Tiffany Shearn's Blog, page 12

Author Pages and Reviews

After seven days, I have eleven pre-orders! I know not all of them are friends and family, but they are all because of friends and family who also shared and posted about my book available for pre-order. Thank you to everyone for the support. It has been amazing. 

Now, some of you might be raising an eyebrow and saying, “Really? Eleven? That’s all?”

As you all know, I am currently a complete unknown as a writer. No one is searching for me just yet. People need to see my book first and then think it sounds interesting enough to buy. That is where advertising comes in, but I have decided to wait a little longer. More research is required to spend any money I put toward advertising as wisely as possible. 

Author Pages

Now that I have a book live, I have set up some of my author pages. Check out the links to follow me or see my pages: 

Amazon: It was easy to set up at author.amazon.com once I had a book available to claim. For all my pages, I’m using the same photo and bio. I also linked my blog feed to it. I had to look up the RSS feed URL, but Amazon took a standard one with no problem. Goodreads: My book did not show in any searches, even with the ISBN and pre-order release. I had to set up the book before I could claim it to get an author page. The blog feed was NOT working for me at first on Goodreads. It did not like the standard RSS or ATOM feed URLs. I used Google’s Feedburner to resolve the issue, so the feed is now live.  Bookbub (not a link yet): I have to be honest, I’m not familiar with Bookbub at all, and my author page is still pending review. They said it could take a couple of weeks. From what I have read, this is primarily for audio and ebooks. I have also heard there are some great promo options. I will have to wait to share more once I’m approved.Are there any I’m missing? If you have something you use or refer to all the time for books, please comment to let me know!Reviews

As a reader, I had no idea how critical good reviews are for newer authors. You generally understand the concept because you look at the star rating and the number of reviews when shopping. As a shopper, you fail to internalize that people who like something are less likely to write about it. An author I follow does a bonus scene on her website when she reaches 100 reviews on a new release as an incentive to review. It is a good idea, but I’m not there yet with the content I have available. 

I’m going to release ARCs to early readers in exchange for honest reviews in mid-November. I’m targeting about 2-3 weeks ahead so that people are finishing it up just before or after the book is released. Amazon does not allow reviews on ebooks ahead of the release date, which is why I’m cutting it closer. I believe that is different for paperbacks. It is also different for Goodreads. One of my beta readers liked the book enough to write a full review and post it! 

Everything is off to a great start, and I hope it continues that way. I think my ultimate goal is to get a total of fifty reviews on Hidden Memory by the time the fourth and final in the series comes out. That gives me a couple of years to drum up more reviews with each release. While daunting, I think it is an achievable goal. I guess we will see how that starts in December! For now, I’m off to research advertising!

Available for Preorder!

My book officially drops onto e-readers in just over ten weeks and is available for preorder now! I hit the submit button on Amazon this morning and was so nervous that something would go wrong. They say it can take up to 72 hours before it is live for preorder, so I was bracing for a long wait. I can’t even tell you how much I have been grinning since getting the notification that it went through just fine, but you can probably imagine. 

Before I delve into some publication sharing, I want to say thank you to everyone who helped me get this far. The interest and support of family and friends helped me push past the fear and imposter syndrome and make it to this stage. The professional support for artists, editors, and readers is crucial to realizing a vision. I tried to name all of the direct contributors in the back of the book, and I know I missed some of you. Please consider this for you as well as the additional thanks I’m sure to write when the book is published and available. 

Hitting Submit

I know there are some fellow authors following me or looking in on these, so I also want to share some of the steps I have been taking recently to get to this point. While I am not going to say the Amazon publishing tools are perfect, I have found them all relatively easy to work with. A lot of these steps I set up and started playing around with a few months ago just in case I had any issues understanding what was happening. 

First, I set up a KDP account separate from my personal Amazon account. I’m not sure exactly what might happen if I mixed them, but I made sure they were separate just in case. One that was set up, I went to my “Bookshelf” and started setting up Hidden Memory in the tool as a draft. I wanted to see how it looked and what options there were. I’m still not sure about the categories I selected, but I can adjust those by contacting Amazon later, so those are not a deal-breaker for moving forward. (They could be critical to sales, so do not discount the importance of categories.)

I also decided to use the Kindle Create tool to turn my Word doc into an ebook format. There are pros and cons to this. I will probably use it again, but I will keep in mind the limitations. 

