Tag: Indie Author

An Indie Author’s work is never done

When I shared with a friend that I was finished with my third book, she asked, “So, are you going to take a break now? Relax?”

After I got up off the floor and wiped the tears of laughter from my eyes, I kindly explained to her that an indie author’s work is never done. There are no breaks. There is no “resting on my laurels.” I don’t have an assistant at my beck and call. I don’t have a publicist or a marketing team. Nope. I do it ALL myself.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not complaining. I’m an artist. Writing is my medium. I LOVE my work. I also happen to enjoy designing book covers and promos and doing all the nitty-gritty things that need to be done in order to bring attention to my books.

So, this past week as I was “taking a break” before returning to my writing cave, I did the following:

Put together a Goodreads giveaway for the third book in my King’s Valley Romance series and created promos:

GR Giveaway Promo 1_400

Designed the cover for the fourth (and last) book in the series (arriving this May). Here’s a little sneak peek. Hint: the woman is holding my book in her hand.

book-mock00015 - ANNIE 500

Guess what? After that fourth book is published, the series will be complete. That means it’ll be time to offer the entire series as a Box Set. So I created that as well. Isn’t it pretty?

KV_4Books_Set 800 Cropped

Oh, and I found 30 minutes to design a book cover for fellow blogger and writer, Charlie de Luca. Charlie, here it is!

ForCharlie

On top of all that, the end material in the e-book version of the first two books had to be  updated with links to the third book. And all the sites where my books are listed had to be updated. Plus, staying connected with everyone on my social media pages. Oh, also sending out ARCs, soliciting reviews, staying up-to-date on all the latest indie publishing news, etc., etc.,

The “work” is never-ending. Do I dream of a day when (in between writing books) I can relax in a lounge chair on a tropical beach while someone else takes care of all these “little” details for me? Oh, yes. That’s just one of the dreams that keeps me going.

Until then…

P.S. If you want to help me make my dreams a reality, buy my books!

Thank you, Catholic School

This past week, I’ve been editing my latest book. Being an Indie Author, I don’t have the budget at this time to afford an editor. And, as much as I’d love to hand over the task to a professional while I move on to my next project, I think I’ve done a pretty darn good job editing my own books, both the grammar and the content. I have learned how to “kill my darlings.” And that’s not easy! I haven’t received a single book review that complained about poor writing and/or grammar. And that’s thanks, in part, to Catholic school. Of course, I didn’t think so during the time I was attending Catholic school. I’d much rather have been at the public school because they had cool classes like Drama and Band. My little school couldn’t afford those luxuries. I think a good portion of the tuition money was funding the monsignor’s drinking habits, but I digress.

Anyway, as I was editing my new book, I had visions of diagramming sentences on a green chalkboard in fifth grade. And sixth grade. And seventh grade. I recall spending a week or so on sentence diagrams in my Freshman English class. At that time, I didn’t know that the practice of sentence diagramming had been virtually eliminated from the public school system. Today, there’s not one mention of it in the Common Core.

Do YOU know what sentence diagramming is? Were you taught this in school?

SentenceDiagram
The design firm Pop Chart Lab has taken the first lines of famous novels and diagrammed those sentences. 

I guess some kids found the process frustrating. Not me. I LOVED it. Maybe that’s because I love WORDS in general. Reading them. Writing them. As soon as I learned how to write, I spent hours putting words together on paper in a way that told a story that made my mom smile.  (Diagram that sentence). How lucky I was to attend a school that taught ‘old school.’

So, thank you Sister Rose, Sister Muriel, Sister Julie and Sister Pat. I bet you’re all living it up in heaven, those golden rulers at the ready to smack some wayward angel-in-training on the back of the hand.

Oh, and I DO believe in the Oxford Comma. Thanks for that, too!

Happy Reading!

P.S. If you enjoy my writing style, you might enjoy my books. Sweet (not treacly!), Clean, Old-Fashioned Romance with endearing characters and a good dose of humor.