Monice Mitchell Simms's Blog, page 9

Address: House of Corrections Audio Seri

Address: House of Corrections Audio Series Trailer!!! http://ow.ly/1bJR49

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Published on March 12, 2011 16:36

Address: House of Corrections Audio Series Trailer!!!

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Published on March 12, 2011 15:27

Address: House of Corrections Audio Mini Series To Debut on Podbean.com March 17th!!!!!

fam! the day has arrived…well, not yet, but as you can tell from the headline above, it's coming soon.

march 17th! mark you calendars for the long anticipated address: house of corrections audio mini series!!!" i'm so excited for you to hear what i've been hearing for two years now. this has truly been a labor of love. and i gots to thank tavis smiley for donating his studio. johnny morris our phenomenal engineer. jazzy rita for gifting me withe usage of the series' theme song, sour citrus. and mr. simms for recording the behind-the-scenes footage in the studio! (can't wait for you all to see that!)

but last, though, fo sho not least – i send much love to my wonderful, fabulous, spectacular cast! , , , , and !!! you all are the truth! and i am so happy and honored to call you my friends. i thank each and every one of you for coming when i called and laying magic down on the mic!

fam, i am sooo past excited, i don't know what to do.

o.k…while i go calm down, how about you all check out the link to our press release that gives you all the details — http://www.briefingwire.com/pr/author-launches-audio-mini-series-to-celebrate-one-year-anniversary-of-debut-novel .

and just in case you have an event coming up or know someone/an organization that does, check out my new author/speaking website - http://www.gigsalad.com/monice_mitchell_simms_los_angeles . i have words and will travel.

yaw ain't ready!!!

buy your copy today! Address:House of Corrections- a novel inspired

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Published on March 11, 2011 17:23

For Make Believers To EBook or Not To EB

For Make Believers To EBook or Not To EBook? – by Monice Mitchell Simms Two blog posts in two days. Back to back. D… http://ow.ly/1bAoTf

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Published on March 02, 2011 16:46

For Make Believers – To EBook or Not To EBook?

by Monice Mitchell Simms

Two blog posts in two days. Back to back.

Don't get too excited, Fam. I just couldn't wait to post this one, because something noteworthy has happened.

Drum roll please….In just a few days, I've sold five copies of Address: House of Corrections on Kindle.

Hello? Is this thing on?

Alright, five books may not seem like a big deal to you, but I'm geeked because (1) Two of those EBooks were sold on Kindle before I even announced it to anyone and (2) The other three EBooks were purchased by FaceBook friends.

The immediate profiting power of the Internet and social networking. So sexy.

And it more than proves why it so important to heed the digital writing on the wall — i.e. Borders Bookstore filing bankruptcy and EBook sales decimating traditional book sales — and publish your work as an EBook.

But knowing you should do something and having the money to do it is a different matter entirely. Especially if you're like me – a new, self published author with limited funds.

Yes, there's plenty of help out there. Folks you can pay to format your fiction or non-fiction masterpiece into EBook literature. But for me, even the more affordable services were out of my price range. In fact, I found that the cheaper the service was the longer I was going to have to wait. And for a self-published author, the only valuable currency we really have is our time, so that left me with only one option. My default option time and time again. To do it myself.

Finding online how to format your EBook yourself, though, is close to impossible. Websites will bait you with just enough convoluted information to scare you into thinking you can't do it and then hit you in the face with their fee. I fell for that a few times — (Why else do you think it took me a year to publish my novel as an EBook?!) — But just when I was about to give up, I stumbled upon a miracle – http://donnielight.wordpress.com/2010/04 /05/kindle-formatting/

Here, Donnie Light - a fellow writer, wordpress blogger and a true example of someone paying it forward – lists all of the steps he took to format his own book for Kindle in such a thorough, easy, conversational, clear and concise way that you can't fail. Thanks to him, I was able to finish formatting in a matter of hours vs. days. And then uploading it into Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing Program was a breeze.

So…To follow the lead of my brother wordsmith, I thought it only right that I share this information with you.

