Guest Post: Link Sharing in Publiciy (Imogen Reed)

Whether you’re an aspiring author or you’re launching a new business, publicity is all important. Finding a means of promoting your ventures in an efficient and cost-effective way is paramount – and the web has given us all new ways of achieving this goal. From social media to banner ads, the internet is full of different ways to advertise and promote, but how are you to know what works and what doesn’t? Take link sharing sites, for example. A lot of people claim that sites such as Reddit, Digg and Delicous are invaluable resources for aspiring business people. They allow users to post their own content for review by the community, who can then ‘vote’ on or recommend it to the whole site. But are link sharing sites a good means of promotion, and should you sign up and try to reach the wider audience they can offer?


Beware of looking like a ‘spammer’


If you’ve ever visited a link sharing site – especially the new or upcoming sections – you’ll have seen just how many other people there are trying to push their services. And, unfortunately, a good proportion of these people can’t really be described as reputable. In fact, the word ‘spammer’ would be a much more appropriate moniker. The reason that sites like Reddit attract spammers is that they offer anyone the ability to share content and get instant traffic. There will always be someone who clicks every link, no matter how spammy it is. But that doesn’t mean this traffic is reliable. In fact, you can almost be guaranteed that these people will never visit again. It’s a false economy. What you need to do as a promoter is prepare something that’s valuable to the community – and that’s an art form in itself.


Don’t be too pushy


In order to take advantage of the thousands of people that use social link sharing sites, you need to be able to offer them something. If you’re an author, for example, you can’t come off as simply trying to sell your books. Instead, you need to solve a problem or offer some insight for free, and offer the book on the side. This will help the community feel like you’re actively contributing and not just marketing at them. If you simply post a link to buy your book, you’ll quickly see how much of a bad idea that can be. Traffic will spike then bottom out, and none of the links you post again will gain much traction. It’s a slippery slope.


Bide your time and do things properly


By rushing in and posting poorly thought out content to sites like Digg, you may get a quick shot in the arm in terms of traffic, but it’s very unlikely that this will convert to sales. Instead, you want to craft something of value to the community, and only post it once. If the community sees that you’re posting your link over and over again, you’ll end up doing more damage than good to your reputation. It’s hard enough to make a positive impact without shooting yourself in the foot. As mentioned above, the best thing you can do to make a splash on link sharing websites is to post something that offers the community something, and offer the option to buy something too. For example, as an author you may want to post an insightful article that will be of interest to the community, then include a link to your eBook in your sidebar. It’s a more subtle, and generally more effective, means of self-promotion.


The bottom line


So can link sharing sites be a good form of publicity? Yes they can, but they can quickly become a double edged sword. It’s easy to get swept away by the numbers than can be driven to your website to see your offerings, but if you’re viewed as ‘spammy’ for even a moment, these communities can quickly turn on you. There have been numerous horror stories about companies that have acted unscrupulously, been found out trying to ‘game’ sites like Reddit, and then suffered a serious PR nightmare. The bottom line is: be careful. They’re a great tool, but need to be used in the right way to make the best impact. 


Good luck!


Contributor Bio


Imogen Reed is a full time freelance writer and researcher who specialises in marketing and branding. In her spare time she likes to spend time with her young family exploring the great outdoors, making use of her all-terrain mountain buggy and enjoying all things natural and organic. 

Guest Post: Marketing 1 book with 1,662 Postcards (Caroline Rose)

In the last eight months, I've written, labeled, and mailed 1,662 May B. postcards. Yes, really.

Much of marketing a book is like throwing darts, but as I've learned, a personalized, audience-focused dart has more potential to hit the board than those thrown willy-nilly.

I can't take credit for what I've done  -- that goes to Saundra Mitchell and her bossy self-marketing plan. Using her suggested wording, I determined my audience and tweaked what I wrote for each.

 

My audience:

Kansas schools and libraries 

Why? May B. takes place in Kansas and is primarily a school and library market title. Also, Kansas Day is 1/29. Teachers are required to teach KS history on or around this day -- perfect for an early January release date!

Plains state/frontier/pioneer museums

Why? May B.'s focus on the frontier era will ideally interest museums that focus on the plains and pioneer history.

Dyslexia schools and camps

Why? May B. (the character) struggles with dyslexia. While her story is one of a specific time period, ideally her feelings of isolation, shame, confusion -- and ultimately hope -- will resonate with children with disabilities now.

NM schools and libraries

Why? This is where I live! Hopefully that alone will be a start in drawing local interest, library purchases, or speaking opportunities.

My postcards:

For KS schools and libraries:

My historical verse novel, May B., is set on the Kansas frontier. It releases 1/10/12, just in time for Kansas Day! I hope you'll consider it for the students of ________ school / for the _______ library's children's collection. I'm available for Skype visits.

For plains state/frontier/pioneer museums and historical societies:

My historical verse novel, May B., is set on the frontier. I hope you will consider it for __________. It's a great way to introduce young visitors to the pioneer era.

