Elyse Salpeter's Blog, page 11

A Letter to my 9th Grade English Teacher… Thanks for Nothing.

Dear Mrs. Schuster,

It’s been over thirty years and I’ve thought about you often. When I first walked into your Honors English Class in ninth grade at Pomona Middle School, I was so excited. You see, we moved a lot as I grew up and we had just moved 3X over the previous two years. I was so happy to start fresh in the beginning of a class school year for the first time in years. My family was finally settled in a district where I would get the chance to live out my entire high school career without moving again. What you didn’t know was that while I was a straight “A” English student in Connecticut, where we had previously lived, those two years away we never covered grammar in my English classes. That was going to be reviewed in 9th grade and I’d already left, so when I entered your 9th grade class, I was at a distinct disadvantage since it was covered the previous years.

You see, when I met you, I was so enthusiastic about English class because I loved reading and writing. I remember introducing myself to you and telling you that I was the younger cousin of two boys you had a few years previously. Did you know a look of distaste immediately passed across your features? Had I known that my cousins were terrors to you, I wouldn’t have said anything, because from that moment on you looked and treated me with utter disdain, as if I were vermin by association. When I had problems with grammar, you never helped me. You never bothered to find out my needs, even though I clearly remember asking for help. I had no idea what those “Grammar Trees” were. To this day I am not skilled in this area, though I have tried to learn.

A simplified grammar tree, though I remember them looking like rockets.

You berated me and treated me poorly for months, so let me remind you of the moment you finally crushed me. I was flummoxed why you seemed to hate me and why you were always so critical of my work. I didn’t understand. I had always enjoyed my English classes and read voraciously. So when you gave us an extra credit assignment to write a simple book report, I remember thinking, “I’m going to create something that will ‘wow’ her and be really interesting. Instead of the typical dry book report, I decided to write it like an interview and interview the main character in the novel.” I remember thinking that my idea was so cool and I was really excited. It was supposed to be just a page long, but I made it two. I remember the day you walked around the room handing students back their assignments. I remember seeing the 5+ points on all my friend’s papers. When you finally got to my desk, I remember you smiling and for a moment I thought I’d finally won you over. When I stared at the big red Zero in shock, I clearly remember you saying, “That was the worst piece of writing I ever saw” and then you walked on. I remember crumpling up the paper right in front of you and throwing it onto the floor, saying “I give up.” You crushed me that day and I gave up on you, and writing.

Mrs. Schuster, for years I never wrote anything again if I could help it. My confidence was shot. My belief in my ability to do a good job in an English class was shot. And it was because of you. I wasn’t confidant enough to dismiss your actions for whatever ulterior motive you had.

But know this. When I went to college, I had an idea in my head for a story. I grappled greatly with writing it, the indecision that it would be any good weighed heavily on my mind. I worried that someone would tell me that “it was the worst piece of writing they’d ever seen.” And then one day I honestly said “Screw you, Mrs. Schuster. I don’t care what you think, I’m going to write it.” And I did. I wrote the first draft of a fantasy novel titled, THE RUBY AMULET. Was it good? No way, it needed a ton of work. Was the grammar terrible? You bet. But you know what? I wrote the entire book and I said a ‘big kiss goodbye’ to you because I decided that no one, especially a mean, bitter, nasty old teacher, was going to dictate what I could and couldn’t do with my life.

It was not because of you that I became of writer, but I became a writer IN SPITE of you. I pushed myself, I got an editor, I learned the trade. I’ve published seven novels now and a host of short stories and not one of them is because of you.

So I leave you with this. I want you to know that you didn’t crush me, and that after thirty years of thinking of ways to tell you what I thought of what you did to me, I finally feel better. I don’t know if you’re even alive any more to read this, but you should know, for this student, you influenced me… but not in the way a teacher should. Thank God I gained enough confidence and moxie to not let you influence me for the rest of my life. My one hope is that other students you may have done this to persevered as well.

Signed Your 9th Grade Honors English Student,

Thanks for nothing,

Elyse Sussman Salpeter

Muses… Are They Real? I Believe They Are.

