Recently I've been gathering information for the SC Author Connection to make connections with schools and do various book fairs across the state. With three authors in Charleston and able to pretty much cover the lower region of the state, it is easy to get them scheduled. I'm by myself for now in the upper part of the state and some of the counties that are pretty close to me have many schools (one county has 103 schools) to include primary/elementary, middle and high schools. I'm hoping to recruit some more folks from this area who will be able to take some of the burden off me and help out.
What are the criteria of becoming a member of the SC Author Connection?
1. You must be an author who currently resides in South Carolina.
2. You must be a children's, middle grade or young adult author.
3. You must be able to participate in the books fairs scheduled close to where you are living or that you can easily travel to.
4. You should promote all members' books at any event you participate in representing the SC Author Connection, not just your own.
While doing the book fairs, we authors can also provide a reading, a workshop or something for the students and parents at these schools. While visiting Donna McDine's posting about "Teacher's Guides" on the Writers on the Move blog the other day, one of the comments was from a lady who is in the UK. Paraphrasing her comment, authors are practically discouraged from making school visits. She mentioned the schools with their policing and what not and that visitors to schools are not welcomed. My question is this, knowing that most authors, especially if you are self-pubbed or with a small publishing house, are not going to make a lot of money from their books. So how are authors supposed to eek out a living in the UK if they aren't given the opportunity to do school visits or be brought in as a guest speaker? Here in the USA, most authors supplement their royalties by charging for school visits and other speaking engagements and schools welcome authors with open arms. Usually the media specialist or the PTA will host a guest speaker and they are glad to pay these folks for their time. Grant it, not all schools can afford authors or guest speakers, but there are ways around that.
If you are an author and making mega royalties and are happy with not doing guest speaking engagements or presenting to a body of students or you are making enough on your royalties, I would love to be you for a short bit of time. Most everything I make from sales (I really don't make royalties any more from my sales since I'm now self-pubbed) goes right back into my books, and most of the time, what I do make doesn't cover my costs for the event or whatever, not always but most of the time I end up in the hole. I've not broken even on any event yet.
So how do you compensate yourself as an author in situations like this? How do you turn the minimal royalties you make as an author from just book sales into a living or career? You need the guest speaking engagements to supplement the income and build your career.
Do you do school visits? Do you charge for your school visits? If not, are you making enough from your royalties to make a living as an author? I can't imagine living in a country or place that discourages authors from making school visits. What are you thoughts on the topic?
Showing posts with label Sarah Renee. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sarah Renee. Show all posts
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Paypal Here
A month or so ago, I posted about the Square card reader. I was supposed to do an event in Columbia in February and be able to use my card reader then but I had to cancel doing that event. I did, however, get to use my Square at the SCASL a couple of weeks ago - more or less. I had daughter's phone but we couldn't get the wifi to work on her phone so Sybil put all of us on her phone (we each had to sign in on our own accounts) and she was nice enough to let us use her phone to scan credit cards for purchases. I had one sale via credit card.
This morning I accidentally opened paypal (was trying to go to a different website but clicked on paypal instead) and there on the front page before signing in is a big advertisement for Paypal Here card reader. It isn't available yet but you sign up and as soon as it is available, you will be notified how to acquire your reader and how to download the app. Both are free and they are pretty much in line with Square's fees (2.75% per swipe or 3.75% + 0.15 for manual transactions). The only difference is that it looks like the Paypal Here reader accepts American Express where the Square does not and your funds are transferred immediately into your paypal account. Since I'm upgrading my phone in April (gettin a Samsung Precedent which is android based and will allow me to download apps), I figure it can't hurt to sign up for another card reader. I will have both on my phone for the SC Book Festival in case Sarah doesn't have her tablet by then in order to take credit cards and will let her do the same thing as Sybil did - sign in and swipe the cards to her account. I'll use whichever works for me (if the Paypal Here is available by then). More than likely, the Square will just stay connected to the phone for both of us to use.
I also checked the FAQ on the Paypal Here page and it seems that the device will be available in Canada, Australia and Hong Kong (which several people have complained that the Square was not available to them), so really it sounds like Paypal Here will be available to more people and I hope they will take advantage of signing up so that as soon as the device is available, they will be able to start taking credit cards, especially authors who do live events where they are selling their own books.
