Christine Norris's Blog: Christine Norris' blog, page 12

Megan has joined Pinterest!

So part of Tara Lazar’s social media workshop focused on Pinterest. I haven’t really used it much lately, just not enough time to do it because, yanno, I work, and it takes up valuable Candy Crush playing time. But today I got back on and did some housekeeping, straightening, and moving around. I added some stuff to boards.

Now, Megan Montgomery, the main character ofThe Library of Athena series and the Official Librarian, has her own Pinterest board. It’s full of stuff she needs to research a...

Pitcharama and the answers to questions no one really asked…

Okay, so I went to the NJSCBWI conference about a week and a half ago. I gave a workshop on publishing (which was well received), and I took two others I really found interesting. One was about social media, and the other was about branding. And it got me thinking that I need to do some revamping here on the blog. I mean, my blog and website are both of similar styles, pink and glittery, which is me all over. But content-wise, I need to do some serious consideration on the content.

I write YA,...

Entry for Pitcharama

Manuscript Title: Smoke & Mirrors

Author: Christine Norris

Age group: (YA/NA) YA

Genre: Steampunk/Fairy Tale Retelling/Historical Fantasy

Word count: 99,000

250 word blurb:

It’s 1876 in Philadelphia. Benjamin Grimm, a stagehand at the Walnut Street theater and aspiring illusionist, knows the theater is very much like real life—people play their parts, hiding behind the illusion of their lives, never revealing their secrets.

When he reunites with his childhood friend Eleanor Banneker, he is delighted...

Housekeeping

I realized (after someone asked), that I hadn’t posted the contract terms for Palomino Press. They are the same as for Dark Quest and here are the basics:

Base terms are straight royalties, no advance.
10% royalty on print books
50% royalty on ebooks
Plus 10 author copies.
50%author discount.

I believe the contract is for three years.
There is some room for negotiation on terms.

Royalties are paid twice a year.

Next, we have set up a FB page for the imprint: Palomino FB page. Come and like us. Right n...

The BIG announcement

I’ve been hinting around that there was to be a big announcement, that I’ve been making changes in my writing career. I couldn’t tell anyone officially until after Balticon, when we made the public announcement at the Dark Quest launch party.

There’s a whole big story behind this, but long story short.

Dark Quest Books, an independent SF/F/H publisher (yes, the website is out of date, it’s on of the things on the ever-growing to-do list.)is opening a Young Adult imprint, Palomino Press. Here is...

Change isn’t always a Bad Thing

Cross-posted from YA Authors You’ve Never Heard Of

I think I’ve talked about feeling really stagnated with my writing lately. Despite trying various things, it hadn’t been getting any better. The longer it went on, the more I felt trapped and frustrated. I have one last Library of Athena book to write, and it wasn’t going anywhere at all, which just made me irritated.

I needed a change. And I made a few. I won’t go into all of them, but since I’ve made these changes to my life, I feel better. I...

The other self-published book

So I finished getting the Wizard Academies novel formatted and uploaded, and now it’s available.

Wizard Academies: Once Upon A Sorceror (Kindle)

Paperback

Yes, the paperback is $15. But I kept the trim size the same as the other book so they would match, and it ended up being almost 400 pages that way. The Kindle edition is $3.99, a little more than the other book, but not outrageous. I actually really like this book, which is why I decided to self-publish them in the first place. If I ever had...

My Journey into Self-Publishing

Yeah, okay, so I self-published a book. For the record, I have no problem with self-publishing, EXCEPT when people do it half-assed and expect to make millions. First of all, historically that’s not been the case. You have your one or two exceptions, but overall many self-published books are flops. And those that DID make a boat load of money will tell you that they did it RIGHT, and that means they spent a lot of money and paid people to help them get it out right.

So why did I do it? A list:...

When you have no idea what’s going on, it’s hard to write.

I have a confession.

I have not started writing the finalLibrary of Athenabook. Not one word. I know certain things about the book:

*What the title will be

*What the last scene will be

*At least one major problem to solve

*What the first scene will be. Kind of.

But that’s about it. I have no idea what else will go on in the book. Which has made it very easy to keep putting off. I already have a WIP going, right? I can’t work on more than one project at a time, right?

Procrastination, thy name is Chr...

My Street Team — Join Now!

I am starting an author street team. Yay! Yippee! Cupcakes and glitter all around!

What’s a street team?

It’s a group of people who volunteer to help promote my books. Street teams are common in music, especially in rap, where they get groups of teenagers who are fans of an artist and give them posters, demo tapes, swag, etc, to hit the street and spread the word about the artist’s work.

Now, being a small press author (or an author in general nowadays), isn’t always the easiest thing. Writing t...