I’ve heard many discussions on the topics of muses. Are they real? What do they really mean? I ask you this. Have you ever uttered the words, “I can’t write right now. My muse isn’t speaking to me.” Well, I have. In fact, it happens to me a lot. The question begs, is it true, has my muse deserted me, or am I just too pre-occupied with other things to do the task at hand?

I have a very dear editor friend who told me that “muses are a load of $%^&!” That if you want to write, you just sit down and do it. That it has nothing to do with a muse and it’s all about you. That if you’re committed and want to produce, you need to suck it up and just write. I’ve kindly listened to this, but I have a different interpretation. Yes, I can sit down and just write, but will they be good words? Or just words? I truly believe that there’s this part of me, some inner essence that comes out when it’s feeling more creative than other times. I call it my muse, though in reality, it may very well just be my mood. Perhaps, and most likely, they are one and the same. You see, there are moments when I simply have no ideas in my head. Nothing compels me to write, to draw, to cook, or to create. Usually at those times I’m too tired, too busy, or too overwhelmed with life and I can’t string two words together that I’d ask someone to purchase. But, out of the blue, there are other times, and incredible moments, when I feel like I have this superpower and I get this great idea and get “in the zone” and can write for hours.

My most recent, my lovely Aunt…

It’s in these weird little bursts of internal creativity that make me believe I have a muse. For instance, I’ve never really drawn or been an artist, but for some reason I took up sketching a month ago and I feel like my little artistic muse has jumped out. I can’t honestly say I’m an artist. I can’t just sit and draw a person, or a scene, or sometimes even stick figures in a straight line. Even now, each time I pick up that sketching pencil, I don’t have that confidence that something brilliant will be produced (or forget about being brilliant, how about legible?). So I stare at my sketch pad until I feel the urge. Sometimes it’s there, sometimes it isn’t, but when I feel that internal pull, I can’t do anything but try to answer it and in those moments, I do feel like I’ve been given a gift and my “muse” is talking to me. With her, I can do something I normally can’t seem to do on a daily basis.

I feel like a muse is a part of our personality. The part that is creative and reflective. I believe they’re real and if they’re ignoring you, maybe you need to take a break from whatever you’re forcing yourself to do. Maybe it’s the universe’s way of saying “come on, just give yourself a moment to not try to be brilliant all the time.” Step back and let it rest. Let things stew, because I believe those ideas and gifts will come to us when we’re ready to accept them. And that’s when our muse will set us free.

Creativity Comes in all Forms – Time to Step Out of Your Box

My Aloysius Pendergast fan fic ala: Paul Bettany

Last week I touched on a recent illness that happened where I landed in the hospital for a week. For a full week AFTER I didn’t have the energy to do more than maybe turn on my phone. I couldn’t read, I couldn’t write. I mean, here I am a writer and I couldn’t wrap my head around creating more than a blog post and I couldn’t get enough attention span to read more than a page or two while I lay in bed.

Another Bettany

But, three days home, I dragged myself out with my son to our art class. You see, a few weeks before I got ill, we decided to take art classes together. So, every Wednesday we spend an hour, just the two of us and an instructor, and we do whatever lesson she has planned. We’ve created bubble people, painted, we’re doing anime and for a few weeks we did Grid Art. I’ve always wanted to learn how to draw. I have all these ideas in my head, crazy made-up animals I’d like to recreate on paper, and people I’d like to draw. So that art class spurred me to make a grid and try to draw on my own. I took myself out, bought a bunch of shading pencils and a drawing pad, and it turns out, I don’t think I’m all that bad. I put a few of them on Facebook and got a lot of reactions. Most were, “You can draw, too?” Um, I didn’t think I could. I’m just sort of dabbling, but my mom even called me the other day and exclaimed, “I don’t understand where this is coming from. People don’t just start drawing. I don’t believe I ever remember you excelling at art.” But I happen to come from a family where there are a lot of amazing artists, my mom used to paint, my sister is ridiculously creative, a few of my cousins are just amazing at it. Maybe there’s some latent gene that just popped out with me, I don’t know.

