C.J.R. Isely's Blog, page 5

A bit about the Future of Alamore

Good evening my fine readers!

Firstly - THANK YOU SO MUCH!

The Cutthroat Prince has been out for five days and already made it into so many hands and gotten three five star reviews to date. It means so much to me, can't even explain it. I hope you're all enjoying the new adventures, old friends, and Rowan's ever present smart mouth.

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But here's the point; In a discussion recently I was asked a question I realized I hadn't openly discussed much with my readers - how many books will there be in the William of Alamore series.

The short answer? 6. There are 6 rough draft books I wrote between the ages of 12 and 16 that I am revisiting and publishing. As I started these as a child without any idea on direction, I've got some gaping plot holes to fill in and redirect in order to have the books reach their conclusion correctly.

12 year old me didn't really have a plot, or even names, when I sat down and wrote. In fact, my original idea of Alamore included dragons in am epic fantasy (HA!) But when it morphed into low fantasy, I ran with it. This genre doesn't get much light but I've been so happy I tried it.

When it comes to the series, I'm working on the restructure now of book three - fill in plot holes and leave the bones of the story to guide it where it goes - and I've been mulling something over. I've been mulling over a spin off.

I've always wanted to do another tale in Alamore. The Falcon and The Stag, despite being a prequel, was written in 2020 (10 years after my original draft of book six) and I really enjoyed that work.

The spin off I really want to bring you all is The Ranger and his life before taking up his cloak and shadowed existence.

I don't want to spoil much here, as it might spoil the third book of the William of Alamore series. But what are your thoughts? Would you want to know more about the Ranger of Kings?

Ready for Book Two?

Ready for The Cutthroat Prince, book two in the William of Alamore series? I'm ready to get it published and into your hands! And we are so close!

But, as I know you are waiting and you have been fantastic readers, I wanted to share with you the start of this book. So, without much rambling, I give you the first page of The Cutthroat Prince...

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PROLOGUE

Heart slamming in his throat, threatening to strangle each rasping breath, the man ran harder, tripping over brambles and branches that caught at his clothing in the dark. His white-blonde hair fell over his blue eyes, blood dripped over his arms through his clothing, down his face like scarlet tears. Somewhere in the tangle of trees around him, he could hear the hammer of hooves, a second pulse that beat a strange separate rhythm through his skin and chest. Hindered with exhaustion and the stale tavern spirits he could still taste on his tongue he stumbled, this time not catching himself before sprawling in the dirt on his chest. He felt blood leap to his skin where it had torn over his palms and knees. Swaying, he tried to push himself up. Run! He could hear the word screaming through his head. Run!

The hooves were nearing, getting closer and closer with each breath, the moon’s silver light was filtering through the trees, showing nothing but branches and the sheen of the river only a few yards ahead, in the clearing of trees. Reaching it seemed impossible without being spotted and, even if he could, he couldn’t swim well sober let alone in his current state. He closed his eyes, half hoping he might vanish. Perhaps they wouldn’t see him here.

“Pathetic,” the voice above him sent a shiver through his body, deep and cold in his chest. He opened one eye and the world spun round him. He swallowed the panic and sick rising in him and lifted his face to the hooves that had stopped between him and the water, blocking his way forward. Black feathered hooves that led up the powerful legs of the fine animal, a horse the color of a clouded night, its eyes reflecting the distant moon in two faint stars so high above it may have been miles. The rider might have been the specter of death in his grey cloak, a sword swaying at his saddle, too far away to see if he even had a face.

“Mercy.” The man’s voice croaked, and he winced, his eyes stinging with tears. “Mercy, please, please have mercy.”

Someone else in the shadows cackled, high and manic, but the rider before him merely cocked his head. “Mercy?” he sounded unimpressed, indifferent. “Surely the guards of Alamore are supposed to show more grit than that.”

More laughter. The man on the ground squeezed his eyes shut, fighting the whimper that rose in his chest. “Please. Please don’t kill me.”

There was a faint musical note, the sound of spurs as the rider dismounted and approached him, each step shadow light. “Look at me,” said the rider, sounding bored.

The Alamore guard lifted his face, eyes still tightly squeezed shut, waiting for the death blow to slice through him.

