Danika Dinsmore

Storyteller

ruins of noe

Children’s Book Week: Ides of May White Forest Extravaganza

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Next week, Children’s Book Week, is going to be a pretty exciting all around in White Forest land.

First, I’ve joined a BLOG HOP, which I don’t often do. But it’s a Blog Hop Giveaway during Children’s Book Week, so how could I turn that down?

CBW-Kid-Lit-Giveaway-Hop-2014-Banner-FINAL-1024x296

Never Blog Hopped before? Basically, you go to a list of blog links from authors, book bloggers, and others who are GIVING PRIZES AWAY all at the same time (who doesn’t like prizes?). And you hop from one to the next adding your name to the drawings. If you like children’s lit, what have you got to lose?

The hop runs from Monday, May 12 through Sunday, May 19, so you’ve got plenty of time to get around to all the blogs. And you’ll need it, because as of this morning, there are 93 blogs participating! That’s 93 chances to win.

 

new covers for website

 

ALSO NEXT WEEK:

Hydra House is RELAUNCHING the first two books in the White Forest series with NEW COVERS! Thanks to Christian Fink-Jensen, and his mad typography skillz, the books have a bright and poppy new look to them.

In celebration of this relaunching, the ebook version of Book One, Brigitta of the White Forest, will be FREE on Amazon from May 14-16 next week. So, if you haven’t gotten your copy yet, now’s your chance.

ALSO, the ebook of Book Two, The Ruins of Noe, will only cost $2.99 from May 14 – 31. (then it goes back up to $4.99, which is still a pretty good deal).

IN ADDITION (Wait, you say, there’s more??), on MONDAY, MAY 19, the publisher will release an ebook COLLECTION of all THREE books for $7.99. So, even if you miss the free Book One window, you can get an excellent deal for all three books at once.

It’s all part of the (cue booming / echoing voice)…

CHILDREN’S BOOK WEEK:
IDES OF MAY WHITE FOREST EXTRAVAGANZAAAAAAA

 

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Middle Grade Monday: The Ruins of Noe!

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Yes, I’m blogging about my own book today, darnit! 🙂

I figured it was appropriate since today is the first day of my Imaginary Worlds Fall Tour in conjunction with the release of The Ruins of Noe. The book was actually published in May, but I had to postpone the tour for scheduling reasons.

In The Ruins of Noe, Brigitta’s adventures continue when she and her High Priestess travel to the old faerie ruins in the Valley of Noe, expecting to find them deserted. The Ancients had brought all the faeries north after the Great World Cry and placed them in the protected realm, after all. But when Brigitta and Ondelle arrive, they discover two warring factions of oppressed faeries they had never been told about. After Ondelle is captured, Brigitta must figure out who she can trust, so she can figure out a way to save her high priestess and get back home.

There are some reviews on GoodReads if you want to check them out.

My tour (yay) revolves around several school visits, a writer’s conference, and a book festival. I only have one public reading, though, and it’s at Kepler’s in Menlo Park, CA. So, if you live in the Bay Area, holy cow, that would be awesome to meet you.

Friday, October 26
7 pm
Book Party (reading, drinks/snacks, activities and door prizes!)

Kepler’s Books and Magazines
1010 El Camino Real
Menlo Park, CA

Facebook Event Listing

I am so, so, so in love with this store and its staff. And I haven’t even met them yet. This store was SAVED by its community when it was about to go out of business. The community raised the money to save it and made commitments to shop there regularly.

Have a great week!

Danika

Free Days Are Here Again

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A few months ago we did some experimentation with Amazon’s free ebook program. After some research and speaking to those who have gone before us, my publisher and I decided to try it again, this time for two days.

When you sign up for the KDP program, you can have up to 5 free days in a 90 day period. During that time, your ebook is exclusively on Amazon.

Now that everyone seems to be jumping on the free ebook promo bandwagon (on Amazon and elsewhere), the interweb seems awash in free ebookness. It makes me wonder if the market will get oversaturated and the free campaigns will cease to have the same affect. Hmmm.

How many free ebooks do you actually download? Of those, how many do you read? I may not be the best person to contemplate this, as I’m still primarily a hard copy reader.

I will post more hoohah and stats after we complete this second free campaign.

In the meantime, please pass the word!

The Ruins of Noe ebook will be free for TWO DAYS on Amazon.

