A Writers Life and Continuing Education

Cougar is always a good distraction when I have no idea what I need to do next.

I always said that if I won the lottery that I would go for my Master’s Degree, maybe even a Doctorate but only if I hit the lottery. Advanced degrees are highly expensive and in the field that I would study: English or Creative Writing, that wouldn’t be the best investment in a sure future that I could make. Why? Because I’m paranoid. I make no bones about holding onto my day job, my security and my sanity. Oh I dream of being a Best Seller but I don’t dream of starving or going into debt in the pursuit of it and my luck...well, I am contributing heartily to my 401K.

So, I pursue my obsession in the best and easiest way I can, I practice writing frequently. Sometimes it’s a daily pursuit; sometimes I skip a few days. I search the internet looking for tips and tools, market trends and promotions opportunities all in homage to this craft that I love, writing. Putting words together to weave a tale, sculpting words to make visions and inspire emotions. Obsessions… Who needs classes on being a writer? There’s the library, the internet, lots of books that you can read independently.

I will tell you that to me being published is almost the same as having a certificate of higher learning. Of course it isn’t but still…it’s pretty damn close. However…I am currently sitting at my desk after having finished my morning word count, and I find myself thinking, self you really should be doing something more, for instance:

• Isn’t there a book you should be promoting

• Isn’t there an Outline you should be revising

• Shouldn’t you research a few sci fi publishers for that current WIP you are working on

• Your grammar and mechanics skills are rusty, look up some books to work on that

• Don’t you have a newsletter that is late

• Why are you working on a SF work when most of your ‘brand’ is Paranormal

• Shouldn’t you do some updates to your writers expense report

• How about a plan to get a few short stories and novellas onto Amazon to get more name recognition

Yeah so those are only at the tip of the iceburg, before the headaches start. I have been writing for a while (a long while) now and while I don’t regret signing up for continuing education at a University, I swear I regret thinking that diligence and tenacity were all that I needed.

I’m a writer and some say that I am prone to be introverted but I say that I’m an introvert that happens to write. It has occurred to me that much of the confusion, frustration and ignorance that I have about my writing habit is because I had purposefully considered only one thing, the act of the craft while turning a blind eye on the one thing I could use. Socialization. Active learning. Cranking it out is important sure but I am certainly not prolific enough to have an agent, handler or promo team to allow me to just...crank it out.

I bet writer’s conventions, seminars and workshops have educational tracts that I could benefit from, tips and information that could relieve some of the anxiety I have as a writer, that could bolster the strength of my prose, my brand and maybe even the way I market myself… because although some might believe that all you have to do as a writer is to write….They would be soo wrong.

I have a FB page that I devote to Author Tools. I call it the Author’s Bar, because from the few conventions that I have attended many introvert authors seem to conspire there, myself included, to tap that Dutch Courage needed to socialize. Have I been attending the wrong cons? Possibly. Do I socialize with authors there? No. Am I uncomfortable with parties and costumes and swag showers? Kinda yeah. And to be perfectly dour, I find myself longing for lecture rooms and group circles where text is torn apart both for content and context, where trends are explained with flow charts and attack plans are detailed for success. But the amount of author gatherings with classroom formats are few and far between. (If I am wrong, please post some links to the bar)

Why, I wonder when writing is a very serious and ever changing profession. Sure I am a decent self-learner and I make my word counts, but in other areas I find myself doubtful.

I’m not writing this blog to influence a writer into conventions or higher learning, but simply to reveal what I am searching for and hope one day to find. So, if you know of an event that could benefit me or person’s like me, by all means use that comment box.

The Human Race...At The End of The Day!

I don’t have common sense but I do so enjoy ‘Loving Day’ and the spotlight it shows on yet another petty matter that humans use to keep us from progressing further in science, politics and advancement of the species as a whole. Interracial…Race has several meanings, such as:

1. a contest of speed 2. to transport or propel at maximum speed 3. a family, tribe, people, or nation belonging to the same stock 4. a category of humankind that shares certain distinctive physical traits

My favorite however is:

5. an actually or potentially interbreeding group within a species; also : a taxonomic category (as a subspecies) representing such a group

Um...Humans!!The come in many appetizing shades!

Why shades should even be an issue isn’t a mystery to me, I do believe in racism and I know that it exists. The why however, is the bigger quandary. Humans come in hundreds and hundreds of shades, they have similarities on the surface and beneath however not one of the so-called races (a family, tribe, people, or nation belonging to the same stock) is incompatible with another, hence the definition of race as a fundamental ‘interbreeding group within a species,’ is apropos.