“I said look at me,” snapped the rider, impatience making his tone sharper.

Creating A Fantasy Map

No story in set in a fictional world ever feels complete without a map. For Ranger of Kings, I debated how to create a map but ended up publishing the first book in the William of Alamore series without one. Immediately, though, I regretted that. Being able to see the world being described, follow the adventures through new lands, is a huge piece of any story. Perhaps it's something we can blame Tolkien for, eh?

Shortly after publishing Ranger of Kings, I started seeking out artist to create my perfect map. I had an idea in mind for the land. I've been familiar with the world of Alamore since I first met my characters at the age of 12 but now I needed to bring that world to life for new readers. But the artist I could find in my price range didn't have maps that I loved and those that I love...well, as many indie authors will know, that's often not in our price range.

That stated, I will be the first to tell any author - if you expect people to spend money on your book, you best be ready to spend money on your book to make it worth their time! Editing, covers, all of it will cost money but I couldn't quite reason a map costing upwards of $100 into my budget.

So, instead, I set about creating one and that's what I'm here to teach you to do (well, kind of.)

First things first - draw your map on paper. It's always a lot easier to do that. I drew mind out sometime back and had it on my facebook page so my readers could check it out there (sorry for the poor quality, my fine readers, I was learning and an indie author child at that time.) That's your start.

Second? Make sure you have a digital drawing app. I use Sketchbook by Autodesk for a few reasons - the first of which is that it's super easy to figure your way around (imagine early 2000s microsoft paint but on steroids) and secondly, and gloriously, Sketchbook is FREE. But, if you have access to paid art programs such as Illustrator (Which is more intelligent than I can figure my way around) feel free to use those.

Thirdly - Upload a picture of your map to this app. Add it on a new layer (if you don't know what layers are, I seriously recommend a quick Youtube tutorial on how to use a drawing app. It will do you wonders.) Once you've uploaded it to a layer and adjusted to to give your canvas (which should be size 1000 wide, 1600 pixels long) I want you to use the toggle to make that layer slightly transparent so your lines aren't super dark.

Four - create a new blank layer on top of you map layer and begin to trace your map. This can take some time. Make sure you have other fantasy maps as reference. I did three lines to signify the edge of my land, as well as horizontal lines to signify water. This now is artistic preference and research and - let me tell you - TIME CONSUMING. If you don't have the time to learn how to do this, you will struggle to make something that looks good. I've also included my map here so you can use it for comparisons.

Five - hours. Just work on this for hours. Add the detail you want, the features you like, and as you do so, consider adding these on new layers so you can add and subtract without risking other features getting erased as well.

Most of this is going to just be time consuming. People can ask a fair bit for the creation of maps because maps take a long time. That lease you to weigh between if it is worth your time or if you'd rather pay to have someone on a platform such as Fiverr create it for you.

To make things easier, I do recommend using an iPad or, if you're like me and don't have an iPad, you may want to invest in some sort of drawing pad that attaches to your computer. I bought a very small WACOM pad off of facebook marketplace and, though it took some time to learn it, I have been using it to create all sorts of art lately. Not as effective as an iPad perhaps, but it will be a budget friendly way for you to create a magical fantasy world of your own so your readers can plunge further into your story.

Hopefully some of this was useful to you. If you have questions or tips, please feel free to comment so other self published authors can learn how to best create their own maps as well.

As always, thank you for learning with me.

C. J. R. Isely

May The Books Be Ever In Your Favor

A list of Must Read Books for Young Adult Fantasy and SciFi lovers (plus a lot are free!)

Whether you're a reader who can run through a book a day, or an audiobook lover who can listen to a stack of novels while plugging away at your job, this is something you'll want to check out.

Now that we are entering May, it means we are entering a new list of free giveaways, review books, kindle unlimited reads, and audiobook review copies that you will want to claim up and enjoy in the lengthening summer days.

Most of these are angled toward my fellow young adult readers, with the occasional middle grade thrown in, so there is a book for everyone. The best part of a free book isn't the free portion but the new story you will get to discover.

