Ruby Allure's Books

Ruby Allure's Books
Ruby Allure's Books
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts

Saturday, 8 October 2016

Do you find it difficult to ask for help?

Do you find it a challenge to ask people for help? Do you have to be able to do everything by yourself? Now let me share a little insight with you? People do actually like to help. I know... It was a revelation to me too. For some reason we think that we have to do everything alone, strive to demonstrate how great we are by 'going it alone.' The thing is - is it fun to go it alone? Erm no!




So what makes me  bring up this subject? Well it is something I noticed lately... When I first started writing books I was so proud that I had done it all by myself. Of course that is where my ego came in... I was 'so special' because I could write, design and edit. I made the cover, did the editing and basically created the whole bookie product alone. It was a great learning process; however, over time I realised that actually I wasn't the one who could do everything perfectly. I enjoyed writing a story; yet, working with an editor, an expert proof-reader, a proper designer and then audio producers was a far greater pleasure than going it alone. Everyone had developed their skills and was a specialist in what they did.  What's more, I realised that I liked my friends being involved in my creations. I asked them if they would like to give feedback or make honest reviews.  That is where I asked for help. I asked for honest feedback and for them to let others know about my new books. Also each one knew that it was not an expectation and I always gave them the option to say no.


In years gone by I would have never have done that. What is it that stops us asking? Is it because we think it is an inconvenience? Is it a sense of pride? What is the worst that can happen? Someone can say no and that it it! From that simple little step, I realised that I really liked helping others too. When people asked me for help I felt priviledged to be asked and to be able to give that help. There are even times when I actually ask people if they need help - imagine that taking place in current times. Of course there are people who take advantage and milk the need for help and that is when you have to be able to say no too. However, once you develop discernment and learn to work out who is genuine and who is not then it becomes a pleasure to help out.


So with this in mind, I would love to say a huge thanks to all of those who have helped me of late. It seems I didn't even need to ask because they all offered.



Monday, 26 September 2016

It seems that Hairy legs can capture people's imaginations!

I don't mean to go on about this today; however, I am sooo excited. Another amazing review and suddenly people are beginning to write to me about this book. Last night saw a surge in sales because I released an Amazon advertising campaign. In truth I never thought that hairy legs would capture people's imaginations.

Here is the latest review for the audio version:

Format: Audible Audio Edition
"The Hairy Legged Mystery" is a fun story that keeps the reader guessing to figure out to What or Whom the hairy legs belong! After the suspense builds and builds keeping young readers hooked and highly entertained, at last all is revealed in a satisfying and oddly edifying manner. This book has a creative plot premise and is easy for a child to comprehend and enjoy. The characters are all well defined and I thought Lisa Hicks did a great job of bringing them to life using her considerable talent as an audio book reader. My daughter and I both loved listening to the book more than once on Audible and would like to commend both Author and Reader for their successful efforts putting together "The Hairy Legged Mystery." We are looking forward to more from this talented twosome!
Felix Winters

I will be honest after going through the redundancy process for  the last three months, to have such positive feedback on your writing is really appreciated. You know what I am hoping.... yes you have guessed it - that my sales increase to the state where I can work as a full time author... I never thought I would say that... Today I hope this is the turning point...  We will see what happens... Life has its plan, let's hope that mine is the same:)

Time for a little dance!

Saturday, 17 September 2016

What a wonderful review!!! - Thank you!


When you receive reviews like this you realise that all those struggles you have been through being an author is worth it. Thank you Izzy! I am glad the book gave you and your nephews pleasure! In fact it is a real joy for me when you hear that something you created actually makes people giggle. In my opinion the world needs more laughter!

What makes it amazing is how someone on the other side of the world, who you have never met, is laughing because you wrote something... I love it and that is the joy of being an author!

By Izzy Schwedop on September 11, 2016
Format: Paperback
The storyline of the short book is fun, exciting and imaginative. Allure does a stellar job at creating such vivd characters while letting readers 'get in' on the playing between two siblings.