That would be the simple way to consider the notion, debate or observations of interracial love but even in this day and time, humanity stumbles over the concept. There are dark and light shades within every race, Chinese, Indian, Native American, African, Europeans. And yes, unfortunately there are caste systems in which a person is either elevated or suppressed due to skin shade. So for those who think it is ridiculous for a person to date someone of a various colored groupings, I have to wonder what they would think if they were ostracized for dating someone of a different shade.

Perfect and perhaps not known example within the African American community: “I don’t date high yella men.” “I don’t date dark skinned girls.” “I don’t mess with brown –skinned women…” It may sound ridiculous, but I have heard those statements and more. I’ll give you the fact that we all have preferences, and I believe that that should be stated as such. A dark-skinned person with a light-skinned person could be considered interracial. Sound ridiculous.

But wait, what about a variance of beliefs, or a difference of culture and custom assigned to a race? What about generalized political affiliations, culinary differences, ideologies…If these are the struts that bolster the framework of race as a source of pride and empowerment…stability even, consider the stagnation of that might occur if any so-called purity could ever be attained. I mean no harm to those who seek what they know and are familiar with, but to ridicule or insult the pairing of two human beings with differences, negate the opportunity for unification stagnates within a group in solitary and prevents fresh and opposing experiences that might be more similar than either party knows.

There is a term, ‘variety is the spice of life,’ and human beings whether they know it or acknowledge it or not, are the product of such an idea. The idea of genealogy and tracing our ‘roots’ has become such a popularity now that there are paid services for the pursuit. Such research often shows variety in our backgrounds.

Now it may not be as poignant as you can obviously point out the white folk in your family, there are several Irish faces in my family tree, a couple of Native Americans, a few Scotts but mainly African descendants.

I consider myself a Black American not because of my background, and certainly not in any negation of the fundamental fact that many or most of are mixed. It's simple and it's the closest description I can come to that defines me in the environment that I was born into. That’s also what I check on the census form when it comes around. It’s easy, simple and requires almost no explanation at all of the scientific fact that interracial unions are not only possible but have occurred since the dawn of time. Many races, cultures, perhaps persons of various religions went into me!

I do so enjoy ‘Loving Day’ or shall I say ‘Keeping it Real’ day if only for the opportunity for people to reflect upon the fact that we are all the same species. Just because one person may be a different, color, culture, shade of ideological set, doesn’t mean that we are incompatible for loving, and that goes for straight, bi and homosexual folk. You're human, damnit.

Hungry aliens won't discriminate, so why should we?

Human is human. The sooner we realize that the sooner we can get focused on real issues, like poverty, discrimination, advancements in science, health and technology. All this separation and flag waving is just moot distraction...by the MAN...who I am probably related to several generations back, so...

Happy Loving Day Human. No matter what race, culture, color, creed or shade you are.

And Now On To The Really Fun Stuff

Click Here to Enter the Rafflecopter Giveaway!

Click Here to Go back to Hop Master List!!!

Finish the Loving Day Hop by visiting Author: Rae Lori

Want a Preview of the Prizes? Check these Out!

LOVING DAY BLOG HOP MASTER LIST

Visit the following author and reviewer pages to learn something new or win a prize or two!

Sydney Arrison eBook copy of Bad Tabby: A Night Kitty Quickie by Renee Luke and Café Mocha by Vivienne Diane Neal

Koko Brown Reader’s Choice of an eBook from author’s backlist & ARC of yet to be released Taken

Sam Cheever eBook copy of The Biggest Poser (EPUB, MOBI, PDF)

Shyla Colt $10 Amazon Gift card AND eBook copies of Dual Desires and Keys to Heaven

Alexa Day eBook copy of Illicit Impulse and swag

Stacy-Deanne eBook copy of Bruised

Dahlia DeWinters Reader’s Choice of an eBook from author’s backlist

Lena Hart eBook copy of historical anthology, For Love & Liberty

Roslyn Hardy Holcomb eBook copy of IR historical Stolen

M J Kane eBook copy of A Heart Not Easily Broken

Mya Lairis $10 Amazon Gift Card

Rae Lori $20 Amazon Gift Card Choice of 1 book from author’s backlist Choice of 1 of 3 Sandra Kitt IR eBook (The Color of Love, Close Encounters, Between Friends)

Fiona McGrier Choice of the following eBooks: The Reluctant Bride, Two For Tuesday or Prophecy of the Undead

Lisa G. Riley eBook copy of Friends and Lovers Series: You are Mine and a Mighty Good Man

Roxie Rivera eBook copy of Sergei, Sergei II and In Jack's Arms

Romance Novels in Color $10 gift card to Amazon or B&N

Keisha Robertson $10 Kobo gift card

Eve Vaughn Really cool prize

Holding a Book Signing With an eBook - Sam Cheever (Special Guest Post)

There's no doubt about it, ebooks are quickly becoming the new favorite for much of the reading public. Sales for digital media continue to climb, becoming an ever larger segment of the market. This is good news for ebook authors, creating much potential to build our sales and name recognition. During this exciting time, we writers are challenged to find new and better ways to promote our work. Digital format makes that effort both easier and more difficult, depending on the venue.