I myself recently went through an audio review copy of King's Warrior (which is listed in one of the links below) and found it to be a fantastic Fantasy Adventure. This had my perfect twist of action, adventure, danger, dragons, swords, and twists. When the country is facing threat from a long feared enemy, the Princess, a Squire, the King's Warrior, and a young boy, are all that might be able to save the Kingdom from certain collapse into Darkness. The tale was really brought to life with the narrator's excellent talents. So, be sure you go check it out as well as the other books listed in these links.

I'll break these out by category so it's that much easier for you to find what you're seeking

Don't wait! Some of these end VERY VERY SOON!

Sales & Kindle Unlimited Novels: Short Free Reads: Review Audio Copies:

Be sure you read, review, repeat. Authors such as myself can not thank you enough for your support and sharing your feedback. If you really love a book, be sure to pass that on to your reader friends, groups, and family.

Best,

C. J. R. Isely

Why is it harder to write a sequel?

Here we are, at the end of 2020, a year of growth, of change, of losing the normal and finding a new way to not just survive, but to thrive.

 

2020 started for me with the publication of my first book, Ranger of Kings, just before the United States was pushed into Lockdown. When that happened, we were all shifted to work from home, to find a new way to work. For me, it meant some really serious talks with my other half about where we wanted to be for the long run… and it wasn’t where we were.

 

Writing has had to fight for time with me against a volley of things – a full time job, a home remodel, training horses, training a puppy, searching for our next house, selling the first house I ever bought, and writing the prequel – The Falcon and The Stag.

 

And now where are we?

 

We are about 70% done with the rough draft of the hardest book I’ve ever wrote – the sequel of Ranger of Kings. It’s that exciting time where I am starting to seek out cover ideas, get the title ready for reveal, and the story is, at long last, flowing. Which brings me to the thing I realized most this year…

 

Writing book two, writing any sequel, is the hardest thing to do for myself as an author! Where book one already had a rough draft written years ago, and book two had the same, I imagined it would be a breeze. I was wrong. Dead wrong. The twist end at Ranger of Kings actually threw off the beginning of the second book and, when I saw down to write, I could not seem to bring the story to life. So I erased it….and started again….

 

Overall, I’ve written over 300k words and thrown them aside knowing they are not right, struggling with if this book will ever come out how I want it. And, at long last, I see the light at the end of that tunnel. The sequel is finally starting to come together now because I realize now why book two is harder to write than book one.

Expectations. Like it or not, you have book one out to the world and there are expectations. You read those reviews and they will either inspire or kill you. For me, I read a lot of reviewers loved my book but found the intro started slow and I took it too personally. I dove forward trying to change that, trying to make the beginning different but it wasn’t my style of writing in the least. It was someone else trying to morph it, not myself trying to write it.
Book one didn’t cooperate. And that’s a big part of it! Book one didn’t end how it was supposed to. It did it’s own thing and threw off the book two piece. So the sequel can’t start how it’s supposed to and then you’re sitting there, scratching your head, wondering what the heck happened. This meant I had to step back and really think of what I had to do now.
Pressure. You feel pressure to get book two out fast for your readers. You are trying to push it so they can binge on books one and two, so they can lap the series right up, both for themselves and for the meager amount you make off each 2.99 eBook. So you’re trying to write it and it’s just not happening fast enough and you panic and panic and panic
Life. Life really doesn’t cooperate with making book two easy. Book one you don’t think about how long it truly took until you’re staring down the barrel of book two and realizing you’ve got to make dinner, do laundry, work a full time job, remodel that house, have time for your family… it can get ugly.

But we know book two is harder, and it’s not necessarily unusual, at least I don’t believe so myself. The more important thing, though, is that it is manageable. You can combat this in the way you might try to overcome writers block and defeat the demons of distractions in writing. How have I been doing this at long last?

