On Writing

Yesterday Was Full of Awesomeness

/ inkspeare / 2 Comments

Awesomeness, is that a word?  Well, it was for me because yesterday I received Moonlit Valley copies, Moo cards, and other fun stuff, all destined to spread the cheer.  I have to say that it felt like Christmas.  It is a great feeling to see the material form of what was once an idea, a dream, a passion.  Now the hard part begins, which is to promote the book.  I have to say that when I think about it, writing it was the easy part.  Here is a bit of what I will be doing in the next few days.

  • Spreading copies with joy.
Chanti is more than happy to help with the task.

Chanti is more than happy to help with the task.

  • Spreading more cheer.

rack cards

Rack cards are a great way to spread the voice.  They are perfect to give away, mail in a long envelope, distribute, and even serve as bookmarkers.  You can give them to friends so they can pass them around as well. You can design these the way you want.  I ordered mine through Vistaprint.  I wrote a blurb in the back, and where to find the book, as well as a link to this blog.  These are not expensive at all, by the way.

pens

I ordered five of these pens out of curiosity, again through Vistaprint, and they are really nice; however, the purpose will be for giveaways, and I don’t think that the pens make a statement – the novel is that small purple spot in the middle of the pen, if you can see it.  Ok, I was just curious, and these were not expensive either.

  • Use Hubby as a novel prop/promo.

All I have to say is that I married the coolest guy in the planet, and he is happy to help me spread the cheer by wearing this t-shirt.

He survived the writing of this novel as well, so he is entitled to wear it. "Honey, no dinner tonight? I guess we are having Chapter 13, yummy."

He survived the writing of this novel as well, so he is entitled to wear it. “Honey, no dinner tonight? I guess we are having Chapter 13, yummy.”

I will be wearing one as well, so he doesn’t think he is doing all the work. By the way, I got these through the same venue, and were $6 each (on sale) – totally doable, since I am on a budget.

  • Must Moo Moonlit Valley and future novels.

I should dedicate an entire post to these mini cards from Moo because this is the first time I order them and I was impressed.  I ordered the minimum – 100, and these were not expensive at all to create at 19.99 per 100.  As I mentioned on an earlier post, you can do a lot with these – design to your little heart desires.

They came fast, in a cute little box, and even the envelope was cool.

Yay, they are here!

Yay, they are here!

I like something about them – they are made from sustainable materials, and therefore, environmentally friendly.

back

The company gets the excitement (of the customer) as well, and it shows in the packaging.

The small letters read - How very exciting!

The small letters read – How very exciting!

Will serve as a business card and promo card in one, despite the mini size, and you can create as many as 100 different designs.  So if I wanted, I could have made the entire pack of 100 with a different design.  But since I am promoting my books in the back, I used the back for images of the book.  And yes, you will get a tiny peek-a-boo at future book covers.

Cute little box with tabs.

Cute little box with tabs.

Here is a mini card, back and front showing – this one is for Moonlit Valley.  The size is perfect for carrying them around in your pocket, I mean, anywhere.

This mini moo card is promoting my business and the novel.

This mini moo card is promoting my business and the novel.

The next picture will give you a better idea of the size of these moo cards.

Shown next to a penny.

Shown next to a penny.

So there you have it – a whole lot of awesomeness in one day!  Hope you enjoy the post and got a few good ideas out of it.  Oh, and remember to enter to win a copy of Moonlit Valley, like my Facebook page (at the right of the screen). Winners will be announced on this coming Monday.

Moonlit Valley Giveaway

/ inkspeare

Here is the announcement. I will be giving away three paperback copies of Moonlit Valley to the lucky winners. Last day will be on Saturday March 9.  On Monday March 11, I will announce the three winners.  All you have to do is like my Facebook page, located at the right of the screen, and automatically you will be entered for a chance to win a copy. Feel free to share a review, if you’d like. Each copy will come with a Moonlit Valley bookmarker, and signed 🙂 Good luck! Cheers!

 

MOONLIT VALLEY

MOONLIT VALLEY

 

On Writing Critters, Demons, and Other Beings

/ inkspeare / 6 Comments

The purpose of this post is to highlight the importance of consulting  your earlier outlines or notes when writing a second novel that refers to characters of a previous novel.

