K.C. Sprayberry's Blog, page 111

Real LIfe in Fiction

Good morning and welcome to wwwblogs. Today, we’re talking about real life in fiction. Does this work? What should you promote or write about when tragedy strikes? How timely should your book be? Or should you make your book timeless, so it’s not dated in a week?
As an author of teen fiction, I’ve been bombarded with these questions for years. Exactly how should I portray real life in my fiction? Recently, I was faced with a real conundrum—and the answer seemed to be right.
Social media and twenty-four hour a day newscasts bring events into our lives as they’re happening. We are constantly being bombarded with shootings, tragic accidents, child kidnappings, and other horrible events without a break. It seems just as one simmers down we’re hit with another problem.
This was never so evident to me as it was during the time after the recent school shooting in Florida. I’d already planned to update the cover art on Take Chances. I wanted to redo the blurb too, to make it more real to the current climate of outrage over school shootings. Yet, the morning I planned to do all of this, I was staring in horror at the news another shooting had occurred and social media was lighting up, with people screaming for gun control while others yelled just as loudly that it wasn’t  the gun’s fault.
I won’t express my personal feelings on this subject, but I will say after talking this over with a good friend, I went ahead with the changes I wanted to make. I even blogged over the weekend. My reasons? It was timely. My book is about a school shooting. The cover art portrayed the feelings of the students in the most recent shooting. The blurb asked hard questions but didn’t give away anything in the book. It was time to refresh, and I moved forward.
To date, I’ve had nothing but praise for what I did. The cover is dark, gritty, and perfectly represents a book about a school shooting. The blurb is attracting attention. Have I had sales yet? I haven’t asked my publisher, but I’m not worried. I’m sure at some point people will notice and look for answers or a book that ends with a promise of a better tomorrow.
That’s how we deal with real life in fiction. We don’t stop promoting our books that have real life situations in them because a new one has arisen. We move forward and hope for the best.



About K.C. Sprayberry
Born and raised in Southern California’s Los Angeles basin, K.C. Sprayberry spent years traveling the United States and Europe while in the Air Force before settling in northwest Georgia. A new empty nester with her husband of more than twenty years, she spends her days figuring out new ways to torment her
She’s a multi-genre author who comes up with ideas from the strangest sources. Those who know her best will tell you that nothing is safe or sacred when she is observing real life. In fact, she considers any situation she witnesses as fair characters and coming up with innovative tales from the South and beyond. game when plotting a new story.

Find out more about my books at these social media sites:

Facebook Twitter Website Goodreads Amazon Author Page Google + Pinterest 
Manic Readers AUTHORSdb Readers Gazette Instagram Authorgraph Email

Pony Dreams

Good morning and welcome to Tuesday Blog Share. Today, we’re looking at Pony Dreams, a story of a teenage girl’s deepest desire to become a Pony Express Rider. Abby has dreams, big dreams. She loves horses, wishes she could help her family train the ponies in their corral for the Pony Express, but her biggest desire is to ride for the mail venture.

BlurbThe Pony Express brought mail across barren desert, endless prairies, and over steep mountains from April 3, 1860 to October 24, 1861. The telegraph has often taken the most blame for the Pony ceasing operations, although there were other reasons. One-hundred-forty-five years later, the internet made the telegraph obsolete. The romance of that time lives on, in the memories of those who heard the tales of this great venture…
Mina Weston Anders bursts into her home to tell her great-granny that the telegraph is no more on January 27, 2006. A story unfolds, as Granny talks about an ancestor that Mina resembles…
Abigail Grace Weston's starry-eyed dream is to become the first female Pony Express rider. Ma, Pa, and six overprotective brothers won't even let her near the corral to train mustangs for the mail venture, so she gives up her dream to sneak out and talk to the ponies, teaching them to accept her weight on their backs.
Then her life changes and all her dreams are dust. Or are they?

Get Pony Dreams on Amazon!

