writing ideas

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

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 🙂

Announcing a Few Changes to Inkspeare

/ inkspeare

This is just a quick post to let you know that I have rearranged the site a bit and added a section at the top tabs – NOVELS.  Here, you will find announcements and updates about these projects, as well as release date – as soon as it is available, and other information …  Also, I will keep you posted via regular posts.

I added a FB link to the right of this blog, where you can link to my FB author page, if you would like to friend me.  If you Tweet, you can friend me there as well.

In addition, you may notice that under Inkspeare, I added my author name. I opted out of a pen name for a single reason, and this is thanks to a comment that was made by Indi author Cliff Burns on one of my older posts –Writer’s Wisdom 17, Pen Names – he commented,

“I have a real aversion to pen names/pseudonyms. I’m aware that some very fine writers have employed them but I want my real name on everything I write (including postings on the internet, I never hide behind safe anonymity).
Any book or writing project I would resist putting my name on probably isn’t worth publishing. I take responsibility for what I release and when it’s bad, I’ll to take my fair share of blame…”

Until I read that comment, I had considered the possibility of writing under a pen name that might sound a bit more “sophisticated.”  I have to say that Mr. Burns’ comment opened my eyes on this topic, and I thank him for this.  Therefore, I am using my real name as my author name – Maria Antonia Diaz.

Writers hand with pen

Writers hand with pen (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Two Serious Writing Goals for 2013

/ inkspeare
photo by M. Diaz

photo by M. Diaz

I am loving 2013.  After the many Doomsday theories that we had to listen to over the past year, I am glad that 2013 is here.  2012 was dark in many ways, I perceived the “doom” in many people’s moods, and in the overall atmosphere, both cyber and reality.  I had many personal challenges, which I view as lessons that I must go through so I can evolve.  In a way, I view 2013 as a year of possibility and light, a year of taking journey, of flapping wings and embracing the sunlight.  2013 is just the beginning of many good things to come our way.  At least, that is how I choose to perceive it.

I have set two serious writing goals, which I want to accomplish before the end of the year (pending dates).

  • The release of my first novel – “Moonlit Valley”
  • The release of my second novel – “The Dinorah Chronicles – Ramblings of the Spirit.” (first in the trilogy)

A third goal has been set to write the second book in the trilogy, which title is “The Book of Sharon;” however, I will be extremely happy if I get to the first draft on this one.  I am hoping to release this one by 2014.  I don’t know what the 3rd book in the trilogy will be, as it hasn’t knocked on my door yet, but it will, just as the others did.

Ideally, I would love to write a novel a year and to have it ready for release the next year.  However, reality tells me that I (still) have a pending move to a very rural setting (mind the internet speed here), and a farmhouse to restore by hand, and very limited funds, so let’s see how that goes.  For now, I will be happy if I can materialize these two major goals before the end of 2013.

Do you have a serious goal for 2013?  Feel free to share it here; let’s make this year one of amazing things happening 🙂

Why I Chose to Self-Publish in 2013

/ inkspeare / 6 Comments

The decision to self-publish did not come easy to me, neither did it come after tons of rejections, since I stopped myself from sending queries, after sending one.  I realized that more than anything else, I had to define what I wanted out of my love for writing, before going forward.  I knew that I was not doing it for money (for most writers, there’s none in it), or to become a famous author one day … One thing that I knew for sure was that I loved to write, and it seemed that I could do that forever, if the opportunity to turn that passion into a career path presented itself.   Why choose to self publish without even making a real attempt at publishing a novel by going through the usual channels and motion?  It all came down to Creative Control.

Having control over the entire process, and not having to depend on others to decide how or when the story came out matched my working style, work ethics, and personality.  In addition, I never understood why someone who never gave birth to the story would understand it in a deeper level, enough to change parts of it (I’m not talking here about fixing gaps, and other valuable efforts/work of editors and the traditional industry in general).  I wanted the opportunity to craft the entire project, learn from it, and grow from it and with it.  The decision to self-publish was clear only after I understood that all I wanted was to have creative control if writing was going to be something that I would want to do for the long run, and possibly for the rest of my life.

I was aware that it would be a long, slow and tedious process, tons of work, and an exhausting venture, that is, if I was going to do it the right way, and not in a hurry to publish in digital or in print.  The need for getting published fast was not even an issue, when I considered the facts and information.  However, the need to control the process, the schedule, the dates, the story, the deadlines, the art, the release … and all the other issues that go along with it was what I seem to long for the more  I thought about the issue.

I have read about self-published authors who after selling many of their books successfully, have signed up with a well-known publisher.  I totally understand the need of having people taking care of the small details, sites, emails, and putting together a book … all that is a ton of work, and very difficult to do for one person, especially if that author has become a best-selling author; besides, it robs from the main purpose, which is writing the story, and many more stories to come.  So while creative control is a wonderful concept, it doesn’t come easy, and in an ideal scenario, the best of both worlds would be the “perfect balance,” if there is such a thing.  For now, I am very happy to have found my “balance” for the moment, and that is to have been able to understand and finally, make the decision of releasing my piled up novels in 2013.  In doing so, I go with the confidence and peace of mind that it is the right path for me and the decision has not been rushed by any external factors.

Are you unsure of which path to take with your writing endeavor?  Are you torn between traditional venues and the rapidly evolving self-publishing industry?  Is this the only thing stopping you?  For me, it was, but once I understood what I wanted from my writing, the path became clear.  Ask yourself this question, “What do I want from my writing?”