M.J. Fredrick's Blog, page 65
April 28, 2011
Elated
Okay, so the picture doesn't show it, but I am elated! Testing is over for the year. 5th grade has 3 more testing days, science today, and later in May for the kids who didn't pass the first time, but my kids are DONE. This means I can teach MY WAY the rest of the year—centers and reading a novel and maybe a few lessons outside on the covered patio. 25 days where I don't have to worry about showing strategies or proving answers, or "This is the way it will look on the test." No, we can play games and do art and writ reports (I know, that's not as much fun for them, but it's GOOD for them) and once we get later into May, we'll play kickball every day (VERY good for their rapport.) I was so happy when the kids were taking their last test, I was practically dancing, thinking of how much fun the rest of the year will be. The remainder of the school year is almost not long enough!
Raylan and Winona
An hour until tonight's Justified and I'm watching the episode from 2 weeks ago. It's interesting to see the fissures in Raylan and Winona's relationship, the cracks that probably shattered it six years ago. I like Raylan with Winona, don't get me wrong. I think they have great chemistry and I'm a sucker for reunion romances. You have to wonder how people overcome being hurt by someone, only to turn back to that someone. In this case, Winona left Raylan for Gary, the man she's currently divorcing. But she's done some selfish stuff this season, putting Raylan's career at risk, which doesn't matter much to her because she never liked his job. I can kind of see her point—he was gone a lot, and he's in danger a lot, but she knew he was a marshal when she married him. They deal with each other in an interesting way, kind of humorous, but kind of cold, I guess, like when she tells him she hates smelling him on her all day, when she doesn't mean it, or when she tells him sometimes she never wants to see him again, and there are no other times.
I wonder how the events of last week will play in their relationship. His ties to Kentucky are fewer and fewer. Can't wait to see.
April 24, 2011
Goals for the Week of Testing
Yep, it's that time of year again. Two days of testing for my kids, a day of keeping them quiet while 5th grade tests. Also our first full week in three weeks. Must…survive.
1) Easter celebration today
2) Cram for the test tomorrow
3) Testing without losing my mind for 2 days. Keep class quiet without losing my mind on Thursday. Spend Friday doing art and watching a movie.
4) Do my best to finish the honky tonk story. I want to spend May working on the second Bluestone book.
5) SPN Sisters blog
6) Keep up house.
Oh, forgot–look what I found in Bandera when Fred took me yesterday. $9, so of course I bought it!
April 20, 2011
Winner of Trish's book
Sylissa!!! Email me at mfechter @ gmail dot com and tell me if you'd like it from Barnes and Noble or Amazon, and include your email address so I can send it!
My son bought me the first season of Deadwood! The bad–I had just ordered it for myself. Now I'm going to have to surreptitiously return my copy.
Also, Amazon had Justified's first season for $15 so I bought it for my dad. Just 15 more hours until a new episode!
April 19, 2011
My Steps to Self-Publishing by Trish Milburn
Since I announced that I was going to try my hand at self-publishing one of my books that had never (sniff, sniff) found a home, lots of people have been asking me how I went about doing it. Well, first thing was to do my research, just like I've done for every other new step I've taken in my career. I didn't just leap in when people first started talking about it. I waited and watched the conversations, learning from what other authors had done right and what they hadn't. I read online discussions, blogs and Zoe Winters' book Becoming an Indie Author, taking copious notes along the way.
Once I made the decision to make the leap, I picked a book that had missed its chance a few years ago because the line I was targeting it toward ceased to exist. But I still felt like it was a strong story that could find an audience. Even though I'd read it a million times, I went back through it with a fine-toothed comb, making sure I'd done everything I could to make sure it was a clean, strong story. After thinking about it a good bit, I decided to change the title to something I thought was more appropriate and commercial. Thus, the book became known as Living in Color because one of the characters has lived a life devoid of happiness and exposure to the wider world – color – and her journey toward creating a new life rich with a variety of colors.
I also started researching cover artists because I knew that was one thing I couldn't do myself. I'm a firm believer in having a strong, professional-looking cover. It is, after all, what gives potential readers their first impression of my book. I didn't want it to look any different from a cover designed by a big New York publishing house. If I was going to self-publish a book, I wanted to take every step in a professional way to give the book the best shot at success.
Once the manuscript and cover were ready, I read through all of the pages related to the self-publishing programs on the Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords sites, including the terms of service (aka those things you often click "yes" to and never read). I wanted to make sure there was nothing I was overlooking that would make this a bad step.
After all of that was done, I set aside an entire Saturday for formatting the book for online distribution. I printed out the Smashwords Style Guide, which I'd read was very useful for formatting for e-publishing. That way I could have it at the ready as I went through my manuscript. It did take me all day to do the formatting and uploading, but I'm hopeful that I've undertaken the hardest part of the learning curve and if I decide to do this again, it'll be easier next time. On that Saturday, I managed to get the book formatted and uploaded to Smashwords and Amazon. I also copyrighted the book with the U.S. Copyright Office at http://www.copyright.gov/ — using the Electronic Copyright Office link, and bought ISBNs from Bowker at https://www.myidentifiers.com/ (they are cheaper per ISBN the more you buy, so I bought more than one). As for the latter, I think once I use up the ISBNs that I have, I will just buy them one at a time through Smashwords because they're cheaper and you don't need an ISBN for Amazon or B&N. You really just need them to get into some of the outlets through which Smashwords distributes, like Apple. By the time I did all this, I was way tired and waited to upload to B&N until Sunday. That didn't take very long at all, so then it was just waiting until the book cleared through the three systems and went on sale. Now I just try not to compulsively check my sales at each site. J
Though I know some authors have decided to go all self-published, that is not my intent. It's just one prong of a multi-pronged business plan. I love writing for Harlequin and love my editor, so I plan to keep writing romances for them. That's big company publishing. I'm in the midst of signing a contract with a small publisher for a paranormal young adult series. That's small press publishing. I keep adding to my journalism credits by doing freelance writing and editing. That's the nonfiction side of things. So, the self-publishing is just another basket of eggs for a gal who doesn't like having all of her business eggs in one basket. J
Living in Color is now available for download at the following outlets:
Amazon.com for Kindle:
http://astore.amazon.com/trismilb-20/detail/B004W0CMX2
Barnesandnoble.com for Nook:
Smashwords.com for Apple devices, Kobo, Sony eReader, etc.:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/52633
April 18, 2011
Out of My Hands
First, today is Kelly Boyce's release day! Her first book, The Outlaw Bride, is out today from Carina Press!
