This and That

This week's sales have been 0 again, but I am running "The Proposal" free again (yesterday and today). When I checked my report at 10 minutes until 2 this morning, the past 6-weeks' report hadn't gone up but I had 410 downloads in the US (several in the UK, DE and FR) of "The Proposal". Having checked it about an hour or so before that, I had 370 something downloads. So my question is why when I look at amazon's rankings and standing in the free downloads section did it show me ranked at 585 with the 370 something downloads and 16th in the free kindle downloads, humor and dropping me to 598 ranking, still at the 16th spot in the same category when I gained almost 40 downloads. With more downloads, the ranking should be moving toward the top 100 (from 585 to 400 or 300 or whatever) not back up in numbers (higher ranked which is not what an author wants to see).

UPDATE AT 9:30 AM: Total downloads for Saturday were 424 in the US, 46 in the UK, 5 in DE (that is Germany, not Denmark as I had originally thought) and 1 in FR (I hadn't had any downloads in France for my other stories). Still no sales of any of my other stories but when I checked the amazon page for "The Proposal" my three other stories ("The Tulip Kiss", "Bride-and-Seek", and Finally Home) were listed as what customers also bought with "The Proposal", albeit there were no other books listed in that. My ranking went from 598 to 461 and #11 in the kindle store/ebook/humor department. Almost in the top 10. So far this morning, I showed 22 downloads in the US and a few in the UK, DE and possibly 1 in FR (I'll have to go back to check it out later since this report is reflective of the week ending March 31).

Please don't forget that if you have read any of my stories, whether when offered for free or you have purchased them and have completed reading them, reviews are very welcome. Please post them on Amazon, Goodreads, librarything, your blog, wherever you post your reviews and let me know when the review is up so that I can try to drive traffic to your website or blog. I appreciate it very much.

I don't hold any hope of making any sales after the free offering nor do I hold my breath that any of my other stories will show any sales in the days to follow, but one of these days I'll be a known author.

In other news, I have completed another afghan (posting to follow on Monday regarding my new campaign for the afghans) but have misplaced my camera so can't post pictures on the blogs or websites. It is frustrating because the last time I saw the camera was at the SCASL conference.

I'm still looking for some new ideas to post about and am glad to see I've had a couple more folks comment on at least one posting (this past Thursday's had 3 people comment), which means Susanne is not alone and there are two more folks reading my blog sometimes. Now to work on getting more readers or followers who will leave comments. I'm not up to any challenges as suggested by several folks, so maybe I need to give away something.

How about some bookworms. Your choice (all bookworms can be found on my website under the gifts tab and I think I'm up to 8 different colors including the Christmas one. So if you have not already received a bookworm, the first 8 people that comment here will get a bookworm, their choice of color. So leave your comment, suggest a topic to post about, or just leave words of encouragement and don't forget to leave a way to contact you so that I can get your mailing address (email address can be left in the comment in the following format: eeldering (at) gmail (dot) com) to send you your bookworm. See you all in the postings - E :)

A Newbie's Guide to Publishing: Ebook Covers for $150

So Joe Konrath's book cover designer is having a "fire sale" on his generic ebook covers for $150.  Personally, none of the covers jump out at me except I could see #11 as a possible for something.  I don't see paying $150 for an ebook cover that really doesn't jump off the page.  I'll stick with Heather and her wonderful artistic talent in creating new, book specific covers (she has a form you fill out telling her what you would like to see on the cover and what definitely cannot be on the cover along with several other things that help her create a cover that is specific to your book) at the low cost of only $75.  If you would like to see more of Heather's work, you can check out her portfolio over on her website.  Below are the ebook covers she has created for me.

I did a comparison previously of this cover (which I absolutely love and have heard many comments saying the same thing) to the one Karen had done when the story won the Fast and Frigid contest and published the story then.  This one is much better and definitely feels wintery and frigid.

Funny thing about this cover - I loved it when I first saw - I kid you not - I had to go back and read my story and change a couple of lines in the story to fit the cover (this wasn't intention on Heather's part, but I thought the cover was a right fit for the story as soon as I saw it)

This is the latest which I'm happy with but not completely sold on it; this one took us the longest to really get something I wanted so I could publish the story.  I have a feeling this one will get changed over the course of the next month or two or so. 

This is the same cover for my print and ebook and you definitely know from this cover that the house is an important character in the story.

On the very first cover Heather had done for this story, she gave me the attic scene (which is a big turning point in the story) with Kelly looking at the mirror and the woman reflected in it.  I wasn't too keen on the attic but loved the mirror and the woman in it.  Heather came up with the front showing the house (yay and I love the house because it really does make you curious about why she is looking at the house and what is so important about the house) and kept the mirror on the back (which in final print looks like the attic in a way and obviously this isn't my final cover since it doesn't have the blurb or my advanced praises on it).  Needless to say, I love that I got to keep the mirror on the cover somewhere.

Grant it, Heather is young but she is talented and very reasonably priced on all her work.  Go ahead and check out Joe's cover designer's ebook covers and see what kind of response they evoke in you.  Generic looking or jump in your face and make you want to get that ebook? - leave a comment on either blog and let us know - E :)

A Newbie's Guide to Publishing: Ebook Covers for $150

The Proposal - Free today

My second place winning story, "The Proposal" (an April Fools Day story), is free today and tomorrow for the kindle only. You can find the story here. Remember you don't need a kindle to download the stories - all you need is the free app available from Amazon and then you can download the stories.

Also, my stories "Bride-and-Seek" (selected anthology pick) and "The Tulip Kiss" (first place winning story) are available for only 99 cents. So if you haven't already picked up these stories you may enjoy reading a couple of short, paranormal (ghost) romance stories, these are for you.

First draft from heart/rewrites from head

I was watching "Finding Forrester" the other night with Sean Connery (a recluse author). I've seen it before but it's been a long time since I last saw the movie. I missed the beginning so don't remember how Jamal (the black boy) comes to find Forrester (Sean Connery). The scene where they are typing away on those old manual typewriters had a very poignant line in it and so I thought I'd share my thoughts about that.

Sean is just typing away and Jamal (don't remember the actor's name) is kind of sitting at his typewriter really not sure what to do with himself at this point. So Sean goes, "You write your draft from the heart and your rewrites from the head." He also goes on to say your first draft is for getting the words down on paper, and your rewrites are for making it better, stronger (this isn't the direct quote but something similar to what he said).

This is pretty much how I've learned to write my stories, and so this is a philosophy that I do believe in. The object when you first start writing is to get the story down. When you go back through it and read, edit, mark it, et cetera, you make it stronger, you make it correct.

A lot of folks try to edit while they write, which I'm sure works for some folks but in the long run, it will save you a lot of headaches if you don't think about what you are writing and just let the words flow and get them down on paper. When you edit while writing, you tend to spend so much time making it right and every time you change something in one place you end up having to make changes in several places. Personally, I couldn't do that, especially if the story already has a strong hold in my mind and it just needs to be told.

