K.C. Sprayberry's Blog, page 139

Advertising Your Book

Just how do you approach advertising your book? What methods do you use to decide on which sites to utilize and which to avoid? Are you willing to pay for advertising? How much?
All of these questions must be thought about once an author makes a decision on how best to promote their book. Most authors don’t have deep pockets. Our ability to pay for ad space in major markets is slim to none. Pricing the different elements of the minimum amount of promotional material we need often forces a decision between buying something you’ve wanted for a long time or paying for promotion.
First and foremost, I always tell authors asking these questions to opt for free over paid if their budget is tight. Why? First and foremost, a tight budget makes picking the right promotion site difficult. One of the things I emphasize strongly is that an author research a promoter.
Are they new to promotion?
What services do they offer?
Is this promoter willing to work with your publisher and not make unilateral decisions, going so far as to push the publisher to follow their plan, no matter what it includes?
Are all the services reasonably priced, based on their experience?
Is this promoter willing to let you contact people to speak to you about their services, no matter how the person feels about what was done for them?
Let’s start with the last question first. This one could possibly be the most important one you ask a promoter. Reputable promoters will honestly tell you up front if someone was dissatisfied with their work. They won’t elaborate much and will probably give you an email address so that you may make up your own mind. Less than reputable promoters will point proudly to a page on their website, where you will be able to read gushing testimonials about their work. Make sure you look at the time stamp. Did all of these testimonials come in in a short period of time, with large gaps between each group? Are there just a few from a year or more back, but nothing recently? When you question the promoter about more recent testimonials, or ask if you can speak with those who weren’t satisfied, do they blow off your request with an airy “You don’t want to talk to this person. They’re nothing but trouble?”  A refusal to let you talk to clients on both sides of the satisfaction fence should be a major red flag to you, the author. Is there perhaps more you need to know about this person? Certainly, but there isn’t a place to go to check them out with any degree of accuracy. All you can rely on is word of mouth to find people who have had experience with this person.
Is the promoter new to the field and what services do they offer? These are important issues to clear up before you agree to let someone promote your work. If they’re new, what kind of experience do they have with promotion? Until 2013, there was a plethora of bloggers offering tours for book releases and reviews. From 2014 to the present, many of those people have stopped the promotional route. Some because they became involved in their own books. Others because they couldn’t get people to offer space on their blogs any longer. That’s a difficult proposition for a reviewer and blogger. You don’t get to choose the books you’ll read. If you sign on for a tour, you are required to read and review a book in a very short period of time. You are required to blog this review, and post that review to every sales venue where it’s listed. Most people found this onerous and once Amazon changed their review policy, difficult to have the review remain up once it was posted. As for their services, make sure if they offer to make cover art that your publisher will agree with that. There are requirements for upload to sales venues that must be strictly followed and if one thing is wrong, you will find yourself with a book that can’t be released until the cover is corrected.
Is your promoter willing to work with your publisher and not make unilateral decisions that cause problems? If they aren’t, you need to run away fast. You’ll soon find yourself in a position where your publisher is losing patience with the demands and perhaps cooling about accepting your next book.
Finally, are their services priced reasonably, based on their experience? Someone who has just started promoting and is charging a premium rate needs to prove to you that they are worth the money, and I don’t mean by assuring you that they are. There are far too many scammers attempting to entice authors into paying for unnecessary promotional tools and leaving you wondering why you accepted their offer in the first place.
The biggest thing to remember about promoters is the same thing everyone looks at when they’re thinking about hiring someone. Caveat Emptor—let the buyer beware. Do your research and remember that if it looks too good to be true, move on to someone else.

Project 9 Vol 2

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Science fiction stories have long been done by authors willing to look beyond the stars, past what is accepted, and envision new and different worlds. Asking an author who writes this genre to limit their tales to twenty thousand words or less provides them with a challenge few can ignore.

Get Project 9 Vol 2 on Amazon! 

A reality pill… Canoples Investigations returns… Are we computers? plus many other stories in this science fiction anthology from Solstice Universe.
Ten authors with eleven tales to tell: Ray Chilensky, K.C. Sprayberry, Rob McLachlan, Debbie De Louise, Jim Cronin, Rick Ellrod, Natalie Silk, Arthur Butt, E.B. Sullivan, and S@yr bring you stories to delight and entertain.




