‘Sanguine’ Now on Libiro

I may have been busy working on my new Ark & Fable series of novellas, but I’m also determined to get my YA fantasy ‘Sanguine’ onto as many ebook sites as possible. (I do keep meaning to include Smashwords in that, incidentally, but it just looks more complicated than any of the other sites and I keep putting it off.)

Today I’ve added Libiro to the list, an ebook store dedicated to books by indie and small press authors. It’s a really nice site and very easy to use – and even provides a choice of ebook formats for readers – so I’d highly recommend it if you’re looking for something different to read this summer. It’s also been a pleasure to use as an author, which is always a plus!

So, without further ado: Sanguine, available now on Libiro, for your reading pleasure!

Free SANGUINE Review Copies!

It’s over a month now since I self-published my YA fantasy novel Sanguine (which you can read all about here). I might, at some point, do a post on my experiences of self-publishing and whether or not it’s been a success (short answer: a hesitant ‘yes’, but I think it’s incredibly difficult to do well in the short-term via self-publishing – being successful in the longer term, and building slowly up to it, is much more achievable).

It’s fair to say that I haven’t done everything I could to promote Sanguine, mostly because I haven’t exactly had a surfeit of time (see my last post for details of that). However, I’d really like to get Sanguine out there a bit more. More than that, I’d really, really like to start seeing some reviews. This, then, is my offer to my lovely readers:

I am giving away free copies of SANGUINE, in your choice of digital format. All I ask is that you post an honest review after you’ve read it.

And yes, it really is honest reviews I’m most interested in, though of course I hope no-one hates the book enough to throw their electronic device of choice across the room.

At this stage, I’ve keeping the giveaway fairly open. I don’t have a limited number of copies to give away (although if I get an absolute deluge of requests, I may cap the number). There’s no time limit on the giveaway. You can live in any country, and you certainly don’t have to be a professional reviewer or blogger. As for the reviewing: of course I can’t force anyone to read the book, let alone review it. However, if you read Sanguine and feel compelled to write a few short lines, on Amazon, Goodreads or your blog (or all three!), I will be hugely grateful. You’ll also go to the top of my list for free copies next time I release a book (and I hope to have at least one more novel and a novella out this year).

Interested? Leave a comment here or on Goodreads (where this post will also be going up), or send me an email at amy[dot]sanderson42[at]gmail[dot]com (replace the square brackets with the appropriate symbols, of course). I can’t promise I’ll get back to everyone immediately, as I’ll be absorbed in cooking breakfasts and making beds for at least the next few days, but I’ll do my best to reply as promptly as I can.

SANGUINE now on Kobo

I feel a little as if I’m spamming my own blog (if that’s even possible) with links to my new profiles and new ebook at the moment – until I remember that’s actually called self-promotion and it’s a) quite useful if you ever want to have any readers, and b) a perfectly legitimate thing to do on your own blog. But y’know, I’m both British and female, so actually talking about ‘something I’ve created’ in public makes me want to dive into the nearest hedge for cover.

ANYWAY. Enough of that. Here’s the news: you can now buy Sanguine for the Kobo! Hurrah! I absolutely adore my Kobo and would probably read everything on it if I didn’t have such an obsession with buying actual books (which I then feel obliged to read, for some strange reason), so it’s very exciting to be able to offer my novel on a device I love so much. This is also, as I mentioned in an earlier post, an alternative for those who are currently (or permanently) avoiding Amazon due to their shady tactics in the bookselling business. I’m not entirely sure whether the Kobo version will work on other e-readers, but it’s supposedly being sold as a DRM-free .epub, so I have a feeling it should (if I can confirm that either way, I’ll update this post).

If you’re a Kobo owner, though, and fancy a slice of YA fantasy replete with assassins, illusionists, necromancy and blood magic, please head over here. I think you might like what you find.

SANGUINE Now Available

After sitting on the ebook for several weeks whilst I got a few things straightened out, I decided it was time to take the plunge and make Sanguine available for sale. You can see the full details, including cover art and blurb, in my last post, but here’s that all important final piece: the buy link!

I’ll be starting the slow and steady process of sending Sanguine out to online reviewers over the next few weeks, but for anyone who’s been following this blog for a while and is interested in what I’ve been up to, there’s the end result. Unfortunately, it’s only available for the Kindle so far, as each book-selling website has its own file specifications and complex uploading process to make an ebook available. Rest assured though, I’ll be doing my best to bring Sanguine to as many ebook markets as possible ASAP.

