All right – so I am STILL trying to figure out how to bump up my sales numbers. I will tell you a bit about it soon – as well as telling you how I spent my Christmas and telling you a bit about all of the movies I watched over Christmas – (quite a few) – but for now, why don’t you writer-types see if you can learn something from this guy’s latest blog entry?
Official website of John D. Brown, American author.
Posted in writing
I am a big old fan of good horror movies – and these days they are AWFULLY hard to find.
This is the second go around with this post for me. You see, I spent 2 hours this weekend putting together a comprehensive list of my 13 favorite horror flix for 2014. The kicker is that WordPress lost the post entirely. To my credit, I didn’t cry or curse or break anything.
So, here I am again, once bitten, twice shy. My reviews are short and sweet this time around, but you’ll all get the point.
I was very worried that I wouldn’t be able to find 13 horror movies worth noting this year. As of July, Oculus was my top pick. Egads! Thankfully, things picked up in the second half and I had a good group to choose from.
So, before WordPress deletes this post and me in the process, on with the show!
#13 – ALL CHEERLEADERS DIE
Funny, dark, twisted and downright strange at times. Come for…
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Great post.
I don’t EVER want to stop believing in Santa Claus!
Hands up out there – all of you folks who believe in Santa Claus!
After a bright smile of greeting, my grandson’s broad, innocent face clouded with distress. When he hugged me he whispered, through a choking sob. “There’s no Santa.”
“Of course there is, silly.”
The sigh of relief shared a humbling totality of trust. I said, “we can clear this up later.”
“Promise?”
My almost-hard stare made him smile. One raised eyebrow was enough. Reassured, he bounced away and into a world of games, fun and noise.
After lunch I settled, comfortable, in the battered old chair in my study. He came in, as I knew he would, climbed up the arm and settled against my chest.
“Grandad.”
“That’s me.”
He started to choke back sobs, but couldn’t constrain them. “There’s no Santa.” I swung him in front of me, a solid young five-and-a-half year old. His nose bubbled and tears washed down his cheeks. I opened my arms…
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I have actually been putting a lot more effort into my writing these days rather than my promoting – hence my lack of fresh new blogs – but nevertheless an article like this is ALWAYS welcome reading material for us indie writers.
Ruth Nestvold - Indie Adventures
In my ongoing attempts to bump my sales again, I tested a 99c sale with Shadow of Stone last week, from Dec. 15-19. In this post, I’d like to share my results, along with the resources I’ve put together, a list of sites where you can have you sale book listed, both free and paid.
First of all, some info on what I did and the results. About ten days before my sale started, I wrote to all the sites below that offer free listings (except the Naughty List, since the book is not romance or erotica). I organized two free listings for specific days, as well as two paid ads, as follows:
Fussy Librarian, 12/16 ($14 for historical fiction)
BKnights, 12/17 ($5.50 – $5.00 + 50c Fiverr fee)
Booklover’s Heaven – 12/18 (Free)
Bestebooksfree – 12/19 (Free)
Before the sale, Shadow of Stone had not sold a copy in…
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All right all of you writer-types – how many of these mistakes have YOU made???
All right, it’s about to be a brand new year and many of you are wanting to finally see your books published. ROCK ON! But, I am the friend who will tell you if there is toilet paper hanging out of your pants. Writing isn’t all glitter and unicorns and I want to warn you of the most common stumbling blocks, because I really DO want you to succeed.
When I began writing I was SO SURE agents would be fighting over my manuscript. Yeah. But after almost fourteen years in the industry, a lot of bloody noses, and even more lessons in humility, I hope that these tips will help you.
Self-publishing is AWESOME, and it’s a better fit for certain personalities and even content (um, social media?), but we must be educated before we publish. In fact, my last book Rise of the Machines (cover above) is much…
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All right – so I really ought to get around to putting up a blog entry of my own one of these days soon – instead of relying on so many reblogs.
Why don’t you folks let me know what you like me to talk about it?
Ha – the ultimate cop-out!
1. Mention their name/book when someone asks “What are you reading?”
2. Add their book(s) to Goodreads groups and lists.
3. Buy and give their books as gifts to people on your Christmas list.
4. Request your local library get their books.
5. If children/youth books, tell your child’s teacher/librarian/PTA about the books.
6. Suggest the author/book for your book group.
7. Follow author on Twitter and retweet.
8. Like their author Facebook page and comment occasionally so author knows someone is out there.
9. Write an email to author.
10. Leave a review on Amazon or other site of your choice.
Posted in Uncategorized
All right. So it seems that Graeme Reynold got in trouble with Amazon over the use of a dash.
I can understand that myself. I mean, I always run into trouble when it comes to running into those troublesome dashes in cookbook recipes.
I mean, think about it.
There you are going along all fine and smooth with your teaspoons and tablespoons and all of a sudden they are asking for a “dash of pepper”.
What does that freaking mean, anyway?
Am I supposed to run-on-the-spot while I shake the pepper shaker?
(apologies for my misuse of the dash)
Am I supposed to wear an ascot while I shake the pepper shaker?
I mean – I don’t know about you but I can take “dash” in an awful lot of different ways.
But I do agree with Amazon on some of things they are talking about banning. For example, starting sentences with the word “but”.
What about italics?
I just don’t trust those italics, do you?
They are all so sneaky looking and slanted and and they’ve got their cursive little pinky artfully extended.
Let’s all dash out and ban the italics, shall we?
This is a really strange blog post to have to write, simply because the situation is absurd. It would be comedic, really, if the situation was not costing me money and resulted in one of my best-selling books being unavailable in the run up to the busiest time of the year.
Let me tell you a little story.
I was sitting in front of my computer on Friday night, as is often the case, talking to friends on Facebook, randomly browsing things that seemed interesting and, in this particular case, attending the launch party for Chantal Noordeloos’s latest Coyote book, when I had an email notification arrive in my inbox from Kindle Direct Publishing.
The email was titled rather ominously as
Kindle Quality Notice: High Moor 2: Moonstruck – B00BVC7MKW
Now – Moonstruck has been out for around 18 months now. It’s done well for itself and, at the time…
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It is a very old joke but a true one – whenever my wife sees me staring out a window she KNOWS that I am most likely working. Writing goes on all day long. A writer breathes in material and breathes out stories. His mind is a constant pressure cooker and there is not telling when it is going to boil over onto the page.
Have I mixed enough metaphors for you today???
Writing is 99% thinking, and the rest is typing. — Ray Bradbury
When I first started writing, I did it the hard way. I just wrote the first thing that came to mind. I got an idea, character, setting, or ect. in my head and I wrote it down immediately.
It was fun. I produced a story, or maybe a part of a story, or maybe really just words on a page. But damn if I didn’t feel proud of my accomplishment. A proud Momma with her precious baby.
And then I got some experience under my belt and that happy bubble popped when I realized I was doing it all wrong.
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