Wearing the publishing hat!
After I finished my first book, someone told me about a contest sponsored by Harlequin. I entered and was amazed at the sheer number of other entries, because basically, anything anyone submits in the English language qualifies. Since this covers writers located in England, Canada, South Africa, Australia, etc. in addition to the USA, that makes for a lot of competition. To enter I was supposed to submit a first chapter, so I went to a friend who taught college English and asked her tell me what she thought of the mine. I was surprised at her critique; she pointed out that while she liked it, she found herself wanting to correct the grammar in the dialog, then realized not everyone spoke proper grammar. That gave me a lot to think about! To make a long story short, I didn’t place in the contest and eventually decided to publish on my own, which meant figuring out how. If you are an independent author you have to wear a lot of hats, and publisher is just one of them.
Finding the perfect partner, right on my own doorstep!
I come from a generation that doesn’t always co-exist with computers easily. With an actual publishing house, that wouldn’t have been an issue since I could have written the books and sent them in, end of involvement short of necessary revisions. As an indy author, this was a major problem.
When she was growing up, my daughter and I had the usual struggles and, although we have always shared a deep love, some days we didn’t like each other very well. In the end she turned out to be a strong woman, and since I consider myself to be strong as well, imagine my shock and eventual pleasure to find that she and I would become the perfect team in publishing my books. When writing, she acts as my editor. She has no problem marking a sentence, a paragraph or even a page in red and putting a note in the margin; “Mom, this doesn’t work,” or “You have already covered this subject on page number __.” Next, I decide on a book cover and she turns into the graphic designer who makes it work. Her final step is to clean up the manuscript, making sure all the chapters and paragraphs line up so that it can be uploaded to the printer. She also plays a essential part in making the web page you are now reading work. These are things I could never do by myself!
‘Run For Your Life!’ free in e-book format…
I didn’t think about writing a sequel to ‘Run For Your Life!’ but ideas just kept coming to me. For one thing, Steve and Leah kept wanting to finish their story and Jeff Randall was just too evil to fade away. Darrin, who appeared in the first book as the pampered and spoiled younger brother, grew up and also had a story to tell so, ‘Fight For Your Life!’ came to life. If you haven’t read “Run For Your Life!” then you could certainly read ‘Fight For Your Life!’ without buying the first book as it stands on it’s own. I do think that anyone who likes the story line would enjoy reading it from the very beginning however. While I can’t afford to send everyone a free book to make that easier, I will be dropping the price on the e-book version of ‘Run For Your Life!’ so that over the next few weeks you can download the electronic version for free. ‘Fight For Your Life!’ will be released on August 5th at most, if not all of the major retailers. If you are a person who likes to have the actual book in your hands, then you can order the paperback version of ‘Fight For Your Life!’ as soon as it becomes available.
“Thank You!”
I want to thank all of you who have read ‘Run For Your Life!’ I love hearing your thoughts on the book and I especially like hearing that you are looking forward to ‘Fight For Your Life!’ I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Happy reading, Linda
I have noticed that with self-publishing it’s easier than ever to get a book published. There are several sites who will work with you to print the book, as well as setup and sell your work in the e-book format, but the author is expected to do their own marketing. Needless to say, it’s harder to get it in front of the public. In my section of Arkansas and Oklahoma there are a growing number of self-published authors, of which I am one. Seeing a need for local representation, I recently contacted the editor of the regional newspaper to propose a column featuring our area’s authors and was excited as well as a bit shocked when he approved my idea. Beginning the 18th of July, I will be doing a twice monthly column entitled “The Book Nook” for the