Anyone Use Publisher Rocket? (Formerly KDP Rocket)

/ Marcia Meara / 24 Comments

I have known for some time that my books are not in the right categories and I haven’t selected the best possible keywords for them. This is something I plan to work on after September 28, when I finish the last of my local wildlife presentations. I’ll have all of October, November, and December to sort things out, and hopefully lead more people to my books. 

My biggest problem is that I don’t sit down to write a story that fits a specific genre. I tell the tale as it unfolds, and it generally touches on (or wallows in) several genres. I started by placing Wake-Robin Ridge in Romantic Suspense, because–well, because I didn’t know where else to put it. But actually, most of my books are more Suspenseful Romance, with romance being the dominant theme.

One difference this makes to readers who might be misled by the category is that Suspense and Mystery lovers expect the book to wrap up as soon as the big reveal happens. Once they know “who-dun-it,” in other words. Romance readers can get downright angry if they go through all the drama with a couple, and yet the book doesn’t deliver the HEA they’ve been waiting for. So, putting books into the best category can help writers avoid readers who either end up bored with the last few chapters of the book, or who feel shortchanged because they didn’t get invited to the wedding.

I keep reading great reports about the effectiveness of the new version of KDP Rocket, which is now called Publisher Rocket. Not only does it help you “drill down” to specific categories, but it helps you find the best possible keywords, so folks can find your books. I’ve read posts by some pretty knowledgeable folks in the writing/blogging world, and I’m seriously thinking of investing in this to help me find the best way to market my books, past and future.

Before I commit, I’d like to know if any of you have tried Publisher Rocket, and if so, are you happy with it? I’ve been impressed with the videos and testimonials, but I’d like to hear from people I know a bit better. 

Any and all comments, pro or con, would be useful in helping me decide if this is the right choice for me. THANKS!


Click the Image Above to Learn More About Publisher Rocket

Sally’s Cafe and Bookstore – Book Marketing – Attracting your readers, Covers, Book Titles, Tag Lines and Key Words by Sally Cronin

/ Marcia Meara / 12 Comments

A very helpfpul post by Sally Cronin on book marketing, covers, titles, and more. Check it out, and take notes. (I bookmarked this one for future reference.) And as always, pass it along! Thanks, and thanks to Sally for such a useful post! 🙂

#FREE for the first (and only) time – THE PRINCE’S MAN #Fantasy

/ Deborah Jay / Debby Lush / 17 Comments

While Marcia is clearing up her dead moss monster following Hurricane Dorian’s unwelcome visit, I thought I’d quickly share the news that book #1 in my Five Kingdoms fantasy series, THE PRINCE’S MAN, is part of a FREE boxed set. So, if you’ve hesitated about trying it, you can pick it up now without parting with a cent.

It’s marketed as ‘Dark Fantasy’, but that’s only on the grounds the books contain some violence (sword fights, anyone?) and darker themes. To be fair, I haven’t read the others, so I can’t vouch fully for their content, but this was the second set put together by Patty Jensen, the other set having the criteria of being ‘wholesome and sweet’.

The set is currently sitting pretty in the top 10 free fantasy books on Amazon, but it can always do with a few more downloads – PLEASE SHARE!

You can find it at any of these outlets:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07WCDBVDC
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/au/en/ebook/sorcery-warlocks
B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/sorcery-warlocks-patty-jansen/1132903657?ean=2940163744749
Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/id1476156119
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Patty_Jansen_Sorcery_Warlocks?id=XQ6oDwAAQBAJ

Deborah

Find me at:

https://deborahjayauthor.com/

https://www.facebook.com/DeborahJay

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7172608.Deborah_Jay

Amazon author page: https://viewAuthor.at/DeborahJay

Newsletter sign up and FREE Five Kingdoms short story: https://eepurl.com/bPZcmT

Central Florida’s Ordeal is OVER!

/ Marcia Meara / 50 Comments

Though Georgia, the Carolinas, and Virginia are still in danger, Hurricane Dorian is officially crossing the state line and no longer menacing us here in central Florida! Hallelujah! I was beginning to think being stalked by a Deadly Turtle was the new normal. And I confess, I’m exhausted from all the preparations and the stress of not knowing for five long days whether we would take a hit or not. 

We did have some tropical storm force winds here during the night and throughout the morning, but let’s assess the damage, in comparison to what Irma did two years ago.

Here’s what Hurricane Irma left us on September 10, 2017:

Yes, our house is under there.

