Backwards as Usual

As I stumble my way through self publishing, I find myself going about it all backwards.

I researched self publishing as any normal person would do before taking a step this big. It really is a big step and research is essential.

I found a e-publishing site which was most recommended by fellow authors...www.smashwords.com. I saw what I liked and flew through the publishing process. Yay! I'm published. I watched one copy, and then another fly off the virtual shelves. I decided to actually get physical trade paperbacks of my novels through CreateSpace/Amazon.  Their distribution is awesome.  Now comes the reality of self-publishing and I find myself playing catch-up.

Then came the issue of letting everyone know where the book was. Ah, all the "experts" from all the book marketing books said "Social Media!" Do you have a blog? Yep, here it is.  Do you twitter? You mean like a bird? Oh, you mean the online kind. Are you LinkedIn? To what, I asked myself. Do you Facebook? Uh, no!  Are you myspaced? Actually, I just played games there until recently. What forums and associations do you have? Two, well now three...Compuserve's Books and Writers Community for almost 20 years, Southeastern Writers Association for 12 years, and newly added SheWrites.  I now spend more time on the internet than I've ever spent in my life! All this promoting two books and it should have been done six months prior to publication. DOH!

Does it matter that I'm mentioned in Acknowledgements of two dozen different author's books. Nope. Nobody reads the acknowledgement.

I had this brilliant idea of holding a book launch/book signing.  I went to my local Books-a-Million and asked about it.  They are the biggest store in town and I spend on average of three hours every Saturday there.  You can't write books and not love to read. Books-a-Million only handles books from three warehouses.  My publisher isn't one of them so it won't be there, but that wasn't my first choice. This would have been a huge splash, but then I wasn't sure about all the ins and outs of book signings when I have control over them. High traffic was a plus.

My first choice is a small independent book dealer downtown.. I'm back pedaling, like mad..  It's a wonderful little shop with wall to wall books...a reader's dream shop.What better way to sell a southern fiction set in a small town than a downtown bookstore? Well, it may not be available. Shucks! Back to square one...sort of.

I hear you now, so what have you been doing? Well, I designed two bookmarks, one for each novel, for promotional giveaways, designed invitations leaving the location blank to send out. I've been buzzing like mad through the social media circuits, but most importantly...I've started a new southern fiction...more on that next week.

As always keep loving the Lord and keep writing.

Gone Viral

If you take a look below this you will find the video for my newest novel, "The Sacrificial Lamb."  Take a look and let me know what you think!

bookpromo2.wmv

Going Viral

For weeks now I have been working on the book trailer for "The Sacrificial Lamb." Although I could get the timing right to the music, I could not hear the sound effects and music once I converted it to video.  It drove me bonkers!

Now normally, I can run circles around any program within a few minutes. This had me baffled. I changed the music and FX to wav files, mpg, and assorted other formats trying to get it to work, but still my headset picked up nary a note.

 BTW, thank you Buba Producers for the fantastic musical score for the background! Beautiful scores and sounds free for the asking. They like many artists need the publicity so giving them a big plug here.

I ended up in desperation going to the AV department at my college.  I knew there had to be a way of integrating the music and sound effect into my video.  There was.  A sixteen-year old high school student figured it out for me. Extend your index finger and and thumb to a 90 degree angle, and place it on your forehead.  Yep, that's me.  It took him less than ten minutes to figure out what I have been racking my brain over for two weeks!

I was so excited. I was going viral rather than just social.  Youtube, here I come. I mean just EVERYBODY looks at youtube, right? Yeah! Yeah! Progress at last. Another media marketing avenue broached. I'm bouncing up and down in my car on the way home with my treasure. I might just have this self publishing thing taken to a whole new level.

All was fine until I got home, of course it is Friday. I proudly played my video for my husband when I noticed one of the sound effects was in the wrong place and I couldn't see the link sites (where my book is available) on my screen. Okay so instead of uploading it into the cyber-universe this weekend, it will have to wait until Monday. Aw, bummer! I'm finding that this is harder than writing the whole book in the first place. Oh well, life is a learning process and patience is a virtue.

As always, keep writing and loving the Lord.

Does Absence Make the Heart Grow Fonder?

I haven't bloggered in a little while and was wondering if anyone out there missed me?  Probably not.  My readership is small.

During my absence from here I've been busy.   I was doing what authors do best...writing! 

You might note a new title on the right.  Yes, another novel up.  You might also notice that it's not my name or at least this one on the cover.  That's intentional, but it's still me.  I have the seeds for a series of southern based fictions.  It's a new genre for me.  Hence the name change.

In the past two weeks I've sold seven copies on Smashwords and Amazon in electronic format. Which is kind of amazing since the sales were not to family and friends, but total strangers.  Cool, huh?

I've been formatting the text for paperback sales.  I know who reads paperbacks anymore, right? Me, for one. I think it's my bifocals, at least that's what I'm blaming my hesistance of using my new Sony or adopting screen reading on this week. I keep tripping over the line in my vision...wait, I don't have lines...er, um, nevermind. Another excuse shot full of holes. I do know a lot of people use electronic readers and love them which is why I put my novels out in e-format first with paperback to follow. Kind of like dipping your toes in the pool to test the water temperature.

Stick with me while I juggle yet another chainsaw in life.

Keep writing and loving the Lord.