Starting 12:00 AM PST Friday, July 6 (approximately)
and running through 11:59 PM Saturday, July 7

You can download your free ebook version from Amazon HERE.

Don’t have a kindle you say? Neither do I. You can still read download and the book. There are several free kindle apps you can use for iphone, ipad, android, blackberry, internet browser, windows, mac. I’ve read books off my iphone, in the cloud, and on my computer.

New Ruins of Noe Promo Video

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As much as I love our Book One trailer, there was no way we could pull off another live book trailer. Just didn’t have the time or resources and if you’ve read the second book, the world is SO different it would have been quite the SFX challenge.

So, my filmmaker friend Mauri came up with a different idea, which is what you see below. Not quite as exciting as a live action version, but it does the trick. 🙂

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUlvIUMWDXA]

Last Leg of the Blog Tour and Weekend Workout

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There are four more stops on my blog tour on four great blogs. Reviews, Interviews, and Guest Posts.

Guest Post Today (May 11) on 4 AM Writer
I love Kate’s enthusiasm for all things writing.

Review/Interview Saturday, May 12 on Dead Houseplants
I snorked my coffee when I *got* that blog title. Oh, how I relate.

Guest Post Monday, May 12 on Just Deb
Deb is a great supporter of children’s writers and is a writer herself.

Interview on Wednesday, May 16 on Morgen Baily’s Writing Blog
One stop shopping for reviews, interviews, guest posts, podcasts, flash fiction and more.

And now to the Weekend Workout…

I’m in this odd in between writings stage at the moment. I still have not finished my Character – Action Workout series, but I’m not in that space right now, so maybe next Friday.

I just completed the final draft on INTERGALACTIC and am querying agents with it. I now have to get back into writing Book Three of the White Forest series, which my publisher probably wants to see by the end of the summer.

How does one step back into something that she hasn’t been working on for several months? Especially when it’s part of a larger series?

It’s time for the Fall Back Exercise.

This is the one I turn to several times in the process of writing a story. It’s useful at the beginning, at the end, during rewrites, for writer’s block, and for writing synopses. It’s the aspirin of writing exercises.

THIS STORY IS ABOUT . . .

When I sent my Intergalactic query letter to my critique partner she wrote back that I hadn’t really told her what the story was about. But wait, I had summarized all the main points of action. The problem is the main points of action are NOT what the story is about.

There’s the THING your protag MUST do or else THIS BAD THING will happen. But there’s also the emotional arc to the story.

For example, in Intergalactic, idoLL must figure out how to save her band mates and Princess Tarantella or there could be an interplanetary war. But her emotional arc is that she’s got to face her own possible cultural insignificance, swallow her pride, and partner up with her nemesis in order to save the day.

She risks losing her fame when it’s all she thinks she has. She risks losing her fame when it’s her entire identity. She doesn’t know who she is beyond the character she plays. Jettison is everything she isn’t and her instinct is to destroy her, not to rescue, defend, or befriend her. IdoLL does all three.

Now all I have to do is figure all this out for Ondelle of Grioth. Book Three (!) in the Faerie Tales from the White Forest series.

YOUR WORKOUT:

Set your timer for 5 minutes.
Start at the top of the page with the following startline:

1) This is a story about …

Write, don’t stop, don’t edit, don’t cross out.

When the timer stops, Set your timer for 7 more minutes.
Start with the following line: 

2) In this story, a boy/girl/animal must . . .

Write, don’t stop, don’t edit, don’t cross out.

When the timer stops, Set your timer for 10 more minutes.
Start with the following line: 

3) My protagonist makes his/her greatest sacrifice when . . .

Write, don’t stop, don’t edit, don’t cross out.

Read your exercises, make notes, highlight what makes sense.

Happy Weekend!

KDP and Book Launch Social Media Campaign Hoohah

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A few of you asked if I would post about what I did to promote my free ebook campaign, which I thought was pretty successful. It exceeded my expectations, to say the least. There were a total of 2,848 downloads and we hit #1 in free fantasy ebooks that day.

It was done through Amazon’s KDP program. I’m not entirely sure how it all works as I did not set this up, my publisher did (if you want to know about THAT process, I could probably get him or author Jennifer Munro to do a guest post about it).

I know KDP / Amazon wants exclusive ebook distribution for 3 months. I know you can get up to 5 free days in those 3 months. We had some technical difficulties the week our book was uploaded, so figure this out early if you’re set on a specific free day.

