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Ksenia Anske

January 15, 2018

Announcement: I'm moving EVERYTHING to Patreon

by Ksenia Anske


Writing.jpg
Writing.jpg

My beloved Hamsters,

I’ve made a big decision to move EVERYTHING—my client and fan groups on Facebook, the tiny sales tips newsletter I started, and even this blog (I’ll be blogging less often and opening it up to guest posts, so pitch me)—to Patreon. It’ll make my life easier. (Plus, it was my New Year’s resolution to rest).

In the course of working on TUBE I’ve been able to see that I continue neglecting my needs like the adults who neglected my needs when I was a child. Only I don’t have those adults in my life anymore and yet I’m still doing it. 

Enough.

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TAGS: news, personal, publishing, Patreon


July 9, 2015

I really need to drop prices on my paperbacks

by Ksenia Anske


Kill me, but I don't remember why I have priced my paperbacks a particular way a while ago. I think I thought of offering paperbacks like an expensive souvenir since I give ebooks away for free, following Seth Godin's idea and the blue ocean strategy. Or maybe I read some article somewhere at some point, or copied the prices of other books. I can't remember exactly. I even wrote this post about pricing books recently, but today something shifted in my brain. Not sure why. 

I'm sitting here reading Fablehaven by Brandon Mull—which I recommend to all of you—and the similarity to Rosehead struck me like a hammer. Not so much the story as the elements like an arrival at a mysterious house surrounded by a mysterious property, a mysterious grandfather, a sister and a brother (like Lilith and Panther) discovering hidden magical things about the place and those living in it. It was eerie. Then I glanced at the back of the book. $7.99. And the writing is superb, so much cleaner and better than mine. 

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TAGS: pricing, publishing, competition, comparison, money, profit


July 9, 2015

My 4th story is born! THE BADLINGS is published.

by Ksenia Anske


This was quite a journey. What was born out of an innocent wish to revisit the books of my childhood grew into its own book. Grew fast. And went through all kinds of adventures just like Bells and her friends in The Badlings did. I wrote the first draft in 2 weeks. "Woot!" I thought. "New frontier conquered!" Yeah, right. It was too fast. And it featured too many books, over 30. And then I lost Colleen, my editor. And then I found Sarah, my new editor. And then Sarah said, "What about copyright?" So I had to rehack the whole thing. I tried making it into a parody and go around copyright issues. Didn't help. So I rewrote it again and cut out 10 books, then I rewrote it yet again and cut out 10 more books. Then I had to break to go on the Amtrak residency trip. Then I came back and realized the story is not done and went through yet another set of revisions. And finally it's here. It's done. I can move on to writing 2nd draft of TUBE!!!

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TAGS: The Badlings, novel excerpt, chapter 1, publishing


June 29, 2015

Blue Sparrow 2 is published!

by Ksenia Anske


Look at this! The second book of my tweets is here! Not only is it choke-full of wisdom, it's choke-full of amazing illustrations by local artist Jeff Bergstrand. There are lots of birds and cats and even a boob. I dare you to buy the book and tell me where you found the boob, and what you think it represents. Now, as you remember, the first Blue Sparrow started out on Twitter. You guys asked for it. Blue Sparrow 2 has also been done per your request (you see what I do for you??). I probably won't make any more of them unless you put a gun to my head and demand it. Although I always have my handy chainsaw in the back pocket, so we shall see who wins.

Anyway. Now that it's out...

GO RUN AND BUY IT FOR ALL OF YOUR CREATIVE FRIENDS!

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TAGS: new release, Blue Sparrow 2, news, publishing


November 8, 2014

IRKADURA is published!!!

by Ksenia Anske


It happened! It did! It did! So many months of pain, so many rewrites, so much fretting over the cover, and finally it's here! It's been how long? I started writing it on January 2nd of this year, so it's been 10 months from start to finish, a little faster than ROSEHEAD. Boy, am I glad I'm done with this. It made me go back to my Soviet past and stir it up, and it was not a pleasant experience, but those of you who have already read it tell me that you love it. I'm so glad! You can find free ebook files here and, of course, it's on all the other places too, like Amazon and iBooks and Barnes & Noble and Wattpad and more. Now, as is my tradition, here is the 1st chapter.

IRKADURA

A novel by Ksenia Anske

CHAPTER 1. MOUSE

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TAGS: novel excerpt, chapter 1, Irkadura, publishing


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