The characters range from young children to grown adults. Lisa is able to execute these characters so genuinely you sometimes forget that they are all being voiced by one person. Such a true actor! My nephews absolutely loved listening to Lisa's spirited performance and were always kept on their toes wondering what was coming next. They especially loved the way Lisa said Oop Oop and continued to imitate it all day! Lisa skillfully hits all the right marks reading this audiobook and I can't wait to listen to what she comes out with next.



Friday, 26 August 2016

Elora, The One-Winged Fairy has arrived in paperback today! Yipee!

Well I feel it is time for a little dance, I was not expecting the paperback to arrive at such speed, but here she is. Elora, The One-Winged Fairy has fluttered onto Amazon. Excited... Yep! So time for a shimmy! Yipee!


LINK TO AMAZON.COM:

https://www.amazon.com/Elora-One-Winged-Fairy-Last-Giggle/dp/153729251X/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1472230034&sr=8-5&keywords=Ruby+Allure

Wednesday, 24 August 2016

New Cover for Elora, The One-Winged Fairy - Opinions welcome!

Hello to all those people who are a little bit curious about the next book... The good news is that I have just had the new cover come through. So if you have any opinions or ideas about it then please share...  Elora, The One-Winged Fairy, is a children's fiction novel aimed at girls eight and older. I personally think it is really sweet, although I am biased because Elora, The One-Winged Fairy, is my creation. I wrote it with the intention to share laughter, giggling and joy with the world whilst sending a fairy on a rather strenuous adventure. In the meantime, I am more than happy to hear what people have to say about the cover. If you think it is rubbish then I can deal with that! Do you think it will appeal to young girls? What more can be done to make it better?

In the meantime, the audio is already in production with the fabulous Lisa Hicks. Lisa voiced The Hairy-Legged Mystery audio in such a marvellous way that I could hardly refuse her offer on the new book. Anyway I can't wait to hear her interpretation because she certainly comes up with some great voices!!!  I will update you all for the release date... Which I hope will be sooner rather than later... Thanks for all your support:)

 
AUDIO LINK: http://www.audible.com/pd/Kids/The-Hairy-Legged-Mystery-Audiobook/B01H2HF0XU/ref=a_search_c4_1_2_srTtl?qid=1471619538&sr=1-2

Friday, 19 August 2016

Can having your legs waxed wipe out the electricity in a remote Sri Lankan village?

Can having your legs waxed wipe out the electricity in a remote Sri Lankan village?


One of my great friends is convinced that I got the inspiration for one of my more recent children's books from a leg waxing experience. In fact, she announced on the train that while we were in Sri Lanka that my leg wax caused a static burst that destroyed the electricity connections across a village... She said I was 'The Hairy-Legged Mystery!'

As with all myths, this one started when I looked at my 'holiday' legs and thought they needed a wax. That afternoon, while we were travelling on  a Sri Lankan train, my friend frowned at me and said 'I think those hairy-bad-boys need a wax'. She pointed at my legs rather than any other part of my body. So after travelling across Sri Lanka by train, we came to a lovely village in the mountains. It was here we found a beauty salon that had a rather good waxing menu. So while I volunteered myself for a hair-ripping experience, my great friend negotiated a rather large gin in a giant jar. She was happy to say the least and I knew, being that she was a laughter therapist, that the bar was going to be in laughaceous uproar by the time I returned.

That evening I dubiously I crossed the road and my friend waved with a huge smirk on her face and a jar of gin in her hand. She knew I hated waxing but it was necessary. Legs that resembled cousin IT, from the Adam's family was not attractive and resulted in some terrible tan lines. What's more a hairy halo around one's legs was drawing some rather curious looks from the locals.

