Saturday, December 23, 2017

Reflections on 2017 - My Year as an #Indie #Author


Reflections on 2017

What did I accomplish as an author in 2017?  My activities are divided into Writing Progress and Book Marketing. 

Writing Progress:

I began the year by updating my series, Grand Masters’ Galaxy and Secret Supers with new covers. Also, I published two box sets: 
 Trilogy

Grand Master’s Trilogy includes the first three books in the series, Grand Master’s Pawn, Grand Master’s Game and Grand Master’s Mate.

 Secret Supers

Secret Supers box set includes: Super Starrella, Starrella Falls, and Gargoyle Hunt.

This year, I published three new works: Comet Tales, Cosmic Rift, fourth book in the Grand Masters’ Galaxy, and Europa, the first book in a new series, Taxyon Space.

Comet Tales
I published an anthology of four short stories and a novella, with the theme of science fiction romance. Two of the short stories had never been published before.
Trudge over the rocks of Mars, trek through a hazardous alien jungle, or pop across the galaxy in a pirate ship in five fun tales of adventure and romance.

 Comet Tales

Gifts of Jangalore - Short story set in the Grand Masters’ Universe.
Empath Rosa Spruce and Psi Master Varan seek an ancient site within an alien jungle. 

Stranded on Illumina - Jacie’s plan to meet her boyfriend on the resort Planet Illumina is scuttled when he skips their date.

Lonely Hearts on Mars - Love blossoms from disaster in this short story set in the near future.

Super Christmas - A short story about the Secret Supers.
Estelle invites Toby to her family’s Christmas dinner.

Captured by the Hawk - A Space Opera Novella. Spaceships crash across the galaxy in the comic misadventures of spy Grey Kat and pirate Black Hawk.

Available at  Amazon  iBooks  Kobo  B&N  GooglePlay


 Cosmic Rift

Cosmic Rift, Grand Masters’ Galaxy Book 4
Empath Violet embarks on a new and desperate mission to find her missing lover.
Violet’s happy family is shattered when Athanor Griffin vanishes. The formidable Grand Master might have teleported anywhere in the galaxy. Violet strives to find her psychic partner, while looking after their baby and fulfilling his duties on the Council. Her frantic search uncovers a new threat to galactic civilization along with resurgence of the infamous Ixioth slavers. The Council dithers in response to her call for action, and even her former allies believe the Griffin is dead. She must risk her son, her psi-powers, and her life to rescue her beloved mate in the hope they can unite to fight the menace.

Available at  Amazon  iBooks  Kobo  B&N  GooglePlay


 Europa

Europa, Taxyon Space Book 1
Dr. Nikki Bell’s plan to discover intelligent life in the oceans of Europa hits a rocky start when her spaceship crashes on the icy surface. Seconds before she blacks out, she spies a man’s face in the water beneath the ice. When she wakes on the submarine Station, nobody believes her story. Convinced the mysterious stranger saved her life, Nikki searches for him while she explores the ocean and its alien inhabitants. 
Kiron Arqin Ramis chose exile as a Watcher on a remote outpost to redeem his family’s honor. He never expected to find an attractive Earther woman close to death. He violates the prime policy by rescuing her. Despite suffering the penalty, he strives to warn her about his hostile leaders.
Nikki’s unexpected meeting with Kiron triggers a chain of disasters in Europa’s perilous oceans. Can the daredevil scientist and scarred Watcher forge a new alliance despite their people’s antagonism?  

Available at  Amazon  iBooks  Kobo  B&N  GooglePlay


Marketing my Books
Newsletter: I put a major effort into expanding my newsletter subscribers. My book magnets range from previews and short stories to novellas and the first novel in Grand Masters’ Galaxy. My newsletters include tidbits about my new stories, my free and discounted books, new releases, special deals and giveaways by other authors. Generally, I send two newsletters a month and have a corresponding boost in sales of my new releases or discounted books.

Paid and free promotions: Selling books is an uphill battle. I participate in newsletter swaps for my books, and cross-promotions with other authors, especially in science fiction, fantasy and romance.
My sales have seen an uptick from promotions with Book Barbarian, Bookdoggy, Reading Deals, People Reads, AuthorsXP, and Free Kindle Books & Tips. Unfortunately, however, none of my paid promotions has given a positive return on investment.
Recently, my box set, Grand Master’s Trilogy, was accepted for an international BookBub on Dec 27th. I’m hoping this will generate enough sales to cover my costs and increase international interest in my stories.

Social Connections:
My twitter followers have grown to >9000. http://www.twitter.com/AuroraSpringer
I have more than 1750 followers on my Facebook Page.
I created a new website to highlight my books: http://www.AuroraSpringer.org

 My Books

Find a catalog of my published stories HERE.
Join me on Facebook  Twitter  Google+

You can find my books on BookBub and my posts on travel, nature and my stories at http://AuroraSpringer.blogspot.com  


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2 comments:

  1. You've been busy. Sounds like you have a good balances between writing/production and promotion.

    ReplyDelete