A great post on hybrid publishing. In fact, I highly recommend this because it touches on something that we sometimes forget: RIGHTS. This is always a sticky situation for me considering I don’t want to lose control of the world I’ve spent nearly 2 decades crafting.
Making choices self-publishing choices can feel like throwing darts blindfolded. With all the changes to publishing in the last decade or so it gets even more confusing. For instance, now there are opportunities with hybrid publishers which can open more doors for authors and leave them more perplexed than ever.
When indie-publishing really took off, the options were traditional publishing or self-publishing either through a vanity publisher or using Createspace and other such options. Now, Ingram and other distributors offer the opportunity for availability in their catalogs but that doesn’t get you to bookstore shelves. True distribution to bookstores is usually not available for indie authors even if you choose to make the book returnable and offer the standard 55% wholesale discount. Looking at it that way, making a book non-returnable and only offering 30% discount is much more profitable and allows authors to price print books competitively.
This is a guest post by Kate Thora. Kate is a Senior Content Specialist for BizSet.com – an online database of company information. In her free time, she loves to catch up with the newest trends on her favorite industry blogs.
7 Ways to Direct Traffic from Facebook To Your Blog
Everyone talks about the benefits of social media marketing. And, without doubt, it’s really important to any enterprise. But unless you’re harnessing your social media pages to meet your ultimate objectives, you’re wasting a lot of time and energy posting on them.
Nevertheless, if your aim is to direct traffic to your blog, there are plenty of ways to achieve this. Here we look at one of the most popular social media platforms, Facebook, and discuss seven ways to direct traffic from Facebook to your blog.
Here we have the first real teaser for War of Nytefall: Loyalty. I took part of the prologue, which is where Clyde is set to be executed and the ‘accident’ happens. I put the break in, but I’ve openly stated on this blog several times that this is Clyde’s origin, so I’m not really considering this a spoiler. Honestly, things are going to get more difficult after this in terms of posting teasers.
By entering the realm of Vampire stories, I’ve been looking into the history of these creatures to see where the Dawn Fangs fit. At least that was the starting idea that lasted about an hour. It’s amazing how widespread the basic concept of a vampire is even without the exact name. This feeds my idea that everyone has their own thoughts on what makes a vampire and that you’re going to get criticized no matter what.
It’s just amazing that I’ve found vampires that are beautiful and others that are ugly. Some are undead and others are demons, which is a different category. Some drink blood and others drink spirit from a person’s breath. Some are immune to sunlight and others light up like a bonfire. There are those that sneak into bedrooms to seduce women while others troll high schools. I can keep going, but I think you get the point.
Personally, I’m rather flexible when it comes to a vampire. I’m more of a fan of the fangs, blood-sucking, and superhuman powers version. Yet, I can appreciate others because they’re fun to read about. The longer I think about it, the less I can pinpoint what it is about vampires that I find interesting. At best, I can say what I don’t like, but that’s fairly negative. One thing I did get bored with is the sun weakness because I’ve read more lore where it’s only a weakening agent instead of destruction. That’s one of the big influences for the Dawn Fangs as well as Vampire: The Masquerade.
This is another guest post by Rachel Jackson, a mother of 2 beautiful boys. Rachel loves to hike and write about traveling, education, and business. She is a Senior Content Manager at Bizset.com – an online resource for relevant business information.
One of the best parts of my writing career has been meeting all of you–the extraordinary men and women who form the writing community. Some of you I have met in person; others I’m unlikely to ever do. I have collaborated on a number of projects with you and am part of a number of writer groups. We follow each other on social media and support and cheer our efforts.
At the same time, most of us are fiercely independent and protective of our work. As a result, forming a well-functioning team of writers can be a bit of a “herding cats” challenge. It is this teamwork that is…
Originally posted on Library of Erana: Name: Mandy Eve Barnett Please tell us about your publications. As a multi-genre author, I have published works in a variety of styles and genres. My first book, Rumble’s First Scare is a children’s picture…
Long time followers know what this is all about, but I’m going to write about it for the new folks out there. I use my original character, Lisa Burton, to host an imaginary radio show on this blog. Lisa Burton Radio interviews the fictional characters from your books.
These are a bit of a collaborative effort; whereby, I get your notes and create the shtick. You fill in the blanks where your character would interact with Lisa. These post on Thursdays.
I didn’t have a guest this week, but I’m set for next week. I must have a dozen of these interviews in the mail in various stages right now, but they aren’t getting finished for whatever reason. Some folks get halfway through the process, then simply disappear.
