Wacky Wednesday Links

Good morning! 

Someone please tell me why summer is flying by.  I know it's hot and we need rain, but I'd still like to make some more summer memories with the kids. LOL I'm not a fan of those early school mornings.

Let's switch subjects.  Maybe if I don't think about it time will stand still for at least a few minutes.  :) 

On to a  few interesting links I found.

Kristen Lamb's Blog - Highly recommend this blog.  There is always great information on just about anything you can think of. 

Today it's Cover Art:
http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/2011/07/15/creating-cover-art-down-dirty-tips/

I love creating covers.  Maybe a little too much. LOL  I should be writing, right? :)  The best advice I can offer is to study covers from your favorite books.  What's the background look like?  How big is the font?  Where is everything placed? 

The most important thing to remember is to use legal photos.  You can find free ones, but it's tricky and then there is always a slim chance they aren't as free as you thought.  Do your research first!  Before you design the best cover in the world and then find out you can't use it.  It will save your sanity!

Still fighting with Smashwords over formatting?

Smashwords Formatting For the Lazy Part 1


And for inspiration!

Forbes.com top 10 highest paid authors for 2010:

James Patterson,
Stephenie Meyer,
Stephen King,
Danielle Steel,
Ken Follett,
Dean Koontz,
Janet Evanovitch,
John Grisham,
Nicholas Sparks,
and JK Rowling.

Know what they all have in common? They write alot of books! :)

Now I for one like that fact.  Why?  It's obtainable.  All I need to do is sit down and write.

Self-Sabotage, It's a Fine Art

Writer or not, it doesn’t matter. We’ve all got this one really cool thing we love to do. Maybe it’s photography, painting, crafting, scrapbooking, coin collecting, etc. Or a sport like baseball, tennis or, yes I’m going to include it even though every ounce of my being is screaming not to, golf. (We’ll get back to this one)

Whatever it is makes us happy, gives us a sense of self-worth or belonging. It’s something we can share with others who love the same thing. So we make friends along the way. But the downside is it takes you away from your family, your job, your responsibilities. So, we end up feeling guilty about wanting to spend time on it. That makes us unhappy. And if we’re honest about it, everyone around us suffers right along with us.

There is a solution. One I’m still working to perfect. The main thing is to find a routine that works and keeps everyone happy. Organization plays a huge part and scheduling is a must.  This is the toughest part for me, but slowly I'm managing to put everything down on a calendar and then stick to it.

Here's the biggest myth I learned about my own self-sabotaging.

I’ll just take care of everything else first. – This only made me tired and frustrated. At the end of the day, I had a clean house, organized closets and drawers, happy hubby and kids due to the meals I scheduled for the entire week, and a weedless garden.

The only thing missing—my sanity. I wasn’t spending any time doing what I love and my attitude stunk. Not to mention the mounting self-doubt. I started thinking maybe I should just quit writing all together. I’ll be honest. The mere idea of quitting had me depressed, not wanting to spend time with anyone or do anything at all.

Let’s face it. There will always be something that needs tending to, something to fold, a call to return, a bill to pay, a kid to run here or there. It’s a never ending cycle. Life has a pesky way of getting in the way, doesn’t it?

So what’s the answer to this one?

I won’t pretend like I’ve found a magical secret. But I have learned it’s okay to let things slide occasionally and have a life outside my family. I can share part of my day with good friends and still be able to spend quality time with the most special people in my life too.  Heck and even get a few of those unending chores done along the way.

How do I do it? It means I’m getting up a little bit earlier and going to bed a little bit later. For right now, it’s working. It's not easy since I love my sleep.  But this is allowing me to be more productive with my writing and it feels so good.  I’m keeping up with most of the daily chores and even asking the kids and hubby to pitch in and help out a little more. This doesn't mean I'm a failure. Heck no! After all. We are a team. :)

No more excuses or blaming others.

No more self-sabotage! (Repeat this every time you try to make an excuse and go do something else. I think my record is 67 times in one day so far. LOL But it works like a charm!)

Onward and Upward!

Who’s with Me? :)

(Oh, yeah.  The golf thing. LOL  Still trying to get hubby to work on that one.  It's his one thing he loves to do.  Need I say more?)