Realize it’s OK to write how you write. Sure, people might not think book one started fast enough, but they still rated it 4-5 stars, which means they liked my characters and the time it took to develop them. So write for you, and only you.
Timers. Oh this is a life saver for myself. I always think I don’t have time to write, it’s the thing I can push off to take care of the rest of the world, but then I am in a bad mood because I need to write to be happy! So take the time. I set a 3 minute timer to start and wrote, wrote as much as I could, without editing, without trying to control what happened, and let the page take life before my eyes. Write garbage, it’s fine. Just WRITE. And when the timer goes off and you only have four lines? It’s fine. Set another. Try to get five this time.
Remember you love it. Remember you are writing because you love your books, your characters, your world, and your writing. You are writing because you love to write and the moment you don’t, you need to step back and breath. You need to take a moment for yourself. Try writing something else, go for a walk, just lay on the couch with the TV off and image what is happening next.
Revisit your characters in book one. I’m an audiobook lover so I put my headphones on and was drawn back into my book, back to the world of Alamore. Don’t feel bad for forgetting what happened in book one. It was a whirlwind. Take that time to go back to your book.
Start at the end. Serious; I wrote the last 10k words well before I could find the start of the book. The start was so difficult! So I decided I liked the end better and would go back to the end, write something else, a scene already in my head, and skip the hard part. Later, my characters seemed to tell me how they got there and that’s exactly how I’ve gotten as far as I have this time round on book two.
Again… Just WRITE. Set that timer. Kick it out. Allow yourself not to judge yourself. Your brain is programmed for survival, not pleasure. You need to remind yourself that you will survive if you write something that isn’t great and, more over, you will never please the world with your books. You are writing novels because you love to do that. Set the timer. Write. Don’t look back until you’re done.

 

Hopefully these little tips can help out other authors running into the same road block as I did. Don’t worry; you’re not alone.

 

If you’ve found tips that help you get through the writing process or ideas on how to handle writers block in sequels, drop them below! Aways interested in hearing other people’s journeys.

Ranger of Kings Audiobook Arrival! And you could get it for FREE…

Hello my dear readers and now listeners – for it has finally arrived – Ranger of Kings is available in audio format.

 

With the talent of Jordan Westengaard, you can bring the world of Alamore to life on your road trip, as you clean, and while working remote (though not recommended in your meetings as it will prove delightfully distracting.) Available on Amazon, Audible, and iTunes, now!

 

What is Ranger of Kings about?

Will has always dreamed of becoming a knight. Stuck as a lowly village boy with no dreams or aspirations, when he’s summoned to train as a squire in the mighty castle of Alamore, it seems too good to be true. He’s determined to prove himself to the other squires that he trains with every day.

But there’s much more to becoming a knight than meets the eye. After stumbling upon a secret network of passageways hidden beneath the castle, Will uncovers a group of long-forgotten enemies of the crown. As old alliances with other kingdoms begin to fracture and their uneasy peace comes to an end, Will finds himself thrust headlong into a brewing war—and he soon realizes that more than luck brought him to Alamore.

Will must unravel the secrets lurking in the shadowy halls of Alamore and find a way to stop a seemingly inevitable war. But the answer lies with a man even more mysterious than the passages he roams. A man known as the Ranger of Kings…

This book is a great first installment in the series that is sure to thrill fans of Young Adult, no magic fantasy / low fantasy in a medieval fiction worlds.

Do I have to read the prequel first?

Absolutely not! But, if you would like to read the prequel first, you will receive it for free by subscribing to this site!

 

The audiobook can be found on Amazon, Audible, and iTunes! But wait, there is something else!

 

By subscribing to this website before August 17th of 2020, you will be entered in a drawing to receive the audiobook absolutely FREE! That’s 100% read right. You will receive the book for free in order to enjoy it all the more! All we ask of you is subscribe and, after enjoying the novel, please review it!

* Due to restrictions on our contest codes, you will have to have access to a US or UK Amazon account.

 

Anyone, however, can find the book on Amazon or iTunes to download!

 

I appreciate you following this blog, reading this update, subscribing, and joining the adventures of Alamore.

Free eBook – The Falcon and The Stag

Morning my fine readers!

 

I apologize for the lack of communication of late, my blogging skills are still improving.

 

For the past few months I have been battling with book two in the William of Alamore series – and it needed a break. So, I’ve decided my readers still need something. With that said, I am excited to announce that the prequel of Ranger of Kings, The Falcon and The Stag, is set for release on July 18th!