Pros: 

Following the instructions, it read and formatted the file well.It includes tools for frontmatter and backmatter (see this blog post for great links) which were simple and useful.It allows nice preview of the document in multiple formats. 

Cons: 

The KPF files are not able to be used on other tools. This is impactful because I plan on using BookFunnel for ARCs (post probably next week on this). The frontmatter/backmatter does not translate.

I shifted to Calibre for BookFunnel to create a mobi. KDP no longer accepts mobi files, so it is something to keep in mind.

Once my book was published, I was able to create my Amazon author page, and I also submitted for a Goodreads author page. The latter is still pending, so TBD on how that works. My next steps are a Bookbub author page, a BookFunnel account, and gathering ARC readers to submit early reviews. I plan on getting to some paid advertising next month or closer to the release date to generate some additional interest, but I have no idea what that looks like yet. There is always something more to learn and do.

I hope you are having a great weekend. Go Sounders! Go Mariners! 

Cat Loaf

I recently learned the term “cat loaf,” and it makes me chuckle every time. I waited diligently for one of my cats to assume the position so I could take a picture for you. It took a while because it was sunny today, and cat loaf is not a sun-lounging pose.

Little Cat is now officially out of the kitten phase. She is still high energy, but she has taken to more lap-sitting over the last month or so in the evenings. Big Cat has no problem with her using him as a full-body pillow—after all, she can serve as a heated blanket for him—but he grumps at her when she starts grooming him while he tries to get his 23.5 hours of sleep a day.

My husband calls her “the president of the Big Cat fan club.” She will be playing with us, and all of a sudden you can hear his collar move in another room. Little Cat tears off, completely forgetting about us and whatever toy was in play, to find her best friend in the whole world. We think it is adorable. Big Cat probably still wonders why we thought it was a good idea to bring such a pest into his domain.

I’m glad we had friends who stopped by to help watch the cats while we were in Florida last month. Big Cat’s old-man digestive system means he needs more than just a dish of kibble left out for him. They both survived our absence with no issues other than an odd litterbox complaint, and we are cruising along.

My nephew plays outfield like my sister did as a kid: playing with dirt piles.

This weekend is all about sports and working on the next book. We stopped by my niece’s soccer game in the morning and then my nephew’s baseball game in the afternoon. Tomorrow we attend an OL Reign game with some friends. Between all of that, I’m working on the rough draft of the next book. Next week I submit book one for pre-order. I have the backmatter all set to go in the draft that will be uploaded, and I will be seeking ARC (advanced review copy) readers toward the beginning of November.

Next weekend I will share more publication information (I hope), as I believe once I have a book available for pre-order, I will be able to have my Amazon Author, Goodreads, and Bookbub pages as well because I can claim my “live” book. If all of that goes smoothly, I will share some details. If it doesn’t then I might end up sharing problems and having to just tell you “I’m working on figuring out what went wrong.” Fingers crossed!

Electrifying!

Yesterday was a full day of food, friends, and D&D! We usually play on the first Thursday of each month, but if there are five Thursdays in a month, we try to sneak in a Saturday game. Warning: this post includes some RPG violence. If you prefer to avoid reading that part, skip straight to the “Budgeting” heading below.

My players have been leaving rooms unexplored at their backs more regularly in the Dungeon of the Mad Mage, and this time it came back to bite them. Xanathar’s Guild members snuck into the main room and set up an ambush. Valorik went down, and Urg had to fall back under a hail of arrows and Javelins as they entered, leaving the party scrambling to react. While they managed to overcome the initial surprise and win that battle, it ended up costing them a healing potion, eight hours for a long rest to recover, and a hit to Urg’s pride. Once they woke up from their early nap, they decided they had enough of level one and headed down the long stairs to the Arcane Chambers. 

The first thing they found was a goblin bazaar. There, the goblin’s leader happened to be holding prisoner one of the betrayers of the revenant they have allowed to tag along with them. My players have decided to help the dead guy take revenge against his three former party members who beat him to death and threw him in a pit. I was a little surprised that “let the revenant beat the prisoner to death” was left on the table as an option, but they decided on a swift execution instead. 