I know some authors who are constantly working on writing the first draft and editing a different manuscript. They have noted that this requires both sides of their brains so it is a break from one to do the other. This is very true as writing the story allows your creative side to come out and play and editing requires you to think and be logical and follow the rules of the language and writing.

My WIP should be almost completely written by now but I have too many unknowns and they require a lot of research before I really can write the story. I'm sure once I have a chance to do some very serious research (I'd love to travel and explore and have first hand experience but that isn't going to happen for a long while, so my research will be online for the time being) and the unknowns are dealt with that the characters will speak to me more strongly and they will tell their story.

So the next time you have a story that is just wanting to get told, remember to draft from your heart (write that story and not worry about the semantics of it) and then rewrite from your head.

Keep writing. See you all in the postings - E :)

Reminders

If you live in the Carolinas or possibly even Georgia (not sure how far the viewing area reaches really), tune in to Channel 7 (or CBC) tomorrow morning for Faye Tollison's, author of To Tell The Truth, TV Debut with Jack Roper on "Your Carolina". I'll be watching and hope you do as well.

Tomorrow, Susanne Drazic will be posting a review of "The Tulip Kiss" on her blog, Putting Words Down on Paper. I'm looking forward to a review on one of my stories. Thank you, Susanne, for posting a review.

Saturday and Sunday, March 31 and April 1, my short story, "The Proposal" will go up for free for kindle only. This will be the only time this story is offered for free and there will be no more free kindle offers for any of the stories unless, of coursee, Amazon does a price match (if I do a free offering elsewhere) in the future. I have decided not to sign back up for the KDP select program, so come May (at least by the middle of May), my stories will be available everywhere again.

See you all in the postings - E :)

Guest Shelley Stout

Today, Shelley Stout, author of Radium Halos, was supposed to be my guest. She has been very busy with work and totally forgot about getting her article to me. I had asked her to write a short article on creating her study guides for her book and the fact that she has developed two different level study guides. She has them geared for 8th and 11th grade. Now I know you are thinking that there isn't much difference between 8th and 11th grade but there is a world of difference in what they cover and how they utilize novels for study. Shelley's study guides are available here if you are interested in using her book during your history class or science class or even art. There are many ways Radium Halos can be used throughout different curricula. Hope you at least get to check it out and I highly recommend reading the book even if you don't use the study guides.

See you all in the postings - E :)

Guest Elizabeth Spann Craig/Riley Adams

Today my guest is Elizabeth Spann Craig (aka Riley Adams). I met Elizabeth when she was a guest speaker at one of our Sisters in Crime meetings. She spoke about her writing career and how she went from being a journalist to writing mystery novels. She is currently working on three different series under both names. I caught up with Elizabeth to ask a few questions and this is what she had to say:

First, Elizabeth, thank you for being my guest today. I really appreciate you taking time out of your very busy schedule for this interview.

EE: How long have you been writing? When did you first realize you wanted to write novels for the masses?

ESC: I knew I wanted to be a writer when I was ten. I wrote like crazy when I was a kid, filling notebook after notebook. Then, when I was an older teen, I started looking at writing from a job standpoint and worried about making a living. That's when I took a detour into journalism. When I started having children, I finally made a decision to return to fiction. I loved creative writing and wanted to share my stories with other people.

EE: What's a typical writing day for you like? Are you most productive in the mornings or late at night? I know you juggle family and other things, so how do you fit your writing in if you don't have a set schedule to write? What do you consider the most time consuming aspect of your writing?

ESC: Right now, I'm getting up at 4:50 a.m. and jumping right into my manuscript as soon as I pour my coffee (about 5 a.m.) I write until 5:30, which usually means I've written several pages. Then I get the kids up and get them ready for school, drive the carpool, etc. I try to write again around 9:15...some days that doesn't happen. I always have a Plan B and frequently that means squeezing writing in when I'm waiting for my children to leave an after-school activity. And I *always* write in the afternoon carpool line outside the high school. I usually get another couple of pages then, at least. I write on the go, at a moment's notice and I'm always looking for scraps of time when I can fit it in.

The most time-consuming part of the writing business is definitely the promo. I spend more time on promo than I do on my writing (unless I'm under a tight deadline.)

EE: Elizabeth, You are writing several different series. You also write under another name. How do you keep the series separated and not get confused which one you are working at the moment and how do you keep Riley Adams from sneaking in as the author when you are not writing on her books? What are the different series you are working on at the moment? How often are your books being published in the series?

ESC: I'll admit that I've gotten a little confused in the past! I've got two books for two different series due by July. What I'm currently doing is writing the second book of the Southern Quilting mystery series...that first draft should be done in the next week. Then I'm planning on letting it sit a day or two while I jump right into the fourth Memphis Barbeque mystery (a Riley Adams book). Then I'll edit the first book and draft the second. That should tap into two different parts of my brain, which will hopefully help me out a little and keep me from being either confused or burned out. I've tried to make the characters in the two series really different from each other to help keep one series from bleeding into the other. Fortunately, my two protagonists are very different from each other, so that helps.

The publishing schedules for my series haven't collided...until now! I had a November 2011 release of the 3rd Memphis Barbeque mystery, and I'll have a June release of the first Southern Quilting mystery, Quilt or Innocence. But next year, it looks as if my fourth Memphis book and my second Southern Quilting book will probably have similar release dates.


EE: What was your inspiration to start writing mysteries?

ESC: I absolutely love mysteries. They're my favorite genre to read, so they were natural for me to write. To me they're almost an interactive experience--I feel as if I'm solving the mystery alongside the sleuth.

EE: Elizabeth, we met at a Sisters in Crime meeting not too long ago. How long have you been involved with Sisters in Crime? What do you enjoy most about being a member of Sisters in Crime?

ESC: I think I've been a SinC member since about 2007ish. I like the comraderie and information that I get from other writers. The SinC newsletter is also a great resource for writers. And I've heard that the Guppies are an incredibly supportive group for writers.

EE: Do you listen to music or other outside noise when you write or do you write in silence?

ESC: If I'm writing at home, I listen to jazz, new age, classical or other non-lyrical music in the background. If I'm out in public, I just tune all the noise out and focus on my manuscript.

EE: Who is your favorite author or who do you think you write most like?

ESC: I have a lot of respect for M.C. Beaton as a modern mystery writer. And Agatha Christie is the writer who made me want to write mysteries. I'd love to write at the level of Anne George...that's my aspiration.

EE: If you could live anywhere in the world, where and why?

ESC: This is going to sound unimaginative, but I'd want to stay right here in the Carolinas. The weather is just about perfect, the people are friendly, the beach and mountains are both easily accessible. I'd just stay put and call myself lucky. :)


Elizabeth, thanks for being a guest on my blog today and I wish much success in this endeavor. E :)

Thanks so much for hosting me today, Elysabeth! It's been a pleasure. :)

Elizabeth’s latest book, Hickory Smoked Homicide, was released November 1. Elizabeth writes the Memphis Barbeque series for Penguin/Berkley (as Riley Adams), the Southern Quilting mysteries (June 2012) for Penguin/NAL, and the Myrtle Clover series for Midnight Ink and independently.