For dyslexia schools and camps:

My historical verse novel, May B., focuses on a child with dyslexia in an era when such struggles were misunderstood. I hope you'll consider it for the students and families of _________ school. I'm available for Skype visits.

For NM schools and libraries:

I'm a NM author. My historical verse novel, May B., will appeal to fans of Hatchet and Laura Ingalls Wilder as well as reluctant readers. I hope you'll consider it for the students of ________ school / for the _______ library's children's collection. I'm available for Skype visits.

Results:

Roughly 50 postcards have come back to me (incorrect address, no drop box at this address, and -- sadly -- vacant buildings).

Hits to my website increased with each batch I mailed, coming from the locations where postcards were sent.

Roughly 20 people have reached out to me -- teachers, camp directors, directors of learning disability organizations, librarians, and a museum or two.

•   My publicist has sent on ARCs to several responders or contacted marketing to set up direct sales for gift shops. 

•   One teacher is using May in her classroom this year. 

•   One NM librarian scheduled an author program. 

•   Several librarians contacted me to let me know they'd already ordered or planned on ordering my book. 

•   One camp director would like to share May B. with campers this upcoming summer.

Most postcards probably went straight to the trash. But I have to think that even that brief exposure counted for one of those 3-7 times on average that marketers say a person needs to be shown a product before they respond. My cover in front of new eyes = never a bad thing. Besides, maybe a docent in a prairie museum somewhere took my postcard home to a granddaughter or a local teacher. I'll never know for sure, but thinking this way was enough to keep me motivated.

Will I do it again?

Yes, though I’ll probably not send as many. The last five hundred weren't as exciting as the first thousand. In some small way, though, I've taken hold of my book's success by spreading the word, one postcard at a time.

Contributor Bio:

Caroline Starr Rose spent her childhood in the deserts of Saudi Arabia and New Mexico, camping at the Red Sea in one and eating red chile in the other. As a girl she danced ballet, raced through books, composed poetry on an ancient typewriter, and put on magic shows in a homemade cape. She’s taught both social studies and English in New Mexico, Florida, Virginia, and Louisiana and is the author of the historical verse novel, May B., and the forthcoming picture book, Over in the Wetlands. 

Visit her at her blog and website.

Have you used Postcards? Do you think they are effective?

Guest Post: Doing Your Own Book Trailer (Rebekkah Ford)

I’m in the process of self-publishing my YA paranormal book, ‘Beyond the Eyes,’ and recently discovered I can make my own book trailer, which totally rocks. To be honest, though, I am less than proficient at computers. However, I think I can do this.

Seriously.

I think I can.

Yeah, I know. I sound like the little engine that could. But check this out so you can see why I think this.

Oh, and as a side note, there are several ways you can make a book trailer. You can make it as an actual movie with actors portraying your characters, you can use animations, or you can use still photos, set to music with the storyline written on the photo, which is what I’m going to do.

My computer has the Windows Movie Maker software in it, and I’ve read that most computers do. If yours don’t, I think you can download the program for free. There are other programs you can use as well, but I’m mentioning Windows Movie Maker because that’s what I have.

Now obviously, I don’t know the first thing about Windows Movie Maker, but that doesn’t mean I can’t learn on my own, right? There are YouTube videos on how to use the program. So after I have everything put together, I’m going to watch those videos, and then go into that program and play around with it until I know what I’m doing.

Once you decide to make a book trailer, here are the things you’ll need to do first . . .

1.) Go to YouTube and watch the book trailers there so you have an idea on how it works and what other people have done. Take notes on your likes and dislikes. It’ll help you generate ideas for your own book trailer. Pay attention to your feelings, and what type of music and pictures arouses the type of emotion(s) you’re seeking to convey to your audience. Write it down because that’s what you want. You want people who watch your book trailer to feel a connection with your character(s) and the story. Write ideas down for your own book trailer.

2.) Next step is selecting the pictures. There are free photo stock images out there that won’t violate copyright laws. You can google "royalty free photo." Choose images that fit the theme and setting of your book. Save them in my picture’s folder.

3.) Now you get to choose your music. I didn’t know this until recently, but there’s music available you can download for free without violating copyright laws.

How cool is that?

Like everything else, the selection of the type of music you’re going to use is very important because it connects the audience with tone of your book, and hopefully stirs enough emotions, to get them to take interest in your book.

4.) Next is summarizing your plot. Honestly, I think that’s going to be the hardest part. Right now, I’m still struggling with the blurb for the back of my book, so I’m guessing this might be a challenge as well. Just remember when you write the text for your book trailer, not to get too wordy. As long as you can put across the premise and characters of your book, you’ll be fine. And of course, the text needs to match the pictures you put it on, but that’s a given, right? It’s not rocket science.

5.) And finally, you need to learn how Windows Movie Maker works and putting it all together.

And then . . .

Ta da!

You’re all done.

Yay!

Now you have a book trailer you did all by yourself that you can be proud of, and is a great marketing tool for your book.