Finally, in the last set of rooms explored yesterday, one room held a copper door that they strongly suspected was electrified. Ghouls popped out of some barrels to attack them, and Valorik had the great idea to shove his attacker into the door. I decided to give my ghouls a chance to dance out of the way of the door-yes, I’m a mean GM-and this blinded ghoul managed to dodge the door twice, Daredevil-style (Marvel’s Daredevil). The ghoul lost his acrobatic superpower when he regained his sight, as the third shove sent him tumbling against the door, electrocuting him with a strong zap. 

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How I image the ghoul nimbly avoiding hitting the copper door.

I would have felt a little bad about not letting the shove work the first time. It was a clever and creative idea, and I love it when players use the room to their advantage. I felt less bad about it when I found out Valorik had been using a shield along with two-handedly wielding his weapon. To be clear: no, he does not have three hands. We corrected that, so maybe they will be clearing out monsters with a little less ease from now on. Overall, I thought it was a great session, with some fun tidbits for everyone. 

Budgeting

It is budgeting season at work now, so I have had little time to work on book stuff or other hobbies. I’m still very new to this company, which makes everything take longer than it normally would for me. I have to learn it all as I go, and then there is the rework when I find something I missed the first time. Fortunately, everyone is great about the learning curve and working with me to ensure our budgets are updated and submitted on time. 

I’m also still on schedule for the book release, despite not having much time recently to work on it. It helps that I set the release date out far enough. I’m not stressing myself out with everything yet to complete. I know some people work well under tight deadlines at the last minute, but that is NOT me. I need schedules with reasonable timelines for which I can adequately prepare. If you are looking at taking on a publication project of your own, make sure you know how you work best and plan accordingly. 

Another action-packed weekend in the books! Have a great week everyone!

Coming Soon!

First, I have been told I should be more specific on the newsletter sign-up in relation to my blog. I have decided NOT to copy over the audience list from my blog subscribers to my newsletter. As such, if you are a subscriber here, you will need to actively sign up for my newsletter to receive it. You can do so below or on the homepage of my website.

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Now for the big news! I have released a new page on my website cleverly titled “My Books.” This has information on what is coming soon and my tentative release schedule for the rest of the series. It will evolve, with the pre-order link added in about a month when it goes live on Amazon and other changes as books are released. I am by no means a graphic or website designer, but I am pretty happy with how things are looking so far.

Check out my new page here: https://tiffanyshearn.com/my-books/

I’m at that nervous-excited stage of publication. Things are becoming more real every day, and there is so much left to do to release on time. Fortunately, the book is effectively complete. I am working on polishing front- and back-matter, but the story itself is wrapped. While it might not be perfect, all the advice I see is that at some point you have to stop polishing and release it.

I went to Fiverr to look for copy editors, and I was pleasantly surprised by how helpful everyone I spoke with about this was. Whether I went with them or not, all provided advice on the entire process of selecting editors, which was very helpful for this first-time author. They were all great communicators and answered all of my, probably repetitious for them, questions. Based on my needs, I ended up working with Maxine Meyers she had some great reviews, and I am happy with the results.

The next few weeks are going to be looking into various author pages on sites like Amazon, Goodreads, Bookbub, etc., so hopefully, the existing publication info tides you over for a bit until I have that learning to share. It will probably be random life bits for a week or two.

Three months to go! I should start a countdown!

Publication and Social Media

Before I jump into sharing the social media aspect of my publication journey, a little announcement on the book’s status: The beta reads came back with only some minor adjustments. I took care of those, and the manuscript is now off with the copy editor! I’m on schedule, and maybe even a little ahead, to have it in the hands of ARC readers with plenty of time for them to read and review for the launch. If you are interested in hearing more about ARC readers, stay with me until the end of the year. I will have a post about them as well when I get to that stage.

Today I talk about communication and brand building. When I first began this blog, I mentioned how it is because of the strong recommendation for authors to have one. Blogs are a way for an audience to know an author through more than their book writing. They also connect to the author’s website and can provide a solid base of communication. That was my goal with this blog. I started it well in advance of my launch, intending to publish weekly, so I had an online presence should a reader come looking for me. 

Now I’m a little more than three months out from my intended launch date, and I expect the preorder link to be available sometime in October. The last couple of weeks have been all about communication planning. How do I cast a wide net? How do I capture my audience? How do I offer versatility to my audience’s preferences? What do I respond to? How do I respond when it is going to be just me doing this for quite some time?