Excerpt
If anyone had asked me to describe fifteen, I’d tell them it was near an impossible age. Everyone expected me to act like a lady and wear dresses all the time. I had to pin up my hair instead of letting it swing in the breeze in two long braids. Ladies didn’t run around without a care in the world, nor could they allow the sun to tan their skin.
Being a lady stinks.
What I wanted deep in my heart was to wear pants and train horses from sunup to sunset. No one in my family listened whenever I begged them to let me help with training the horses, so a lady I was. They told me to get about my chores. To stay out of trouble, I did those awful, everyday jobs but with hate in my heart. That was all I, Abigail Grace Weston, faced—never-ending, boring housework day in and day out.
I would never get a break from this boredom, as a lady in the nineteenth century never had a chance to think for herself, nor did she really run her home. A man always took care of a lady. This was one of the strictest rules ever, and I learned it at an early age. No one ever let me forget it; no matter what dreams I had—like the forbidden desire to one day becoming a Pony Express rider.




About K.C. Sprayberry
Born and raised in Southern California’s Los Angeles basin, K.C. Sprayberry spent years traveling the United States and Europe while in the Air Force before settling in northwest Georgia. A new empty nester with her husband of more than twenty years, she spends her days figuring out new ways to torment her characters and coming up with innovative tales from the South and beyond.                                                                                                  She’s a multi-genre author who comes up with ideas from the strangest sources. Those who know her best will tell you that nothing is safe or sacred when she is observing real life. In fact, she considers any situation she witnesses as fair game when plotting a new story.

Find out more about my books at these social media sites:
Facebook Twitter Website Goodreads Amazon Author Page Google + Pinterest 
Manic Readers AUTHORSdb Readers Gazette Instagram Authorgraph Email

Submissions

Good morning and welcome to Monday Blogs. Today, we’ll be talking about submissions. Oh, yes, this subject has come up again, but only because I’ve noticed a trend that’s troubling.
You’ve written your book. It’s taken you quite a long time, but you finally feel it’s ready for to submit to a publisher. But, you’re read all these blog posts about how you should use a critique group or beta readers to make sure you didn’t miss any important plot points. There has also been a lot made of the fact that you need an editor, to work the kinks out or identify missing or misspelled words.
You check out critique groups first. Sure, you could go to the one at the local library. They have a couple of openings, but you don’t like that you have to print out your work and can only have a chapter at a time critiqued—and your turn won’t even come up for a couple of months. Impatient, you turn to online critique groups. A couple catch your eye, but again there’s that one chapter at a time thing, even though you can do this every week. Still too long for you—you’re ready to submit now.
After looking over the cost of an editor on Fiverr, you decide that you might just be able to afford that, if no one charges you more than their advertised price. After putting your plea up, you find someone who can help and come to an agreement. After what seems like forever, the person sends back your work and they’re using Track Changes. Sure looks like an awful lot to clear and now that your book is in great shape, you figure the publisher will be so happy to give you a contract that they won’t mind all this editing stuff.
You submit your work and receive a very fast, “Thank you for submitting to XYZ Publishing. We do not feel your book, Title, is right for us.”
Well, damn, you think. That was a total waste of time. So, you go onto the next publisher on your list, without accepting those Track Changes. Get the same response, almost immediately.
Hold on before you submit to any other publishers. Learn this lesson fast. When you send your work to a publisher, you need to put your very best foot forward. That means if you’ve hired an editor to look over your work, you need to clear the Track Changes, and don’t take the shortcut of “Accept All Changes.” You’ll not get all of  them accepted. There’s a well-known Word Glitch that will ignore more than half the changes. You need to literally go through and accept those changes one at a time. I’d advise reading the comments, in case they’re telling you that you need to rework certain sections.  You need to proofread the work once that is done and only then are you ready to submit.
The whole “put your best foot forward” thing really is the difference between a contract and constant rejection.



