One-Year Book Birthday

It’s been one year since Calla Scott released her first book, Riding the Wind, and reviews are in. Readers are loving it! The historical fiction book currently has five out of five stars on Amazon and twenty-six ratings. If you’ve read Riding the Wind, please take a minute to add your review on Amazon and Goodreads. Help her get to one hundred ratings! 

The book is in at least six libraries around the world. If you’d like to see it in your library, contact your library to make that request. That’s a great way to support independent authors like Calla.

I recently caught up with her to see if she’s been promoting her book and to find out if there will be a sequel to Noemí’s saga.

Book Marketing

Calla is a busy student, but she’s managed to promote and sell her books directly at various markets on weekends. In 2022, she had a good amount of sales.

The book is also available in paperback and eBook on Amazon. The book will be on sale soon! It’s currently $7.99 for the paperback, $2.99 for Kindle, and free on Kindle Unlimited. Be sure to snag a copy during the promo if you haven’t yet.

KDP Select and Kindle Unlimited

I asked her how she felt about the KDP Select program. KDP Select is a free 90-day program for Kindle eBooks. It gives authors the opportunity to reach more readers through Amazon and Kindle promotions. When authors enroll their Kindle eBook in KDP Select, it is automatically included in Kindle Unlimited. Her Kindle eBook will also be eligible for Free Book Promotions and Kindle Countdown Deals. An author’s Kindle eBook is eligible for royalty payments from Kindle Unlimited for pages an individual customer reads in their Kindle eBook for the first time. Calla’s Kindle eBook is still available for customers to buy (if they don’t subscribe to Kindle Unlimited), and she will continue to earn royalties from those sales. During the 90-day enrollment period, the Kindle eBook can only be distributed through KDP. However, an author can continue to distribute other formats (like print and audio) of their title elsewhere (on other retail websites like Barnes & Noble).

Kindle Unlimited is a subscription program where customers can read Kindle eBooks and keep them as long as they want for a monthly subscription fee. Customers don’t have to be Amazon Prime members to enroll in Kindle Unlimited. Calla’s been told by a lot of her readers that they do prefer to read on Kindle because it’s a way to cut clutter.

The Skinny on a Sequel

Calla started writing a sequel shortly after publishing Riding the Wind last April and is about halfway done. She hit a frustrating point and started working on something else for a change. While taking a break from the sequel, she’s started another story that’s completely different and in another genre. I asked her how many unpublished or half-written stories she has, and Calla counted ten on her current computer. She’s written more on paper or other devices. Depending on school and travels, she spends anywhere between one and twelve hours per week writing. She hopes to publish the sequel to Riding the Wind and another series before graduating from high school. Calla’s in seventh grade. She’s aiming to release her next book a year or two from now. 

Writing Tools

When writing historical fiction, Calla uses reliable sources like history books at the library and online references like Britannica to do her research. Britannica offers a free version and a Premium subscription. If she can’t find what she’s looking for there, she’ll resort to other websites. She composes her stories in Google Docs and uses the Young Writers Program on NaNoWriMo to track her writing (even when not taking part in their challenges). Riding the Wind originated from NaNoWriMo when Calla participated in the challenge with her school writing club in 2021.

Reading

I’m always curious to know what people are reading. Calla said right now she’s reading First Date by Krista McGee, one of her aunt’s books (writing runs in the family). For history class, Calla’s reading Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes. (Readers of Johnny Tremain would also like Sarah Saves the Day by Ellen Chervenick, another client of mine.) Calla’s favorite series is The Anne of Green Gables collection by Lucy Maud Montgomery.

Follow Calla Scott

To read about Calla’s initial release of Riding the Wind, click here. And be sure to follow her author page on Amazon. She’s also opened a custom embroidery business where she lives in Asia and plays the guitar. Calla is a talented creator!

Some of the links above contain affiliate partnerships, meaning, at no additional cost to you, Danelle may earn a commission if you click through to make a purchase.