Ruth Ann Nordin's Blog, page 27
September 7, 2020
The Marriage Contract Trivia
I’m finally getting back to doing some trivia blog posts. 
September 4, 2020
The Marriage Contract Audiobook is Now Available! (This is my first legitimate audiobook.)
This one is actually from me, so it’s safe to get it.
This is Book 1 in the Marriage by Fairytale Series.
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I am in the process of getting all of the books in the Marriage by Fairytale Series into audiobooks.
The reason I picked the Marriage by Fairytale Series was because this is my favorite Regency series. I figured it was going to spend money on making an audiobook, that I was going to do the series I loved most.
Stevie has agreed to do all of the books in this series, and to offer a quick reminder, here the other books:
One Enchanted Evening, The Wedding Pact, Fairest of Them All, and The Duke’s Secluded Bride. I’m in currently in the process of uploading One Enchanted Evening.
Stevie Zimmerman did an excellent job of narrating this book. I’m very pleased with the results. Her voice is perfect for the tone and feel of it.
I tried to upload the audio sample file, but it just didn’t work. Please go to one of the links to hear the sample.
The distribution of this audiobook:
After talking things over with Stevie, we agreed on a pay per finished hour arrangement. This means that I paid her upfront for the work, and I officially own the audiobook. That means I can publish the audiobook wherever I want. I chose to go through Findaway Voices and ACX.
This means that this audiobook will be available in 43 places. To list all of the links would be overwhelming, so I’m going to post the main links I’m aware of. If you look for audiobooks on another retailer, let me know in the comments, and I’ll see if I can track down the link to that place.
Here is where you can find it:
September 2, 2020
About The Purchased Bride and The Bride’s Choice (With Some Book Trivia)
I want to avoid as much confusion as possible. I don’t want someone to browse a retailer and think I published brand new books without publicly announcing it on this blog.
My publisher has given me back my rights to the books I had with them. These books are Wagon Trail Bride, The Marriage Agreement, Groom for Hire, Mitch’s Win, Boaz’s Wager, Patty’s Gamble, Shane’s Deal, The Purchased Bride, and The Bride’s Choice.
Now some of you may wonder, “What does she mean? I don’t recognize The Purchased Bride or The Bride’s Choice from her book list.”
These two books were tucked into anthologies.
The Purchased Bride originally appeared in the Bride by Arrangement anthology I did with Janet Syas Nitsick.
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The Bride’s Choice originally appeared in the A Groom’s Promise anthology I did with Janet Syas Nitsick.
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If you own those two anthologies, you already have The Purchased Bride and The Bride’s Choice.
But, if you haven’t picked up these anthologies and would like The Purchased Bride and The Bride’s Choice, I’ll give the information about them below.
First, since these stories are so closely related, I decided to create a series for them. Since they take place in homesteads in Nebraska, I opted to go with the Nebraska Prairie Series.
The Purchased Bride (Nebraska Prairie Series: Book 1)
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Ada Wilcox’s brother sells her off to marry a complete stranger. But the book goes deeper than that.
Here’s the trivia:
The hero in this book is deaf, but his brother assumes he has less than average intelligence. Some people find this hard to believe, but I can tell you from firsthand experience that this is possible. I didn’t hear anything for the first three years of my life, and my parents and doctor assumed I was didn’t have normal intelligence. It wasn’t until a daycare worker pointed out the possibility that I was deaf that my parents went to a hearing specialist. In one ear, I am deaf, but I had fluid built up since birth that prevented me from hearing. Sometimes you can be so close to someone that you miss something an outsider will see. Also, though my son was born deaf, the initial test they did on him when he was born showed that he heard. As a result, we just assumed he could hear until he was a year old when a woman who came out to help my other children with a speech delay picked up on it. My point is that unless you know what to look for, it’s easy to miss something as simple as whether a person is hearing you or not.
I took the above personal experiences in my own life and the lack of accommodations for people with special needs of that time period into consideration to build the plot. If Pete had been allowed to interact with more people, someone might have figured it out before Ada came along, but his family chose to keep him secluded from everyone. Had this been written in a place along the East Coast, Pete’s deafness would have been pointed out early on in his life. But I wanted a scenario where it wasn’t pointed out until he was an adult, so I chose to place him on a remote farm.
You can find out more about it at these places:
The Bride’s Choice (Nebraska Prairie Series: Book 2)
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Shy and clumsy Jack Warren has finally found the woman of his dreams, but her father wants her to marry his brother instead.
Here’s the trivia:
I wrote this one closely to match Janet Syas Nitsick’s story, When the Whistle Blows, that was in the same anthology. We had to sit together quite a bit to compare notes so that there were contradictions between our stories. A lot of people have said our two books are so similar, and this is why. So much of our plots relied heavily on what was happening in the other story. I wanted to write a story that could be read as a standalone. I’m sure Janet felt the same way. The nature of anthologies is to eventually take the individual stories and publish them independently of the other authors who contributed stories to that book. So I didn’t want to leave any more loose threads than I had to.
