Category Archives: Crystal Blade
And Now We Wait
So my first ZoeBub/Stuff Your Kindle/eReader event is done, and I had over 8,800 copies of Crystal Shard downloaded, plus a significant handful of Empress of Storms.
For ease of math, let’s say that 9,000 people downloaded one of my books. Seeing as 1) romance readers are absolutely voracious when it comes to reading, but 2) they also tend to have immense TBR backlogs, let’s posit that maybe 5% of those 9K readers will get around to reading my book in the next six months or so and like it enough to want to buy the next one in the series.
That makes 450 readers who will either buy Crystal Blade or read it in KU (although I already have three purchases of Crystal Blade racked up since the beginning of the event). If those 450 readers buy it, I’ll make $1,548. If they read it in KU, I’ll make less than that but I’ll still make a significant amount. And if I have Crystal Reflection, Crystal Citadel, and Crystal Empress out by then, I could make as much as $6,192.
Now, let’s look at Empress of Storms. If one reader read Empress and decided that she wanted to read the entire series (and this happens a LOT), that’s the purchase of three novels, a novella, and a short story, which earns me $13.46. And Empress of Storms is romantasy, which is really starting to take off now (more on that in another post) so it’s very likely that more readers who read Empress will want to read the entire series.
But that’s just the money aspect from this one ZoeBub event. From a purely audience building point of view, knowing that one of my books was downloaded almost 9,000 times is absolutely tremendous. And it’s building the audience of dedicated readers that makes an author’s career.
TL;dr, I deemed the Stuff Your Kindle event to be a tremendous success, and hopefully I can participate in the December event as well.
Last Day To Stuff Your E-Reader!
High Tide Episode 15: Dangerous Truths is now live on Kindle Vella. Go forth, enjoy, and all that stuff.
I would also like to remind you that today is the last day of the Stuff Your Kindle/eReader event for romance readers. You can still head over to www.romancebookworms.com and pick up over 2400 free romance ebooks in seventeen different categories. I already picked up a bunch of awesome titles, and my own WC fantasy romance Crystal Shard is in the event, in case you haven’t read it yet and would like to try it for free.
I also got a review for Crystal Blade, the sequel to Crystal Shard, today and it has me squealing in joy:
Crystal, our relatable heroine, has a remarkable journey from the mundane life of a Sav-R-Mart clerk to embracing her newfound role as the potential Empress of Sideros. Her character development remains a highlight of this series, as we get to witness her growth from an average human girl with a troubled past to a powerful and determined force to be reckoned with. The political maneuvering and the competition with Crystal’s cousin for the throne add layers of complexity to the plot, keeping readers engaged and invested in the outcome.
If you are a lover of high fantasy books with a great plot, amazing character development, and forbidden love… read this series!
This pleases me because I recently made the discovery that apparently I write romantasy—a story with a strong romance plot and an equally strong adventure plot with worldbuilding. I always follow the romance requirements of a HEA/HFN and a romantic couple/group at the core of my stories, but I also send my characters out on adventures, regularly put them into danger, and require them to do some personal growth before the end of the story. That’s what I like to read, so that’s what I like to write.
And now it’s officially a thing, which is fabulous from a marketing perspective. Anything that makes it easier to get my books into the hands of readers who will enjoy them is aces with me!
Still Working on High Tide
High Tide Episode 9: …Or Will It? is now live on Kindle Vella. You know the drill.
With that done and uploaded, I’m about to send out a newsletter to my subscribers with a special epilogue to Crystal Blade that won’t be released publicly. Only my newsletter (and Patreon subscribers, when I get it set up) will be able to read it. So if you want to see how the Buff Lords react to the events at the end of Crystal Blade, you might want to subscribe.
In other news I’m setting up a Shopify storefront so that I can sell bundled ebooks (and eventually signed print books but I don’t have the spoons for that at the moment) directly to readers. I figure I already have the Esposito County Shifters bundle, so I can do one for Olympic Cove, Two Thrones, Hidden Empire, and my standalone MM titles. We’re looking at some major bills in the near future so any money I can make from my writing is needed and most welcome. And I will finally be putting my Patreon together this month, so readers will be able to get sneak peeks at work, exclusive short stories in one of my series, and free ebooks and print books depending on their tier.
