Blog Events – What I didn’t know

I know I said last Friday that, that post was going to be my final ‘What I didn’t know’ post for a while but I decided to add one more.

Blog Events – What I didn’t know

Blog Events were such a foreign concept to me, at first I couldn’t even wrap my brain around them. I have a better grasp on them now, let me share what I do know.

Time Frames

1. Blog Tour – This is usually a five-day event, where multiple bloggers sign up to share something for you through: Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, Instagram, Google, (generally various social media accounts the blogger uses) and of course blogs. It can be anything from an interview, excerpt, cover reveal, new release, pre-order, your mind is the limit from what I see.

2. Blitz – This is the same as above but typically a 24 hour quick event.

Types

1. New Release – Just like it sounds, this is where you share information about your newest release, typically posts on the day of the release but not always.

2. Give Away – Want to give a copy of your ebook away? It can draw buzz to your New Release or Cover Reveal. You can use the giveaway app of your choice. I use Rafflecopter. You can even pick your winner off of blog comments on social media. It’s up to you. (Can run on its own or with one of the other types of posts.)

3. Cover Reveal – Itching to share your brand spanking new cover you just got back from your cover artist? Then this type of blog post (social media post) is for you. It helps let readers know about your upcoming release and generate their interest early on. A Goodreads link to add you book on the readers ‘Want To Read’ list is a great idea.

4. Pre-Order – A few weeks or days before your new book releases this type of blog post acts much like a Cover Reveal except people can actually purchase your book. This helps boost your initial numbers and gives your book a fighting chance with retailers.

5. Interview – These are the hardest ones for me. I don’t mind answering the questions at all but wondering about how people will take what I say eats at me. They are usually straight forwarded questions. What type of genre do you write? Where do you get your inspiration? Their intention is to give your audience an inside peek into you. That’s the scary part!

6. Excerpt – As I’ve recently learned some blogs like hot ones and others like to keep it clean. And by ‘clean’ I mean no naughty stuff. That’s the easy part. Trying to decide what tiny morsel of your baby conveys its essence is heart wrenching. I’m like any proud parent and don’t want my baby to look bad. But if you pick right, you can entice readers into your book’s world.

7. Blurb – You know that back copy on your paperback? That’s most likely a nice little blurb about your book that you’ve worked hard at cultivating into the bare bones of your story without giving too much away. Bloggers usually add this to most of the above mentioned posts. Really any of the above mentioned post types can be combined for maximum effect.

As always these are my perceptions of the above mentioned items. I’m still learning as I go. I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks.

Happy Writing!

P.S. I did not mention take-overs in this post but they are where you as an author sign up to act as a guest host for an hour or so usually on Facebook. You may have to answer questions. You may choose to give away copies of your books or other swag to folks participating in the event. You could also share tidbits about your characters or play games that involve them. But I only suggest this if you have previously released a book set in this world.

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Cover Reveal! Family Matters from Felicia Denise aka @MsFelicia #womensfiction #giveaway

Cover Reveal Family Matters by Felicia Denise @MsFelicia

Book: Family Matters

Series: In the Best Interest of the Child, Book 2

Author: Felicia Denise

Genre: Women’s Fiction

Release Date: July/August 2017

Goodreads: Short Link – http://bit.ly/FamilyMattersGR

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35197909-in-the-best-interest-of-the-child

Synopsis:

Olivia Chandler’s journey to wholeness continues as she enters counseling. Her therapy will not be easy, and may not be successful unless Olivia can forgive her mother. But is Sarina Chandler the only one in need of Olivia’s forgiveness?

A Halloween party brings together a surprising group of people, and Bruce introduces Olivia to his adult children. Another Bellamy has a second chance at love – if he can put his old-fashioned ways aside.

The death of someone close to Olivia has her re-thinking the value of emotional connections. She withdraws from everyone, falling back into her old habit of burying herself in work. A surprise confrontation pushes Olivia to her limits, and puts her heart on the line.

Her continued avoidance of confronting Sarina Chandler pulls at the seams of Olivia’s new-found love with Bruce Bellamy. Olivia must make a decision. Save them… or surrender to her emotional demons.

Excerpt:

“Olivia Chandler? I’m Sandra Riley, Sarina’s case manager.”