I think a lot of factors go into the success of your campaign, from what day of the week you schedule your freebie to the genre of your book.  I would not have gotten the same response if I had done this at the launch of my first book. I didn’t know as much about the industry, I didn’t have as much internet presence back then, didn’t have as many fans or as many FB followers . . . you get the picture. So be patient and let your presence grow. (BE the sunflower)

Here are some advantages you can give yourself
leading UP to your freebie day.

1) If you are working with a small press, they’re ultimately the ones who have to see the benefit of a free day.  My publisher is getting to be pretty savvy in this new age of publishing – it was actually HIS idea and I was the hesitant one. So if it’s something you have to present to your publisher, do your research (Read Chris Anderson’s essay on The Economy of Free). If you’re self-publishing, then just create the best possible book you can. There’s no advantage to giving a free book out before it’s ready. You want people to say, holy cow, I just got this amazing book for free!

2) Create an online presence. If you haven’t published a book yet, you can still create a facebook page for yourself as an author. Your friends and family will like the page and you can keep them abreast of anything like conferences you attend or readings you’re doing. If the book is ready to publish, create a page for the book in advance of publication. Always be gracious and thoughtful about how many announcements your post and to whom.

If you have a blog, join a blog community. Join one of the Platform Campaigns or a review group like Middle Grade Mondays or any other friendly space. Widen your circle of blog friends.

With both FB and blogging, you need to participate in the community for your own site to grow. Throwing words up on a virtual page does nothing for anyone else. Invest time in finding like-minded bloggers, exchange experiences and advice. Be of service to each other.

3) Other sites: GoodReads, Amazon, Yahoo Groups, LinkedIn, WAE, NaNoWriMo – all these sites have forums for writers. One of my pet peeves is when people only jump in on forums to advertise their books and don’t invest in other people. Join and participate in a few forums before your books come out.

You don’t have to use them all. Join the forums that interest you so it’s fun. I use GoodReads and Yahoo Groups more than the others and am in four different Sci Fi / Fantasy forums and three children’s authors groups. I try to check in as much as possible, but it’s easy to get distracted!

In the Months before Free Day

-My publisher used Lightning Book Promotions to create a blog tour that spanned the week before and after my launch. Stormi is fairly new and very energetic about the work she does for writers. You can set up your own blog tour, of course, but I’m so glad I didn’t have to do that on top of everything else. The blog tour started the buzz going about the book.

I did add on three more bloggers of my own to the tour after Stormi had booked the first 10 or so. If there are blogs your love or frequently visit, go ahead and ask them if they’d like to be a stop on your tour. Most bloggers are looking for things to write about or for fun guests on their blogs.

-If I had my act together, I would have advertised on these sites: Pixel of Ink, Ereader News Today, and ebookswag.com (unfortunately, I learned about them too late)

5 DAYS before Free Day:

-I created an “event” on Brigitta’s FaceBook page and invited all the people I thought not only might be interested in a free ebook, but might help me pass along the message. Some people don’t realize that an “event” can be virtual. I listed my FREE EBOOK DAY EVENT with a link to the book’s Amazon page.

-I checked in with GoodReads and Amazon forums to find appropriate places to post a free ebook note. Search GoodReads groups and Amazon’s forums. There actually groups and forums that are specifically for authors to advertise their free ebooks.

-I sent an email newsletter to my teacher/librarian list telling them about the free day.

-I had a note sent to all the bloggers on my blog tour and asked if they would please post something about the free day and share the info elsewhere (some did on FB, twitter, and GoodReads)

Day Before Free Day

-I posted announcements in my regular forums in GoodReads (YA and Sci-fi / fantasy forums) that I was offering the book for free the next day. Be careful in your GoodReads forums that you post in the appropriate section or you’ll irk the moderators. Things are usually pretty well marked, but you can always ask someone.

-I posted on my own blog, my yahoo group, and my LinkedIn group about the freebie. My publisher loaned me his Twitter account and I did a #freeebook tweet.

Free Day!

-I sent personal notes to my FB friends and family asking them if they would post the free book announcement on their own pages. I told them my goal was to get in the top 100 on the Fantasy downloads. My friends are great – I’m sure a few dozen of them forwarded my announcement and several mentioned me in FB posts. My friends are awesome. We all support each other this way.

-I kept a watch on the Amazon stats… which is a little obsessive, but it’s exciting and fun. I posted updates on Brigitta’s FB page.