So there I am with two lovely Sri Lankan beauticians concealing their hairy horror. The wax was applied and Rrrrip! All the village lights went out. In complete darkness I wondered whether the hair on ones' legs could create an enormous static burst... Who was I to deny the fact that the timing was immaculate? Could one quantum hair destroy a planet? Could a hairy-legged entanglement wipe out a village electricity? 'Oh madam,' said one of the beauticians. The pair proceeded to shine their mobile torches and continued with the hair-ripping escapades.
Image result for gin in jar leaves
When I was smooth-legged I returned to the bar which was lit by candles and my friend had in fact befriended at least thirty people. She was hysterical because she had been watching me lie on the beauty bench and had awaited the wax. When the lights went out with the first rip she fell about in hysterics. She said I was the only person she knew who could wipe out a remote villages' electricity with one wax strip! With that little experience in mind is it any wonder that unconsciously I wrote a book called 'The Hairy-Legged Mystery?' What is strange for me is that little event had slipped my mind because I have since experienced other rather funny events. The thing is the new cover has been sent through... And when I showed it to my friend she fell about laughing. She said that the image reminded her of Sri Lanka and how my legs looked prior to waxing.. Well we all get inspiration from somewhere! So The Hairy-Legged mystery creation myth can now be related to a remote village having a complete static burst from one pair of hairy legs!

LINK TO THE HAIRY LEGGED MYSTERY:


Thursday, 4 August 2016

Change your Book Cover and Increase Your Sales?

Change Your Book Cover and Increase Your Sales?

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Can changing the cover of your book really increase sales? Well the last couple of weeks I have been a little quiet on the blogging front because I have been concentrating on finishing my current book and marketing my other books. I had a rather lovely synchronicity whereby my friend had figured out how to market his company's health products to the world. In doing so he managed to completely wipe out all of their stock. What a success story eh? So after excelling at that marketing challenge, he decided he would like to see whether his formula worked on books. Yep and you guessed it - I am the experiment. I do like being an experiment in marketing - especially when it my money being invested rather than the budgeting resource of a company.
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So how we went about it was go to Amazon Ad Sense. We created an advertising campaign using my top selling book. We started the campaign and registered the number of impressions according to key words. We then counted how many clicks are made on a key word and which key words generated the most clicks. Take for example my LOVE HUNT - The Love Game. This was listed under romance, contemporary romance, love, dating etc. All these key words are linked to your book and when a book in your genre is being looked at, yours joins a queue to be listed as relevant. When your book is noticed and the customer clicks on your book, that is when you are charged a small fee. The fee is based on a bidding process. In actual fact it is all quite simple: basically every time your advert is clicked upon you are charged. You can set an advertising budget each day which once it is reached your advert will no longer appear. That means you can invest as little as a few dollars each day to advertise your books to a specific target audience, according to your key words. In the case of LOVE HUNT - THE LOVE GAME - the most impressions and clicks were made by those who were looking up romance or contemporary romance.  The romance market is huge and one of the most popular so it was not a surprise that this was the 'big clicker!'
Image result for romance

So how does this relate to a change of cover?
Well there has to be a reason that a customer potentially clicks on your book. What makes your book stand out against the others that are lined up to advertise at that very same customer? Well it is the cover and the 'strap line.' So I have to be honest my click rate was failing dismally. After 32,000 impressions, where customers had my book appear on the page, I had a whole - are you ready for this - 9 clicks! They did not result in sales. So I was affectively advertising and getting no response. Boooo!

Admittedly it takes time for a sales campaign to kick in; however, something has to make the 'customer' want it now. People don't have time to return to a book they might have seen briefly and they certainly don't retain the title unless it is astounding! So what do you do? You make a cover which screams click on me. So here is my 'before' cover - I quite liked this one... 

I thought it was clean, quirky and to the point. According to my marketing pal it needed to appeal to the 'romance market' and stand out as fun, mischievous and girly. Hmmmm!
So this is the new cover:

Yes it is very pink!!!! Very, very pink! The thing is I then had to change the second in the series too from:
I really liked this one too. I liked how clean it was...
So this then was changed to:

Again - it is VERY PINK!

