Monday, July 15, 2019

Writing, Publishing and Promotion (plus some irradiated lemurs!)

Books have three phases.

Phase One: Writing.
The writing phase consists of research, outlining (unless you are a panster) and the actual hinnie- in-the-chair, stop procrastinating and write.

Phase Two: Publishing.
If you are going the traditional route or small press route you now need to produce a query letter that shines. For trad, your letter will go to agents. For small press or E pub, your query letter will go directly to the publisher/editor. Once your letter is accepted, you’ll either be asked for sample chapters or the entire manuscript. If your work is a good fit for the publisher, you’ll be offered a contract. After your work has found a home, you will be involved in two to three rounds of edits. If you are an Indie author you will need to edit/proof, get your work beta read, edit/proof again and buy a cover. Then you format your book and publish.
Now you kick back and wait for the royalties to come pouring in. Ha. Ha. Just checking to make sure you are still reading.

Phase Three: Promotion.
This actually starts before publication and continues for at least the first month after publication. Whether you have published trad, small press or indie, the author still needs to market if he/she wants a shot at his/her book being successful. There are several venues: Twitter, Facebook, newsletters, blog tours, contests/giveaways, and preorders.

Once the three phases are finished, give yourself a little break (or a long one) and celebrate.

Now go back to Phase One and write your next book.


Ben Evers is a drifter that never stays in one place too long, always hankering to see what’s over the next horizon. His traveling companion—an eagle. He lives by two rules. Mind his own business and always treat women with respect. The first rule stands him in good stead until he meets former Texas Ranger John T. McAllen and his niece Kate Landon. The two are drawing him into their lives and Ben knows from personal experience no good ever comes from getting involved in other folks’ trouble. John T. and his neighbor are caught up in a feud over land and Clary’s daughter. When danger strikes, swift and hard, Ben has a decision to make. Turn his back and ride away from people he’s grown to care about or break his rule of minding his own business, and stay and fight.

*Warning. Content contains six-guns, hand-tooled boots, strong women and an eagle.
 
Preorder ThunderTree here
 
About Sandra:
Sandra is a vegetarian, animal lover and avid gardener. She lives with her husband, their dog and several cats in sunny North Carolina.
Besides western and western romance, Sandra also writes time-travel, paranormal and regency romance, young adult fantasy and non-fiction. She is a category bestselling Amazon author, Eppie finalist and Golden Ankh Award winner. ThunderTree is her first book written as S. Cox.

She can be found at: Twitter / Amazon / blog


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The Insecure Writer’s Support Group is seeking an admin to help run the site and group.

Must be active member of either the blog hop or Facebook.

If you are interested, please send an email.

Email - admin @ insecurewriterssupportgroup.com



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And the irradiated lemurs are back!


Dancing Lemur Press will be at Raleigh Galaxycon (formerly Supercon) July 25-28 at the Raleigh Convention Center.

We’ll also be at Greenville Comic Con on August 3 at the Greenville Convention Center

Stop by the booth to register to win free print, eBook, and audio books.

In addition to our titles, we are selling original art prints (Black Panther, Firefly, Richard Dean Anderson, and more), anime stickers, and magazines.

We’ll be posting cosplayers on our Instagram, so don’t miss all the fun costumes.

And remember – irradiated lemurs will bite!



Are you familiar with the three phases of books? Will we see you at either con? I’ll be busy for those two weeks, so not around much. But I’ll be one happy camper when I meet Wil Wheaton at Galaxycon. (I won the meet & greet package!)

Wednesday, July 03, 2019

#IWSG Posting, Anthology, and Free Books

It’s time for another edition of The Insecure Writer’s Support Group, founded by Ninja Captain, Alex J. Cavanaugh.

Today’s question:
What personal traits have you written into your character(s)?

Quite a few! I’ve always said writing my series, The Circle of Friends, was therapeutic. I dealt with a lot of issues and there were personality traits from me in every single character.

Lori got my positive optimism. Sarah got my insecurities. And it goes on and on. (If you’ve read any of the books, I’ll let you guess what part of me is in each character.)

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The IWSG anthology contest is open for two more months.

The genre is middle grade historical – adventure/fantasy.

For those who are confused by the genre:

Middle grade – suitable for 9 – 14 year-old children.

Historical – it must have historical aspects and be set in a time before 2000 or earlier. It just needs to be set in the past.

Adventure/fantasy – the subgenre can be either adventure OR fantasy. The fantasy genre is acceptable as there are many ancient cultures and times that believed in supernatural occurrences.

If you need examples, Dancing Lemur Press’ next release is a MG historical-adventure - Stone Man, and while not historical per se, Bubba and Squirt’s Big Dig to China has a ton of historical fantasy in it with its Chinese history mixed with the ghost of an emperor.

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BUY ONE BOOK – GET ONE FREE

Buy any print title and get an inspirational print book free. Buy two, get two books free!

Buy any eBook and get another comparable eBook free. Buy two and get two free!

Must purchase print and eBooks directly from Dancing Lemur Press. Bookmarks and other swag will be included in shipment. Free book is our choice.

Books must be purchased July 3rd, 4th, or 5th 2019.

USA orders only.

Visit Dancing Lemur Press and place your order this week!