Al Pacino

It’s kind of funny. I don’t know if I’m any good or not, but I find it soothing and challenging and I’m using a part of my brain that’s not being taxed to put words on paper, or concentrating on remembering what is happening in the scene of the book I’m reading. If I want to repetitively draw and shade the same spot over and over, my mind can wrap around that. While I get myself healthy, I’m still creating, so I feel like I’m still “moving ahead” (dang my Type “A” mentality) So I think I’m going to keep going for a while. See where it takes me. I’d LOVE to get better at this. So far I’ve tried and . I think Robin Williams or Charlie Sheen might be next – found some good black and white photos with contrast I can use.

So I leave all my creative types with this… what else can you do? Do you ever step outside your box? You should give it a try. I bet there’s a whole lot out there to explore that you never thought you could do.

I Got a 2 Star Review… and Didn’t Even Flinch.

Authors seem to live and die by reviews. That moment you check your amazon author page and see that a new review has come in is both thrilling and terrifying. At least it WAS to me. Now… not so much.

You see, two weeks ago, out of the blue, I landed in the hospital for a full week with a severe pan colitis attack. One moment I was running around NYC without a care in the world, and the next, well, I wasn’t. The scary thing is that there is still no real diagnosis, except that I couldn’t eat or drink and the only thing keeping me going for days on end was IV fluids. It was one of the most disgusting, painful, and frankly, frightening experiences I ever endured and needless to say, there were some pretty dark times. I watched my skin dry up before my eyes, my weight plummet, and now even a full week out of the hospital, I’m not back to where I was and the doctor said it could take two to three weeks more to feel like my old self and stop holding my stomach when I walk. Sigh… (I am getting better every day though, so there is light at the end of this tunnel). But, back to the topic of this blog.

You see, right before I was admitted to the hospital, I’d just completed a Book Bub promotion for my novel THE HUNT FOR XANADU. The promotion went well and I sold a nice amount of books, so I was expecting some reviews to come in for that, along with the sequel.

Well, when I got out of the hospital and finally had the energy to turn on my computer, I decided to pull up my amazon page, and, lo and behold there was a new review for The Hunt for Xanadu. A brand new spanking 2 star. Here it is if you’d like to read it: “This is one of those rare instances where they probably need to make a movie to appreciate this book more poo. Unfortunately the descriptions were hard for me to imagine and found myself glazing over certain areas of the book. This seems like a movie that turned into a book.” Yes, it actually says the word “poo.” I wish they were able to edit themselves so I actually could find out what they really meant to say.

Now, in my previous, “un-fighting for my life author brain” I would have freaked out and been so upset by this two star review. Now? I looked at it, and still look at it, and it’s like it has absolutely no impact. I sort of shrug and say, “Meh, sorry you didn’t like it…” and move on. Truth be told, I kind of like the review – the book should be a movie and I’m still happy the person bought it and took the time to read and review it. Come on, not every book has all 5 Star reviews… it also gives my novel some sort of weird validation. Still, the hope is that people will take the time to write a review, even if it is only a few lines.

So what I want to leave you with is this. Yes, bad reviews hurt your feelings and impact your rankings, but they mean nothing. Not in the scheme of life. It’s someone else’s perception of a personalized piece of your work, just like artwork, choice of clothing, food, home decoration, anything subjective. Let it go. Read the good reviews. Relish in them. Maybe find something relevant in the bad review to take away, but don’t dwell. At the end of our days no one is going to be bringing up our two star reviews at our eulogies. They’re going to bring up all the wonderful glories we brought to the world. I promise you that.

My BookBub Results… the Good, the Bad and the Not So Ugly…

Let’s talk about BookBub: This site offers a free daily email that notifies readers about free and discounted novels. Readers choose the types of books they’d like to get notified about ��� all across a host of different genres and categories. For an author, you WANT to be on that email list, and you pay through the nose to get on it. They’re very selective and only take about 10%-15% of the submissions because they are too booked to run everyone. Not to mention they are sticklers about quality – your cover has to be strong and you have to have a certain amount of good reviews.