 

This is a short story regarding the Kings prior to King Revlan of Alamore and King Tollien of Thornten and illustrates more of the history of the tunnels, the relation between Alamore and Thornten, and the betrayals that can threaten a throne and country. It will be available for Kindle or paperback purchase on Amazon or – better yet – you can get a FREE EBOOK COPY by subscribing on this website!

 

I look forward to getting to share this book with all of you lovers of medieval fiction, no magic fantasy, knights, sword fighting, high action books; this is a perfect one for you. All I ask is that you subscribe to receive it (and future free ebooks and novellas) and, if you can, review it on Amazon and Goodreads alike!

 

Keep your eye out too for the opportunity to win a signed paperback copy of The Falcon and The Stag

Ready Set Sell – Self-Publishing through KDP: What to expect, what I did, what I’d do again, what I’d do differently

CONGRATULATIONS! You have done it. That final draft is ready for your readers, ready to go out to the world and pull people into the story. So…what now?

 

You’ve decided to self-publish your novel, short stories, poetry collection, or novella and now you’re stumped. There are a lot of options, and there are a lot of pros and cons to each. I can only speak for myself, what I did and what decisions I’ve made.

 

When I decided KDP was the right route for my first book, it was after several hours of weighing decisions. These are some of the things that caught my interest.

 

Money! Or the lack thereof… Working my 8-5 was getting bills paid for a house, a horse, a dog, myself, and so on. To publish through some self-publishers was an expensive upfront that I couldn’t afford and wasn’t willing to take a loan out for. I’ve never been a credit card person, and this wasn’t the time to become one. With Amazon KDP, it was a “free” means to publish. I’ll explain the quotations around “free” when we get to the decisions I made later on.
It’s Amazon! Yes, you read that right. The print on demand style would be sold straight through Amazon, one of the biggest suppliers of books in the world.

 

DIY: Do It Yourself Publishing that was made easy. It was a way to get my book out there with some research but all of that was in my control and I liked it. However fast I got it published was up to me. I set a goal and was able to hit it for a release date because it was all on me.

 

KDP Select: This is the ultimate back and forth. I did a lot of research and I recommend you do the same for this. When it boiled down to a decision, I opted to join KDP Select for the following reasons
ROYALTIES! Your eBook Royalties double when you agree to be part of the KDP Select Program. 70% per book sale meant my $4.99 eBook was bringing in more than my $14.95 paperback.
Page Reads: With Kindle Direct Publishing Select you are paid when users of Kindle Unlimited (think Netflix for eBooks) decide to reach your book. You are paid roughly $.005 per page which doesn’t sound like much, but it can add up if you’re promoting your book.
Page Reads Help You Again: Page reads on Kindle Unlimited actually improve your over eBook Best Seller ranking in Amazon. This is great for getting it to trend upwards.
Promotion: These are some pieces I am still figuring out but there are some great tools through Select for your Promos. These are countdown days and free days. The Free Days are what I opted to use. I did a free promo out the gate (Perhaps not wise but I had reasons) because I wanted to get my book to readers going into COVID-19 lockdown (see. Reasons.) I was able to give away 199 books over 5 days and, to top it off, they count as sales in my Best-Seller Ranking (BSR).
It’s not forever: Every 90 days you are automatically reenrolled, but you don’t have to be. If you decide that Kindle Select isn’t for you, you can opt out.

But there are reasons you might not be interested and here they are

You’re agreeing to exclusively sell your eBook through Amazon Kindle. There is no option for Apple, Google, Nook, or any of those platforms. You can’t even share portions online for your friends. If a PDF version is leaked and put online, you will be warned and later removed from the program if it’s not pulled off the internet.
Page Reads may not be reliable: someone pointed out to me that page reads rely on the reader having Wi-Fi when they are reading. This means that if they are in the car or something, their pages read may not count. This wasn’t a big deal to me because, in my mind, I wasn’t aiming for page reads. I was aiming for sales and page reads are a bit of added candy.
Some Awards are a Nope: Notable prizes like New York Times Bestseller List are a no go when you’re in KDP Select. Bummer, right? They need your eBook available on several platforms and to sell a certain number through those (though not the purpose of this post.) Long and short: You can’t win in KDP Select.