Second, tomorrow Trish Milburn will be here talking about the road to self-publishing her AWESOME novel, Living in Color. It will be very informative, and you will go buy the book and read it in honor of Mother's Day. 'Kay? Also, I'll give away a copy (either from Amazon or B&N) to one commenter!
Lately I've noticed a HUGE jump in the sales of Hot Shot on Amazon. Like, 4 times the sales of last month, more than this year to date, more than my other titles combined. I couldn't figure it out. It's 3 years old, and I couldn't find new reviews for it, but I've been selling several copies a day. I tweeted about it, and my editor tweeted back and said an excerpt of Hot Shot is included in the Linda Winfree book that's been free on Amazon this month. Ohhh. Also, COOL!
Also, I got a lovely royalty check from Samhain because of print copies of Breaking Daylight that went out to actual stores.
But. I did a HUGE promo push for Road Signs. I've done giveaways and blog tours and Facebook contests and Twitter contests. But when I've seen the biggest bump in sales has been with something out of my control, like a review at a big review site, or a publisher choice. OTOH, if I do no promo, that book slips through the cracks, like poor Don't Look Back. It came out the same week as Sunrise. I hedged my bets with Sunrise and DLB has suffered. Too bad, because it's a good book.
So what's the balance? I think you have to have word-of-mouth, that's the most important thing. But how do you get it going?
April 17, 2011
Goals for the Week of my BIRTHDAY!
I am a complete princess for my birthday. Last year at school they even made me wear a crown. I celebrate for as long as I can. Today, we're having the family party. I just finished making cake balls (OMG–NEVER again) and am about to make a dawn run to Wal-Mart.
I submitted the revisions on Midnight Sun, so keep your fingers crossed!
1) Birthday party here, today. Need to make potato casserole and clean the bathroom.
2) Last day of tutoring Tuesday
3) Faculty meeting Wednesday
4) Work on revisions on contracted short story (30 more pages!)
5) Work on Honky Tonk story
6) Grocery store/library/bank
Not too bad–and another short week at school! Then only 5 more after that, can you believe it?
April 16, 2011
Decisions
I have some decisions to make these days and I'm not so good at those, you know. Last night I had three different tabs open to different products on Amazon and I just couldn't decide.
One was for attachments for the vacuum cleaner designed for cat hair. I have chenille couches and 5 cats. I need something. This product had good reviews, but….
One was for the first season of Deadwood, used, $20. Reasonable, right? And I've been wanting to rewatch it. Couldn't click.
Another was for a new skin for my phone. The original case I had cracked, the one my son bought me is too thick, so I have to remove the case every time to plug it into the car. I have one picked out. It's $6. Can I click? No.
Oh, and then the new Nora. It's $15 in ebook, which I will not pay. But it's only $17 in audiobook. Tempted, but did not click.
Then I saw a recumbent exercise bike at Academy for a reasonable price. My son broke my last exercise bike, which is fine because it hurt my back, leaning forward like that. So I though, recumbent. Have I gone to get it? No.
Do you have trouble making decisions? Or are you more impulsive?
April 14, 2011
Happy Endings
Last week when the kids were testing I picked up Little Town on the Prairie from my bookshelf and started rereading it. I'd forgotten how much I love those books. I brought it home and finished reading it and the next day checked out These Happy Golden Years (I thought I owned it, but couldn't find it.) I read it in a day, and when I was done, I googled Almanzo Wilder. What I read made me sad, because then I remembered The First Four Years, how much trouble they had at the beginning of their marriage. I decided that even though I have that book, I don't want to reread. They had their happy ending, I don't want to read about reality, you know?
When Natalie and I did our hero month, we featured a couple of guys who were heroes after the HEA, like Coach Eric Taylor and Adam Braverman. But in my reading, I prefer to stop at the happy ending and let my imagination take over. What about you?
April 13, 2011
Stylish Blogger Award!
Marianne awarded me a stylish blogger award! Thanks, Marianne!
The rules for accepting this award are:
1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you the award.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Pass the award on.
Trying to think of 7 things y'all don't already know about me!
1) I love paranormal shows and movies, but not books so much. NO idea why.
2) I love wearing sandals. I wear them as late into the fall as I can, and start wearing them as soon as I can in the spring. My toes don't like to be confined 
3) I have not finished writing one project in 2011. This distresses me.
4) I love to wear bright colors. Turquoises, pinks, purples–the louder the better.
5) I am not a detail person. This has been brought home to me while watching Trish go through the self-publishing process. I would have to be REALLY motivated to go through that.
6) When I was little, I had a pony, a cow, AND a goat. Was spoiled.
7) I have as many DVDs as books. Clearly I live in fear of not being entertained!
Okay, go visit