Promoting digital media online is natural and most of us embrace it, using loops, chat groups, and social networks to get our books in front of a ravenous buying public. But one area that continues to stump us is how to do book signings when the book isn't in paper and ink. This is probably the most often asked question by newly published ebook authors. It can either be viewed as a challenge, or as an opportunity to be creative. Guess which way I'm gonna go! #:0)

Preparing for an ebook signing is fun. First of all, if you want to put something in the buyer's hand you have a couple of choices. You can either put your book on a memory stick to sell at the signing, or provide some type of printed media with links for shoppers to take home and think about, thereby taking the heat off of them to purchase the book on the spot. If you’re dealing with a techno savvy buyer, you can offer cards with the book’s QR code and blurb for scanning later.

I like to load my content on memory sticks that represent either my brand or the book they contain. The small icon on my website and all printed author material is a red heart. With this branding in mind, I keep a ready supply of red, heart-shaped memory sticks that I load with book trailers and sample content for fans and contest winners. This idea works great for a book signing too. Along with the book you’re selling, you can include first chapters and trailers of some of your backlist or free reads. Tell shoppers the extras are on there when you offer it to them. Anything extra you give the reader increases your chances of pulling them in and enticing them to buy more of your books.

Selling digital copies of your book in a bookstore can be complicated. If your signing is in a bookstore, it might be easier for you just to provide a free chapter of the book and send them to the website to buy the entire book. But many conferences now allow and even encourage writers to sell their own books at book signings.

An alternative to a memory stick is printed media of some type. My recommendation would be a first chapter booklet. You can create first chapter booklets very easily, either producing them yourself or working with your local printer. Make them as attractive as possible, include the cover on the outside, and autograph the books. Make sure to include your website and the buy URL on the booklet. Even if the shopper thinks she is taking the booklet just to be kind, she's very likely to give it a quick read and you have a chance to draw her in. Other alternatives are postcards and/or cover flats if you have access to them, but I like the chapter booklet because it gives readers enough of a taste to get them hooked, improving the chances that they'll buy the book. This is the same concept Amazon uses to great success with its book samples.

Always include signed bookmarks, trading cards and/or business cards for readers to take home. If you can, provide candy and/or some little trinket (pens, magnets, etc.) for them to take with them. And, if possible, offer some kind of visual. If you have a book trailer, bring your laptop with you and play the trailer in a loop during the signing. Or, if you have a good voice and a dramatic flair, provide audio of you reading a chapter in your book. Be creative. For example, if your book involves cooking, provide a recipe card with a great recipe on one side and your book's title, blurb, and buy URL on the other side. Yoga? Include a favorite yoga position on the card, with an explanation for what it does to improve health or, if your book is erotic, how it increases sexual prowess. Your book is about a murderer who loves crossword puzzles? Create a crossword puzzle online, using things that appear in your book as the clues, print it out and offer it to them, with your book info on the back of course! You get the idea. Just be creative.

Don't forget to include your website on everything, so potential buyers can go check you out when deciding to buy.

One last thing you should think about is a contest. Put together a small, sparkly gift basket and place it on the table next to you. Provide slips of paper for shoppers to fill out with their email addies so you can notify them if they win, and require them to take a chapter booklet for the chance to win the basket. Include a box they can check on the slips of paper, to be included in your newsletter mailings... What? You don't have a newsletter? You might want to consider starting one!

The key, if you haven't figured it out yet #:0) is to give potential readers a reason to stop by and see you, and offer them something they might enjoy, rather than just hawking your wares to them. Most of this is stuff you would do even if your book was in print, but the gist of what I'm telling you is that book signings with ebooks can be a lot of fun and very effective. You just need to step outside the box and get creative. With the plethora of ebook readers available and a growing hunger for digital media, the books will sell themselves. All you need to do is give them the venue to do it! Happy Sales!

 

Sam Cheever's Latest Work The Biggest Poser

Available April 18th from Musa Publishing

May the biggest liar win. Or die trying!

Personal trainer for the ever popular, Lose it! reality show, Jillie Maxwell is up for the most important award of her career. And she’s competing against the biggest b-eye-itch she’s ever met. Fortunately for her, she has the sexiest man alive in her corner. Problem is, each and every one of them has a dirty little secret that could tank a career.

