Allison B. Levine's Blog, page 5

Funny thing Happened On the Way to this Blog

I’ve been working on our Radio Show Petting Unicorns blog that I neglected my own.

And guess what–we got so many more visitors. Wah.

I guess Petting Unicorns vs. A Demon Love Story is a no brainer in a popularity contest. Ha!

But either way, people are listening to me talk so no harm no fail!

Everyone, check out the show Petting Unicorns at blogtalkradio. And www.pettingunicorns.wordpress.com  See my new baby!

Have a Magical Day!!

Tagged: awesome, magical, petting unicorns, populairty contest

CRAZY WORK DAY

We’ve all been there right? Just want to say love you all thanks for your support. Last night our radio show Petting Unicorns was a hit if you have’t yet check it out on www.blogtalkradio.com.

There’s a bad news robot, helping me “toughen up”.

Thanks again…much love!

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/petting-uni

corns

Tagged: crazy work day, Love, unicorns

Petting Unicorns–Today 4/24/12 Now This Is Happening

So since the Beta test went so well, we’re doing this again…
Tonight 6:30pm: Petting Unicorns w/Julia Dudek+ special guest star Nicolle Langlois
http://m.blogtalkradio.com/petting-unicorns/2012/04/24/theres-a-first-time-foreverything
Going forward we are looking for a few good indie authors.  We want to promote you and your work and your awesome hard work and love of the cause.
I know I’m new to this world but I’ve met some really cool people throughout my journey and I’d like to give a big steaming pile of THANK YOU for helping me out through this process.  So please, let me know if you’d like to have your 10 minutes of fame for that one guy in New Zealand listening to our show–I believe he was really receptive.
We have a lot of fun ideas coming down the pike so it won’t be stuffy or a snoozer we like to keep it amusing, quippy and relevent. And anyone that has been reading my blog thus far you’ll know that I’m pretty sarcastic and hilarious. #conceited.
So please we want you! Yes you and you and the one over there and you too.  Comment back and I promise we will make a show you will be proud of.


 Photo Credit: http://arch.413chan.net/celebrity-pictures-wiggum-unicorn-(n1295389436052).jpg



Tagged: all things indie, amusing, authors, hilarious, Indie Writers, Julia Dudek, kick-ass, nikki illinois, petting unicorns, quippy, radio show

Why Indie Authors Don’t Get the Street Cred

Direct quote from the article below I think it speaks volumes:

This was regarding a letter sent to publishers pleading for a competent editor from an established published author.

It wouldn’t hurt for indie authors to demand the same. Why don’t they? For some it comes down simply to money. They “put their first book out there” to see how it does, with the assumption that they’ll take the profits from that book and use them to edit the second book. But that plan often fails because readers who find a book difficult to navigate because of poor editing and grammar are not likely to pick up the author’s second book, even if it is offered for under a buck.

Hate to admit it but it’s so true!

Guess this is an ode to how awesome and underappreciated it is to be an Indie Author. You control your books destiny. You decide how to publish it, how to market it, but is there as much success on your own?

The article I read today speaks about Why Indie Authors Struggle and some of the big reasons. I will give you my interpretation of these reasons.

1. Bad Editing:  Ok so mistakes happen, nobody’s perfect unless you have a highly qualified and paid editor to painstakingly go over your book with a fine tooth comb. Or the time to painstakingly edit your book over and over till you believe there’s nothing left–but there’s always something left!

2. Quantity of Quality:  As an author you always have something cooking on the back burner, so why not get it out in bulk? I don’t know how it works with a large publisher, perhaps a 3 book deal at a time? I couldn’t tell you, but what if you can get 8 books out but they are all lacking? I like how some authors put their ‘interim’ work on their blogs instead of officially publishing it and selling it, they just share it with people they know enjoy their work.  Maybe that will promote more Quality over Quantity.

