Wednesday 29 April 2015

Weird and weary

What a weird few days. I have been finalising my product placement requests and once again the bigger the company the harder they are to contact and/or get a reply from. In my frustration and sheer annoyance with some of these larger companies, I have re-written some of my text and removed the companies names and/or products from my novel. At the end of the day they are getting free advertising and why should I bother chasing them? The small local companies as usual, reply almost instantly and show a great deal of gratitude and good wishes for the books success. I repeat to any new authors reading my blog, minimise the product placement!

I have also been researching whether to publish with ibooks or via other epub platforms and discovered that I could have written the book directly onto the ibooks author app, if I had known!!!!. 
So again to new authors,I advise that if you have NOT yet started your book then research how you are going to self publish and if you?, like me, decide upon the ibooks route (which incidentally pays 70% commission as opposed to 35% on Amazon), then use your macbook, imac or ipad to write your book on a template, within ibooks author. You can then create an account in itunes connect and upload fairly easily to the ibooks store! Apple have invested billions into the ibooks side of their business and why?, you may ask? Well, because they see the growth potential of e-reading and you only have to check out the tutorial on ibooks author to see the potential of the rich interactive experiences available within some of the books on offer to realise that it is a huge developing market. Also Amazon restrict you to their platform only! and we need as much flexibility as possible for the saleability of our creativity do we not? 

The actual process of re loading my work onto ibooks author has been  like a first day at school for me. Nerve wracking and exciting in equal measures. I am literally teaching myself as I go along. My phone call to Apple today, proved frustrating, in that, I was constantly directed to check out this, that and the other guideline instead of them just remote accessing my laptop and assisting me. Kind of bothered me, seeing as how they will be getting 30% of my sales for the minutest input into this process but they are better than Amazon in terms of looking after authors, so my research keeps telling me!

Word of the day Implode: My long term goal is to be able to write, write and write some more and pay companies to upload and download on my behalf before I implode! I am weary of the weirdness of it all. 
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Monday 27 April 2015

Gruelling final shift

I completed my final 'writers' edit today in a mammoth, 13 hour shift peppered with many many breaks! It really is down to my editor now. 

As I read the final word I had written, re-written, re-written and finally re-written again over the course of the last four months I felt proud. I have cried, laughed and cried some more followed by hysterical laughing as I have written my book. Not at the process of the actual typing as I have voice activated software but at the content of my work. It was sad, funny, cathartic and downright hilarious, in varying degrees and I hope you will all love it too and spread the word about my words. 

The publishing journey draws near and the marketing journey is about to begin. I agree with the once wise words I read, that self publishing a novel is one third writing, one third publishing and one third marketing and I have relished all the challenges so far.

It feels really strange to say that my one third writing phase is now finally finished. It is like that 'first baby' feeling and I am so proud of my first literary baby. As I have done my thirteen hour shift to complete MY final edit today, I know in my heart that it is my best work. I AM sending it out to you all, my readers, as the best piece of writing it can be, within the knowledge base I currently have as a new author and I am far from complacent, in recognising that my work will be critiqued and lessons can be learnt by me, as I hone my writing skills for the rest of my life. I will continue to update you regarding the self publishing process and the marketing strategies and tools I will use to get the book out there to you all. 

Word of the day: Exhausted. I am exhausted but deliriously happy to know that any creativity from here on in will be in relation to new projects. Now that is such a fabulous notion. My ideas are brewing in readiness for the next project but in the meantime, I am a perfectionist and I will not be happy until the book can be delivered to you PERFECTLY. Nothing else will do. 
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Tuesday 21 April 2015

Editing deadline set.

My editing deadline is now set and I have spent the day finalising the last of the requests for product placement. Not surprisingly, the bigger the company, the harder to get a named person to take responsibility or to even get a reply. I am chasing my tail with some of these companies and again, 'note to self', avoid product placement as much as possible in your writing as it is very frustrating trying to get permissions. I have actually deleted a few companies from my draft due to these frustrations. 

I continue to get positive feedback from existing and new re-viewers and feel like the clock is on countdown now. I have an ISBN number and a publishing code for Amazon publishing and the excitement is building in readiness to upload my work. I am actually itching to start my next piece of work and can appreciate the bliss of having publishers to handle all of this peripheral stuff and allowing me to be creative, however, not having that luxury means I need to plod on and to be frank, it's a good base for increasing my knowledge of the publishing process, be that self publishing or via a publishing house. 