About K.C. Sprayberry
Born and raised in Southern California’s Los Angeles basin, K.C. Sprayberry spent years traveling the United States and Europe while in the Air Force before settling in northwest Georgia. A new empty nester with her husband of more than twenty years, she spends her days figuring out new ways to torment her characters and coming up with innovative tales from the South and beyond.
She’s a multi-genre author who comes up with ideas from the strangest sources. Those who know her best will tell you that nothing is safe or sacred when she is observing real life. In fact, she considers any situation she witnesses as fair game when plotting a new story.   Find out more about my books at these social media sites:
Facebook Twitter Website Goodreads Amazon Author Page Google + Pinterest 
Manic Readers  AUTHORSdb Readers Gazette Instagram Authorgraph Email 
 

Pony Dreams

Good morning and welcome to Sunday Blog Share. Today, we’re focusing on the Wild West. One of the first forays was by the Lewis and Clark Expedition that began on May 14, 1804 when they left St. Charles, which was part of the Louisiana Purchase, and canoed north to Fort Mandan in what is now North Dakota. These brave explorers finally reached the Pacific Ocean near the mouth of the Columbia River where they wintered at Fort Clattop near what is today Astoria, Oregon. This was only the beginning of the curiosity of what lay beyond the mighty Mississippi and harkened to those hearty souls willing to travel to what they thought was a promised land.
From April of 1860 through October of 1861, a new venture was created to deliver mail from St. Joseph Missouri to those living between there and on the Pacific Coast. The Pony Express riders went a thousand miles in ten days, connecting families who had long lost hope of ever hearing from their loved ones again. This venture’s short life was ended when telegraph lines were strung across the open prairie, connecting both sides of the country.
BlurbThe Pony Express brought mail across barren desert, endless prairies, and over steep mountains from April 3, 1860 to October 24, 1861. The telegraph has often taken the most blame for the Pony ceasing operations, although there were other reasons. One-hundred-forty-five years later, the internet made the telegraph obsolete. The romance of that time lives on, in the memories of those who heard the tales of this great venture…
Mina Weston Anders bursts into her home to tell her great-granny that the telegraph is no more on January 27, 2006. A story unfolds, as Granny talks about an ancestor that Mina resembles…
Abigail Grace Weston's starry-eyed dream is to become the first female Pony Express rider. Ma, Pa, and six overprotective brothers won't even let her near the corral to train mustangs for the mail venture, so she gives up her dream to sneak out and talk to the ponies, teaching them to accept her weight on their backs.
Then her life changes and all her dreams are dust. Or are they?

Get Pony Dreams on Amazon!

Excerpt
She raced down the street, her sandy blonde hair streaming behind her. Mina Weston Anders had a very important message for one of the people she adored and couldn’t wait to pass it on.
At thirteen, she’d spent a lot of time studying the history of the Old West, and remembered a very important detail when their teacher told them that a thing people had used for one-hundred-forty-five years wouldn’t be around anymore.
“Hey, Granny!” Mina burst through the door of her northwest Georgia home. “Everybody’s talking about how there’s no more telegrams. Didn’t you tell me about them?”Granny looked up from where she was knitting a baby blanket for the little brother Mina would soon have to look after. She hated the thought of sharing her house with another brother. Didn’t she already have five? Being the oldest, she was the one stuck with all the awful chores.
“What are you saying, child?” Granny leaned forward in the chair. “Are you saying that something killed the telegraph, that infernal contraption that sends telegrams?”



About K.C. Sprayberry
Born and raised in Southern California’s Los Angeles basin, K.C. Sprayberry spent years traveling the United States and Europe while in the Air Force before settling in northwest Georgia. A new empty nester with her husband of more than twenty years, she spends her days figuring out new ways to torment her characters and coming up with innovative tales from the South and beyond.                                                                                                  She’s a multi-genre author who comes up with ideas from the strangest sources. Those who know her best will tell you that nothing is safe or sacred when she is observing real life. In fact, she considers any situation she witnesses as fair game when plotting a new story.

