G.R.D. Wheeler's Blog, page 25

Sync

I now have this blog synced to goodreads & my regular facebook page (supposedly! this doesn't seem to work yet), my fan page synced to twitter. Now if I can just get goodreads synced to my fan page, it will be 1 post to rule them all!

Book Signings?

Fan page is up to 290! Today I'm calling local book stores about book signings. B&N hasn't gotten back to me yet. Borders said they don't know if they can do it because they're in Ch. 11. Which I find a bit ironic for a book store.

There are 3 other book stores in town. Pretty sure Family Christian Store is going to laugh me off the phone. The other 2 are both used book stores. Tried one anyway, got a good response. They said they do sell new copies of books by local authors & are interested, but I need to call Bob on Wednesday. Debating on the other, I've never seen new books there.

My ever-growing Fan Page!

As of this morning, I have 230 fans at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kate-Ne...

Now, the big question… Will that translate into sales?

I have no idea.

My publisher, SBG, only publishes sales figures monthly. They have also been incredibly slow about getting it out on ebook format. I have to say that so far, the biggest benefit to having a bonafide publisher, as opposed to doing it myself, is the credibility. I really needed that sense of legitimacy that comes from having a company say, "Yes, we think you're good enough to make it as a author!" I felt almost like a fraud self-publishing. Why would anyone want to buy my book if I had to publish it myself?

A week into hyping my book, I've seen a drastic difference from last time. I have so much more motivation, and a lot fewer reservations, about shouting it across the internet. And I've had much better response from my facebook "friends" – my confidence in my own work shows.

Will it be enough to win my competition and prove I can make it as an author? Ask me next month….

Terms and Conditions

After some discussion, Dennis & I realized that we had no consequences for our competition. So we kicked it about, and finally decided that the loser has to write a short story about something (subject, character, etc) the winner chooses…and then we'll both post it on our websites for all the world to see. This is going to be fun!

Competition!!

My friend & fellow vampire author Dennis Sharpe & I are having a competition to see who can sell the most books by the end of June! He's an established writer who does it entirely on his own, but this is his first foray into the vampire genre. I've got a publisher (Strategic Book Group), but this is my first novel. I'm going to need a lot of help to win this!

I'm on Google!

Rather excited that if I Google myself, I show up in about 2 million links! Apparently I'm all over the web now, woot!  In other news, my fan page is up to 41. Ordered cheap biz. cards this afternoon, hopefully I will have people to give them too soon. I've got an email in to my publisher to find out about reselling my own books with my autograph. Now, should I sign it with my pen name, my real name, both, or randomly choose one at the time of signing? Such decisions!

Sold Some Books!

A huge thank you to everyone who's already purchased a book through www.bloodfortheliving.com or another site!!  Now if only the numbers were updated instantly on my publisher's site. grrr. I am impatient and want numbers! But no, I have to wait a MONTH to find out how many have sold during the month. Ah, well. Plenty to do in the next month anyway! Next, I need to figure out the best way to autograph novels. Several people want autographs, but they live very far away….

Fan Page is a GO!

Ok, found my fan page, updated it, remembered to write down the link, and put the link on my blog here. ->

Like me! Apparently the authors at my publishing house are only just getting started with fan pages, no one has more than 1k fans yet! So my goal is to get 1,ooo fans asap!

Facebook Fan Page?

So quite a while ago, when I first tried self-publishing, I created a fan page on facebook. Now how the heck do I get back to to edit it? [insert expletive here] I also made a Kate Nevermore account at that time, but I haven't used it in ages. It gets a bit annoying flipping back and forth between that and my regular account, especially since I play mafia wars on my regular account. I've found that actually reading my friends' posts is much easier to do on my phone, so that's not as much of a concern. But I do need to update both, I just can't seem to find the [insert expletive here] fan page!

My First Try

My first attempt at a novel has been a long road. Actually writing it was a brief, intense experience. I quickly found an agent to represent me, but things ground to a halt at that point. My agent's agency went bankrupt a few months later. I next tried self-publishing. I found someone to do the cover art, I edited the heck out of it, then I put it up for sale on Amazon. This was a lesson in humiliation, as I quickly discovered that I despise self-promotion. Several months after that, I decided to try the traditional route again. I found a new agent who recommended that I go with a modern publisher, one which was part old school, part POD. It wasn't long before I was picked up by Strategic Book Publishing. Several months of further editing, formatting, and a revised cover, and I'm ready to try selling my book once more.