Now, every author I know touts BookBub. Everyone said I’d make my money back and thousands upon thousands more if I got in. I was very apprehensive about placing hundreds of dollars down for an ad. I’d done a lot of advertising on various sites over the past three years and I never made my money back on any of them. Not a one. I did free book promotions, too, on KDP Select, thinking it would spur sales of other books. That didn’t happen either.

So I tried BookBub. Authors assured me I would make back my investment, and more. So I applied, and applied, and applied again, and I finally got accepted for THE HUNT FOR XANADU. The promotion was March 6th for 99 cents.

Things were different about my specific promotion than others successful ones I’ve read about. First, my offer was not free. I was doing the promotion for a discounted book at 99 cents. Second, I didn’t have it on KDP select for the borrows, because I had just uploaded it to ibooks. Third, it was in “supernatural suspense,” a smaller category than say, thriller or romance. Fourth, I only gave links to Amazon US, Amazon UK and Amazon Canada.

According to BookBub, Supernatural Suspense downloads for 99 cents range from 110 – 3050, with average downloads of 1300. The good news is I did hit the lower end of that range, but I didn’t even come close to that average download number, at least not yet, and I’m not sure I will. I paid $230 for this promotion and I haven’t made my money back yet. At this time I’m about $10.45 short. (I’m confidant I’ll make that and a wee bit more before the next few days are out)

So let’s talk sales. Day One I had 492 sales. They didn’t start coming in until after 12:00 noon when the email went out. I was told to sit tight from other authors because over the next two days more will come in. Day two, by 9:00 pm, brought 80 sales. These are not the stellar sales figures many other authors touted, but I’m not unhappy. While I didn’t yet make my money back yet, I’m close and very excited that this many people BOUGHT the novel and I did not have to give it away for free. Does that mean they are more qualified readers? Let’s hope so. And, the really great part is I hit some nice Amazon sales rankings. Here are some highlights:

Sales Rankings Amazon US. #5 in Supernatural Suspense

Sales Rankings Amazon US:

Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #447 Paid in Kindle Store

#5 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers & Suspense > Supernatural

#51 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Suspense

#53 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers & Suspense > Suspense

Sales Rankings Amazon Canada:

Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #220 Paid in Kindle Store

#23 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers > Suspense

#31 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers > Suspense

Sales Rankings Amazon UK

Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #705 Paid in Kindle Store

(would have loved for them to have broken this out by categories)

Some would think not making a killing after two days would make this endeavor a failure. It really isn’t. I have to say to myself, “You know what? 572 people PAID for my book so far. And even if I’m out $10 from this promotion (which I won’t be), I have my book in the hands of people that could very well be return customers. If someone told me “Elyse, pay me $10 and I’ll make sure 572 people buy your book,” would I do it? Heck, yes, of course I would. For the exposure to new readers, for the cool screen shots, for the experience. If I’m fortunate, I’ll get reviews and sales of the sequel and maybe they’ll check out my other books. Right now I see 12 sales of the sequel and one or two sales of other books in my inventory. And I finally broke the UK market. I averaged 1-2 sales a month in the UK normally and with this effort I had over 80 so far. That is pretty cool.

I’ll watch the download figures over the next few days, and weeks, as people suggest. I’m certain that I’ll break even, though the thousands of dollars I was hoping to see was obviously crazy wishful thinking on my part. I won’t lie, this wasn’t as stellar as I thought it would be and I wanted to share my experience so other authors can manage expectations. Everyone touts the successes, but sometimes you just need to read about the mediocre. Still, part of me knows I’d try this again. I have a YA series I’d like to push and guess what? I still won’t do Book #1 for free. I’m tired of the perception that authors need to give their books away. I spent hundreds of hours working on these books and hundreds of dollars producing them. I just don’t have the stamina to give them away. If, and when, I do get accepted to Bookbub again, I’ll do a few things differently. And since I really didn’t lose any money, and hopefully will break even and make a little profit, it really is a win. (except for the two returns that already came in. Who returns a 99 cent book?)