I took one brother, Jack, and she took the other brother, Hugh. My original story idea never made it to the page. I had to discard it in order to go along with Janet’s vision for her book. Originally, I had planned for Maybell’s father to want Jack to marry her, and he was supposed to feel inadequate and run off hiding from her on their wedding night. I had envisioned a romantic comedy. (I later took the idea of the bridegroom hiding and put it in The Reclusive Earl, which is a Regency romance. So the idea did makes it way into another book. I have a weird sense of humor, and the idea of a husband running in fear of having to consummate the marriage just cracks me up.)
All things considered, I think the story worked out better the way it did where her father wanted her to marry Hugh and Jack had to prove himself.
You can find more about this book at these places:
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Book 3: To Be Determined
I have an idea for a book that’s been in the back of my mind for the past few years that I think will fit well with this series. Since my mind’s been blank on what to write next, I’m going to give this third book a try and see what happens. I’ll keep you posted.
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On a final note:
All of the other books Wagon Trail Bride, The Marriage Agreement, Groom for Hire, Mitch’s Win, Boaz’s Wager, Patty’s Gamble, and Shane’s Deal are all up again! If anyone wants links, let me know.
I did put all of these books (including The Purchased Bride and The Bride’s Choice) on Google Play, but they haven’t gone live yet.
August 29, 2020
Audiobook Thief is Back
A quick note to any narrator reading this post: please do NOT create any audiobooks from someone claiming to be me. I am currently working with Stevie Zimmerman and Shonda Bourn. I have NOT contacted any other narrator to create audiobooks.
Now to the post:
As I was tracking down links to the audiobook I legitimately created, I found that the thief has returned. He/she (we’ll say he since he’s now going by the name “benjamin anyanwu”) is back, and this time, he has taken the audio files, made new covers, changed his name as producer, and distributed these books wide.
Here’s what’s happening:
Once the original theft attempt failed on Amazon and Audible, this jerk went ahead and changed the covers, his name as producer, and distributed the audiobooks to as many places as he could. I’d point out why no one should believe these were done by ME, but I don’t want to give stuff away to make things easier for this jerk in the future.
Here are the links I’ve tracked down so far.
iTunes/Apple:
An Unlikely Place for Love: https://books.apple.com/us/audiobook/an-unlikely-place-for-love-virginia-collection-book-1/id1525871012?mt=11
A Most Unsuitable Earl: https://books.apple.com/us/audiobook/a-most-unsuitable-earl-marriage-by-scandal/id1526285522?mt=11&fbclid=IwAR0DFnaHm_xuEL3SpCunFx-V0rKiMaqXkbmcl39uEoo-Bzb1DRpmxji6Uss
Google Play:
An Unlikely Place for Love: https://play.google.com/store/audiobooks/details/Ruth_Ann_Nordin_An_Unlikely_Place_for_Love?id=AQAAAEAcGG1YYM&hl=en_US
A Most Unsuitable Earl: https://play.google.com/store/audiobooks/details/Ruth_Ann_Nordin_A_Most_Unsuitable_Earl?id=AQAAAEAc-CC4LM&hl=en_US
Chirp:
An Unlikely Place for Love: https://www.chirpbooks.com/audiobooks/an-unlikely-place-for-love-by-ruth-ann-nordin?fbclid=IwAR2vE-Gg-STDZ_LSEYJuw_S4X5Tesx5181JZceBX-OB8gf-azkHo_Q_qz_I
A Most Unsuitable Earl: https://www.chirpbooks.com/audiobooks/a-most-unsuitable-earl-by-ruth-ann-nordin
I have submitted copyright notifications to each of these places, but there’s still more I need to wade through because there are about 43 distributors out there total. This thief has a head start on me. I am currently seeking out help from someone who can help me, and I will pay this person for their help. I’m currently looking for referrals on Facebook. I will only work with someone I know. I don’t trust any strangers because for all I know, the thief could offer to “help”.
About Shonda Bourn:
I contacted Shonda on Facebook when I discovered the original theft of An Unlikely Place for Love took place. Back then, this thief went back the name “Leon Publishing”. I tried to find the other narrator this thief conned into making A Most Unsuitable Earl, but I was unable to.
Anyway, Shonda and I got along, and I decided to let her do some of my books. I got the right to claim my book (An Unlikely Place for Love) on ACX, and we decided we’d take the files she had created and do a royalty share agreement. I’m still in the process of listening to this book. I have not “okayed” it for publication. When I do, I’ll let you know on this site.
So the thief downloaded the files from ACX that Shonda had done, and he stole those and used them to upload the audiobook everywhere else. He did not have her permission. He is in violation of a contractual agreement with her. He did the same with the other narrator, but I’m unable to tell this other narrator what happened to her. I did notify Shonda.
