Hi Ink Drinkers,
One of my beloved readers on Quotev, MemeQueenoftheworld, was so delightful as to put this together to represent Veda in Hidden Library. The collage is called 'Witches of the Hidden Library'. There are so many excellent elements of the book that have been added to this beautiful arrangement.
In particular, I like the shot of the high heels at the bottom, so like the high heels of my imagination as I wrote the book. Of course, I love the open book with the black rose flower crown. The crystal ball is better than the one I pictured as I wrote the chapter with the crystal ball in the tea cozy by the front window (remember to keep those covered girls, cause if you don't, it could totally burn your house down). I also like the headless girl, like a disembodied dress with only hands to spin with, hands to write with. It's very lovely... like even the pictures are still in the first person. We can't see her face, we can only see everything around her. Very choice.
Let's give a huge round of applause for MemeQueen and her awesome vision of Veda!
Now, let's talk about If Diamonds Could Talk. Though my launch for it was a stinky failure. I can almost summon tears when I think about Booksprout. Anyhoo... it hasn't been a total waste as I received two splendid reviews for it on Amazon. Here they are:
"Well, once I finished the first book (His 16th Face) I thought I had a clue as to what the next book would be like but I was so wrong! Stephanie is an amazing writer! She has such an incredible imagination that she leaves me in awe at her writing! I was floored by what I read because it was not what I was expecting. The author had a way she weaved you into the story line and the chapters kept drawing me further into the story more. The book was not a typical love story but well worth your time in reading it. I enjoyed it and was shocked at several of the events that happened in the story. It's a great book!"
--DeAnn
--DeAnn
"The follow-up story for 'His Sixteenth Face", this novel has deeper fantasy elements than its predecessor. Doing so allows it to explore bigger themes of immortality, love, friendship, and oddly... damnation. I was captured by its simple but powerful ideas of how immortality and power can be achieved. Yet the heart of the story is about passionate love and the sacrifices required to achieve and sustain it. Beth's journey is a worthy read and If Diamonds Could Talk is a romance novel strengthened by the elements that set it apart. I appreciate that the author felt free to conclude the story on her own terms."
--Rob. S.
--Rob. S.
Those reviews really helped validate all the work I did on that book. Thanks to DeAnn and Rob S. for writing such powerful and kind reviews. Hearts for a week.
Moving on to Sleeping Prince. I've been posting my stats for it because it's been a long time since I posted a book on the free sites before the full book sites. I finished posting the book, so let's see how things worked out. Lowest to highest. Go!
#4. Quotev
I let my feathers get quite ruffled before I got angry enough to huff down to the bottom of the webpage to file a complaint. My complaint was that it was marked as an M-rated piece. Well, it wasn't! Grrr! They didn't even write me back. They just removed the M rating and we all lived happily ever after. Except I don't think the piece ever recovered from the M rating. There are a healthy number of views but it still clocks in at the lowest.
#3. Booknet
I have had quite a lot more reader feedback on Booknet than previously. Except this really hilarious/not hilarious thing keeps happening. I keep getting blocked from the site. I can just hear you in my head asking, "Why would that happen, Stephanie? You're always so nice when you talk to readers even if you're a complete cow elsewhere." Yes, I know. Here's the thing: if you post too much on one thread with too many tabs open, the system blocks you. So, even though all I'm doing is writing my fans and followers on my own book's thread, I'm still getting my butt kicked. I have been blocked four times on that site this week alone. I'm blocked right now because I can't NOT answer the readers. Dang! Comments are what we authors live for! When I'm blocked, no one can access my profile and my view stats stay the same until the admins extend the palm branch to me. Then I immediately fall for my readers all over again, write them back, and get blocked again. It's a vicious cycle.
#2. RoyalRoad
This site had the largest hit count for a really long time, but the story didn't seem to build momentum. I finished the story and no one seemed to notice... not even the people who were reading it. However, things can gain huge hit counts over years, so we'll do this again with maybe different results later on.
#1. Inkitt
Before I finished posting the book, I was a little cheesed at the lack of success on Inkitt. When I was choosing the cover for the book, I was flopping between one that would appeal to the readers on Inkitt and one that would appeal to the readers on RoyalRoad. I decided to go for Inkitt because there is no real reward for kicking butt on RoyalRoad, but there are publishing deals to be won on Inkitt. So, I was a little sad when the stats were better for RoyalRoad for the whole release period. When I marked Sleeping Prince as complete on Inkitt, the WORLD EXPLODED! The hit count there has eaten the hit count on RoyalRoad and now it has my second-highest hit count on Inkitt. Whenever You Want has the highest hit count, and yes, I got a publishing contract for it. Yes, that contract didn't last but it did represent some very sweet paycheques. The popularity has also had some very sweet overflow to my other books, getting some fresh notice for other things. Yay!
I'm gonna be straight with you. There haven't been that many wins this year, so to have things work out on Inkitt really meant a lot to me. Like... I was starting to wonder if doing any of this was really worth it. Today it feels less stupid than usual. For that, I am extremely grateful.
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