Book Reviews, Thoughts, and Random Interesting Ideas

As many of my readers know, I joined the Atlanta Writers Club early this year. I have been attending the monthly meetings regularly and I have learned a ton! Each month we have a couple of guest speakers and a member minute. I try to listen closely and take notes at each session so I can take advantage of the knowledge and experience these authors are sharing.

Ignore the “voices:”

Here are a couple of interesting tidbits from some of the meetings. I realize that many of you may already know these things, but they were new and exciting to me. Patti Callahan Henry was one of the speakers at our last meeting and here was a great takeaway for me. How do you separate from the “voices” in your head that impede your writing progress?

What Patti explained was that each of us as writers have influences in our lives that impact our stories. For instance, what if you’re writing a war scene and soldiers are fighting in hand-to-hand combat and you have to drop the F word as part of the action? And all the time you are thinking that your mother, grandmother, or preacher might read the book. So, you take it out and then put it back in and repeat the cycle. The advice given was to be true to your characters and use the word. As a writer, I understand the dilemma, and as a reader, I would rather have the characters act as they should. In short, I agree with the advice (sorry Mom).

Audiobooks:

Another interesting topic from the meeting was audiobooks. We had a representative from ListenUp Audiobooks in Atlanta give us a presentation on the process of creating an audiobook. Fascinating stuff and so much to learn about how to create my own audiobook for The Gemstone Chronicles! Inspired by the discussion, I consulted some of my author friends to see what experiences they had with their own audiobooks and decided to go for it. I just sent out my request for auditions on ACX and I hope to start hearing narrators reading The Carnelian in the next few days. I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am to hear it!

Other perks as a member of the Atlanta Writers Club include the opportunity to interact with agents and editors at twice yearly writer conferences, interact with the other authors who are members of the club, and have many other chances to pick the brains of talented writers from multiple genres. As a relatively new writer, these are golden opportunities to learn and grow as a writer!

This is a small sampling of what I have learned. I know I’ll continue to learn more as I attend upcoming meetings. If you are an author, what writers club(s) do you belong to and what new things have they taught you? If you’re a reader, do you go to writers club meetings to discover new authors and their works? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Connect with me:

If you want to connect with me, I can be found on Twitter, Facebook, and, Goodreads, or just email me at bill@williamlstuart.com. As always, new friends, shares, and comments are welcome!

The Gemstone Chronicles – 3 years old!!

It’s sometimes hard to believe, but almost 3 years ago, I published the first book of The Gemstone Chronicles! That’s right, The Carnelian was published on August 12, 2012. What a day it was! I remember the excitement, happiness, and sense of accomplishment that accompanied hitting the publish button on Amazon. Just as clearly, I remember how nervous I was. I mean, here I was, a person who never really had a goal of becoming a writer and now I was about to put my first novel out there for public consumption. What if it flopped? How will I handle bad reviews? These and many other questions floated through my mind as I uploaded the manuscript. As I celebrate that event from 3 years ago, I wanted to give you readers an update on how things have gone!

How have the books done?

Let me start by saying that I doubt I will ever be able to retire from the proceeds of book sales. Remember, too, that I didn’t write the books to become a bestselling author (although if it happens, I’m fine with it). I wrote the books as stories for my two amazing grandchildren, so any financial gains from them are simply a bonus. However, if I look at how much I spent to have a cover designed, and how much I paid my awesome editor, and then compare it to the book sales (for all four of the books in the series), I’ve just about broken even. Not bad!

In addition to The Carnelian, I also published Book Two: The Amethyst, Book Three: The Emerald, and Book Four: The Ruby. I’ve made a few changes to the covers, and made some edits to the manuscripts based on feedback from my readers. Such is the advantage of being a self-published author – I have complete control over my content.

What did I learn?

I have learned to do better marketing, made some amazing friends (both authors and readers), and have grown my social media presence. I’ve always enjoyed reading and now post reviews for most of the books I read. I didn’t do that until I became an author and realized the importance of doing reviews. I joined the Atlanta Writers Club and have learned a ton just from listening to the guest speakers. I’ve been fortunate to attend literary festivals, book signings, and was recently recognized by a reader (which was very cool and totally unexpected). I also started this blog at about the same time and I hope it continues to entertain readers. I even tried my hand at a book trailer!

That’s has what has been going on with me and my books for the last 3 years. I’m working on a new book (though it is going slowly). It will be completely different from The Gemstone Chronicles. Stay tuned for updates as it progresses.

Connect with me:

What was your favorite part of The Gemstone Chronicles Book One: The Carnelian? Which character did you like best? You can comment here, or find me on Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads, or simply email me at bill@williamlstuart.com.

