Sherry D. Ficklin's Blog, page 8

Writing As A Career

So many writers I know write in their spare time. After their kids go to bed, after working an 8 hour day job, whenever they can squeeze in a word. And I have to say, you guys humble me. That is not only serious dedication, but takes enormous focus and ability to force yourself to write when the opportunity presents itself. I’ve been there. I’ve done that. And it’s so very, very hard.

But then things changed for me. I sold books. I got contracts. I went from part-time hobby to full-time job.

So what happens when you move from part-time writer to full-time author?

Well, lots of wonderful (and some awful) things. Last year I finally started selling enough books for writing to be considered an actual paying job. And in that time, I’ve doubled my output. Just in 2015 I released 8 novels and two short stories. I have a dedicated home office, which I now consider an absolute essential. It’s like living with a crappy flip phone for your whole life, then getting a smart phone. You don’t think you need it, but once you have it, you’d go full battle to the death to keep it.

Why is having a dedicated office space so important?

Well, for someone writing full time it gives you the ability to shut the damn door. Think of it like this, if you had a full time job at say a bank, you’d get up, shower dress, do whatever light housekeeping you needed to, but by 8am you’d be at your desk, ready to work. When you work from home, there is real temptation to take extra time to do a load of laundry or watch the news or whatever. That quickly spirals into you spending all day doing NOT WRITING and then being frustrated because when quitting time comes (say 5 pm or whatever) and you’ve gotten nothing done on your work. So the door serves two purposes. It gives you the ability to shut out whatever other stuff you can be doing (dishes, vacuuming, errand running, etc) and just focus on your work.It also signals other people to do the same.

What I’m saying is, treat it like any other job.

You will notice that you’ll start to get things like people popping by because they know you’re home or expecting you to do things because “you’re home anyway” or “you just sit around all day doing nothing”.

The more you treat your writing like a career, the more others will too. If you say, no, I work from 9-5, then people will respect that, and your time, more. Now there will always be those asshats who think that writing isn’t a real job, and to them I give a well deserved one finger salute. That’s when I close my door (locking it if I must) and keep on keeping on.

Even my family knows that a closed office door means unless someone is bleeding or the house is on fire or Nathan Fillion is at the door, you do not bug mom. Period. I don’t answer my home phone. I screen my cell calls. I don’t answer the front door.

I. Just. Write.

For me, I try to keep it routine. I get the kids off to school, do a little light pick up, but by 9 am I’m in my office, butt in chair, working. Then, when my kiddos get home from school around 4, I pack it in. Sometimes I take an hour to in the evening to do non-writing work like answering emails or whatever, but by 5, I’ve left my office for the day. That’s just me. That’s my balance. And it’s a delicate and fragile thing. It doesn’t work for everyone.

But what I’m saying is, figure out what your work schedule will be, then stick to it. Respect it like you would any other job.

When you begin writing full time you’ll also notice that it’s really easy to get distracted. A five minute break to research period underwear can quickly spiral into four hours on Pinterest. I know. It happens to me all the time. My only advice for this is to set a timer on your phone. Give yourself ten minutes or fifteen, but then the timer goes off, get back to work.

You’ll also notice your writing time being eaten up by things like marketing, promotion, and advertising. These are completely necessary but also total time sucks. I highly suggest setting aside two days a week and using them specifically for that kind of stuff. For example, the first Monday of each month I set aside to fill out my monthly marketing stuff for my publisher, to schedule any ads or promotions I want for the month, and to make graphics, etc. Since my daughter gets home early on Wednesdays, I use those for weekly blog post writing, for interviews, and whatever else comes in over the week. It’s also when I make my post office trips to mail swag and to put in some time doing research. The Facebook schedule post tool is your friend. Use it.

You should be thinking like a business owner.

I’m not saying go out and get an LLC, but once you start generating income, you are basically a small business. It will change everything from your daily schedule to your annual taxes. You should be tracking every work related purchase, keeping receipts, printing and filing quarterly statements. There are a million things you should be tracking as part of your business. The ink you use for your printer, the paper, your internet costs, any hardware (printers, laptops, etc) you buy, your annual web domain fees and hosting costs. All that is the (ugh, math) side of being a full time author.

