Leon Stevens's Blog, page 69

Weekend Wrap-up Sept 2: Bye-bye #IndieAugust (hello #?)

Forty-four books sold last month. One-hundred and twenty-four this year.

I won’t complain. But now every other #Indie{insert month here] has big shoes to fill.

On my blog this week:

Free Book Friday Sept 1: Yeah, it’s September already
Weird Wednesday Aug. 30th: Cats and Cartoons
Music Monday Aug. 28: Back to 1992 (earworm warning)

Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, and a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words.

My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/

Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and receive a free book!

Oh, pick me! C’mon, space stuff!

Free Book Friday Sept 1: Yeah, it’s September already.

Summer isn’t officially over until the 21st, but boy, does it feel like fall. Cool, damp mornings, wind, and there are leaves on the ground. I haven’t seen any geese flying south yet—

Oh, wait … there they are.

The story behind Free Book Friday:

I’ve met many authors and readers during my time marketing, cross-promoting, and blogging. I think writers have a responsibility to inform readers about all the indie authors out there in the very crowded world of book publishing. You can’t do it alone, and why would you when you have a supportive group available?

Readers don’t just read one author – they stick with their favorite genres. Therein lies the power in cross-promotion. If one of my readers buys a book from an author I promote, then chances are there will be a reciprocal effect, or so is the hope. Do I want to boost sales? Of course I do. Do I want to boost other’s sales? Why not. It’s called karma.

Some free book offers require a newsletter sign-up, which is a small non-monetary price to pay to try out a new indie author.

Reads From StoryOrigin and BookFunnel

StoryOrigin and BookFunnel allows authors to advertise their books to each other’s audience. I hope you have been able to discover a new favorite!

Featured Authors: Dylan McFayden and T.D. Wilson

Get Smuggler’s Valor for $0.99

T.D. Wilson was born in 1968 in Troy, Ohio and has been an avid fan of science fiction and fantasy from a very young age. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and has supported the systems and networks in several of the largest Supercomputing data centers in the world. His early thirst for adventure in reading began as he explored many of the great stories of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. As his reading scope expanded, Mr. Wilson was fascinated by strange new worlds from the magical of Middle Earth and Narnia to the far reaches of space in Star Trek and Babylon 5. As a science fiction author, he strives to integrate a realistic flavor to his worlds by providing his readers a feel for the real science in science fiction. A topic he loves to discuss with his friends and readers. Mr. Wilson still lives in Ohio with his wife and their two sons

Get Oblivion’s Shadow for free!

Review Copies

Review copies: Like reviewing books? Try my two poetry collections: Lines by Leon and A Wonder of Words

Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and receive a free book (poetry or science fiction or both): Leon’s Newsletter

Buy all three for less than $7: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BZFMXQYY

Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, and a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words.

My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/

Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and receive a free book!

Oh, pick me! C’mon, space stuff!

Weird Wednesday Aug. 30th: Cats and Cartoons

I was reading a poetry book the other day and found some formatting issues. Before I mentioned them to the author, I thought I should go through mine to make sure it was free of any scrutiny (other than the quality of the poems, that is). I came across one I forgot I penned during National Poetry Month and it made me chuckle.

Try to read the note on the left first.

From my second collection, A Wonder of Words

If I ever pet sit, I always leave a scrawled note to the owner from the pet, usually complaining about the quality of care they received while they were gone. When I did have cats, I once left a note to the friend who was going to feed them, complete with the mandatory backward “e”s and spelling mistakes (because cats write/spell). If I recall, it went something like this:

Thank u for loking aftr us. I (the blak and wite one) like to have stake for supper, and the orange cat will only eat onions.

Cartoons

Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, and a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words.

My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/

Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and receive a free book!

Oh, pick me! C’mon, space stuff!

Music Monday Aug. 28: Back to 1992 (earworm warning)

[If you know the song as soon as you see the title, it’s too late.]

There is a radio show on CBC here in Canada that occasionally does a feature called SYNTH: Songs You Need To Hear.

CBC MUSIC, Central · Mornings with CBC Music

Now, I can’t say to someone, “You’ll like this song” (or book for that matter) because I can’t presume that others will share my taste in music (or books), so it is safer to say, “You might like this” and if they don’t like it, so be it. Maybe you will find a new favorite.

I hear this son on the radio at least once/month.

Del the Funky Homosapien is the cousin of rapper Ice Cube.

One last item. You should never assume. I did. I assumed this massive book sale (300+) was all week long. I saw the date on the banner, but that’s just it. I saw it, I just didn’t pay attention because I already had in my mind the week-long time frame.

But, this is still going on:

Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, and a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words.

My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/

Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and receive a free book!

Oh, pick me! C’mon, space stuff!

Weekend Wrap-up Aug 26: 300

OK. Not the movie. But just as exciting.

One last hurrah—or huzzah if you wish—to celebrate Indie August. Over 300 indie books discounted just for you!

Don’t want to wade through that many books to find one you might like? There’s a handy filter to narrow down your search.

https://promotions.narratess.com/

-Leon

On my blog this week:

Free Book Friday Aug. 25: Jumping the Gun
Thursday Thoughts: A Day in the Life
Double Shot Weird Wednesday Aug 23rd: No Trouble Here/Did I miss something?
Music Monday Aug. 21: Aysanabee

Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, and a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words.

My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/

Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and receive a free book!

Oh, pick me! C’mon, space stuff!

Free Book Friday Aug. 25: Jumping the Gun

In sprinting, if you apply any pressure to the blocks (the thingies your feet are on) within 1/100th of a second* of the starting gun firing, you either: are given a warning, or are given the boot. Either way, quit trying to cheat. Yesterday, I hyped up a sale featuring 300+ discounted books happening today.