Contributor Bio

Rebekkah Ford grew up in a paranormal family. Her parents’ Charles and Geri Wilhelm were the Directors of the UFO Investigators League in Fairfield, Ohio, back in the 1970s. They also investigated ghost hauntings and Bigfoot sightings in addition to UFO’s. Growing up in this type of environment and having the passion for writing is what drove Rebekkah at an early age to write stories dealing with the paranormal. At one point in her life, she thought she wanted to be a journalist, and although she enjoyed writing articles, she quickly discovered her real passion was writing fiction. Her fascination with the paranormal is what led her to write the ‘Beyond the Eyes’ series. Visit her online and read her blog.

Guest Post: The Art of Self Pubbing (Allison Moon)

By now it’s old news that technology is allowing authors more control than ever over their work and their careers.  The question remains, is all this control a good thing for authors? 


Six months ago, I self-published my first novel, Lunatic Fringe.  I took the decision to go the indie route very seriously, and now that the chips have fallen and the book is alive in the world, I’m happy with my choice.  Self-publishing worked for me because I chose it not only for the pragmatic reasons often cited in news stories and blogs. I believed that the indie route worked best for my personality, my book, and my ideology. If you’re weighing your options, allow me to lay out 8 essential tenets I believe are key to finding true satisfaction in the self-publishing realm. There are dozens more variables to consider but I believe these will help you suss out your proclivities and maintain your integrity, ultimately providing more happiness with your choice. 


1) Do it for the right reasons


These may not include: desperation, boredom or fear of rejection.  To be a writer is to deal with rejection, even if you forgo the gatekeepers completely.  The real rejection, the kind that cuts more deeply than that from a jaded new york editor or agent, is the kind you’ll get from readers.  I’ve been lambasted by readers by not having a pro editor (I did), not proofreading (I did), making my book too niche (true, intentionally so), having too much sex (I humbly disagree), having icky sex (i.e. lesbian), having werewolf sex (which doesn’t even happen in the book) taking too long to get to the story, spending too much time on the werewolves, and not enough time on the werewolves.  These are just criticisms from the people who took the time to write reviews. There are undoubtedly more cutting comments to be found among those who didn’t care to write a review.  In real life I’ve also received the response of chilly silence. This is the reality of being a writer. For every reader who says you changed her life, there will be dozens more lining up to complain about the typo on page 189.  If you can’t handle rejection, you may need to work on your self-esteem before you put something so terribly intimate into the world as a book.


Likewise, many people are rushing to self publish out of a desperate need to be heard, or unload the manuscript thinking they’ll make millions.


The fact is, there are ethical, ideological, and pragmatic reasons for self-publishing.  Take some time to figure out why you’re choosing it.  If it’s a last ditch effort after suffering hundreds of rejections, perhaps you should reevaulate the quality of your book to begin with. If you have a love for Maker Culture and the DIY aesthetic, you may be happier with the results of your efforts. I self-published because my book wasn’t a sure thing by anyone’s benchmarks, even small feminist publishing companies.  I knew my book wouldn’t sell enough to support a publishing company’s bottom line, but I suspected it would do well enough to support me.  And taking on the project from start to finish, preserving my radical politics, college setting, and odd stylistic choices worked well for me and my book. If you self-publish as a last ditch effort, that desperation will be visible to most people who see your book. 


2) Do your research


The internet is full of free resources that will answer just about every question you have about indie publishing, and there are message boards full of kind, helpful writers who will fill in the blanks. After I self published my first novel, I fielded so many basic questions that I finally just combined everything I knew into a class I called Self-Publishing 101. I garnered most of the information from reading everything I could and then going through the process of self-publishing myself. You will still make silly, forehead slapping mistakes, but you’ll make fewer of them.  Because this is a new frontier, you have to learn constantly.  Every day it seems like new products, software and distributors are cropping up. Do yourself the favor of staying abreast of these new developments in service of your story. 


3) Learn how to write


I know this sounds redundant and trite, but it’s true.  I once met an author who bragged about going through his manuscript to change all the dialogue tags (“he said”, “she asked”) into more active verbs (“he intoned”, “she inquired”).  While on the surface this sounds okay, the most basic writing guides will tell you to avoid this. My writer friend thought he was making his book more sophisticated, when in reality he was making it far, far worse. I was addicted to adverbs, and some of the originals even squirmed their way into my final manuscript. Do your research. Most of it, again, is free on the internet.  Follow blogs by writers you admire and take their advice. Some of it may annoy you, but like that 7th grade teacher we all had once said: Learn the rules first, then learn how to break them.


4) Enlist support


The worst mistake I see new self-publishers make is headstrong individualism. You get the idea that since you’re “going it alone” in this blissfully defiant way, that you don’t need help. You do. Trust me, you do. If you don’t hire an editor, everyone will know. Okay, maybe a handful of easy-to-please readers won’t care, but you might be surprised at how many people care a lot. Even a casual reader, after a lifetime of reading only professionally vetted and edited books will be annoyed by an unedited book, even if they don’t know why.  
This goes for covers, too. If you don’t know what a Photoshop layer is, outsource your cover. You likely spent a lot of time writing your book. Why would you slap some stock image and bad font on the cover? Unprofessional covers are the biggest sign of a slap-dash book. Even if your book is perfectly crafted and miraculously told, a bad cover will reek of self-publishing stigma and will keep far too many people from buying your masterpiece. 