She blogs daily at Mystery Writing is Murder.

Writer's Knowledge Base--the Search Engine for Writers
Twitter: @elizabethscraig

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 and That

Week ending March 24 - no sales. I don't have much to report this week since it's been a slow week. I have had lots of hits on my websites over the last few days - 52 one day on one site; 30 on the same day on the other; 40 something one day on one of them. I keep hoping those are hits from the SCASL and that they will turn into sales or that I'll go to the post office and find some orders there but alas, none so far.

Tomorrow, my guest will be Elizabeth Craig Spann/Riley Adams, author of at least three different mystery series, and Wednesday Shelley Stout, author of Radium Halos will be making an appearance. I think I have something scheduled for Thursday and will resume my normal schedule next week. This cold/cough has been hanging on for almost a month now although it has gotten better and of course now that spring is here, my allergies are acting up. See you all in the postings - E :)

Writers On The Move: Reading is for Life

Come see what Anne's thoughts are on the reading evolution and how it impacts elderly folks.  Chime in with your thoughts on the matter - E :)

Writers On The Move: Reading is for Life: Many studies document the importance of social eating to help combat malnutrition in the elderly, especially those who live alone with few...

Duct tape, anyone?

My daughter is embarking on a new business - making wallets and small items (hair bows, keychains, bracelets, et cetera) out of duct tape. I thought I'd take a minute and highlight her items.

She has an array of colors and decorated looking duct tape (Duck brand has so much to offer in the way of duct tape these days) and she has been busy making up wallets and other sample items that it's so much fun to see what combinations she comes up with next. If you get a chance, stop by her site and check out what she has to offer. Don't forget mother's day and father's day are right around the corner.

Little fact about duct tape: It floats. It doesn't sink and these wallets are secure enough that when immersed in water, the money stays pretty dry. So if you ever drop your wallet in a puddle, you can rest assure that your money will stay pretty dry. And clean up is easy too.

WWYWWQ #8

Today's question comes from A.C. in Ms. Jurkowski's class. A.C. asks: Why do you need to have a book published before you can sell it?

Answer: Now, some of you might think this is a no-brainer - you need a product to sell; something the people want, but honestly, it is a bit more complicated than that. As authors, we have to promote our books long before they are published and sometimes that means "pre-selling" our books. Amazon does it all the time, especially if it is listed as a coming soon title.

The selling of your books is monetary. The promoting of your books goes deeper. You need to have a near finished product to start the promotion process and sometimes we start promoting a year or more in advance. We have to get our covers out there so people will be anxious to get the book when it is finally published; we have to have websites and blogs in place several months to a year before hand so that we can talk about our wips (that's works in progress for you students) and keep the desire up. We want people ready to purchase our books as soon as they are published. Of course, the promotion doesn't stop once the book is published. There are events and other things that go into promoting a book.

Right now, I'm working on a piece (non-YA or children's novel) that I will start promoting probably around September of this year, depending on how my research goes and how the story goes. I have plans to publish it by February of 2013. That may not happen if I don't get my research done and write the story. I hope by October to have a cover to show off and start really promoting the story. I've mentioned it in passing on this blog but haven't really talked about it much. I would love to see more copies of my YA novel sell but again, I've been in a non-promoting mood since December. Since it is now the conference and book festival season, I am back to promoting my state stories and my YA novel, Finally Home.

In essence, A.C., an author is really selling her books before they are published by promoting them up to a year before publication. Sometimes a shorter period of time for promotion happens but usually by time you get a cover, an ARC (advanced reader's copy) and publishing the book, a good bit of time has passed.

Thanks for the thought provoking question, A.C., and ya'll keep on writing and sending in those questions. Mrs. E :)

This and That

I kind of did a this and that posting the other day when I talked about the KDP select program and my report for February. But, today's this and that is about sales and what's coming up.

Sales for the week ending 03/17/2012 - as far as downloads go for kindle, no one purchased anything - no sales across the board. In-person sales at the SCASL is a bit better. Being that this was the SC school librarians, I had anticipated a surge in one particular state book, and I was correct. State of Successes sold 10 copies. None of the other state books sold but I did sell 2 copies of Finally Home. So not a bad couple of days. I would have liked to seen about 10 or 15 more sales but there is always the SC Book Festival coming up. I didn't even sell any of the booklets of the three ebook stories that I had made up and printed just in case the librarians wanted a quick read. Such is life.

I don't have anything scheduled for Monday or Thursday but will have my WWYWWQ on Wednesday. I'll try to figure out something to post since I've not had much to post lately. I'm open to suggestions. If you would like me to talk about something in particular, please leave me a comment and I'll do my best to write a post about it.

I had promoted my interview on Darcia Helle's site a week and a half ago but only had one person come over and leave a comment. This tells me folks aren't really reading my blog too regularly and it is a bit disheartening. I do hope to see some traffic next week when my guest bloggers will be Elizabeth Spann Craig/Riley Adams and Shelley Stout. We will just have to see.

Until next week for my regular this and that column - E :)

Write From the Heart: Purposeful Paragraphing

Faye offers some sound advice on paragraphing your stories - stop on over and leave a comment.


Write From the Heart: Purposeful Paragraphing: Have you ever read a book where the paragraphs seem to go on and on? Or a book with paragraphs so short you look around to see where they di...

Misled and disappointed

I'm talking about the KDP select program and my February report - after looking it over and seeing my royalties (not mind blowing and not enough to even buy a meal anywhere).

The KDP select program allows authors/publishers to reach the prime members (only in the US, those folks who pay the $79/year to get free shipping on all their amazon orders, free streaming videos and one free "borrow" a month (you guessed it - out of hundreds of thousands of ebooks available, they only can borrow one book a month).

This is the first paragraph of the terms and conditions for the KDP select program: KDP Select is an option for KDP publishers. Through KDP Select, for an initial period of 90 days your Digital Book is exclusive to Kindle and is included in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library Program where it will earn a share of a monthly cash fund when readers borrow it. Also, you can promote your Digital Book as free for up to 5 days during these 90 days. Before including your book in KDP Select, please read these terms and conditions carefully.

Now, let's look at it sentence by sentence:

KDP Select is an option for KDP publishers. - yes it is an option and no one says we have to participate in the program.

Through KDP Select, for an initial period of 90 days your Digital Book is exclusive to Kindle and is included in the Kindle Owners' Lending Library Program where it will earn a share of a monthly cash fund when readers borrow it. The lending library is for those folks who pay their $79/year to get a few benefits from Amazon. So I ask you this, why would someone want to only borrow one book a month? Especially when there are hundreds of thousands of ebooks available. What is going to make all those prime members want to borrow a ghostly romance story over say a thriller or a different type of ghost story? After they borrow their one book (and just to let you know when they borrow a book it is for an indefinite amount of time - they don't have to return it like in a regular library where you borrow a book for 2 weeks or 3 weeks (depending on the library's lending time) and can either renew your borrow time or you have to return the book or if you return it late, you are charged a fee on a daily basis), then if they want ebooks do they have to pay for them just like everyone else does? And why is the prime membership only opened to the United States since Amazon has kindle and ebooks available in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the UK? Basically if readers don't borrow your book you make no money other than your regular sales royalties.