THE HUNT FOR XANADU will remain at 99 cents through 3/9. I’ll continue this exposure with a social media effort, touting the 99 cent sale to all the boards, google+, twitter – the whole enchilada. Then I’ll also grab the screen shots in Canada and the UK and promote on those specific areas. My hope is I can grab a few more sales. I wanted to hit 700… I still have a ways to go.

Feel free to grab THE HUNT FOR XANADU for just 99 cents until 3/9. If you like sequels, THE QUEST OF THE EMPTY TOMB is out as well.

US AMAZON: http://amzn.to/1CEvEab

UK Amazon: http://amzn.to/1Cp2awz

Book #2 THE QUEST OF THE EMPTY TOMB can be purchased here:

US AMAZON: http://amzn.to/1EvXExO

UK AMAZON: http://amzn.to/1JSRNqT

If you do read the novels – please consider leaving a review. I’d truly appreciate it.

A few side notes: The people at Bookbub are nice, efficient and prompt. I had some questions about the promotion, changed some ending dates, etc. They were extremely helpful, clear and accommodating. My e-mail communications with them were a pleasure.

Consider signing up with BookBub for their emails – they really are a great service. Love to hear your experiences with them and if you’ve ever done a paid promotion with them, as well.

Book Launch: THE QUEST OF THE EMPTY TOMB, #2 in the Kelsey Porter Series

Book #2 in the Kelsey Porter series

Launching 2/28/15!

Book #2 in the Kelsey Porter Series

THE QUEST OF THE EMPTY TOMB

On the heels of THE HUNT FOR XANADU, Kelsey returns from Tibet with Desmond to begin a new life in New York City. But peace is not to come to her. One night, a stranger appears at her door with a note from a man from her past, begging for her aid. It involves her parents and Kelsey leaves for Egypt to learn the truth. But the truth is more than she bargained for. What secrets did her parents hide? Why is she now plagued with odd aches and pains and why is she having nightmares again? Kelsey must find answers and the only way to get them is to confront her demons and solve the ultimate mystery: The Quest of the Empty Tomb.

Kelsey Porter

Book #1, THE HUNT FOR XANADU introduced us to Kelsey Porter who was on a mission to hunt down her parent’s killers. That novel was steeped in Tibetan spiritual mysteries and took us from New York to the monasteries of Tibet. Book #2 starts with Kelsey getting a letter from an Egyptian archaeologist who needs her help, and she believes it stems from a visit she took to see him when she was six. We leave New York and travel to Egypt. This novel is steeped in the lore of the Egyptian sky gods and again, Kelsey learns that everything is not what it appears to be.

Book #1 THE HUNT FOR XANADU can be purchased here:

US AMAZON: http://amzn.to/1CEvEab

UK Amazon: http://amzn.to/1Cp2awz

Book #2 THE QUEST OF THE EMPTY TOMB can be purchased here:

US AMAZON: http://amzn.to/1EvXExO

UK AMAZON: http://amzn.to/1JSRNqT

My thanks to everyone that has supported me for these novels. I appreciate you so much. If you can, I’d love for you to consider leaving a review for either novel – it helps more than you know.

Happy Reading and if you ever want to chat about the books, please feel free to email me and sign up for my newsletter here: http://www.elysesalpeter.com/contact-me.html

And the Winners of my Social Media Contest Are…

What a fun contest that was! For the past month, I asked readers to upload a photo of themselves with my novel THE HUNT FOR XANADU and put it on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook with the Hashtag #xanaduquest. Then, on 2/21 I randomly chose five winners to receive a signed hardcopy of the sequel, THE QUEST OF THE EMPTY TOMB, which is launching next week on 2/28. For just a bit more fun, I uploaded a bunch of the contestant’s photos to my webpage for a super cool “Fan Shout-Out.” I won’t lie… I clicked on my own webpage a few times a week just to look at it. :) I still have it up, so feel free to check it out here at http://www.elysesalpeter.com

So, the winners, chosen by a third-party, and in no particular order are….