Find out more about my books at these social media sites:

Facebook  Twitter Website Goodreads Amazon Author Page Google + Pinterest
Manic Readers AUTHORSdb Readers Gazette Instagram Authorgraph Email

Setting The Scene

The scenes in your novel are important to the readers. They need visual clues as to where they are, is this the past, present, or future, and what does everything look like. However, they don’t want all of this information to mess with the story.
Being an author is kind of like being a nursery school teacher. You have those children running wild. You have an area where they are pulling stunts you didn’t think possible. And you have what everyone must be doing at any given moment. Unlike the nursery school teacher, the author also has rules on exactly what can be happening at any given time, how much of your book is given over to avoiding maintaining plot to set a scene.
A lot of authors will be preparing to blast me at this point, but let me explain. The scene, while vital to the story, isn’t necessarily part of the plot. It’s one of those necessary elements that will not move the plot in any direction. This is why you need to be careful when setting your scene.
One mistake made by many authors is to open their novel with the scene. All the reader gets is where the story is taking place. There is no action. No dialogue between the characters. They are being told what the area looks like.
This can go on for a couple of pages up to a full chapter. At this point, the reader is bored out of their skull and closes the book. They will never discover that once you’ve set the scene, you have written a wonderful, captivating story.
Stop. Back up. Start all over again…
Yes, the scene is important, but it is not the plot. The plot is the interaction of the characters. Descriptions should be kept minimal and be on point with the plot. One of the hardest things an author must learn is when to insert tidbits of scene where they are needed and still keep the plot moving.
Don’t give in to the urge to set the whole scene for the story at the beginning and dive into the action once that’s done. Feed the reader bits of the scene, as the action is happening. Make scene a part of the story.


About K.C. Sprayberry
Born and raised in Southern California’s Los Angeles basin, K.C. Sprayberry spent years traveling the United States and Europe while in the Air Force before settling in northwest Georgia. A new empty nester with her husband of more than twenty years, she spends her days figuring out new ways to torment her characters and coming up with innovative tales from the South and beyond.             She’s a multi-genre author who comes up with ideas from the strangest sources. Those who know her best will tell you that nothing is safe or sacred when she is observing real life. In fact, she considers any situation she witnesses as fair game when plotting a new story.

Find out more about my books at these social media sites:
Facebook  Twitter Website Goodreads Amazon Author Page Google + Pinterest
Manic Readers  AUTHORSdb Readers Gazette Instagram Authorgraph Email
 

Shut Out

The sensation of being shut out of any number of things is one that can cause debilitating feelings in most people. No one wants to be left out in the cold, yet this happens on a daily basis. It can be on social media, in the workplace or school, even when you’re at the store and run into someone you know.
We all like to think of ourselves as kind, sharing people. We would never deliberately hurt someone by not involving them in special events, or even an ordinary event. Yet, that happens without thinking all the time. It’s circumstances like these that give authors the gem of an idea for a book that could be a best seller and leave many  people wondering if they’re part of the storyline because of how they’ve acted in the past.
Take for instance an upcoming event, where you’re focusing on the success of your former high school or college classmates. After all, everyone must have gone on to have great lives. In your mind, you’re envisioning a party where everyone is talking about how well they’ve done. Those nearing retirement age are even talking about a second career, one where they’re not as stressed as they were in the everyday madhouse that’s called having a job. Here’s a hint for those of you considering that now—take up golfing before you think about becoming an author. Authors around the world will tell you this is probably one of the most stressful jobs you will ever have. We work seven days a week, three-hundred-sixty-five days a year to get out the word about our books AND produce the next one. There is nothing stress free in this job, except our dedication to a craft most of us have always loved.
I’ve noticed a few of those from the baby boomer generation have taken up jobs such as sitting in a fire watch tower. They might think about working at the local swimming pool as a lifeguard, since they were on the swim in high school. Some are greeters at local stores. They’re not looking for a new career, just a place where they can go because they’ve discovered that retirement can become boring fast.
Now, for you the event organizer getting your old high school or college class together. You are going over the list of those graduates and notice a few never really made the grade you’ve set for having a successful life. Immediately, you decide these people won’t be invited. They’re not the “kind” you want at this event. If someone asks where they are, you plan to laugh and say they never responded. But with the availability of social media and friends from as much as forty or fifty years ago connecting, your little lie might soon spiral out of control.
Shutting people out because they don’t fit a certain narrative becomes a form of bullying. Success is measured in different ways. You can have monetary/recognition success that so many strive for but discover isn’t as important as they thought it was. You can also have personal success, where an individual is happy with the life they’ve chosen and really doesn’t care about having all the perks that come with being the monetary/recognition success.