First, I looked at building what I am calling “passive contacts.” These are the follows on various social media platforms where people may or may not see my posts in their feeds. I took a look at websites for some of the authors I read to see what platforms they used. Based on that information for guidance, I decided on adding Instagram and Twitter to my existing Facebook presence. This is how I am describing my presence on these platforms: 

Website : This is my website, including my blog. You can sign up to receive blog notifications either with a WordPress account or simply with email. Blog posts are short, weekly musings about what is going on in my life, ranging from family, to writing, to D&D games. Few of these posts, if any, will be included in the newsletters. Twitter : My posts will primarily be sharing blog posts, so you can follow the blog through this source instead of the website if you prefer. There will also be some soccer or family tweets in there as well. Facebook : My Facebook page will primarily include brief progress posts and some blog sharing. There will also be some Facebook exclusive events with giveaway raffles.  Instagram : This will primarily be pictures of me, my cats, Seattle Sounders games, and book cover images as they come out. 

“What is this ‘newsletter’ to which you refer in the descriptions?” you ask? Well, that is the part I am calling “active contacts” and starting to build out now. I now have a MailChimp account and will be sending out newsletters! This is one of the best ways to keep an audience because you are directly telling them about a new release or work-in-progress rather than relying on a news feed in an app. I am still working another job, and I need time to actually write the books, so I’m only planning quarterly newsletters with a few extras if there are special events. 

I don’t know how this is going to work exactly just yet, as I only made the newsletter sign-up live on my site last night. At the moment of writing this, I am my only audience member. New audience members SHOULD get an automatic welcome email. I’m crossing my fingers that I set up the automation correctly. There is going to be some learning along the way, so I hope my early subscribers find errors humorous and enjoy the process with me. 

If you are curious about any of this and want to follow me on any of these platforms, I have included links to them all above in this post, and they are the icons at the bottom of my website pages as well. Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you are back next week as well for an exciting reveal of the new page I am adding to my website!

Florida Family

We traveled to Florida last week to visit my brother and his family. He is the one with his back to the camera in the main photo here. It was great to see him again. With the distance involved and a pandemic causing problems, I think it had been at least two years since we were last together.

We flew into Orlando on the same flight as my sister and her two kids. As the flight landed, she found out that my nephew gets airsick (Ha! Gross!). It was not a surprise to anyone except her. We then had to deal with his sensitive stomach for the rest of the day. The comedy reached its peak when we arrived that afternoon at my brother’s home, and Nephew 1 vomited all over one of their rugs. Oops!

After a late lunch, he settled down, and we managed to have ice cream with Nephew 2 after he was picked up from daycare. He is only three and half-remembers us. When we stopped by the house again after ice cream while my brother was out back, Nephew 2 started running away from the “strangers” in his home and yelling for Papa. By the end of the week, he was still unsure of the adults, but his older cousins were fair game for the time-honored toddler fun of Run-Around-In-Circles.

During the week we were there, we spent a day in St. Augustine. Marineland was…small. I would not recommend it unless you are going to get the package to swim with dolphins. We also did a ghost tour that evening, and I’m pretty sure I caught a picture of a ghost. I will put the closeup crop at the end if you want a targeted look.

Can you spot the ghostly apparition? It is like floating lights among the gravestones.

Finally, you may have noticed the firetruck in the main image above. My sister-in-law is a fire captain. We were able to stop by her station to check it out. The truck was between calls, so we could get a close-up view. Some even took the opportunity to get into the truck and honk the horn! Despite the humidity, it was great to see everyone. Thanks for taking the time to host us, Brother and Family!

Here is your ghostly close-up!

In Memoriam

My little nephew Ange was a pandemic baby born last summer to my brother and his wife. His path was fraught with more challenges than many of us face in our lifetimes, and he fought every step of the way.

Ange’s parents received troubling news during the pregnancy, and they were worried they might lose him before he had a chance at life. He pushed through and entered our lives. There were additional complications, but we shared some video calls with him. His parents gave him a blanket with his name blazoned upon it next to cute animals, and they gave my parents Christmas presents with his image. My brother and his wife were able to hold his hands, to hold him.

The doctors fought and explored options. Ange fought along with them, but his time came. It was too soon, but early this year he left us with a staggering hole in our hearts. Due to the pandemic, we could not all say goodbye to him in person. We are saying farewell and celebrating his life this summer. It would have been his first birthday.