If you aren’t sure what you should be keeping/tracking/claiming, just save it all and go talk to a tax pro who can help you weed through it. It can get tricky. Like, I can claim a home office deduction because I have a dedicated office space. But if your office is in the same room as, say your washer and drier or your kid’s play room, you can’t count it (for taxes). I also keep a spreadsheet of any inventory (books) I have to purchase for conventions and stuff as well as any expenses I have through the year. It’s a TON of work, but it’s SO worth it in the end.

So that’s a bit of what to expect as you transition into the role of full-time author. There will be hiccups, there will be bumps. It will be trial and error because what works for one person does not work for another. But as long as you are steadfastly treating it like a career, others will as well.

Even if that means locking the door once in a while.

Thursday Giveaways

As a way to say THANK YOU to everyone subscribed to my email newsletter, I’m instituting #ThankYouThursday. Every Thursday from now till 2016 I’ll be giving away goodies to those people subscribed to my author newsletter. It’s never too late to get in on the fun, so if you aren’t already subscribed, sign up anytime between now and January 1st for a chance to win! 

TO ENTER:

1. Subscribe to my newsletter (you can use the form on the sidebar).

2. Enter your email address in the Rafflecopter Form.  (This is the only way I have to track entries.  A newsletter subscription does not mean automatic entry if you do not also put your email address in the Rafflecopter Form.)

Every month I will send out 3 ebooks and one swag pack. Get additional chances to win by tweeting about the giveaway daily.

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This is a NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE giveaway. You must be subscribed (and verified) to my newsletter to win.

***SWAG PACKS ARE U.S. ONLY (DUE TO SHIPPING COSTS). INTERNATIONAL WINNERS ELIGIBLE FOR E-PRIZES ONLY.***

Fall for YA giveaway!

It’s fall and that means it’s time for a huge YA giveaway. I’ve teamed up with several YA authors to bring you a bunch of great priz-es.

 

 
First, here are the participating au-thors:

 

 

 

 
Now for the prizes. There will be a winner for each prize. Yes, that means there are a ton of chances to win!

 

 
Prizes:

 

2 $40 gift cards


eBook of PERFECT FOR YOU by Ashelyn Drake


eBook of FINE ART OF PRE-TENDING by Rachel Harris


eBook of SOMETHING ABOUT LOVE by Elana Johnson


eBook of ELEVATED by Elana Johnson


eBook of PLAYING WITH FIRE by Sherry Ficklin


One of the GUARDIANS OF GAL-AXY books by Ednah Walters


RITE OF REJECTION by Sarah Negovetich


4 copies of THE TROUBLE WITH DESTINY by Lauren Morrill


eBook set of THE DARK BE-TRAYAL Trilogy by Nichole Chase

eBook of TOUCHING SMOKE by Airicka Phoenix




You can enter on Ashelyn Drake’s Facebook page or on the Rafflecopter form below. The giveaway is international and will run from November 9th to November 15th. Good luck!

 

 
a Rafflecop-ter giveaway

 

 

Giveaway hosted by Ashelyn Drake. 
 
More info about Ashelyn can be found below: 
 
 
Ashelyn is a pen name for Kelly Hashway. Kelly grew up reading R.L.

Stein’s Fear Street novels and writing stories of her own, so it was no

surprise to her family when she majored in English and later obtained a masters

degree in English Secondary Education from East Stroudsburg University. After

teaching middle school language arts for seven years, Hashway went back to

school and focused specifically on writing. She is now the author of three

young adult series, one middle grade series, and several picture books. She

also writes contemporary romance under the pen name Ashelyn Drake. When she

isn’t writing, Hashway works as a freelance editor for small presses as well as

for her own list of clients. In her spare time, she enjoys running, traveling,

and volunteering with the PTO. Hashway currently resides in Pennsylvania with

her husband, daughter, and two pets.

 


Website || Ashelyn’s blog || Ashelyn’s Facebook || Ashelyn’s Twitter || Google+ || 


Pinterest || Ashelyn’s Amazon Author Page || Ashelyn’s Goodreads || YouTube ||

Instagram





*Sign up for Ashelyn’s newsletter to stay current

on her new releases: http://bit.ly/1tRQqzg

 
Join her street team, Kelly’s Cov-en, for

exclusive giveaways, ARCs, and to chat with her: https://www.facebook.com/groups/KellysCoven/

You Are Your Own First Editor

I’ve noticed a disturbing trend, particularly facing my author friends working with smaller publishers and I think it’s a conversation worth having.