About K.C. Sprayberry
Born and raised in Southern California’s Los Angeles basin, K.C. Sprayberry spent years traveling the United States and Europe while in the Air Force before settling in northwest Georgia. A new empty nester with her husband of more than twenty years, she spends her days figuring out new ways to torment her characters and coming up with innovative tales from the South and beyond.                                                                                                  She’s a multi-genre author who comes up with ideas from the strangest sources. Those who know her best will tell you that nothing is safe or sacred when she is observing real life. In fact, she considers any situation she witnesses as fair game when plotting a new story.

Find out more about my books at these social media sites:
Facebook Twitter Website Goodreads Amazon Author Page Google + Pinterest 
Manic Readers  AUTHORSdb Readers Gazette Instagram Authorgraph Email
 

Teen Books ~ How Far Is Too Far

Most of the books I’ve written are for teens. Some are more intense than others. A few are laugh out loud funny, but with a serious message to the readers. Yeah, I said that word, message. But the message is often buried in a story that engages a teen right from the start.
There has been a trend where authors show too much in a teen book. They delve into sex and violence, describing scenes in such a way that parents and grandparents, those who buy the books for teens, are often shocked. Yet, argue these scribes, teens face violence daily. They have sex, get tattoos, and take chances their parents don’t want them taking.
Yes, all of that is true. Teens are much different today than two, three, even four generations back. They are connected to the world in a way parents and grandparents never imagined. Still, there is a point where the author must realize they need to scale back on the showing.
One story that comes to mind was from another author who specialized in adult books. Every one of her novels has a graphic sex scene in it, as the characters give in to their emotions and land in whatever place they desire for a romping round of sexual antics. She proudly told me she had a teen story and asked if I’d evaluate it for the best audience.
I’ve done this for many authors. In fact, I ran two online critique groups for many years. There had been older teen stories in the past that I’d read, where the violence and sex were a little too graphic for my taste but this went far beyond that. Every moment of the coupling was captured in great detail and went so far that I bluntly told the author the book would never be included as young adult, not even new adult. It would be classified as porn, because that’s what it was.
She was insulted. All of the usual arguments were used—teens are having sex, sometimes in places adults might consider too risqué. They’re exposed to violence all day long every day on social media sites. They’re immune to the old taboos.
It might seem that today’s teen is exposed to the darker parts of this world in a way that adults have never experienced. Social media has certainly taken away some of the taboos. Since the free love generation of the sixties, pre-marital sex, or sex purely for pleasure with a partner you’ll never see again seems to be the norm, but the hard truth is that sex for the sake of sex in a teen book, with in-depth descriptions isn’t what you put in a young adult book.
You might allude to the characters having sex, either in a conversation or their narrative. But don’t write out a chapter long sex scene and expect a publisher or the buying public to appreciate your efforts.
The same goes for violence. One of the lessons I learned early on when developing Take Chances, a story about a school shooting, was that I had to show the action but I couldn’t vividly describe every act in extreme detail. Instead of those details, which would have turned people away from a well written story, I opted to remain with the emotions of the main character, her horror and the sensation of helplessness she endured. Many readers have congratulated me for that decision, saying it made the story so much more memorable.
That’s how we need to address teen issues, with tact and emotion. Teens appreciate reading a book where they’re not assaulted with extraneous details, but where they learn others feel like they do.