So guess what happened? The number of impressions continued at the same rate and the click rate increased. What do you think happened with the sales? There was a gradual increase. So what did that mean? Well, it meant that my blurb had to change. I know... Something was stopping people going 'yeh! now! Now and NOW!' Also my friend said that the reader wanted to discover something: an insight.

So take a look - this is how it was:

Come on admit it - as much as we deny it - we ladies like a good love hunt.
We have tick lists, ideals, and we hunt in high-heeled packs. Of course, we're all hunting for that elusive right man who ticks every box and even has tidy nostril hair. Okay maybe not you, but you know other ladies who love the hunt.

Well, it's time for Eva and Gracie to love hunt, and their 'targets' are rich men - the golden sperm. Such exciting escapades would provide the pair with entertaining discussions during their dull office hours - or so they thought. What they did not anticipate was the discovery of the "booby man"; humorous but very hard truths about wealth, themselves, power; and the RichIdiot.com phenomenon.
The question remains: can love really be hunted?

THIS IS THE NEW VERSION

LOVE HUNT - Dating Game: A Kiss and Email Romantic Comedy
Did you know there are numerous secret female dating discussions taking place in your office? Discover the hidden world of women hunting rich men in hope of escaping office drudgery. All around you your colleagues are gossiping about their dating adventures whilst pretending to work. This laugh out loud romantic comedy reveals numerous dating disasters, female analysis and an insight into the world of ridiculous dating rituals - all of that in hope of finding that Mr Right. Does he really exist?

This and more from Eva, the Russian gold digger, who reveals a world of high-class meals and luxurious lingerie. While Gracie, the straight-laced female analyst demonstrates how the mind can run riot with random thoughts: what about the grey-knicker women who have settled for the men with sheds? Are they happy? Why are their knickers grey? Why choose a man with a shed?
A laugh out loud conversation in the form of emails about life, hide the sausage and dating blooming disasters! Be astounded by what is discussed during nine to five!
___________________

So what do you think happened? Honestly I have no clue how life works....
Well the audio sales went up! Admittedly Helen is a fantastic narrator and her Russian accent is brilliant, I just have not quite figured out how that has worked. Also what is also interesting is there is a higher level of sales in the U.K. than the U.S.

My friend Matt says that is because the U.K. has 11 5 star reviews whereas the U.S. have not been placing so many reviews. Again I wonder why that is. So in answer to the question - Can changing your cover increase your sales? Most definitely; however, there are other factors such as 'strap line and your blurb.' If you manage to combine the perfect formula then you have a potentially winning advertising campaign! YEY!!!!

Good luck. I hope this helps all the other lovely authors out there who are also attempting to figure the marketing puzzle out. If I find out anything else I will definitely share. If you have any comments or findings please could you add them to the comments. I would love other authors to have an easier journey to making a living from the book market!


LINK TO KINDLE:
LOVE HUNT - Dating Game: A Kiss and Email Romantic Comedy by Ruby Allure
LOVE HUNT - Dating Game: A Kiss and Email Romantic Comedy
by Ruby Allure  LINK: https://amzn.com/B00ATF8QF2



Oh and I just worked out why the audio sales went up - the audio is on at £3.99 rather than £15.69

If I had not written this blog I would never have figured it out. So that is why the audio sales increased because the advert worked - the customer just happened to explore further. The only problem now is how do I change the audio cover? Any ideas?

Sunday, 17 July 2016

Stuck?

Stuck?

Image result for jammed in a window woman
Imagine being locked out of your house and in an attempt to get in you end up jammed in your toilet window with your legs dangling outside.  Now imagine the fire brigade being called to extract you from that precarious situation. Well this is what happened to a colleague of mine. What made it worse was she was carrying weight which resulted in her being well and truly squished. As a solution the firemen extracted the whole window rather than coat her in goose fat. The poor woman ended up bruised around her middle not to mention the emotional bruising from feeling so humiliated. What made it worse was this whole fire team were hot. So there she was with dangling legs, a skirt and huge knickers. It is at times like that I wonder whether the universe is having a bit of a joke or clearly demonstrating the feeling of being completely stuck.