The Aftermath



Okay, so you've written a novel.  Spent months, if not years, working on edits and polishing your baby till it's nice and sparkling clean.  Even gone the extra mile and learned all the different formatting required to publish your masterpiece and design a great cover.  It's out there and you're so excited.  But now what?

Marketing.  Getting that book out into the world where readers will notice and want to read it is a hard and time consuming task.  Even if you've gone the traditional publishing route, alot of the marketing will be left up to you.  Unless you are a best selling author, not much time and energy will be spent on your book.  So what do you do?

Here are a few tips I've come across.  All books are different.  Some will work, some won't.  You just have to dig your heals in and give it all you've got.  It won't happen over night, but if you spend some time everyday working on new avenues for getting noticed it will happen.

Press Release Sites

https://www.pr.com/
http://www.prlog.org/pub/account.html
http://www.pressking.com/user/new
http://www.free-press-release.com/
http://www.clickpress.com
http://www.1888pressrelease.com/
http://www.24-7pressreleases.com/
http://www.express-press-release.net/
http://www.free-press-release-center.info/
http://www.PressMethod.com
http://www.Newswiretoday.com

Sites for Book Reviews

A Romance Review
All About Romance
Angies Romance Reviews
Cataromance Reviews
Coffee Time Romance
Contemporary Romance Writers
Dear Author
EHarlequin
Joyfully Reviewed
Love Romances More
Marilyn's Romance Reviews
Pink Heart Society Reviews
Reader to Reader
Reviews - Once Upon a Romance
Romance by the Blog
Romance Junkies
Romance Reader at Heart
Romance Reviews
Romancing the Blog
Romantic Times
Sheikh Book Reviews
Simply Romance Reviews
Smart Bitches Trashy Books
The Literary Times
The Romance Reader
The Romance Reader Connection

Extras
 
* Postcards with Book Cover and description of book to pass out when you are out and about. Also a great way to give someone an autographed souvenir for purchasing your e-book.
* Book marks with same info - Hey, I still use them. LOL
* Pens, Business cards, Magnets, etc. (easy to accidentally leave behind ;)
 
Networking & Blogging
 
Set up a blog where you can have links to purchase your books and share bits about your life or writing.  It's free.  And it's a great way to connect with your readers.  Then branch out to other bloggers.  Now I'm not talking about visiting blogs for the sole purpose of plugging your book.  Not cool.  Search the web for things you really enjoy.  Follow the blogs.  Comment on the posts.  People really do make the extra effort to click and see who you are. :)

Set Up Author's Page

* Amazon.com - (Don't forget the UK!  You have to set it up on both)
* Amazon.co.uk  https://www.amazon.co.uk/
* Goodreads
* Shelfari

 
I'm still brain storming and although it hurts sometimes (LOL) it's paying off.
 
Best of luck!  And if you have any ideas you'd like to share, I would love to hear them!  I'll even send a FREE print copy of my book for the best new idea! :) 

Falling Into Place

Don't you just love it when everything starts falling into place?  This has been one long, wild and harry journey and I'm so thankful for all the wonderful friends I've made along the way.  Even though we writers are a solitary bunch for the most part, this struggle is one we should never try to do alone.   

So thank you.  For your encouragement, your laughs, your willingness to listen even when things weren't going so well.  It means the world to me.

I wanted to wait a little closer to the release date, which may be moved up if things keep going this well, but I couldn't do it.  Not sure if this thrills me or terrifies me more.  The few people I've shared this with have been eagerly supportive about my decision to self-publish.  And here I feared I would be met with a list of why not's and nay sayers galore.  What does this tell me?  I guess I must be doing the right thing. LOL  There has been a giant weight lifted from my shoulders and it's the most wonderful feeling. Now if the darn butterflies would just quit attacking my insides, I'd be able to enjoy all this wonderful excitement. :)

A sneak peek at my cover. 

Shhhh....It's not quite ready yet and I'd hate to disappoint the masses. LOL  One can dream, right?

For those interested, here's a great link about self-publishing and Terri Reid's success. 
http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/01/guest-post-by-terri-reid.html

New Beginnings

January.  It is still January, right? 

2011 is off to a zipping start.  We've already taken a short vacation with the kids, had a colorguard tournament, tennis tournament and high school finals for the first semester.  Ugh.  I'm exhausted. LOL

I'm also busy working out all the kinks on a new exciting venture.  I've been reading alot of books on how to deal with failure and the need to take risks in order to succeed.  No more sitting back and wondering what would happen "if".  I'm actually going to take that next step and see.  Yikes! I'm excited and terrified all at the same time.  Struggling through the blasted learning curve at the moment, but once the initial shock wears off I'll be good to go.

