5 Big Things People Should Know About Self-Published Authors by Jessica Bell

Jessica Bell from the Alliterative Allomorph blog posted an interesting article on self publishing. I wanted to share it with you.

For me personally my reason to self publish would be BIG THING No. TWO:
"This book is self-published because I spent years and years querying it, was told that the writing was great, but no agent believed they could sell it. So ... here's my book. I don't need to sell a million copies, a few hundred is enough for me. Plus it's been through so many edits after all the agent feedback, I doubt you'll be able to find one thing wrong with it."

Now I should insert here that I believe a work is never finished. There is always something that could be improved upon. Heck, maybe someday an agent or publisher will want to exclusively want to represent it but there are a few things that will need tweaking. Maybe.

But I can't hold back writing the overall saga just in case that happens. I have to know what happens. Those few whom have bought it and enjoyed it have to know what happens. Besides, it wouldn't be fair to make them wait. And after all, I'm not getting any younger.

So I self publish Annabelle's NIGHT CHILDREN adventures. I'll keep it up, too. :)

I'm in the Local Paper part 2

And as promised, here is the article! Thanks to Jamison for scanning it and thanks to Brandon at Starry Night for setting it up!
Thanks guys!

Sept 28th 2012, A date that shall live forever in awesomeness. Part 1: Speaking at the Junior High

Yup, I really enjoyed yesterday. Now I do realise the title of this post is somewhat overblown. After all, I forget random dates, too.

But the events from yesterday will be forever etched into memory. Unfortunately memories fade so I better write them down here. It was an excellent day for Annabelle and the whole project of getting her stories out into the world.

Speaking at Tooele Jr High
Love it! Everything went well. After I arrived Mrs. Crooksten helped me set up. I put the two posters (1 of Dominic and 1 of Annabelle, the first artwork of Ann) and the Starry Night Books 2nd ad (seen in an earlier post) on a portable dry eraser board with Mrs. Crookten's help. I set up a display for the books, my notepad, bookmarks and candy. We decided that when kids asked questions they would get a piece of candy or a bookmark.

Then the kids shuffled in. I spoke to the entire combined 1st period Language Arts classes. Both 7th and 8th grades. I spoke about my writing journey, Annabelle's adventures and asked the kids to name off vampire abilities. After talking about Night Children, I moved onto Myths. I spoke about the principle characters and explained about how the six characters in Myths will be stranded in Tooele, going to their school. I asked for advice on where these characters would fit into their school. We closed off with a question and answer period.

It went wonderfully. There were many questions and several suggestions. I scribbled down some creative ideas I'd never thought of. All the teachers had previously passed out worksheets and I'll be getting them back later with more suggestions. When I return to Myths after I finish edits on Dark Changes, there will be a lot to work with. Already my brain is flowing with ideas!

Then 1st period left and I took a tiny break, aware that this massive amount of viewers to my prolonged ramblings of the fiction kind was in fact, very enjoyable and I could do it again. I got my chance three more times that morning as I spoke to the 2nd, 3rd and 4th periods.

The only thing we changes was the format on how questions are asked. Before we found it hard to hear some questions and some got more than one question asked (and more than one candy) while others never got their turn. The teachers had a great idea of having 10 kids queue up in seats set up in front. After they get their questions/suggestions answered and received candy or bookmarks another ten took their place. It worked a lot better.

During plus period and homeroom I traveled home to pick up my wife and get lunch. We rejoined the school and spoke to four more periods. Janeen (my sweet wife) introduced me and picked the questioning kids (there were lots of hands up so someone had to pick 10 of them and then another set and so on. She had a blast. After the last period she got to chuck candy and the crowd erupted!

All in all a very good time. One girl in 1st period dressed like a vampire! My very own cos player! I've always dreamed of the day when people would like my books enough to dress like the characters. One of the teachers downloaded the Kindle version and her daughter was reading it while I spoke! I got a chance to see several friends of the family and my excited son, David. I basically spoke to the entire Junior High in 8 smaller chunks. Everyone enjoyed it and I'm invited back for next year!

Things to improve for next time: Two more posters (1 of Roland, one of the combined Dark Threats/Birth covers). A stuffed crow to represent the Falabranwyn. A camera so my wife can take pictures! Sorry I didn't think of the pics but next time I will!

Multi-Mart is coming along

"Wait," you say. "I thought he was working on Myths?"

Well true, I was. And I will be again. But for a while I'd have a lot of false starts on the project. Sure, I feel the tale and want to tell it, but something was blocking me from getting fully motivated.