About the K.C. Sprayberry
Born and raised in Southern California’s Los Angeles basin, K.C. Sprayberry spent years traveling the United States and Europe while in the Air Force before settling in northwest Georgia. A new empty nester with her husband of more than twenty years, she spends her days figuring out new ways to torment her characters and coming up with innovative tales from the South and beyond.
She’s a multi-genre author who comes up with ideas from the strangest sources. Those who know her best will tell you that nothing is safe or sacred when she is observing real life. In fact, she considers any situation she witnesses as fair game when plotting a new story.


Find out more about my books at these social media sites:
Facebook Twitter Website Goodreads Amazon Author Page Google + Email
Pinterest Manic Readers AUTHORSdb Readers Gazette Instagram Authorgraph 

What Does It Take to be an Author?

Good morning and welcome to wwwblogs. Today, we’re going to be talking about what it takes to be an author.
Many people think all it takes to be an author today is to write a book and upload it to Amazon or any of the many other sites available to do this. That can’t be further from the truth.
Being an author in the twenty-first century means you have to wear a lot of hats. First of all, you’re the writer who pens fabulous work. Your characters are alive in your head at all times. They interrupt your sleep. They refuse to let you finish a meal. We all know the time we’re hiding and writing our next book is when people want to see us the most, but we must get the story out of our head before we go crazy.
We’re also an editor, in that we have to go through our work and make sure we didn’t miss an important plot point or spell a word incorrectly. Don’t rely solely on spell check. That works well for certain things, but not if your word processing program recognizes the word as correctly spelled. These programs will also slip right on past some misused words, because it’s part of a machine’s program. It hasn’t been set up to read your mind.
Proofreading is next on the agenda. How many times can we go through our book and miss the same mistake every single time. I have to shake my head at that. Because I’ve been so involved with my book that I see everything as perfect, which is why I absolutely adore my editor. She catches what I miss, and that’s the perfect symbiotic relationship between author and editor.
Finally, we’re a promotions expert, even if we’ve never marketed in our lives. We have to decide on the best way to present our book to the reading public. We have to figure out what materials to use and how to use them. This isn’t a perfect process and I usually redo my promotional tools at least twice a year, because you need to freshen what you’re using to promote.
That’s what it takes to be an author in the twenty-first century. There are more things we must do, but that’s a different post for a different day.





About K.C. Sprayberry
Born and raised in Southern California’s Los Angeles basin, K.C. Sprayberry spent years traveling the United States and Europe while in the Air Force before settling in northwest Georgia. A new empty nester with her husband of more than twenty years, she spends her days figuring out new ways to torment her
She’s a multi-genre author who comes up with ideas from the strangest sources. Those who know her best will tell you that nothing is safe or sacred when she is observing real life. In fact, she considers any situation she witnesses as fair characters and coming up with innovative tales from the South and beyond. game when plotting a new story.

Find out more about my books at these social media sites:
Facebook Twitter Website Goodreads Amazon Author Page Google + Pinterest 
Manic Readers AUTHORSdb Readers Gazette Instagram Authorgraph Email

Storm Rider 1 Donovan Versus Cameron

Good morning and welcome to Tuesday Blog Share. Today, we’re talking about the quest tale. This isn’t fantasy or science fiction. This quest is a series of books that are westerns, centered around the Jacobean War and Irish Potato Famine in Europe.
Storm Rider stories all begin in either Scotland or Ireland. Each Storm Rider interferes in what he or she sees as a wrong and pays the ultimate price. They are chosen by Archangel Michael to embark on a quest, in order to stop the families involved in these battles before they can destroy the world.