Just because you have a multi-book contract with a publisher or agent does not give you permission to turn in unedited first drafts.

Really, this should be obvious. Just like you shouldn’t shop/submit a manuscript that hasn’t been thoroughly edited, scrubbed, and polished, landing you a contract does not give you permission to hand over whatever brain vomit you first smear across a page. Just because you are now working with a publisher paid editor does not mean you can skip the basic steps of self editing, beta editing, and polishing.

No matter what your status is as a writer, whether you are just out of the gate or are on your hundredth novel, your first draft will always be garbage. That’s the point of first drafts. You barf out the idea and then, in editing, you clean, smooth, polish, and refine it. THEN you submit it. Every. Single. Time.

I’ve gotten to the point where most of the time, my first drafts are decent. But never would I dream of handing it to my agent, editor, or publisher without first editing it myself. And nearly every time, I also have my (wonderful, amazing) beta readers do an editing pass with me as well.

On average, before I turn in a draft I will run it through a minimum of five self-edit phases. If that sounds like a lot to you, then you are either a rookie, a NYT prodigy, or just plain wrong. I see my weaknesses as a writer, and I know, specifically, what I need to tighten after an initial draft. I sweep through once to add detail (my first drafts are very bare bones with setting and description), then I do a pass looking for pacing problems. Then I do a pass where I run thorough a set of editing worksheets that deal with emotions and dialogue. THEN I send it to my beta readers for a pass. Then I gather all those notes and suggestions, make a final edit pass and ONLY THEN do I hand it in. And even with all that, I still realize that I’m due three rounds of edits with my editor and her team. Because that’s how you know you are putting out the best possible project. The more sets of eyes on a draft, the better the final product will be. And you will end up with a much cleaner finished product if they can focus on catching every stray comma or double space rather than wasting all their time helping you work through basic story problems.

Now, I’m a firm believer that there is such a thing as over editing, of having too many cooks in the kitchen. This is why you have to find beta readers who are familiar with the genre you write in and can be brutally honest when giving feedback. Why you should look for an editor who shares your vision for your work and doesn’t want your contemporary romance to read more like a space opera. And the best way to have a firm grasp on your book, to be able to both keep true to your voice and your artistic control while still being able to receive feedback and criticism, is to know your book inside and out. To have combed through every inch of it, making it as perfect as you possibly can.

And I’ll tell you a secret. No matter how good your first book is, if you start turning in your crappy, unedited first drafts, your publisher/agent may very well decide they are tired of doing your work for you and drop you like a hot potato. I’ve seen it happen.

So that’s my tough love. Don’t be lazy. Don’t cut corners. Put in the work. Let your editors rave about how much they enjoy working with you because you turn in such clean drafts. Then roll up your sleeves and do it all over again. Congratulations. You’re an author.

What is an Author Brand?

If you are a new or up and coming author, chances are someone along the way has given you the sage advice that you need to build your author brand. Leaving you scratching your head going, what the heck is an author brand? And how the heck to I build one?

You’re not alone.

When I began writing, back in the dark ages of nearly ten years ago, it was a relatively new concept. Few people knew what an author brand was or why you need one. I stumbled through my first few years without one and, guess what, it sucked. I sucked. So when I tell you that yes, you DO need one, please believe me. Without a good author brand, you are left floundering in a sea of digital crapola struggling to find your place and connect with potential readers.

So what is an Author brand?

 

Basically, it’s you. See, gone are the days where you can just market your books and never actually show your face to anyone. Those days of writer hermitdom are gone. RIP. We live in a world where social media and digital connections make up a huge chunk of our existence. It’s how we communicate, how we reach out to new people and ideas. It’s the digital frontier. And for better or worse, you need to know not only how to exist in it, but how to leverage it to make your mark.

An author brand is your digital self, the brand that will carry you across platforms, linking you with a recognizable and accessible product–ie, your books.

DON’T PANIC!

Take a deep breath and let me explain.