 

When I weighed those out against my goals, Select was still the best choice for me and, if later down the road that changed or changes, I have the ability to opt out. Win Win.

 

 

Where I saved money

 

Editing… WHICH IS NOT RECOMMENDED FOR ALL AUTHORS! If you have a bad edit, you will get bad reviews, you will lose readers. The only thing that was my saving grace was family. My father, an author himself, read it three times while my sister, an avid reader with attention to detail and an amazing English and Grammatical mind, went through it once. She caught a lot, even after my dad and I had gone through it. She was editing for mistakes in writing as well as editing pieces of the story that weren’t great. If I didn’t have those two, I would have paid. Don’t trust any reader to be just an editor. Make sure attention to detail is there as well as an expectation of what needs done.

 

Formatting my eBook and Paperback editions: I would do it again without a doubt. I actually enjoyed formatting, once I wrapped my head around it. There are some amazing videos on YouTube for how to format your paperback copy while Kindle Create – a free software on KDP – can help lay out your eBook for in simple steps. If you are looking to save money, consider your own formatting

 

Audiobook Options: This is something in the works for me, because I am still waiting to get back my first audiobook. KDP is somewhat of a sister company with ACX. There is an option on their site that, going exclusively through Audible, you can split royalties with your narrator and get your audiobook done for virtually free. I won’t dive too much into this in this blog, just know it’s out there when you’re ready.

 

 

Where I spent money

Book Covers: This is one of the places that I implore people to stop pinching pennies. You need to do your homework, don’t just steal images on google. KDP has a way to create a basic cover, so that would be free. The big thing is that people really do judge a book by its cover. I designed what I wanted for Ranger of Kings, found a reputable cover designer on Fivver, and sent her the sketch asking if she could find stock images to recreate it. If you go this route be aware; unless you make it different, that cover could be the same as someone else’s with a different color. I had a backup option, as well as having designed exactly what I wanted, so I knew the likelihood was lower. Look at reviews, be sure you get the source file and your cover designer is using images they have purchased the licenses to.

 

Marketing: This has been my biggest expense and I don’t regret anything about it. Since the release of my book, I have learned how to create and manage Facebook and AMS ads. There are amazing resources on YouTube for both of these. Also, check out the Kindlepreneur – they offer a free course about AMS ads. There are organic ways to grow your following and sell for free. You will invest hours into that and, again, it’s worth it. I’ll post another blog at some point and my most successful organic reach strategy to date.

Software: After taking the Kindlepreneur course, I did invest in the Publisher Rocket Keyword Tool. This was $97 but, with the number of books I will be writing, plus the fact that I will be helping out my dad in marketing his book shortly, it was logical. My time is worth that investment.

 

ISBN: Now you don’t actually have to do this. Again, you can publish for free on KDP if you do everything through there and do it yourself. But, in using the free ISBN, you are willingly selling only through Amazon. My eventual plan is to get into a brick and mortar style establishment, so I wanted my own ISBN. I needed different ones for each “edition” of my book (i.e. you need one for your eBook, one for a paperback, one for the eventual hardcover, one for your audiobook.) What this means is you need about 2-4 ISBNs. This can get expensive. I purchased my own from Bowker, where one can cost you about $150, but ten of them are $300. I split the purchase with my father, who, as I mentioned before, getting set for his publication. He bought three of them off me, I got the rest. Now I have them for future books. Again, this was a personal choice not to go with the KDP offered one, not a required purchase.

 

What would I do differently?

 

BETA Readers: I didn’t do enough homework before I published, and I will fully admit to that. I didn’t have Advance Readers Copies of my book because I didn’t know it was a thing. When it came out, therefore, I had to push the book to be purchased and then push for reviews. Beta Readers are readers who read and honestly review your book before publication. This helps your book stand our better on Amazon for a few reasons 1) the algorithm likes more reviews whether good or bad and 2) readers like reviews because we like to know we are buying a good book. I will go this route in future.

 

Pre-market: I did this organically, but I will be doing this again with more force. Try to build a mailing list to email updates about your next book, market about the release date and get people to pre-order. This his huge to kick off your first days of sales higher on the best-selling pages.

