Claire Ridgway

Best-selling author and blogger

Apr
18

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Launch of The Fall of Anne Boleyn Book Website and 4000 Sales!

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Today is an exciting day! Not only have we reached the 4000 sales mark for The Anne Boleyn Collection book (published on 16th February 2012), but I have also launched The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Countdown website in anticipation of the book being published at the end of April.

At The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Countdown website you will find:-

  • An interactive timeline – I will be adding events as they happen, as we countdown to the 19th May 1536. Today’s event “Chapuys Bows to Queen Anne Boleyn” is there.
  • Information on The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Countdown book
  • Bibliography – A full bibliography of the sources I used in writing The Fall of Anne Boleyn. It’s split into primary and secondary sources.
  • Cast list – List of the main characters involved in the events of 1536.
  • Printable timeline
  • History Research Report – Sign up to receive this report and also to be informed of the book’s release.
  • Author bio – That’s me!

The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Countdown Blurb

During the spring of 1536 in Tudor England, events conspire to bring down Anne Boleyn, the Queen of England. The coup against the Queen results in the brutal executions of six innocent people – Anne Boleyn herself, her brother and four courtiers – and the rise of a new Queen.

Drawing on sixteenth century letters, eye witness accounts and chronicles, Claire Ridgway leads the reader through the sequence of chilling events one day at a time, telling the true story of Anne Boleyn’s fall.

The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Countdown is presented in a diary format allowing readers to dip in, look up a particular date or read from start to finish. Special features include mini biographies of those involved, a timeline of events and full referencing.

Claire Ridgway, creator of The Anne Boleyn Files and author of The Anne Boleyn Collection, continues her mission to share the real truth about Anne Boleyn.

Mar
19

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2000 Copies of My First Book Sold in Less than 5 Weeks!

Category: The Anne Boleyn Collection Tags: , Leave a Comment

It only seems like yesterday that I was celebrating hitting the 1000 book sales mark on the 8th March and now, less than 5 weeks after publication, my first book, The Anne Boleyn Collection, has sold over 2000 copies! It’s also still No. 1 on one of the Amazon Best Sellers Charts.

I am delighted with its success and with the emails I’m receiving every day from people who have enjoyed it, it makes all the hard work worth it.

Thank you to everyone for the continued support and encouragement!

You can find out more about The Anne Boleyn Collection at the book website – www.theanneboleyncollection.com

Mar
8

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Over 1000 Books Sold in 3 Weeks!

Category: Self-publishing, The Anne Boleyn Collection Tags: , , , , 2 Comments

If you have read my previous posts you will know that I self-published my first book, The Anne Boleyn Collection, on the 16th February 2012 through Amazon’s POD service, CreateSpace, and also through Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). The Kindle version went live on the Amazon website on Thursday 16th February, so today marks 3 weeks since its publication.

I logged into Create Space and KDP this morning at 10.30 Central European time (so today had only just begun) to learn that I have sold a total of 1024 copies of my book in just 3 weeks. Seeing as 100 copies was my aim for the first month, I am completely blown away. Ecstatic just doesn’t cover it! The bubbly is in the fridge chilling and I will be enjoying it later!

Now, I could get all big-headed and diva-ish about this achievement (and probably will after a glass of bubbly), but I realise that The Anne Boleyn Collection is actually a team effort. Obviously I did the writing and research, but it’s thanks to followers of www.theanneboleynfiles.com that this book got written and it’s thanks to the Tudor history community that the book has sold so well. Anne Boleyn Files followers gave me the idea to publish this collection of articles (thank you to Dr Linda Saether!) and encouraged me all the way. Once the book was published, they then spread the word and I’m now in the middle of a virtual book tour hopping from Tudor blog to Tudor blog, which would not be possible without the kindness of those bloggers. It’s been an amazing journey and I’m still humble enough to know that I have been blessed with a loyal following.

So, what happens now?

Well, I’m continuing with my virtual book tour, which is so much fun, and I’m just finishing up on book two. I will also be continuing blogging on here about the progress of  The Anne Boleyn Collection and my experiences with self-publishing. You can also catch me on The Anne Boleyn Files blogging about all things Tudor.