Get Storm Rider 1 Donovan Versus Cameron on Amazon!
Blurb
Storm Rider—one called to stand between warring factions and bring about peace, no matter the consequences.
Phillip Wermeer receives this reward for defending the honor of a scullery maid, murdered by an earl in the eighteenth century. He’s given a gift, to protect those who have been attacked without provocation, because they have come upon individuals who believe they’re above all laws.
His duty is to stop two families, the Donovans originally from England and the Camerons a Scottish clan, from wreaking havoc on themselves and others. Throughout time, Phillip steps between these groups to prevent tragedy.                                                                   Will he ever stop the animus between these families?
Excerpt
Intervening in the doings of the upper class would bring trouble. Phillip had learned that lesson far too often in his short life. A stable hand of a mere seventeen years, he had rarely concentrated on just his job, for he felt he had more to contribute to this life than mucking out stalls, caring for horses, and cleaning tack.
“Stupid whore!” the man shouted. “I shall take all of ye associated with Lachlan Cameron and his bloody Scots warriors. They shall see what they’ve wrought upon their women and daughters by attacking England and my home!”
The sound of ripping cloth rent the morning air. Phillip took a step toward the castle but then thought better of his action. Getting involved now might spell the end of his employment at the earl’s stables, and he needed this job.
“Please, sir,” a girl begged. “I have no idea who you speak of. Don’t do this. I be pure.”





About K.C. Sprayberry
Born and raised in Southern California’s Los Angeles basin, K.C. Sprayberry spent years traveling the United States and Europe while in the Air Force before settling in northwest Georgia. A new empty nester with her husband of more than twenty years, she spends her days figuring out new ways to torment her characters and coming up with innovative tales from the South and beyond.                                                                                                  She’s a multi-genre author who comes up with ideas from the strangest sources. Those who know her best will tell you that nothing is safe or sacred when she is observing real life. In fact, she considers any situation she witnesses as fair game when plotting a new story.

Find out more about my books at these social media sites:

Facebook  Twitter Website Goodreads Amazon Author Page Google + Pinterest 
Manic Readers AUTHORSdb Readers Gazette Instagram Authorgraph Email

Are You Kidding?

Good morning and welcome to Monday Blogs. Today we’re going to be focusing on your author presence on social media.
We all know it’s important for us to be on social media. Try working that in between promoting, a day job, and writing your next book. It can be a daunting task. Now, think about the posts you’ve made. Do you just write what you’re thinking and post? Is there a moment where you read you post and ensure says what you want to mean? Do you check it for spelling and grammar errors, because your editor doesn’t have time to do the last item, it’s very important for you to do it yourself.
Think about it. You are not just using your book promotions to sell your books. You sell yourself as an author every time you post on social media. This means ensuring that you’ve double checked spelling and grammar. The spelling part can be easy. Facebook and Twitter both identify what they are believed are misspelled words with a red line under them. Kind of like your word processing program does. Simply right click on the word and you’ll get spelling options. Make sure you click on the right option and your spelling error is corrected.
The grammar part is a lot harder to fix on social media. Many authors mistakenly use the wrong homophone. You know what that is. Those pesky words where only the spelling defines what you want to say. Yeah. Those. And they are hard to identify if you’re not used to making sure you’ve used the right one.
Lately, I’ve seen authors complaining no one wants to read their book. They’ll put up the letter they sent to the potential reviewer and it’s full of spelling and grammar mistakes. That’s why you’re being turned down for reviews. Your book might not have these errors, if you used a good editor. If you didn’t use an editor, I’d strongly suggest you do that and upload the new version. Readers know when a word is right or wrong; they will notice these problems and mention it in their reviews. That could be the reason your books aren’t selling well.
As authors, we don’t just write books. We have to ensure they are as perfect as possible. Hiring someone to edit, proofread, format, and work the kinks out of your blurb is great. Not making sure your social media posts are as error free as possible will not help you at all.



About K.C. Sprayberry
Born and raised in Southern California’s Los Angeles basin, K.C. Sprayberry spent years traveling the United States and Europe while in the Air Force before settling in northwest Georgia. A new empty nester with her husband of more than twenty years, she spends her days figuring out new ways to torment her characters and coming up with innovative tales from the South and beyond.
She’s a multi-genre author who comes up with ideas from the strangest sources. Those who know her best will tell you that nothing is safe or sacred when she is observing real life. In fact, she considers any situation she witnesses as fair game when plotting a new story.


Find out more about my books at these social media sites:


Facebook  Twitter Website Goodreads Amazon Author Page Google + Pinterest 
Manic Readers AUTHORSdb Readers Gazette Instagram Authorgraph Email