5) Budget more time and money than you think you need


Paying your graphic designer by the hour? Double your budget for it.  Think you’ll be able to approve your proof right away? Spend a couple days rereading your book and give it to an eagle-eyed friend for typo proofing. You’ll save yourself many headaches by padding your schedule. 


6) Be honest


Transparency endears you to readers, and the internet will eventually figure out if you’re lying.  Grandstanding or bragging about the tons of money you’ve made or the stellar reviews you’ve received isn’t going to impress anyone, especially if you’re exaggerating or lying.  You’re not doing other striving authors any favors by overinflating the realities of self-publishing either. Publishing companies can find out exactly how many books you’ve really sold in about 30 seconds.  Don’t lie. 


7) Love what you do


The #1 rule of marketing is to believe in your product.  If you’re embarrassed by your book cover or that chapter you really should’ve deleted, you’ll never be able to pitch your book to potential readers with integrity.  If you’re ashamed of self-publishing, don’t self-publish. The stigma of self-publishing is built on slap-dash, thoughtless books made by people who didn’t care enough to do it right.  Don’t be one of those people.  Be proud of your accomplishment and endeavor to improve with each book.  


8) Play the Long Game


If you just want to get your book out into the world and never think about it again, you can.  You probably won’t make much money or build a career this way, but you can still do it.  For me, I knew during the writing of my first novel that I was in love.  I wanted to write more books, and I couldn’t wait to finish one to move on to the next.  After my first launch, there was a flurry of activity, but soon that died down and I had to focus on the future. Now, I’m working on the sequel to Lunatic Fringe, plus creating some smaller ebook projects on the side. This is my long game. Do you want to build a reputation with your work? Do you want to use your book to springboard to a new career? Do you want to explore different genres or teach others how to do what you did?  All of these are options and self-publishing can help you get there, but to avoid the post-launch slump, you should have a bigger game than just one book. Whatever that game is, your book is a part of it, but just one part.  Keep striving. Keep writing.

Contributor Bio:


Allison Moon is the author of the novel Lunatic Fringe, which can be summed up in two words: Lesbian Werewolves. When not working on the sequel, she teaches workshops on creativity, writing, & publishing. 

Guest Post: Tackling Revisions (Robin Reul)

Tackling revision can be daunting, especially if you've already gone back into the work multiple times to make it shiny and sparkly. You've caught all those typos and grammatical errors, you've made sure your key plot points hit at certain places, you've ensured the stakes are high for your characters, what could there possibly be left to change??

And where do you begin? One of the best gifts you can give your revision is distance and time. The more time you have away from your story, the more you'll be able to come at it with fresh eyes and see what needs attention.

GET REACQUAINTED WITH YOUR STORY

The first thing I do when I revise is treat my book as I would any other book on the market. That is to say, I sit down and read it, preferably cover to cover if I can. I strongly advise printing it out or downloading it to an e-reader such as a Kindle or an iPad. It never ceases to amaze me how many times I can read the book on my computer, but whenever I read it in another form, I catch all sorts of things that aren't working. As you read your story, you will re-immerse yourself in the characters, their world, their dialogue, etc. For me, my natural inclination when I am done is to be able to dive back in and continue on because I am now reconnected to the story and reinvested in those characters. I also suggest reading it through a second time out loud, because that is often the best way to catch long rambling passages of dialogue, or extraneous scenes.

SET GROUND RULES AND REMOVE DISTRACTIONS

Revision, for me, requires total concentration in a different way than writing the actual story. I call it "entering the cave." In order to completely focus on the details of your work, establish basic ground rules with friends and family about getting in touch during the time you will be writing. I usually write from 8:30-2, while my kids are in school, so I ask that unless there is an emergency, please refrain from contacting me during that time unless it is truly essential. Turn off your phone ringer, don't log on to the internet and check your Facebook and Twitter feed, don't schedule lunches and coffee dates and other appointments that can pull you away and become easy excuses to procrastinate. Another thing I do is when I wake up, I start a load of laundry and do whatever dishes may be in the sink. Whatever I can get done housework-wise before I take my daughter to school is what gets done for that day. If I can get to more after my writing day, so be it, but that is my compromise to myself that I'm not just selfishly letting everything go. And if someone doesn't like that, hand them a duster with a smile. 

TAKE YOUR TIME

Do not put yourself on a timetable for revision that is unrealistic (unless one has been imposed on you, obviously.) Revision takes time and requires precision and patience. You want to make sure to catch every small spelling, grammar and punctuation error possible, because these can be easy to miss and collectively add up to an unprofessional looking manuscript. Try and keep in mind that you have one shot with this book, whether it be with an agent considering representing you, or an editor considering it for publication, so you want this work to the the very best it can be. That takes time, and rushing the process so that you can feel like "something is happening" is only cheating yourself out of a great opportunity to make your work shine.

