Do the Monster Smash: Yet Another Cool Marketing Tool for Authors!

My publishers, Variance, who have published my book, The Chronicles of Anaedor:  The Prophecies, through their imprint, BLiP, have put my book on Smashwords.  Smashwords, I have found, is a great place to go for all your e-book needs.  Why?  Because they make your book available via a crazy number of formats.  Take a look:

That's hard to beat when you want your book to be accessible to as many people in as many ways as possible.  It's also hard to beat the name:  Smashwords.  I just like saying it.

So do the Monster Smash and get your book out there!

I Have A Vision!

This post is going to be messy and most likely discombobulated. My life is crazy right now (I think I’ve said this before). We are moving! We have found a new house - not a castle, not yet, anyway - but a farm that even has a cemetery on the property. And we are also selling our old house (which, in this market, is amazing in itself). The problem is…the new buyers want our house by the end of July. We can’t move into our new house until late August. That means we are moving twice.

I’m feeling faint.

We will be living with my sister, her daughter, my mother, her little dog, their three cats, our three cats, my three boys, my husband and myself…during the lovely month of August. Pray for us.

To add to this rollercoaster ride that I’m on, I have changed to a new publisher, Variance (Breakneck Books is merging with it). I was a little worried that my book wouldn’t make it through the first round (a small release, which if it went well, would turn into a big release). Anaedor is not really the same kind of book as what the other authors do, so I thought I’d be the first to go. That was until I received an email a couple weeks ago from my publisher saying he wants to do a re-release of Anaedor. I think that means we’re skipping over the small release entirely. That’s what I’m hoping anyway!

Here’s the kicker…He’s going to have an artist draw little pictures above the chapter headings and do a new cover (although I love the old one - kudos to Breakneck on that one). He wanted to be sure to get my take on the whole process and see that the artist captures my vision. My first reaction was, "That is so awesome!" My second was, "I have a vision?" Later, I realized that I didn’t really believe this was happening - I’m still not sure that I do. Knowing that things can go wrong, I am being pessimistically optimistic about it all. If it actually goes through - hurray! If not, well, I was expecting it not to, anyway. Now I have all my bases covered.

The cool thing is that it’s typically nearly unheard of for a publishing company to get the author’s feedback on the process. I feel so blessed to be consulted! The artist called me a few days ago and she was so nice. I’m really looking forward to working with her and seeing her take on my ‘vision’! Plus, she liked my book, so she can’t do anything wrong in my eyes.

So a lot is going on in my life, but it’s all good. And as I’ve said before…It will get done; it always does. I’m just wondering who’s going to do it.

Newsflash: Publishing a Book Isn't Easy

I have good news! I have just signed a contract with a new publishing company, Variance, that will be getting my book out into bookstores. Say hurray! A part of me is excited about this big step up and another part of me is worried - of course. There’s always a catch, you see. I am going to be getting what’s called a limited release. You know those movies that are only shown in certain theaters - the ones that nobody ever hears much about? Well, that’s my situation. Here’s another worrisome part: My book really has to sell well so that I can get it into an even wider venue…possibly even go hard cover (as opposed to under cover), which would be totally fragadelic. Otherwise, who knows what will happen? There’s a good possibility that I will be dropped like a used kleenex and then burned at the stake, with marshmallows thrown in for free.

Being somewhat of a pessimist, I’m not real hopeful about my odds.

During my Mother’s Day Weekend off, I spent some time wandering around a bookstore and it hit me how many books are out there begging for someone to give them a good home. How is my one little book going to get noticed? As it is, I’m doing everything I can, short of pole dancing, to get attention for it. I might even resort to having my book do the pole dancing itself. Hmmm… That just might work.

I’m really trying to stay positive about this whole publishing business, but there are times when I feel like Charlie Brown and the world is Lucy. I get my hopes up and Bam! I end up flat on my back, staring up at the sky, wondering, what the heck just happened to me? Have you ever had days like that? Yeah, me too. Too many.

This should be a momentous occasion, yet I worry. I should be happy that this is happening, yet I fret. What’s my problem, Dr. Freud? Well, I know what my problem is. I didn’t take all those Psychology classes for nothing. I am simply preparing myself for the worst so that if (when) it does happen, it won’t hit me so hard. My worst moments come from events that I didn’t see coming. It’s also kind of a hoodoo voodoo method of avoiding disaster. If I think about it, it won’t happen. I do this all the time. Unfortunately, I can’t always think of all the bad things that could happen. I could get hit by a flying chicken while walking down the street. It could happen, but am I really going to be prepared for it? Well, I am now, but before this blog, totally not.

On the other hand, I’m an optimist of the worst kind. Like Charlie Brown, I keep trying to kick that football. Unlike poor old Chuck, I sometimes actually connect. Why do I keep trying? Stupidity? Insanity? Nope. It’s a little something called intermittent reinforcement (more psychology). People are more likely to keep trying if they are reinforced intermittently (you get good stuff like chocolate chips in response to your attempts, but only once in a while and at random times). If you are not reinforced, you will stop. If you are reinforced every time, after only a couple failures, you will stop. Since I have not stopped, those good, kind words of yours must be keeping me going. So keep them coming, but only at intermittent and random times, like today.

Sorry this has been kind of a downer blog - I’m usually so upbeat! Ha, ha. But I figure it won’t hurt newbies to be prepared to face the inevitable downside to being in this business. Writing a book is wonderful, publishing it feels great. Selling it…not so fun. Of course, if you’re like me, you won’t believe bad stuff will happen to you, until is does, that is. I thought I’d write a book and the world would just come knocking at my door. Sadly, the world isn’t knocking. More like tapping once in a while, and usually when I’m in the bathroom.

Anyhoo, I’m giving up that fantasy and returning to the life I’ve always led, which involves experiencing lots of miserable failures for a long time, and then, eventually achieving success. Though I think the only reason I finally succeed is that I’m too stupid to give up. I’m hoping that happens this time, too. It could. I’m not asking for much. I don’t crave great success, just enough so that I can share my writing with people who like it. That’s all I’m asking for.

That, and to make enough moola to buy a castle.