Congratulations! If the lovely winners will please contact me via my contact page here: http://www.elysesalpeter.com/contact-me.html and give me your address, I will mail you a copy of THE QUEST OF THE EMPTY TOMB. Anyone else that wants to get on my newsletter for new releases can fill out their information here as well.

If you’d like to purchase THE HUNT FOR XANADU, I’ve dropped the price to $2.99 and you can get it here:

US AMAZON: http://amzn.to/1CEvEab

UK Amazon: http://amzn.to/1Cp2awz

The book is also available around the globe and in ibooks, too.

Thanks to everyone that entered – it was so much fun and I really appreciate all of you. Catch you next week at the launch and happy reading!

Querying Agents… yet again…

I think I might be a masochist. The definition is “someone who receives gratification through humiliation and physical pain.” I mean, here I am, I have seven books I’ve indie published and now I’m attempting to get back into the hybrid mix and see if my new fantastical thriller, THE EXPERIMENT, could get picked up by an agent.

You see, all along, I’ve always wanted to have an agent and a publisher behind me. And I did at one point. But life happens, companies fold, agents can’t sell your work and you are left with your polished babies that need to get out into the world.

But, there’s this little part of me that still wants that “space on the bookshelf” or that “acceptability, or cool factor to say I have an agent.” I know, it’s crazy. Is it a validation of my worth? That someone “likes me enough to represent me?” I can make more selling ebooks (though I’m not there yet), but I keep thinking that having an agent and a publishing house behind me will help push me into a situation where the other books might also gain some traction and get better exposure. There’s that added little carrot of “Hollywood TV and Movie dreams” that keeps sitting in the back of my mind, as well.

Maybe I’m a dreamer. I think all of us need to dream to some extent, because if you didn’t dream, how could you ever get the guts to do this in the first place, right?

Which brings me back to THE EXPERIMENT. Starting in 2007, for five years I tried to get this book published. Over those five years I sent the books to twenty-three agents. I did the requisite waiting around for months at a time, giving exclusive reads to those that wanted… waiting two, three, six months at a time for a reply. But no agent picked it up. Then, three years ago I decided to ditch the process and work on getting my other books to market. I’ve done that and now, well, I’m back with this little tale sitting in front of me.

So, I’ve written a synopsis and I’ve started the query rounds again. I forgot how defeating this is. So far I’ve sent out thirteen queries and four responded no. I forgot how much I dislike waiting for people to respond to me. These days a “no” from an agent is not even a “no thanks” but a complete “ignore.” Gosh, I hope that doesn’t happen again. I really hate being ignored. Just tell me it’s not for you and I can deal with that, please. But, being the optimist I am, I’ve decided to answer every single no with another query.

Look, maybe I’m crazy, or maybe I’m not, but if you don’t dream big, you might as well go home.

*********************************************************************************************************

Now, there are just a few more days to enter my contest to win one of five signed copies of THE QUEST OF THE EMPTY TOMB, launching 2/28.

All you have to do is upload a snapshot of yourself holding a copy of THE HUNT FOR XANADU, or of you with the cover showing on your iPad or Phone and UPLOAD it to Instagram, Twitter or my FB author page, with the Hashtag #xanaduquest – Don���t forget the hashtag #xanaduquest as that���s how I���ll find you. I���ll keep a record of all the names and FIVE people will win a signed hard copy of THE QUEST OF THE EMPTY TOMB in a random drawing. You could even get on my fan shout-out on my webpage! Here’s what it looks like right now!

Contest ends on 2/21/15. Want to grab a copy of THE HUNT FOR XANADU? Grab it here:

US AMAZON: http://amzn.to/1CEvEab

UK Amazon: http://amzn.to/1Cp2awz

And the best news? I’ve reduced the price of THE HUNT FOR XANADU down to $2.99 where it will now live for its lifetime. Happy reading!

You Found an Error in your Manuscript… and it’s been LIVE for a Year…

I’m going to tell you a little story. Last Friday I had a mini-meltdown. No, seriously. There was ranting and raving. I think I may have thrown something… there were even a few tears. I questioned why I even bother trying to write and publish and the sheer impossibility of ever being able to put something out that’s error-free.

