Author or artist?

author or artist

An interesting perspective…

Are you an author or an artist? These words author and artist are not as similar as they sound. Some gifted individuals can be both, but in actuality, most people are…

Please follow the link to read Cyle Young’s post on The Write Conversation.  I think I fall somewhere in between!  What about you?

http://bit.ly/1LP5phX

3-step Formula for Writing Blurbs

Found this to be very helpful. Hope some of you will, as well.

Lori Crane's avatarLori Crane

xrory3.jpg.pagespeed.ic.NKcnIrcztY3-step Formula for Writing Blurbs

Technically, a “synopsis” is the summary you write about your book. A “blurb” is an endorsement usually written by someone else, singing your praises. But, neither here nor there, we know what we’re talking about. We want a short, snappy, sales pitch that makes our book sell. We want a summary that calls to the right readers. We want a description that makes money!

Where to start…

Let’s start with a simple formula:

Plot, Problem, Possibility.

1) What’s the plot of your story? We need a general description of the situation.

2) We need a problem (usually following the plot and proceeded by the word ‘but’ or ‘however’).

3) We need the possibility that our hero may overcome the problem.

Let’s insert a book we all know into this formula. How about Green Eggs and Ham?

Plot: Sam tries to get someone to eat…

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Hello from Linda Lee Williams!

I’m honored and pleased to be part of Marcia Meara’s blog.  We share the same philosophy: “Writers helping other writers.”

I look forward to meeting other authors, sharing ideas, and learning from one another.  It’s all about the book, right?  Write!

Best wishes,

Linda

Question: Fantasy worldbuilding workshop?

I’m thinking about creating an online course that would teach some elements of worldbuilding for fantasy novels. But before I set out on this journey, I was wondering if there would be any interest for this sort of course. If there is, what sort of subject matter would you like covered?

FabulousFridayGuest Blogger – Deborah Jay

Our FabulousFridayGuestBlogger today is Deborah Jay, who has asked to share a lovely interview she just did for Fiona Mcvie. Thanks for sharing this one, Debbie. Lots of good info, here.

fionamcvie1964's avatarauthorsinterviews

Name   Deborah Jay

Age   Old enough

Where are you from  The UK near London, and the Scottish Highlands when I can spare the time.

A little about your self `ie your education Family life etc  I have a Life Sciences degree, with a special interest in genetic engineering, though my knowledge is way out of date.  In between graduating and the start of a planned PhD, I worked as a horse riding instructor, and somehow never came out of that industry.

Nowadays, I am a freelance dressage trainer, with clients all over the country up to International level. I have represented the UK myself, and currently compete and judge on the national circuit. Being self-employed has the advantage of setting my own hours, although there are never enough of those to go around!

 

Fiona: Tell us your latest news?

I’m nearing the end of writing the second…

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Multi-author box sets

Secret Worlds

What’s the hottest new book marketing tactic I learned in 2015? Taking part in multi-author box sets!

This strategy is most appropriate for authors writing novels in a closely interlinked series and is an alternative to setting the first book free. Instead, you leave your book for sale, team up with several other authors writing in your genre, and sell the box set of first books in series as cheaply as you can.

Sell-through to other books in your series will be your primary income source. But if you enroll the box set in Kindle Unlimited, you might be surprised by how much the compilation itself brings in. For example, Secret Worlds, the box set I’m currently involved in, netted around $2,500 apiece for each author during its peak month! Meanwhile, my own book two hovered around a rank of 10,000 in the Amazon store for months, and book three launched with a bang due to the visibility of the box set.

Here are some tips if you want to follow my lead:

  • Choose an experienced box-set manager. Secret Worlds was spearheaded by the amazing Rebecca Hamilton, who carefully set up weekly marketing tasks for each participant. Expect to spend about an hour per week on the project — the time will be worth it! We also each chipped in a couple of hundred bucks up front to pay for promotional pushes.
  • Know your goals. The only downside of my current box-set experience is that we were shooting for the New York Times bestseller list at first, which required us to take all of our books out of KDP Select and list them wide. This really killed my sales on Amazon since I get a lot more borrows than buys. We ended up missing the list and not making much money during that period. But once we pulled the box set back into Select, borrows more than made up for the preorder push.
  • Look for a group of authors with diverse talents. I think part of the reason our box set did so well is because each author brought her own unique marketing tactics to the table. We have a couple of authors who make phenomenal promotional images, some authors who have huge email lists, and several authors who are pros at twitter or facebook groups. Combining all of those tactics together made an unbeatable team.
  • Plan to price your box set at 99 cents. This is a size issue — after your box-set file reaches a certain number of pages (not sure what), Amazon kicks your minimum price up above 99 cents. We got away with price matching with other sites while our box set was wide, which helped us get in the top 100 paid list. But sales of the box set have been slowly declining ever since we pulled the book off other sites and had to price it at $2.99. Remember, box-set buyers are bargain hunters, so they want to get their books dirt cheap. It might be safer to only put ten or so books in a box set rather than the 21 novels included in ours.