I generally work up the shtick over the weekend and send it to you…
I’m going to start with the stuff that doesn’t connect to the title. Just an overview of the week to get to the big reveal that will take a long time to get over. I started writing War of Nytefall: Lost and got through the first 4 chapters, which isn’t bad considering everything else going on. I had trouble when the prologue looked like more of a chapter one, but Clyde didn’t appear. Reworked the other chapter one to make the prologue more like it’s supposed to be. I’m noticing that this is going to be a slower paced book because the plot revolves around figuring out a mystery instead of battling. I’m hoping to work a bit more this weekend to get ahead since I promised the next few nights to wife time. We have more space in the house for a bit, so we’re taking advantage. Mostly, we’re getting into the Netflix TV to watch the live-action Full-Metal Alchemist movie and the Castlevania series. I cooked, cleaned, and run errands alongside the big event:
My son is doing a report on Pangolins . . . Yes, but that’s not it.
For a long time now, I’ve been having days where it feels like my muscles are tense and my chest is being gently squeezed. Pushing through these moments would result in exhaustion and dizziness, so I’ve given up the days to resting. Most times, this would strike me at night until about a month ago. It started happening more often during the day and I couldn’t figure out why. Even began to feel feverish a few times. Oddly enough, I would feel better if I ate or was distracted by something. Never happened during my son’s Winter Spring too. Still, the sensation had me pulling this maneuver, especially at night when I wasn’t sure what was going on:
Sanford and Son
Thoughts of a heart attack, hypertension, stroke, and aneurysm ran through my head to the point where I feared falling asleep might I was finished. This started dragging my mind into thoughts of death and a fear of it being like I would turn off instead of any part of me continuing on. The idea of my consciousness falling into a void while the world keeps spinning actually scares me more than the method of how I die. I’m getting off-topic here, but I will say that I began noticing things that made me doubt those previously mentioned possibilities.
These fits would disappear whenever I was eating, entranced by my writing, reading, or doing anything relaxing. I’d wake up fine too, but watching the news or getting into a debate with the wife would shove me down. One night, I was still up at 1 am feeling like my chest had something sitting on it. This came out as one of the worst ones and I didn’t want to wake the wife because we’d been arguing earlier about something. I put the local weather channel on with no sound and went web-surfing while chatting with a friend who happened to be awake. The effects began to fade enough that I started remembering how I was perfectly fine on Tuesday. In fact, Tuesday was a great day from beginning to end with no stress . . . Then, I remembered a time in college I got stressed to the point where I was bedridden in my girlfriend’s (now wife) room. I recovered once and then collapsed again as soon as I tried to study for a test. It was like I was at the edge of a cliff and kept slipping, but always had a finger to lift myself back up. I went looking for my symptoms on-line, which I know is a bad thing and I came up with the following:
Anxiety attacks
I know it isn’t an official diagnosis because I didn’t go to a professional, but I had most of the symptom list. Heck, I was perfectly fine at the beginning of this post and now I have that chest tightness and breathing issues. Feel a little hot too. Honestly, the death mention up above is where I really felt it coming on. Anyway, that’s what it seems to be and I’m realizing how often this sensation has been hitting me. Probably just over a year if not longer and I didn’t do anything about it. Just let the stress and pressure continue piling on as if I was Atlas holding up the planet. Now, it doesn’t take much to kick me over the edge. The strangest thing here is that my thoughts don’t feel anxious to me, but I’m wondering if I simply can’t recognize it. Almost like I’ve lived in a constant state of stress for so long that the panicky thoughts have become my norm.
I’m determined not to let this stop me from writing since I’ve found that letting my ideas take me away helps ease the anxiety. Strange even saying that because I feel like I’m overreacting or that this has to be something else. Not that I have this belief that I’m too strong to get anxious. It’s just that I have this weird denial in my head as if better people than me have this, so it has to be something else. This might stem from always being told that my problems aren’t nearly as bad as I think. You keep telling a person that there are others worse off then they could start believing that they shouldn’t complain about anything and possibly even ignore their own problems. I’m getting into a much more philosophical/psychological chat than I expected here. Geez, it really is like I’m being hugged around the chest by a python.
Right now, I’m doing breathing exercises and stepping back whenever I feel like I need to take a break. I tried chamomile tea, but I’m finding that I don’t like the taste. Read that almonds can help, so I have some of those. Not really sure about the science on this one, but I like them. Not as much as cashews though.
I had more, but this post has already gotten pretty long. Goals for the week are fairly simplistic:
Test blurbs for War of Nytefall: Loyalty tomorrow. (Reblog and shares will be down until Monday. Hope people are able to give some insight.)
Continue writing War of Nytefall: Lost.
Help my son finish his Pangolin report.
Watch Castlevania and Full Metal Alchemist.
Try to relax.
Beyond that, I found this and I’m wondering if this is true for me. Maybe I have pushed myself too hard for too long.
Making choices self-publishing choices can feel like throwing darts blindfolded. With all the changes to publishing in the last decade or so it gets even more confusing. For instance, now there are opportunities with hybrid publishers which can open more doors for authors and leave them more perplexed than ever.
Legends of Windemere 