The tall woman grasped Olivia’s hand into both of her own, shaking briskly. “We’re so glad you’re here today. This is a big step forward for your mother.”

“Nice to meet you, Sandra, and honestly, it’s a big step for me too.”

“Oh, I’m sure, Olivia. Any questions for me before you visit with Sarina?”

Visit with Sarina. She made it sound so cute and homey, Olivia thought.

“Does she know I planned to be here today?”

“Yes, she does. When Sarina asked about you a few weeks ago, she said she also knew you’d have little or no reason to want to see her, but she’d always hoped you come someday.””

Olivia stared at the woman blankly, not knowing how to respond to the comment.

“I’m sure this is confusing, Olivia, and now isn’t the time for me to explain all that Sarina has gone through, but please know she is fully cognizant of her aging, of you, her late husband”, Sandra paused only for a second, “she even remembers the accident. It’s everything between the accident and a few months ago that’s fuzzy for her. It’s as though a switch was flipped off in her brain that was recently turned back on.”

Olivia frowned but didn’t ask the question on the tip of her tongue.

“May I see her now?”

“Of course! Follow me.”

The case manager’s long legs covered the distance across the sitting area in no time at all, with Olivia almost scurrying to keep up with her. Margot and Randie were always teasing Olivia about her brisk walking pace, but she had nothing on Sandra Riley! Olivia would guess Sandra to be at least six feet tall… and light on her feet.

Reaching an unmarked door in the far corner, Sandra held it open for Olivia, who walked through and found herself standing in yet another sitting room, only this one resembled the average family room. Large, overstuffed chairs, throw rugs and even a flat screen television graced the area.

“Welcome to Honey Ridge East, Olivia.”

“Honey Ridge East? I don’t understand.”

Sandra pointed to a bulletin board on the wall near the door they’d just come through.

“The residents here are grouped by floor, the severity of mental disorder, and the amount of care and supervision needed. The healthiest, most independent residents reside here in Honey Ridge.”

“My mother is here…in this section?”

She nodded.

Olivia tried to digest the information. Her mother was healthy? Required little or no supervision? Trying to reconcile this new Sarina with the bedridden, incoherent woman she last saw five years ago was difficult for Olivia.

“How long has she lived here?”

Sandra pursed her lips, thinking. Then she nodded.

“I’m pretty sure Sarina was here for the group’s Valentine’s Day dinner dance, so that makes it eight months.” Sandra tried not to laugh at the horrified expression on Olivia’s face.

“Don’t be shocked. We also have Easter Egg hunts and 4th of July barbecues. Most of the residents have signed up for hayrides next week for Halloween, and…” she leaned in towards Olivia, “I heard Santa will visit on Christmas Eve.”

Shaking her head, Olivia was incredulous.

“What kind of mental hospital is this? I mean, um…I thought…”

The case manager guided Olivia past the sitting area while answering.

“River Ridge Meadows is a private care, private pay, voluntary commitment facility. We’re fully licensed by the state and the federal government. Insurance isn’t accepted here, and no resident is here against their will. We currently have one hundred and sixty-one residents ranging in age from seven to eighty-six. Most are from throughout the state, but there are a few from other parts of the country, and even four from Europe. River Ridge has two permanent, board certified psychiatrists, two permanent, board certified medical doctors, six psychologists, and a nursing staff of 40 that includes licensed physical therapists.

The residents here are used to a certain way of life, and we provide that here, within reason. That’s why we also have an event planner and a social activities director on staff.”

Sandra stopped at the top end of a short hallway. “But we have all the time in the world for me to tell you about River Ridge, and even give you a tour, if you like.” She nodded towards the end of the hall. “Your mother is expecting you.”

Olivia pressed her hand against her stomach, the tiny nervous tremors threatening to morph into a full-fledged earthquake. Heat enveloped her body as the familiar tang of bile crept up the back of her throat. Closing her eyes, the nervous woman tried to will the anxiety away.

You’ve come this far, Chandler, don’t you dare freak out now!

