One of my big problem is rushing to publish my books, and everything else I write. I also trust that my editor and formatter have done their job right. I learned my lesson over this last week.
My darling husband has never expressed an interest in reading my books at all. This week after a run of very good sales he asked to read the first book in the Green Lady Inn series, Broken Branches. He didn't find much wrong with book one in the series. Of course it was my first novel and I had three editors go over it before I published it. Happy with the results of book one, I had him read book two, Whispers in time. that was a total revelation. The formatting was all over the place and there were several spelling and typo errors. Part of it was my fault. I added some reviews at the front of the book and threw all the formatting off. It took me a couple days to set it right and correcting all the spelling errors. By that time he had read book three, Hidden Asset, I had republished book two. The formatting didn't get so messed in book three up but there were several spelling errors. I had spelled a persons name one way in the first two books and another way in the third. I'm a little surprised my editor didn't catch it. I'm really embarrassed that I have been selling inferior books to readers, even though the reviews have been great. Now fingers crossed, I've fixed all the errors we found on the Green Lady Inn series. I hope my readers stay with me and I do apologize for rushing to have these books published. It does give self-published authors a bad name. That's the last thing I want to do. My husband is now reading Blood Orange. Again he is finding spelling mistakes my editor should have caught. When he finishes I'll make all the corrections. I think I'm looking for a new editor. I've learned that you get what you pay for. I don't have a lot of money for editor and formatters. I'll have my husband read the proof copy before I approve and publish in the future. This is a warning to every author out there, edit, edit and edit again. If anyone out there has done something silly like this I'd love to hear from you. We all make mistakes the honor is in owning up to them. Thanks for reading my little rant and please leave a comment or ask a question.
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Events matter to an author and I'll tell you why. Since the evolution of self-publishing more and more you will see independent authors like myself, and some traditionally published, at all kinds of events. I'll basically go anywhere they will have me from a church fete to a large book fair.
The big traditional publishers do very little to promote an author's book. A friends of mine I travel with occasionally is traditionally published and he is working his butt off to get noticed and find readers to buy his books. Recently I went to two that I did really well at. I went to the S.W. Heritage Festival in Sarasota in February and Pioneer Days in Arcadia this past weekend. I love these events. I meet some wonderful people and have a great time. I did well at these two because two of my adult mysteries. They are set in the area of Myakka and Arcadia. But my children's books also sold well there too. You do have to think of your customer base when choosing which events to go to. I'm lucky down here as I get visitors from up north as well. I have a paranormal mystery series set in Salem Ma. that attracts the northern Snow Birds. The Green Lady Inn series now has three books and I'm working on the fourth. The first book in the series won an award in the Fall of 2017. After the event you would be surprised at how many eBooks I sell. For a couple weeks I'll have a few sales here and there which is great. Since I go to so many events I meet the same readers at the next event. Quite often if they have bought one and enjoyed it they will buy the next one. I have used Vista print to make post cards the readers can take away with them. The cards have the front cover of the book and the back has the synopsis and where they can buy the book. I also include my website and a call to action. What is a call to action? I ask the reader to ask for my book at the local library. Some people would prefer to get a book for free from the library and will ask me "Is the book in the library". I do have my books in a couple library systems. One of my children's books, Sailing Away to Nod, has been bought by the Sarasota Library System. If a requested book is not in their system the library will try and get it for the customer. It's still a sale for me. I'm off to Venice FL on March 24 for the Venice Reading Festival. So far the weather looks perfect. There will be about seventy tents down there full of authors with books of all genre. Just being with that many authors is exciting. Please leave a comment or ask a question. I'd love to hear from you. It's been a while since I've written here. Please forgive me and I'll try and do better. As some of you know I belong to a couple non-profit organizations here in Florida. For two years I was the president of the Sarasota branch of the National League of American Pen Women and I've spent the last six years as the president of ABC Books for Children & Adults. What with organizing, fund-raising and such there has not been much time left for me.
Surprisingly enough I did manage to crank out a new children's book and book three in the Green Lady Inn series last year. I also helped a couple new authors publish their books and I'm consulting for another publisher in Sarasota. So why am i exploring Audio books? I believe they are the coming thing and authors need to keep up with technology. I have my first Audio book coming out in March 2018. I used ACX which is part of Amazon. I'm using Broken Branches for my first venture into this new area. If this comes out well I can have the next books on audio as well. It's really an easy thing to accomplish as ACX walks you through it all in easy to follow directions. If you like audio books watch for Broken Branches on Audible in the next couple weeks. I'm giving my readers a preview of my new novel, Blood Orange, amzn.to/2v33Vjc
Here is a link to introduce you to sexy Sheriff McAlister and feisty Nora Hollister as they fight against the drug cartel invading the Florida orange groves they call home. amzn.to/2xcGoyz You write the next big novel but no one is buying it. You're stumped with marketing your book. Where do you begin?
