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My Book Friends

June 15, 2021 by Rebecca Forster in category The Write Life by Rebecca Forster, Writing tagged as #writing, a writers job, amwriting, Best Loved Books, event, readers

This week I had lunch with two of my oldest writing buddies – the ever fabulous Mindy Neff and equally fabulous Sandy Chvostal. I met them soon after publishing my first book. Over the years I have truly come to treasure my book friends. In fact, I think the world should be run by book friends and here is why:

1) Book friends are inclusive. I have never been asked how old I am, what my heritage is, what my political party is, what my religion is. What I have been asked is,’what have you read/written lately?’ Instant friends!

2) Book friends are creative. We share not only a love of reading, but a love of creating. I’ve met sewers, quilter, carpenters, crafters, and chefs. I wonder if we love creating things because we need to move around after spending so much time reading, or do we read because we’re exhausted from our hobbies?

3) Book friends are endlessly curious. If they weren’t, they wouldn’t read, or review, ask questions about what they’ve read, or waxed poetic about it. I love being asked, “have you read (fill in the blank)” because I know the conversation is going to be interesting.

4) Book friends are generous. Time with a book is time we treasure, but reader friends will put down their book to come to another friend’s aid. Period. No questions asked.

5) Book friends are open. All of us have preferred genres, but we like to try something new. I’m a thriller lover yet there are historical fiction books I’ll never forget, nonfiction works I love, even action/adventure novels that have kept me up late into the night.

So it was no surprise that when I received an invitation from a group of authors to join their Facebook reader’s group, My Book Friends, I did. The authors are fun, smart, and generous. They primarily write women’s fiction and romance, but welcome my gritty thrillers. The members of My Book Friends are creative, curious, and inclusive.

The bottom line is this: no one can have too many books or too many book friends. That’s something we can all count on.

You’re Invited June 16, 4-5PM Pacific: Cocktails, Cops & Conversation . Help me celebrate my birthday and Detective Finn O’Brien’s fourth birthday as we talk about my latest release INTIMATE RELATIONS.

Join My Book Friends.

Read INTIMATE RELATIONS FREE at KindleUnlimited; 99¢ to buy

The Finn O’Brien Thriller Series

(Click on the cover for more information. Hover over the cover for buy links.)

SEVERED RELATIONS

FOREIGN RELATIONS

SECRET RELATIONS

INTIMATE RELATIONS

DISTANT RELATIONS

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To Deadline Hell and Back or How I’m coping finishing my next Occupied Paris novel by Jina Bacarr

June 11, 2021 by Jina Bacarr in category Jina’s Book Chat, Writing tagged as deadline; research, holocaust; books, Paris, world war 2; editing, writing

I had every intention of writing a lovely post this month about all the cool stuff going on with my WW 2 Occupied Paris novel, The Resistance Girl. Honest I did.

Then the research on my next book shot the pants off that idea.

My deadline is right around the corner.

My book is written… mostly. Some bugs to work out. Re-read, check it over… you know the drill.

The research is overwhelming… so much so, I’ve got to cut this shorter than I like. I’m writing another book about Occupied Paris, but this time my heroine finds herself in a concentration camp. Two of them actually… emotionally, I’m drained. Mentally I’m exhausted.

My heart… broken.

I will never, never be able to understand why it happened, the horror, injustice, humiliation done to the victims of the Holocaust. But I’m determined to tell a story about a brave young woman who had a baby in a camp… and she survived. But she never knew what happened to her baby… until years later.

I’ve watched a million survivor videos… read so many books about the Holocaust… checked and double checked the timelines of the camps and what happened there down to what they ate, where the railroad tracks ended at camp, the blocks or barracks map… and I still have questions. I want to make it right.

No, I’ve got to make it right.

I owe to the those who died and those who survived.

So forgive me if I’m emotional this month.

Because.

We must never forget…

——————-

You can listen to The Resistance Girl on Spotify

Or search for Jina Bacarr and my ‘artiste’ page will pop up.

Amazon Links:

US https://amzn.to/3woj1Am

UK https://amzn.to/3bU18Qv

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TMI? I Don’t Think So by Kitty Bucholtz

June 9, 2021 by Kitty Bucholtz in category It's Worth It by Kitty Bucholtz, Writing tagged as #BookBuzz, creativity and the brain, encouragement, finish your book, pitching to agents and editors, Write Now Workshop Podcast

I’m always teasing my husband that I’d be Dr. Kitty at least once by now if I could go to school as much as I want…which is almost always. Hahaha! I love learning! I know the Internet is full of information — too much information to not get sucked into procrastination mode if you’re not careful — but focused learning is important. It’s good for your brain, and it’s good for your career.

There have been so many great topics on my podcast in the last month that I wanted to let you know so you don’t miss something that could be really helpful for you! As much as I’d love for you to subscribe and listen to every episode (!), be careful not to use “learning” as a way not to act, whether it’s writing or editing or submitting or marketing or any of the many other things we writers must do with our time. But in case you missed something that could help you where you’re at right now, here are links on YouTube to the latest episodes. You can also find them on your favorite podcast app or on the Episodes page of my website.

Episode 247 is an interview with agent Cynthia Ruchti, Are You Ready for a Literary Agent?

Episode 248 is from me asking the question, What Will It Take to Finish Your Book?

Episode 249 is a great discussion between me and writing coach, Ann Kroeker, about How to Find the Right Coach.

Episode 250 (woohoo!! 250 episodes!!) is an interview with author Jody Hedlund on Building Book Buzz.