It seemed like a good idea when they had first introduced it back in 2070. Everyone had experienced something that they would like to forget. After all, who wouldn’t want to forget the death of their first pet or watching a loved one perish in a traffic accident? Synaptic Engineering (or S.E.) seemed, at first, to be the answer to a myriad of psychological and emotional disorders. If you were traumatized, you could just forget what it was that had traumatized you.
The technique had been developed by the military; ostensibly to treat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Memories that caused social dysfunction were just erased. Soldiers could come home from war without remembering the most terrible parts of it. No longer would these fighters be plagued by horrible nightmares or crippling guilt and depression. The horrors of war could be erased and forgotten in minutes; the warrior was psychically cleansed.

Coming Attractions

We’ve all seen the advertisements for new movies, a release of a new song, or even a new product that will soon be available in the stores. Depending on the time of year, these ads can happen as early as two months before the item releases. Yet, as authors, many of us don’t take advantage of the same advertising technique for our books.
What are you, as an author, doing to bring attention to your new release prior to that happening?
That’s right. You, as an author, need to work hard prior to the release of your book in order to have sales.
What do you need to do?
The first thing is to brand your name. Many authors have no clue how to do this. They’re lost, often don’t understand what it means to brand a name.
The first thing is to set up social media accounts—Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, a blog and website are all necessary to do this. Don’t just talk about your books on those sites. Be involved with those you see as your potential fans, but never get into hot topics—politics and religion are the big ones—or you may find half of your potential fan base turning against you.
Now that you have these accounts, you have to attract people to them. This is where those you know on your personal social media accounts come into play. They’re a start. Once they’ve liked or followed your page, you need to be posting. Tidbits about what you’re working on—limit these to general discussions about your story—are a great start. To keep your pages upbeat and away from hot topics, be involved by talking about topics you’ve noticed these people are interested in in their pages. Animals, vacations, and yes, even what’s for dinner.
Now, on Twitter, you can build your feed there by following those with like interests. Don’t stick with books. Search for those who have an interest in your books. Check out the suggestions Twitter makes for people that you might want to follow. Be diverse. And go international. Don’t stick with followers from your country. Remember, in the twenty-first century, the world is a much smaller place. You will have fans from every country, make the most of this.
Use your blog as a place to talk about writing, offer spots for other authors to advertise their releases, even do reviews. Get your blog moving, so it attracts followers. Be active weekly—you can even connect your blog posts to Twitter days. Just what are Twitter days? Look for Sunday Book Blogs, Monday Blogs, Tuesday Book Blogs and WWW Blogs (for those ladies out there). There’s also Teaser Tuesday, 1 Line Wednesday and 1 Line Friday for giving tidbits from your work in progress. All it takes is a bit of research to discover literally hundreds of ways to attract people to your new endeavor!
Now that you’re seriously working on branding your name, you need to take the next step—advertising that book and when it will be coming out. How you do this can make or break your book’s release.First, you need to reveal your cover art. This can be done with a blog post and shared to Twitter, Facebook, and Google +. In fact, if your blog host allows it, you can share directly from the post’s page to those social media sites, saving you the trouble of saving the link and copying it into them.
Before you do that, though, you need to see what hashtags apply to your book. Why hashtags you ask. A few are probably scratching your head and asking “What’s a hashtag?”
Your book will be categorized when it’s uploaded to Amazon. If you are very lucky, your publisher will allow you to do this. That means looking at a really long list of categories and deciding which one fits your book best. First rule—don’t go just for the huge categories. That means don’t use just romance, science fiction, fantasy, coming of age, etc. Look for smaller categories where your book will fit. Why? Because if you happen to have enough sales to get ranked, these smaller categories will give you the opportunity to say you’re a “Best Selling Author” or even an “International Best Selling Author.” Oh, did I mention that if your book does hit that lovely height, you will also see it appearing in the “if you like this book, check out these books” section on Amazon—which means people who wouldn’t have known about you or your book will now see it. They might be interested, and that might lead to more sales.
There are but a few of the secrets about how to make your book a success. It’s not just about writing a book in the twenty-first century. You, the author, are now a business, and as such, you need to learn how to promote your work.

Canoples Investigations on Trial

BD, Carl, Cassie, and Terry discover their lives are turning upside down again—mere days after the arrest of the space pirates, they’re having to fight to prove they didn’t lie about the whole adventure.


 Get Canoples Investigations On Trial at Amazon!

BD, Cassie, Carl, and Terry are back on the case—only this time it’s a case they have to solve fast. Turns out Sally Wild, intrepid reporter, has an agenda and it all has to do with making the C.I. team look bad before the Space Pirates trial. Can BD and crew prove they’re not making up stories and beat a clock that’s moving fast?