Even the big Traditional publishing houses do not do the marketing they used to years ago. You are on your own and it's a huge learning curve to figure out how to market you book. Most authors only like to write and don't want to be bothered with getting the word out about their book. I've said it before and will say it again. If readers don't know you exist they can not buy your book. You have to do a bit of marketing every day to let readers know about you and your book. Start with Social media. Most of us are on Facebook. Do you have an authors page. If not set one up. Here is where you will engage your readers and let them get to know you. You are not going to sell them your books. You will not say buy my wonderful book. What you are going to do is lead them to enjoy learning about who you are and what you are interested in. When you do have a promotion for your new book you will have built up a following and can now let them know you have this great book. Did you know that you can offer your kindle version for free for 5 days in a 3 month period? You're asking why in heaven's name would I want to give my book away for free? You will be paid by the Kindle Global fund for every page of your book that is read, that's why. How do I do this? go to your KDP dashboard and chose the book you want to promote. On the right click on promote. About halfway down you will see where you can have a kindle count down or offer your kindle for free. Choose Free and choose the dates you want to run the promotion. Split up those 5 days to 3 days one weekend and later 2 days. Do this in the beginning of the week so you are ready for Friday morning. Come Friday morning your are going to post your amazing free offer. Post it on your Facebook author page and then post where the readers. How do you find all these readers? in the Facebook search bar put kindle. You will get a drop down of places to post about your promotion. the same hold for Twitter. Go where the readers are. Of course this is the condensed version of a marketing plan but you can get the basic idea. If you have questions please leave a comment and also sign up for my Newsletter. My novel Honey Tree Farm - For the Love of the Beekeeper's Daughter amzn.to/2jh3v3y , won a bronze medal at the annual Florida Authors and Publishers Association conference in Orlando Florida on August 5th. A fellow author and I made the road trip and had a wonderful experience. We stayed over night and at breakfast the next morning we were delighted to have our pictures taken with some of the Disney Characters. I was shaking when I read the e-mail that I was a finalist. I'd never won such an honor before for one of my books. I have won awards from the National League of American Pen Women before for a couple of my books. But the FAPA is a big one. I would like to offer a free kindle in exchange for a review. Simply post your request with your email in the comments and I'll send you a gift receipt for one. I'll also offer a free kindle in exchange for a review of my book, Whispers in time - Book two in the Green Lady Inn series. amzn.to/2oBBxWW Reviews are so important to an author. My newest book Blood Orange was released last weekend. It's set in 1986 when the Columbian drug Cartel of Pablo Escobar used to drop their cocaine by plane into the Florida orange groves for pick up. amzn.to/2vJdG7t Please sign up for my new letter. If you read a book by an independent author do them a favor and give them a review on Amazon. You don't know how much we appreciate it. Any questions please leave a comment. I'd love to hear from you. 'sI very much enjoy creating children's picture books.
I use a Microsoft program called publisher. It's really easy once you know how. I place all the illustrations in their correct order and then add the text. I do this page by page. Then I convert the file to a PDF and send it to the client. I want the client to be involved in the whole process and learn as we go. I make any corrections to the text or illustration placement and believe me I do miss a couple things and need that extra set of eyes. Once the client approves the PDF, the client can take the files to any publisher they choose or I will up load it to Create Space. Most authors know it is part of Amazon. Sometimes Create Space will not accept the file because of various reasons. One I run into often is the text is too close to the edge of the page. It looks fine to me but they can be a bit picky. Once it goes through, the client then can look at a digital proof and look for any other corrections. Or they can order a physical proof sent to their home. Most new authors choose this way. It's fun to get your first published book in your hands. If the proof is accepted then it's listed on Amazon and we hold our breath waiting for all those sales to roll in. That's when the hard part begins. The dreaded marketing. I enjoy the marketing end of things almost more than the writing. Several of my books have made it into the Amazon top ten best seller list and I'm going to try entering a couple contests in the coming months. Winning a contest raises your credibility as an author. Three of my books have won awards at the National League of American Pen Women conferences. I love to help new authors so if you have a questions just ask. Don't forget to sign up for my newsletter. I don't go crazy. Only when I have a new book out or a great event I'll be at. when I finished my last novel, Blood Orange, I went looking for an editor. I want this book to be the shinning star in my career as an author. I don't have a big budget. Most authors don't. This is my fifth book and I've made mistakes choosing my editor in the past.