Another view, showing the size of the massive trunk of this tree.

The roof is lifted off the garage and the lintel is broken.

Top of the garage, with rafters poking up through the  roof. (The other ends of the rafters are poking into the seriously damaged Honda, which  was holding up the attic.

See? A good add for the Honda, which they were able to repair because, believe it or not, the frame didn’t buckle. (Even under the combined weight of our attic and contents, the garage roof itself, and the weight of a tree with a trunk 5 feet in diameter!

There are tons more pictures of the smashed gardens, the broken trellises and lamp posts, fence damage, and of course, the entire roof ruined. But enough about Irma.

Now let’s take a look at what Hurricane Dorian wrought:

Yep. That’s it. A dead moss monster next to the driveway. 

Seems like an unbelievable amount of labor and stress just to be ready for this, but the good news is, we can clean it up in about 30 seconds. (We’re still working on yard clean-up and replanting from Irma!) 

In all seriousness, it could just as easily have been as bad as or worse than Irma. Catastrophic, even. So it’s always better to over-prepare, and not need it, than to find yourself under-prepared and in danger. We’ll do it again the next time we’re menaced and we will pray all we end up with is a dead moss monster in the front yard.

Sadly, The Tale is Still Ongoing!

/ Marcia Meara / 22 Comments

I swear, I’ve never been through a hurricane that moved this slowly before, and after 75 years of Florida living, I’ve been through quite a few. The Stalking Turtle reference becomes more obvious every day. The image above shows you very clearly that the danger of this storm is not in the eye, which is a quiet, calm area in the center of the storm. The danger is in the bands of powerful winds which circle the eye in a counterclockwise direction. Yellow, orange, and red are the DANGER colors.

I’ve used an image from last night because it gives you a good idea of just how far these bands can reach out to wreak havoc. The eye of the storm was approximately 100 miles off the coast of Florida when this image was taken. I’ve tweaked it a bit to show you roughly where it is now, in relation to Daytona Beach and us.

We got significant winds during the night and some downed branches here and there, but so far have been lucky. However, these bands will be arcing through Florida for hours before clearing the state line, so we certainly aren’t in the clear, yet. And then it’s the folks in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and even Virginia that have to be on the alert. (The Carolinas look to be in for some rough times ahead.)

If our house doesn’t take a hit today from one of these bands of wind, we’ll be okay. Just soggy and tired of it all. If we do, and another tree comes down, that changes everything. Mark had to go in to work, so I’m sitting here by myself, watching the heavier wind gusts and trying not to panic. 😯 It’s going to be a long day, but so far, no damage or power loss, so I’m very grateful for that.

I have discovered that one can only “hunker down” for so long before it gets really uncomfortable! 😀 

Here’s a photo I saw yesterday, long before the storm itself was even close to this particular location (St. Augustine, in north Florida). This is what even an outer, outer, outer band of the hurricane looked like yesterday morning. 😯

Please forgive me if it takes me some time to respond to all your lovely comments. I thank you so much for your support and well wishes and prayers. ALL are much appreciated and have helped me stomp down the incipient panic attacks. I’m taking deep breaths this morning and trying not to worry about what I’ll do if a limb smashes a window or damages the roof–other than running around in circles while shaking my fist at the sky, I mean. I’ve got that covered! 😀 

See you on the other side! ❤ ❤ ❤ 

Tonight Will (Probably) Tell the Tale

/ Marcia Meara / 25 Comments

The new header image is what I’d love to think our coastline will be like by Thursday, instead of the hovering black clouds, bands of rain and wind, and possible massive storm surges that might be going on. For us in the Orlando area, it is currently dark, dismal, and raining like crazy–but the worst of what we are going to get will likely happen tonight, probably between 2:00am and 8:00am, so we’ll see how it plays out. There was a tiny shift eastward again overnight, but not very much, and it can swing back. However, it’s beyond our control, and we’ve done all we can do, except wait. 

I figured if I tried visualizing clear skies and beautiful, calm water along our beaches, maybe that’s what will soon be going on. I’m OVER this waiting and waiting, and after seeing what happened to the Bahamas, it has been a pretty scary wait, too. But one way or the other (preferably The Other), Dorian should be moving along into history. 

Meanwhile, please send your well wishes and prayers to everyone in the storm’s path, and especially to the poor folks in the Bahamas, which I think suffered the worst destruction I’ve ever seen from a hurricane. And thanks for all the love that you’ve sent our way! ❤  Will stay in touch as long as we have power. 🙂

It’s going to be a very long day around here. 