To all narrators:
I realize this is as upsetting to you as it is to me. It’s getting to the point where it’s impossible to know who you can trust and who you can’t. I’m just one author. I am doing what I can to warn other authors of this stuff by sharing my experience on this blog and on Facebook. I am going to be as loud and obnoxious about this as I can be to help spread the word.
I just want to plead with the narrators reading this to double check to make sure you are in contact with the actual author of the book you’re being asked to make into audio. I know there are sites that make it super easy for thieves to con narrators into making audiobooks. ACX is one of them. But there are apparently other sites thieves can use to con narrators into producing audiobooks for a royalty-share option. I think another is Audio Unleashed, but I’m not 100% sure. There is another one, but I can’t think of it off the top of my head. All I’m saying is that if you’re on a site that does royalty-share, be extra careful.
These thieves never pay. They want everything for free. That is the first warning sign. I offered Shonda a paying deal, but she wanted royalty-share. I did, however, create a pay per hour agreement with Stevie Zimmerman. I was willing to pay upfront. I realize not every author can afford to offer this. I’m just asking to be extra careful before entering into a contract with someone who puts a book up to be auditioned. This may be a thief.
The Fugitive’s Bride is now available!
[image error]This is Wade’s romance.
Here are the books in this series:
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This series is now complete. I don’t plan to write any more books for this specific series. I might one day write about Katie, but right now, there’s no plot for her story. I will have to wait until the right time, if such a time comes. I have no plans to write Jeremiah’s story since he has his happy ending, and he’s very happy with the way things turned out.
This has been one of the most satisfying series I’ve ever worked on. I was able to blend in elements I love most into it. I got to blend in humor and serious situations within the series.
While The Rancher’s Bride had the most amount of humor, The Fugitive’s Bride was pretty much serious the entire way through, but I found it intriguing to dive deep into Wade’s personality, and he had a lot of pain and bitterness to go through. So this series gave me plenty of range to explore the heights of humor and depths of despair. I find stuff like that helps me grow most as a writer. And that’s fun.
I’m not really sure what I can say about this book that won’t spoil it, so I’ll just tell you where you can find it. If anyone has any questions about the stories or the characters, feel free to ask.
Also, is anyone here a Google Play/Books reader? If so, I’ll get add a link.
August 18, 2020
Trying to Wrap up Two Books, Getting Back Books from my Publisher, and Getting into Audiobooks
[image error]Marriage by Design: Book 2
I should finish Nobody’s Fool tomorrow. I’m currently on the last chapter. I’m very pleased with how this turned out. It’s a cute romantic comedy. The heroine finally caved and fell in love with the hero. When I started the book, I wasn’t sure how this was ever going to happen since she was so opposed to the marriage. Fortunately, the issues worked themselves out while I was writing.
I know election time is pretty much a terrible time to get a book out, but this one is due out in mid-October. I wasn’t able to finish it before now, and I need time to get it through edits before it’s ready. I also want another book out before the end of the year. So, this is coming out around a horrible time for authors who are looking to hit an ideal publishing time.
[image error]Marriage by Design: Book 3
I’m not sure how much more I need to go in this one, but I’m determined not to rush it. This has been another comedy, but things have taken a sudden turn where it’s more serious at the moment. Essentially, our hero has finally come to grips with what a jerk’s he’s been. I don’t like getting too heavy in a romance where 80% of the book is light and funny. So I’m trying to find a balance between making him grovel enough (because he needs it) without making it drag on needlessly. I’m in the middle of figuring this out.
I want this out in January, so thankfully, I have time.
Those are the two books I’m trying to wrap up.
And I almost forgot, this one is due out August 29.
[image error]Wyoming Series: Book 3
I need to get the blog post and email list ready when it’s time to announce that this book is out. I’m worried I’ll forget to do this. Thankfully, I can schedule blog posts and MailChimp emails out in advance.
If you want to get this on pre-order, I do have them up at most retailers.
A note about Payhip: My last two releases ended up with no one buying the book from Payhip, even though I offered 50% off the price. I’m thinking about not putting it on Payhip this time around. No one seems interested in that storefront. So if I don’t get a comment on this blog about wanting the book on Payhip, I’ll skip Payhip this time around.
A note about Google Books/Play: I am going to get it up over there on release day or close to it. Google will lower prices from time to time, and this could hurt me on the pre-orders at Amazon. The money I make on pre-orders is what I need to afford cover artists, editors, and other things to keep the business side of things going.
2. Getting Publishing Rights Back from my Publisher
I’m in the process of acquiring rights back to these books:
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What that means is that there might be a short period of time where these books won’t be available. The publisher and I are working to make the transition as possible, but there’s bound to be a hiccup or two along the way. It can’t be helped. Different retailers have different ways of operating.