I love the convenience of being able to take credit cards now and the quick payout (Square pays out the next day and Paypal Here will pay the same day of transaction). I can't wait to upgrade my phone and not have to borrow my daughter's phone for events now - lol. See you all in the postings - E :)
This morning I accidentally opened paypal (was trying to go to a different website but clicked on paypal instead) and there on the front page before signing in is a big advertisement for Paypal Here card reader. It isn't available yet but you sign up and as soon as it is available, you will be notified how to acquire your reader and how to download the app. Both are free and they are pretty much in line with Square's fees (2.75% per swipe or 3.75% + 0.15 for manual transactions). The only difference is that it looks like the Paypal Here reader accepts American Express where the Square does not and your funds are transferred immediately into your paypal account. Since I'm upgrading my phone in April (gettin a Samsung Precedent which is android based and will allow me to download apps), I figure it can't hurt to sign up for another card reader. I will have both on my phone for the SC Book Festival in case Sarah doesn't have her tablet by then in order to take credit cards and will let her do the same thing as Sybil did - sign in and swipe the cards to her account. I'll use whichever works for me (if the Paypal Here is available by then). More than likely, the Square will just stay connected to the phone for both of us to use.
I also checked the FAQ on the Paypal Here page and it seems that the device will be available in Canada, Australia and Hong Kong (which several people have complained that the Square was not available to them), so really it sounds like Paypal Here will be available to more people and I hope they will take advantage of signing up so that as soon as the device is available, they will be able to start taking credit cards, especially authors who do live events where they are selling their own books.
I love the convenience of being able to take credit cards now and the quick payout (Square pays out the next day and Paypal Here will pay the same day of transaction). I can't wait to upgrade my phone and not have to borrow my daughter's phone for events now - lol. See you all in the postings - E :)
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Guest Sarah Renee
Today's guest is Sarah Renee, a young author who has joined the SC Author Connection for events and such. Sarah Renee not only writes her own books but she illustrates and does some graphic design work too (reminds me of another young person, Heather). She has designed the banner for the SC Author Connection and it is pretty awesome. i can't wait to see it in person. I had a chance to catch up with Sarah Renee and ask her a few questions about her writing and here's what she had to say:
EE: Sarah, tell us a little bit about yourself, your likes, dislikes - who you are.
SR: My name is Sarah Renee, I'm currently fifteen years old, and I am the author of three fantasy adventure books called The Tiger Princess, Dash, and Hunted Home. I currently go to an online school called Connections Academy, and I have two sweet kitties named China and Frost. I am currently working on writing my eighth book in the Saderia Series, editing the fourth book, and learning a few basics about animation to create an animated book trailer for The Tiger Princess.. Some of the things I love the most are tigers, animals, reading, drawing, playing violin, learning new things, and of course, writing! My only real dislikes are bugs and bad weather.
EE: You are a young writer. How old were you when you started writing? What inspired you to write a series? Tell us a little bit about the series you are writing and how many books you plan to publish in the series?
SR: I had been writing for as long as I can remember. I finished my first novel, The Tiger Princess, at age 12 and later published it at age 13. When I came up with the idea for The Tiger Princess, I loved tigers and I had always been interested in royalty, so the two ideas sort of combined. Before I came up with the idea, I had written other stories, but when I began writing The Tiger Princess, I fell in love with the story and the characters. I grew so attached to the story that it motivated me to continue writing the next books in the series to continue Saderia's story and eventually publish it. A mysterious power Saderia learns about in The Tiger Princess also inspired me to continue writing more books in the series to unravel the mystery of her past and her ancestors.
The Saderia Series is a series of middle grade fantasy adventure books. The first book, The Tiger Princess, tells the story of a young tiger Princess named Saderia searching desperately for clues as to what happened to her royal parents, the King and Queen, after they mysteriously disappeared in a fire ten years ago. Living with her aunt and uncle who treat her like a 'prissy Princess' instead of the sassy tomboy she really is, Saderia tries to figure out who started the fire and why. On her path to discover the truth, she is helped by a dark lion named Dastarius that she is hesitant to trust. While she is searching for clues as to who started the fire, she accidentally stumbles onto an ancient secret of her royal ancestors and discovers a mysterious power hidden in her family for ages, one that has the power to change her life forever. The Tiger Princess has a lot of mystery and suspense as she starts finding more clues that build up to finally make her suspect some of the animals that are closest to her.
