Posts Tagged With: Writing

Early Christmas!

Posted on November 22, 2011 by Kate Policani

These are the books I bought today!

The Dark Song by Piia Brandenberg http://piiabredenberg.wordpress.com/2011/10/01/the-dark-song-goes-up/

Three Girls and a Wedding by Rachel Schurig http://rachelschurig.com/books/

City Wedding by Maggie Carlise http://maggiepublishing.wordpress.com/my-books/

Flash Bites by Krista Bunskoek http://flashbites.wordpress.com/

Lightbringer by Frankie Robertson http://frankierobertson.wordpress.com/

Regression by Kathy Bell http://kathybellauthor.wordpress.com/

One Insular Tahiti by Thea Atkinson http://theaatkinson.wordpress.com/

I went through all my followers one by one and bought one of their books for sale if I hadn’t already bought it.

If one of your books is not on my list, that means I COULDN’T FIND IT!!! Do you know what that means? You are trying to market your book online and someone going to your site purposefully to buy your book CAN’T FIND IT! Yes I’m yelling because this is a TRAGEDY!!! Please, make it so anyone visiting your site either can’t help but see your book for sale or accidentally clicks on it repeatedly. This is the only way you are going to make it self-publishing and possibly even if you are traditionally published.

Some pages listed their books but had no links. I searched for them on Amazon and wasn’t disappointed, but the link should be there!!!

Anyway…Merry Christmas to those whose books I did buy, and if you want me to check out your book, I’ll be happy to look it over! Reviews will come as soon as I can read and stuff.

Warning: I did see some ebooks for $8 and would only buy an ebook at that cost if I new and loved the author, and loved the synopsis.

Categories: Reviews | Tags: ebook, fiction, novel, promotion, review, self-publshing, Writing | 10 Comments

My Christmas Present to ME (and maybe you)!

Posted on November 22, 2011 by Kate Policani

First, don’t forget my Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale coming up in 2 days! Get The Disenchanted Pet for free as an ebook or for cost as a print book!

The real post: Today my ereader is supposed to get here! My dear family, without any effort at all (or necessarily even knowing it), got me a lovely ereader for Christmas. Early. Don’t judge, people. This is how Mama gets what she wants for Christmas instead of a vacuum cleaner.

That was from Marc and the kids. For myself, I’m getting ebooks to read on my ereader! I’m getting YOUR ebooks. I’ll be combing through all the ebooks my followers have written and buying the ones that interest me. Then I’ll post reviews of them on my “Reviews” page, which I’ll probably have to refurbish to hold that many.

Yes, my present to me is also my present to you! But only if you are following my blog. If you have friends who want their books bought and reviewed on my site, be sure to get them to click that “Follow” button!

Normally I will not read thrillers or erotica. Sorry. But I am open to any interesting synopsis for any other genre. I’m pretty open to any good tale.

I reserve the right to skip the books that don’t appeal to me, and I will give an honest review. I’ll be sure to run it by you, though, before I post. I won’t post any reviews you don’t want me to post. Don’t worry!

Categories: Reviews, Self-Publishing | Tags: Author, ebooks, fiction, free, novel, promotion, reading, review, Self-Publish, Writing | 1 Comment

An Editor is a MUST!

Posted on November 21, 2011 by Kate Policani

Yes, you are professional, creative, and an exceptional grammarian, but even the best writers can’t always see their own mistakes! Hire an editor to make your indie work into professional work.

Looking for affordable professional editing? Look no further! Rosa Sophia offers discounts and deals for writers, and ongoing rates that can be viewed on her website. Visit Rosa at www.rosasophia.com

Coming soon: Rosa Sophia’s review of The Disenchanted Pet!

Categories: Self-Publishing | Tags: Author, editing, literature, novel, professional, resources, review, rosasophia, The Disenchanted Pet, Writing | 1 Comment

Surfin’ the Tag

Posted on November 7, 2011 by Kate Policani

Lets see how many different ways I can present the term “Tag Surfing” before repeating myself…

http://carriebrownwolf.wordpress.com/2011/11/07/writing-with-voice/ a fun list of questions to ask yourself about your characters to enrich their descriptions

http://alchemyofscrawl.wordpress.com/2011/11/07/guest-post-by-ellen-ghyll-an-indie-hits-back/#comment-1316 an eye-popping analysis of Greg on Amazon’s condemnation of all indie authors.

http://frankierobertson.wordpress.com had a button for http://www.blogsurfer.us and I signed up too. More free publicity can’t hurt. Click my blogsurfer button!

It lists blogs every few seconds and every time you click, my blog goes to the top.