Please Note this about Bride by Arrangement and A Groom’s Promise:
Bride by Arrangement and A Groom’s Promise are anthologies. I’ll be taking my stories from each anthology and republishing them as brand new books. I’ll address this more in the future when they’re up.
3. A Note About Audiobooks
I have already started a couple of them. I am working with two narrators.
One is Stevie Zimmerman, and since she has an English accent, I felt she’d be ideal for the Regency Series. So far, she has done The Marriage Contract, One Enchanted Evening, and The Wedding Pact (all books in the Marriage by Fairytale Series which is my personal favorite series).
[image error]Marriage by Fairytale: Book 1
I uploaded this to ACX (which distributes to Amazon, Audible, and iTunes) and Findaway Voices (scroll down the page to find where they distribute to). I’ll announce it on this blog when this is ready.
Stevie Zimmerman and I agreed on an upfront cost, so I paid for this outright for this audiobook. This is called “pay per hour”. (I didn’t know that before.) That means I own all rights to it, and I get to say where the book goes. I am paying this way for all of the books I do with her.
There is another narrator I’m working. She is Shonda Bourn, and she prefers the royalty-share option. Long story short, when I claimed all of my books on ACX, I didn’t realize that I locked myself into the non-exclusive contract with ACX. I was in a hurry to stop the scammer from stealing more of them since this person had gotten away with stealing two of my books already. So I may or may not be able to do more books this other narrator.
A word of warning to authors who might be reading this: if you choose non-exclusive, then you can NOT do royalty-share on ACX. You have to pay per hour. Also, if you claim a book on ACX, Findaway Voices will NOT put the book on Amazon.
So in my hurry to stop the scammer, I boxed myself into a corner. I’m trying to get that resolved by contacting ACX to be able to switch the books the narrator wants to work on out of non-exclusive to exclusive, but I don’t know if that will be possible. It all depends on what ACX will let me do.
I was able to get one book in the exclusive agreement, and that was one I had not been able to claim yet because it was one of the stolen books. This is the same book Shonda had done, and it had made it to Amazon. I got the stolen version removed (thankfully), and then Shonda and I started communicating, and we saw no reason to let her work go to waste. So we’re in the process of getting this book back up:
[image error]Virginia Series: Book 1
Since we did a strict royalty-share agreement on this book, it can only be on Amazon, Audible, and iTunes. I can NOT put it on Findaway Voices.
I’ll let you know when that goes live.
4. You Tube Channel and Audiobooks
I was thinking of dusting off my You Tube channel, which I haven’t uploaded anything to for years, and making old books available to listen to over there for anyone who can’t afford audiobooks. The catch on this is that my voice is nothing like Stevie Zimmerman or Shonda Bourn. My voice is amateurish, so the quality is not going to be professional. I just wanted to warn everyone. I don’t want people to go to my channel expecting an award-winning performance. 
August 11, 2020
Forever Yours Trivia
Dave and Mary have been married for 10 years, and I used the way marriage has been for me (20 years now) as a basis for a realistic view of marriage. Your average day isn’t going to be the drastic ups and downs of how things seem when you first fall in love and wondering if the other person loves you back or not. After you’ve been married for a while, you settle into a routine, and things have a natural flow to them. The love is still there, and deeper, and you really do feel like your spouse is an extension of you.
People had a mixture of thoughts on this book when I announced I was writing it. Half of the people were excited, and the other half were like, “Not another Dave and Mary story. Haven’t you already done two?” But I always felt they had a trilogy to write, and the series would not have been complete without it.
The original plot idea came to me in 2013. It was much different from the way things turned out to be. Originally, Dave was supposed to injure his leg and be unable to do any work. That was the only part that stayed the same. One of Mary’s brother-in-laws (whom I introduced in To Have and To Hold) was Bert. I don’t know how many people remember him, but he drank a lot and would pretend to shoot himself because he was miserable in his marriage to Mary’s sister. Anyway, Mary’s sister was going to die, and Bert was going to leave Maine with his son to make a new life in Omaha. He was to spend time with Dave and Mary while he figured out what to do, and as payment for staying there, he was to do the chores around the place that Dave usually did. Anyway, long story short, Dave was supposed to worry that Bert and Mary were getting along too well, and Dave was also supposed to have trouble maintaining an erection and such. There was also a part in the story where Dave was supposed to fix the fence in the pouring rain to stop the cows from escaping. (This was when everyone was gone.) As a result, he was supposed to get seriously ill and almost die. As you can see, this was intended to be a serious story. However, Dave didn’t care for that plot, so I opted to go in a completely different direction, and the story ended up being light-hearted comedy instead. Dave is much happier with this version.
Also, here was the original cover I had planned. (Thankfully, I never used it.)