And now, I must write.
So, Yeah, It’s Monday
High Tide Episode 7: VivePharm is now available at Kindle Vella. You know the drill.
I had a panicked moment today. I thought I had my writer’s group meeting on Zoom tonight, which meant that I’d have to stop working at 7:00 PM and attend the meeting. Luckily we don’t have a story in the queue to be critiqued so I didn’t have to spend time on that but I am still editing the last few chapters of Crystal Blade before sending them off to Team Editorial Machete tonight and I didn’t have time to stop and attend a meeting…
…until I realized the meeting was tomorrow. Oops. And crisis averted.
Also, may I just say that having to plead with a medical insurance company to pre-approve an instance of non-elective surgery is bullshit? Luckily my doctor’s office is handling that and bless them for their tenacity, but it means I’m still waiting for them to receive my insurance company’s blessing before I can go ahead and have this gum issue fixed.
God, I want Medicaid For All.
On the plus side, the temps here are ever so slowly dropping and indeed it’s only two digits in my neighborhood at the moment, and that’s before 7:00 PM. I think that’s the first time this has happened since we had those three days of 90s temps. I just want to go back to non-hellish weather, is that so wrong?
Not Looking Forward To This Weekend
High Tide Episode 6: To Be Human … Or Not is now available at Kindle Vella. Go Forth and read.
So, Crystal Blade will be released on 8/29/23 at Amazon and you still have time to snap up a copy at 99¢ which is even cheaper than reading it on KU (yes, it will be on KU, never fear). The goal is to get the edited doc over to my editor and beta readers by Monday, get their edits input by Thursday, then give it a final polish and upload before the 7:00 PM CST deadline on Friday.
And the funny thing is, I thought this was the one that I’d have ready early. I had a whole month and a couple of days to get it ready for publication. I wouldn’t be rushing around like a headless chicken trying to get it polished, edited, formatted, and uploaded. I would have time.
Which must have amused Fate because that’s why I had my downstairs AC unit go out and a medical situation land on the same day. As a result the last two weeks or so have been filled with talking to AC techs, scrambling to get window units, getting various doctors’ appointments lined up and scheduling surgery (this is for the gum thing), all while it’s been hotter than Satan’s taint here. Frankly, the fact that I managed to get as much done with everything else that was going on astounds me.
But things are finally lined up and I’ll spend the weekend finishing up my round of edits before sending it out to Team Editorial Machete. Wish I could sleep next weekend but I’ll be prepping for release, tra la.
Writing Away
Today has been surprisingly productive—dunno how much of that is due to the significantly lower temps, the portable AC unit, or what, but I shan’t complain.
In fact, I should have a new ep of High Tide available on Vella by Wednesday, I’m hoping to have all of Crystal Blade edited and off to the Typo Team and my editor by the weekend, and I think I have a rough outline for To Love a Wild Swan, which is definitely going to be an enemies to lovers story (think Sam Reid in his most arrogant Lestat mode and Anna Taylor-Joy in Emma. format with added bloodthirstiness and you have my couple). The last book of the year will be Hurricane Warning which will wrap up my Olympic Cove series and bring my number of published novels (as opposed to novellas, novelettes, and short stories) up to a nice round twenty.
Granted, I am hesitant to mention any of this out loud because it seems that when I do that Something Happens™ that derails all of my plans. Guess I just have to keep my fingers crossed.
Waiting On a Call
High Tide Episode 4: Conclave of the Seas is now available at Kindle Vella. Go forth, read, and enjoy!
I’m sitting here reeling from yet another night of badly broken sleep and waiting for a call to find out the results of the gum biopsy I had two weeks ago (they weren’t in yet when I had my followup visit last Thursday and I’ve been playing phone tag with the oral surgeon every since). I’m hoping that the results are benign and I just need to confer with my dentist about possible solutions for replacing the cement in my crowns.