REMEMBER – you have to find the balance between promoting yourself and being intrusive. There’s nothing wrong with promotion. People DO want to support you. Your friends and family and colleagues want to help. Just be aware of your intentions, participate, and be inclusive.

from Mike Howell @ constantly risking obscurity

I think that’s it. If you have any questions I’ll try to answer them. If it sounds like a lot of work, it is. But we’ve been selling 2-3 Ruins of Noe ebooks per day since the free ebook day, so I think, in the end, it will be worth it.

Middle Grade Monday – Free Love (Friday, May 4)

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NOTE: THE GLITCH AT AMAZON has been fixed. The Ruins of Noe will be available for FREE on Friday, May 4.

I have no post for MGM this week about another author’s work.

Launching a book turns my regimented (har-har) schedule on its head. But below I have Shannon Messenger’s list of MGM topics for this week, so please explore!

This week I’m dealing with my own MG book, The Ruins of Noe, which is Book Two in the White Forest Faerie Tales series. It officially launches tomorrow (May 1)  and I’m feeling ready for a nap.

As some of you know, my publisher is offering the ebook version of TRoN for FREE on Amazon the day of the launch. I spoke about the Economy of Free in my last post and it will be interesting to see what happens. I’m sure many of you would like to know . . . do free ebooks actually generate sales?

I’m guessing there are a lot of factors around this. How many fans an author has already, the genre, the marketing campaign, and whether the book is good or not. I’m sure a few writers have thought to themselves, “How are we supposed to make any money if we are now expected to give our work away for free?” To which I reply – – you’re not going to make any money at all if nobody knows who you are! 🙂

For the next few weeks, to celebrate the launch, I’ll be doing a blog tour. Some stops are reviews, some are interviews, some are guest posts. You can find the Schedule HERE.

I promise to have a fresh MGM material for next week. In the meantime, please visit the growing list of MGMers (reposted from Shannon Messenger’s site):

– The Mundie Moms- Click HERE to see their newest recommendations.

– The lovely Shannon O’Donnell always has an MMGM ready for you! Click HERE to see what she’s featuring this week!

–  Karen Yingling also always has some awesome MMGM recommendations for you. Click HERE to which ones she picked this time!

– Gina Carey is wondering at WONDER. Click HERE to see why she thinks you’ll be moved too.

– Joanne Fritz has an exclusive interview with author Jerry Spinelli–with a GIVEAWAY. Click HERE to read more.

– Barbara Watson is highlighting GLORY BE, with an author interview–and a GIVEAWAY! Click HERE for all the details.

– Michelle Isenhoff is raving about one of her childhood favorites: THE BLACK STALLION. Click HERE to learn why she still loves this classic.

– Brennan and Meyrick Murphy are marveling at PERFECTLY PERILOUS MATH–with an interview. Click HERE for all the fun.

– Gabrielle Prendergast is gushing about OUT ON A LIMB.  Click HERE to see why she loved it.

– Andrea Mack is cheering for a slightly younger middle grade, CINDERELLA (AS IF YOU DIDN’T ALREADY KNOW THE STORY). Click HERE to learn why.

– Michael Gettel Gilmarten is highlighting AMAZON: AN ULTIMATE ADVENTURE NOVEL. Click HERE to see what he thought of it.

– Riv Re joins the MMGM fun with a feature on THE DRAGON’S TOOTH. Click HERE to welcome her to the group!

– Chelanne Green is celebrating 11 BIRTHDAYS. Click HERE to see why.

– Laurisa Reyes is swooning over SHADOWS IN FLIGHT. Click HERE to see why she loved it

– Rosi Hollinbeck also joins the MMGM fun with a feature on NO-NAME BABY–with a giveaway! Click HERE for all the details.

– Julie from “That’s Swell” is back with a feature on THE MAPMAKER AND THE GHOST. Click HERE to see what she thinks!

The Economy of Free (i.e. Come and Get It!)

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Several years ago I was fortunate to hear Chris Anderson speak at a new media forum. His talk was on The Economy of Free and why this works, especially in our modern world, and why this is a good thing.

from Wired.com (click for source)

If you give something of quality away for free, you will gain trust, loyal customers, word of mouth, etc, etc. There’s more to it, but that’s the basic idea.

You’ll have more success if you reach the “tipping point” of society – which is where the early adopters’ enthusiasm pushes a product into the mainstream (the early majority). That tipping point is vital.