So last week I decided to reread the beginning work I had on Multi-Mart. I found myself editing what I had done and then plowing through with more stuff. I'm on a Multi-Mart high. I've flushed out more of the outline, created most of the cast and finished more chapters.

Blame it on the fact that I'm watching Sliders on Netflicks. Blame it on the huge desire to write this book that I've kept in check for a long time. Whatever it is, I'm back on the saddle again and it feels wonderful!

Multi-Mart is the story of Kyle Jordan, a kid who winds up at a store that sits in between all alternate universes.  The store caters to a wide variety of customers from many alternate Earths. When it gets taken over thanks to a greedy assistant manager, it's up to Kyle to find help among the many worlds.

It stars Kelli, the kid vampire from NIGHT CHILDREN: DARK THREATS, and Bril, Eli's younger brother from MYTHS. It also stars James from Tyme Travels. Together, these unlikely heroes must use their separate strengths to help liberate the Multi-Mart from the clutches of the Warlord Oskar and his chief assassin, Gerwulf.

It's a middle grade novel and fun to write. I hope it'll be just as fun to read.

I will return to Myths as well as editing Book Two of Night Children. Watch this space for further developments.

Updates!

Hey there!
I've been pretty busy with life, not so much with writing. Between work, family and so on, the days are speeding by but not much has happened with my writing goals.

It's time to re-establish my goals and plans. I need to re-dedicate myself. I suppose that's the life of any author, to constantly learn to get back in the chair and bang away at the keyboard.

What's going on?
Night Children
The first book (Dark Birth) and the short story anthology (Dark Threats) are still available on Amazon and Barns & Noble.com.  Book Two needs a rewrite after some heavy reviews. There is a great deal I will keep, but some things just don't work. After I finish another manuscript for something different, I'll return to this.

Myths
"Another manuscript for something different". Those few of you whom have read Dark Birth have heard of the fantasy home of elves, fairies, fauns and unicorns called Farnalla. Myths is about a handful of runaway youth from that world, and their dangerous quest to the mythical land called "Earth". I've got eight chapters finished and several more to go. My goal has been to finish it before I return to Night Children.

Multi-Mart
Another story that features the multiverse, including characters from both the Night Children series and Myths. I want to write this sooo bad and I might play with it when I've having mental writers cramp.

So there you go. Also, I need to do more entries here. Coming soon is my review of the Avengers movie.

New titles!

More Big news!


I’ve decided to change the title of my Annabelle books. In keeping with my upcoming eBook launch and the fact that “Book One” is now Books one and two, I’ve re-titled almost everything.

See, when I was writing this book I turned to Rowling for inspiration on a title. She had “Harry Potter and the…” for every title so I picked “Annabelle and Roland…” for my titles. It was easy and told the reader who the protags were.

Since I’m in charge of this whole launch, it rises and falls based entirely on me. This has made me rethink a lot of things and cleared my brain quite a bit.

Boiling things down to their basic core, this entire series really is about the life of vampire children or “night children”. So without further ado, the new titles planned are…

NIGHT CHILDREN: DARK THREATS (Brief looks into Annabelle’s adventures, a short story)

NIGHT CHILDREN: DARK BIRTH (How two children from England became vampires in Colonial America)

NIGHT CHILDREN: DARK TRIALS (The vampire children face werewolves, vampires a vampire hunter and the Salem Witch Trials, as well as a confrontation with Dominic, the vampire lord who killed their parents)

All three will be published soon on Smashwords, the Nook and the Kindle.

Meanwhile I’ll be taking the next installments (DARK SEAS AND SHADOWS) and breaking it into two as well as running it through the critique group when we restart this fall.

Watch this space!

NEWS FLASH!

Big News!


I found a way! A hidden door that opens up a word of chances and choices! Yes, it’s true, Annabelle and her word will be published!

See, I discovered, while traditional publishing won’t look at vampires, online publishing will. I can publish my novels on Smashwords, the Kindle and even the Nook. Things will start out slow but that’s the norm for publishing anyway.

I’ve only wanted one thing; to get Annabelle’s story out there. I’ve discovered through my journey that I actually need to see how it ends, too. But if I can share her tale with others, all the better. Through online publishing I can do this.

This year I wrote a collection of short scenes, all tied together as a short story. I was going to take a break from Ann and focus on Myths and Multi-Mart, but the online publishing bug hit me. I wrote this new Annabelle short story, pushed it through a great critique group and now I’m just waiting for a cover from the amazing Adam Diller.

I was going to launch it mid-July but might have to hold back a bit. Regardless, it’s coming!

As for my novel, it’s been broken in half and set up for the next two online books as well. I’ve re-titled everything and I’m experiencing a rebirth of sorts as a writer.

More to come!