 

Author Bio and Links

A wife, mother, daughter, sister, blogger and indie author, Felicia loves all things book-related and coffee-related. A southern girl by birth, the fiftysomething, voracious reader now resides in Arizona (via Michigan and California) with her husband of thirty-three years. Their three adult children also reside in Arizona – with their dogs. Felicia frequently reminds them she is the only one of her parents’ nine children who isn’t a grandparent.

Writing has been a hobby of Felicia’s since grade school, but other than serving as editor and writing for her high school newspaper, she never publicly shared anything until the early 2000s when she began writing fan fiction. At the urging of a good friend, Felicia took on the challenge of NaNoWriMo in 2015, writing what would become her first published book, In the Best Interest of the Child, released in the fall of 2016. Her latest book, Free, a Novella, released May 30, 2017.

Website – https://feliciadenise.com

Blog – https://nesiesplace.wordpress.com

Amazon Author Page – https://www.amazon.com/Felicia-Denise/e/B01M03R54B/

Bookbub Author Page – https://www.bookbub.com/authors/felicia-denise

Facebook Author Page – https://www.facebook.com/authorfeliciadenise

Twitter – https://www.twitter.com/MsFelicia

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/fle_d/

Pinterest – https://www.pinterest.com/fdreevers/

Google+ – https://plus.google.com/u/0/110467680823101573705

Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/FeliciaDenise

Newsletter – http://eepurl.com/cklOKL

Both Rafflecopters run Thursday, June 29th – Sunday, July 2nd and both are open internationally.

Family Matters Cover Reveal Giveaway

Thursday, June 29th – Sunday, July 2nd

*Open Internationally

Only 3 tasks, 1 winner, $10 Amazon gift card

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/e7ad012c12/?

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I’m Back, So It’s Blog Party Time!

Susie Lindau's Wild Ride

It’s blog party time!

I have traveled for nearly the entire month of June and have been off the grid. My last post left off in Scotland. I’ve got another teed up, but before I launch into telling you about my wild adventure abroad, I want to know what happened in your part of the world.

ONE link please or it will be sent to spam filter hell.

CHOOSE ONE Of YOUR STORIES, a poem, whatever you like, and post the link in the comments. If you leave two links, you’ll be thrown into the spam filter. That can be so embarrassing for both of us. The worst part? I usually don’t notice right away.

Meet my friends!

CLICK ON A FEW LINKS to meet other bloggers. Find out what they’ve been up to this summer.

The floors are finished. Yahoo! I’m still unpacking after a day of workers who…

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Fixing my paperback

I’ve been working on sharpening up my formatting skills which translates to redoing both my published ebooks and paperback.

Since I only had the one paperback published I decided to start with the unpublished paperback of Vested In Her. As I referred to in an earlier post I didn’t know what I didn’t know about publishing. So it needed reformatting. I’m so close to hitting the publish button it’s annoying. I have to take care of my widows/orphans now. They may remain widows/orphans if this is too frustrating.

Suggestions welcome.

Fixing my ebooks.

Now my ebooks weren’t too bad. I used the Smashwords Style Guide and that helps me a lot. But I wanted to use decorative designs in my books.

The problem was it looked like this:

When it should look like this:

I think I have it figured out. I emailed myself the word file, opened it, screen shot it the way it was suppose to look, and emailed that to myself. I then saved it in a file and used the insert photo by file feature on Word to add it into my .docx file where it was suppose to be. It looks like it should now on my kindle app. The test will come when I upload it to KDP and see what it looks like on other Kindle devices. Wish me luck.

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Awesome Amazon Authors

I’m in another giveaway! Mark your calendars.

FREE = LIGHTMASTERS = 6/25-6/26 2017

ReBlog – Prologue: Aggravated Momentum (18+ reading) – Didi Oviatt

ReBlog – Have you read Didi Oviatt yet?

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PROLOGUE My hands are as far above my head as they can reach, my back intensely arched, and my calf muscles tighten, extending to the footboard. My pumpkin orange painted toes point as they join th…

Source: Prologue: Aggravated Momentum (18+ reading) – Didi Oviatt

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Iris Blobel – #NewRelease “Vested In Her” by @BrickleyJules

“Vested In Her” by @BrickleyJules

Vested In Her by Brickley Jules

Small town biker princess Haven Mercedes Johnson wants to live a normal life, but she’s relentlessly protected by her father and his crazy right-hand man who will do anything to keep her under his thumb. With the help of an ex, Haven escapes the confines of the club, and after one last wild night, she eagerly sets off to start a new life. After being on the run for days, she’s taken under the wing of a kind woman named Ruby, and with her help, Haven disappears.