Also, you can promote your Digital Book as free for up to 5 days during these 90 days. So if we can promote our book as free for these 5 days and the book is available in the lending library, what happens if a prime member downloads the book during that free ptomotion? We have downloads but we are no longer earning money on those downloads, even if a prime member is the one downloading the book, because when it is offered for free, everyone who has a kindle or a free app that Amazon offers can now download the book. It is not considered a borrow even though those prime members are probably downloading the book. It becomes a sale now.

This to me is the misleading statement. If you are allowed to promote your book as free during this 90-day exclusivity term with Amazon in this particular program, why not pay out on those downloads too? Your book is still in the lending library; you are giving everyone a chance to get your book for free and allowing prime members to be able to download more than one book in a month.

The other part of the disappointment for me is that I've seen many authors who blog about their actual "sales" after their free promotion days and the numbers are running in the hundreds to thousands afterwards. Grant it I have only short stories to offer but even after reaching #7 on the Amazon best selling free list during my free promotion time, I saw maybe 2 or 3 sales. How does an author garner those hundreds of sales after running a story for free?

My stories aren't written poorly and aren't bad stories by any means. And I'm not just bragging on my stories but the merits of winning first, second, third place or runner up and being selected in a very exclusive anthology. If the stories weren't written well or up to the judging persons' or contest persons' standards and/or requirements, they wouldn't have placed anywhere. "The Tulip Kiss" is my first place story. "The Proposal" is a second place winning story. "Bride-and-Seek" was selected (this is a blind selection as the judges only get the stories; they don't know who writes the stories as the editor of the anthology has the cover sheets so it makes the playing field even. There is no chance a judge would select their friends' stories or only the people with whom they are familiar with their writing or their style of writing) and published in the SCWW anthology. By being selected for that anthology, we are paid a small amount for the story, plus 2 copies of the anthology.

So by other people's decisions, I've been told my stories are good and written well. So why are my sales not reflecting the word of mouth advertisement or the places they have taken in various contests? Why did I not really see a difference in pre-free day offerings' sales and post-free day offerings' sales? Did I gain about 350 readers who are anxiously awaiting my next free promotion? Maybe, but if I truly gained those readers, they would have bought my other stories in addition to downloading the free offering at the time, or, on the other hand, they would have told their friends, family, acquaintances, and strangers that I had a short story being offered for free. They would have been my promotion, because we all know that word of mouth is what sells anything - books, movies, restaurants, and the list goes on and on. Person A likes such and such movie and tells Person B and Person C who then tell two people, et cetera. (That reminds me of the old Farrah Fawcett commercial for Breck Shampoo - I told two friends and they told two friends and the image keeps multiplying for the two friends each two friends tells. That is how word of mouth advertising works.)

So how am I to compete with all these people who are bragging about their actual sales after their free offerings? What do I have to do? I've added several titles and more are coming. I know I don't offer novels other than my YA paranormal mystery because I only write short stories. I do well writing short stories. Finally Home was a challenge because at that time I hadn't written anything over 10,000 words and probably nothing over about 8,000 words. I'd only known contests and most contests are looking for under 5,000 word stories, and many are a lot less than that.

I know reviews aren't super reliable but they are a way of expressing your thoughts and feelings about a book or story and they do help garner sales in the long run. The buying public looks to see how many reviews you have and then how the reviewers are ranking the stories. They tend to look at stories that have received 4 and 5 star reviews. My take on the rating system is this - no one in my opinion deserves a 5 star review because no one is perfect. Yes there are some excellent stories out there and yes I do think there are stories that are deserving of 5 star reviews; as a matter of fact, I know one I would definitely rate as a 5 star because it was THAT good. I would love if it the reviews reflected more options - because I've felt that many stories are 4-1/2 star worthy because they aren't quite at the 5 star place; but then again, this is my opinion. I would love to see some of those 350 people who downloaded my two stories ("Bride-and-Seek" and "The Tulip Kiss") post reviews. It may boost my sales or it may not but it's worth a try.

What does all this mean for my stories? Basically in a nutshell - I tried the select program; was disappointed and will move on. Come May when all my stories come out of the select program, they will once again go up all the other avenues available for ebook downloads. Does this mean I may never go back to the select program? Not really, but I'll consider it very carefully before doing it again.

There will be more stories coming out but they will not be exclusive to kindle from here on out. I also have removed the remaining free promotion days for "The Tulip Kiss" and "Bride-and-Seek" but am leaving the free promotion days for "The Proposal", although I'm only going to offer it for free for 2 days instead of the original 3 days mentioned in an earlier post. March 31 and April 1 is when I'll offer "The Proposal" for free. There won't be any more free offerings of the other stories. Until next time, see ya'll in the postings

WWYWWQ #7

Today's question comes from Mr. Hughes' class (I believe from many students, although it was just stated "they" want to know).

Parentheses

The question is when is it okay to use parentheses in writing?

A: Parentheses are used for asides, afterthoughts, series that are not listed down the page (in a paragraph), and a few other places.

This website has some great examples of when to use parenthesis and some very good advice about using them in a numbered or lettered series in a paragraph. Pick one of the examples that best matches your style of writing.

In my transcription job, the dictators are constantly listing series of items and they shouldn't be numbered down the page like this:

1. Whatever.
2. However.
3. Somewhere.

They are in need of staying in the paragraph. I usually type them like this: 1) whatever; 2) however; 3) somewhere.

This doesn't mean that this is the only way to do parentheses or that my way is better than your way, but definitely when listing a series of items you want to be consistent. If you use double parentheses (1), consistently do that throughout.

I can't think of an example right off hand in my writing where I've used parentheses but that doesn't mean I haven't; just that I can't think of somewhere I've done so.

The general rule of thumb is that what's inside the parentheses is basically nonessential "stuff" (yeah, Mr. Hughes' favorite writing word - lol) in the story and basically could be left out and the story would still be the same. I would recommend using them sparingly and try not to sidetrack your reader too often throughout the story. Of course, if you are writing something like historical fiction or using lots of references in your writing, then you will probably need more parentheses. If you want to keep the asides or afterthoughts, commas work just as well as parentheses do. Check out the website and see how many different ways you use parentheses in your writing.

Thanks for the question everyone and keep on writing. See you all in the postings (and for Mr. Hughes' students, I'll chat with you all in class) - Mrs. E :)

100 Years and still going strong

Today was/is Juliette Gordon Lowe's birthday. For those who haven't heard her name, shame on you. She is the founder of Girl Scouts of America. The organization is 100 years old today.