My first book, Broken Branches amzn.to/2jy5zFg I had edited by three different editors at bargain prices. The editors were friends who said they knew what they were doing. Obviously I didn't know what I was doing. There were mistakes in spelling and duplicated words. The formatting was a mess. Last year I had it edited again and reformatted. For my second book, Bottle Alley, http://amzn.to/2kbxON6 was edited by a friend that charged me triple what my first book cost. I almost had a hear attack when she wanted to kill off a main character in the first chapter. The third book, Honey Tree Farm, http://amzn.to/2jh3v3y was edited by the same person. Not a good idea. She changed the first two chapters a lot. The reviews I get all say the first chapters are too slow and the book doesn't take off until the third chapter. For the second book in the Green Lady Inn series, Whispers in Time, http://amzn.to/2oBBxWW . Broken Branches is book one. I went with another fellow author at a rock bottom price. I have received no reviews since it was released a couple months ago. I have no idea if this book should be throw on the bonfire or not. Now we arrive at my fifth book Blood Orange. It's with a professional editor now at $50 an hour. How many hours will it take? Your guess is as good as mine. They are doing a good rewrite, a bit of connecting the dots that I missed and my horrible spelling and punctuation. This one will cost me. I don't dare tell my husband how much. He pinches every penny twice before he spends it. Whispers in Time is free on kindle this weekend. I'd love to get some reviews and have readers tell me if it's any good or not. sign up for my new letter to get information on new releases. Blood Orange will be out this summer. You can order copies of my books and others I have helped to publish from m store. ?
I've started working on the third book in the green lady Inn series. In book one Megan inherited the house in Salem Massachusetts from her grandmother. She also met and married, quite suddenly, Jake Durant a mystery writer from Boston. Her next door neighbors, Zack and Amanda, along with Jake help her solve the mystery surrounding her grandmother's death. I enjoyed writing this first novel. It almost seemed to write itself. Book two was a little harder. I was learning more about my craft and trying hard to put what I was learning into my book. In this one the Green Lady Inn is not quite up and running when strange guests start to appear at her door. A valuable painting is stolen from the Longstreet Gallery, and she finds a new distant relative. Who happens to work for Scotland Yard. Book three is harder yet. There are more characters to keep track of. Thank goodness for excel. Megan and her neighbor have both had babies. How do you mention the babies and then forget them as the story unfolds? You can't. Baby sitters have to be hired. Megan's child, Elizabeth has to be fed, changed and put to bed at night. It all gets a bit more complicated. The Longstreet Gallery has plans to expand into the store next door but the unscrupulous relator, Mr. Prendergast has rented it out to a printing outfit. Megan and Amanda have approached a reclusive Thaddaeus Cadwallader , the owner of the space in question and tell him what Prendergast is up to. Will it make a difference? Your guess is as good as mine. I write by the seat of my pants, one scene at a time. I only know the general premise of the book. It takes me on a journey of discovery as I write it. Only a couple facts hold true. Megan has visions that give her cryptic clues that she and her fellow armature detectives solve. The Inn now has a resident ghost, Lucinda Cory Sinclair. She's another relative and Megan's lookalike. Lucinda is now talking to Megan warning her of dangers to come. Magic is a black cat Megan rescued as a kitten in book one. Magic is always in the middle of things and has taken a position as guardian to little Elizabeth. I know who the bad guys are and what they are up to but how will I have them get caught? I haven't murdered anyone yet. I have an idea who I want to have killed, should I? I'm also still playing with the cover. How much should I giveaway? Writing is a process I'm enjoying. I'm learning as I go. I belong to a couple writers groups and they have all helped shape my writing in one way or another. I also read a lot of mystery books and each one give me something I can use to make my writing better. Thanks for listening and please write a short comment. I'd love to hear from you When I started out writing I knew nothing about writing or the industry I was getting involved with.
It all started out with a challenge I gave myself to write a children's and see if I could get it published. I have learned so much in the seven years since that very first day I sat down to write, Just Batty. Back then, self-publishing still had a bad name. My first publisher was a subsidy-publisher I found on the internet. I looked at traditional publishing. I didn't even know there was such a thing as self-publishing. That's how green I was. The first publisher that liked my work and would publish it is the one I went with. The illustrations were dreadful and there were errors in the text. No wonder self-publishing got a bad name. We have come a long way since then and want to be taken seriously. An article I read, bit.ly/2rW4eex , 10 questions to ask yourself before choosing a publisher is a must for every writer looking for a publisher. Now I read anything I can get my hands on principally about the marketing end of things. I learned how to achieve sales through social media, which is huge if you put in the work. When I set up a store on my website I expected the sales to come flooding in. Needless to say I have not had one sale. This week, two years after I set it up I did a little detective work and called the web host to find out if I had made all the connections I needed to have the store up and running. I didn't. After a few minutes and a very patient technician my store was up and ready to receive orders. I waited and still no orders. Today I went and bought one of my own books in my store to see how it worked. It is working but I did call the technician again to ask a couple questions. I read an article recently that I will be bring to my writing group. actually a couple articles. The one I'm bring forward is about how authors grumble about not having any sales but do absolutely nothing about changing it. If your sales are not what you hope for ask your self, "What am I doing to promote and market my books?" No one can do it for you. You need to keep up with technology and read as much as you can about the different ways to help yourself. Sign up for my newsletter for information on new releases and where you will find me at an event. I'll be happy to answer any questions or write about something you are interested in. Leave a comment and I'll answer it. |
AuthorFrom the active mind of Brenda M. Spalding Archives
February 2020
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