The second book, Dash, introduces a dark lion named Dash who is hiding a dark secret from Princess Saderia. He meets her when Saderia starts a new school, and although he at first tries to avoid her, they start to form a shaky, secretive friendship. Even though Dash tries to hide his dark past, Saderia starts to realize he might be hiding something from her. At the same time, a dark enemy from their past lurks somewhere inside the school, trying to break them apart. The third book, Hunted Home, describes the journey of a canine named Dingo who lives out in a harsh desert with a cruel pack of dingoes. Hated by his older brother, Bone, and the canines that control the pack, Dingo has to fight to survive. Meanwhile, a new enemy stalks Saderia's forest, making her realize that the only way to survive is to leave the forest forever. When Dingo discovers her lost in the desert, he has to decide which is more important--saving Saderia or his own survival.
The Tiger Princess, Dash, and Hunted Home are the first three books I have out in the series. I currently have seven books in the series written, and I am hoping to release my fourth book, Enchanted Home, sometime around March. I have planned for there to be fifteen books in the Saderia Series.
EE: What's your favorite genre to read? to write?
SR: My favorite genre to read and to write are fantasy adventure books with tons of suspense and a hint of mystery.
EE: What are your writing aspirations? aspirations in general?
SR: My writing aspirations are to finish writing all the books in my series within the next few years and release one book each year. My general aspirations are to eventually go to college and study to become a teacher or a lawyer.
(EE: Very commendable aspirations. keep at it and you will go far.)
EE: What's a typical day in your life like - do you have a set schedule or do you just play it by ear?
SR: I don't usually have a set schedule. I try to write every day for several hours and try to finish a certain amount of pages each day. Sometimes I work on drawing the cover art for my next books or the characters that are in my books or sometimes I take a break and read a book, go out for a bike ride, or play with my cats.
EE: If you could live anywhere, where would you live?
SR: If I could live anywhere, I would probably still choose to live where I am right now, but my second choice would probably be Canada, since my Mom went there a long time ago and really enjoyed it there, and because it snows!"
(EE: I think it's funny that both my guests this week said they would like to live in Canada - for different reasons and that I've got a French-Canadian background in my father and I've not been to Canada that I can remember.)
Sarah Renee, thank you so much for being my guest today and I can't wait to meet you in a couple of weeks.
AUTHOR'S BIO: Sarah Renee has loved writing from an early age. She has been writing short stories since the age of four, and at the age of ten, she came up with the idea for The Tiger Princess. She wrote the novel when she was twelve. She is fascinated with wild animals and the wild world outside her home, and has an obvious great love of tigers. She enjoys spending time with her cats, reading, drawing, and playing her violin when she is not writing. In her free time, she is constantly daydreaming about her many characters, creating new ones, and coming up with interesting adventure story ideas. She is fifteen years old. For more on Sarah Renee, her books and events, visit Sarah's website.
EE: Sarah, tell us a little bit about yourself, your likes, dislikes - who you are.
SR: My name is Sarah Renee, I'm currently fifteen years old, and I am the author of three fantasy adventure books called The Tiger Princess, Dash, and Hunted Home. I currently go to an online school called Connections Academy, and I have two sweet kitties named China and Frost. I am currently working on writing my eighth book in the Saderia Series, editing the fourth book, and learning a few basics about animation to create an animated book trailer for The Tiger Princess.. Some of the things I love the most are tigers, animals, reading, drawing, playing violin, learning new things, and of course, writing! My only real dislikes are bugs and bad weather.
EE: You are a young writer. How old were you when you started writing? What inspired you to write a series? Tell us a little bit about the series you are writing and how many books you plan to publish in the series?
SR: I had been writing for as long as I can remember. I finished my first novel, The Tiger Princess, at age 12 and later published it at age 13. When I came up with the idea for The Tiger Princess, I loved tigers and I had always been interested in royalty, so the two ideas sort of combined. Before I came up with the idea, I had written other stories, but when I began writing The Tiger Princess, I fell in love with the story and the characters. I grew so attached to the story that it motivated me to continue writing the next books in the series to continue Saderia's story and eventually publish it. A mysterious power Saderia learns about in The Tiger Princess also inspired me to continue writing more books in the series to unravel the mystery of her past and her ancestors.
The Saderia Series is a series of middle grade fantasy adventure books. The first book, The Tiger Princess, tells the story of a young tiger Princess named Saderia searching desperately for clues as to what happened to her royal parents, the King and Queen, after they mysteriously disappeared in a fire ten years ago. Living with her aunt and uncle who treat her like a 'prissy Princess' instead of the sassy tomboy she really is, Saderia tries to figure out who started the fire and why. On her path to discover the truth, she is helped by a dark lion named Dastarius that she is hesitant to trust. While she is searching for clues as to who started the fire, she accidentally stumbles onto an ancient secret of her royal ancestors and discovers a mysterious power hidden in her family for ages, one that has the power to change her life forever. The Tiger Princess has a lot of mystery and suspense as she starts finding more clues that build up to finally make her suspect some of the animals that are closest to her.
