Opinion time. How important is location in a book? #readers #readingcommunity

Posted on May 4, 2021 by suzannerogersonfantasyauthor

I’m running a twitter opinion poll this week all about the location of novels and if they have an impact on whether you buy / read a book or not.

I’m interested because The Mermaid Hotel Romance Series is set in the fictional seaside town of Lowenporth in England. I’m using a particular county for inspiration, but so far I have avoided mentioning it in the books. It seems like a cliché to use the same locations as so many other novels, but I don’t want to put off readers who expect to know where stories are set. I also wonder if I could be missing out on a market of readers who are drawn to read anything set in a particular county.

This is where you can help me by sharing your opinion in the poll, commenting on this post and sharing this to get as much exposure as possible. Or even email me if you don’t use other forms of social media.

Question for all #RomanceReaders #bloggers #reviewers #amreadingromance #bookbloggers #bookreviewers #romanceauthors #readingcommunity
When you choose a romance novel are you influenced by the geographic location, even if it's set in a fictional town?
— Suzanne Rogerson (@rogersonsm) May 3, 2021

I’d love your help and to know your thoughts. And who knows, maybe your opinion will influence my whole book series.

Thanks for reading and voting.

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Suzanne Rogerson – Author of epic fantasy and heart-warming romance

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Call for #audiobook #reviewers for #epicfantasy Visions of Zarua #swordandsorcery

Posted on July 31, 2019 by suzannerogersonfantasyauthor

UPDATE 5pm 31/07/2019 – The blog tour is now full, but reviewers are still wanted! Please contact me directly.

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There is just one space left in the October blog tour run by Rachel’s Random Resources. If you love audiobooks and fantasy with mystery, why not give Visions of Zarua a try?

If you are not lucky enough to get on the tour, contact me direct and I can send you a free download code. All I ask in return is for an honest review to be posted on audible and amazon. The codes are for UK and US reviewers only, sorry about that.

Check out all the great reviews of the book so far on Amazon. You can listen to a sample of the audiobook, which showcases the skills of the narrator in bringing my characters to life.

Here’s a taste – ‘Suzanne Rogerson has crafted a novel with a mix of fantasy, mystery, and magic. The story is told from two timelines, 350 years apart. There wasn’t any point in the story where I felt confused. I knew where we were in the story the entire time, and I couldn’t put it down. This is full of choices and secrets, with flawed and well-developed characters. The magic system is unique, the world building is top notch and the mystery is intriguing. I highly recommend checking Visions of Zarua out!’ – JESSICA BELMONT – 5 STAR AMAZON REVIEW.

You can also buy the audiobook on itunes or audible where it’s free to listen to with your monthly credit.

Not an audible member but fancy a free 30 day trial? If you use the link below to join and listen to Visions of Zarua as your first book, both myself and the awesomely talented narrator Guy Barnes will receive a small reward.

UK readers – Audible link

US readers – Audible link

French readers – Audible link

German readers – Audible link

Blurb

Two wizards, 350 years apart. Can they save the realm of Paltria from Zarua’s dark past?

An ancient darkness haunts the realm of Paltria.
Apprentice wizard Paddren is plagued by visions of a city on the brink of annihilation. When his master dies in mysterious circumstances, the Royal Order of Wizards refuses to investigate.
Helped by his childhood friend, the skilled tracker Varnia, and her lover Leyoch, Paddren vows to find the killer.
The investigation leads Paddren down a sinister path of assassins, secret sects and creatures conjured by blood magic. But he is guided by a connection with a wizard from centuries ago – a wizard whose history holds the key to the horror at the heart of the abandoned city of Zarua. Can Paddren decipher his visions and save the Paltrian people before the dark menace of Zarua’s past is unleashed?

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Suzanne Rogerson – Author of epic and heroic fantasy

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Day 6 recap Silent Sea Chronicles #blogtour #fantasy #bookreview

Posted on June 27, 2019 by suzannerogersonfantasyauthor

This is a quick recap of the reviews that came in on Day 6 of the blog tour.

A couple of new reviews for The Lost Sentinel

Mai’s Musings – ‘The Lost Sentinel is a rich storyline told from various viewpoints, and as I tried to work out how these would all intertwine over the course of the books, I found I was asking more and more questions, and reading faster and faster. It is the sort of book that you want to read slowly so it doesn’t end, but at the same time you can’t help but race through.’

The Treasure Within Blog – ‘Tei is a resilient character, but not a perfect person, by any means. She makes numerous mistakes and bad choices, and is forced to deal with the consequences of her actions. It’s refreshing to read a character who’s author really wasn’t afraid to supply with flaws – and it makes Tei feel much more realistic overall. In the writing world, a very focused- on fact is the necessity of providing characters with flaws – and I think Suzanne Rogerson has done a stellar job of it.’

The Sentinel’s Reign – book 2 in Silent Sea Chronicles also hit the spotlight with reviewers.

Jessica Belmont – ‘What I love about The Sentinel’s Reign is that it doesn’t struggle from “middle book syndrome.” The plot is great, the characters are developing, and this doesn’t feel like just a bridge from book one to book three!’

PageFarer Book Blog – ‘I said in my last review that Rogerson is good at writing bad guys; this is still the case but another thing to add to that is the depiction of injustice – something that always gets to me in the real world, and the unfairness of which I found was genuinely affecting me at times.’

The Treasure within – ‘A small character from the first book was picked up again in this narrative, and expanded into a more main member of the cast. She was honestly one of my favourites throughout the book – a young but powerful magic-wielder, with uncanny senses and the kindest of hearts. She stole my heart, and I hope to read more of her in the third book!’

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Thanks very much to the reviewers on this tour, you’ve made this last week awesome!

There are still a few more days on the tour to go so I hope you can join me again.