I’m not just talking about a logo (though logos are good), but I’m talking about the image that you want to project, how you want people to see you. You’re THEME. If you write children’s books, perhaps you want people to think of bright pink hippos or colorful rainbows when they think of you. If you write steampunk you may want people to connect you with gears or airships. If you write romance you may want people to connect your name to sexy were-shifters. You get the idea. If you write in many different genres, your job is a little harder. You need to think of something that equates to you as a person or to the image you want your brand to project. Again, not necessarily an photo, but a tone, a feel. At the very minimum the fonts, colors, and images you choose should carry across from your Facebook to Twitter, to your Website and etc. Tag lines are also great. I’m going to show you one author brand that I just love. It belongs to Indie author Belinda Boring.

Now, this image is a great example. It has her name (prominently featured), her tag line, and her logo. This image is the same on all her social media pages, her website, and her business cards and swag. All together it makes up her author brand.

Here’s another:

Let me be very clear. Once your brand is established it does not have to ‘fit’ every single genre you write in. It just has to be recognizable at a glance.This is why i always suggest that when buying a domain name for your website, it should be YOU and not your books. www.yourname.com vs www.yourbooktitle.com.

Here’s mine. It’s much simpler and while I don’t have a logo per-se, it’s very recognizable and is used across all my platforms, on my banners, etc.

The purpose of an author brand is to have one cohesive online presence that also carries over into real life. If someone sees this on a banner at an event, they immediately know who I am and mentally connect me to my online presence.

BUT that’s not all. Author branding isn’t just colors and logos. Those are just the foundation, the building blocks. It’s also about knowing and exploiting your unique place in the marketplace. It’s about being able to take your brand and use it to get exposure for you and your books. Your goal, once the foundation is laid, is to push your brand out into the world, to create that recognition. This is done in a variety of ways. Interviews, guest blog posts, chats, conferences, conventions. Basically, through promoting the living crap out of it.

But that’s another post.

 

So, why do you need an author brand?

Well, here’s the bottom line. Strong author brands will sell books. Weak author brands actually deter sales.

Let that sink in.

As an author, you are expected to be a professional, and are held to a higher standard. If you fall short of that, people simply don’t take you as seriously, and they will assume that your books are of a lesser quality. On the flip side of that, if I walk into a book store and see say, Anne Rice’s name on the front of a book, I’m probably going to buy it–I may not even read the blurb. Why? Because I know her brand means it’s a book I will likely enjoy. I trust it. A strong brand can influence buyers to purchase your book when they have only limited money–especially if they have already sort of heard good things from another source like a book blogger or online reviewer. It will also create a loyal readership that can bring you bigger contracts from publishers and more attention from agents as well as readers.

When I started publishing I got some great advice from a dear friend who is wildly more successful than me. He told me, “You are only as successful as you look online”. I think that is incredibly true. When you project success, you become successful. It’s not about lying online–I never condone that. It’s about presenting you and your brand as a high quality product.

So on to the hard part. How do you create your author brand?

First, be sure you have a product to sell, and that it is of exceptional quality.

Second, discover your author brand. Decide what image, tag line, logo, color scheme, or theme you want to project. Is there one quality, topic, or aspect of your books you’d like to highlight so that you become known for it? If not, what are your passions, your interests? For example, I have an author friend who writes both fiction and non fiction, but all her books carry a strong theme of healing. She also lives in the southwest so she uses a lovely desert-scape image for her brand. I know another author who writes urban fantasy and paranormal novels with strong female leads and her tag line is, Damsels Not In Distress.

What sets you apart? What theme do your books carry? Who are your readers going to be? If you can’t clearly communicate your niche in the market place, then how do you expect to connect to readers looking for what you’re offering?

So really think about you and your books and the image you want to present to the world. Once you have that in mind, proceed to step three.

Step three. Have a professional online presence, that includes a website and at least a few social media accounts, and use that brand across each one. I suggest you use the social sites you are already comfortable with. If you have no idea what snapchat is or how to use it, then just stay away. Have a few core places you visit, but not so many that you spent hours a day keeping them updated. But whatever you choose, be active and engaging. Remember the 80/20 rule. 80% of what you post should be about YOU and should showcase your life, your voice, you as a person. Only 20% of what you post should be blatant promotion.

