R.J. Keller's Blog, page 11

Autumn fun at the Keller house

Happy Autumn!

Embracing change

Some exciting news to report on here at the ole blog. Waiting For Spring has been picked up by AmazonEncore, the publishing arm of Amazon.com. A little background from their website:

Even great books can be overlooked. And authors with great potential often struggle to connect with the larger audience they deserve to reach. We're fortunate at Amazon.com to have customers who know a good book when they read one, so we've introduced AmazonEncore to help connect authors and their books with more readers.

AmazonEncore is a new program whereby Amazon will use information such as customer reviews on Amazon.com to identify exceptional, overlooked books and authors with more potential than their sales may indicate. Amazon will then partner with the authors to re-introduce their books to readers through marketing support and distribution into multiple channels and formats, such as the Amazon.com Books Store, Amazon Kindle Store, Audible.com, and national and independent bookstores via third-party wholesalers.

Yes…this is a huge deal. I can't accurately express how thrilled I am to be working with the amazing people at Encore. Already, copy-edits are finished and the new cover is ready (which, for the record, I LOVE). Here it be:

The Encore version is available for pre-order now, if you're so inclined.

I'll post more information in the days, weeks, and months ahead. In the meantime I want to tell each of you how very much I appreciate everything you've done for me over the past three years. This would not have been possible without your support and encouragement.

First draft completed

I finished the first draft of my upcoming novel, The Wendy House – a not-quite-prequel/not-quite-sequel to Waiting For Spring – early this afternoon.

The writing of it caused many tears, sleepless nights, joy, headdesk moments, and spawned a coffee mug.

The plot itself didn't change very much during the last two-and-a-half years, but pretty much everything else – point of view, characterization, narrative style, supporting characters – did. Goodness only knows how the rewriting process will g...

The Wonderful Wizard of Indie (With Free Prize Inside!)

Please give a very warm welcome to guest blogger Zoe Winters, author of the Blood Lust series and passionate advocate of independent/self-publishing, and check out how you can enter to win a Kindle

Thanks to Kel for having me on her blog today to promote my new release, Blood Lust (my first print release, yay!) I met Kel about two years ago when I was weighing the pros and cons of going indie. Needless to say, despite some stigma still existing, it wasn't nearly as cool to digitally...

IWS Episode V.5 – A Musical Interlude

Poet, and Paper Rats' fan, Joe Glasgow posted a poem about "Inside The Writers' Studio" on Facebook. Naturally we pestered him until he turned it into a song. Then we pestered him some more until he recorded it. Because that's how we roll.

(CLICK HERE to watch earlier episodes of Inside The Writers' Studio.)

Publishers Weekly "opportunity"

Heads up indie authors: For the low, low price of $149, you and your book may get a mention in a Publishers' Weekly quarterly self-publishing supplement. Or, uh, you may not. Agents and others in the publishing industry may take a look at your book! Or, uh, they may not. (ie, Be smart, people. Think. Do some research. Please do not let yourself be taken advantage of.)

For more words of wisdom, please see:

Self-Publishing Review

Zoe Winters' blog

Joe Konrath's blog

POD People

The Wendy House cover

Presenting the cover for my upcoming novel, The Wendy House (coming spring 2011). Much thanks to Kristen Tsetsi for bringing my vague idea to life so beautifully.

Updated 'Waiting For Spring' cover

Same photo, but brightened up a bit, and a cleaner font.

Coming soon: The Wendy House cover reveal.

The winner…

…of my blog's Indie Author Appreciate Contest is…

LuvMyKindle!!!

Congratulations, and thanks to all participants! ("Luv", please email me at rjkeller.wfs@gmail.com so we can work out the details of the gift certificate exchange.)

It's Not Hemingway

Paper Rats' newest episode of Inside The Writers' Studio is now ready. Entitled It's Not Hemigway, episode v was written by Holly Christine (author of The Nine Lives of Clemenza and Tuesday Tells It Slant) and the winning entry in our Very, Very, Very Short Script contest. Enjoy!

Episode V. In which Kris and R try to improve their writing the old fashioned way.