Ashley Capes - Epic Fantasy List

[ashleycapes]

Hi, I'm Ashley and I'm a writer from Australia - I write mostly epic fantasy, but also a bit of supernatural stuff and also poetry every now and then. Here, I'll probably try and list my fiction instead, however

Eventually, I'll include links but for now it's kinda more of a gallery!



The Bone Mask Cycle
This one is my 'main' series, it's the KU one for epic fantasy fans who are a bit 'over' orcs & elves:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074CC3ZTK




The Book of Never
This one is my other 'main' series, it's the 'wide' one for epic fantasy and adventure readers, I tried to put some sarcasm in with all the magic:

https://books2read.com/u/3RBg9Y





Stand alone stories + New/Incomplete sets
Ranging from contemporary fantasy to supernatural suspense, some steampunk and urban fantasy too + yet another epic fantasy story, these ones don't fit into the sets above :D

[ashleycapes]

Ideally, I'll update the above post more and more over time, but for now it might be easier to make a new post here for specific sales or promotions, rotating them in and out in this slot.

And to that end, here's my first promotional post here at the Sanctum!



City of Masks is one of my epic fantasy KU titles and it's free on the 15th of Feb, with book two at 99c:





https://books2read.com/u/mV7VD2

Here's a bit of a blurb too:

Sick of elves and orcs? Then this is the epic fantasy for you! When a royal conspiracy topples the noble House Falco, Sofia must take on guardianship of her father’s Greatmask. Yet the sentient bone mask, powerful enough to Compel those around her, will not speak, leaving Sofia defenseless.

Hunted by the king, she is driven from the palace and must fight for survival, alone in the cold streets of Anaskar. There, she crosses paths with Notch, a bitter mercenary with problems of his own. Accused of murder, Notch is trying to clear his name while hunted by the city's robed assassins, the very people who are now searching for Sofia...

[ashleycapes]

I've also just launched a kickstarter campaign for my 6th Bone Mask Book if anyone was looking for a reasonably cheap way to grab the entire Bone Mask Cycle!


https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lionsheart/lionsheart-an-epic-fantasy-novel

[ashleycapes]

Have hit the funding goal with the kickstarter - thanks to everyone who spread the word and who backed!


Now, I've opened up a bit of a 'merch-style' Stretch Goal

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lionsheart/lionsheart-an-epic-fantasy-novel/posts/2802608

[ashleycapes]

New Release - just in time for the holidays when folks are far too busy to notice or read :D


Throne of Leaves - Book of Never 8, the first addition to one of the above storylines in around 2 years!





https://books2read.com/u/bMYpjG

Here's the blurb:

The Burnished King has escaped his tomb.

In the demi-god's wake, a stone-plague creeps across the lands and Never must stop the ancient decay before it swallows everyone he cares for.

Despite his determination, there is no cure and no guarantee that even his Amouni blood will be enough. Never's search for the means to fight back leads him to the Amber Isle once more, where the island continues to hold its secrets close.

But it is there that Never encounters the beautiful and mysterious Rikeva, a Quisoan Weaver on her own quest, and realises that together, there might be a way to stop the plague after all...

[ashleycapes]

I should post some more cover art (and finish some more projects, for that matter!)

[ashleycapes]

It's taken me about 4 years, but I've nearly released an entire trilogy at once!



All 3 books are going live in a few days - March 1st - with a universal link to the first one below:

https://books2read.com/u/38YQed

(I've yet to release a whole trilogy at once, so I'm curious as to whether that will be a plus - the "no waiting between books" aspect is a real drawcard for me, as a reader)

[LilyBLily]

Look very pretty and genre appropriate. Good luck with them!

[djmills]

The covers look great. Good luck with your release.
You should do a Kickstarter for the print copies. But make sure that the postage is added to the price of each print copy, so it does not cost you for postage.
Looking forward to your report on how "rapid release" or "all at once release" works for you.

[Jeff Tanyard]

I like those covers.   

...I've yet to release a whole trilogy at once...

It can be a little hectic.  Make sure you have your blurbs, keywords, categories, and all that other stuff planned out in advance and written down on a cheat sheet or something so that you don't get everything mixed up.  This is especially true if, as I did, you're uploading to multiple retailers at the same time, not just Amazon.

That aside, congratulations on your latest achievement, and I hope you sell lots of books.   

[ashleycapes]

Look very pretty and genre appropriate. Good luck with them!

Thank you!

I'm very, very happy with them - I used Vivid Covers (https://www.vividcovers.com/) who I've used before, always happy with Rebekah's work

[ashleycapes]

The covers look great. Good luck with your release.
You should do a Kickstarter for the print copies. But make sure that the postage is added to the price of each print copy, so it does not cost you for postage.
Looking forward to your report on how "rapid release" or "all at once release" works for you.

Funny you should mention Kickstarter, as I ran a campaign for these books back in Jan 2023 (ish) :D

So much work!!


I'll definitely report back on the results, I'm very curious now, especially as it's only a couple days until release

[ashleycapes]

I like those covers.   

...I've yet to release a whole trilogy at once...

It can be a little hectic.  Make sure you have your blurbs, keywords, categories, and all that other stuff planned out in advance and written down on a cheat sheet or something so that you don't get everything mixed up.  This is especially true if, as I did, you're uploading to multiple retailers at the same time, not just Amazon.

That aside, congratulations on your latest achievement, and I hope you sell lots of books.   

Thank you! I did have to go through a bit of that, yeah - had the retailers open and the key info for each book sitting in a notepad doc, tedious! But I definitely had to concentrate and work through it, like, "okay book 1 in this retailer, now book 1 in that retailer etc etc"

Did you find that your readers were generally more pleased with all books being available at once? (However that could be measured :D)

[Jeff Tanyard]

Did you find that your readers were generally more pleased with all books being available at once? (However that could be measured :D)

I got paid sales for books 2 and 3 very quickly, so some folks might have purchased the whole trilogy at once, but it's possible those were just fast readers who zipped through book 1 and then immediately bought the next one.

When I had my Bookbub, a number of folks bought all three books on the same day, but I expect that's just them having enough faith in Bookbub to merit doing that.  I'm not sure that would translate to ordinary sales.

All that is a long way of saying I don't really know.     I know some readers won't touch a series until it's complete, though, so there's definitely a price to be paid for not finishing the series before publishing book one.  I was aware of this back then, and I made my decision to publish the whole trilogy at once, and I don't regret that decision.

[ashleycapes]

Did you find that your readers were generally more pleased with all books being available at once? (However that could be measured :D)

All that is a long way of saying I don't really know.     I know some readers won't touch a series until it's complete, though, so there's definitely a price to be paid for not finishing the series before publishing book one.  I was aware of this back then, and I made my decision to publish the whole trilogy at once, and I don't regret that decision.

That's one thing I've been most concerned with, and when I look at my other series that are not yet finished, they just don't move so well.

So it's nice to hear that you've experienced happy readers when you've released the trilogy all at once, thank you!