Stoked to share the new cover for Medar – Book One in my Realmshift Trilogy (ebook version). I’ve also uploaded it to Draft2Digital so it should be available in all sorts of online stores soon (21st July).
New cover for Medar!
Author: Sharon Manssen
A fantasy fan since being read 'The Hobbit' by her father at the fireside at the age of six, she has been an avid bookworm her entire life. When the idea for her current trilogy popped into her head, there was never any doubt that it would be in the fantasy genre. Unfortunately, real life gets in the way, and writing has to fit around her full-time job at a global engineering consultancy and family life (husband and two young adult children). It took ten years to pen her first book, Medar, which was a finalist for the Tom Fitzgibbon Award in 2015 and was published in 2017. Her second book, Tyrelia was nominated in the Young Adult Fiction category in the 2019 Sir Julius Vogel Awards. Her third book, Golden City, is due out in 2021.
SEO experiment
Disclaimer: I’m no expert when it comes to SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). But a few months ago I was researching top sellers in my genre for a new book cover, and I noticed something: many books had a bunch of extra information in their titles about their books. Like “Murder Mystery Thriller for teens”. Or “Dystopian fantasy with Fairies for men” (actually, I just made both of them up, but you get the point).
And I thought, hmm, I’m going to give that a go. So I adjusted the titles (on Amazon only – they’re still unchanged on the actual book cover) and added “(Teen & YA Christian Epic Fantasy Adventure)” on to all three of my titles (and linked them together as a series). Whammo! The very next day I made a sale. Then two more the following day. Then the following 2 months I also sold three trilogies each. This is without adjusting my adverstising campaigns at all!!
On the chart above, the recent spike in sales is due to that tweak. The other two peaks on the chart are when I released Tyrelia and Golden City respectively (Medar doesn’t show up because those sales were being passed back through to Arkhouse). Of all the little bars in between only about half are as a result from my advertising campaigns (i.e., pretty pathetic).
So, just thought I’d share my success story and I recommend you give it a try too!
Book 1 Medar – published August 2017. Click here to purchase.
Book 2 Tyrelia – published March 2019. Click here to purchase.
Book 3 Golden City – published November 2020. Click here to purchase.
I’m an NZSA Startwrite Manuscript Assessor!
The New Zealand Society of Authors (NZSA) offers members a number of benefits, one of which is discounted or subsidised manuscript assessments.
New authors should always get an manuscript assessment done on their work, but even more experienced authors will benefit from a second set of eyes. I actually didn’t even know about the NZSA Startwrite programme, until my writing friend Lee Murray told me about it. I was looking to improve my ability to mentor emerging writers and Lee suggested I apply to become a Startwrite assessor.
Embarrassingly, I thought it was about me receiving guidance on how to conduct manuscript assessments, but actually it’s a reduced (and therefore cheaper) version of a full-blown manuscript assessment!
However, I’m pleased to share that I’ve now conducted two assessments, and have received excellent feedback from the recipients. I’ve been able to provide some very robust feedack and helpful technical guidance. I guess that means that, over the last six years of having published three novels, and having been on the receiving end of numerous assessments and critiques of my work, I have learnt a thing or two!
So, if you’ve written your first draft and you’re wondering what’s next, I’d highly recommend a Startwrite manuscript assessment.
Book 1 Medar – published August 2017. Click here to purchase.
Book 2 Tyrelia – published March 2019. Click here to purchase.
Book 3 Golden City – published November 2020. Click here to purchase.
Guest Speaker at the Tairua Book Club
My lovely sister-in-law Brenda invited me to speak at her local book club while we were visiting recently. What a wonderful evening it was! The group is new and were so welcoming; it was a real privilege to be invited.
It did remind me though: you can’t write if you don’t read. So keep reading, people!
Book 1 Medar – published August 2017. Click here to purchase.
Book 2 Tyrelia – published March 2019. Click here to purchase.
Book 3 Golden City – published November 2020. Click here to purchase.
600 ‘sales’ milestone
Since releasing my first book in June 2017, I reckon I have just passed having 600 books ‘out there’. That includes both e-book and paperback formats across all 3 books. The reason I put ‘sales’ in quotes is because the numbers include books I’ve gifted or given away. Now, I realise that 600 is not a huge amount, especially if you average it over the nearly 5 years since I first published. But the last 12 months have been pretty useless, so they don’t count 🙂
It certainly has been more slow and steady than I would’ve liked, but hey, it’s all been a massive learning curve. And while I’m still learning it and enjoying the journey … well, I’ll keep going! Thanks for being part of my journey by reading this.
Book 1 Medar – published August 2017. Click here to purchase.
Book 2 Tyrelia – published March 2019. Click here to purchase.
Book 3 Golden City – published November 2020. Click here to purchase.