I didn’t have time to make my post announcing my dive back into narrating my own stories and uploading them to Rumble, Bitchute, and You Tube. Hopefully, I’ll get around to going into the details next week. *fingers crossed*
Since this is the month of Halloween and I enjoy spooky stories, I thought I’d post short spooky stories I’ve written. One audiobook will be posted each Friday in October. I did write a brand new story to post for the last Friday in October. (That will be under my pen name Barbara Joan Russell since that is the name I use for my YA fiction. The other stories posted here will be under that pen name, too, except for the story in this post.)
These stories are not gory. I don’t do slasher stuff. I prefer my scares to be psychological. Part of my inspiration stems from the Twilight Zone episodes.
Quick backstory to explain why I bother writing spooky stories (for anyone who might wonder why a romance author dabbles in this area of fiction):
Once in a while, I get in the mood to write a spooky story. I grew up listening to my mom tell me scary stories. We also watched a lot of scary movies. I also grew up on Twilight Zone episodes. The one that creeped me out the most was about a man who dreamt of a circus. My sister’s main scare was the kid who got stuck in the wall when she rolled off the bed during the middle of the night. Whenever I write these kinds of stories, I think of my mom. She’s no longer with us on Earth, so this is how I feel close to her. I’m looking forward to seeing her again.
Back to the post:
Today, we start with a flash fiction story about a woman who seeks shelter for the night in an old creepy mansion. This story is under 7 minutes long. (By the way, Craig is my oldest son who is now 19.)
If you don’t like Rumble, I also uploaded this on Bitchute and You Tube.
Ruth Ann Nordin's Author Blog 
Listening right now!
Thanks for checking it out!
Sounds great. Congratulations!
Thank you, Rami!
You’re welcome
I finally saw the paperbacks I had made in Draft2Digital on Amazon and Barnes & Noble tonight. I have no idea if it’s anywhere else. Draft2Digital lists all of the retailers that my ebooks are on, but it doesn’t have anything on the paperbacks. I had to manually go in and search for them. I believe it was two months since I approved those books. I approved An Earl In Time about two weeks ago, and the paperback isn’t anywhere yet. The system is slow, but that might be something on Ingram’s end. D2D sends paperbacks there.
Regarding price, I paid $30 for the proof copy. This did not include shipping. I picked the slowest speed. I believe it took a couple of weeks to get the proof. Once I approved it, the author copy is significantly cheaper. For a 100K book (330 pages), it was $9.41. For a book around 60,000 words (280 pages), it’s about $5. I use 12 point font, have a 5.5 X 8.5 trim size, and white paper on my books. Shipping is a lot unless you choose something like media mail. I pick the cheapest shipping speed since it can get expensive otherwise. I look for ways to save on expenses whenever possible.
That’s really helpful! Thanks, Ruth!
You’re welcome!
Draft to digital charges $30 just for a proof copy???
Yes. You don’t have to order a proof to approve the book. I do it since I’m making my own paperback covers and want to be sure the spine, front, and back of the cover turned out right. If I had more experience with the full cover, I’d probably skip the proof step.
A friend who uses Barnes & Noble said the proof copy over there is similar in pricing. We were comparing the two different services to see if one was better than the other, but it seems like D2D and B&N are about the same in pricing and quality.