Evan Bond's Blog, page 8

Dedicate or Die

March 1st through March 31st, prepare for a special offer you won't want to miss! Have you ever wanted to be mentioned in the dedication section of a book? Or maybe you would prefer to have a grisly death scene in one of the chapters? Well, here's your chance!

Introducing, Dedicate or Die! This is an exclusive Patreon special offer. For the month of March, if you sign up for any tier on my Patreon, you will have the option to either become a character in my upcoming book and killed off OR get mentioned in the dedication section in the beginning of the book. Either way, your name will be forever immortalized in a book! 

Don't wait, March will go by quick and you won't want to miss out on this! Trust me! You can show all of your friends your death scene or dedication. How cool is that? Head over to Patreon by clicking here and sign up today! 

Geek Insider Interview

In case you missed it, I got interviewed at Space Coast Comic Con. You can check out the video below! And yes, I will be signing autographs later! BYOB (Bring your own book)

Introducing, Author Life.

First Draft Completed 
​I finished the first draft of my latest novel the other night! It always feels so good to finish a first draft. Next, comes the re-writes and the editing but we'll put that off for now. I read something by Stephen King once which said to revisit your book after a few weeks or a month. Take time and come back with a fresh mind. I've found taking a break after writing the first draft helps. Plus, it gives me time to start on my next novel. Which I'm really excited about. 
Since I have you, let me tell you a little more about the book I just finished writing. It's called Deserted...

Want to read more? Click here. Author life is a weekly blog update over on Patreon. I will be posting updates every week on my journey as an author. Whether it be first drafts I've finished or events I sold my books at, I will be giving a fun weekly update. If this sounds like something you're interested in, click here to find out more. 

Author Life

Have you ever been interested in the truth behind an author's life? Not just the social media posts or the highlights but the truth? The ups, the downs, the work, the procrastination. Do you want to hear about it all? Over on Patreon, I'm posting a weekly blog series which I'm calling Author Life where I will share my experience as an author. I'll post everything and anything related to my journey as an author there. Raw and real. If this sounds like something you would be interested in, please consider supporting me on Patreon. You'll have access to this exclusive blog series, custom short stories, and something new I'm working on that you won't want to miss! Thanks for reading and I hope to see you on Patreon with me. 

A Story Written Just for You!

Do you want a flash fiction story or a short story written specifically for you? Maybe you want a sci-fi thriller about aliens on Earth. Or perhaps you want a gritty thriller about a man's twin brother trying to kill him? Maybe you want to be surprised by what you get and ask me to be creative? 

If this sounds like something you would be interested in, then please check me out on Patreon. I've developed new reward tiers which include custom stories. Here's how it works. Once you sign up to become a patron ( which is an awesome way to support me and my writing career while also getting sweet rewards and perks ), I'll send you a message. Depending on which reward tier you've chosen, I'll write you either a flash fiction story ( under 1,000 words ), a short story ( under 7,500 words ) or for the highest tier 2 short stories ( that's about 15,000 words! ). I'll ask you what genre/themes you would like in your story. If you have an idea of what you would like to read, let me know! If not, tell me to get creative with it. I will happily write you something I know you'll enjoy! And the best part is, these stories will never be published. No matter how proud of them I am. They are for you and you alone!

Hopefully this sounds like a cool perk and I hope you'll consider supporting me on Patreon. It really is a great way to support your favorite creators and their careers. And the rewards are definitely a plus. And if this doesn't sound like something you would want, do me a favor? Share it with someone who might? That would be incredible of you! Thanks so much for reading and supporting in any way that you do! You guys are the best. 

To become a patron or to simply browse the rewards, click here. 

Self-publish Advice

There's many of you out there writing a book, planning to write a book, or already have one finished. And I know some of you don't know what you should do next. If you're torn between self-publishing or traditional publishing, I can't help you there. There's pros and cons to both. You'll have to figure out which works best for you. All I will say on the difference is, I've spoken to many authors who have gone down both avenues and they always say the same thing. "There's more money to be made in self-publishing but traditional can help with exposure." 