Oops. Today is the 25th, and the sale, which clearly states on the graphic I posted:
Yeah. Tomorrow.

Hey, that’s mine!

The link to the sale page is https://promotions.narratess.com. There’s nothing there right now, but you can copy or bookmark it.

*It might be 1/10th of a second, though. Go ahead. Look it up. I didn’t.

The story behind Free Book Friday:

I’ve met many authors and readers during my time marketing, cross-promoting, and blogging. I think writers have a responsibility to inform readers about all the indie authors out there in the very crowded world of book publishing. You can’t do it alone, and why would you when you have a supportive group available?

Readers don’t just read one author – they stick with their favorite genres. Therein lies the power in cross-promotion. If one of my readers buys a book from an author I promote, then chances are there will be a reciprocal effect, or so is the hope. Do I want to boost sales? Of course I do. Do I want to boost other’s sales? Why not. It’s called karma.

Some free book offers require a newsletter sign-up, which is a small non-monetary price to pay to try out a new indie author.

Reads From StoryOrigin and BookFunnel

StoryOrigin and BookFunnel allows authors to advertise their books to each other’s audience. I hope you have been able to discover a new favorite!

August Promos:

Discover New Authors

Review Copies

Review copies: Like reviewing books? Try my two poetry collections: Lines by Leon and A Wonder of Words

Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and receive a free book (poetry or science fiction or both): Leon’s Newsletter

Buy all three for less than $7: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BZFMXQYY

Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, and a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words.

My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/

Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and receive a free book!

Oh, pick me! C’mon, space stuff!

Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, and a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words.

My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/

Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and receive a free book!

Oh, pick me! C’mon, space stuff!

Thursday Thoughts: A Day in the Life

In the morning, I make my coffee, watch some news, then sit at the computer to:

1. Check my email
2. Check WordPress
3. Check my KDP dashboard
4. Check my social media accounts
5. Post my daily entertaining offerings
6. Open my latest WIP
7. Repeat steps 1-4 incessantly
8. Close my latest WIP and go about the rest of my day

If you are an indie author, the checking of your sales dashboard, whichever it my be, can be a bit of obsessive behaviour. Being on top of social media posts is another. posts quickly disappear in feeds, so that within minutes (or seconds), that wildly witty retort you just thought of descends into the quagmire of all the other witty retorts and achieves all-time low views of > 2.

Do you like sneak peeks? Indie authors? Lots of books on sale? Well, here’s what’s happening tomorrow:

Over 300 books from hard working authors!

Anyway, got to get back to step #1.

Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, and a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words.

My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/

Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and receive a free book!

Oh, pick me! C’mon, space stuff!

Double Shot Weird Wednesday Aug 23rd: No Trouble Here/Did I miss something?

After reading Nicholas’ post about KU click farms: https://nicholasrossis.wordpress.com/2023/08/23/understanding-the-kenp-scam/
I knew there was no doubt that I was clear of the controversy.

And now, Part II:

On my WordPress feed, I can now see the latest comment on the post and comment myself without reading the post itself? Hmmm. I must have missed the memo.

Do you ever feel out of the loop?

Well if you were on Twitter, a few weeks ago a big X showed up. So now you are no longer on Twitter. Maybe you went to eat at your favorite restaurant only to find out it closed. Remember watching the season finale and saying, “I can’t wait for the next season.” Well, that series was cancelled, you know.

This week’s cartoons:

Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, and a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words.

My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/

Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and receive a free book!

Oh, pick me! C’mon, space stuff!

Music Monday Aug. 21: Aysanabee

There is a radio show on CBC here in Canada that occasionally does a feature called SYNTH: Songs You Need To Hear.

CBC MUSIC, Central · Mornings with CBC Music

Now, I can’t say to someone, “You’ll like this song” (or book for that matter) because I can’t presume that others will share my taste in music (or books), so it is safer to say, “You might like this” and if they don’t like it, so be it. Maybe you will find a new favorite.

I could feature an indigenous Canadian musician every week if I wanted to. Aysanabee has been on my radar for a while.

Juno*-nominated artist Aysanabee is a multi-instrumentalist, producer and singer songwriter currently based in Toronto. He is Oji-Cree, Sucker Clan of the Sandy Lake First Nation a remote fly-in community in the far reaches of Northwestern Ontario.

Solemn and soaring, backed by a swirling blend of indie, soul and electronic soundscapes, mournful saxophone and pulse-quickening finger-picking, Aysanabee’s striking sound is equal parts hypnotic and melodic which has been compared to Bon Iver, Matt Corby, Don Ross, Kim Churchill, Kings of Leon and Sam Smith.

*The Junos are Canada’s equivalent to The Grammys

-Leon

Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, and a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words.

My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/

Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and receive a free book!

Oh, pick me! C’mon, space stuff!

Weekend Wrap-up Aug 19: Interviews

I have going over all the interviews I had done with other authors, deleting any broken links and expired promos. They were all on one page previously, but someone (me) accidentally pressed the wrong key and deleted it.

I have invited several authors to come back and revisit our conversation, and add some interjection, much like a director’s commentary. It’s interesting to see what has changed over the course of two years.

I hope to do more in the coming months as well as some new ones.

Leon Interviews Authors

-Leon

On my blog this week:

Free Book Friday Aug. 18: In Conversation Revisited – Abigail de Niverville
Thursday Thoughts: Poetry
Weird Wednesday Aug 16th: But, that’s what I sai—
Music Monday Aug. 14: Started out as Noah Kahan

Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, and a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words.

My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/

Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and receive a free book!

Oh, pick me! C’mon, space stuff!