It's Finally Happened

I want to announce that I've sent my manuscript for Silenced in to the editor YESTERDAY!!!! Her goal is to have it done by the end of the month. That means ... yep you guessed it... one step closer to being in your hands.

Who's excited? Not sure if you are. Well, here's a bit more about my book. Then you decide.

Amber Brown spent her entire existence believing Dave was her father. When her mother reveals this is untrue, she goes through an emotional spiral with depression. It's hard for her to believe her mother had lied to her all this time. 

A move to a new home and town causes Amber to be consumed by her "darkness" and reverts to cutting to free herself from her pain.

When Casey, her new friend enters her life, she introduces Amber to parties, drugs, and Amber's new boyfriend Landon. The secret of cutting begins to take affect on Amber as she tries to hide it from her friends and family. In the mist of everything, Amber has the desire to find out who her biological father is.

Follow Amber through her trials of depression and cutting, along with the discovery of love.


And there you have it. This is a journey I don't think you'll ever forget. I'm excited for it's release.... are you?

The Writing Process as a Self Publishing Author

How do you begin writing a book? Where do your idea's come from? How do you come up with your characters? These are only some of the questions I have heard from people who have read a small preview in my book. Though it still needs work, I can share some great advice I got yesterday.

The biggest tip I can say is to take your time. If you rush through writing a book, it only leaves you with more work and there's even a chance that it'll be... well not your best. So, here is the process that I've heard several times within the past week when I asked other authors for their advice.

1. Write
2. Find a critique partner
3. Fix critiques suggestions
4. Do a personal edit on your work
5. Find a professional editor.
6. Fix the suggestions from the editor.
7. Send to beta readers.
8. Fix beta suggestions.
9. Send back to the professional editor.
10. Fix last edits
11. Publish

There's a lot of work that goes into self publishing, which seems to be the hit right now.  Authors take anywhere from months to years writing their books. The writing aspect isn't the only thing that is done to a book before readers get them in their hands.

For those of you looking for help with writing your book, I suggest you check out The Bookshelf Muse's blog. There's a lot of information here for descriptions. I love it and they also have an ebook and paperback available.

Self Publishing and Marketing

One of the main parts of the publishing equation is Marketing for your book. Marketing is the way you get your work out there to your key readers. Although this step may seem a bit over whelming, I've done some research and put together some tips to help make your Marketing a bit more successful.

First and foremost, I suggest making sure your books is ready for the publication and marketing stage. This means fully edited to the best in which it can be, formatted into whatever version you want to put it in, and make sure any and all mistakes are fixed. Here you could make a trial version for only you. This way you can see what it looks like before you put it out in the market. I have seen books where there were odd characters such as >, -, ", etc... placed in spots throughout the book that should be there. I feel when a reader, such as myself, begin reading these types of books, it throws the reader off. Another thing I have noticed is where a dropped cap is used, it isn't always used correctly. I feel that when using the dropped cap, the first letter for the first word doesn't need to be used. Here's what I'm referring to if you're not quite sure.

I have noticed this is a variety of self published books. I think it's best just to double check and then, perhaps, check again.

Next, remember the font. I have read self published books where the font changed every where throughout the book. The worst part is that the font went smaller and it was hard to read. This may make the reader stop reading your book which isn't what we want at all. I think remaining with the same font and size is best. Keep it simple. Fancy text has it's way of distracting a reader.

Lastly, you could have a beta stage for your book. You could choose several readers to go through your book, read it, and tell you what they think. As them certain questions you'd like the answers to. This way your, in a way, getting that last step of the editing in with a different set of eyes.  You can also use their words, as long as they agree, in your book to help show other readers what people think of the book.

Once you're sure all mistakes are fixed and your manuscript is polished up, it's time for publishing and marketing. When publishing your work, it's best to start the marketing for it. Let friends and family know you have a book coming out. This is one of the best places to start. You can announce it on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Authors.com, Goodreads, and many more websites. The more places you post it, the more likely you are to have readers waiting for it's release.

Another idea you could use is a Virtual Book Tour. Contact bloggers who are willing to review your work and be part of the blog tour. (You can find more information about blog tours all over the internet). You can even offer to give a free copy as a giveaway prize. This helps to get your book out there as well.



If you're planning on self publishing, what is your biggest concern?

**All idea's within this post are of my own. I'm passing on what I have learned during my process of publishing and marketing books.**