But that's not the point of today's post. Today, I thought I would give you a little advice on how to self-publish. Remember, these are the things that I do. That doesn't mean these are the only options or even the best options. These are the things I've found helpful and my little tips and tricks. So, if you're one of my friends/followers looking to self-publish a book, hopefully this list will help you get started. 

1. Make a website
Of all the things on my list, this is the one you should do first. You need a central hub for fans and followers to seek you out. If you're worried that you don't have anything to offer yet then do what I did when I first started. Use it to showcase short stories. You at least want a site with a bio for yourself and a blog attached to it. That's important. Have a blog! You can use this to share short stories with people or even info about the book you're writing. Personally, I prefer Weebly for my website hosting. I've used other sites and Weebly has been my favorite. Best part is, a blog comes attached to the site. You don't have to install plug-ins for third party. It's all managed under one roof. And that's useful. Oh, and one final thing. Make sure your website is clean. Messy sites with poor navigation are awful. I've seen big name authors with terrible sites. I don't want to boast too much but I've received many, many compliments on my website (which makes me incredibly happy because I'm always working on it to make it better) so use mine as a template if you want to. 

2. Social media profiles
The idea of having a Twitter or an Instagram might make you cringe. Maybe you barely like using Facebook. Trust me, I get it. Managing a social media account almost feels like a part time job. But that's technically what it is. My advice is to stick with it and just have fun. Don't worry about selling books through any of these sites. Sales from social media are rare. Instead, it's a place to connect with readers and other writers. You can share articles related to your writing or just books in general. Or share funny memes about the writing process. Be creative and have fun. Don't stress over it too much. Personally, I like Instagram the best. It seems to have the best writing community and figuring out creative images to post is fun. But you may like Facebook or Twitter more. It's up to you. 

3. Newsletter
This is another you will really want to have. It's as important as a website. Think of the whole process like this: Social media is where you meet with potential readers. You send them to your website to hang out and get to know you better. Your newsletter is where you sell to your fan base. People who sign up for your newsletter are interested in your writing or your genre. Which means they are more likely to read your books. And shoot for monthly. It might seem exhausting to send out an email once a month but it's important to stay relevant. Your subscribers might not only be subscribed to you so you want to give them a reason to keep following. Try giving out free stories or chapters of the books you're working on. Anything to keep them interested. My recommendation for newsletter hosting site would be MailChimp. Once you hit 1500 subscribers, it gets a little pricey per month. But up until then, it's free. It'll take you some time to get there. 

​4. Publishing Platforms
Here's where we get into opinions. Sort of. First, you're going to want to use Kindle Direct Publishing to get your book on Amazon Kindle. That one's a must. And trust me, you'll want to go straight through KDP to publish. With KDP, you can do promotions and even make your ebook available on Kindle Unlimited so users can download your book for free. Why is free a good thing? Exposure. You won't make money but more people will take a chance on your book. However, there's one major caveat to Kindle Unlimited. In order to list your book in KU for free, you can't publish your book anywhere else. I, for on, like to have my books available on all e-readers so I don't partake in this feature. Although, you may want to experiment with using KU for the first month or so. Especially for your first book. It's up to you. As for publishing to other e-platforms I can't recommend Draft2Digital enough. Their service is excellent AND a time saver. They have services that will format your book for you and give you the formatting and download for the paperback version. Plus, you can add neat little features to the interior of your books like automated end matter and other things. It's an amazing service. However, using D2D and KDP means you're tracking sales in 2 different sites. But the reports make it simple to view. 