For the contestants, the race is on to lose the most weight and win everything. For the staff of the popular weight loss show, the clock is ticking to the culmination of their lies and the possibility of losing it all.

Will the Biggest Poser win? Or will the lies just grow and grow until they sink the whole show? Only one thing is certain. Whatever happens, it’s gonna be an entertaining ride!

THE BIGGEST POSER- BOOK PAGE

AUTHOR BIO

Sam's published work includes 50+ books of romantic suspense and fantasy/paranormal. Her books have won the Dream Realm Award for fantasy and The Swirl (interracial romance) Award. They've been nominated for and/or won several CAPAs, have been nominated multiple years for “Best of” with LRC and The Romance Reviews, and have won eCataromance’s Reviewer’s Choice award. Sam is published with Musa Publishing, Changeling Press; and Ellora’s Cave. She also publishes as Declan Sands, writing m/m fiction, and under her own imprint, Electric Prose Publications.

In real life, Sam lives in a cabin in the woods with 13 dogs and one husband. A self-proclaimed dog-aholic, Sam insists she's holding at 13...maybe... Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Blog | About.Me | Amazon Author Page

Publicity for the Shy or the New Conventions...Sorta

I will be the first to admit that I suck at publicity, a crucial skill in these days of publishing. I don't blog nearly enough, I look at Twitter as if it is an alien construct, I was certainly a bit too interested in Facebook's gaming apps and book signings- public appearances...well, lemme just say that I wasn't mentally prepared to sell myself, not sober at least. So, I was sorta in a rut and relying on the publisher of my latest work (whichever one it was at any given time) to do most of the work. Oh I rented a few ads here and there, and I did a few of the review sites and even a blog hop or two. And I might add that I did a couple of contests. Being crafty and a shopper by nature, I would make jewelry, swag and a gift basket or two with glee, but I wasn't really focused.

Turn the calendar to 2014 and that notorious time of resolutions. I came upon an 'Author Services' group on Facebook. Looking for ways to kick up the attention to my books and my brand (another subject entirely) I joined my first Facebook party hosted by a provider of author services, Chelsea Author Promotions. The party was unlike anything I had ever experienced. There were games, trivia, contests, prizes and interaction all in real time. The author got to present her work, excerpts, got to speak to new fans and interested but wary prize seekers. The host, Chelsea Author Promotions encouraged participants to note and like the author's Facebook page, Goodreads page, Twitter, Amazon and webpage. Much opportunity seemed to be had by both readers and writer.

Curious, I attended several more events and even won a key chain at one event. Well, I was sold then. I was already planning the party I would throw, the games I wanted to play and the swag I wanted to give away. Then, Chelsea, the owner announced that she was doing a Multi-Author Bash.

Although I didn't have a new release, the temptation to do some back list pimping and the low cost of participating en masse, drove me to sign up. I didn't know what I was getting into but for weeks I was nervous and giddy at the prospect of going on display. The event, a trial for Chelsea, in that she usually did single author events crept up in participants and attendees daily until it was 46 authors and nearly a thousand attendees!

So I worked on some trivia questions, thought about some prizes and prepared a gift basket based on the book I was promoting and prepared myself for the big day. Assigned to the second day of the event, I know that I was unprepared for flurry of activity that hit when the time came. In the span of a few hours, I had nearly a hundred new likes to my Facebook page, more than sixty new Twitter follows and a lot of Goodreads fans. My smart phone was jumping with notifications. But all of that aside, I was raptly following the interaction my games and questions were generating, so much so that I ended up posting an additional giveaway. Even after my day had ended, I was still getting interest and still flying high.

Prize Basket and Bracelet Swag I Created for Event

I paid it forward, participating in other authors' games, liking and following and fanning my heart out even as the rush turned a bit to the feeling an addict gets when they want another fix. Determined to finish my next WIP (work in progress) I couldn't stop thinking about the next event, when was it going to be and which book, old or new, I could showcase. I know a lot of writers who attend conventions and say that they come back invigorated and with swag, and seriously I got that feeling. I won an ebook, got to see lots of new work, purchase a few for immediate Kindle download and I got plenty of ideas and yes, I got to do it without being in a giant room full of people. With the exception of tracks, panels and a con suite or bar, the event was pretty much like a convention, an e-con! (Can I coin that phrase?)

Now a Facebook party may not be for everyone, but as someone who still barely understands blog hops and is confused by email loops, as someone too broke to attend a convention outside of the DMV, this is looking like a pretty good way for me to keep my New Year's Resolution of taking my writing career more seriously and trying to get more attention if not just for my books but for my brand! More on that obsession to follow...