Oh, and to celebrate the events from 3 years ago and to give deep and heartfelt thanks to those of you who have read the book (and thanks in advance to those who will), The Carnelian is on sale for $0.99 from August 1 – August 15, 2015! Get your copy and consider leaving a review. I love to know what you are thinking!!

If you recall from my last post, I listed a couple of new promo sites I found (ebookdiscovery.com and TheBooksMachine.com) and talked about the magnetic sign I was ordering for my truck. Well, the sign arrived yesterday and I am very pleased with how it looks! Time for shameless self promotion!

I’m even more please by how it looks on my truck’s tailgate! Here goes the shameless self promotion!

I placed the sign in the middle of the tailgate and it almost blends in with the truck paint. I like the look of it!

Shameless:

Yes, I know that I’m going to be accused of shameless self promotion for riding around Atlanta with a sign promoting my books on the back of the truck, but I’m okay with it. After all, it really isn’t any different from a lawn service or other business advertising their business or service on their vehicles. And, as an Indie author, I don’t have publicists or other such folks doing this kind of work for me. When it comes to marketing and promotion, I’m about all I have and I have to do it on a slim budget.

I ordered my sign online and it cost about $25 for a 12 x 18 magnet (including shipping). I got it in a week or so. It was easy to do (especially since the lovely and adorable Lana did the design work for me). I took the .jpg Lana designed and scaled to the proper size, loaded it on the website (I used Vistaprint), and it was done. Easy!

Of course, I have no idea if this will work at all. I may simply be out $25. But, I figure that I pass (or get passed by) hundreds of vehicles every day to and from work and I can have the magnet attached every time I go to the mall, a bookstore, or even the hardware store. Readers are everywhere, and maybe one will take notice, read one of the books, and recommend it to others. If nothing else, I may get a few new friends on social media!

Connect with me:

Speaking of social media, if you want to connect with me, I can be found at any of the following: Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads, or you can email me at bill@williamlstuart.com. I welcome comments, shares, and other blogs to follow, so don’t be shy!

What do you think of my shameless self promotion idea of the magnetic sign for my truck? Too much? Not enough? Leave me a comment and let me know!

I haven’t done an update on my book marketing tools, efforts, and new promotional finds. I have found a few new things and will be using one shortly, so I will be able to tell you how it worked out!

ebookdiscovery.com:

First, I want to talk about ebookdiscovery.com. I found the site on Twitter and checked it out. I think this will be a good resource for me! Here are some of the features:

• Read and Review Club: I submitted my book to this feature. And I was accepted! I provided an .epub version of The Gemstone Chronicles Book One: The Carnelian and ebookdiscovery will offer it to up to 50 of their readers. The readers can submit the  review to any of the major ebook retailers within a couple of weeks of the offering. My offering will be July 14, so I should start seeing reviews in early August. I will let everyone know how it goes.
• Current eBook Discovery Deals: Highlights free and bargain books
• Subscription: emails come to your inbox with the latest deals
• An ebook recommendation opportunity
• Opportunity to become an ebookdiscovery.com reviewer

Check out ebookdiscovery.com! It might be just the things for authors who are looking for reviews or for readers who want to become reviewers!

The Books Machine:

Another new site to visit and check out is The Books Machine. This is not a free site, but they advertise offering up your book to thousands of potential readers for a pretty low price. This is how it works:

• Register your book with the site and select your program
• The author decides who gets the free review copies
• The author must offer at least 5 copies per month, but if the author has multiple books, a combination of the books is acceptable
• The reader has to contact the author and give a reason why they would be a good reviewer
• Each reader has a star rating and the author gets to rate their reviewers
• The reviewer generally has 30 days to post their review
• The cost is $10/month, but there are discounts for longer term commitments

I haven’t tried The Books Machine, but I’m thinking it might be a nice way to pick up some reviews. After my ebookdiscovery.com run, I might give it a one month trial and see what happens!

That’s my latest update on the book marketing tools, efforts, and promotional opportunities I am currently working on for The Gemstone Chronicles. Except for one other thing I am contemplating. I think I might have a version of my bookmark turned into a magnet to attach to the tailgate of my truck and see what happens. I live in the Atlanta suburbs and my truck is seen by hundreds of drivers each day, so perhaps a reader will check it the books after seeing the information on the magnet. Here is the magnet:

What do you think?

Connect with me:

What new promotional and marketing opportunities have you found? What works for you? Leave me a comment and let me know. If you want to connect with me, I can be found on Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads, or you email me at bill@williamlstuart.com!