new age of technology has allowed authors to market their books through social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok. These platforms can benefit authors and provide free advertising. However, as a newbie author with no graphic design, photography, or video background, it’s difficult to know where to begin.
I have also struggled with learning about this topic, but over time I have learned a few tips and found apps that have helped me make my cover and books shine on social media. Some of these tips/apps might seem obvious to those who excel in creating posts and videos already, but hopefully, they will help the new authors who don’t know where to start.
The first website/app that will be your best friend with creating beautiful Instagram posts is Canva. There are lots of different functions you can use to change a photo’s saturation, brightness, size, etc. You can add animation to your text and images to make your post stand out even more. There are video features you can use if you want to make a reel/TikTtok as well. You can use the free version or pay a monthly subscription for the full access to all their images, fonts, and other features. I personally have gotten by without having to pay the
subscription.
Tip #1: Download the app on your phone
If you are making a Canva post on your computer, I would advise you to download the app on your phone and look at your design from your phone. The colors will appear different on each device, but the way it’ll appear on your phone will be more important because most people will look at Instagram/Twitter/Facebook from their phones as well.
Tip #2: Study popular author posts
This may seem self-explanatory but you should look up posts other
people have made and study them, especially if they’ve had a lot of likes.
If you’re thinking of a book reveal, or book cover teaser, look up the
hashtags and study what other successful authors did. You can learn a lot about how they compose pictures, use colors, and fonts to attract their audience. Of course, you should never outright copy someone’s post.
This is the specific app I used to create mood board posts on Instagram. There
are other collage making apps available but this is the one I prefer, and it’s free.
You can collect photos and create an image like the one I made for Instagram:
Mood boards are an excellent way to show your book’s aesthetic and draw an audience in.
TikTok and Reels have become great ways to post about your book for free. Many authors have found success with making videos on each platform. You can make an account for both and post the same video to reach a wider audience. Although I do not
have a large following, I have found that I have a spike in reads when I post a video about my book and so I highly recommend every author to post on these platforms.
Tip #1: Learn from the trends
As with the picture post advice, the same goes for TikTok and Reels. Study what other authors are doing and pay attention to what sounds/songs are trending. Use those to your advantage.
Tip #2: You don’t need to show your face
If you are uncomfortable with showing your face on camera and talking, you don’t have to. There are many successful videos that showcase the book alone. For example:
1. Flip through your book’s pages, post quotes from the story and end the video by revealing the cover
2. Show a variety of pretty pictures that show your book’s aesthetic, providing quotes, or draw your audience in with a hook, and top it off with a trendy song.
Tip #3: Lip sync to make relatable content
If you are comfortable showing your face but you still don’t want to use your own voice, use someone else’s! Use a sound and make it about how writing is difficult, or how your characters have a mind of their own. Get creative and make it fun.
Tip #4: Don’t always make it about marketing
An audience will appreciate your videos more if you don’t shove your
book in their faces all the time. You can make videos about your favorite
books, your favorite or least favorite tropes, or, as mentioned in tip #3,
make it about the writing process.
Capcut is a video app you can download on your phone and my favorite way to make special effects I cannot create on TikTok or Instagram. There are many free features and fonts available, but if you want access to all the features, there’s a monthly subscription.
Tip #1: Use the 3D zoom effect
For my cover reveal for Enchanting Fate, I used Capcut’s 3D zoom effect on my video. Here is how I achieved that:
1. Insert your cover photo. Click on the photo until a white highlight appears around the photo. Under, scroll right until you find the style box. Click it.
2. Scroll Right and you will find two zoom options. Either will give you a cool effect and you can choose which one you like best.
Overall, there are many apps to help you with your marketing journey. These are the free tools I found most helpful to me and I hope they will help you make your cover shine, too.
Ashley Evercott was born and raised where it’s mostly sunny and there’s always traffic on the 91. From a young age, she has dreamed of far-off worlds and star-crossed lovers. She is proud to pen these stories to life and combine fantasy and tension-filled, clean romance. When she is not writing, she is consuming as many books as she can and daydreaming at home with her cat and supportive husband.
Ashley’s next book, Enchanting Gold: A Rumpelstiltskin Retelling, will be published either this fall of 2022, or January 2023. Follow her @ashleyevercott on Instagram for more updates.
To learn more about this author, visit ashleyevercott.com.