When I wrote The Dinorah Chronicles – Ramblings of the Spirit, I did not consult my earlier notes for Moonlit Valley, for most of it.  While reviewing Ramblings of the Spirit, I noticed that I had misspelled the name of one of the creatures, and have done it through the entire novel.  I wasn’t sure, so I consulted my notes from the first book.  This was more than a typo.  I was right, I had switched a k for a j, calling the supernatural entity a Murksling instead of a Murkslink, and in a deeper level, altering the character’s essence/meaning (murk-slink).  Although it wouldn’t probably affect or alter the story, readers notice these things, and many of them know their critters and supernatural beings by heart, if they are reading your books.  Not realizing that mistake on time to make the correction, would have been misinterpreted as carelessness or lack of respect towards the world that a writer has created.  In a way, it is a letdown to the reader.  This is why it is so important to keep earlier notes and outlines at hand, when out of the ordinary beings are created and named.  It is helpful as well, to keep track of important details if you are writing a series.

I keep all my notes and very short outlines in the computer, so it is easy to refer to them, as necessary.  However, I was relying on my memory and trusting that I would remember every detail.  Not the case.  If you don’t like to keep your notes in the PC, a small box of index cards for each novel, divided by chapter, is a good idea.  In each chapter card, include meaningful information such as dates, ages, descriptions, places, and names of characters, and any other pertinent details for future series.  In addition, you may buy software that can help you organize your novel files.  I like to keep it simple because I don’t want to create a project out of an outline of a novel.

So this is my bit of wisdom for today – keep your critters, demons, and supernatural beings at hand, so you don’t end up dissapointing your readers.

Moo Your Novel

/ inkspeare

I have thought about ways to spread the cheer about Moonlit Valley, my first novel (you may visit the Novels tab on this blog for more information on the book).  I thought about Moo mini cards, and found this to be a great idea.  Today, I ordered a few.  They are very affordable.  It is an awesome way to promote your business as well as your books.  For me, I ended up doing a combo business and book promo mini card.

Moo mini cards are half the size of a traditional business card, and you can print on both sides or download your images.  In my case, I downloaded images of my business logo and images of my book.  The best about it is that you can have up to 100 different images in the back of the card (in one order).  The front will be your business or book info, and you can choose for the back one or as many images you want, up to 100.  If you have many novels, you can use part of the cover to place in the back of the card.  Each time you hand out a card, a different image (or message if you choose) will be on the back.  You can also do all of them with one image only, if you desire.  I love the opportunity to be able to do many things with these mini cards.  You can also create text cards, and for example, use lines from your book.  There are many possibilities, depending on how creative you want to be.  I can’t wait to get mine.

In addition, I discovered that Moo has a new service called an NFC card.  This is as awesome as it can get.  Techies will love it for sure.  These are business cards that have a small chip inside and when you hand it to someone the person can touch it to a smart phone, the card will send a message that has been pre-programmed by you, and the phone will execute it.  For example this could be download music, or your portfolio, or pics, or a link to your website …  Imagine directing customers to your book link via your business card; isn’t that awesome?

Well, for now, I will be happy to get my glossy moo cards with all the images selections that I created.  As soon as I get them in the mail, I will post some pics so you can see how beautiful and smart these mini cards are.

Check it out if you think this is a good idea – http://www.moo.com/share/qg6j89

Smashing my Words and Other Vicissitudes

/ inkspeare / 3 Comments

I decided to offer Moonlit Valley via Smashwords because it offers a wide distribution option for electronic books.  In a way, it was like killing many birds with one stone (ouch).  It offers the ePub format (nook, apple,kobo…) and others like the Sony reader, Palm, pdf, rtf, and of course plain text, as well as library lending.  This seems the perfect all-in-one, one-stop-shopping deal.  For someone like me, who gets easily overwhelmed by too many sites to keep track of, and too many profiles, joining Smashwords was a plus.  There is only one thing I did not like – the look of the end product of an electronic book.  Unlike Amazon Kindle, it is a bit messy and limited on what you can do with font type and font size.  Your chapters might end anywhere in the page, and the worst is that when you are trying to fix it, your book is out there available to the public – there is no in-between or prelude to the publishing button.  I was so worried that I could not get Moonlit Valley as spiffy as in the Amazon Kindle, that I became frustrated.  However, I hadn’t finish fixing my file when I already had three downloads for a sample of the novel – I guess a good thing.  How I dealt with this feeling?  It was easy.  I searched for the books of famous and best-selling authors, then looked at their file – they were having the same issues and troubles with how the novel looked.  Then,  I guessed that there was no way getting around that – Smashwords electronic books will never look as perfect as Amazon Kindle, but at least will offer readers who use the e-formats mentioned above the opportunity to find my books, and sample them.