HAVE AN OPEN MIND

We all have a vision for how we want our story to read. However, be willing to keep an open mind when tackling revisions. Share your work with critique partners and listen honestly to their feedback. They may catch something you've never even considered, and it might take you down a new path entirely but it may be a path that makes your story far more interesting. I've said it in several posts here, but my general rule of thumb when it comes to feedback is if one person says it, I take it under consideration and read through the story with an eye for that element. However, if more than one person says it, I change it. Done deal. Because if more than one person says it, it is now an identifiable problem. It's hard to let go of our carefully crafted words, but sometimes it's necessary because it's simply not working.

MAKE NOTES OF YOUR CHANGES

This may seem like stating the obvious, but often we plunge forward making revisions without noting what we've changed. This is an important reference tool later because you may choose to bring some other element back in an edited form, or you may be making changes for an agent or editor and you will be able to let them know what those changes are specifically that you made and why. Obviously, saving older versions of your work is important, but you'd have to reread the older versions to get the complete sense of what has changed from draft to draft.

LISTEN TO YOUR STORY

After you complete each revision, take the time to read the story out loud anew. Even when you think you've covered all your bases, chances are, you will catch one or two more things that are tripping up the flow.

Any revision tips you can recommend? Good luck!

Contributor Bio:

Robin Reul is a contemporary YA author repped by Bill Contardi at Brandt & Hochman, and in her spare time she loves to foster her Facebook addiction, drink copious amounts of caffeine and enjoy her good standing as an equal opportunity cupcake lover. She lives in Southern CA with her husband and two kids. Her novel BAND GEEK is currently on submission after many, many, many revisions. Check out her blog.

Guest Post: Finding Pockets of Writing Time (by Julie Duck)

The winner of my yascavengerhunt is Jenny at tea4my3@gmail.com. Please email me at shelli@srjohannes.com. You have 24 hours to claim.


Blue team winner is Jay Uppal from UK.


Today is the first day of guest posts covering me while I'm on vacation. Thank you to everyone who sent in posts. It was awesome. I will return to blogging Monday, April 16th.

Guest Post Schedule:

4/2 - Finding writing time (Julie Duck)

4/4 - Tacking revisions (Robin reul)

4/6 - The art of self pubbing (Allison Moon)

4/9 - Book trailers (Becki)

4/11 - Marketing postcards (Caroline Rose)

4/13 - Link sharing in publicity (Imogen Reed)

==============

Finding Those Invisible Pockets of Writing Time

I know of several latent writers who sigh when I tell them I spent the night writing. They usually say, “I want to do that, but I don’t have the time.” I can relate to this statement, which is false, because I must have said it myself 255 times (oddball number for good measure) during the 20 years I spent not writing fiction.

Why is it false? Because there are pockets of time that writers can put their hands into, in order to get things done. Just like taking small steps toward a weight loss goal, a writer can accomplish a great deal by grasping the concept of “little bits” and making it work. Here are a few ways you can find those invisible pockets of time to concept, write, edit and swoon over your stories:

When the kids are taking a bath - You can sit in the bathroom with them, or nearby and hash out ideas and plots. You can even take your laptop or tablet in there with you, although I don’t recommend it because bath time is often tsunami time as well.

Early in the morning – Okay, so you’ll need to make an extra big pot of coffee and be “very, very quiet” to do this, but jumping out of bed to write can not only help you get that precious time in, but start your day on the “write” foot. I think it’s better to write in the morning than exercise, much to my doctor’s chagrin.

Lunch time – Why on earth would you want to write while you’re trying to eat a sandwich and do it all in 60 minutes or less? Because writing is like eating – you have to do it. Your workday break can give you the pocket in which to put a few hundred words, a page here, a page there. It can only put you ahead (make sure you keep all sodas away from the keyboard).

In the dead of night – This is when I write, and I’ll admit it is hard sometimes to sit down, clear out the mind and go for it. You might be tired, but there’s no better way to wake up your brain than write at night. Plus, you can take the excitement of your story to bed with you, which serves to make you feel eager to do it again the next day. If you’re lucky, you might even dream about what comes next in your story.

Waiting – Got a doctor’s appointment? Writing is a better way to spend time in the lobby than reading a mottled copy of Good Housekeeping. Take a pad of paper with you, or your tablet. I’ve put more words down while waiting for medical tests and doctors than I can recall.

Most of all, don’t stuff your pockets with monumental writing goals that make you feel pressured. If you tell yourself that it’s “4,000 words a day or bust,” you’ll only feel like you can’t do it, which is likely because, in reality, most of us cannot. Simply take things in stride, find the moments that work for getting the words in, and the story will unfold before your eyes.

Contributor Bio

Sometimes it takes a swift kick to start doing what you love. For Julie Rieman Duck, it was more like a full body slam. A health scare and loss of her editing job put Julie square in front of a choice: Do what I love, or do nothing? The decision to write again after 20 years of shelving her voice brought about edgy young adult novels, such as the recently released A Place In This Life  and SWELL, little rooms and soon-to-be-released The Joy & Torture of Joshua James.

