Theresa Jacobs's Blog, page 24

Playing around with ideas and I created this fun GIF for a book promo – thoughts?

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Book Launch, the pleasure, the pain, and the rewards

[image error]Paperback Book Wrap 

For those of you who do this regularly you know how difficult the road is. The hours, days, months and years to get  a story together.

If you have not seen one of my hundreds of posts yesterday – I finally hit publish on my novel.  Yeah me! (link at bottom)

And that’s only the beginning.

Next you have re-reading, editing, revising, editing, beta readers, editing. I’ve read this book so many times that I just can’t do it again.  

Why do we do this to ourselves? 

You still have to create a blurb, possibly a dedication page – don’t forget to thank someone – the begging for reviews and links at the end.  Then there is the perfect cover, if you’re like me and create your own, another headache may arise when you go to upload and you get size errors. Let the hair pulling begin. I tend to clench my jaw, and it will lead to a headache. But I persevere.

All ready hit upload and voila I have formatting issues to contend with. More clenching, spend hours adjusting the file. Try again, tap toes while the wheel spins…uploading…

And bingo we have a winner! Two or three stressful days later, I have a book online. In about a week, I’ll have a paperback in hand. 

Now I can celebrate. Today I did that by setting up a sit-stand desk. No more sore hip, slouching shoulders, or cricked up back. I hope.

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I’m off to enjoy my new desk, standing style, and continue writing my next book. A complete 360 for me, a sci-fi.

So please be kind and check out my new book, leave me a review, or write to me personally. Heck, even if Horror is not your cup of tea, it helps if you share with friends. And thanks for reading my blogs!

You’re welcome to share your own book links in my comment section too, I enjoy reading and meeting new authors.

.99 cents on Smashwords https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/596600
Or sadly $2.99 on amazon (their rules) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01B786Z7K

 

 

See you again next week, happy writing folks. Theresa Jacobs.

Win Audiobook, by sharing & comment

Read the attached post, share and comment for your chance to win.

http://theresajcbs.blogspot.ca/2017/10/inspirational-fiction-ruby-in-water-by-j.html

 

Cataclysm

MS Office has a read function

Okay perhaps you knew this and I’m just way behind. But for those of you like me, who did not know, this is handy.
MS Office has a read back function and here is how to access it.

 

Open a Doc and the main tool bar has this little drop down arrow.

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After you select More Commands :

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A huge alphabetical list opens :

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Back to your Doc with the newly added speech function:
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Best way to edit your own work is to hear it read back to you.
If you have any handy tricks or better suggestions for easy programs, share your thoughts.

 

No Fear – take a leap

Many times, over the course of our lives we let fear hold us back. Even in writing. Which is silly to think about, but I’m sure you’ve done it too. Whether it’s fear of being ridiculed, fear of failure or even fear of success.

I am no psychologist, so I’m here to talk about taking new leaps.

Along with fiction writing, I am also a contributor to the online magazine 1428elm.com. For those who don’t know, it’s a horror news magazine. 1428 Elm is the fictional address of Freddy Kruger, Nightmare on Elm St. Recently I have been writing about the TV Series Z-Nation – based on zombies – if you’re into that sort of thing. As season three ended, and we are waiting for the next to begin, I got the brilliant idea to see if I could interview the shows creator, Karl Schaefer.

That’s when the fear gripped me. I mean seriously, zombies, pssh they don’t scare me because they are not real, but trying to reach out to a creative genius and talk to him! Now that’s frightening. So, I told myself all I can do is try to find him at this point. Chill, this could be a search in vain. How do I even find a show writer/director/producer? And I won’t bore you with all that – but I did find him. Then I buckled down and asked if he would be interested in doing an interview. Because really all he can do is, #1 completely ignore me (perhaps block me) or #2 Say no. And what is going to happen to me from these results – NOTHING!

When Karl responded with a YES and here’s my personal email, I was on cloud nine. I mean seriously, I had an idea, I did some research, and I followed through. What was there to be afraid of? I got results, and it was fun.

You can read that interview below if you want to see how it went.

Bonus, my dear friend, and writer extraordinaire Susan Leighton was lucky enough to wrangle in the big cheese (or should I say big chin?) none other than Bruce Campbell himself. I’ve posted that interview as well.