Step four, when in doubt, get help. Having a functional website and online presence is much more complicated than it sounds. There are a million tiny things you should have when you launch your brand. For example, do you have a catchy newsletter sign up form? Or do you have individual pages for each of your books? Did you know that branded purchase links will get 3X the clicks as text links? Do you have google analytics set up so you can monitor traffic on your blog or website? Do your social media sites cross-post? Are your images easily clickable and shareable? Did I just begin speaking another language?

Don’t be afraid to look at what other authors are doing, especially successful authors in your similar genre. Take the best parts of what others are doing and learn to implement it yourself. Or, look for a service to help. I use Author Branding Essentials and highly recommend them, but there are many similar services you can find on the web. (I suggest doing your homework, though, and speaking to their clients before dropping cash on anyone. You will want to find someone who gets you and who you can trust. Don’t go to just anyone. Look at their work, their experience, and talk to clients to get a real idea of what it’s like to work with them.) This is one of those places where you get what you pay for. If you buy a $5 logo on Fiverr, odds are it’s going to be less than professional, or at least, less that what you really want. If you are going to spend money anywhere when starting up, I suggest spending it on a good website. It will help you sell more books than all the bookmarks or buttons in the world.

Step five, be aware that your brand will grow and evolve over time. That’s great. It’s supposed to happen that way. But switching from one branded platform to another is hard, so go into it knowing that it will grow and giving it room to do just that. It will save you enormous headaches down the road.

Step six, try to enjoy the ride. If you are miserable, people pick up on that, whether online or in real life. If you aren’t excited and engaging, then people will avoid you like the plague. You are always the face of your product, and as your brand grows, that only becomes more true. The happier you are in the process, the happier you will make others. People who like YOU as a person are always going to be your biggest fans and best buyers.

I know all this can sound daunting, but once you get your author brand established and the wrinkles smoothed out, I promise it will stand on it’s own legs and you will be free to focus on other things, like actually writing books!

Until next time, cheers!

In Too Deep~ Cover Reveal

TROUBLE IS ONLY A KEYSTROKE AWAY…
I’m very excited to reveal the cover for book 2 in the #HACKER series,
IN TOO DEEP.

 

About the book:

One talented hacker.

One dead body.

One explosive secret.

When one reckless night leads Farris Barnett to the dead body of a classmate, she’s as willing as everyone else to write it off as a suicide. That is, until cryptic messages start coming in from someone who knows the truth, and they want Ferris on the case. Putting her hacker skills to work, she begins to unravel the life of a victim who might just have been the guiltiest of them all.

Her personal life in turmoil, Farris turns to the only person she can trust to help her get to the bottom of things—a friend on the verge of becoming much more. Together, they confront a killer with a secret not even she could have decoded.

The biggest bombs, the ones that do the most damage, are the ones you never see coming.

You can find the first chapter of IN TOO DEEP inside the first book of the #HACKER series, PLAYING WITH FIRE releasing October 27th!

Grab your copy of Playing With Fire HERE

About the author:

Sherry is a full time writer from Colorado and the author of over a dozen novels for teens and young adults including the best selling Stolen Empire series. She can often be found browsing her local bookstore with a large white hot chocolate in one hand and a towering stack of books in the other. That is, unless she’s on deadline at which time she, like the Loch Ness monster, is only seen in blurry photographs.

Sherry also writes New Adult fiction under the pen name Ranae Glass and is a contributing writer for fangirlish.com. You can find her at her official website, www.sherryficklin.com, or stalk her on her Facebook page www.facebook.com/sherry.ficklin.

Giveaway!

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An Author’s Table

I’m packing today to head to Las Vegas for Vegas Valley Book Festival and it got me thinking about something most authors don’t really think of until the last minute.

I’m talking about table displays. Whether you are hosting a book signing at an indie store or have purchased a vendor table at a book con type of event, you will need to know how to put together an eye catching table.

Firstly, I’m going to talk about the basics of what you need to have at/on your table.