3. Crappy Covers:  Just for the record I’ve seen some big publishing house books have bad covers, this is universal I don’t think just because we are ‘indie’ that we are the only ones who produce bad covers. I happen to know for a fact that my cover rules. I’ve had a few compliments for it and I think it’s compatible with publishing house book covers. Just sayin’

4. Lack of Gatekeepers:  The article definition in laymen’s terms is the agent and/or publisher.  We as Indie have to promote ourselves, market ourselves do all the work and not pay anyone a percentage. Doesn’t sound too bad.  I may have to weigh the pros and cons of this one because it comes down to Freedom of Free Marketing vs. The Marketing Overlord which will get you all the exposure you need. Which is better? That is still debatable.

What say you about this malarkey? Some of this right, some wrong guess it all depends on the individual right?

Article C/O http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/30/indie-authors-struggle_n_1242935.html

Photo Credit: http://www.thecreativepenn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Independent_iStock.jpg

Tagged: bad covers, blogosphere, editing, huffington post article, indie author, indie authors, kick-ass, labour of love, lacking, mistakes, ode, publishing, quantity over quality, revisit, stray, wirters, writing

Radio Killed the Writing Star (Not Really, She’s Ok)

Petting Unicorns (name tentative) Radio Beta Test was a complete success, at least I think so.

My friend Julia and I had this amazingly insane idea to start a blogtalk radio show to talk about all things Indie. Writers, bloggers, publishers (I’ll slip music in there she doesn’t know it yet). We want to promote writers and/or bloggers we want to keep the world abreast of the triumphs and trials of doing this self-publishing thing.

We did 15 minutes completely unscripted, some sort of outline not much of one and given that I personally have never done anything like this before it went well.

I have to say while doing it I was thinking oh man this is terrible but then when it was done and I actually listened to it, I thought it was great! Now I’m not saying we’re going to get our own XM station or anything yet, there are still a LOT of things to work on.  But I was pleasantly surprised!

It’s really the most fun thing I’ve done in a long time and I look forward to maybe making it a weekly thing.  So we’re going to attempt this again NEXT Thursday, April 26, 2012 at 6:30 pm and see how it goes.  We’re also looking for people that maybe want to be on the show, so if you think this is something you’d like to be a part of just comment and I’ll work on making that happen!

If you would like to check out the 15 minute show please click the link below.  And as always feedback is welcome!

http://m.blogtalkradio.com/petting-unicorns/2012/04/19/testing-1210

Photo Credit:http://marketmynovel.com/images/iStock-000007629279XSmall.jpg

Tagged: beta test, blogtalk, indie, indie authors, indie bloggers, kick-ass, petting unicorns, radio, show, unscripted, XM station

UGH

Today is kicking my ass.  I will be ‘beta’ testing my and Julia’s blog talk radio show tonight, let’s see if we got what it takes.

More about that tomorrow! Exciting!!!  I’m sorry I’m completely uninspired and witty right now work has been rough this week–and let’s not get into sinuses!

So I know so dissapointing post but I feel that I needed to post something. So I will post this video of the “Worlds Scariest Job” and maybe tomorrow we’ll discuss it’s counterpart “Worlds Least Scary Jobs” I came up with “Pillow Stuffer“.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPvCuc1_mgM

And maybe someday I’ll learn how to put a video into here.

Photo Credit: http://data.whicdn.com/images/16832864/tumblr_ls5yc8LIDE1r3xitco1_500_large.jpg

Tagged: blah, blogtalkradio, boring, kick-ass, sad, sorry, uninspired, worlds least scary job, worlds scariest job

Brain Teaser Wednesday April 19th Twenty Eleven

A little fun game for today because it’s a kind of crappy day for me.
Word association–Kindergarten teachers use it, shrinks use it and today I, Allison B. Levine novice author will use it too…

Banana:

Why did I choose Banana first? Because my original title was going to be Banana-Monkey and Other Conspicuous Word Associations, but I thought that was too…obvious

Obvious:

Nothing is obvious to me.  Oblivious yes–I need a pop up picture book to explain something for me to get it. That’s not true I’m just being facetious…I love that word.

Facetious:

I like to define this as sarcastically joking. Which really means “hurting feelings but in a funny way only to yourself“.