I find that offering Moonlit Valley through Amazon in paperback and kindle format, as well as offering it through Smashwords in various e-formats covers pretty much everything (check the Novels tab in this blog).  So I am sticking with this way of doing things.  I advice that you  create profiles in Amazon USA, UK, France, EU, and that you do it in the main language (use goggle translator) as well as follow-up with an English description underneath (just in case).  Making use of the forums on Amazon/CS from time to time is a good idea as well. One thing I wish I could do is to manage all the Amazon stuff from one Hub, meaning the CS, Kindle, and Author Central – it would save much back and forth.

As far as social networking goes, I love Facebook because it offers so much, and although I don’t love twitter’s format that much, I am trying to get used to it.  To me, FB is more geared to follow-up in conversation, while Twitter feels like a bunch of birds chirping at the same time, with little or no interaction between them.  I will give it some time. One word of advice to new authors trying to get into social media, “it is not that easy to transfer all your people from your personal FB account into your Author Page – most of them will not click to join the new page, but they are more than happy to interact with you through your personal FB account.  So my advice is that if you are like me, who cannot bother with too many profiles and accounts (hence why I condensed two blogs into this one and this one will serve as my author blog as well), the best thing is to start your FB or Twitter accounts with your author name – it will be much easier in the long run.  I made that mistake, so now I share on both. I guess if you are using a pen name, then you have to keep multiples of everything, and to me that translates into nightmare.

For me, keeping it simple works best, despite all the advice out there saying that you  have to be in every format/platform available.  For me, doing that would be contra productive because I would end up tired, overwhelmed, and dreading the whole thing, and with no desire to write, which is the main purpose – writing novels.  For me this is what works:  Amazon +Kindle + Author Central + Smashwords + Facebook + Twitter + WordPress = A happy writer.

In the end, we want to be happy writers and enjoy the process.  Too much of anything gets in the way, that is how I feel.

MOONLIT VALLEY

MOONLIT VALLEY

I am adding this link as I think it is important news about the battle between Amazon and bookstores – http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/20/drm-lawsuit-independent-bookstores-amazon_n_2727519.html

Seagull Latest Gossip

/ inkspeare

Ok, I could not resist doing this to these adorable seagulls.  I took the picture at the Keyport, NJ waterfront.  It looks like the are gossiping about something quite juicy, so of course I had to imagine it.  Click on the picture to make it larger 🙂

Photo by Maria Diaz

Photo by Maria Diaz

Look at What the Asteroid Brought – a Piece of the Moon

/ inkspeare

I am just kidding; however, I am extremely happy to announce that Moonlit Valley is available through Amazon (US, UK, EU) in paperback or e-book (Kindle or PDF).  It will also be available via extended distribution through the Ingram, Baker & Taylor catalog, in about 6-8 weeks, meaning that you will be able to order it at your favorite bookstore.  I will be celebrating tonight, of course.  Here is the link to Moonlit Valley

You can also find it here – Moonlit Valley, and through Smashwords here for all of you who have ereaders in the ePub format (nook, apple, kobo…), Sony, palm, and other electronic formats.

This is a picture of the cover,

MOONLIT VALLEY

MOONLIT VALLEY

And the back cover,

back cover Moonlit valley

And a spread picture (because I’m so excited),

moonlit valley spread

Here is a bit about it,

Moonlit Valley

Rose Carrigan never imagined what awaited her when she left her New Jersey hometown to live in an old farmhouse located in a small southern town called Moonlit Valley.   After a series of mysterious clues and unfortunate events, once more, her world turns upside down. This time, the man who she loves, Jeremy Sandbeck, her irresistible and seductive husband, is the one responsible. When she discovers his identity, she must decide between love and destiny, defying the surreal world that she has discovered.  Jeremy struggles with love, and what he
thinks is his true supernatural and divine duty.

I hope you like it.  I will keep you updated.

Novel Update Brought to You by a Turtle

/ inkspeare

Slow as a turtle; this is how I describe the process.  Well, so far I have worked in getting Moonlit Valley ready to publish, and in the meantime, I have been working on small changes and tidying up of Ramblings of the Spirit.  I started writing The Book of Sharon, and can’t wait to have all these pieces that may seem apart now, fall together in harmony.  Self publishing is tons of work, that I can tell you.