What does Girl Scouts have to do with writing or anything for that matter? A lot. Girl Scouts nuture young girls and allows them to explore so many different options for careers or whatever they want to do.

I also got my sticker this weekend that says "once a girl scout always a girl scout" for filling out a form when I bought some cookies. Love those thin mints.

Since it's cookie season, support your girl scouts, buy a box of cookies and nuture a young lady's future to become the future President or an Astronaut or even a world famous writer.

This and That

i'd love to say it was a killer or stellar sales week with my ebooks but alas I can only report 2 sales of "The Tulip Kiss" this week. The past six weeks have yielded royalties of $4.55 of non-free downloadable stories. That's enough to buy a McDouble, order of fries, a large sweet tea and a sundae at McDonalds. Amazon only pays royalties once you have reached $10 (I think; could be $20) so I still won't see any royalties from these sales until May 1; Thursday evening my February monthly report will go up - showing all my downloads and what my actual royalties earned on those over 600 downloads of "Bride-and-Seek" and "The Tulip Kiss" ended up being since those are figured differently than actual sales.

I received an email this past week inviting us to the new office building for the "The Writer's Plot" (a place where we grow authors; formerly AnAuthorWorld) for an open house party and we were also invited to bring a piece to read if we wanted. As you all know I've been fighting a cold the last couple of weeks and the cough has affected my voice. Nonetheless, I invited Andi (a writer in my town who is blind (blindness due to a blood disorder she has and she lost her sight in a short period of time - less than a month's time)) and she was going to go but at the last minute responded that she better not since she was swamped with school stuff. This is understandable with mid terms coming up and tons of things to read and write about. I also invited Faye to come to the party but then found out the building doesn't have an elevator and Faye would have had no way to get to the second floor (which is where The Writer's Plot is located) since she uses a walker to get around. So with no one to go with me, I invited Anita, a good friend and although she isn't a writer, I knew she would enjoy herself and I would have good company - lol.

So we arrive to the building and mingle with a few folks that I already knew and met a few new folks. We had some excellent refreshments and then started the readings. Since my voice is going by the wayside and I really need to try to save it for my presentation Thursday (thankfully I won't have to talk too much at the SCASL conference as I'm doing a hands on presentation - yeah right, me not talk too much? - that's going to be one for the history books), I decided to be the first reader. I took in the first three pages of Imogene's story to read. Now I've read it out loud, it's in the universe and I have to finish the story sometime. Before going to the party, I called Faye and talked to her a bit and we talked about my story. Brainstorming is mostly what we did - shooting ideas of directions to take Sarah Beth's secret that I recently discovered that she doesn't even know about (yet).

After the party, arriving back to Anita's house, we just sat in the car and talked and brainstormed. Anita really helped give me some ideas that have put a few more pieces in the puzzle and I know have a prologue and have found that the story is no longer just about saving Imogene but it is also about Sarah Beth saving herself.

On the plus side of last night, I did sell a copy of Finally Home and a copy of State of Successes and I had sold a copy of Finally Home to a girl scout yesterday morning when I was out and about town. Overall, a fairly good day for physical sales.

I can't wait to get caught up with work and get some researching done to work on Imogene's and Sarah Beth's story, and I thank Anita and Faye for helping me brainstorm some directions for the story. I'm forever in your debt, ladies.

What's coming up this week: I've readied my WWYWWQ for Wednesday but am running short on topics to post on Mondays and Thursdays. I will try to get my Friday book reviews caught up before heading over to the SCASL conference Wednesday. I'm still open to topics - if anyone has an idea of things they would like me to talk about on the blog or a question they would like answered, just leave a comment and I'll do my best to try to come up with something.

So I'm off to do some work and will report back next week on the happenings in my corner of the world. See you all in the postings - E :)

A Newbie's Guide to Publishing

This is a dissection of Author Guild's President Scott Turow's public announcement concerning the Department of Justice and the big publishing houses getting into a tiff about collusion and other things (I don't understand all the info);  Joe Konrath and Barry Eisler (man has the sexiest eyes I've ever seen in my life) break down the whole posting and make their comments in easy to understand language that really shows what's going on isn't benefitting the authors at all.  It is a bit of a lengthy read but well worth it - so stop over and see what Barry and Joe have to say about what Scott Turow had to say publically. - E :)

A Newbie's Guide to Publishing

Come visit me at Darcia Helle's place

I'm the guest on Darcia Helle's blog today and it was a doozy of an interview - lol. Fun, but some of those questions had me thinking. Click on the title of this posting and stop by and see what kind of probing questions Darcia asked. See you all in the postings - E :)

WWYWWQ #6

Today's question comes from C.Q. from Mrs. Jurkowski's class.

Q; If my story was about Valentine's Day, how should I start it?
A: Although this is a little late for the holiday, but it can go for any holiday themed story. Simple answer: As an author, I can only guide you in the craft of writing. I can't tell you how to specifically start your story.

Longer answer: It is recommended to start your story one of three ways, which was answered on a previous question - start in the middle of the story, start with action. Most of my stories start with dialogue. I drop the reader right into the middle of things. You basically want to give your reader a starting point to develop his or her own images about what the story is about as quickly as possible. Hook your reader.

Think of your story as a movie. When you watch a movie, the screenwriter has picked you up out of your chair and dropped into the action. That's what you should do with your story.

An example of just dropping the reader into the story is in my story Finally Home. My first page is pretty much dialogue. This is how it starts:

"I hate your job. I hate this car." Kelly grumbled in the back seat of the family station wagon. "Why do we even have to go to some stinking town in South Carolina anyway?"

"Kelly, that is no way to talk to your father." Mrs. Watson looked back at Kelly with a pleading look to apologize.

Kelly knew that look all too well, the one where her mother expected ...

From this, you can tell they are moving and are in the car. I've just put the reader right into the middle of it.

For more, please find the WWYWWQ posting that addresses the three ways to start a story. Thanks for your question, C.Q., and ya'll keep them coming - Mrs. E :)

This and That

Today starts "read an ebook week" - so go out and get a copy of your favorite author's books or download someone new and start reading those ebooks or dust off your "TBR" folders. Either way - read an ebook, support your favorite authors.


--------------------

Colds - you gotta love them, right? - Not really. They mess with your head, your breathing and your sleeping. Right now, I'm on the tail end of a cold to which I can say good riddance. I don't like being sick. This has been a rollercoaster week for me as far as being on game or accomplishing anything. One day I feel okay and can sit and concentrate for a few hours and the next I feel okay but can't concentrate on anything since I wasn't able to sleep the night before. The worst part of my cold is that I've never really felt bad enough to not do anything at all, just that in between stage. Last night was the first night in a week that I actually slept in the bed all night for what it's worth (not that it really was a restful sleep or cough-free one either, just that I wasn't pulling my computer chair over to the bed to use like a recliner to sleep sitting up and I didn't have to have a made up inclination of something to prop up on either).