 

Other marketing strategies: I was learning when I released my book. I hadn’t looked into Goodreads, Bookbub, Twitter, or even merchandise. Be prepared to try multiple marketing strategies. For me, I plan bookmarks as part of my next book release.

 

Edit Again!!! Seriously. You can’t edit your book enough. Even the first print of Harry Potter had six errors in it, with a professional editing team. Go through your book and let someone else who is good at editing do the same. Be harsh on yourself. Use free tools like Grammarly and Google Docs. Get your book right or fear that it will be roasted in the reviews. The saving grace is that you can pull your book off of Amazon and edit it and reupload it.

 

Would I still do it?

 

YES.  Given the chance the only thing I would do differently is my marketing. I would put more into it. There are free and organic ways to build a following (Another blog later on) but be ready to invest in your book. If you can’t invest in your book, why should your readers? Make sure you’re adding value in anything you do. Because it isn’t your book that sells. It’s the value you bring to the table that is being purchase.

Hopefully this has helped some of you in your decision making. Now, happy publishing and be sure to check back in for future blogs!

Where it began

Sunlight poured through my window, over a desk that I didn’t use, over a shelf of lego castles and pictures of scenes from Harry Potter that I had cut from a calendar. Sitting on my twin bed, I was doing what I had been doing for years; starting over a new story. At twelve, I’d loved writing since I learned how to sting sentences together to create new places, people, worlds, but I’d never finished book. Just a pile of beginnings and they never were finished.

There was no way of knowing that book would be different at that time, no telling it would be the first one I saw all the way through to the end. Characters came to life and my story line fell aside as I wrote, none of what I had expected ever happened, and, when I was done writing my first book, I found myself staring at the screen of my laptop. I had written it in about four months and suddenly needed to write the second book, needed to continue with these characters.

Perhaps it was something to do with moving to a new state months before and knowing few people, perhaps it was just perfect timing, but suddenly I was finishing books. Books with the same characters. In six years I wrote six books, my emotions torn to pieces at times as characters came into my life and were ripped out of the pages again. Soon there was a whole series and I was staring at them, my pride and joys, loving what I had before me.

But they just stayed before me. I didn’t publish them, I barely edited the first, and they were in my bookshelf, no one else’s, with plastic binder covers. I went to college. I got a job. I fell back into being unable to finish what I’d start writing with the exception of my lyrics.

It was in 2019 that I realized I needed to take a look at myself. My current job had brought me there, really, and not because I was unhappy, not because I didn’t feel like I fit in. It was looking at the people I worked with, an amazing team discussing how they got where they were and how they had done it by following their passion. Sales, marketing, and a full team who did creative things like editing and writing scripts and I realized I hadn’t been true to myself as these people were. But where to start? I’d written my first book over a decade ago…

So a half a lifetime later I was there, staring at the first page of a first book and realizing that I was twelve when I wrote it. When I was twelve it was perfect, it was a book, it was something I was right to be proud of. When I was twenty five, it was rough, it was unorganized, and it needed overhauled to be published. The thought was daunting but I gritted my teeth. Everyone was doing what they loved so why not me too?

I quickly found my editing turning into deleting more than just words but sentences, and then paragraphs, then I was highlighting and removing pages as I plunged in. I was caught, again, in the magic of writing, meeting my characters again in a way I never could have the first time I wrote the books because, this time, I knew where it was going. I knew the last page to the last book in the series.

Between October and January I edited and rewrote over four hundred pages. But that wasn’t enough. I couldn’t put it on a shelf again, despite how terrifying the idea of putting my heart and soul out for the world to see and judge was. I pushed forward. It was my family who helped me edit, my boyfriend who helped me find my perfect cover, and my twelve year old self who created a world I could fall in love with all over again.

The first book of the William of Alamore series was published by March 1st 2020, almost exactly thirteen years from when I had started writing that same book the first time.

It’s not easy, realizing your work needs work. It was sleepless nights and early mornings, writing as much as I could before rushing to my job that paid the bills. Nothing ever seems to be easy if it’s worth having, right? And let me tell you this; it’s only worth having because you have to work so hard to achieve it.