You see, when you’re indie-published, you have this overwhelming need to make sure everything you do is “perfect.” We don’t have the resources of a huge publishing house, their personnel list of umpteen copy editors, proofers, etc… we must do everything ourselves, we must hire our own editors and proofers, then work with beta readers, then possibly even beg and plead with friends, to help proof our books. I sometimes feel like it’s all just too overwhelming, to be honest.

So, back to the meltdown… It all started with me trying to figure out what makes people want to buy my novels. I’m on a lot of social media outlets and trying different things on different sites. I tackled instagram this month and started a hashtag contest for readers to upload my novel THE HUNT FOR XANADU with the hashtag #xanaduquest, and they will be entered to win one of five signed hard covers of the next novel in the series, THE QUEST OF THE EMPTY TOMB. It’s been going well so far and I made a “Fan Shout-Out” page on my website at http://www.elysesalpeter.com if you’d like to check it out.

So, on Friday, I copy/pasted the first two paragraphs of Chapter One of THE HUNT FOR XANADU, loaded it to Paint, adjusted it and put it on instagram. I was thinking it would be a cool way to entice people to read the first part of the novel and maybe interest them enough to want to read more. Here’s what I posted:

I then promoted it on twitter, google+ and then to my author groups on FB. Well, lo and behold “eagle-eye” editing/proofer friend, Bob Nailor, side emailed me and told me laughingly that I had a few edit problems with this paragraph. I went “stone cold.” Edit problems? How can there possibly be any edit problems? I’ve had this book out for over a year and it’s been scanned through meticulously. He HAD TO BE WRONG.

But he wasn’t. Can you see the errors above? I couldn’t. It actually took me THREE reads to find what Bob was talking about – and he even told me what they were. Apparently there should be a comma after the word “drugged” but more importantly, there should be the word “be” after “reckoning it would” – which I obviously missed. Not to mention I see a spacing issue, too, between “an impressive.” But you know what kills me? What made me have my mini-meltdown? I published this book December of 2013. I had an editor, a proofer and six people sifted through it before it went live. I read it myself easily fifteen times. I had six updates I put on both Kindle and Createspace because people kept finding errors. But no one found this… until Friday. No one found this error IN THE FIRST CHAPTER, until Friday. The mini-meltdown happened for about twenty-five minutes where I decided I was going to quit writing, that I was an utter hack and maybe the books hadn’t gotten traction because they are “riddled” with mistakes.

And then my writing friends talked me down. My book isn’t RIDDLED with mistakes. It’s missing a “be” and it’s one of those words the mind actually adds as you’re reading the copy. Most people probably never even noticed. (well, unless you’re Bob Nailor). I’ve calmed down, fixed the document and re-uploaded the fixed document to both kindle and createspace – I’ll have to figure out how to fix the copy on ibooks.

What I learned? You can’t be perfect. I can’t tell you how many errors I find in mainstream published books coming out of big publishing houses, but yet as Indie Authors, we feel this need for perfection and I wonder if I simply have to stop expecting myself to be perfect, because I obviously am not. I may be putting too much stress on myself. Mistakes happen, and we are all human. The good news is since I am indie-published, I have the control to be able to fix these errors when I find them. If I had a mainstream published book, it would not be as easy. In less than 25 minutes I re-uploaded the novel without these mistakes and I moved on with my life… (of course, I try not to cringe, knowing how many people purchased my novel with this mistake, and the hard copies sitting in my closet that I use for book signings have this mistake, but what’s done is done)

FYI – Do you need another pair of eyeballs to proof your work? Maybe give Bob a call – he’s also a proof-reader, author and editor by trade, and obviously a good one. You can reach him here and he’s very reasonable: http://www.bobnailor.com/index_b.php?type=b

And, if you’d like a copy of the novel WITHOUT THESE ERRORS, (sigh), feel free to get it here: http://amzn.to/1JXHtul and hey, come join the contest – I’m giving away five signed hard copies of THE QUEST OF THE EMPTY TOMB. It’s at the formatter right now. Launch date: 2/28. I’m trying not to obsess what mistakes I possibly missed in THAT. Sigh…