Our jaws are still hanging down near our knees. Me and my crew—Carl, Terry, and Cassie—can’t believe what just happened. Sally Wild made us look like fools, and we fell for it. Stupidly, we forgot every piece of advice that Chief Pelham has ever given us; ignored Wade, my older brother, about never giving an enemy an even chance; and stepped right into a trap.
“We’ll never live this down.” Terry drops his head into his hands. “Everyone will laugh us right off Canoples Station.”
He’s right and I can’t figure out a way to fix the mess that we’ve gotten into. Even though Chief Pelham promised us that the reporter from Inside Galaxy would never do anything to get her banned from covering the upcoming trial of the space pirates, she has. And she is still on the station. Worse, everyone else believes that she’s a poor, abused reporter rather than the Mercury tat she truly is. 

New Release ~ Canoples Investigations Exposes Space Dodger

Welcome to the Canoples Investigations Exposes Space Dodger release tour. This is the third novel and fourth story in this series. Strap on your restraints and be ready for an exciting ride… oh, once you have the book in hand, you will discover there’s a special added attraction—the first chapter of Secret Society: A Canoples Investigations Novella!

Canoples Investigations Exposes Space Dodger on Amazon!


Blurb
There’s a carnival on the station, with all kinds of “legally” cloned animals, more than a few zero-G acrobats, and miniature clowns. BD’s ever present suspicious mind latches onto one thing when the advance team for Galactic Carnival arrives to begin preparations for a weeklong visit. The ringmaster looks familiar, but the man swears that he has never been to Canoples Station before. Even worse, children five and under are disappearing. A bit of investigating on BD’s part clues him in to the fact this has happened on every station Galactic Carnival has visited so far. He’s determined to uncover the true identity of the ringmaster and solve the mystery of the missing children, but at what cost. Is BD willing to lose his lifelong friends to solve this case? Will they prove Jenna Rock, Wade’s girlfriend, isn’t involved?


 



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.







Excerpt
My voice is harsh, uninviting. Most guys are backing away at this point, but not this jerk. He comes even closer and releases a breath into my face. Not shoving him through the nearest wall is the hardest thing I’ve done since I taught BD that lesson about laughing at me.
Totally gross. Doesn’t this guy believe in personal hygiene?
“A pretty girl like you will be just the thing I need to attract more audiences,” he says. “Have you ever thought of being an acrobat?”
Chief Pelham nods at me. I’m not sure what he means but I think I’m supposed to let this creep think I’m interested.
“Really?” I say. “How much does an acrobat earn with your circus?”
Being polite to this jerk hurts. I really want to tell him to take a hike outside the station, without gear. A grim smile rises as I imagine that happening.
“Space Dodger.” Governor Tulane joins us. “How about you and I speak quietly? I’m sure you don’t want this girl as part of your circus.”
“Au contraire, Governor.” Space Dodger moves away from me, for which I’m very grateful. “The young lady will be a welcome addition to the Space Dodger Space Circus. Men will love the costume I have in mind for her.”


Interview with the Author
If you weren't writing, what would you be doing?
Going crazy. LOL! Honestly, I’ve lived with these stories in my head for so many hears, I don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t write. Perhaps read more, take up cross stitch and embroidery again, spend more time with my grandbabies. Traveling comes to mind. There are still states in this country I haven’t visited. There are a lot of things I could do, but writing fills a part of my soul and gives me contentment.
Are there any words of encouragement for unpublished writers?
Never give up. There is a publisher out there for your work. While you’re waiting, learn how to improve your writing. Join a critique group, enlist the assistance of beta readers, work out the problem areas in your books. You will get there. It just takes time.
Who are some of your other favorite authors to read?
Robert Heinlein and Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Timeseries are my top favorites. Isaac Asimov and Anne McCaffrey are two other favorites. Ann Rule’s real crime books are also at the top of my list. I have varied tastes in reading and a very large personal library, both print and electronic. 







Interview with Cassie Wills
Who are your friends and family?
Mom and Dad, but they haven’t come up in the books much. Carl and I used to help Dad with his tours of the area around Jupiter when we were younger but these days, we’re so busy with Canoples Investigations. Mom is an administrator with the station’s upper management. She’s always really busy. My closest friends are BD and Terry. We’ve been a team for so long that I don’t think we’ll ever be apart.
What are your life goals?
To be the best investigator that I can be. To provide assistance for the new stations being built, to relieve overcrowding, and to enjoy life. I see those as being the goals that are the most important. The rest will happen, like it always does.
Who are you closest to?
BD, there’s no one closer in my life. I miss him when he’s not around and I know he misses me. We started out as good buds but we’re so much more now. He still hasn’t said the words and I don’t know if he ever can, because of how rotten his dad turned out to be, but I know he loves me.
Social Media Links
Facebook 
Twitter 
Blog 
Website 
Goodreads 
Amazon Author Page 
Google + 
Pinterest 
Manic Readers 
AUTHORSdB 