So, there you have it: the culmination of a long and occasionally arduous journey. I’m not going to beg for sales, or indeed reviews, but I will say this: if Sanguine looks like your cup of tea, I would absolutely love you to read it, review it on Amazon, blog/tweet/post on Facebook about it. This has been a complete experiment from start to finish and I don’t have any real expectations about what happens next. My only hope? That a few readers out there love Sanguine as much as I loved writing it!

 

SANGUINE Cover Reveal

It’s finally here: time to show off the cover of my soon-to-be self-published novel, Sanguine. I’ve been sitting on this for a while now, contenting myself with posting about self-publishing in general, as the cover was finished some time before I actually got to the end of my final round of edits. Those edits are finally done, though, and with the ebook just about put together, I thought it was time to share a few details . First, that lovely cover:

 

 

It’s been a pleasure to see this cover image come together, from the early sketches to the finished piece. I should confess, at this point, that my partner happens to be a very talented artist and graphic designer, so having this cover prepared wasn’t the onerous affair it might have been – he simply read the book, came up with a few ideas, and produced this design. I think I made one or two minor suggestions, and that was that. (My partner has also formatted the ebook, which saved me a whole world of trouble as he already understands things like fonts and Photoshop. I genuinely wouldn’t have known where to start.)

So, there’s the artwork, but what about the story itself? Here’s the blurb:

Ebony, a necromancer and a sanguine, has spent her life being distrusted for her blood magic. Even in the godless, magic-driven city of Jianyi, sanguineus isn’t welcome. However, she might finally have found a way to prove herself as the student of Brand, Master of the Guild of Necromancers – until she discovers he really wants her as a human sacrifice, to summon a banished death god.

As Ebony seeks a way to stop him and protect the city’s other sanguines, she will come up against necromancers and demons, find allies in assassins and illusionists, and confront not just Brand, but the buried history of her own magic – and the power it could bring.

Sanguine has been a long time in the making, as I blogged about in an earlier post. It’s hugely exciting, then, to finally be able to release it into the world. In the end, this self-publishing endeavour is something of an experiment (the whole thing has, so far, been put together without spending a single penny), but it’s been an enjoyable one, and I can’t wait to see the results.

Spring 2014 Progress

It’s been a busy few weeks here in sunny Yorkshire (and it has genuinely been sunny recently!), but I’ve been writing feverishly at every opportunity. It’s about time, I think, to share my progress with my readers, particularly as I’m going to be releasing some actual original fiction (neither this blog nor my fan-fic for Chronicles of Tyria, which makes a change) into the big wide world very soon!

  • First up, we have Sanguine. Way back in January, when I first talked about self-publishing, I referred to this novel as the YA fantasy that ended up 20k words too long. This is going to be my first self-publishing experiment – prepare yourselves for necromancy, blood magic, demons and banished gods. I’ve completed my final edits, my designer has produced the cover art (more on that soon), the ebook is formatted, and I’m really, really close to being ready to go. The only hold-up? Redecorating our living room/office has meant my PC is packed away. More importantly, the PC of my designer (also my partner!) is in storage, which means the final tweaks to the ebook can’t yet be made. Soon, though! So soon!
  • Next there’s Star of the Everlasting, the first in a series of secondary world, dark urban fantasy novellas (or that’s what I’m calling them at the moment), about a pair of female ‘middlemen’ who form the hidden link between the criminals of their city and the people who are paying for crimes to be committed. This one has got ancient magical races, clifftop cities, and more shifty people engaged in shifty activities than you can shake a stick at. It’s also going to be my second self-publishing experiment, with at least two more novellas in the series to follow.
  • Finally, we have another novella that’s simply code-named Morrow. This one is still in progress, which means we can have something that hasn’t been seen on this blog in ages:

  • Yes, it’s a progress bar! And, as you can see, it’s coming along quite nicely. Morrow is a much more traditional Medieval fantasy, with knights, tournaments and lots of people poking swords at each other. All good fun. My plan is, again, to self-publish the Morrow series, which will eventually become four novellas which could just as easily form four parts of a novel; I may release it as both.

So, I’ve been busy! Sadly, that means reading and gaming have rather fallen by the wayside in recent weeks, but it’s been nice to make some significant progress in all my writing endeavours instead (and there are so many more to follow, including multiple novels that could be either YA or adult fantasy, and the two sequels to my novel that’s currently on submission). And having something concrete to show for it, and which I can show off to the world, is going to be even better!

How are things going in your writing world? Share in the comments, if you dare!