I also have to mention the cool trick I learned that I have been using like crazy. When you accidentally close a tab in Internet Explorer that you regret, push CTRL, ALT, T and it will pop back up again! Righteous!

Categories: Tag Surfing | Tags: alchemyofscrawl, Amazon, blog surfer, blogging, carriebrownwolf, frankierobertson, tag surfer, Writing | 1 Comment

Tag surfin’! Tag-tag surfin’!

Posted on October 28, 2011 by Kate Policani

They should really call it “Tag Fishing” because it is like finding some that are whoppers, some that are minnows, and some old boots.

Here are my faves from today:

http://timzimmermann.com/2011/10/28/the-publishing-revolution-in-one-table/ I love the hard evidence, and I’m encouraged that though I am not making wads of money, the odds are in my favor. This one was short but fat with goodness.

Also there is a long one but interesting http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/2011/10/28/are-successful-writers-just-lucky/ Maybe this one is an eel. I liked her progression through the book writing process to fame.

Categories: Self-Publishing, Writing | Tags: book, books, ebook, links, literature, marketing, promotion, publicity, Publish, publishing, reading, resources, Self-Publish, self-publishing, tag, writer, Writing | Leave a comment

Tag Surfing! Posts I liked:

Posted on October 14, 2011 by Kate Policani

I use the Tag surfer to connect with other bloggers on WordPress, and it works pretty well!

I liked:

this author interview http://andrewbutterworth.wordpress.com/2011/10/14/self-published-author-interview-simon-fox/ Simon did a good interview and had some good stuff to say about being an Author .
This short blog about including the sense of smell in writing setting descriptions http://3by3writingmethod.wordpress.com/2011/10/14/dont-forget-to-smell-the-noses/
This blog post from an author who I found once in a different blog post from another author http://dlmorrese.wordpress.com/2011/10/14/my-self-publishing-adventure-episode-three-building-a-platform/

I read lots of others and commented too, but these have new information I haven’t posted and fit what I am discussing in my blog: writing and self-publishing.

Categories: Self-Publishing, Writing | Tags: advertizing, andrew butterworth, Author, blogs, D L Morese, description, facebook, interview, links, marketing, platform, promotion, Self-Publish, self-publshing, Simon Fox, social media, Twitter, Writing | 3 Comments

BookBlogs

Posted on October 14, 2011 by Kate Policani

I’ve been accepted in to http://bookblogs.ning.com/ and I’m just starting to learn what it’s about. There is a great format for requesting book reviews. You can post your book info and reviewers can comb through it themselves and contact you. We’ll see if this produces any results. Otherwise, bookblogs seems like a Facebook for readers and writers to share about books. It isn’t as upscale as Goodreads but it seems to be less complicated. You also have to request membership and be accepted, rather than just sign up and go. My acceptance took 2 days to go through.

Categories: Self-Publishing | Tags: Author, blog, bookblogs, books, community, marketing, membership, reading, review, Self-Publish, self-publishing, Writing | 5 Comments

More Advice That Is Priceless and Free

Posted on October 11, 2011 by Kate Policani

Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords and owner of Dovetail Public Relations has a free ebook on marketing for self-published authors. Surprisingly, it is called Smashwords Book Marketing Guide. Go figure!

Definitely, this is an excellent read full of meaty, juice information for po’ little authors like me. http://www.smashwords.com/books/download/305/1/latest/0/0/smashwords-book-marketing-guide.pdf

He pointed out an important fact: Your webpage shows up in searches based on its links to other sites and other sites’ links to it, as well as how many people travel there. One big goal is to increase traffic and therefore increase visibility in an exponential way.

Here is my new list of things to do after reading his guide:

Update my email signature to include my web addresses (His reasoning is that we all send lots of emails and replies and should use that to our advantage. He suggests your blog site, any sites where your book is sold, and a webpage if you have one.)
Add the community pages I use to include my web addresses
Updste myTtwitter profile to include my web addresses
Update my Smashwords profile to include my Twitter address (There is a special list on Smashwords of Twitter users with increased visibility)
Write a press release (Scary!)
Participate in HARO (Help a Reporter Online) with my particular expertise (Aliens in the future…yeah…)
Hold a limited coupon promotion on one or more sites: on Smashwords (garnered 200 buys in his example), on the blog, on http://kindleboards.com, or other promotion sites.
Include the promotion on these sites (good links!) www.freeonlinenovels.com , http://online-novels.blogspot.com , www.getfreebooks.com , http://blog.booksontheknob.org , http://ereader.freebies.blogspot.com , www.bookbarista.com

Thank you, Mark for your fabulous advice, since I can’t use your promotion services! I’m passing it on because marketing tips to authors (poor) should be free!

