Author Spotlight Interview: K.T. Rose
By: Hidden Gems | Posted on January 31, 2023
Today’s interview is with horror author K.T. Rose. She shared a lot about her writing and the challenges she has overcome. It was a pleasure getting to know more about K.T.’s writing style, and life outside of writing! HG: How would you describe yourself to somebody who isn’t familiar with your writing yet? KTR: I write horror. All of it is on the darker side of the spectrum, so reader beware. HG: What feeling do you hope readers are left with when they finish one of your novels? KTR: There is hope on the other side of a tragedy and true life lessons can be learned through horrific experiences. HG: Ah, I love that. Could you tell us a bit about your publishing journey? How did you know you were ready to take on the “author” title? KTR: Back in 2016, I was dealing with some personal trauma and decided… Read More >
Amazon Attribution Provides Long-term KU Page Read Data
By: Ginger | Posted on January 27, 2023
Tracking individual sales that come from each advertising channel is incredibly useful, but if your book is enrolled in Kindle Unlimited, there is more to it than that. You might still be earning money without actual sales, when someone “borrows” your book and starts to read. In a way, KU borrows actually change how we have to look at how much our books earn from ads, because those page reads aren’t tied as closely to our ad run as more traditional sales. As Ginger reminds us, KU page reads mean your ROI doesn’t just stop at the end of your campaign. Using one of his own books as an example, Ginger takes us through the numbers to demonstrate how page reads can continue to pay dividends long after your ad run is over, and how attribution tags finally allow us to specifically track this metric. As you’ve probably noticed from… Read More >
Women’s Lit Books to Add to Your List
By: Hidden Gems | Posted on January 24, 2023
Did you resolve to read more books in 2023? According to Wikipedia, Women’s fiction is an umbrella term for women centered books that focus on women’s life experience that are typically marketed to female readers, and includes many mainstream novels. If you’re looking for books to add to your queue, take a peek at these titles our readers loved. Intersections by Poornima Manco With 20+ ratings and a 4.5 star average, Intersections follows four women from each individual perspective, exploring the depths and complexity of female friendships over time and through tragedy. Hollene G. writes in her five star Amazon review, “ Intersections took me on a very emotional read, my heart breaking for these young women, so much completely out of their control as they try and navigate both their friendships and life in general. It’s a beautiful book, well written, full of emotional highs and lows…” CheekyChiquita further… Read More >
The Dangers of Mixing Politics and Writing
By: Ginger | Posted on January 20, 2023
If you were to judge solely by the backlash so often seen erupting in social media these days, whenever an author gets too political in their writings, you might think that voicing those opinions was a new phenomenon. But in fact, writers have always used their work as a soapbox for their political leanings, we’re simply paying more attention to it now, with everyday readers finally having a place to sound off from when they agree or disagree with what they’ve read. That’s not to say that writers shouldn’t speak their mind or fill their work with messages about how they think the world should work, but it does mean that it should be done with care. There are many examples of big name authors that have alienated their fans and paid the price, but there are also those that have done it in a way that is embraced and… Read More >
5 Fantasy Authors to Check Out This Year
By: Hidden Gems | Posted on January 17, 2023
Each month we have the opportunity to interview the writers that bring awe-inspiring stories to your eReaders. From debut authors, to seasoned pros we’ve enjoyed getting to know these folks and learning about their inspiration and lives outside of writing. Today we’re pleased to bring you a round-up of five recent interviews with fantasy authors dedicated to bringing you stories full of wonder and imagination. Self-published and traditionally published authors face a lot of competition to be seen with well over 1 million books published every year, according to Bowker. Through the Hidden Gems ARC program, we’ve introduced readers to books in over 15 genres from authors of all walks of life, from just starting out to well seasoned pros. It’s been an honor connecting readers and writers through stories and feedback. The Hidden Gems ARC program is 100% free for readers. Each morning we send out offers for books… Read More >
What I’ve learned after spending over $100k with Facebook Ads
By: Matt Holmes | Posted on January 13, 2023
We write a lot of articles about advertising your book on the various platforms, along with what we believe are best practices and the tips we’ve learned along the way. But when it comes right down to it, nothing beats hard data from the field. Matt Holmes has made a career out of helping authors with their advertising, starting with the Fantasy novels written by his wife. His ad spend tops six figures, which has provided him with a lot of data to draw conclusions about what works and what doesn’t. After so much time and money spent advertising different books of different genres from a variety of authors, Matt has come up with a list of the five biggest lessons he’s learned about advertising self-published books on Facebook, and he’s sharing them with us today. Spending over $100,000 on anything is going to provide you with some HUGE lessons… Read More >
Romance Novels to Begin the Year With
By: Hidden Gems | Posted on January 10, 2023
Whether you’ve set a reading goal for the new year or not, we want to help you add to your TBR. If you’re a regular on the Hidden Gems blog, you’ll know that romance is the most popular genre in the Hidden Gems ARC program. Our readers know that no two love stories are the same, so they scoop up new books every chance they get. We’ve got one for everybody on this round-up of top rated love stories from recent months. Rescue Mission by Kendall Talbot With 150+ ratings and a 4.6 star average, Rescue Mission is the third in the four book Alpha Tactical Ops series. Talbot flips the script on most rescue romance tropes; this time, the heroine is the rescuer, and the hunk is in need of rescue in this thrilling military romance series. Sophia R. writes in her five star Amazon review, “Each entry in… Read More >
Are Apple and Google Screwing Over Self-Published Authors?
By: Ginger | Posted on January 6, 2023
As the titans of the internet duke it out for as much profit as they can squeeze out from each other, those of us just trying to earn a living selling our books are getting caught in the crossfire. If you’ve seen a drop in your book sales, digging a little deeper may help you figure out if recent changes are affecting you and give you some ideas on how to combat it. Ultimately, though, the only real long-term solution may be for the big companies to finally realize that their current path hurts everyone, and it’s better to have a smaller percentage of something than a larger percentage of nothing. Is Big Tech punishing small-time publishers with their exorbitant transaction percentage fees? This June, Amazon quietly made a decision to remove the “Buy Now” button for books in the Amazon Android app – something they’d done on their Apple… Read More >
Author Spotlight Interview: Bentley Turner
By: Hidden Gems | Posted on January 3, 2023
Being able to have a candid one on one conversation with an author is an absolute honor and for our first published interview of 2023, we had the opportunity to get to know mystery and thriller author Bentley Turner. Having written for most of his adult life, Mr. Turner shared with us details about his writing career and life outside of writing. If this is a new-to-you author, we hope you’ll consider checking out his stories. And if you’re already a fan, we hope you enjoy learning a bit more about the author! HG: Thank you for taking the time to chat with us. Let’s start with the basics. How would you describe yourself to somebody who isn’t familiar with your writing yet? BT: I write short stories and primarily mysteries or thrillers. So far, I have written The File on Thomas Marks, a police procedural; The Prize Winners and… Read More >