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The things that happen with the kids like when Rachel pushed Adam to get him away from the spilled milk, the impatience Isaac had over the cornstalks not growing fast enough, and Rachel forgetting to tell Isaac not to go to the barn while Mary talked to Dave are all incidents based on real life with some minor tweaks.
The purpose of the scenes when all of the Larsons are together in any Larson book is to give an update on how the family is all doing. I know there’s a lot of people to keep track of, but this is for the benefit of people who have been reading my books over the years. They aren’t necessarily important to the plot.
When Tom throws the roll at Joel, it’s my reference to when Joel threw the biscuit at him in The Marriage Agreement. (Unlike Joel, though, Tom wasn’t able to hit him.) Sometimes I like to draw on something from another book I’ve already done for fun. Another example, Joel’s reluctance to do any laundry or cleaning stalls was a reference to how he was in Eye of the Beholder when he used every excuse possible to get out of the chores.
I thought it would be nice to show the transition Richard and Amanda went through in living in the small apartment and getting their first modest home (in Wagon Trail Bride) to when they became wealthy, so I chose that to replace the original plot with Bert in it. At the time, I didn’t know what I would do with it. Thankfully, while I was writing the scene where Dave and Mary were eating at his parents, the idea of Dave getting jealous over Isaac’s sudden admiration for Richard came to me. I was so relieved I nearly jumped for joy because I felt like I was starting to write the book with no sense of direction.
During the writing of the book, I switched the two horses (Jack and Susannah) around so much that it took several read throughs to get them right. In one scene, Jack was the horse Dave been on when he fell, and in others, the horse was Susannah. I also kept changing the position of where Jack was at after Dave fell off of him. One time, he was standing close by, and at another time, he was near the barn. The whole thing with the horses was just crazy.
Mary could never sell the apple pie recipe. I did fiddle with the idea of having a bad storm ruin half the crops, but I can’t think of Mary without her apple pie, so she kept telling Maureen and Connie no.
This is a side note that has nothing to do with this story, but Jacob Larson (the kid Mary and Dave had after Adam) took over Ralph Lindon’s mercantile when he grew up. I like the idea of doing Adam’s and Jacob’s stories, but I don’t know when I’ll get to them.
August 8, 2020
My Thoughts on Joanna Penn’s Lessons Learns from Her 500 Creative Penn Postcast Episodes (Part 2) (A Post for Writers)
I’m just going to pick up where I left off in the last post.
Joanna’s Lesson #4: Try different strategies for marketing and branding in order to find the ones that work best for you.
My thoughts: This is largely dependent on the genre you write, your personality, and your budget. Also, nonfiction will market a lot differently than fiction. There are a lot of different methods for marketing out there. There’s no way I can list them all.
What I will say is that if someone suggests a marketing strategy to you, and your initial reaction is, “I’d rather poke my eyeball out with a fork,” then this strategy is not for you. I don’t care how well it works for other people. You are not them. You are you. You will be better off seeking out writers who share your marketing preferences and talking to them if you’re looking at a way to fine tune your marketing skills. How do you find writers who share your preferences? This is going to be trial and error. It’ll require you to get on social media and go to writing groups. There are a lot of writing groups on Facebook. I tried MeWe, but they don’t have the quality of writing groups that Facebook does. That is the best place I’ve found for author interaction. If anyone wants to know what groups I find helpful, let me know in the comments. There are also author blogs, but Facebook groups will cover a variety of topics that are most helpful, and your range of people will be broader.
As a general rule, long-term marketing is thought of as “long term”. This is not about getting rich fast. It’s about the steady movement of activity that you can see yourself doing on a regular and consistent basis for years to come. You want something you can stick with. That’s why it has to blend well with your personality. For example, some people like doing videos, and they’re really good at it. They have a flair for it, and you can tell they’re having a good time. These people don’t usually care for blogging. They’d rather talk instead of write. But for me, I’m much happier blogging because I think much better when I type than I do when I talk in a video. Also, I hate selling in person at craft shows. You have to be really engaging in person to pull this off, and in person, I am the person who is in the corner of a room, not front and center stage. Online, I’m a different person. I have no trouble at all joining in conversations. So just consider the kinds of things you naturally lean toward. What are your strengths? What would get you excited? (Or, if nothing else, what doesn’t make you want to run into a hole and hide?) Marketing can be fun if you pick the right activity.
Joanna mentioned content marketing. I also like this type, and it works really well for introvert types. Content marketing involves anything to do with your stories. For examples, I have a lot of Book 1’s in my series for free. Other authors like to do short stories or extra scenes to go with a story. Some people might even pretend to be a character from a story. There are many ways you can work around this. It’s basically looking beyond the book itself and adding to it with fresh new content.