Attitude

What’s your attitude when you’re posting on social media? How do you approach religion or politics? Are you firm in your belief that your chosen religion or political candidate is the only choice to be made by everyone else? Do you bombard your fans and friends with posts that are divisive in nature? Is your sole purpose of these posts to force everyone following you about your books to believe as you do or get out of your life?
As public figures, authors have a duty—we can’t let our politics or religion be done is such a way that we turn off potential readers.
Why?
Your readers buy your books for one purpose only—to be entertained. Whether you pen mysteries or science fiction, fantasy or young adult tales, any type of fiction at all, you have a duty to your fans. Most authors today aren’t well known. Our name isn’t on the lips of people worldwide, as they eagerly await the release of our latest book.
As many mid-list authors discovered during the recently bitterly contested presidential election in the United States, taking one side or another publicly, posting the bitter and divisive rants of the candidates and adding our own take to them can and did have a very deleterious effect.
Our sales plummeted.
That’s right. We lost readers. Probably forever. Because we didn’t stop to think about the consequences of insulting those we’ve developed as fans. All that was on our mind was ensuring that our candidate was elected, by any means possible. If that meant a few people didn’t agree with us, then so what?
That was the attitude I ran across more often as not. Those same authors didn’t worry about the effect on their sales, until they got a royalty statement one month and made an important discovery. Where once they could depend on a royalty payment that would provide extras for their household, they were now looking at only enough to pick up a latte—if that much.
Some learned their lesson and backed off their divisive rhetoric. Others continued, feeling that if they pushed hard enough, their fans would “see the light” and “return to the fold.” Even though that has yet to happen, these authors continue to dig the grave of their career by pressing those still attached to them to demand recounts, to post rants against the elected president, and to force everyone to put up with their antics until they grow so bored with them that the rest of their fan base will slowly disappear.
The cure for this is to understand that even the big name authors quickly backed away from posting their feelings about the recent election because they soon realized their bread and butter—their fans—would express their displeasure in the one place it would hurt them the most; their bank account. The lesson from this election cycle is simple.
As a public figure, we as authors must learn to keep our opinions to ourselves. Our sole duty to our readers is to provide entertainment, not to demand that our fans lavishly follow our beliefs.

First Love

Oh, that very special first love. The emotions running through you. The thought that you will be with that person forever, or until next week. However you connect your memories with your first love, one thing will always stand out—this was a very special encounter that set you on the path to your forever love.
Get First Love on Amazon! 
That magic moment for a teen. The realization that the person you’ve liked is a little more than a friend. Chance meetings. Old friendships. Even a social media post. These can all lead to that first love.
Authors M.A. Cortez, Gloria Weber, Vanayssa Somers, Margaret Egrot, Josie Montano, K.C. Sprayberry, Pauline Prentiss, and Mya O’Malley bring you tales of teens in the throes of their first romance.




Nixie took a broken branch and scraped a glop of mud from the toe of her new, suede boots. She set her bow down next to the spare tire in the trunk of her beat up VW. Normally, she would’ve worn her UGGs in this unpredictable weather but this was her second lesson with Garrett, the cute guy she met at Mia’s New Year’s Eve party and even though he probably had a girlfriend, it didn’t hurt to look good.
Recurve, the archery range where she worked, was packed. Most of the people would be league regulars, practicing for the upcoming tournament on Valentine’s Day. Free lanes would be scarce for the walk in’s, which meant there would be a line of people who would have to wait. Customers who have to wait equal grumpy people and she hated working with grumpy people. She knew Garrett had made an appointment because she saw his name on the reservation list but, if he showed up late, she would have to help someone else, and her cute-but not-too-obvious, outfit would go to waste. It would just be my luck that Gwen will get him this time and I’ll get creepy Lord of the Rings, guy. Gwen always managed to get her claws on every cute guy that showed up at the range.