1) Books. Duh. And how many? Ah, the eternal struggle. That depends on the size of the event and your individual popularity. If it’s your first release and you don’t have much of a fan base yet (hey, that’s cool, we all start somewhere!) then you don’t need as many as a seasoned, well-known author. My friend and book guru Jo Michaels suggests between 0.5 and 1% of the total number of people expected to attend. She explains the math on her post here, and I think that’s a very good rule of thumb. Unless you are in a city where you know you have a ton of friends/family/fans coming, go with 1%. (also keep in mind that the turn out for your first book in your home town will almost always be high, so plan accordingly)

2) A cash drawer and a credit card slider for your smart phone. People need to pay for the books they buy. Be sure you have change (I suggest charging a nice round number for books rather than having to fumble with nickles and dimes) and a Square or other CC reader. People expect to be able to pay with cards.

3) Business cards. Sometimes the people you meet at events aren’t just book lovers. Agents, producers, and other industry professionals also browse them, so be ready.

4) A sign up sheet for your newsletter. This is a HUGE deal. You can offer a raffle prize to people who sign up, or special swag items. But get people to sign up. This is going to be extremely beneficial in the long run. If you prefer, you can also use a tablet and have people sign up online right at your booth.

5) SWAG. Not everyone buys paper books anymore. Swag serves dual purposes. It gives them a reminder later of a book they may have wanted to buy and where to get it, and it acts as a walking billboard to other potential book buyers. I have a whole post on SWAG here.

6) Author brand/display items.

 

Ok, that’s not terrible, right? Now, depending on the venue you may also need chairs, table cloth, heck, sometimes you even have to bring your own table. I suggest asking beforehand so you know what to expect.

So what makes a booth/table great?

You should be eye catching. Now, if say you write steampunk, then you can decorate your whole table with steampunk goodies, trunks, goggles, etc. For romance, go with red satin and flowers. You get the idea. I will say that bright, colorful, eye catching booths do better than dark, bland ones.  So think of the theme of your books and see if anything strikes you. For those of you like me who write in multiple genres, our job is a bit trickier.

My friend Elizabeth Sharp does an AMAZING table display. Here’s her table from her last event:

Her table has many things going for it. It’s bright, it’s trendy, its NEAT, organized, and visually inviting. Her name and author logo are prominent, as is her newsletter sign up sheet. Also notice how her books are stacked below the display stands? This creates lift, raising the books like this gives the table height and dimension–much more attractive than a flat, one story display.

Also very useful are vinyl banners with your author name/logo.book covers. It can be horizontal and attached to the front of the table like a skirt or it can be vertical and sitting beside or behind your table. This is a pic from UtopYA last year. The attending authors always do an amazing job with their displays:

 

Here’s my banner. I just got a new one, so this will be my first event using it:

Or you can go with a combination of table banners like author Casey Bond. Notice she uses shelves to elevate her books:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do you only have one book? That’s no problem! Put two or three on stands (I use plate holder stands from Hobby Lobby) in varying heights and scatter them on the table. To add more height you can use balloons, flowers, and tall decor. Another thing I’ve seen used is battery operated strings of mini lights strewn about a table. They look really cool.

So think about your theme, your genre, and your personality. Your table display doesn’t have to ‘match’ your cover, but it should be in line with your overall author brand. The idea is to make your table look fun and welcoming, to invite people over to have a look and stay for a while. The best way to do that is to make it a place where YOU feel comfortable and look professional.

For more news and tips please sign up for my newsletter over on the right sidebar!

Good luck and happy signing!

Stolen Empire Digital Box Set Release

Introducing The Stolen Empire Trilogy Box Set

Now Available, you will be able to get ALL THREE of The Stolen Empire Novels, together in one amazing Box Set Edition!

The Stolen Empire series is a decedent look at one of history’s most scandalous queens, Catherine the Great of Russia. Beginning with her humble origins and culminating with her coronation, this series offers a fanciful glimpse inside the life of the dynamic, strong young woman who won the hand of a king, the heart of a nation, and, ultimately, sacrificed her own innocence on the throne of an empire. The trials and tribulations of court life left their scars on young Sophie—the girl who would be Catherine, but she faced down every obstacle with the courage and grace of a queen.

Don’t miss the series dubbed a “must-read romance” by the USA Today and “An entertaining and racy read” by School Library Journal. Fans of the hit TV show REIGN will devour this scandalous glimpse into the life of one of the most vibrant women in history.