Hoping to have the big reveal ready by April.  There, I put it out there.  A deadline.  Yep.  Now it's set in stone. :)

Best of luck to everyone in 2011!  Here's to looking back at the end of the year and saying, "I'm so glad I took that risk."

The Write Path

Happy New Year!!!!

Here we are only a week into 2011 and I’ve had an epiphany already. It appears I’ve been climbing the wrong mountain according to Kristen Lamb’s Blog, “Searching For Treasure the-Winner Inside.” Heck the title alone was inspiring. LOL Thanks Kristen! :)

Imagine my shock and horror to discover that for the past two years I’ve been chasing after the wrong goal. Oh, I still long to publish my work so others can read it, but the path in which I must travel to get there isn’t the path I’ve been on all this time.

I’ve struggled with my stories, trying to make them fit into the guidelines of what editors and agents want. I’ve stifled my creativity because, well, these stories just don’t fit the norm according to all those well meaning experts out there trying to find that special voice that will carry them away. We have specific rules for contests, rules for publishing houses like word count and genre, rules about sentence structure, rules about head hopping, rules on formatting, rules about rules. And you know what I’ve discovered? Every Best Selling author I’ve read recently breaks one or more of these rules at some point in their story. I know. I’ve heard it so many times I could scream. Established authors can do this. They don’t have to follow the same rules as aspiring authors.

Here’s my question. Why not? Do they know something we don’t? Like it’s all about writing a great story readers will fall in love with. Or write what you love? Or how about just write the darn story. Yes, grammar and punctuation are important as well as the flow and storyline. And word count does matter. But if my story ends up over a certain word count for a certain line, why do I have to go back and cut out bits and pieces or even scenes to make it fit. If it has an inspirational theme, why do I have to worry about how much contact my characters are allowed to have? I mean, I don’t write those heavy scenes, but love does play a big part in my stories. In real life, people do kiss, curse and talk in funny little rhymes. The magical part of writing for me is a stories abilitiy to evolve into so much more than I first imagined. Suprise me, please! :)

I’ve been worrying about all these rules to the point they stop me cold in my tracks. My muse throws up her hands in frustration and exits the building. I’m left staring into my computer screen at a wonderful story trying its best to emerge, but that just won’t make it under the guidelines set for me to follow.

But there is hope. I’ve found a light at the end of my tunnel. I’ve said it before. Today is the best time to be an author. Our options are endless. And I for one find that very liberating.

I will write. I will let my muse play any way she likes. And I will find a way to succeed.

The Secret Behind Commitment



What is the one simple factor in individual success?

Commitment.

Think about it. Commitment ignites action. It helps us focus on eliminating those doubts and confront what is and what is not working. Commitment provides motivation for improvement. After thinking on this I have to admit, once I make up my mind to do something, it gets done. And afterward I’m left wondering why the heck it took so long.

Let me try and explain my take on this. There is a huge difference between being interested or enjoying something and being committed to succeed. If you are merely interested, time plays an important role. You’re sort of sitting on the sidelines only proceeding when time permits. But if you are committed, you look at things a bit differently. Time becomes your ally. It’s been there all along strategically hidden between the many tasks and responsibilities of life and mommyhood. But commitment helps us find that precious time no matter what. It makes us concentrate and brings out all our resources to help us fight for the finish line. There are fewer excuses, because well, you’ve made up your mind that nothing is going to get in your way and stop you. Results are the only thing to follow.

“Persistence with a Purpose” Now that makes a lot of sense. I know what I want. I know what I have to do to get it. Now all I have to do is commit and make it happen. Sounds easy enough. But nothing worthwhile is ever easy.

So no more excuses for not writing or editing. I can do a little every day. I can reach my goals. I might need to tweak them a bit as I go along, but it’s all good.

Sorry email, Facebook, twitter, procrastination, doubt. I just don’t have time for you anymore. I have a lot of writing to do!



“Watch your thoughts, for they become words.

Watch your words, for they become actions.

Watch your actions, for they become habits.

Watch your habits, for they become character.

Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny”

-unknown