I came across this beautiful song and immediately thought of Moonlit Valley – it fits the story perfectly, so I wanted to share it with you.  It is “No Sound But the Wind” by the Editors.  It is an awesome song.  I love their songs.  Here is a video that I found in YouTube from theseboredkids, who did a great job with it.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.  In the meantime, I will go back to work 🙂

Thinking About Book Marketing for Introverts

/ inkspeare / 3 Comments

For the purpose of this post, let me start by defining an introvert as someone who enjoys solitude, quiet environments, and working by himself/herself as opposed to someone who enjoys live and upbeat/crazy environments and group work, as well as the spotlight.  You may be an introvert and love to socialize, and not necessarily consider yourself a shy person.  For example, you may prefer the coziness of a small book club to an auditorium full of people, discussing the same topic, and you may prefer one on one interaction to group action.

These days, even if you are an introvert writer, you will be faced with making choices when it comes to selecting how you will market your book.  Technology and the internet opened the doors to many good authors allowing them to share their work – doors that once were slammed in their faces by traditional publishing.  In a world where viral can happen to anyone, introvert authors may find themselves in the spotlight, without even wanting it.  With it comes the interviews, the shows, podcasts, invitations, speaking engagements … and so on.  What is an introvert author to do?  Well, he/she may go with the flow (even if it becomes too much), or he/she may become selective and do things according to a level of “self-preservation” and comfort.

If you are on the “quiet side” don’t let the noise of the “new way of doing things” prevent you from following your dream.  When it comes to marketing your book, you don’t have to do what everyone does.  The purpose of marketing something is just to put the word out there so people know it is available and can make an informed decision whether to purchase it or not (in the case of a product) or to contribute to it or not ( in the case of charity or money-raising events).  You can tailor the marketing to the activities that you enjoy doing, and take advantage of social networking and technology to do them more efficiently.  For example, lets say that there is no way that you will have your face plastered via your YouTube channel to reach readers, because the thought of it makes you sick; however, you love blogging and you love forums, and this is a way by which you can achieve the same marketing results.  You may not want to go on a book tour(s), but you have no trouble with doing one on one interviews, or small group readings.

Those were just examples on how to tailor marketing to the activities that you enjoy, thus eliminating the dislike factor and making the process enjoyable.  People prefer a genuine you than a “stiff/scared forced to do this” you.  When I watch informative videos on YouTube, I go for the ones that show me a down to earth person who seems genuine and seems to be enjoying what he/she is doing.  I stay away from the clips in which a stiff person is trying to sell me something and making a fake effort so it doesn’t come across that way.  My point is, being genuine at what you do, even if it is only one activity, will turn better results than doing tons of activities that you don’t enjoy just because that is what the “experts” say you should do to sell more books, have more traffic, and gain readers.

If you don’t like the spotlight, you can always dim the lights to your level of comfort.  You never know, maybe the activities that you enjoy will lead you to activities that you didn’t know you enjoy.  When marketing your book, do the things that you love to spread the good news and be genuine, generous, and thankful about it.  The guts to live your dream takes many times, just showing up to what matters in life – to what matters to you, and not adopting a one size fits all approach.

New Writers – Beware of Writing Sites

/ inkspeare / 2 Comments

I am writing this post for all new writers who are thinking about joining writing sites.  When I started writing online, I wasn’t sure of what venue to choose so I selected a few popular sites to write for them, thinking that this would be beneficial for my writing career.  Unfortunately, I started to notice that one of those sites – called Triond, started allowing very bad writing – mostly from people who wanted to make a quick buck and didn’t care about writing garbage and ill edited articles.  The staff let those articles go through, without editing them.  Some of these articles were actually unreadable – just picture a string of keywords with no meaning to them.  Fearing that associating with that site would hurt my career, I contacted them and asked that my content be removed and my account canceled/closed.  My account was closed, and at that time, it seemed that my articles were blocked and they did not show as published.  This happened more than two years ago.

Today, while reviewing some links on this blog, I came across old content that had a link to one of those articles.  I clicked on it and to my surprise, the article did show up published.  I kept clicking on some of the old links and most of them were showing active.  Not only that, but there were all kinds of ads running on them, making Triond money.  I am disgusted.  Immediately, I clicked the contact link and wrote to them asking that my content be removed or blocked.  Lets see what happens.  I hope I get a response this time.

In the meantime, my face and work is plastered on that site, along with all the craziness and bad writing going on.  There are very good writers on that site too, not all  is bad writing, but a huge percentage is bad written content, and that is the only reason I wanted to disassociate my name from it.  I never had a problem with the site otherwise; I just did not agree with their practice of bad editing and letting anything go through to publishing.

Let my experience serve you as a measure to choose a writing site very wisely and carefully, to avoid situations like this one.  I hope that Triond listens and blocks all of my content, which they are not authorized to publish anymore.