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Each book in the series is only 99p for the duration of the tour.

The Lost Sentinel

The Sentinel’s Reign

The Sentinel’s Alliance.

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Suzanne Rogerson – Author of epic and heroic fantasy

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#WWWblogs – My 2nd KDP Select update on Ads, Giveaways & a review request #indie

Posted on September 20, 2016 by suzannerogersonfantasyauthor

I had some great responses to my post a few weeks ago about my experience 1 month into Kindle Select. See original post here. There were many people who were struggling with it like me, and others who had advice to make the experience work better for you.

Here’s a quick update of my findings:

Stick with KDP Select – Most people believe KDP is the best place to sell your indie books as Kindle is the highest retailer of ebooks.
You still have to do ALL the marketing yourself – I had been naïve enough to think that once you went with Select, they would promote your book to all their unlimited subscribers.
Reviews – Once you hit a certain amount of reviews, Amazon does start to help you with promotion. This is one I’ll be looking out for with interest once I hit that magical number, whatever it is!
Countdown Deals – You can run them in the UK & US at the same time, but not if you put in different starts dates as I did. You NEED to promote Countdown deals yourself. Pay to advertise your sale on the many different book ad sites out there. I haven’t used any paid ad sites myself, but will be looking into this option. Any one have any recommendations?
5 Free book days per enrolment period – Best to do when you have more than one book published. Others have reported success with lots of downloads on their free days, and if it can help get those sought after reviews, all the better. I may hold off setting up my free days until my next book comes out though. Don’t forget to advertise.
Free Copies to reviewers – This one was a real issue for me, but I have since heard back from Amazon who stated a free copy of a physical product is permitted if the author states they welcome positive and negative feedback, and the reviewer states a free copy was received in exchange for an honest review.
Other ad options – There are other marketing options to try with KDP Select – I’ve set up several ad campaigns.

Sponsored products – You only pay when someone clicks on your ad, which is shown on the Amazon website when your selected key words are searched for. I’ve had this running a while and according to them I’ve had over 3k impressions but only 3 clicks. So far this hasn’t resulted in sales, but maybe the people who have seen the book cover a few times will get intrigued enough to click on it and find out more.

Product Display – This is where your book will appear on people’s kindles and Amazon.com when they search certain genres. I held off with this as you have to set a minimum budget of $100, but they only start billing you when people start clicking on your ad. Mine only went live today so I don’t know if it will help with sales.

And finally the big news, I’ve just set up my first ever Amazon.com Giveaway. Anyone in the US can enter for a chance to win my paperback. I’ve set it that they have to follow me on Amazon.com so we’ll see if anyone is interested and if this will help me get more coverage in the US.

If you’re in the US and want a chance to win a paperback copy, please check out the link here.

A note of caution for those wanting to set up an amazon giveaway – as per the set up rules the details cannot be changed once submitted. I misunderstood what the Welcome message was, I assumed it was once someone had clicked to enter. But it appears with the ad so would be much better suited as the blurb or tag line of the book. Now I have to plug my giveaway, the whole time feeling like a fool for getting something else wrong. (This indie author learning curve is a steep one, and never seems to end!)

UPDATED 4.40pm 20th Sept 16. I don’t understand the Amazon giveaway. It closed after less than an hour and a winner has been picked after only 57 entrants. I set it up to be 1 winner in 100. The upside is now I can redo it without my mistake on the Welcome message, not allow everyone to share the giveaway, set it up to have a higher amount of entrants. The downside is, I have to pay for another giveaway already, I thought this one would last a week!

Now over to you – Have I inspired you to try Kindle Select, or put you off trying it altogether? Have you any findings to share or tips on improving sales whether through KDP Select or other means? Maybe you’ve made some mistakes you’d like to share. I’d love to hear your views.

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Finally my cheeky request.

I’m looking to reach that magic number of reviews on Amazon, I’ve read that it could be 20. I have 14 great reviews so far, and I’m really hoping to reach 20 reviews by the end of the year. I’ve been researching book reviewers and will be contacting some over the next few days, but I thought I’d also put the request out to you guys. If any of you are book reviewers and are interested in reading Visions of Zarua, please get in touch in the comments or via my ‘contact me’ page.

I’m also willing to take part in Q&A sessions and author interviews if anyone would like to feature an indie author on their blog.

I’ll leave you with the Amazon link here if you want to find out what the book is all about. Obviously its free if you’re a Kindle Unlimited customer (Amazon suggested I tell reviewers that!).

Thanks for reading.

#AtoZChallenge R – Reviewers

Posted on April 21, 2016 by suzannerogersonfantasyauthor

This is my chance to say a big thank you to all those who review books.

Indie Authors rely on you to help our books stand out from the masses. You give us your time, and post about us on your blogs.

I would like to give a special thanks to those I have connected with and who have been kind enough to review my book, or interview me over the last few months. These are links to their homepages if you want to check them out.

Into another world (hosts author interviews and novel excerpts).

Also let me say thanks to all those book purchasers out there who take chances on unknown authors and post their reviews on Goodreads and Amazon etc. Indie authors wouldn’t get noticed without your help.

Indie authors have you thought of the benefits of reviewing? It’s good to give something back, good to understand books from a readers perspective and good to get involved in the book reviewing community. Plus the more you get involved, the more great books you will discover.

I’ve actually taken my first steps into reviewing, but I am only doing it on a very small scale. I find it hard enough fitting in reading, writing, blogging, and all the boring stuff of every day life. As well as reviewing the books I’ve enjoyed on my own TBR pile, I’ve also joined Rosie Amber’s Book Review Team #RBRT. They are a supportive bunch of writers / reviewers, and I know that Rosie puts in a lot of effort to help authors get reviews. So thanks very much for all your hard work Rosie, and for allowing me to join you.