Mary Sage Nguyen's Blog, page 6
August 12, 2015
LIVE author interviews, what it could do for you!
Dear readers,
On my journey to get exposure for my books. I encountered a wondrous website www.artistfirst.com
You can get a LIVE hour long author interview with them for a very small donation amount. How to do this? I am gonna tell you exactly how to get your LIVE interview and my amazing experience with author first and Tony Kay.
Keep in mind this is for published authors. You have to have a published piece of work for sale! Self-published authors are welcome and encouraged to do interview with authors first.
Getting the interview:
Step 1: Go to this link http://www.artistfirst.com/authorswanted.htm
Step 2: Read the description.
Step 3: You can choose to call the station or email them. I chose to email them. email: booking@artistfirst.com and phone number 330-823-2264.
Step 4: Wait until you receive an email response. Screenshot below is an example of what email looks like.
Step 4: Respond back, and tell them what time you are available. Also make a donation, and include a screenshot of donation in the email. Optional to include screenshot… Also make note if you donate online, you must make a minimum donation of $10 dollars. You can always send them a check in any amount.
Step 5: They will follow up with a confirmation email.
Step 6: Wait until the interview day, check http://www.artistfirst.com/ schedule. Your name should be on the schedule that day.
Interview:
Step 1: The interviewer will call you five minutes before interview. My interviewer happened to be Tony Kay! He is a very nice man, and has a good sense of humor.
Step 2: Be yourself, talk about your books, talk about everything, and anything. It was my first time doing the interview, I feel like I was choppy and rolled off topic a lot. Overall it was a great experience! The interviewer will ask you about everything posted on your website. Including books, your about author page. Be prepared! The interviewer will stroke your ego…. Which is a huge plus!
I hope you have as much fun with your LIVE interview as I did. It was well worth the donation, and time. Your interview will be archived on their website forever. This is most fulfilling publicity I have done for myself and books. I am very ecstatic with the results. You could also choose to do follow up (more) interviews. I will do another one with the release of The Malevolent Twin’s Retribution. I can’t wait!
Thanks for reading,
Sincerely,
Mary Sage Nguyen
Author of
Entertaining readers, one book at a time!
www.marysagenguyen.com
July 28, 2015
Outlining your book
Dear readers,
Ywriter5 is a great tool to use for outlining you book. I used if my book. The reason it is great is, because you can write down character profiles, locations, and etc. You can add an enormous amount of detail to the characters, chapters, and locations. When you write your manuscript, you can always refer back to Ywriter5 for the information on your book. Best part? It is digital! This means, you don’t waste paper, and avoid clutter at the same time.
You can download it here. http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter5.html
I posted a screenshot below, not my own. I got it off Google images. Easy lay out of character profiles, chapters, locations, and so forth. I highly recommend you use this impressive invention.
Thanks for reading,
Mary Sage Nguyen
Author of
Entertaining readers, one book at a time!
www.marysagenguyen.com
July 21, 2015
A comprehensive inspection of my blog tour
Dear Readers,
I recently finished my first blog tour. First and foremost, I bought the month long tour. Which happens to be the most expensive package. It was fun, and I got exposure. Which is what the company promised. I did not generate any sales except one ebook which was deeply discounted at $0.99. If you do a blog tour, don’t offer your book for review. Focus on author interviews, spotlight, excerpts, and so on. Best advice, I can give you. I appreciate of the bloggers who participated in my blog tour. This isn’t a criticism, but information for other authors.
The tour company was very responsive at the beginning. Once, my blog tour started, I sent them some new material. I never got emails back responding to my new material. They did however, send all the new materials to the bloggers.
The first week, I got scathing reviews. Moving on, some of the bloggers will post it on goodreads, or amazon. Important you take note of this, as it could affect future sales. Now, this can work in your favor. If the review is positive. Don’t give away your book for free. Like everything in life. You get the good, the bad, and downright ugly. If the blogger wants to read your book, they can buy it. At least then you are compensated. Just focus on the author interviews, spotlight, excerpts, and etc.
One problem, I encountered on my blog tour was late postings. I had one blogger who posted my book information, and interview a day late. Nothing wrong with this, I appreciated it, and was glad she posted it all. The last day of my blog tour, I had a blogger who didn’t post any of my book’s information on their blog at all. I don’t know what happened. I tried contacting her, no response. I am not gonna even email my blog tour company, because they don’t respond.
These are the problems, I encountered with my tour. I would like to know if any other authors who had a successful blog tour. (An author who received killer royalties from the blog tour, enough to match, what they paid for.) Please comment below, if you did.
Thanks for reading,
Mary Sage Nguyen
Author of
Entertaining readers, one book at a time!
www.marysagenguyen.com
July 16, 2015
Making your audiobook, into a cd or (alot of cds)!
Dear readers,
So you made an audiobook with ACX? Do you own the rights to your audiobook? (If you paid the narrator, and didn’t split the royalties 50/50. You are the ideal candidate for this). As you may know, I recently made an audiobook. I wanted to make my audiobook into a cd, for the convenience of listening to it in the car, and so forth.
Step 1: Go to ACX, login and download all credits, and chapters.
Step 2: Locate files in downloads folder on your computer and placed all of them in the music folder. For organizational purposes, make a new folder with your title name and put the files in new folder.
Step 3: Buy blank cds from your local target or walmart.
Note: Look at the minutes on the front of the cd pack. My cd pack had 80 minutes on one blank disk. I had to burn 4 cds for my one audiobook. You can find out how long your audiobook is on the ACX dashboard.
Step 4: Put your blank CD in DVD drive of your device (computer, or laptop)
Step 5: Start windows media player, located the chapters, and credits of your audiobook.
Step 6: Move the files over to the burn list.
Step 7: Click burn on Windows Media Player, and wait.
Step 8: Take CD out and label.
Warning: Do not do this, if you do not own the rights to the audiobook! If you opted for a 50/50 split on the royalties. Ask your narrator’s permission, to burn the cd audiobook.
Thanks for reading,
Mary Sage Nguyen
Author of
Entertaining readers, one book at a time!
www.marysagenguyen.com
July 14, 2015
Converting your book into a mobi file.
Dear Readers,
I am going to show you an easy way to get your book converted into a mobi file.
Step 1: Log into your smashwords account at www.smashwords.com
Step 2: Go to your author dashboard
Step 3: Pick the title you want to convert to a mobi file.
Step 4: Click on title and download full version of book as mobi file. Refer to screenshot.
Step 5: Log onto kindle direct publishing and publish your book using mobi file, you downloaded from smashwords. https://kdp.amazon.com/
You will save yourself time, and money doing it this way. Smashwords ebook formatting is cheaper than kindle mobi file formatting from what I observed.
Thank you for reading,
Mary Sage Nguyen
Author of
Entertaining readers, one book at a time!
www.marysagenguyen.com
June 24, 2015
How to make a children’s picture book.
Dear Readers,
I have always wanted to make a children’s picture book. I have been stifled because my lack of artistic talent. With a picture book, it isn’t your words, that appeal to the readers. It is your illustrations. My artist is Raina Ram, I found her on fiverr.com.
Do it yourself the old fashioned way!
Step 1: Anywho, if you are a swell artist you could paint your own children’s book on a blank canvas.
Step 2: Take pictures of it natural light (outside during a sunny day).
Step 3: After get on photoshop, and adjust the image so it meets your POD publisher’s specifications.
Step 4: Watch this video for more information on this DIY the old fashioned way. https://youtu.be/ZgTkK18EfG4
Do it the digital way!
Note: You could also use adobe illustrator. I have attempted to use this but as I said before my artistic skill lead much to be desired. I highly suggest you look up tutorials on youtube for adobe illustrator, if you plan on approaching it with this path.
As for my path, it makes it easier if you outline what you want for the illustrator, you hire for the children’s book project.
Step 1: Make a title page
Step 2: Add copyright page
Step 3: Add synopsis, character descriptions, and the dimensions of your book with the bleed.
Step 4: Start the outline using this format Page 1, Illustration, and text on page. The Illustration is where you describe your depiction of what should be on that page. Text on page is your dialogue, and story. Take a look at my screenshots, and you will see what I am talking about. Don’t forget to add a illustration you like from a children’s book already published. This way your illustrator knows the style you like.
So now you know there are many ways of going about and making a children’s picture book. You can do it yourself or hire someone to do it for you. Be on your guard on fiverr.com. One artist wanted to charge me $800 dollars for my children’s picture book. Needless to say way out of my budget. I also wanted to add you should do some research o what kids like. Here is a good list, I found. http://taralazar.com/2007/11/04/199-things-that-kids-like/
Sincerely,
Mary Sage Nguyen
Author of
Entertaining readers, one book at a time!
www.marysagenguyen.com
June 17, 2015
Fiverr
Dear Readers,
I stumbled upon the most amazing website ever! 
Disclaimer: fiverr.com owns logo
For $5 dollars you can get anything done! For emerging authors, you can have a book trailer created, get a book cover made, get a promotional 3d book trailer, and numerous other things. I got a minion logo video done for $5 dollars. You can view it at this link
Go to Fiverr now, and explore all the wonderful services you can receive for just $5 dollars! They even have IT services! You could get a custom HTML code for $5 dollars or someone could make you a website for $5! I always make sure they have a high rating, and a good number of reviews before I book a gig!
Checkout my fiverr gigs at this link
https://www.fiverr.com/marypearls
Thanks for reading,
Mary Sage Nguyen
Author of
Entertaining readers, one book at a time!
www.marysagenguyen.com
June 12, 2015
Can you sell your self published book at half price books?
Dear readers,
I was very curious and anxious to see if half price books would buy my book. I satisfied my curiosity today. I walked in and sold a few of my college books, along with my two copies of my book The Malevolent Twin. So if you are wondering if you can sell your createspace book to half price book stores. You certainly can! I did sell my only ingramspark copy as well. Sad :( Well, at least I can say I have two copies of The Malevolent Twin, in the half price books. Located at 11255 Huebner Rd. San Antonio, Texas 78230. The guy who I solf it said the cover was very cool. This made me pretty happy!
Sincerely,
Mary Sage Nguyen
Author of
Entertaining readers, one book at a time!
www.marysagenguyen.com
Entertaining readers, one book at a time!
www.marysagenguyen.com
June 9, 2015
Overlooked advice for aspiring novelists!
Dear readers,
I recently started reading The Everything Guide to Writing your First Novel by Hallie Ephron again.
I stumbled upon something I skimmed over before. This is good writing advice from Hallie Ephron, that I believe every aspiring novelist should know.
The Ten Reasons You Should Write a Novel (Ephron, Hallie The Everything Guide to Writing your First Novel. 2011, Adams Media)
1. You have a story you’re bursting to tell.
2. You love reading novels, and want to try your hand at writing one.
3. You have a passion, and you love to write.
4. You’ve experienced something and you want to communicate it with others.
5. The story you want to tell is too long and complex to fit into a short story format.
6. You want the satisfaction of knowing you complete a manuscript.
7. You want to try your hand in getting a novel published.
8. You’re looking for a career that will last a lifetime.
9. Your looking for a career that can travel with you, no matter where you go.
10. You want to see if you can experience some fame, fortune, and prestige that successful novelist enjoy.
Good advice from Hallie Ephron The Everything Guide to Writing Your First Novel. I hope this helps you on your adventure to become an author!
Thanks for reading,
Mary Sage Nguyen
Author of
Entertaining readers, one book at a time!
www.marysagenguyen.com
June 8, 2015
Making an audiobook!
Dear readers,
I have just started to venture into the world of audiobooks. I am currently using www.acx.com
Disclaimer: Acx owns logo.
It is real simple and easy to use.
Step 1: go to their website. www.acx.com
Step 2: sign up by using your amazon login and password.
Step 3: type in the title of your book. It should pop up if it is in the amazon database.
Step 4: Acx with give you an estimated time length on your book based on word count. Start an audition for your audiobook. Start looking for producers.
Word count EST Length Finding a producer
Step 5: Found the narrator, you’d like to produce your audiobook? Send them a contract/ offer. Acx sets up the contract for you. All you have to do it pick dates for the first fifteen minutes to be completed by, and for the full audiobook to be complete by. Also pick if your splitting the royalties 50/50 or paying the narrator by hour.
Note: exclusive, and non- exclusive. I chose exclusive because the higher royalty rate. Once, my audiobook is produced. I did some research on this, and some authors choose the non-exclusive so they can control the pricing via cdbaby. www.cdbaby.com
Acx controls the pricing on audiobooks you produce and distribute with them.
Step 6: Once, they accept your offer. Start communicating with your narrator. Upload your manuscript, and etc.
Step 7: I uploaded my narrator’s audition through youtube. Free marketing as I see it. I asked my narrator’s permission first. Always do so, just in case.
Listen here at https://youtu.be/e42TH4QBuhw
Step 8: You need an audiobook cover! With me this was easy, I sent a request to www.ebooklaunch.com and my graphic designer made my audiobook cover for me. Request one from your graphic designer, or do it yourself. Here is a list of the requirements.
Requirements Cover Art My audiobook cover
Step 9: Wait for your producer/narrator to upload the full version of your audiobook. From there you approve or work out the kinks with your narrator.
Step 10: Start selling your audiobook through amazon, audible, and itunes (if you opted for exclusive). If not give cdbaby a shot. www.cdbaby.com
Now you know the basics of making an audiobook!
Don’t forget to join me on my blog tour. Schedule posted! Click on the banner below!
Thanks for reading,
Mary Sage Nguyen
Author of
Entertaining readers, one book at a time!
www.marysagenguyen.com