Sarcasm:

Best.Invention.Ever  Let’s just forget about fire, and the wheel, indoor plumbing–the Telephone pfft sarcasm is the reason I wake up in the morning and don’t have a lot of friends.

Friends:

People that put up with your shit for an unknown reason because you fling a lot of it.

Shit:

What I feel I stepped in this entire week. What is coming out of my nose in a gooey substance and a green color thank you to the Spring. Something I don’t like to eat or put up with.

Bird:

This has nothing to do with shit except on my friend Jenn’s windshield but I wanted to end with bird.  The national bird for New Jersey is the middle finger: man not as fun w/out a visual…

Ok, that was fun right?  I’m going to throw out one last word and I want you all to give me some associations. Come on is there anything more important you are doing today?

Palpable:
Photo Credit: http://improveveryday.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/boing.png
Photo Credit (Middle Finger): http://chan.jeffreybosman.com/src/127662775139.gif

Tagged: banana, best invention, facetious, friends, fun, fun & games, game, kick-ass, sarcasm, shit, wednesday, word association

Proclivity VS. Structure

If you’re visiting my blog for the first time let me drop some knowledge on you.

I wrote a book. It’s plastered all over this blog. Nope I’m not being facetious, this isn’t an anecdotal term for my marriage for I am single. A Demon Love Story is my first full length novel.

If someone asked me what do you think you’d be in your mid-thirties about 20 years ago I would have said “a graphic designer” “author” would have never passed my lips. Honestly the English language and all its rules usually went over my head but I loved to tell stories I’ve been telling stories on paper, now computer screen for ages.

This brings me to my topic.

What makes a successful writer?

Is it natural ability or education and honor of all things technical? I know people who possess both of these abilities, I’m in envy of them. I’m an artist by nature but a writer by talent. Of course some that have read my book may argue that but I am confident in my ability to tell a story.

So is writing a left side or right side of the brain trait? I like to think anything stemming from pure imagination and creativity would lend itself in the right quadrant but to be a writer you always have to have some form of a structured technique as well.

Quite the quagmire–

Anyone that reads regularly will say that creativeness as well as structure is the recipe to make a good story. You can’t just write willy-nilly and hope that it’s legible. So when you sit down to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) what is your writing process?

When I started my book I looked at my screen and started with the very fist line of my book “I have never wanted anything more than him”  and it grew from there.

Per http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writing_process It’s stated that there are 5 stages to the writing process:

1. Prewriting–planning, research, outlining, diagraming, storyboarding, etc.

2. Drafting–developing a more cohesive product

3. Revising–identifying your thesis, determine structure by figuring out strengths and weaknesses and solve problems with presentation and arguments.

4. Editing–our favorite

5. Publishing

They make it sound so easy right?

I can say that my process was as follows…

1. Drafting, revising, editing, drafting again, adding, editing, revising, drafting…formal editing, then publishing.

Which in reality means when I sat at the computer at hourly intervals for a year just writing what popped into my head. Structure was not a consideration.  I tried my best to keep punctuation and comma placement as well as some semblance of legible spelling.  But when I look at the finished product vs my first write-up–wow what a difference when the structure is put into play.

So tell me what are you thoughts on the matter? Are you a structured writer or do you just let proclivity take the reins?

Photo Credit: http://www.lukeshavak.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/White-Hat-vs.-Black-Hat.jpg

Tagged: 5 stages of the writing process, a demon love story, book, creativity, English language, imagination, literature, proclivity, right brain, right side of the brain, structure, successful writer, techinique, technical, writer, writing

Top 10 Guilty Pleasures–I’ll show you Mine and You show me Yours

We all have them, some admit it some will never they like the whole secretiveness of it.  Did I just make that word up? Guess we’ll see.
Here are my top 10 Guilty Pleasures…

10.  The Jersey Shore (TV Show)– Ok stop cringing. Yes, I feel like I’m much dumber after watching it.  Yes, I’ve sworn off hair gel for all eternity. But then I think Snookie is making so much more money on her book than I ever will–and then I die a little inside.

9.  Dumplings– it’s like my food porn.  I would eat them every.single.day if I were not now gluten-free and/or didn’t want to die at my ripe young age.