#Hurricane Dorian – Looking Grim Again!

/ Marcia Meara / 17 Comments

I guess it was too much to hope this one would move far enough offshore to leave Florida alone. Saturday’s optimistic predictions have morphed into Monday’s abysmal ones. 

Yes, the eye of the storm is still over the water in the update above, but it is substantially closer to the shore than before. In fact, if it wobbles to the west even a tiny bit, it will make landfall on us. As it is, even if it follows the path currently predicted, the coast will take a major hammering. The worst winds of the storm are the bands on the west side as they whirl counter-clockwise around the eye. 

Mandatory evacuation orders are in place for the red zone areas along the coast, and I do hope people will leave! They are predicting an enormous storm surge all along that area, and that is one of the most dangerous things about the storm. (Notice that “the storm” and I are no longer on a first name basis!!) 

Here in Seminole County, we are already under a tropical storm watch, and will no doubt be getting at least that much wind and rain through the duration of “the storm.”  We are located just about 40 miles west of the 2AM Wed “M” in the graphic above. In a storm this huge and WIDE, that means we won’t know until it’s here just how bad things might get in Sanford/Orlando. 

This image shows the probability of wind speed, with the purple area being full-on hurricane wind. (You can see that a significant portion of the coastline is in the purple area.) We are in the narrow brown band of 50 to 60 mph winds, and close enough to the orange 60 to 70 mph range to be worrisome. And that’s if the storm does not move more inland.

This one is scary, folks.

We’ve done pretty much all we can do to be prepared, and now it’s just wait. And as they say:

WAITING FOR A HURRICANE
IS LIKE BEING STALKED
BY A TURTLE!

I will update again later today, if possible, but since we are already getting some rain and wind, power outage is very likely in the cards. Please continue to keep us and everyone in harm’s way in your thoughts and prayers.  And thank you so much for all the love and support you’ve sent our way!  ❤ ❤ ❤

Last #HurricaneDorian Update for Today! (5:00pm forecast)

/ Marcia Meara / 18 Comments

The predictions keep looking better and better for us in central Florida. The coastal areas will probably have some significant storm surge, and I know the entire state is braced for wind and rain starting late tomorrow and lasting into Wednesday. But as of right now, they are predicting Dorian will not make landfall in Florida, but will stay off the eastern coast heading north to somewhere around North Carolina. Again, this can change, but it looks promising, and I’m very relieved for those of us here in the Orlando area, if not as much so for those along the coast.

I am also exhausted. We worked outside most of the day, bringing all the potted plants inside and making sure things were not likely to become deadly projectiles–or even window-smashing projectiles. We will reassess tomorrow to see if we feel we need to do more, but as of tonight, I’m thinking we might come through this one okay, after all.  Now, on the count of three, could you all repeat after me, “Go EAST, young Dorian! Get thee out into the Atlantic, and don’t bother any more people who aren’t bothering you!” Got it? Okay, one, two, three ……… ahhh, thanks! That should do it.

You can probably tell I’m getting punchy, but it’s been a long, hard day, so I hope you’ll cut me some slack. Thanks so much for all the wonderful support and prayers, and I’ll try to respond to all your comments as soon as I can. We shall find out soon enough what tomorrow brings, but for now, it’s off to bed with a Granny Smith apple and a good book. We’ll see if I stay wake long enough to enjoy either one. 😀  

#Latest (11:00am) Dorian Update – Possible Good News!

/ Marcia Meara / 5 Comments

Good news. The very latest storm predictions show it trending more and more to the east. Now, they think it won’t touch land in Florida, but will stay offshore as far as the NC/SC border. If they’re correct, and the trending eastward continues, this actually COULD go off into the Atlantic without making landfall anywhere! How wonderful that would be!

Of course, is a very wide storm, and we are going to get “weather” as they say down here, whether the eye touches land or not. Florida will no doubt have wind, rain, and flooding in many areas, especially along the coast where storm surge is always a threat. The question would be how much, and where? So preparations are still ongoing statewide, and Mark and I are hard at work clearing up the yard. (I don’t want to get brained by a flying flower pot or birdbath!) But the outlook is far better than it was yesterday, and that makes me breathe easier than I have for a week!

Now, I just want to see it swing far enough east that it misses our entire coast! That would be what we writers cleverly refer to as an HEA! 😀 Keep sending those thoughts and prayers, folks! They are so gratefully received! 🙂 ❤