Oh. Now I have to DO all these. Gah!

Categories: Resources, Self-Publishing | Tags: advertising, Author, blog, book, bookbarista, booksontheknob, community, ebook, email, ereader.freebies, freeonlinenovels, getfreebooks, HARO, Kindle, kindleboards, Mark Croker, marketing, online-novels, promotions, Self-Publish, self-publishing, Smashwords, Twitter, web presence, Wordpress, writer, Writing | 2 Comments

Advertizing My Book

Posted on October 11, 2011 by Kate Policani

I got some great ideas the other day from Penguin’s author guide to publicity. Reading it has made me glad (again) that I decided to self-publish to start because if I had tried to submit to publishers and was successful, I would lose rights to my book AND be forced to promote my own book just as I am doing now anyway. I can see now why traditional publishing is losing to self-publishing.

Anyway! One of them was to advertize on craigslist, and I finally published a cragslist ad! http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/bks/2644389960.html

I thought about the Wikipedia and actually pulled up the page, but the formatting class you have to go through was too overwhelming for today. There is etiquitte and formatting tricks and a whole scary tutorial about how to do it right. I will, but not today. I have to build up my courage first.

Categories: My Books, Self-Publishing | Tags: advertizing, Author, Craigslist, ebook, marketing, publishing, Self-Publish, self-publishing, Wikipedia, Writing | Leave a comment

Blog with insightful instructions on How To Review

Posted on October 10, 2011 by Kate Policani

http://cochisewriters.wordpress.com/category/ross/

Ross Lampert gives us a detailed and intelligent process for how he reviews a book. It gets to the heart of why we read. As I’ve pointed out before, reading is necessary for writing, and if you can better analyze your reading then you can better craft your writing!

The instructions are written in series, so I’ve linked to Ross’ page in the blog (multiple authors).

Thanks for the cool tools, Ross! I gave them a new page in One Note for future reference.

Categories: Resources, Writing | Tags: Author, how-to, literature, reading, review, Writing | Leave a comment

The Divergence of the Sites

Posted on October 10, 2011 by Kate Policani

Upon the advice of a wise man, I am varying my information on the web. That means that this site will still be the meat of my blogging, and my other site http://katepolicani.blogspot.com will be my mushy sensitive site full of my feelings and writing experiences. If you don’t want that, don’t go there. Nyah.

I think it is going to be cool, so if you’re cool, you will check it out. Soon, anyway. There isn’t much there right now that isn’t already on this site. Don’t worry. I’ll fix that.

Categories: Writing | Tags: blog, blogging, change, marketing, variety, Writing | Leave a comment

A link to a blog with a cool scene-writing technique!

Posted on October 6, 2011 by Kate Policani

http://dlmorrese.wordpress.com/2011/10/06/writing-a-simple-scene-in-five-easy-layers/
DL Morrese has laid out a simple but beautiful method for creating a scene.

Categories: Writing | Tags: Author, book, DL Morrese, scene, Writing | Leave a comment

Ideas from Penguin Author’s Guide

Posted on October 5, 2011 by Kate Policani

I am in the middle of Penguin’s Author’s Guide to Marketing. http://us.penguingroup.com/static/pdf/misc/penguin_authors_guide_to_online_marketing_summer_2008.pdf

Here is the meat I got from it so far:
1. You need a web presence preferably before you release your book. (check!)
2. You can advertize your book on Craigslist.
3. You can place yourself on Wikipedia (Cool/Intimidating!)

Also, some techie advice from my techie husband: You can’t use the same information on all your submissions and profiles or you will be marked online and disqualified from notice. You can re-use your stuff but don’t make it just the same. Profile info should be a bit different for each profile unless they specifically ask that it be the same as your book. If you’re blogging, refer to one blog in the other, but don’t copy wword-for-word. Summarize and link to the original. Shoot, I have some work to do now.

Categories: Self-Publishing | Tags: Author, blogging, Craigslist, marketing, Penguin, publicity, Self-Publish, self-publshing, Wikipedia, Writing | Leave a comment

A Wealth of Information on SPR

Posted on October 4, 2011 by Kate Policani

My continuing search for resources for marketing brought me to SPR today! http://selfpublishingresources.com/ It is chock-full of self-publishing, writing, and marketing advice for self-publishing authors! I haven’t yet combed it thoroughly, but I can tell that it is going to be a huge help! Check it out!

Also–if you are a blogger with your own self-publishing story or site filled with advice, I’d love to link to your site. I will actually read your site and decide for myself whether it is link material or not, but I can’t link you if I don’t know you exist! You know you wanna comment…