He leaves behind his parents and brother as well as numerous extended family. Goodbye, little fighter, and may you find peace.

Self-Publishing

Last week, I discussed and shared links related to descriptions, frontmatter/backmatter, copyright, ISBNs, and licenses. While I’m certain those will need some adjustments before publication, I’m relatively comfortable with that line of activities. Now I’m working on Amazon-related information like search keywords and categories. This part is going to be more learning-as-I-go. I will share steps I’m taking, process points where I’m more or less confused, and the resources on which I’m relying. Take all of this with a grain of “I’m new” salt. There will probably be many lessons learned to be shared later. 

Categories, Keywords, & Accounts

I started looking into categories and keywords before I set up my KDP account with Amazon. Categories and keywords are critical for helping readers find my book amid all the other books out there. I want my work to stand out while providing the reader with a good idea of where my work fits into genres they like. I’m using a couple of resources for advice on these two things: Publisher Rocket and Kindlepreneur. 

Kindlepreneur has advice on many self-publishing steps, and I like how the information is presented in easily digestible and easy-to-follow pieces. Publisher Rocket is a purchasable downloadable program that can help you look for keyword and category options. When I created my KDP account and started setting up my book, I found the keyword research and information translated well. The categories…there is some confusion on this piece. 

In KDP, you can initially select two categories for a new book. It opens a menu where you expand sections to drill down to find the categories you want. Straightforward enough. However, the category advice mentions countless more specific and nuanced categories than are available in the menu. I did all the research and picked the two I thought best to start with, and neither is in there! This part requires more research. I need to figure out if there are additional steps or later steps that bridge this gap. I have enough time for this research, and for now, I have two adjacent categories selected in my draft book in KDP. 

It is exciting to see something in my KDP “Bookshelf.” I’m on track with my administrative tasks, and the beta reads should all come back early next week. The upcoming stages should move quickly, and I think Hidden Memory will be available for pre-order late in September! Now I need to figure out a mailing list and newsletter process. I’m thinking quarterly with special newsletters for new releases that don’t fall in that schedule. With a blog and newsletter to produce, I don’t want to take too much writing time away from future books with an overly aggressive schedule. 

That’s all for this week. Have a great weekend!

Business of Publication

I mentioned last week that my book is out with beta readers. While that is happening, I’m working on the administrative steps related to the business of publication. A handful of months ago, when I was looking into beta readers, a friend passed on a publication checklist. It includes a comprehensive list of steps with many links to help learn about the requirements or where to go for the best information. My friend received the checklist from author Lee Hadan. While I’m not going to share all of the steps in the list here, I will share a few with some supplemental research on the items added. 

First up: writing that is not part of the story. Book description.Frontmatter/Backmatter.About the author.CTAs (including copyright).

I worked on my “blurb” earlier for getting beta readers and have done some additional work on it since then. This link has the information on book descriptions I found the most helpful for my fantasy novel. There are other sources in the checklist, but I did not feel they related specifically enough to my genre. 

Frontmatter and Backmatter include everything before and after your story, including “about the author” and copyright pages, but I decided to call them out separately. I found this link helpful for the overarching structure and as a rough guide for me to select from for inclusion. It explains the purpose of each section and when they would be used for reference text versus fiction or such. I looked at the link provided for the “about the author” section in addition to reading through a lot of those pieces in books I own. 

For copyright (CTAs), I heavily leveraged the link included in the checklist. It includes example copyright information and states that self-publishing authors can use them as templates. 

Next up: business purchases.ISBNsLicense/DBA

ISBNs are standard and you need one for each version/type of book you publish (audiobook, paperback, etc.). Bowker Identifier Services is where you purchase and register ISBNs in the USA, and they have package deals. As for a business license or DBA/Trade Name, I highly recommend researching your state and local municipalities. Many states have a sales tax that you will need to pay as the publisher, and this is based on the sale price, not on your royalties. I’m still following up with my city, but I have my state information now. 

Now I’m working on Amazon-related information like search keywords, but I will save that information and those links for next week. To sign off today, I will say, “Happy Birthday, Little Cat!” Her birthday is actually at the end of July, but I missed it last week with how busy things have been lately. 

I’m a year old now!

I hope this information is helpful to some, and thanks again to Lee Hadan for being willing to share her checklist with aspiring authors!