So, what’s holding you back? Get out there and have fun writing.

Z-nation Interview:

https://1428elm.com/2017/08/21/znations-own-karl-schaefer-tells-all/

 

Bruce Campbell Interview:

https://1428elm.com/2017/09/08/bruce-campbell-interview-meets-eye/

Ask the blogger: how did you get so many followers?

Fellow Blogger Milly Schmidt asks successful bloggers a great question – check out the results.

Milly Schmidt

I went out on a limb and contacted some of my greatest blogging idols to see if a few of them might like to lend us some of their wisdom in response to the one question we’re all thinking about: how the hell did you get so many followers?

To be honest, I wasn’t sure I’d get many replies. Surely these bloggers (with their thousands of followers) are far too busy to answer the many questions, emails and comments they must get every day? Turns out I completely underestimated how LEGEN – wait for it… no really you have to wait for it… sorry just a little longer – DARY these bloggers really are. Because who would answer an email from a random quote-seeking newbie like me?

Legends. That’s who.

So instead of digesting, paraphrasing and regurgitating some of their responses to make the perfect introduction, I thought I’d move aside and let the bloggers do…

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INTERNET

We are all alone.  Adrift

On a sea of Connectivity

Between you and I is a Rift

Filled with Electric Activity

So instantly we can Communicate

Never in person. Worlds Apart

Invisible waves Propagate

Our need of others in our Heart

A void to fill that cannot be Found

In our everyday Lives

Only in worlds Abound

Together. Alone.

We will Survive

 

(c) Theresa Jacobs 2016

FREE promotion & marketing

Ramblings from a Writer's Mind

In this post I take a divergent path, away from my regular ramblings about writing, to speak of something which is usually just as close to any indies heart.

Promotion.

The reason is, no matter how good a writer you may be, how wonderful and eye catching you books cover is… if no one is ever going to see it, or hear about it, no one shall ever buy it, let alone read it.

Every indie I know who has written a book, even a short novelette, agrees the hard work starts once the book has been published.

An almost consecutive issue which is consistently raised, is the seemingly ongoing quest for the ultimate marketing tool. The ‘Eureka’ gift that will sell hundreds, if not thousands, of books each month with very little work or effort on the part of the author themselves.

Wake up, smell the coffee. There is…

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Author Spotlight

I would like to introduce you to Zane Dowling, my friend, editor, and mentor. He passes on some sage advice. Read below and when you’re done, why not go buy one of his superb books, you won’t regret it.  P.s. my favorite is “Brother’s Keeper. Link below.

The one thing I want you to take away from my time in this little spotlight is to consider as your utmost goal the idea of bringing the best possible story to your readers.  Imagine presenting a puzzle for others to see.  If you haven’t put that puzzle together in the best possible way they will not enjoy it as much as they could.  Suppose you have just stuffed the pieces of the puzzle together without making sure the pieces fit, or you jammed a few pieces in because they fit but didn’t make sure they matched the surrounding parts of the picture, you will have given the viewer an incomplete picture.

Does this mean you have to strive for perfection?  Of course it does.  You have to be diligent for your readers; it’s not about you it’s about them.  You must check, recheck, have someone else check, check again and then you will need to step back and see what the finished puzzle looks like one more time.

I understand that no one is perfect. I have found typos in various published works where you would not expect them.  I don’t consider typos a problem.  They are like that one piece of the puzzle where the picture has come away from the cardboard and there is nothing above due diligence and care that can be done about them.  I am talking about the author getting into their own story, to see the picture, to become the character in the situation and not let them do, say, wear, think, be, react, reflect, move, smell, look, or any other possible way of being other than what that character would do, etcetera.  Don’t make characters or situations fit the story; let the characters be in the story in the only way they can be – who they are. – Zane.

Zane is currently working on a compilation of his poetry and short stories, a novel called ‘Dormant’, a novel called ‘Dawn of the Shinning – Magic Rising’, which is a sequel to ‘The Triadon Prophesy’, as well as other writing projects.

https://www.amazon.com/Zane-Dowling/e/B00A5VA4V4