The second book, Dash, introduces a dark lion named Dash who is hiding a dark secret from Princess Saderia. He meets her when Saderia starts a new school, and although he at first tries to avoid her, they start to form a shaky, secretive friendship. Even though Dash tries to hide his dark past, Saderia starts to realize he might be hiding something from her. At the same time, a dark enemy from their past lurks somewhere inside the school, trying to break them apart. The third book, Hunted Home, describes the journey of a canine named Dingo who lives out in a harsh desert with a cruel pack of dingoes. Hated by his older brother, Bone, and the canines that control the pack, Dingo has to fight to survive. Meanwhile, a new enemy stalks Saderia's forest, making her realize that the only way to survive is to leave the forest forever. When Dingo discovers her lost in the desert, he has to decide which is more important--saving Saderia or his own survival.
The Tiger Princess, Dash, and Hunted Home are the first three books I have out in the series. I currently have seven books in the series written, and I am hoping to release my fourth book, Enchanted Home, sometime around March. I have planned for there to be fifteen books in the Saderia Series.
EE: What's your favorite genre to read? to write?
SR: My favorite genre to read and to write are fantasy adventure books with tons of suspense and a hint of mystery.
EE: What are your writing aspirations? aspirations in general?
SR: My writing aspirations are to finish writing all the books in my series within the next few years and release one book each year. My general aspirations are to eventually go to college and study to become a teacher or a lawyer.
(EE: Very commendable aspirations. keep at it and you will go far.)
EE: What's a typical day in your life like - do you have a set schedule or do you just play it by ear?
SR: I don't usually have a set schedule. I try to write every day for several hours and try to finish a certain amount of pages each day. Sometimes I work on drawing the cover art for my next books or the characters that are in my books or sometimes I take a break and read a book, go out for a bike ride, or play with my cats.
EE: If you could live anywhere, where would you live?
SR: If I could live anywhere, I would probably still choose to live where I am right now, but my second choice would probably be Canada, since my Mom went there a long time ago and really enjoyed it there, and because it snows!"
(EE: I think it's funny that both my guests this week said they would like to live in Canada - for different reasons and that I've got a French-Canadian background in my father and I've not been to Canada that I can remember.)
Sarah Renee, thank you so much for being my guest today and I can't wait to meet you in a couple of weeks.
AUTHOR'S BIO: Sarah Renee has loved writing from an early age. She has been writing short stories since the age of four, and at the age of ten, she came up with the idea for The Tiger Princess. She wrote the novel when she was twelve. She is fascinated with wild animals and the wild world outside her home, and has an obvious great love of tigers. She enjoys spending time with her cats, reading, drawing, and playing her violin when she is not writing. In her free time, she is constantly daydreaming about her many characters, creating new ones, and coming up with interesting adventure story ideas. She is fifteen years old. For more on Sarah Renee, her books and events, visit Sarah's website.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
This and That
Since the KDP reports for the week ending don't show up before I shut down, I'll have to do my this and that report on Sundays - lol. Not that I think it makes much difference to my readers - but just saying.
Anyway, For the week ending 02/25 - I had 3 sales of "Bride-and-Seek" in the USA and 1 sale of the same title in the UK. No other sales to report. Not stellar numbers but at least I have a few trickling in. I'd love to see more but time will tell. I think the biggest thing hurting me is the lack of reviews on my stories overall. So, if you are reading my blog and have downloaded any of my stories and would like to share your review of them, I'd really, really appreciate it.
On the JGDS side of things - the red/white/blue afghan is for all intents and purposes finished save four more rows on the border. I've gotten all the rows sewn together and have put the red border. One row plus 3 squares' worth on a short side for the second row of border took me almost 2 hours last night/early this morning and the remaining second row took me a bit of time but I also was juggling reading emails, answering plurks and whatever.
Work has been kicking my heiney but I think I'm finally back to getting in the groove. I hope.
Not much else new to report except I did start making some new bookworms and am preparing my presentation for the SCASL conference coming up March 14-16. I will presenting at 3:15 on March 15. More on that next week.