For information on The Anne Boleyn Collection and my virtual book tour, please see www.TheAnneBoleynCollection.com

Feb
23

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The Anne Boleyn Collection’s Progress

Category: Self-publishing, The Anne Boleyn Collection Tags: , , , , 1 Comment

If you have read my previous post, you will know that the Kindle version of my first book “The Anne Boleyn Collection” went live on Amazon.com on the 17th February. This was quickly followed by the paperback, although the listing kept disappearing as Amazon worked on it. It’s now the 23rd February, less than a week later, and I wanted to report back on a very successful first week. Here are the figures…

Sales

The sales in the picture below are the results taken from my Createspace and KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) dashboards first thing every morning from 18th February 2012 to 23rd February 2012.

So, by 9am this morning I had sold a total of 323 books – 260 Kindle versions and 63 paperback copies. All of the paperbacks come from Amazon.com because the paperback is not available yet on the international sites.

Amazon Rankings

Here is how my Amazon ranking looked at the end of the first full day, the 18th February:-

It was also a nice feeling when I was No.3 in Amazon’s Hot New Releases in History England, beaten only by the two versions (Kindle and paperback) of a book on Wallis Simpson.

Reviews

As of today, I have eight 5 star reviews which is a wonderful feeling. I did send out some beta versions of the e-book to some members of The Anne Boleyn Fellowship to review for me but three of the eight reviews are from other readers so that was wonderful to see. I’m bound to get some bad reviews, every writer does, so I’m enjoying these reviews at the moment!

Success

I don’t know what constitutes success in publishing but I was aiming at selling 100 books in my first month so to sell 323 in six days is wonderful. I’ve also been receiving emails and comments on my Facebook page and Anne Boleyn Files website from people who are reading the book and loving it, that’s what success is really, isn’t it? People enjoying what you write.

Feb
17

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My Kindle Book is Released!

Category: Self-publishing, The Anne Boleyn Collection Tags: , , , Leave a Comment

I’m just going to interrupt my series on self-publishing with the news that my first book, “The Anne Boleyn Collection”, has just been released as a Kindle version on Amazon.com and Amazon UK.

While Tim and I were waiting for the paperback to go live, after double-checking the second proof copy, we decided to upload the Kindle version. We expected it to take a few days to go live, but it happened within hours – a big surprise! I’d sent some e-book versions out to some of my followers, members of The Anne Boleyn Fellowship, in advance for them to “beta test”, and they’ve already started adding their review to the Amazon page. This is a great help.

While I’m waiting for the paperback to go live, I’m working on getting the buzz going about my book. I’m fortunate in that I have been running my blog, The Anne Boleyn Files, for three years and so have an established following through that site and also on Facebook and Twitter. I’ve also updated my Goodreads profile to an author profile and have been filling in extra information about the book on Shelfari – phew! Lots to do! I will be sharing everything I do in future posts.

If you want to check out my book, then please go to:-

Here’s a video Tim made for the Anne Boleyn Files birthday and The Anne Boleyn Collection launch:-

Feb
7

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The Anne Boleyn Collection Idea

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One of the regular visitors to The Anne Boleyn Files contacted me just before Christmas (2011) to share an idea she had about site and my writing. “Why don’t you collate some of the most popular Anne Boleyn Files articles and publish them?”, Linda said, “That way we’d have easy access to them and we’d be able to share them with friends and family. It would be a wonderful way to celebrate the three year anniversary of the site.”

Now, I was already working on a book on the Boleyn family but Linda got me thinking. I had three years’ worth of articles on the site, over 800 posts – yes, I’ve been a busy girl! – and the site was very popular and interactive, with people commenting on posts and discussing things. It would be easy to find out which were the most popular and then collate them in a book format, or so I thought!

Lightbulb moment. What a great way to celebrate our three year anniversary, use my hard work and share my research. The Anne Boleyn Collection was born, in my head anyway.