So far, I've only formatted Address: House of Corrections for Kindle. Hopefully, I'll take on Nook and Sony Reader in the near future. I've been told that Smashwords is the program to use to publish your book for multiple formats. Here's the link – http://www.smashwords.com/about/how_to_publish_on_smashwords. Try it and let me know how it works!

Hope this helps.:)

living by my pen,

monice

* For individual coaching, click below – http://addresshouseofcorrections.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/living_by_my_pen_ad.jpg

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Published on March 02, 2011 14:36

do you know what today is? it's my anniversary!

"can't you feel a brand new day? can't you feel a brand new day?," lyrics and music by the legendary luther vandross, sung by the cast of "the wiz."

fam!!!! can u believe it? it has been a whole year since i officially published my debut novel, address: house of corrections! (i had a test run on createspace before i told all of you about it, but i digress…)

anyhoo…i just wanted to take out some time and reflect on my phenomenal journey thus far. how i began as a penniless new author and am now rolling in dough…. lol! well, not yet, but it's coming!

over the past year, there have been many milestones and accomplishments. luckily, in addition to this blog, i've been keeping a blessings/achievements journal, so that i wouldn't forget anything.

the generalities of my experience, i've pretty much shared with you already. but now, i wanna throw a few specific numbers at you. and to save all of us some time, i'm gonna condense my title down to a:hc, o.k?

fam, thanx to God and your support, since march 1, 2010,

i have sold 385 books person to person in book stores and at book signings and appearances. (this includes church parking lots, grocery store aisles and beauty spas. don't sleep!)
i have sold 109 books online through amazon.com, amazon.uk.com, barnesandnoble.com and other expanded distribution outlets.
a:hc has been listed for sale on multiple national and international websites, including amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, librarything.com, savvybrown.com, powells.com, paperbackswap.com, booksamillion.com and goodreads.com
a:hc has received glowing reviews from readers and bloggers, including readsforpleasure and browngirlspeaks
a:hc has been selling in two brick and mortar bookstores – zahra's books-n-things in inglewood, ca. and shrine of the black madonna in detroit, mi. (a:hc was also selling for time in a third store, smiley's book in carson, ca.)
a:hc has been chosen to be read by two book clubs - diva dialogue in detroit, mi. and sistagirl in los angeles, ca. (c'mon book clubs! show a sista some more love. lol!)

i've also been blessed with fantastic press, including a story on myheritage.com, an engaging interview on the craig fahle show, a great profile by rochelle riley of the detroit free press and a we-forgot-we-we-were-still-on-the-radio- conversation with my former boss, tavis smiley on his radio show. (t.v. is next!)
i met robyn roberts of good morning, america and gave her my book to read. (anybody know her? let her know i've been told to not to let the page count fool her, because once she starts, she won't be able to put it down.
i've gone on a six city national book tour to chicago, atlanta, detroit, washington, d.c., baltimore and new york!
i've published address: house of corrections on kindle (at the end of february) and have already sold five books!

and these are just the highlights.

like life, of course, there were peaks and valleys in between, but i'll spare you those. i just wanted to list these blessings/accomplishments here, not to brag, but to give anybody out there some encouragement that you can do it, too.

you don't have the money? so what.

don't have the time? smells like an excuse to me.

your kids and husband are driving you crazy? look, if you're really serious about writing that book that you've been talking about for years, do it! carve out some quiet space for yourself — even if it has to be at 3 o'clock in the morning when the rest of the house is asleep — and get to writing!

o.k. let me step down off my soap box now. what's next for me and address: house of corrections? the audio series. i'm not gonna say when now, because i've been sooo excited about this project that i under estimated how much work it would take to get it done and announced a few dates already that have come and gone. but it'll be real soon, so hang on!

also look forward to a film version and t.v. mini-series of my novel — if i have my way. i'm drafting both scripts now. when hollywood comes knocking this time, i'm gone be ready! trust!

note: for fun, click on this youtube link and check out toni tone tony's anniversary video. this was my jaaaam back in the day. lol!

buy your copy today! Address:House of Corrections- a novel inspired