I will be featured on Darcia Helle's blog on March 8 and on Susanne Drazic's blog sometime over the next couple of months (reviews of my books).
Tomorrow my guest is Leslie Dubois, 1/3 of the SC Author Connection and Wednesday my guest will be Sarah Renee, another 1/3 of the SC Author Connection. We are sharing the cost of booths at several events over the course of the year including the SCASL conference in a couple of weeks. I can't wait to meet Sarah Renee as she is only 15. Stay tuned to learn more about these young ladies. See ya'll in the postings - E :)
Anyway, For the week ending 02/25 - I had 3 sales of "Bride-and-Seek" in the USA and 1 sale of the same title in the UK. No other sales to report. Not stellar numbers but at least I have a few trickling in. I'd love to see more but time will tell. I think the biggest thing hurting me is the lack of reviews on my stories overall. So, if you are reading my blog and have downloaded any of my stories and would like to share your review of them, I'd really, really appreciate it.
On the JGDS side of things - the red/white/blue afghan is for all intents and purposes finished save four more rows on the border. I've gotten all the rows sewn together and have put the red border. One row plus 3 squares' worth on a short side for the second row of border took me almost 2 hours last night/early this morning and the remaining second row took me a bit of time but I also was juggling reading emails, answering plurks and whatever.
Work has been kicking my heiney but I think I'm finally back to getting in the groove. I hope.
Not much else new to report except I did start making some new bookworms and am preparing my presentation for the SCASL conference coming up March 14-16. I will presenting at 3:15 on March 15. More on that next week.
I will be featured on Darcia Helle's blog on March 8 and on Susanne Drazic's blog sometime over the next couple of months (reviews of my books).
Tomorrow my guest is Leslie Dubois, 1/3 of the SC Author Connection and Wednesday my guest will be Sarah Renee, another 1/3 of the SC Author Connection. We are sharing the cost of booths at several events over the course of the year including the SCASL conference in a couple of weeks. I can't wait to meet Sarah Renee as she is only 15. Stay tuned to learn more about these young ladies. See ya'll in the postings - E :)
Monday, January 30, 2012
SC Author Connection
What, you may ask, is the SC Author Connection? The SC Author Connection is a group of three South Carolina authors who will participate in several events throughout the year.
Members include Sybil Nelson, whom you will meet later this month and Sarah Renee, whom you will also meet later this month. The third member is Elysabeth Eldering, whom you already know a bit since you follow this blog. I had had contact with Sybil prior to YALL fest, which I wanted to do this past year but couldn't due to finances. We had talked some about the SCASL conference and perhaps sharing an exhibitor booth. At the time, neither of us really knew if we could afford to have an exhibitor booth this year. Sybil was a participant in YALL fest in Charleston this past November and then because of me letting her know about Savannah turned around the next weekend and participated there. After she did YALL fest, Sybil emailed me stating that we could go ahead and be an exhibitor at the SCASL, she had found another author to go in with us.
A few emails with info were exchanged with both Sybil and Sarah as well as Heather Loy, the now exhibitor coordinator and the SC Author Connection was born.
The plans for the year are to participate in the SCASL conference, the SC Book Festival, and hopefully Decatur Book Festival, and probably a couple of other big events where we can share tables. We will get a banner through vistaprint and have something that highlights all of us and our books. Stay tuned to find out more about the SC Author Connection. - E :)
Members include Sybil Nelson, whom you will meet later this month and Sarah Renee, whom you will also meet later this month. The third member is Elysabeth Eldering, whom you already know a bit since you follow this blog. I had had contact with Sybil prior to YALL fest, which I wanted to do this past year but couldn't due to finances. We had talked some about the SCASL conference and perhaps sharing an exhibitor booth. At the time, neither of us really knew if we could afford to have an exhibitor booth this year. Sybil was a participant in YALL fest in Charleston this past November and then because of me letting her know about Savannah turned around the next weekend and participated there. After she did YALL fest, Sybil emailed me stating that we could go ahead and be an exhibitor at the SCASL, she had found another author to go in with us.
A few emails with info were exchanged with both Sybil and Sarah as well as Heather Loy, the now exhibitor coordinator and the SC Author Connection was born.
The plans for the year are to participate in the SCASL conference, the SC Book Festival, and hopefully Decatur Book Festival, and probably a couple of other big events where we can share tables. We will get a banner through vistaprint and have something that highlights all of us and our books. Stay tuned to find out more about the SC Author Connection. - E :)
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