No Cliffhangers, No Waiting, Read The Whole Story Together!

About The Author

Sherry D. Ficklin is a full time writer from Colorado where she lives with her husband, four kids, two dogs, and a fluctuating number of chickens and house guests. A former military brat, she loves to travel and meet new people. She can often be found browsing her local bookstore with a large white hot chocolate in one hand and a towering stack of books in the other. That is, unless she’s on deadline at which time she, like the Loch Ness monster, is only seen in blurry photographs.

She is the author of several novels for teens and young adults and in her spare time she co-hosts the Pop Lit Divas Radio Show.

Exciting News!

As if this week wasn’t cool enough, what with Queen of Always debuting in Amazon’s #1 spot for YA historical ebooks, but I finally get to announce something amazing.

I’m now officially represented by Nadia Cornier of Firebrand Literary.

For those familiar with my story, you may know that I’ve been publishing in the indie and small press community for going on 8 years now, and for all of that I’ve gone without an agent. So when I initially told some of my friends and family about my decision to sign with an agent, their first reaction was, that’s cool, but why?

There are lots of reasons I decided to take this new path, but I also understand that it can be hard to understand from the outside looking in.

1) Nadia is amazing. From the very first phone call, I felt like we really clicked. She understood me, shared my offbeat sense of humor, and most importantly, she loves my books as much as I do. I knew right away that I wanted her on my team, if only to be able to call her whenever I want without being a stalker.

2) There are still limits to where you can go as an indie author. That’s not to say you can’t have great success. I, personally, have had so much success in the last year, it’s hard to wrap my head around at times. But there were still doors not open to me as an un-agented author. And there’s nothing I hate more than a closed door.

3) I recognize that I need help. While my writing has evolved greatly over my career, I’m not vain enough to think that I can’t benefit from an experienced agent helping me hone and polish my craft. I need help coming up with new marketing strategies, with reaching new readers, and with exploiting subsidiary rights.

4) I want more time to focus on writing. The hardest part about being an indie author is having to carry the entire load alone. While I obviously don’t expect my agent to take that full weight from my shoulders, I know that with many hands the burden becomes lighter. With her at my back, I think I will feel better about relaxing the reigns a little and giving myself more time to just write books.

5) An agent has industry insights that the average indie author isn’t privy to. She will have a better idea which sub-genres are flourishing and which trends are about to hit, and she can help me adjust accordingly.

 

For me, this is another exciting opportunity to continue growing and evolving as a writer. I can’t wait to see where this new adventure leads me!

Queen Of Always Release Day!

 

 

Now Available The Epic Conclusion To The Stolen Empire Trilogy

LONG LIVE THE QUEEN

If her time at court has taught Catherine anything, it’s that there is no room for weakness in Imperial Russia. With the Empress’ health failing and rumors of a change in the line of succession, her place in the royal line is once more in jeopardy. Tormented by her sadistic husband and his venomous mistress, Catherine must once more walk the fine line between pleasure and politics—between scandal and survival.

When her young son becomes the target of those rebelling against Peter’s reign, Catherine will have to rise up to protect herself, her child, and her nation from his unstable and potentially catastrophic rule. This means putting herself at odds with the most dangerous man she’s ever known, trusting those who once proved to be her enemies, and turning a nation against its sovereign. In the ultimate battle for the crown, new alliances will be forged, loyalties will be tested, and blood will be shed.

Don’t miss this breathtaking conclusion to the Stolen Empire series!

Queen of Always is a YA historical fiction based on the life of young Catherine the Great. Fans of the hit TV show REIGN will devour this scandalous glimpse into the life of one of the most dynamic women in history.

Start The Series Now – Book 1 is FREE!!

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About The Author

Sherry D. Ficklin is a full time writer from Colorado where she lives with her husband, four kids, two dogs, and a fluctuating number of chickens and house guests. A former military brat, she loves to travel and meet new people. She can often be found browsing her local bookstore with a large white hot chocolate in one hand and a towering stack of books in the other. That is, unless she’s on deadline at which time she, like the Loch Ness monster, is only seen in blurry photographs.

She is the author of several novels for teens and young adults and in her spare time she co-hosts the Pop Lit Divas Radio Show.