Last night was the annual Anderson County Library's spelling bee and I participated again this year. We were a person down (someone was sicker than I am/was) but we did pretty good considering. We should have gone for a level 3 word right out the gate so we would have ended up in a tie-breaker situation and possibly could have taken the trophy. Our team got two words that I actually knew that the others didn't (thank you work) and one of them they wanted to mulligan (this is a lifeline to throw the word away and get a new one in the same level - the word being oligotrophic) and the other just happened to be something very common in the hand clinic fracture world so that one (comminution) came to me immediately. I've been asked to join the team again next year. So next March, I'll be spelling up a storm. The winning team had 24 points and we had 23 points - very close (if only we had started with a level 3 word, we would have ended with 24 - lol). The other teams weren't too close from there (three teams with 17 and then I don't remember from there on down).

So rollercoaster ride week, let's look at sales this week.

My friend, Faye (author of To Tell The Truth) emailed me Wednesday and said something to the effect that she wasn't doing as well this go round for her free download days. I had totally forgotten that she was offering her book for free the end of the month so didn't promote it as much as I did the first time. After receiving her email, I was curious as to how my sales were going. Imagine my surprise when I opened my reports page and saw that my month-to-date sales showed 78 sales for "The Tulip Kiss". Mind you this wasn't even early morning when I checked the report. I thought surely there was a mistake since I didn't remember scheduling a free day. So naturally, I had to go look at my bookshelf listing and check my scheduled days, and you guessed it, I had scheduled "The Tulip Kiss" for February 29 and March 1.

I did some quick advertising of the free listing and sent out an email but not very much promoting (nothing compared to what I did when "Bride-and-Seek" was first released and offered for free).

This morning, the results look like this:

Week ending 03/03/2012 (there are two sets of numbers for some because some of the downloads are counted on February and the rest on March for accounting purposes).

In the USA: downloads sales
"Bride-and-Seek" 0 1
"The Tulip Kiss" 220 (02/29) 0
89 (03/01)
in the UK:
"The Tulip Kiss" 56 (02/29)
12 (03/01)
In Germany (DE):
"The Tulip Kiss" 2 (02/29)
1

So my calculations show 380 downloads over 2 days of "The Tulip Kiss" and 1 sale of "Bride-and-Seek". This exceeded "Bride-and-Seek" by 20 when it was offered for free. Yay me! lol

My guests this week were Leslie Dubois and Sarah Renee. Leslie stopped by and offered a free ebook to the first ten commenters, of any of her books - what a generous offer. I think she only had five people comment not counting my one comment and hers. So if you visited her posting and missed the comment about a free ebook and haven't contacted Leslie (aka Sybil Nelson) for your free ebook, please do so. Sarah Renee had a few visitors but I didn't see any comments from Sarah herself, so maybe she'll poke in and leave a comment too.

I thought I'd offer free ebooks as well for those who left comments on either of their postings. So if you haven't already downloaded a copy of "The Tulip Kiss" or "The Proposal" and would like a copy, please email with your choice and whether you prefer a nook or kindle version or the PDF file.

There is a lot going on in the next couple of weeks, so I'll try to have my postings up and ready to go. Tomorrow I'll be talking about the Paypal censorship thing going (this will probably be a 2-parter because it is a pretty lengthy discussion); Wednesday will be another set of similar or maybe just one question from Mrs. Jurkowski's class and I'm going to work hard on gettting my Friday book reviews back on track (have a lot of them scheduled already but just haven't written them). Next week will be a whirlwind week as I will be in and out of the office (home), but more on that next Sunday.

See you all in the postings - E :)

Read an E-book Week

Have you read a good ebook lately?

Sunday, March 4, begins read an ebook week. This is the first year I've actually promoted it and participated. I'm offering Finally Home at a 25% discount on smashwords for the week. This promotion will be only available through smashwords, even though the book is available on kindle and nook. If you are taking advantage of the 25% off for Finally Home, you will need to enter REW25 on checking out. Here is the direct link to the page for Finally Home.

So, I'll offer a copy of either "The Proposal" or "The Tulip Kiss" for nook or kindle if you purchase a copy at the regular price for either the nook or kindle. All you have to do is email me (eeldering (at) gmail (dot) com) your receipt as proof of purchase at the $2.99 price and I'll email you your choice. Please make sure you indicate which title you would like to receive when you forward your proof of purchase (only if you purchase from B&N or Amazon).

Happy reading - E :)

Another freebie offering

I totally forgot that I had a free offering of one my stories for Wednesday the 29th and Thursday the 1st of March. So you have until midnight PST March 1st to get your free download of "The Tulip Kiss". This is my first place winning story from the Fast and Frigid contest a few years ago - same title, same story, new cover and only available on kindle.

If you don't have a kindle, it's okay - you can download the free app to your computer or phone or tablet and still download the free stories.

"The Tulip Kiss" is another ghostly romance story, like "Bride-and-Seek" except it's a modern setting and shows what happens a young love is turned upside down.

If you like romantic suspense and didn't get your free copy the first go round, my friend, Faye Tollison, is offering her book To Tell The Truth until midnight PST March 1st as well. Stop over on amazon and download both stories.

(a few stats from today - just checked the reports a little before 1 AM EST and in the USA I've had 251 downloads, in the UK 53 and in Germany (that is DE on our listing and I thought that was Denmark - lol) I've had 2. The UK and DE downloads haven't changed over the course the day (probably since about noon or before), but that's okay. My goal is to get close to our exceed what I did with "Bride-and-Seek" which was 360 downloads over a 2-day period. As you can see from the numbers, I'm pretty close - at 306 right now.

I do ask all of you who have downloaded the story to please post a review somewhere - your blog, amazon, goodreads, anywhere else you can and let me know so I can lead folks to your reviews. Thank you in advance for that - E :)

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.

Guest Leslie Dubois

Today, my guest is Leslie Dubois. I first met Leslie under her other name, Sybil Nelson, via email. I met Sybil/Leslie at the Savannah Children's Book Festival in November. I caught up with Leslie in her busy life and asked her a few questions.

Leslie, thanks for being on my blog today. I must say I've really enjoyed your books so far (both as Sybil and Leslie and still have a few to read). I also apologize as I owe you a couple of book reviews (they are semi-drafted but not completed and I will work hard to get them completed and posted by the end of the week). I love the twists you put in your YA novels. Here are the questions I asked Leslie and her responses:

EE: Leslie, tell us a little bit about yourself, your likes, dislikes - who you are.
LD: Well, I’m a hard working mother of two who is also married and working on her PhD. I’m a mathematician but I also love to read and write and do so at every given opportunity. I also love Pop music which my husband finds completely embarrassing. But hey, listening to Pop music actually helps me write!

(EE: If your husband finds pop music embarrassing, what does he listen to? And I guess it's a good thing he tolerates you listening to whatever it is that helps you write because you are putting out some pretty awesome stories.)