Today, Julie bounces between copywriting by day, fiction writing by night and never compromising her love for the written word. You can visit her at:

• Web site: www.julieduck.com
• Blog: www.julieduck.wordpress.com
• Twitter: skodobah
• Goodreads: Julie Rieman Duck

Showing The Love: Looking for Guest Posters

I will be out of pocket the week of March 31st. So I was thinking I could help some other bloggers get some exposure by getting guest posts lined up. I'm not saying I'm the bomb but I do have a good following and would like to get some other blogs out in front of people.

So here is how it goes:

Submissions
Submissions start today and will end Fri, Feb 17th. You can email them to me at shelli@srjohannes.com

You can send me:

•  a guest post or a proposal (though I will say the actual post would be more persuading) on any topic related to writing, marketing etc. 
• a bio
• You can also include a 1 or 2 sentence pitch in your post for the agents and editors that come by

What I will offer you for helping :)
If I choose your post (I am looking for 5 to run April 2 - April 5th) - to thank you for posting for me, here is what I will do in exchange:

• You will get exposure for your blog on here 
• I will tweet and Facebook your post. 
• I will seek help from The Indelibles to RT your post.
• I will offer a daily giveaway for those who comment on your post. 

That's it!

Fun right?

Guest Post by Jessie Harrell (author of Destined)

Today Jessie Harrell gives us a break down of her road to indie publishing. She is the author of Destined that debuted this week.

My first response to this guest post - was "HOW DOES SHE REMEMBER ALL THIS? Then I remembered "oh yeah she is young and I am old. I barely remember anything past yesterday.

=========

Assuming you don’t want to hear my entire life history in his post – and frankly, I have no interest in recounting it since it’s pretty mundane stuff – I thought maybe I’d give you the timeline version.

Early spring  2008 – Husband makes an offhand remark that we should write children’s books, because “how hard can that be?”  He proceeds to buy things like Writing Children’s Book for Dummies and never read them; I sign up for an online writing class.

                  After the class, I realize that I have too many words in my brain to write picture books.  I move on to young adult and decide to retell the Cupid & Psyche myth.  It starts out with the tentative (and horrible!) title, the Vengenace of Venus.

                  Immediately join SCBWI and decide I must attend the Winter Conference in NYC (a place I’d never been), if I was going to “make it” in this business.

Late spring/Summer 2008 – Buy a refurbished laptop so I can ignore my husband from the same room.

                  Give up all TV.  Except True Blood.            

Take my laptop to all my DD’s gymnastics classes on Saturday mornings. With iPod rolling, this turns out to be productive writing time.

                  Start sharing early chapters with a teen beta reader. She likes the crap I’ve written and I’m encouraged to write more! Crap for everyone!

Fall 2008 – Register for the 2009 SCBWI Winter Conference and tell everyone I know that I’m going.  There’s no turning back now. I’m going to be a published author come hell or highwater.

Winter 2008/2009- Attend the SCBWI winter conference. Meet Kimberly Sabantini who agreed to beta read my not-quite-as-bad-but-still-not-great crap.  Note, I’m only about ½ way done with the novel at this point and it’s coming up on a year.  But I’ve been poking around online and learning a lot. Or so I thought.

                  Get some encouraging feedback during the breakout sessions at the conference.  Learn WAY more than I expected to. Walk away with the advice that I must sign up for facebook and twitter. (WTH is twitter?)

                  Join FB and twitter and immediately become addicted.

                  Became involved with #yalitchat and met some awesome people.

Proceed to write some and screw around on twitter a lot.  Oh, started a blog too. And finished the novel now known as Destined. 

Fall 2009 – love conferences so much now, I attend another one in Jacksonville.  It had this cool feature where we could submit a logline for our books and agents agreed to accept the collection and make requests based on those.

                  The collection works – I get my very first request for a partial.  OMG!

                  Promptly send off my partial to show that I really was prepared and ready to go when I queried. (See, I’ve been paying attention.)  Later find a spelling error in the first sentence.

                  Receive a rejection.  Follow this pattern a few more times.

                  Undertake editing with vigor. Figure editing MUST be done by now.

Winter 2010 - Attend the regional SCBWI conference in Miami.  Meet more cool people. Learn more and am totally energized and ready to get published.

Start querying with a vengeance.  Destined gets lots of requests. 

And lots of rejections.  Some very favorible comments come in on my writing though, so I figure I’m on the right track. 

Spring 2010 – Time to write the next novel.  Convince Nikki Katz (who I met on #yalitchat, but who lives out in Cali, so I’d never “met” her), to co-write a novel with me.  We plot and outline and character sketch.  The writing goes quickly and effortlessly.

                  Forget Destined, I’m in love now with Beneath the Surface!

Fall/Winter 2010 – Finish BTS edits and collect beta reader comments.  Everything’s looking good.  Get ready to query after the first of the year.

January 2011 - Queries go out, requests roll in.