Wolf RampantSound intriguing? You can join this facebook group and keep an eye out for a box set that might suit your books. Good luck!

Aimee Easterling is the author of the Wolf Rampant series, along with several other short stories and novels. She’s currently hard at work on the first book in a brand new series.

Selling books is great; making an impression is even better

image By Ned Hickson

Two years ago tomorrow, I attended my first book fair as an author. Today, I’m going to share that experience in a post I’m calling:

Reasons to Hide Liquor Under Your Book Fair Table

Admittedly, it’s very exciting to walk into a room of 50 or so booths with publishers and authors offering their latest releases and services. And when you see your own booth tucked among them, with your book cover on display and a large photo of yourself hanging on the wall behind your table, you can’t help but pause and quietly think: I have arrived as an author and, judging by its size, my nose arrived about an hour before I did. My point is that book fairs are about taking the opportunity to become three-dimensional to readers and making a connection beyond the printed page; it’s about revealing yourself to people in ways that are spontaneous, real and unrehearsed, and giving them an experience they can take with them and talk about with others. This led to another realization almost simultaneously: Why is there no liquor at this thing?

This notion was underscored moments later, when a woman appearing to be in her mid-60s approached my booth and began telling me how much she loved my writing, almost to the point it was becoming a little embarrassing. “I NEVER miss your column!” she declared. “Really — If it wasn’t for your column, I doubt I would even subscribe to the Register-Guard!”

In my mind, I began pouring two fingers into a shot glass. Why?

“Um, I write for Siuslaw News,” I said with an awkward smile. “I think you’re talking about Bob Welch. He’s got a table right over there.”

“…Oh… I see.”

In that moment, if there had been an actual shot glass on the table, I’m pretty sure she would have taken it from me, chugged it, wiped her lips with one of my bookmarks and gone to see Bob Welch. Instead, she stood immobilized and looking for a gracious exit.

“OK, actually I am Bob Welch,” I said. “I killed Ned Hickson and have assumed his identity to expand my writing empire. If you don’t tell anyone, you can help yourself to one of my books over there.” I pointed to Welch’s booth, which was unmanned but stacked with copies of My Oregon, Pebble in the Water and others. “If anyone asks, tell them Bob sent you,” I said, and winked.

The woman who I came to know as Joan, smiled. “So… who did you say you write for again?”

Those words led to my first book sale of the day, and understanding the importance of meeting readers face-to-face, even if yours wasn’t the face they were looking for. During the course of six hours at my booth, I met lots of people who had no idea who I was, many of whom were drawn to my keen marketing strategy…

As you can imagine, the corners went very fast...

As you can imagine, the corners went very fast…

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#Excerpt Week – Have Bags, Will Travel #memoir/travel/humor

Have Bags amazon image   

It seems that with every trip I take I’m faced with issues of dealing with overweight luggage and have become almost a person of interest when it comes to passing through Canada customs on every return trip.

This book has snippets of stories from travels in earlier times when airline restrictions were a little more lenient (when overweight luggage wasn’t a huge concern), opinions on some of the places I’ve visited, and fond memories with best friends.

Here is an excerpt from Airport Security

Returning home from a vacation is always a nerve-racking event for me. Instead of flying home and basking in the memories of the wonderful time I’ve just had on vacation, I repeatedly go through my receipts from the trip so I can carefully calculate how not to exceed the fixed limit we’re allowed to bring back without penalty. I must remember which receipts correspond to the tags I’ve already cut off so I can take them out of the pile. More math!

Most people don’t worry about such things—but I have to. It’s practically like my face is on a milk carton: HAVE YOU SEEN THIS WOMAN SHOPPING? For decades now, I’ve been consistently pulled over at customs. A planeload of people pick up their luggage and sail through the exit doors to freedom, and one person (and her husband) get singled out for interrogation. This happens on ninety percent of my trips. Why is it that I’m picked out of two hundred and fifty passengers to be interrogated? I lament, but I’m familiar with all the tricks by now: don’t wear flashy jewelry, don’t dress up, try to blend in. I can’t help it, though. I have what I’ve identified as shopping face. . .

Have Bags, Will Travel is available now in ebook at Amazon, and will be available in print this week.