Wednesday, October 15, 2014

The Child Returns is an Indie B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree!

After a rough morning Friday, I came home to find an email announcing that my YA Epic Fantasy novel The Child Returns has been selected as an Indie B.R.A.G. Medallion winner. What an awesome way to turn a day around!




For those of you who aren't aware, this is a big deal in the Indie author arena. The B.R.A.G. (Book Readers Appreciation Guild) Medallion is awarded by indieBRAG, LLC, a privately held organization that has compiled a large group of readers (individuals and members of book clubs) from eleven countries around the world, including the USA. Their mission is to "discover new and talented self-published authors and help them give their work the attention and recognition it deserves." You can learn more about them here.  


The Medallion award is subjected to a rigorous selection process and all books are judged on the following criteria:


·        Plot
·        Writing Style
·        Characters
·        Copy Editing
·        Dialogue
·        Cover/Interior Layout

50% of books do not make this first cut. If they do, they're sent to readers who must answer one important question: Would they recommend the book to their best friend? 

Ultimately, only 10% of submissions are selected for the honor once readers are done.

I can't even begin to express how happy I am to have earned this award. After receiving a Best Kindle Book Award Finalist nod last month, you can bet I'm jumping up and down right now. Hope you're joining me :).




Thursday, October 2, 2014

Updates: A little good, a little bad

Sadly, The Child Returns didn't win the Kindle Best Book Award for Fantasy, though it was a complete honor to be chosen as one of the five Finalists out of so many entries. I plan to enter the second and third books in the series next year, so wish me luck!

In the meantime, be sure to check out this year's fantasy winner, Nefertiti's Heart by A. W. Exley, here. It looks like a great read, so I'll be picking up my own copy soon (as soon as Book 4 is complete). Don't you LOVE that cover? You can also check out all seven winners (one for each major category) by following this link.


Speaking of Book 4 (working title: The Reaper Rises), I've been making great progress so far. Current stats: 249 pages, 63,443 words. Unfortunately, my husband will be out of town for much of October, so my progress will slow soon, but hopefully I can complete the first draft and a few editing rounds by the end of November.

Betas, are you ready to get your hands on it in December?

For those of you who haven't started reading the series yet, I'm running a Read for Review over on Goodreads right now with my Never Too Old for YA & NA group. If you're a member of Goodreads, please head on over and sign up. It's a great group, so you should check it out even if you don't sign up for the R4R. Link here.

And finally, the series has hit a few milestones recently that I wanted to share. On Amazon, The Child Returns received it's 50th review, bringing the book's average to 4.8 out of 5. On Goodreads TCR also received it's 90th rating. My average there is 4.41, which is awesome for a notoriously hard site. Overall, I have 137 ratings for all 3 books on Goodreads with a 4.55 average.

Huge thank yous to everyone who has read and loved the Ærenden books, to those who have rated them, and most importantly to those who keep spreading the word. I really appreciate your support.

Now back to writing!

Kristen