                  So do rejections. And lots of waiting.  SUCK.

                  Enter Destined in small pub contest.

Late spring  2011 – Destined does well in the contest, but ultimately I get the review and resub letter.

Get some advice from Georgia McBride not to let go of Destined.  Self-publish it if I have to and start building a fan base.  She also tells me to think of a way to put a fresh spin on the myth.

                  Starting to consider Indie publishing and potential edits.

Summer 2011 – Meet cover designer, find perfect cover photo, design dream cover.  Oops. No turning back now!

                  Release cover into the wild to start building some buzz.

Edit with vigor. I’m on a  schedule and making some major changes.  Get the manuscript to Georgia McBride by late July for her editorial insights.

                   I LOVE THIS STORY ALL OVER AGAIN!!

                  Try to figure out how I’m going to sell paperbacks and where.  Hire typesetter so I don’t have to be bothered with techy stuff.

                  Produce & distribute ARCs.

Fall 2011 - Find typos in the ARCs and correct them.

                  Pull my hair out trying to communicate with Amazon.

                  Get amazing support from all the friends I’ve made in the writing community over the past 4 years. SO worth the wait!

                  Reviews start rolling in.  People start adding Destined to their TBR lists on Goodreads. Strangers are posting about my book on their blogs.  Bloggers are agreeing to be on my blog tour.  Surreal.

November 17^th – LAUNCH PARTY!!

                  It’s been almost 4 years in the making.  I’ve sent more queries, researched more agents, and learned more than I ever could have imagined.  The rejections suck.  The friends I’ve made along the way are AWESOME!

Winter 2011 (i.e., the future) – back to editing BTS

                  Start writing Destined companion novel – Oracular.

                 

And there you have it.  The long and winding road.  The book was nowhere near ready when I started querying. But I didn’t know enough then to realize that.  So I took my knocks like everyone else, learned, grew, and became a part of the online community of YA writers.  It’s been awesome and I wouldn’t change a single thing.  If you’re still traveling on your own road, don’t give up!  The only way to assure you are never published is to quit.  (Someone cool said something that, but I don’t know who, and so I can’t give you the actual quote. Oh well.)

Destined Synopsis from Goodreads and Amazon:

When Psyche receives a prophecy gone horribly wrong, she learns that even the most beautiful girl in Greece can have a hideous future. Her fate? Fall in love with the one creature even the gods fear.

As she feels herself slipping closer into the arms of the prophecy, Psyche must choose between the terrifyingly tender touch she feels almost powerless to resist and the one constant she's come to expect out of life: you cannot escape what is destined.

Links:

Website: www.jessieharrell.com

Blog: http://jessie-harrell.blogspot.com

Goodreads:  http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11778281-destined

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Destined-Jessie-Harrell/dp/0615500951/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_1

Twitter: @JessieHarrell

FB: http://www.facebook.com/JessieHarrell.Author

Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/105138

It will also be available for Nook and Kindle.

Indie Guest Post with Danyelle Leafty (Catspell)

Danyelle has dropped in to give us some insight into her publishing experience. 
Her book Catspell is available on Amazon.


Sixteen-year-old Breena never thought anything could be worse than being forced to leave the faerie realm. Then she got stuck with a fairy godmother. But if she has to choose between the two, she’d leave the Faerie Realm over getting bossed about by a faerie with a pointed stick any day. Unfortunately, her attempt to evade her fairy godmother gives her growing pains in the form of fur, whiskers, and a tail.

Turning into a cat is the least of her worries, though. The potion wasn’t meant to bring out her inner feline, it was meant to put her to sleep. Forever. If Breena wants to make it to her Happily Ever After, she’ll have to accept that sometimes a fairy godmother really does come in handy, after all.


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Thanks for having me, Shelli. I’ve enjoyed your blog for the last couple of years, and it’s an honor to be here. J

Why Self-Publish?

In January of this year, if you had asked me if I would ever consider self-publishing, I would have said no.

Like most writers out there, I just want to write. I didn’t want to have to worry about cover design, formatting, and marketing. I wanted my career to consist of the story, my computer, and me. I’d get the story down, edit and polish it, and then hand it off for someone else to take care of while I tackled the next story.

Then I attended a weeklong writing seminar that focused solely on rewriting and editing. Strangely enough, it was at this seminar that I started to see writing as an act of business. Writing can be an art, but the most beautifully crafted and brilliantly written book in the world misses its potential if no one reads it.

For a book to truly live, it must be read.

With this in mind, I went from wanting to be published to wanting to be read. I don’t think those two desires are necessarily exclusive of one another—especially as being read depends on being published in one form or another. But it did change my perception as well as my strategy.

Because of this, I came up with my five-year plan. (When I had focused solely on publishing commercially, I focused most of my attention on my current WIP, rather than my career over a longer period of time.)

I created a spreadsheet in Word and had a heading for each series I was writing or planned on writing. Then I listed each book in the series and projected a date for when it would be written, revised, and the year I hoped to have it published. Then I went through and color-coded the cells according to the series they were in and what level of completion they were at. The darker the color, the more work I needed to do on it. I also specified how I planned on having the book published.