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The thing is this lady realised that not only had she been stuck in her toilet window she also felt stuck in life. It was then she realised she had to do something. She had not realised how unhappy she was until she was jammed peering precariously down her toilet for a couple of hours until the firemen arrived. It was as if she was experiencing her inner stuckness externally. She then decided she needed to find a solution to stuckness. A series of events resulted in her taking a breathing workshop. The breathing was called Somatic Resonance Integration breathing. This style of breathing makes you relax into your body and find areas that feel stuck. You then focus on that area and breath into it. When the whole area is expanded you then say aloud that you feel stuck. 'I feel stuck.' Simple eh? Well the physical response that comes from this is astounding. Some people growl others scream and others simply shake... Then once you have done that you repeat the breath which is mouth mouth breathing until the area is filled again and repeat 'I feel stuck,' you do this until the area is cleared. You may wonder how this affects your life. Well often we feel stuck externally and this is represented within us internally. So when we enter our internal world and remove the areas of stuckness and allow the energy to flow then we shift our perceptions and that shift changes our external experience.


So why do I write this? Well I am a little stuck at the moment with one of the books I am writing. I have about five thousand words to go and it is quite a difficult part to write. It involves writing about shadows and darkness. In all truth I would rather not go there. So maybe that is why I am writing this blog - another little procrastination! My house is also suggesting that it needs to be cleaned too! Ha. Writer's block / stuckness is such an interesting thing. It is like a mental constipation where only when you relax and don't force then it can flow. The thing is I put a deadline on the completion of this book and I have realised for me that creativity can't be controlled. It is like trying to catch a chicken. The more I try and chase the blooming idea chickens the more the creative creature slips my grasp. So using my paddleboard method - I have chosen to relax into it and 'sit and give it a try...' There are no demands, there are no controls I simply shift my mind into enjoying the process rather than racing along. One paddle at a time, or in writing- one sentence at a time... That is the only way I can succeed.


For those who are now interested in the SRI breathing, this is part of a Chiropratic method called Network Spinal Analysis. It is something that I used to clear and calm my nervous system. It is also something that enabled me to cope with a very stressful job and enabled me to remain focused. Anyway, after reminding myself of the SRI stuckness exercise, I am now back into writing free-flow and will be completing my new book. If you feel stuck it might be worth giving the breathing technique a try and see what happens!

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"Intriguing with a WONDERFULLY twist at the end"
This is the 2nd story by this author I have read and I love it. Will eagerly seek more by her. The story was captivating, mystical magical and entertaining. The parental
Bed time stories and deceptions of the various monsters and creatures of fantasy keep you guessing as to what it is. The reveal is more magical for the build up and Even more amazing than described. Loved it and highly recommend it for kids and adults alike. Good luck figuring it out. I received this audiobook from the author narrator or publisher for free via audiobookboom in exchange for an unbiased review


Enjoy my books at the following link:

Saturday, 16 July 2016

The Importance of Word Of Mouth

The Importance of Word Of Mouth

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Do you have aspirations of being the next J.K Rowling or the next Tolkien? Admittedly I don't have such aspirations. I was simply happy writing my books, keeping myself entertained and entering into a beautiful mental landscape which was completely different to my usual world of Business Analysis. I was happy when I made one sale let alone a thousand. The challenge with having a mind that needs to figure things out and spends time working out common trends and patterns is that you apply that to all activities. Once an analyst, always an analyst. So this is why I share my findings with my lovely blog readers.
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So when I first started releasing books I would put them on Kindle and assumed that magically readers would find them. I might sell ten books this way but nothing big ever happened. I realised that this attitude was not going to result in great sales. So my next books I did a desk launch. This was before publishing policies were implemented into the corporation I worked for. So I launched my book on Kindle and released the paperback from the desk and did desk signings. It actually was nuts because people lined up to buy books and I signed when I should have been working. I had no idea how I got away with it. I sold a stack of books this way but that did not spiral into world literary domination. It did result in me being accosted in the toilet and being asked if I was 'that author...' After that I came to the conclusion launching at work was not the best plan, so I adopted a pseudo-name and decided that the more book formats the better. I then branched in audio through having my books produced through ACX. This also increased sales but I was missing a key piece of the jigsaw puzzle - reviews.
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Reviews are so powerful. I have written about this in some of my other blogs. Reviews from readers sell to other readers. The best thing to learn is not to take reviews personally - that is the challenge. However, a review has the ability to make or break a book sale. The more reviews the better because it makes the rubbish ones drop down the list. Remember you can't remove a review once it is posted. On one of my audio books some of the reviewers did not like the narrator and slated them. Those comments ground sales of that book to a halt. That was the learning. As I mentioned before, I don't rely on book sales for my income. Instead the additional income is used to over-pay my mortgage, saved or pays for a nice spa day. That is all part of my 'rewards' system as a motivator.
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You may wonder how you get reviews. If you look at the Indie review book list, there are a list of reviewers you can approach. I also now advise people who have reviewed my other books when a book is due. Since most have enjoyed reviewing my other work, I now have a 'list' of reviewers who review most of my books once released.
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So how does the word of mouth work? Well, every time I send a reviewer a free audio code I ask them to recommend the book, in whatever way they think will reach the most readers. That is - if they like the book. This word of mouth generates sales. Then that word of mouth generates more sales. Sometimes this momentum continues. At other times it just stops. Although this time I have noticed the shift in sales and momentum. Last month I released The Hairy-legged Mystery and Tingle Dingle and The Little Mischiefs. These were fun books for kids. My colleagues at work asked me to write them for their kids because the school holidays were nigh. So I put finger to keyboard and entertained myself. Within a few weeks these books were drafted, edited, proofread and published. They were short, fun and easy to write. I then posted on ACX. Two producers snapped them up and produced them within a week. I then asked reviewers to get involved and I had sixty reviewers offer review.  It is during this period that you get scared. What if none sell? Should you buy one just to start the sales? Honestly... I have considered doing that before. However, the reviews rolled in and the reviewers recommended the books as did my friends that I wrote the book for. That is how it spirals... One child tells another that they read The Hairy-legged Mystery and another becomes curious... What I realised is that by having these books on audio they work on car journeys as well as bed time stories. As we know children can listen to something over and over again. So much so that parents also hear the same recording over and over again. In no time The Hairy-Legged Mystery became 'normalised' and people talked about it. That then made more sales. So with all that in mind my top tips for word of mouth generation are as follows:
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  • Make a product you love and will happily stand by.
  • Let people know you are creating it / have created it.
  • Make as many formats possible - paperback,  digital and audio.
  • Ask reviewers to review.
  • Ask reviewers to recommend.
  • Give as many free codes / samples to friends and ask them to tell their friends.
  • Finally find as many ways to let people know your book exists.
The truth is word of mouth is the best seller and creates a bestseller. No matter how much hype you make, if the product is of bad quality then there is only a short duration of sales. Provide quality, be authentic, relax into it and enjoy the sales!

EXAMPLE:
"Intriguing with a WONDERFULLY twist at the end"
This is the 2nd story by this author I have read and I love it. Will eagerly seek more by her. The story was captivating, mystical magical and entertaining. The parental
Bed time stories and deceptions of the various monsters and creatures of fantasy keep you guessing as to what it
Is. The reveal is more magical for the build up and Even more amazing than described. Loved it and highly recommend it for kids and adults alike. Good luck figuring it out. I received this audiobook from the author narrator or publisher for free via audiobookboom in exchange for an unbiased review


Enjoy my books at the following link: