Denae Christine's Blog, page 5

Bookstores

If you check out the lovely new links on the right of the home page, you’ll notice several stores whereRoyal Deception is now available. Well, Amazon sort of counts as a store. For the others, I basically “sold” the books on consignment. When they sell, I get either at 60% or 70%, and the store asks for more copies. If, however, the books donot sell in 6 months or a year, the stores contact me to return the books. I plan on expanding to a fewmore local-ish bookstores in the next several month...

Promoting stage 1

Tomorrow I get to go back to school! School, work, same thing. Anyway, what have I been doing with the last few days of summer vacation? Aside from writing, reading, and baking cookies, that is? I’ve spent the last several days searching for more ways to promote my book and get reviews. Mostly, I learned several things.

1, there are a LOT of books out there.

2, having 5 reviews is not a bad start.

3, there are a lot of indie authors.

4, I could spend all day on goodreads and facebook.

So, how...

Weaknesses

For some reason, one of the most common comments I get from readers is that they liked “how Symon was bad at archery” or “how Symon had a stutter.” What? Are readers more attracted to the imperfections in characters than the things the characters do well?

I’d say, yes. I can think of weaknesses of characters in books I’ve read at least as fast as I can think of strengths. (Especially characters who have a disability and get past it, like Percy with ADHD, or Tyce and Noah who areparaplegics, o...

Castle Rock Young Writer’s Guild 2015

(I probably should have taken pictures, but I tend to only take pictures of cute squirrels or mountains, not people.)

So, I visited the library’s Young Writer’s Guild yesterday for the first time in about 6 years. However, this time I went as a guest speaker, an author. Golly.

Highlights:

There were M&Ms. The technology (projector and internet) worked eventually. The young adults asked questions and were enthusiastic about their writing and what they were reading. They even had some good ide...

Taxes

No, it’s not April. I’m often the opposite of a procrastinator, however, especially with something I expect to be difficult and take several drafts. This post talks about money. Scary.

So, I’ve been keeping track (as well as I could) how many people bought my book (and how many of them got the family discount) and how much a couple generous souls overpaid me. I counted up the books I have today, and the books I’ve sold, and it doesn’t quite add up (I’m curiously missing three . . . .). Bother...

Why do I write?

To sell books!

No. (Though that is a happy consequence.)

To entertain people!

Sort of.

To entertain myself!

Closer.

To glorify God in whatever I do and acknowledge Him as my Lord and Savior!

Definitely.

I have now sold books because my biography mentioned I am a Christian. That is not my intention, however. That’s rather backwards. I’d rather sell books andthen have people see that I am a Bible believer, and maybe that will let God speak to them (esp. if they enjoyed the book). Maybe, just ma...

Contacting Authors

I was going to title this post “Author Contacts” but thought the visually impaired would think that had to do with the round clear things I put in my eyes every morning.

I have written lots of authors I admired. I mailed at least one (Christopher Paolini), contacted several through goodreads, and emailed the rest. I even got responses from most of them. I treasure these author letters. Whenever I do get a response (I got an email from Brandon Sanderson today!), I want to shout and jump up and...

Writing Quirks

This isn’t necessarily advice, but it does show how I handle details in my books.

I used to write thank-you with a hyphen. I think I was in college before I found out that this was incorrect. I used to write ellipses with no spaces like …, but I learned from a writer’s group that . . . looks better on the page, and they’re right. Plus, three periods are for showing missing words, but four periods like . . . . show that more than a sentence is missing. Or the last period is to show the end of...

Editing and Formatting

Usually I love editing. It is actually my favorite part of writing because it feels like less work. The scene is already in place, and I just have to check for consistency and grammar andwording. I make sure the characters’ personalities are present, that nothing contradicts other chapters, and that the scene is as concise as it can be without losing any vital or exciting information. Fun.

Editing a finished book is far less enjoyable.

My little brother found a few typos in my book. One of th...

Author Series event in Parker, CO

I am going to speak and sell my books at a library author event. I feel so official! If you want to come say “hi” or buy an autographed copy ofRoyal Deception, come to the Douglas County Library in Parker on August 15th at 2pm.

I may also have a discount on cover price . . . so come and find out!

On that note, I had to do some research today. No, it didn’t have to do with writing my books; it had to do with being an author.

First, I looked up what authors should do at visits and got few resul...