I have watched an interesting webinar today too and I enclose the link for people to view if you are an aspiring writer and wish to aim to get your work published.  https://www.bigmarker.com/janefriedman/How-to-Get-a-Book-Published

My word of the day is Efficient:I find other peoples inefficiency so frustrating and such a waste of my precious creative time, some companies have been contacted 4 times!, other companies say yes over the phone, some companies want so much more information than others and some companies don't know what they are doing at all and as I said previously the bigger the company the worse they can be! 

Their inefficiencies are having a knock on effect of preventing me being efficient. Arrrrgghhh!! 
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Saturday 11 April 2015

Cover Girl

Well at last, I made it onto a front cover. A dream achievement for any girl I reckon, however, my cover girl image is so much better than your average cover girl, magazine shoot. I actually now have in my possession my own cover girl for my first novel, '23 days'. She shows intense pain in her eyes but she also shows determination and steeliness and she is so elegant and stylish in her fashion choices and beauty regimes. There is no baring of flesh, there is no provocative clothing and/or lingerie trying to sell her image, there is no sign of air brushing, cosmetic surgery or un-natural caked on make up. It is a perfect image with her only imperfections being those etched upon her heart and soul that she successfully hides from the world. She is truly beautiful and she is a true role model for survival against gargantuan repeated life lessons that are harsh. Just one of those lessons is beyond comprehension and survival for most people. She is a perfect beauty gala winner, she lives her life simply based upon kindness, happiness and laughter and her Karma finally delivered her a gift of calmer. 

The cover girl image was delivered by a young artist with great talent. Her work came to me by accident and screamed at me from her Facebook page and I had no hesitation in commissioning her for my first book cover and to be honest I hope it is a collaboration for life. She read my book and transferred it all into that cover girl image. There are many layers to the plot and the main character and Sarah said she used many layers in her creation. I am truly honoured that somebody paid such attention to detail to my writing, that she the took the time and care to transfer that into such a beautiful piece of art. I will be proud of both my writing and her interpretation of Fiora Burton for ever. 
As a writer I was stuck for words when I first viewed my cover girl image, it literally made me gasp. 

Visit Sarah Ollis's website and Facebook page by clicking on the link here: https://www.facebook.com/sarahollisillustration 

Word of the day Gargantuan: Life is a journey from birth to death and for some the journey is smooth and some the journey is a little rough, for others it is littered with heavy boulders to shift in order to progress and for others it is a continuous struggle from birth to death. Count your blessings whichever route your journey takes you, try and be grateful for the lessons each wrong turning provides and trust that each gargantuan boulder that you have to juggle or struggle with has been sent to you for a reason. Keep believing in your journey. Trust it. You are on it for a reason.       
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Sunday 5 April 2015

With the click of a button. If only!

Happy Easter Sunday. 

I have spent today researching Amazon Kindle Publishing (better known as Amazon KDP)and attempting to complete American tax forms, sorting out bank details to upload and attempting to upload my book to my kindle account. How surreal to see page 1 of my book as a kindle page, as my readers would see it. Thank goodness for previews  though, because the layout of the book was very poor (obviously my lack of experience in data formats and uploading criteria) and so I deleted the book to ensure that it will be a perfect piece of work for my readers but it was a very rewarding experience and a proud moment. I will consult with my allocated worker at Amazon next week to ensure the glitches are ironed out but all going according to plan I would say. 

My illustrator emailed yesterday to let me know that she has already spent 8 hours on my book cover and I am so excited to see her creations. 

I have also formatted the contents page today and created a final page which depicts my own personal message to all women, to affirm the message of the book, which is basically that recovery is possible, no matter how insurmountable you feel your circumstances are. Grit, determination, sweat and tears will all be involved in your journey but you can do it. Absolutely you can. Lets hold each others hands sisters. 

Word of the day: Taxes. 

I hope that the taxes I pay, from the royalties I earn from this book reflect the strength required from me to face the taxing ordeal, when I commenced this journey of recovery.  

I will now use my strengths in the kitchen to prepare lunch with the added rewards of sparkling wine and chocolate! It is after all Easter Sunday. 

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