EE: What's your favorite genre to read? to write?
LD: I’m a sucker for historical fiction. For some reason, I love reading about people from other centuries. My favorite genre to write, however, is Young Adult Romance. I think we can all remember a crush we had when we were teenagers and how it was the most important thing in the world and how it was so passionate. I think that kind of raw emotion is so beautiful. But I never write simple love stories. There is always some sort of twist in my books.

(EE: You hit that nail on the head - twists abound and I think that is what really keeps a reader interested.)

EE: What are your writing aspirations? aspirations in general?
LD: I’m hoping to be able to be a full time writer one day and be able to support myself and my family simply on royalties. That would be a dream come true. On a slightly higher scale of goals, I hope to become famous enough to be able to go on Dancing with the Stars!

EE: What's a typical day in your life like - do you have a set schedule or do you just play it by ear?
LD: I don’t have a set schedule outside of my class schedule, but I am a definite list maker. The first thing I do every day is make my To-Do list. Then I spend the rest of the day trying to scratch things off. Sadly, some days I end up scratching one thing off and adding two more. If I have a day where I get more than half the things on the list done, I consider it a success.

EE: You write under different names. How do you keep your identities separate and how do you manage to write totally different genres?
LD: Because I use different names for completely different genres, it’s pretty easy to keep them separate. I know immediately when I have an idea for a book whether it is going to be a Leslie or a Sybil book.

EE: How do you keep straight what you are working on at any given moment?
LD: Once again, I can tell by the voice of the characters and the subject matter whether it is a Leslie book or a Sybil book. I never get confused in that regard. The hard part is actually finding time to write down all the ideas I have for stories!

EE: What inspires you to write semi controversial stories as Leslie and fun, middle grade stories as Sybil?
LD: I wanted to keep my identities separate for just that reason. I didn’t want young middle school aged kids reading about topics that were above them. I use my pen name, Leslie, as a way to be a bit more edgy and take more chances than my Sybil brand name can do. I don’t think I set out to write controversial topics, I think the ideas just come to me and I can’t help but write it the way the characters want it. Several times I’ve wanted to change certain things in my book to make them more “acceptable” but it just didn’t feel right.

EE: If you could live anywhere, where would you live?
LD: Oddly enough, Canada. I have a slight obsession with that country. Especially Vancouver and Victoria. We’ve been there on vacation twice and I think it would be a great place to live.

(EE: Funny thing is my father's family is from Canada but in my life, I've never even visited the area. My father, of course, has been back several times, and my oldest son has even traveled with my parents to Maine (where my dad's family makes their home now) and to Canada but I have yet to go there; it's too cold for me - lol.)


Again, Leslie, thank you for being on my blog today and happy writing.

Leslie makes her home in Charleston, SC, along with her husband and two small children. She is also working on her PhD in biostatistics.

Leslie can be found on the following pages:

her website
her facebook page
her twitter page
her Amazon author page

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 :)

Crocheted bookworms pattern

I posted the pictures of the latest colors on my plurk network which also goes to my FB page and my twitter account. I've had two comments on my FB page requesting the pattern to make these. Although I cannot take credit for this pattern and for the life of me cannot find it online, I'll just give you the instructions that I've memorized (after doing well over 100 or more of these cuties, I definitely have no need to use a pattern). This is a very easy and quick to make up pattern. There are only two stitches used (if you don't count the slip knot to start and the finish off stitch) and can be done in solid colors and varigated yarns. I love doing the varigated colors because it pretty much guarantees that no two worms come out the same.

SUPPLIES NEEDED:
Scrap yarn or if you are making a bunch for gifts - a 5 ounce skein will yield about 15 worms and 7 ounce skein will probably yield about 20 worms.
Hook (sized to your yarn - I use a G hook for mine)
Wiggly eyes

STITCHES USED:
Slip stitch
Chain
Double crochet (DC)

WHAT TO DO:
Chain 20.
2 DC in the 4th chain from hook
3 DC in each chain to the end.
Chain as many as you want the marker part to be (sized to the books you are using them for) and add 15 more chains.
2 DC in the 4th chain from the hook
3 DC in the next 9 chains.
Finish off.

Glue some wiggly eyes on the "head" part which is the bigger of the two twisty parts. Let dry and use to mark your place when reading.

Have fun with them - make them with whatever scrap yarn you have lying around or use varigated yarns to make some fun and unique worms.

E :)

New bookworm colors

As promised, here are the pictures of the new bookworm colors. They will go up on my websites soon but for now, the revealing of "Earthworm", "Cotton Candy" and Easter or spring bookworms:

The bookworms are $1.50 each plus shipping and if you order in bulk (20 or more, the cost is $1.25 each) - I'm trying to build up my cache so will be getting more yarn every trip to town, just to make sure I have a large collection of bookworms for in-person events and to sell on the websites. Thanks - E :)

BIGGER THAN THE BIBLE

Another witness to how well someone did by listing their book for free in the KDP select. It amazes me that I had very few downloads and still ended up in the top 20 by the end of the two free days I offered "Bride-and-Seek" for free. I just hope the momentum will pick up and folks will start downloading my stories - E :)

BIGGER THAN THE BIBLE

Shopping and New items

Yesterday was payday along with taxes coming back. I took the kids shopping for clothes. Daughter did well getting what she needed - 3 jean capris, 4 tops, a pair of shoes, socks, underwear; son not so well in my opinion since he spent $60 on shoes which he probably could have gotten for half the cost at Walmart, 2 pair of jeans, a jacket that he needed and it was a great price (Old Navy - was originally priced at $90 and marked down to $22 - so that is his only sound purchase of the day), a pack of V-necked T-shirts. Me I did okay - got a pair of shoes that were on sale but because I bought daughter's shoes and they were running a BOGO50$ sale in the store, I got my tennis shoes for half off the sale price; I know that sounds petty but for a pair of Keds originally markd at $35, down to $25, and then to get them for $12.50 in the end - I'm a happy camper. I did pick up a top at Ross's and two nightgowns. The things I didn't get included some pants and more tops but they will have to wait as I spent way too much on other things.

What I did pick up at Walmart, and color me sticker shocked, was some new yarn for bookworms to sell at my events. Why sticker shocked? just a month and a half ago, the yarn was $2.33/skein and yesterday it was $2.58/skein (yeah, I know that's only a 25 cent increase but it was still shocking but I guess everything is going up relative to the price of gas/gallon). If I had about $20 I would have bought a bunch of the Christmas yarn for the end of this year since that was a popular item in November. Maybe in a week or so I can run in there and pick up several skeins to have on hand for the next season.

One of the colors I did pick up was what I already make what I call my "autumn" bookworms because that color scheme did very well. One of the others I'd been looking at for a whle and been thinking of getting is called "Monet" and it's very Easter-y or maybe this will be my new "spring" one. I did pick up two more skeins (four in total) of yarn - one called "bonbon print" and it could be a "spring" color scheme as well except it reminds me of cotton candy sort of - so not sure what I'll call that one. The last one, I think, is going to be one of my new favorites. The skein coloring is called "woodsy", so it's a lot of browns, tans and earthy colors. That bookworm is being "earthworm" - lol. I did one of each of the three new colors last night and went to take pictures of them (without their eyes right now) and my camera battery was dead, so the pictures will have to wait until I get my camera charged up (and by that time, the worms will all have their eyes - lol).