Some author prefer ads. Now, this all depends on your budget. Never go into debt to market your books. (Also, I would never advise anyone to go into debt for covers, editing, formatting, audiobooks, etc.) Ads can be fairly cheap ($15 or so) to expensive ($1000+ a month). For example, you can have a one-time ad where you pay for it and then go your merry way. Or, you can have a pay-per-click ad like on Amazon or Bookbub, and these can be a lot of money. I’ve heard of authors spending $5000 a month on ads. You have to make sure you’re making more money than you’re spending to make this strategy worth it because not all ads will yield a profit.
In addition to overt marketing strategies, it’s important to look at “branding” when you’re building up your author platform. This is all in line with long-term thinking, and it’s the mindset that makes you a professional author. This all takes time. I don’t think anyone settles into their “brand” right away. I think this, like marketing, is some trial and error as you figure out who you are as a writer and how you present yourself (and your books) to the world.
The nice thing is you don’t have to appeal to everyone. I don’t believe you can appeal to everyone even if you tried. Our brand is going to separate us from other writers. The way we engage with people in real life or online will reflect our personalities. We might try to imitate someone else’s style as we’re trying to figure out where we fit in, but over time, our real selves is going to develop as we get more comfortable. I think it’s best to embrace yourself as you are. We all have strengths and weaknesses, and being aware of those will help us figure out the way that works best for us as we engage with the world around us. For example, I have always been best at one-on-one interaction. I’ve been that way since I was a kid. I prefer to sit and listen to other people, and when I’m comfortable, I’ll start volunteering information. So it’s pointless for someone like me to have a brand where I’m front and center in a group leading the discussion or running the Facebook parties. I do think it’s much easier for the outspoken authors to sell books because they are outgoing people. They are naturals at drawing people to them. But it’s not impossible to reach people if you’re more of a quiet person like I am. I think for quieter people, the content we create (along with things like ads) will be our main strength, which is why I’m inclined to focus more on creating new books than I am on any other form of marketing. We all have our strengths, and it’s worth taking the time to evaluate those strengths and figure out how we’re going to use those to the best of our abilities.
At the 51 minute mark in this video, Joanna has two authors featured that discuss the importance of having a core audience who wants our books. What I like most about this is that it’s not so intimidating to think of all the people out there and trying to find them all. I like the idea of focusing on a smaller group. It’s a much easier process when you are looking at reaching one person at a time. (I admit this goes along with my personality.) The way I see it, getting out there with my books is really about building relationships with other people, whether they read my books or not. I do think it’s important to appreciate the people who currently love our books. I know we are always looking at ways to expand and reach new people, but I don’t think it’s wise to lose sight of the people who are currently with you. Back in 2008 or 2009, there was an author who seemed really nice and seemed to be sincere in engaging with me. I bought her book and, as she asked, I left her a review. Well, after that, she pretty much ignored me. It was like I no longer existed. That hurt. They say that people might forget what you say, but they’ll never forget how you made them feel.
Joanna’s Lesson #5: Think like a professional author. (This starts around the 59 minute mark in the video.)
My thoughts: She’s right about life being short. We need to make the most of the time we have. It’s up to us to decide what we’re going to do with the time we’re granted. So basically, being a professional author is about showing up for writing even when we’d rather watch a movie or go to the beach. I don’t think it’s wise to write every single day, but there is something to be said for having a habit of writing on a regular and consistent basis. I’ve been at this seriously since 2008, and it really is all about embracing the habit of writing.
I also love the idea of the reward being the story itself. We tend to get this turned upside down in the writing community. The writing community says the story is not enough. The writing community says that the reward is the money, some award, or hitting a bestseller’s list. This is very unfortunate. Because of this thinking, books (by themselves) do not have value. Writing a story is not valued, either. The writing community says the only thing that matters is how “successful” those books are. From personal experience, I can tell you those things don’t satisfy in the long run. They offer temporary boosts of pleasure, but the pleasure quickly passes because no book stays at the top forever and there is always someone more “successful” who comes along.
If you want to truly be happy as a writer for the long term, it’s best to reject the writing community’s opinion. Let the story be the reward. Write the book you most want to read. Write the book so that you can go back to it over and over again, and, after reading it, you can think to yourself, “I’m so glad I wrote that.” That is the key to having a kind of joy that never goes away. You can’t control who reads the book, who will review it, how it ranks, or how much it makes. All you can control is the story itself.
August 5, 2020
My Thoughts on Joanna Penn’s Lessons Learns from Her 500 Creative Penn Postcast Episodes (Part 1) (A Post for Writers)
I thought I’d discuss this today. I love Joanna Penn, and I enjoy her Creative Penn podcast. I don’t get to listen to every episode these days, but she was instrumental in helping me get started with indie publishing back in 2009. She’s also a very lovely person. I’ve had the pleasure of actually meeting her, though it was all online. Someday, I hope to attend a writing event and get to meet her face-to-face.
Joanna’s Lesson #1: Write what you love.
