The Gemstone Chronicles

Book Two; The Amethyst!

Exciting news here at The Gemstone Chronicles! I finalized the cover for The Gemstone Chronicles Book Two: The Amethyst. I have to thank my lovely and adorable bride, Lana, for helping with the color and final formatting! She is the best!! For those who want to visit her blog and see her photography and amazing, tasty recipes, visit www.lanascooking.com! She also designed this website for me!! I am one lucky, blessed man!

The Amethyst, the second book of The Gemstone Chronicles series will be released in ebook and paperback in early December (just in time for Christmas or as a book to add to your new Kindle, Nook, or iPad), but for now enjoy the sneak peek of the cover and read an excerpt of the novel on the Sneak Peeks page!!

Have you read The Gemstone Chronicles Book One: The Carnelian? If you have, please leave me a comment or write a review on Amazon, Smashwords, or Barnes and Noble!! I love to hear what people think about the book!!

Connect with me:

I would also love to connect with you on social media. I can be found on Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads, or just email me at bill@williamlstuart.com. In addition, if you don’t want to miss a post, please subscribe to the blog. You’ll always know what I’m up to!

Thank you!!

I wanted to take a moment to say thank you! We just celebrated Thanksgiving with a visit from Aidan and Maggie, whose namesakes grace the pages of all of The Gemstone Chronicles books, enjoyed the company of our daughter, Laura, and the company of my brother and his two girls. We ate (see the recipes on www.lanascooking.com), talked, laughed, ate some more, and generally enjoyed each other’s company. Aidan and Maggie stayed until today, when we had to take them home.

I also published The Gemstone Chronicles Book One: The Carnelian in paperback on Friday and celebrated with a successful $0.99 sale on the Kindle edition of the e-book. That is another reason to be thankful! Add to that, the fact that I will be publishing in paperback and e-book, The Gemstone Chronicles Book Two: The Amethyst in early December, and I am a very lucky guy!!

So, I want to make sure I thank everyone who has helped me along my path into the realms of the self-published. First, to Lana, my amazing, wonderful, talented, and beautiful wife, I owe you the world. Thank you for letting me share yours! Secondly, to my daughter Laura and her hubby Mike: thank you for being there and for raising your two incredible children! Thirdly, to Aidan and Maggie, the incredible children mentioned above. Thank you for being! Lastly, to everyone else, from Abby my wonderful editor, to the Facebook friends and Twitter friends who offer encouragement and help, to the readers who have decided to part with your money and take a chance on my book, THANK YOU!!!!

Connect with me:

Let’s be friends on social media! I’m on Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads and enjoy connecting with people. Say hi if you find me and let’s start a conversation!

The Carnelian in Paperback!

As many of you know, I published (through CreateSpace) the paperback version of The Gemstone Chronicles Book One: The Carnelian yesterday! It went live on Createspace.com immediately (https://www.createspace.com/4042510). However, the site told me it would be available at Amazon.com (and other outlets) within a few days.

Well, imagine my surprise when I looked at Amazon a little while ago and found the paperback already available!

http://www.amazon.com/The-Gemstone-Chronicles-Book-One/dp/1480206288/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1353709478&sr=8-1

If you are buying someone a Kindle for Christmas, why not include The Gemstone Chronicles Book One: The Carnelian as part of the gift? It is available for $0.99 today and tomorrow (Nov. 23 and 24, 2012). If all goes well, you might add The Gemstone Chronicles Book Two: The Amethyst, too! Load up the new devices!

Not a ebook fan? No worries! Buy the paperback for $9.99! That’s a great price and it’s a great gift.

Either way, you get a great read for a low price!! If you are so inclined, please consider leaving a review, too! Reviews help me become a better writer and let’s me know what readers think! Thanks in advance.

Enjoy your Black Friday shopping and remember to visit your local bookstore and maybe pick up a book or six!! Don’t forget, you can order The Gemstone Chronicles Book One: The Carnelian from Barnes and Noble and from iTunes. Fill up your Nook or iPad today!