My publisher has been studying this phenomenon when it comes to e-books. Many e-books start off as free, or go free as a special campaign, to gain a reading audience. Amazon even has a special through Kindle Direct Publishing in which you give them 3 months of exclusive e-book rights, and they give you 5 promo days where you can offer your book for free. You can do them all at once, or over a period of time.

Hydra House is experimenting with this idea . . . using Ruins of Noe as a case study. The idea of this excites me, but also makes me anxious. It seems counter-intuitive to making a living as a writer. Even when I think about it logically, mathematically . . . let’s say 1,000 people download a free copy of Ruins of Noe. There are still millions of people out there who haven’t. Who may only hear about it because of one of those 1,000 people and word will spread.

So what am I afraid of, right? I guess the idea that after 1,000 people have downloaded it nothing happens. Word isn’t spread. Sounds silly when I say it, but I’m sure there are others like me out there who fret over these things, so there you go.

And I also have mixed feelings about Amazon. Sometimes I think they’re becoming a monopoly. They’ve cornered a big market, which is also a GOOD thing for writers. We can reach so many people through them. They’re publishing and selling the books, and they’ve also gotten into the film making business.

Regardless of this, it’s gonna happen.

So, here goes the OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT (sound the trumpets).

On MAY 1 Amazon will have a FREE download of The Ruins of Noe. One day only folks, so spread the word.

(note: ebook will be listed on Amazon starting May 1)

Now, Book One, Brigitta of the White Forest is still $4.99 on Amazon, so this will be interesting. Hydra House is going to look at two things, if Ruins of Noe is accepted and appreciated on its own (i.e. someone reading it who hasn’t read the first book), and if Book One sales (print and e-book) go up.

I will keep you posted because I think this is good information for small presses, authors, and self-published folks.

And, if YOU have any information from your own experiences, do share!

Ruins of Noe Blog Tour Starts April 23!

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And, we’re off!

I’ve got a few weeks of blog touring happening and if anyone wants to offer a stop on the tour, let me know. info (at) danikadinsmore (dot) com. I’m happy to do interviews, guest posts, giveaways – and, of course, reviews are always welcome.

All the below are reviews unless otherwise stated. I’m not sure if there any are giveaways, but I’ll let you know if there are.

(This Blog Tour was set up by Stormi at Lightning Book Promotions)

April

23rd Gina @ Behind a Million and one Pages

24th Jade @ Ink Scratchers

25th Phaedra @ Identity Discovery

26th Nikki McCarver @ Close encounters of the Night Kind (adult content on this site)

27th Elemillia @ Personal Literary Book Frenzy

28th Vidya @ Books Are Magic (guest post)

29th Nikki @ Pretty Opinionated

30th Anya @ House Millar

May

1st C. Lee McKenzie @ The Write Game (interview)

2nd Paula @ Book Stop Lover

3rd Crystal @ Inspire

4th Sheila @ Sheila Deeth (guest post)

5th Ana @ Book Spark

16th Morgen @ Morgen Baily (interview)

Wheeeee!

The new phone books are here! The new phone books are here! !

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THE NEW PHONE BOOKS ARE HERE! (<<– click me)
(heh ~ remember phonebooks?)

Okay, I lied. It’s not the new phone books. And I’m probably the only one who even gets that reference (It’s one of my favourite movie scenes ever. And that goes to show you just what kind of a dork I am).

But ~ yay ~ not new phone books. The Nice Purolator Man delivered these boxes instead. Books for a week of launch events around Vancouver. Freddy Suave is excited. He is so excited the green laser beams are going off in his eyes.

Book Two is even more fabulous than Book One on so many levels. Everyone is getting better at what they do, including me. But also, one novel could have been a fluke. I could have been the literary equivalent of Dexy’s Midnight Runners. But two books, I think that means I’ve passed some kind of test. There may even be a club membership involved.

This map by the fabulous Alison Woodward makes my heart happy. I’ve always loved maps, all kinds, and loved maps in books. I’d say I can even be map-obsessive. When I’m reading a book with a map, I’ll literally stop reading to reference the map and find out where the actions is taking place.

Exciting month ahead. Full of magic and adventure. I will do my best to maintain a regular blog schedule, but I can’t promise anything! If you want to tune into what’s going on regarding Brigitta and Noe, check out Briggy’s Facebook page or the White Forest website.