I'm running out of topics to write about, so I'm now turning this back into a family blog - lol (not really - just in that kind of mood today). If you all have any suggestions of things you'd like me to post about, please don't hesitate to leave a comment -

Update on Imogene: I wrote about 2 pages on the story Sunday - set the timer and all - and had a line or two that I really liked: People were always telling Jacob he could Imogene's twin, and they could as they had similar features - the dark hair, the Asian complexion, the eyes, and they shared more than just the same parents. They also shared the same date of birth seven years apart.

Does it give you an idea of what the story is about? Not really. Does it come into play later in the story? Maybe. Imogene went missing at the age of 5 while her family was vacationing in Asia. It is now 10 years later, the approaching 15th birthday; the few months before passports for children were individualized, and her mother, Sarah Beth is making the final quest to find her daughter to bring her home. A lot can happen in ten years and a lot did happen to Imogene, which I hope to bring out in the story as it develops. After writing what little I did Sunday afternoon, I told my editor that this story may be written piecemeal and pieced together to make it a novel (or at least novella length) as I have all these disjointed scenes floating around in my head that I know I need to sit down and write but there are no flowing ideas to move the story from point A to point B. Mini sections that somehow have to have some filler to make it a story.

What about my readers out there? Have you ever written a story in a disjointed manner (one scene/section at a time) and then tried to piece the story together in an orderly fashion? Let me know - it will be interesting to compare notes - E :)

WWYWWQ #5

Today's question comes from Mr. Hughes' student, L.M.

Question: Mrs. E, is it okay to make up words in your story?
(explained that her characters are calling other characters names and they were like combinations of words or jumbled words).

Answer: Absolutely. This is your story and you can make up words, especially if you are writing sci-fi or fantasy.

But be careful not to overload your story with made up words as your reader will get frustrated and stop reading because they can't pronounce the words in their head. So, yes do make up words for your story but limit the amount of made up words you are using.

In one of my stories, I didn't make up words but have used some foreign phrases (I know, not the same as making up words) since my story is set in France, but my readers shouldn't have a problem figuring out what the meaning of the phrases are based on content and they are pretty common phrases - Je'taime (I love you) and things like terms of endearment, Mon Cherie, ma cherie and a few other fitting phrases in the story.

Thanks for the question, L.M. and keep on writing - Mrs. E ;)

Writers On The Move: Designing Customized Facebook Fan Pages Webinar

The next Writers on the Move workshop - I can't attend but if any of my readers are interested, please sign up. See you all in the postings - E :)

Writers On The Move: Designing Customized Facebook Fan Pages Webinar: Writers on the Move took a workshop break in February, but we have a great webinar scheduled for March 12th. Due to popular demand, Maggie B...

What to do with your books (if not self-published and are part of your package)

Previously, I talked about a chapter from the "Self Publishing Checklist" book that I had requested just for ending up on website which had an ad for the book as a freebie.

Obviously, this book is geared toward folks who use Bookstand Publishing as their publisher. In the paperwork that was included with the book, the cost to self publish includes 48 copies of your book. So there is a chapter titled "Promoting Your Book What Do I Do with 48 Books?" and so I thought I would share what they recommend doing with these books as a followup on the marketing plan postings.

For me, I don't have 48 books lying around to use for promotion but that is my choice. I order books when I can to keep on hand for any upcoming events. The most I've had of any one title at a time was 50 but technically there were some copies already sold from that 50 and I had to purchase those from my publisher at a very high cost to me. I'm trying to keep about 15 to 25 of each title on hand at any given time which all depends on the events coming up and the title itself. I don't have any of my Passport Across America book on hand but will probably order a few for the SCASL coming in March, just to have a few available. I will only keep 5 or less of this title on hand. "Train of Clues" will be used as a giveaway and what I read from at school visits and other events where a reading is required. The JGDS state books and Finally Home are slowly building to have a nice supply available. What I do, when I can, is order 5 or so copies of several titles at once.

So if I weren't paying for my 48 copies of books (okay, yes I'd have paid for those copies on the publishing end by way of whatever the cost of the package was) and needed ways to promote my books, this is what "The Self Publishing Checklist" suggests:

15 copies - for family and friends in exchange for reviews

13 copies - to send out for reviews to various places
(bookreview.com, midwestbookreview.com, lightwordreviews.com and oncewritten.com; local newspapers w/press release, targeted magazines with press release; targeted websites with press release)

5 copies - distribution to local bookstores or gift shops (on a consignment basis)

15 copies - for sales at signings or speaking engagements

I've not sent books to the review sites and this may be my next project, after the fact of course - since the books are already published and have sold a few copies.


Personally, I'd rather my family and friends purchase a copy and when the expense of book promotion is all on your shoulders, you tend to be very picky about who gets free copies, because either way you have to pay for those copies some how.

Hope you all have many reviews on your books and that in turn is bringing the sales to you. Keep on writing and see you all in the postings. Until next time - E :)

This and That

It's Saturday night again and I'm making my reports. Figured I needed to get this posting up before we lose power as my internet is flaking in and out.

You saw my 1st day KDP select posting - by the end of the 48 hours, I had a total of 361 downloads, which included 52 from the UK and 1 from Denmark as well as 1 sale of "The Proposal" in the USA.

Since the freebies have gone back to regular price, I have picked up 2 or 3 sales of "Bride-and-Seek" and no other sales.

I think I had 2 sales already of "Bride-and-Seek" so I had been subtracting those from the total numbers. I'll know for sure next week when i can check the prior 6-weeks sales.

Last night I posted on when my other stories will go up for free. The only story I'm not putting in the KDP program, but it is still available on kindle, is Finally Home. If sales pick up throughout the year on the kindle for that story, I may consider putting it in the program when I'm about to release my next novel, Imogene: Innocense Lost.

I've also been thinking about the titles of my stories and wondering if the titles have anything to do with the lack of sales. I can't really say it is the covers because I really do think my covers are pretty awesome and that Heather does a great job. So I'll put it out there to my readers, and please leave a comment here so I know you are actually reading my blog, do you think my titles are appropriate to the story? If not, what would you title "The Proposal", "The Tulip Kiss" and "Bride-and-Seek" or even Finally Home?

I try to find appropriate titles for all my stories and usually don't even write my stories to titles. Case in point, Imogene's story is taking shape and the title keeps tumbling around like it's not the right one and who knows, when I'm through writing it and start the editing process, the title may change. I'll leave that up to my editor to decide whether or not it should be left as is or changed, although at this point, I'm not really sure what new title I could give it. I'm not even sure I can give a brief description of the story yet. This will all take place as the story develops.

I think that is everything I have to report - internet is flakng due to weather so I'll sign off for now and see you all lin the postings - E :)