It really helped me to have my goals written down, because it changed them from a nebulous idea into a concrete plan.

Looking at writing as a business also gave me the idea of diversifying. I don’t really have strong feelings about which way is the right way to publish, because I don’t think publishing has to be all or nothing. All that matters to me is getting the story to my readers.

So I decided to self-publish my Fairy Godmother Dilemma Series while querying the first book of a different series to agents. I have another series I’m aiming at the enhanced e-book market. Publishing is going through some major transitions at the moment, and this could end up being very good for both authors and readers in the future. But with everything being shaky and publishers cutting back, I didn’t want to put all my eggs in one publishing basket.

Changing the way I looked at the writing business and publishing also helped me crystallize how I wanted my career to look over the long-term. Helped me define what things I’d be willing to compromise on, and what things are important enough to me to warrant walking away from a contract. Shifting my perception has been one of the most freeing things I’ve ever done, because I’m taking deliberate charge of my career rather than waiting for it to happen.

All in all, now is one of the most exciting times to be an author. There are so many choices and options available. Is it hard to become an established author? Yes. But it’s always been hard. Are there challenges? Definitely. But now, more than ever, so much more is possible. And that’s what I’m aiming for.

Other ways to find Danyelle:


danyelleleafty.com
mglitchat.blogspot.com
myth-takes.blogspot.com
querytracker.blogspot.com
twitter.com/#!/danyelleleafty

ww.amazon.com/Fairy-Godmother-Dilemma-Catspell-ebook/dp/B005YHBMVK

Guest Post: Sean Beaudoin (author of You Killed Wesley Payne and Fade to Blue)

Note: If you were a winner in the Pitch contest - do not forget to post your query letter on the winner announcement post by today at 5pm PT/8PM EST time.

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Sean Beaudoin has three books out: Going Nowhere Faster, Fade to Blue, and his newest, You Killed Wesley Payne.

Comment on this post and receive a copy of one of Sean's books.

You Killed Wesley Payne

He's come to do a job.
A job that involves a body.
A body wrapped in duct tape found hanging from the goal posts at the end of the football field.
You Killed Wesley Payne is a truly original and darkly hilarious update of classic pulp-noir, in which hard-boiled seventeen year-old Dalton Rev transfers to the mean hallways of Salt River High to take on the toughest case of his life. The question isn't whether Dalton's going to get paid. He always gets paid. Or whether he's gonna get the girl. He always (sometimes) gets the girl. The real question is whether Dalton Rev can outwit crooked cops and killer cliques in time to solve the mystery of "The Body" before it solves him.

Sean Beaudoin (Going Nowhere Faster, Fade to Blue) evokes the distinctive voices of legendary crime/noir authors Dashiell Hammett and Jim Thompson with a little bit of Mean Girls and Heathers throwin in for good measure. It'll tease you, please you, and never ever leave you. Actually, that's not true. It's only a book. One that's going to suck you in, spit you out, and make you shake hands with the devil. Probably.

Here is Sean Beaudoin discussing how to write a noir mystery and crime novel for teens:

I think a noir mystery/crime novel for teenagers is really no different than one marketed for adults. At least that's the way I approached You Killed Wesley Payne.

Of course, some of the violence and sex might be toned down. Or it might not. My impression in general is that a book that panders to a younger audience is a book that ends up not having much of a spine. I hope the books I've written have been challenging to the teens that have read them, mostly because those were exactly the kind of books I wanted to read when I was sixteen.

Of course, back then, YA didn't really exist. There was no online branding, specific bookstore shelving practices, or row after row of lurid covers. We made it through elementary school without a single precocious wizard to help transition into high school’s chaste vampiric longings. There were a handful of titles, like The Outsidersand Go Ask Alicethat were known to be specifically for teens, but if you go back and read those books now, they’re pulling very few punches. Flowers In the Attic and The World According to Garp and The Basketball Diaries were all books that were sort of being handed around on the "black market" at school. We knew they would be confiscated if discovered, so we highlighted the salacious pages and giggled knowingly over them during study hall.

I feel very lucky to be writing YA in 2011. The audiences are incredibly smart and sophisticated. Tastes are eclectic and passionate. Noir can battle zombies, either on the page or at the register. YA is like the wild west--even though the breakout YA western doesn’t yet exist--in that everyone’s a gunslinger, pretty much writing about whatever they want. The limitations of the last few decades, in publisher’s imaginations and reader’s choices, have completely disappeared.

So I like having my back against the saloon wall, twin revolvers in my hands, plenty of bullets just a laptop away. It’s up to me to come up with something excellent—either an impossible shot or an brilliant escape plan. Which is exactly the way I wanted it way back in junior year, when I looked up from a copy of Kurt Vonnegut’s The Sirens of Titan, busy understanding only half of it (gleefully so) and said “Hey, man-I want to be a writer!”

Some other links:

Free Excerpt for a Tweet

YKWP Trailer

Follow Sean on Twitter and Facebook