My thoughts: Is it any wonder why I enjoy her as much as I do? If you’ve been on this blog for any length of time, you know I have ditched the write to market mindset and have fully embraced the writing for passion one instead.
When your heart isn’t in something, it is much harder to write it. Even writing from a place of passion has its problems. I can know what comes next in the story and I can be excited about the story, but there are days where the motivation to write isn’t there. I’ll sit down and try for 250 words. Usually, once I get past the 250 mark, the motivation starts to come to me. There are times, however, when it’s like pulling teeth the entire time I’m getting those 250 words out, and when that happens, I do other things for the day. I’m not of the mindset that we must write every single day. I think that’s a faulty mindset because the brain needs to take a break from time to time. Physically, we need sleep. Since we allow our bodies time to rest, we should let our minds have rest, too.
Also, I think writing the kind of books you want to read is the perfect reason to write. When you’re the one in control of the story (or let’s say your characters are in “control”), you will produce something unique that no one else will. This is why even if you were to select 100 authors and give them the same scenario (for example: “a mail order bride steps off the train and finds out the man she came to marry died the other day”), you’ll get 100 different ways of telling that story. There are many ways that specific idea can go. You have tons of variables to work with. The main characters’ personalities, what happens when she finds out the man is dead, secondary characters, and the conflict will all build a unique story.
I started writing romance because I had a specific book in mind to read but couldn’t find it. I’ve enjoyed reading romance since I was in the 8th grade. I mostly read teen romances, but I read some adult ones, too. Through college, I focused on my studies, so I didn’t get as much reading in as I used to, but after I was married and my kids were still all in diapers or pull ups (I had them all back-to-back like stair steps), I had the urge to return to reading romances. After a while, I began to want an author who kept all sex within marriage. I found one, but I realized I wanted certain plots and character types, too. So I broke down and started writing the kind stories I most wanted to read. I never expected anyone else to want to read them. I uploaded them to Amazon because I eventually wanted to buy a Kindle. Well, the rest just snowballed from there. I never imagined that I’d end up where I am. But it all started out with writing what I loved. And it continues because I keep writing what I love. Writing what you love means you will get through the ups and downs of the indie publishing business. Believe me, there is a lot of drama with publishing.
Joanna’s Lesson #2: It’s okay to suck in your first draft. Editing will turn your book into a finished product.
My thoughts: This is one thing I had trouble grasping when I was doing the first draft blog back in the 2010-2012 (I think those were the years). A couple of people didn’t seem to realize the first draft wasn’t supposed to be perfect. Most people did understand that. But there were a couple who made it a point to tell me the flaws in the story. It actually killed my enthusiasm for the blog. I felt like I had people with their red pens out ready to circle all of my errors. These days, I prefer to keep the first draft to myself.
Now, I didn’t stop writing the first draft posts on that blog because of the critics. I actually quit because that was the first time I ran into someone/some people who stole three of my ebooks and published them as their own. It’s much easier to go to a retailer with a takedown notice for copyright infringement if the book has already been published than to prove ownership over a first draft. But I think it was just a matter of time before I would have shut down that blog anyway. No matter how much I told these people I was doing a first draft and that it wasn’t supposed to be perfect, they still insisted on playing critique partner. If I wanted a critique partner, I would have asked for it. If I wanted to write for a critique group, I would write to market. But I want to write for passion, and that being the case, I am not inviting anyone to come in and tell me what to do with my story while I’m writing it. I know that sets a lot of writing-to-market authors on edge, but my reason for writing is not driven by sales. I want sales, of course, but my primary reason for writing is to produce the book I want to read years from now. To do that, it has to be authentic to my vision, and yes, I’m willing to give up on more sales to make that happen.
As a final note: perfection is a myth. No book will ever be perfect. And no book will ever please every single person on this planet. Just do your best and move on.
Joanna’s Lesson #3: We are independent authors. We create and license intellectual property assets.
My thoughts: This is why copyright protection is so important. This is why it matters if a scammer/pirate/thief takes a book and steals it for their own gain. The author is not compensated when these people come in and steal something they did not create.
Now, if someone were to work out a contractual arrangement where money is given in exchange for creative intellectual property, then that is fine. For example, I paid Stephannie Beman for the full creative intellectual rights to the Wyoming Series. We created a contract, signed it, and now the characters, the world, and everything in it, belongs to me. I can do whatever I want with the series. I can make ebooks, paperbacks, audiobooks, foreign versions, and more. That is a legal and moral way to conduct business in a way that protects the author’s copyright. Publishers work in the same way. Authors sign a contract granting publishers a certain amount of rights to their stories. Some publishers only want ebooks, but some want more than that, and this is all spelled out in the contract the authors sign.