Source: #NewRelease “Vested In Her” by @BrickleyJules

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Formatting – What I didn’t know

This is my last what I didn’t know for the month. Next month I hope to keep you updated on my Camp Nano project.

Formatting – What I didn’t know

I’m going to begin by saying that starting out I didn’t realize there was a difference in formatting for ebooks and paperbacks. I’ve seen paperbacks and ebooks with different fonts and chapter heading placement as I’m sure you have but what I didn’t realize was that ebooks needed to flow. They needed to be flexible so your reader can make the text larger or smaller depending on their tastes and needs.

As far as text I’ve heard it said and read that Garamond is one of the best font styles to use for both print and e-book from a couple different sources that know more about this than I do. It seems it is more accepted by printers and e-book publishers like KDP, Createspace, Smashwords, etc. And is easier on the eyes. I’m old school and always use Times New Roman but I need to change with the times.

For my ebooks I use Styles in Word. I create a style for my body text, my chapter headings, back matter, etc. I used the Style Guide from Smashwords to learn this handy little trick. It outlines how to create styles for different needs.

I love this guide. It’s an awesome tool for first time e-book publishers.

The bottom line for ebooks is less is more. It took me awhile to learn this. I want to add a nifty little Bodoni Ornament font to my cover page and in some of my chapters as breaks but they don’t transfer to ebooks. They come out as the regular keys [UV\ instead of the neat symbols I want them to be.

Now, I come to formatting my paperback books. I’m still learning this and fear I will be forever. But as it stands now I use Createspace Templates as my guide and copy everything they do until I learn more about it.

Formatting a paperback is more hands on and breaks a lot of the rules that are no nos for ebooks. You can use returns out the yin yang if you want. Throw section breaks at the end of every chapter because it you don’t your headers and footers won’t come out right.

Your font size matters, too. I used 14 to start with. That’s basically a large print font in case you didn’t know. I didn’t. I used 1.5 line spacing. You could play (insert sport of your choice here) in the gap between lines.

I shrunk my font to 11 then even further to 10 and my spacing to single. This makes fewer pages and brings the cost of your book down for your reader but doesn’t change your profits too much so I’m told. I’d check this but I’m formatting Vested In Her into paperback right now. And I’m at the stage where I have to redo the cover because after I made all these changes to the interior file the book is 60 pages fewer so the spine is smaller.

I’ll post an update once I find out for sure by comparing numbers on the price and royalties.

Until then happy Writing!

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Making a paperback book out of your eBook #WriterWednesday #Createspace

I can’t brain today, I have the dumb — distracted driving edition

ReBlog | Writing Your Cover Letter | The Writers’ Den

ReBlog

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If you’ve been following us these first six weeks of 2016 you’ll have your novel and synopsis written, ready to be sent out to your chosen agent. The last thing you need to do now is write your cov…

Source: Writing Your Cover Letter – The Writers’ Den

Cover Reveal Sign Up: Family Matters by Felicia Denise (June 29th) #Bloggers

Hey Tour Hosts! I’m organizing a cover reveal for book #2 in Felicia Denise’s, In the Best Interest of the Child Series, called Family Matters. The reveal date is Thursday, June 29th! F…

Source: Cover Reveal Sign Up: Family Matters by Felicia Denise (June 29th) #Bloggers

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Crystal’s Cozy Corner Blog – Vested in Her by Brickley Jules Promo Blitz

Brickley Jules – Vested In Her

Release date: April 26, 2015.

Small town biker princess Haven Mercedes Johnson wants to live a normal life, but she’s relentlessly protected by her father and his crazy right-hand man who will do anything to keep her under his thumb. With the help of an ex, Haven escapes the confines of the club, and after one last wild night, she eagerly sets off to start a new life. After being on the run for days, she’s taken under the wing of a kind woman named Ruby, and with her help, Haven disappears.

Source: Vested in Her by Brickley Jules Promo Blitz

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