Why run a #Hashtag Contest on Social Media

Upload your photo with the hashtag #xanaduquest to enter the contest

There is so much noise in social media that sometimes it’s hard to be heard. A hashtag (used with the # symbol) is a great way to “target” a particular topic so that you and your fans can search for it easily. I’ve used hashtags regularly for Twitter events, such as #FP for Friday Phrases – which is a weekly micro-fiction game on Fridays, #mondayblogs where people search for blogs to read each week on Mondays, or #writerskaboodle, where readers can see interviews with Sezoni Whitfield on twitter and facebook. Authors, definitely check out her Writer’s Kaboodle blog. She does author Q&A’s on twitter and FB you can have your own live event – fastest 30 minutes OF MY LIFE! You can also use a hashtag to find things that you’re interested in. #thrillers, #free, #gardening, #cooking, #recipes – you get the idea. To add a hashtag to a post, all you do is write the post and then add the hashtag to it. Then, if you ever wish to search this particular hashtag and anything related to it, you go into ANY search area on any medium, type it in and you can see all the related posts to that particular hashtag. If you don’t like posting, but reading particular topics, just type it in and find what you’re looking for.

I decided to run an instagram and twitter hashtag contest for the launch of my next book. I wanted to generate some excitement (and, truth be told, I wanted to learn instagram and this seemed to be a great way to quickly jump into it). Each person that uploads a photo of them holding my book THE HUNT FOR XANADU (either hard copy, on their phone or iPad) and in comments includes the hashtag #xanaduquest is entered to win one of five, signed copies of the next book in my series, launching 2/28. I’ve then asked for permission to put their image on my web-page and now I have a whole “Fan Shout-Out” on the front page of my website at http://www.elysesalpeter.com (and to the fans who have so far participated and those that allowed me to put up your photos – you have no idea how thankful I am, nor any idea how unbelievably cool it is for me to simply stare at that page)

I also announced the contest to my Facebook author page and boosted that post $15 so far – I plan to do a few dollars every week until I hit $20 and have had over 2200 people see it now, gotten over 70 likes and lots of comments. BUT, what I can tell you is that many of my readers have uploaded their photos on the Facebook stream with the #xanaduquest hashtag. What I’m finding is that many of my readers are ONLY on FB and not on twitter or instagram. As a result, I’m allowing those people to be part of the contest as well, and their photos are up on my webpage, too. By doing this contest I’ve now learned where a lot of my readers are coming from and that is extremely helpful to know.

It’s hard enough to get people to actively do things – but to get them to actually upload a photo? I’ve had about 10 people upload photos right now and I’ve had a bunch of sales of THE HUNT FOR XANADU since I started this. I even got a review in, so I have to think this is a successful contest so far. It’s going to run until 2/21, so my hope is that I get double the amount of people and simply fill the webpage and possibly even be lucky enough for my hashtage #xanaduquest (a mix of The Hunt for Xanadu and The Quest of the Empty Tomb) to “trend.” Trending is when a hashtag gets a lot of play and people start using it. If you go to twitter, instagram or Facebook right now and plug that hashtag in the search area, in you’ll see a bunch of entries across the board.

Other ways I’ve promoted this contest:

It’s now on my profile on my instagram acct, I promote on twitter, directing to my webpage, google+, FB author page, here on wordpress, and created a goodreads event about this (though I can tell you only 4 people out of nearly 4000 at this point have even responded – goodreads is better with free books, giveaways, listopia lists and launch event information in my opinion). I may use my regular FB page mid February for one last push for folks who might not have remembered to enter.

If you’ve read The Hunt for Xanadu, please consider entering the contest. I’m giving away randomly one of five signed copies of book #2 in the series – and this is open worldwide – I will ship to wherever a winner resides. You can grab your copy of THE HUNT FOR XANADU here: http://amzn.to/1JXHtul

I’m always looking for new ways to interact with readers – so if anyone has any other ideas, please feel free to share. I’m all ears.