Don’t Bait & Switch

Publishing in the twenty-first century has seen many changes. The advent of online publishers has given authors looking for a home for their books more choices than those publishers that have been around for decades and often require an individual to have an agent before submitting their work. Even that isn’t a guarantee your book will find a home, so many people wanting to have their books published must look to other venues.
One of the first places these people will turn to are the many online publishers who are known for offering the unpublished author a place for their book. The overriding consensus is that these publishers are easy to accept your work and manipulate.
That can’t be further from the truth.
Many online publishers have standards as high or higher than the Big 5, who have dominated the publishing world for many years. When offering your work, you must learn the rules of submission. One of the more important rules, one that can have you forever kept from having a book with this publisher’s name on it, is that you don’t submit a manuscript and after being offered a contract, turn around and say…
“Oh, I was actually looking for a traditional publisher. There are many agents interested in this work. But I can offer you two, three, or four of my other stories in exchange. After all, you liked this one, so you’ll love these. They’re more suited as ebooks.”
First thing that will run through the submission manager’s mind is “Is this person nuts? Did they not read our website and see that we are a traditional publisher? Did they ignore the fact that we do offer print books in addition to ebooks?
First, you are a supplicant to the publisher. They have seen a gem within your book and think it will be a good fit for their company. It is the book for which the contract was offered that they are interested in, not other books you’re offering as a consolation prize.
Second, why, if you wanted to be with a “traditional” publisher, as in the Big 5, did you offer this book to an online publisher in the first place? If you’ve already contacted agents who are showing an interest in your material, why are you submitting to publishers? That makes no sense.
Third, you, as the author, are not in a position to assume—some might say arrogantly—that a publisher would be interested in having anything to do with you at this point.
Why, you ask.
Because this publisher has already expended time and money in assessing your submission. They’ve read the material and decided it would fit in with the other books of that genre they’ve already contracted. They are willing to take a chance on you, as an author, and offer you the opportunity to have you join their other authors in making a success of your work.
What you have done by speaking to a publisher as if you are doing them a great favor by making this offer is prove to them that you are not really worthy of being part of their company. You have shown them that you will not be a cooperative author, but rather a diva—demanding special attention for your book, expecting everyone to bow to your alleged expertise, and giving in to your demands, because you feel you are better than they are.
Since 2010, I’ve noticed that many authors have changed how they regard publishers. This might have a lot to do with the ease of self publishing—an if no one wants my book, I’ll just publish it myself attitude. Instead of researching how to write a cover letter, how to approach a publisher, how to read the posted guidelines, authors are basically cutting off all chances of finding a publisher who will give them a chance when they have yet to brand their name.
Instead of deciding you know everything about the publishing world, do the research. Hold your hat humbly in your hand, and be grateful for a chance to have your book published if a publisher decides they want to do that. You only get a single first chance to make a good impression. Don’t waste that.

Protector of the Phoenix

Trank has dreams, big dreams. He wants to move away from the family tradition of providing safe nesting for the legendary Phoenix of his world and become a teacher to others who delve into the fantastic realms.

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The Evans family has always been the Protector of the Phoenix. The heavy mantle has passed from father to oldest son for hundreds of years—until an accident in the breederies changes everything.
Trank’s dreams are of Wizard Camp and teaching about his wonderful world to young wizards and witches around the world. He has plans, none of which include working at the family’s legacy. After an accident in two of the breederies, he finds himself with the heavy mantle of Protector shoved on his shoulders, a mere day after his fourteenth birthday.
Not only is he thrust into the drudgery of protecting the Phoenixes, he has to continually fight to prove that he can do the job when the father of his best friend attempts to wrest the position of Protector from the Evans family. Can Trank do what is needed and prevent a reoccurrence of the accident that took so many of his family? Will he succumb to the intense work and quit to escape what he views as something that is making him so unhappy?




Southern pines rose well above the two boys hidden in the wooded area behind the small farmhouse. A gentle breeze blew across the tops of the trees bending them and swaying the upper trunks. Neither boy paid much attention after watching the action for a few moments. Both held sticks about two feet long and grinned at each other. Dust clouds rose from where they stood. At one end of the clearing, rocks lay scattered.


The taller boy’s skin resembled a rich cup of espresso. His companion’s complexion appeared so pale as to redden in the early spring sunshine breaking through the trees surrounding them. Shouts and laughter filled the air.


“I’ve got it,” the fair-skinned one called. “It’s not fair, Gordon. Your last three landed without a problem. You’ve been practicing.”

Young Adult Versus New Adult

The new adult genre has been around for a very short period of time but is catching on very fast. Basically, many publishers saw that the young adult books, originally for those twelve to their mid-twenties, had far too many books in them parents objected to because of their content.
The reality of the situation is that authors of both young adult and new adult books need to be aware of exactly what parents want their kids reading. Yes, many teens today have access to reading material with Mom or Dad standing behind them to make sure they don’t get something too old. But the real truth is that many teens are far more electronics savvy than their parents, and there will never be a closure of that gap.
What we, as authors, need to do is remember that even though today’s teens seem to be more sophisticated and aware, they are still very much someone else’s child. As such, we need to take into consideration how we approach certain subjects. While we do need to show rather than tell, there are times when too much graphic detail can break our book through reviews.
Remember, if you are going for an older tone in your books, say over seventeen, not to write to a younger audience.