Now, if someone decides they want to take a book they find and republish it as their own, create an audiobook with it, create a foreign version of it, TV/movie script, etc without getting the author’s permission, this is theft. It is wrong. I don’t care if the person stealing this book puts it up for free. If the author did not give their permission, this is a violation of copyright law.
That all said, creative intellectual property (like a book) can be broken up in many ways. It can be an ebook, paperback, and audiobook. This can be broken into different languages. This is why you can’t use the same ISBN (for example) for a Kindle (ebook for Amazon), an Epub file (ebook for B&N, Kobo, and Apple) a paperback book, and an audiobook. Each different version needs its own identification number because it is a different version.
For a more information, be sure to listen to Joanna’s video up above at the 19:30 mark.
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Joanna gives three more lessons, and this post is already longer than I planned. I’m going to divide this post up into two parts.
August 2, 2020
Coming Out of the Political Closet
Quick note: this is the only post I intend to make on this blog about my political views. This blog is dedicated to my books and writing-related issues, and I plan to keep it that way.
If politics isn’t your thing, please skip.
That disclaimer aside, here we go:
I have been bogged down by fear for a long time because I know it’s not popular to be a Trump supporter. It’s popular support other people, but he’s not one of them. But it’s true. I am a Trump supporter. I voted for him in 2016, and I plan to vote for him in 2020. I understand why people don’t like him, but I do.
I’ve decided to come out with this because I’ve been stuck in fear for the past few years, and I need to get past that. I’ve been afraid that people will no longer want to read my books. I’ve been afraid that I’ll lose friends I’ve made online. I was listening to Rush Limbaugh (yeah, I like him, too) this past week, and he said that the majority of conservatives are afraid to speak up. Then I’ve been watching videos from people like Tim Pool and Karlyn Borysenko (whom I don’t see eye-to-eye on everything but enjoy the perspective they bring to the table). These three make valid points on the importance of speaking up. I’ve decided this is the time I’m going to do it. I’m worried for the future of the United States. I don’t want to see it go in the same direction countries like Cuba and Venezuela did. I like the US Constitution. No country is perfect, but freedom of speech, freedom to peacefully assembly, freedom of religion, the right to bear arms, and law and order are things I value. I want these things to pass down to my children and their children.
The country is in serious trouble. People are divided (and some can argue that I’m attributing to that, which I’m not trying to do). Respect has flown out the window. I see the way some people talk to others, whether it be online or in person, and I am seeing how quickly things are unraveling. Some people aren’t even trying to be nice anymore. They’re screaming or throwing or hitting, and that is terrible. We are in a spiritual war. I study the Bible, and I see a lot of parallels between the nations that fell in the Old Testament and the things that are happening in this country today.
The thing that strikes me as odd, however, is how global the unrest seems to be. This puts a different aspect to things. I didn’t grow up believing that there was anything like the “end times” where things come together toward a one world government where everyone is forced to take some kind of mark in order to buy something. I came to believe in the Biblical end-times prophecy when I was in my 20s. I live in a small area, and right now, there are places where I can’t use cash. I’m also told I have to wear a mask in order to buy something in a store. I don’t know if we’re about to head into the end times scenario mentioned in the Book of Revelation, but I can see how that will all come into play. It used to be theoretical. Now it’s realistic.
I don’t know how things will go. A lot of this depends on prayer and what God’s people are going to do. I believe that President Trump is the best candidate to preserve the US Constitution. That’s why I’m voting for him.
I don’t get “messages” from God. I read the Bible, and I use that as my compass. There is an incidence, though, that might have been a time when I got a message from God. I had a feeling back in my very late 20s/very early 30s that the rapture was going to happen in my lifetime and that it was going to happen sooner than I expected. That “sooner” part was weird to me, but since this virus broke out across the world. I keep thinking everything is happening too soon. Things I never imagined last year are happening right before my eyes. Now, I don’t know if what I felt back then was really a “word from God” or not. I am not a prophet. This could have just been a random feeling that came upon me. I don’t know. I’d like to be right because I don’t want to be around for all of this, but if I’m wrong, it means I am wrong. God is always right, and the one place that is trustworthy is the Bible.
Anyway, I’ve been in a lot of turmoil since March over whether I should say something or just keep quiet, but over and over again, I keep getting this feeling that if I am going to be able to overcome my fears and live by faith, I need to come clean. And now that I have, I can move on.
If you decide that I’m crazy or that you don’t want to deal with me anymore, I understand. I’m not going to argue or debate with anyone. If you want to have a sincere discussion with me, I’m open to that. But I’m not going to go down the rabbit hole of name calling and personal attacks.
I’ll be going back to my usual blog posts from now on where I focus on my books and writing-related stuff. On Facebook, I still value that platform for the writing groups, so I’ll stick with writing and book stuff there, too. I have decided I need an outlet to express myself spiritually and politically, and I’ve chosen MeWe and Parler to do that. I put all that information in the “Where to Find Me” page on this blog.