But I can’t be sure of that. So I’m sitting here trying to manage my anxiety and get some work done in the process. It doesn’t help that the Loudest Orange Cat in the World has decided that he wishes to glue himself to my side and comment loudly on everything. I tried closing the office door; he parked himself directly outside and started up with a mid-voice chorus of “Meow? Meow? Meow? Meow? Meow?” So he’s currently sprawled on the floor behind me while the Brown Girl has taken over the cat bed next to the bookcase.
As for writing, I’m editing Crystal Blade today because I can do that with relative competence in my current state, then I’ll get ready for my writer’s group Zoom meeting tonight. In the meantime here’s hoping that the oral surgeon calls back soon and lets me know what’s going on.
I Really, Really Hate This Heat
And by rights I can’t complain—I work in central A/C and knock wood it’s been functioning. I don’t have it nearly as bad as everyone who works outside or who doesn’t have central A/C.
But it’s still oppressive as hell. This continuous high pressure isn’t doing my mood, my joints, or my sinuses any good, and I’m trying to get High Tide churned out when what I really want to do is hide in a dark room until all of this is over.
And that keeps getting yanked away. We were supposed to have temps in the 90s on Monday and Tuesday with some rain. The forecast is now back up to triple digits with no relief in sight until the middle of the month, if then (the only relief is that temps are supposed to top out at 100°F on 8/14, and that can easily change). So yeah, I’m not in the best of all possible moods.
It didn’t help that I went in for my follow-up with the oral surgeon (I had a gum biopsy done two weeks ago for some persistent gum irritation) and they still don’t have the report back from the pathologist. Neither the oral surgeon nor I think that this is anything serious—based on the placement of the gum irritation and my wacky immune system it’s far more likely that I’m having a reaction to the dental cement used to anchor the two crowns on those teeth—but it also means that I don’t know for sure. So that’s hovering at the back of my mind along with creeping dread of what our electrical bill will look like this month and other general financial concerns and yeah, not the most conducive environment for writing.
But I’m doing it anyway because that is my job and I need to keep my readers entertained. So Episode Three of High Tide will come out tomorrow on Vella, I’ll continue to edit Crystal Blade so that I can send it off to the editor, and I’ll keep glaring at the sun.
Rabbit Rabbit: August
Despite the fact that we have five more days of this hellacious heat I’m starting the month off feeling very chuffed, thank you very much. The pre-order for Crystal Blade is live at 99¢, I’ve posted the first episode of High Tide on Vella (before anyone gets upset lemme ‘splain—I’m releasing High Tide as a Vella serial novel, and when it’s done I’ll compile it and publish it as an ebook and print book. You can choose to read along, or you can wait for it to be published in late September, whichever you prefer), and my July Vella episode reads tripled from June so I should be getting a nice bonus.
I’m also going to kick off my official Patreon launch next week—I’ll have a Hidden Empire short story for all patrons, and higher levels will get free ebooks and free print books as they’re released. More on that once everything’s finalized.
The only sour note is that I can’t start on the audiobooks until this heat subsides. I’ll have to record in the master bath’s closet and it’s warm at the best of times. If I try to record in there now I will pass out from heat exhaustion. But they will be coming, I promise you that.
Aaaaand Crystal Blade Is Soup
Crystal Blade is officially done at a little over 95K, woohoo! I’ve set up a pre-order at Amazon and the official release date is August 29, 2023.
I feel very, very good about this. The story is a great mix of romance and intrigue, there are a nice number of spicy scenes, and I especially like the fact that Crystal hasn’t fallen into insta-love with all of her guys. Anton was the first, then Erik in this book, and her affection for Basil, Marco, and Fallon is teetering on the verge of love by the end of the book. Considering that it’s set in a world with elemental magic, Muses, and the whole “it takes three men to get a woman pregnant” thing, there’s still a sense of being rooted in reality, which pleases me.
While Crystal Blade is cooling I’m getting to work on High Tide today. I told my subconscious to work out the plot last night and I woke up with a rough outline that I can refine. I will give you two words: boarding party. Heh, heh, heh.
Oh, and I’m going to go see Barbie because I deserve a treat for finishing Crystal Blade, tra la.
Nicola Cameron Writes 