Episode 251 is one of my Encouraging Words episodes, 5 minutes of encouragement to relax and say, This Isn’t Working For Me, when you feel things are going in a direction you’re not comfortable with.

And tomorrow’s episode, #252, will be super interesting in terms of the mind-body connection when I talk with autistic biohacker Jackie McMillan, Are Creativity and Lymphatic Movement Linked?

If you’re interested in learning more about what I do as a writing coach, you can visit the coaching page on my website, https://www.writenowworkshop.com/writingcoach/. Feel free to reach out with any questions. I love to help! And if you’re thinking of self-publishing, download my free Self-Publish Your Book Checklist, a fillable PDF that will help you organize all the information you need in order to self-publish your book.

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A Frog by any other name… from the Irish Poetess’s Typewriter by Jina Bacarr

May 11, 2021 by Jina Bacarr in category Jina’s Book Chat, Writing tagged as fairy tale, historical, historical fiction, historical romance, poem, prince, World War 2

I’ve been writing humorous poetry since I was a wee girl at me Irish grandmother’s knee… she’d chuckle and get on with baking her apple sugar pies and then winding her blue rosary around her gnarled fingers, praying, ‘What’s the lass going to come to with these ditties?’

I write.

Novels, mostly historicals these days and I’m finishing up a second Paris WW 2 novel while pulling all-nighters… I needed a break, so here’s a lighthearted poem about everyone’s favorite frog from this Irish Poetess.

Put the kettle on and Enjoy!

Jina

——————–

The art of writing fairy tales

is a joy I claim.

But frog or toad, what’s in a name?

’Tis a prince I seek at the end of my tale

And that happily ever after, but to no avail

Ah, but yes have I the power of the pen

So with my snappy keystrokes Poof! I say.

He’s here. Amen!

————

Here the first in my Occupied Paris series:

The Resistance Girl

Juliana discovers her grandmamma was a famous French film star in Occupied Paris

And the shocking secret her mother never told her…

5* ‘… a beautiful and poignant historic fiction that left me in tears’ Jessica F NetGalley

US https://amzn.to/33Jc9km

UK https://amzn.to/3bU18Qv

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Release Month…What Happened?

May 5, 2021 by Tracy Reed in category Writing

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers.

I just finished the first release month for The Good Girl Part Trois. That statement brings to mind a good question…how long is the new release period for a book? I haven’t got a clue. I saw some blogs hinted at one to three months. Here’s the thing, depending on the supplemental formats of your book, your new release period can last a few months.

Check out this timeline:
eBook Pre-order: 30+ days
eBook Release Day: 1 day
eBook Release Month: 30 days
Paperback Release Period: 30 days
Audio Release Period: 30 days
Hardcover Release Period: 30 days

If you used this proposed plan, your new release would last 5+ months. This seems like a long time and it doesn’t count the amount of time required to write the book.

Here’s what I mean. If I’m focused, I can write a book in a month. Then add in another week for a couple rounds of edits before sending it to my editor. While waiting to get my book back, I deal with the other aspects…cover design, social graphics, ads and setting up a launch strategy. Those things can add another month to the timeline. Don’t forget edit review. When you combine those tasks with the release schedule, you will have been with your book almost a year. In your mind, your book is no longer new, because you’ve moved on to the next book.

How did it go? I had a forty percent increase over the first month. Let me clarify the first month was only a couple of days, thirty day pre-order and a couple of free giveaway events.

What were the results of my efforts?

Ads…

BookBub…not too good. This is unusual for me to admit, I gave up. I tried four different ads and none worked for book three. However, they did well for the other two books in the series, but I attribute that to those books being free.

Facebook…good. I haven’t done a thorough assessment, but it appears the ads are paying for themselves. Again, the ad I’m running (I turned off the ones that weren’t producing) is doing well, but I’m about to tweak the copy to reflect that only one book is free.

AMS…I turned them off the second half of the month. Risky move, but it saved me money. I picked up sales from the Facebook ads.

Newsletter…I really don’t remember how these did.

Promotions…

These did exactly what I wanted. The free giveaways led to pre-orders and sales of book three. Plus I added 1000+ new additions to my mailing list.

Reviews…

This one really pleased me. Reviews help drive sales of a series. I had a few reviews on the first two books in The Good Girl series and was going to book a spot with a review service. However, I waited too late to get reviews before my release. Upside as a result of the free promo I got about the same number of reviews I was going to pay for. Plus I got reviews for my new release. Here are the review numbers for the series as of this post.

The Good Girl Part One 47
The Good Girl Part Deux 28
The Good Girl Part Trois 12

If I’d booked a review service I was going to have to give the first two books away as well. By participating in two free giveaways, I got more than I asked for. I was in the number one spot in a couple of categories on several of the Amazon stores for quite a while.

If I had gone with the service, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to get eyes on me. Making the books free for a month across all platform, helped me get noticed and sell some backlist books.

So where am I in the release timeline? I’m still pushing the ebook and prepping for the print book release. I just received my print proofs from Ingram Spark. OMG!!! I have found my print book soulmate. I love the way these books turned out. I have a couple of things to fix which were my fault. I’ll talk about my experience with Ingram later. I also used the Vellum print book tool. I really liked the template I was using…thank you Kitty Bucholtz, but I was so overwhelmed with work, I needed a quick fix. I’ll share about my experience with this tool later.

The other thing I’ve decided to do, is make The Good Girl Part One permafree. I want to see how the series does with book one free and pushed with Facebook ads.

Happy May. See you next month.

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