Connect with me on social media on Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads, or just email me at bill@williamlstuart.com. And don’t miss a post! Subscribe to the blog!

The Carnelian!

Today is a watershed moment for The Gemstone Chronicles Book One: The Carnelian! I just now pushed the button to release the paperback version of the book! It is now available at: https://www.createspace.com/4042510 and will soon be available through Amazon.com and other outlets!

As a reminder, The Gemstone Chronicles Book One: The Carnelian is a middle grades/young adult fantasy adventure novel (though the adults that have read it seem to love it!) and is the first of a four book series and has garnered three 5-star reviews on Amazon, and two 5-star ratings and one 4-star rating on GoodReads! The second book of the series is called The Gemstone Chronicles Book Two: The Amethyst and will be available in ebook and printed format in early December.

I hope everyone will take a minute to visit the following links and check out The Gemstone Chronicles Book One: The Carnelian, “like” the books, leave some tags, and maybe, just maybe, buy a copy for your enjoyment!! BTW, the ebook of Book One: The Carnelian will be available from Amazon for $0.99 on November 23 and 24, 2012! Oh, and if you are so inclined, leave me a review! It’s always helpful to know what readers think about the book. It helps me become a better writer!

Connect with me:

To find out more about me visit my about page or find me on the socials! I’m on Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads, so let’s connect! I enjoy meeting new friends. If you don’t want to miss a post, subscribe to the blog. You can also email me at bill@williamlstuart.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks so much!!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Sneak Peek!

Today is a busy day at The Gemstone Chronicles. I am diligently working on getting The Gemstone Chronicles Book One: The Carnelian ready to upload on CreateSpace to make the book available as a paperback. I am also working on the edits and revisions to The Gemstone Chronicles Book Two: The Amethyst. I created a new page on the website, called Sneak Peeks where I can post excerpts from the series as I get ready to release the books. Today, I posted the sneak peek of the first two chapters of Book Two: The Amethyst! I plan to release The Amethyst in early December. I hope you will all stop by, take a few minutes to read the excerpt and let me know what you think!

Later this week, I plan on revealing the cover for The Amethyst, so stay tuned!! I can’t wait to show it to you.

Have you read Book One: The Carnelian? What did you think? Leave me a comment and let me know. Or, if you would, please visit either Amazon or Smashwords and leave me a review! I love to hear what my readers think!! It doesn’t need to be a long analysis of the book (though that would be great). Just a few words is all that’s necessary, but it helps authors find out what their readers think. It also helps us improve as writers.

If you would like to connect with me, I can be found on Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads. You can also email me at bill@williamlstuart.com. I welcome new friends!

Self-Publishing!

I have been posting recently about my adventures in self-publishing. Today, I’d like to give you an update in adventures in self-publishing (part 3)! As with many others who chose to go the self-publishing route, I have found that marketing my book has been harder than actually writing it. So, like any good student, I went into research mode and starting googling. As I mentioned in my last post, there are hundreds of thousands of websites, blogs, and opinions on what works for marketing your work. What seems to be a common thread, though, is getting reviews and “likes”. Sounds easy enough, right? After all, any of us who use Facebook are constantly “liking” posts. And who wouldn’t want to read our great novel that we worked on so diligently?

What I have discovered is that getting those things are not quite as easy as it may seem. You can certainly ask friends and family to read and review your work. You can ask them to like the Facebook page you created to promote your book, and you can ask them to “like” your book on Amazon or Smashwords or whatever other site you have listed tour book. In most cases, that will get you a few hundred likes and sales, but where do you go from there? You can use LinkedIn, Facebook (as mentioned before), Goodreads (one of my favorites), and Twitter (although I don’t, but will soon). Pinterest looks interesting, too. I will continue to investigate other options and try to get feedback from other self-published authors to see what worked for them.

What are your ideas?

If you have any ideas that you would like to share, please feel free to leave a comment!! If you want to connect with me, you can find me on social media or email me at bill@williamlstuart.com. I look forward to interacting with you!!