8.  Making ridiculous and/or really awesome #hashtags on Twitter– Today was #hookydayatthejerseyshore, I cannot be stopped.

7.   Nutella– Come on–Nuff said

6.  Watching any and all television shows on the WB (now the CW).  I was watching young adult situational dramas when I was in my late 20′s and you know what, I didn’t care. I still do, as a matter of fact I think it’s time to get Secret Life of the American Teenager queued up on my Netflix.

5.  Flip flops– It’s like being barefoot but without the Tetanus. It’s like walking on two flopping pillows of cushiony heaven while the thong rips the sh*t out of the middle meat of your toes.  But I can’t not wear them as soon as it’s at least 45 degrees during the day.

4.  Bangs–I can’t pull off bangs at all but I insist on getting them.  Do you know how long I keep them bangtastic? 3 days, then it’s hair clip city.

3.  Tall Boys– The taller the better. I’m 5’4″ but I appear taller than that and there’s something about a big behemoth of a guy enveloping you and swallowing you whole.

2.  Paranormal Romance and/or Erotica books–Mostly PNR because that’s what I write about, although it’s a little darker than the everyday PNR…but now I just started 50 Shades of Grey and dammit I’m hooked too.

1.  Hipster Dorky Nerds with Beards–I’m a sucker for all of this, you have a beard, check I’m in love–you’re a dork, CHECK I’m IN LOVE, oh wait you’re a hipster and listen to college radio…*SQUEE* that’s sexy sexy.

So now you my deepest darkest secretive guilty pleasures, don’t make me confess alone I’d love to know some of yours!!!
Picture Credit: http://www.bikesidela.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Guilty.jpg

Tagged: #hashtags, 50 shades of Grey, beards, confess, deepest darkes secrets, dorks, dumplings, guilty, guilty pleasures, hipsters, kick-ass, nerds, pleasure, PNR, tall boys, the jersey shore, twitter, write

Today On A Very Special #ShamelessPlugFriday–E-Book Price Debate

I’m conducting a marketing experiment.

There’s been much debate about the price of e-books.  I’ve read much up on this and I find myself in the middle of the debate.  A lot of Kindle readers tend to buy the crap out of .99 books and some feel that if you are an indie author you should price your book on the low side.  Nobody’s ever heard of you so therefore they will not pay $6.99 or more for your book. 

Ok I priced my book at $6.99. 

Then there is the argument that if you go too low you are cutting your writing abilities short. You lack the confidence in your writing and then people wonder “Is this book even worth reading” for .99 “they must not think that much of themselves.”

I changed my price to $4.99.

Still is that too much? Am I too cocky?  Let’s not even get into my paperback (mostly my family has purchased that) because in today’s Kindle e-book age nobody buys paperbacks anymore so that’s off the table.  And I’m cool with that, I myself,  love the feel of a physical book in my hands and I’ve also bought unknown authors books (based on the cover) and paid full price for them.  One in particular ended up being a really awesome book I’ve never been able to really get into verse writing before but I have to tell you this book hooked me in the gut and never let me go…

Toby Barlow–”Sharp Teeth”

Photo Credit: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/391385.Toby_Barlow

 I have confidence in my book, I personally believe it to be a labour of love, blood, sweat and tears so yeah I don’t want to give it out free or undersell it.  Plus I will completely admit, it won’t hurt to get a check every one in a while.  I’ll never *eff a bag of money every night* but some gas money once a month rules.

So where do I draw the line in the sand that gives my e-book “social acceptance”?

My experiment is for this weekend only Friday 4/13/12 to Monday 4/16/12 I am offering a coupon for my book at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/125643 Coupon Code: VF67J

What do you think on the state of E-Book prices today? Where is the happy medium? Are you selling yourself short as an author or being way too confident?

 

Tagged: authors, authors books, blood sweat and tears, books, confidence, ebook prices, experiment, indie author, kindle readers, labour of love, literature, marketing, physical book, sharp teeth, smashwords, sweat and tears, toby barlow, writing, writing abilities