Wednesday, August 24, 2022

Vengeance is MIne ~ the book

Read the book on Kindle Vella HERE. Soon it will also be available on Kindle and in print.







Friday, August 19, 2022

Another book in the works.

 


I've started another Kindle Vella. It's called The Guardians and the Protectorate of the Elite. This is my cover for now. I would say it's a teen and YA novel. Maybe even a middle school novel. I would appreciate it if some of you would read it and take the survey after the first chapter. The first three chapters will be free to read.


Here’s a review by fellow writer Janet Kay Gallagher:
Great cover. I loved reading the first 5 Episodes. And left a review. Twins Wes and Bruce are sent on a challenge with the goal of becoming independent thinkers. Each episode is exciting and a fast read. They get to travel to different areas and investigate several caves. I can't wait to find out what other things they will find and endure along the way. They will meet the Guardians and the Protectorate of the elite. Fun and danger ahead. The first three episodes are free to read. You get 200 free tokens at this point, (which allows you to read about 8 episodes) and you pay tokens to read the next episodes. Episode 4 was 14 tokens, episode 5 was 13 tokens.
I am looking forward to reading the next episodes. So, I followed this book.
The age for this book is young but don't let that stop you from such a good story.





I used to teach English...

 This is so good. 

"The Hokey Pokey, Shakespearean Style" by Jeff Brechlin is a winning entry in The Style Invitational, The Washington Post's weekly humor/wordplay contest.
http://washingtonpost.com/styleinvitational.


Thursday, August 18, 2022

Writing the Book is 25% of the Job

 I'm finding out that writing a book is just the beginning of the job of an author. 

Gone are the days when authors could submit their finished manuscript to a publisher who would then give it to an editor to make corrections and suggestions of ways to make it better.

Gone are the days when the publisher promoted your book. 

Now it's all on the author. Since publishers rarely take over those duties (I'm not saying never, because I'm sure the John Grishams and Brad Thors get those services) but for the bulk of the thousands of authors that seek to publish, it's just not done, even if a publisher does agree to publish your book.

We either have to pay to have our book edited or have some kind friends that agree to help. In addition to that, we need to pay to have a book cover designed. 

So... self-publishing has become more popular. Since we have to do most of the work anyway, we may as well get a bigger portion of the profits. It's not easy. It takes lots of time which cuts into the time you could be writing another book. It also can take a monetary investment. Advertising is not cheap. Networking is essential. 

Hence authors join reader's groups, agree to speaking engagements, and do book signings, which also need to be promoted. I say this to convey the fact that a lot of work goes into every book an author writes. True some are better than others, but if you find a good one, write a good review for them. It can help your favorite authors by promoting them to more success. 

If they have success then they can write more books.