5. Book Covers
It may be tempting to make your own covers but you really shouldn't. Even if you're proficient in Photoshop, it's a good idea to leave that to professionals. But a custom cover can set you back a lot of money you don't have. So, what's the alternative? There's something out there called pre-made covers. Artists make high quality book covers using stock art for one of a kind covers. And once you buy the cover, no one else can use it. However, this does mean that there may be book covers out there that could resemble yours or even have some of the same stock art. But more than likely yours will be completely unique. Personally, I use a site called GoOnWrite and I love it. The covers are excellent and I've yet to be disappointed. My cover for Echoes of the Past was obtained from this site and I'm always getting feedback on how nice it looks. 

Those are some of the main points I wanted to make when it comes to self-publishing. There's so much that goes into writing and publishing.  I could write a whole blog series about it. If you want to ask questions about the process or my process, feel free. I'm always open to questions. And maybe I'll do a part 2 in the future, if people care enough. Thanks for reading!

Paranormal Thriller

     Ok, so there's this idea rattling around in my brain that I can't stop thinking about. It's a new character, a new book, and a whole new series. I'm not going to be dropping all of the details right now. However, next month's newsletter will be packed with a lot more information. So, if you want to learn more then please consider signing up! You can click here to sign up. 

What I will tell you is the character is named Jeffrey Raines. I held a contest a couple months back to help me pick the last name and Raines was the winner. Jeffrey Raines is a southerner with an interesting job. What is that job? You'll have to subscribe to find that out early. But I will tell you, it does center around the paranormal. And no, he's not a paranormal investigator. 

I am so excited to start writing this book. The story is already planned and there's so much excitement building up over the details. You're going to want to read this book. If you're into thrillers, the supernatural, and everything in-between then you're going to love it. I will end this on a cliffhanger as well. Jeffrey Raines is dead....

​To learn more about this upcoming series, sign up for my monthly newsletter now!

Books by Bond

For those of you who have been around since I made my first Facebook page and started promising to publish a book, you already know this fact I'm about to share. The original name of my website was BooksByBond which matched the name of my Facebook page a while back. Since then, I've changed my author page and website to a more appropriate title of EvanBondAuthor. However, I still love the BooksbyBond name and tag. I've been wondering how to use it again ever since. And I think I have it. 

You may have noticed there is now a page on my site called Books by Bond. If you're curious what that is, give it a click and find out. Or I'll just tell you now. I've decided to do something new on my YouTube channel. I've been struggling for a while trying to figure out how to properly incorporate YouTube into my social media and writing career. I didn't want to do the typical book review thing or even give writing or publishing advice. There's a lot of channels out there that already do this and probably do it better than I could. 

I will now be writing short stories for YouTube. Probably about 5-10 minutes long. Each story will be narrated by myself and matched with imagery, also taken by me, to match the tone. The idea behind this is to create an audio book type of experience that can be either watched or listened to. With YouTube Premium allowing you to lock your phone and listen to videos rather than having to watch them, I feel there's a market for more audio entertainment. I'm hoping I'm right. 

So, if you like audio books and short stories, I hope you'll subscribe to my channel and look forward to those stories coming soon. I won't be releasing them on any set schedule. With having to write the story, record it, record video, and produce it all, it might be a while between stories. But hopefully they're fun, unique, and entertaining! 

Let me know what you think of this idea in the comments below. And please consider subscribing to the channel now so you can be among the first to hear these stories! 

Podcast Setbacks

There's been a bit of a delay with my podcast and it's not premiering this month as I initially thought. I'm upset about this but I'm also relieved. I wanted this project to be well crafted and perfect and I can't do that if I'm forced to rush to get it out there. So, instead of the podcast premiering this January, it will instead be coming out in October. It's a long time to wait but I think it's the appropriate time of year for the type of podcast that it is. And it gives me time to work out all of the kinks and make sure that everything is ready and polished. I'm very excited to share this project with you and I hope you all love it. More details will be coming later. 
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If Reading is Your Resolution...

If you made a resolution to read more this 2020 then I've got some good news for you! My books are currently only .99 cents. Don't wait, though! The sale ends January 15th! Get all of my books for less than $5. Happy new year everyone!