Angela B. Macala-Guajardo's Blog, page 9

Hello, World. I and My Writing Exist. (Last Day of Free eBook Promo)

After two days of free book promotion so far, 1,428 wonderful people have downloaded a free copy of my debut YA fantasy novel Shield of the Gods. I am a very happy Angie. The number is staggering and my #4 rank on amazon in fantasy is an honor. Yes, that’ll get wiped away once the 3.99 price tag returns but this is fantastic exposure.

The return of the price tag’ll be my cue to needlessly stress and fret while I wait and see if the promo begets book-selling momentum. I really, really want to make it into the top 100 in fantasy. Of course I want to get as close as I can to #1. Who wouldn’t? But one little step at a time while fear and hopefulness are my dominant emotions as of late.

In case you missed it Monday, here is the synopsis and link to Shield of the Gods:

When gods are confronted by problems they can’t solve alone, they call upon mortals with supernatural abilities, called Aigis, to step in.

Seventeen-year-old Roxie Lohr has always wondered why her eyes glow different colors whenever she feels intense emotion. Aerigo, a captivating Aigis, not only gives her the answer but also whisks her away into a host of new problems. Suddenly, Roxie finds herself thrust into exotic worlds, an unexpected romance, and a conflict between gods in which only they can decide the outcome…

YA Fantasy eBook Up for Free on Amazon.com from Monday 4/8 to Wednesday 4/10

YA Fantasy eBook Up for Free on Amazon.com from Monday 4/8 to Wednesday 4/10.

YA Fantasy Novel “Shield of the Gods” Gets a Facelift

My book has started on its third month of being available to the world. The sales have way too much room for improvement, so my ePublisher and I decided to change the cover art. He hired a cover artist named Leah (need to provide her contact info because she’s a fantastic cover artist) and she did such a great job that I wanted to cry when I saw the redo. And then I wanted to cry again when I checked my amazon.com ranking and saw that I had sold books while I was sleeping–and having a nightmare thanks to the movie I Am Legend (haha!). Here is my new cover art:

So now that the cover art is in place, a three-day promotion of my eBook is coming soon. We’re just curious to see how changing the cover art helps sales, and then it’ll be time for a healthy dose of exposure. One thing I’ve learned so far about working with independent publishers is that generating exposure is key. From what I’ve seen so far (and I may not be right) is that you have to be willing to give away free copies. Word of mouth is an author’s greatest tool and you can’t do that all by yourself. You need readers to do that. This is not debatable.

One other bit of wisdom when it comes to publishing/marketing: don’t settle for less than great. I’m trying to get this lesson to stick with me. I have this bad habit of thinking “not bad” is as good as it’ll ever get for me, that  ”not bad” is the best that’ll ever come my way. Do NOT listen to that voice. It is NOT speaking in your best interest and is always wrong! You’ve worked so hard on your writing. Give it the glam and zing it needs to sell.

Here is what my book looks like on amazon.com, along with the link if you like fantasy books with a fresh spin on the genre: Shield of the Gods

“Writer’s Wrist” Woes

Here’s a little something in case you need a laugh… Last week I mentioned how I wrote until my wrists could take no more, so I tried using Apple’s dictation feature in iPages. How it works: speak for thirty seconds, and then your computer beeps, thinks a moment, then what it think you said pops up on the Pages document. Short story shorter, speech-to-text technology has copious amounts of room for improvement. The first chunk is what the computer thought I said. The second chunk is what I said:

The Pen Name Game

Perhaps this is a good way to describe what it feels like to be a writer: I often compose sentences in my head as I’m going through the motions of reality–making my bed, doing the dishes, petting my cats, etc.–as if I’ve turned myself into a character and my life into a work of fiction. I’m narrating the story of my life. I often revise my word choices and reword my sentences, and while I’m doing this, my awareness feels like it isn’t quite inside my head, like I’m slightly above and behind, instead of in and looking out through my own eyes. Once I realize I’m narrating, I stop and ground myself. I have to stop everything and just look around, until I feel like I’m seeing the world with just one pair of eyes. It’s disorienting.

As Adam Savage from Mythbusters once said, “I reject your reality and substitute it with my own.”

So there’s my reality on a cork board. Notes to three different books, one of them my current project. The newspaper clipping has nothing to do with me. More of a grounding point and a reminder. Many more books are floating around in my head, waiting their turn to be written down one day. Heck, my current project waited years, sitting tight on a few sticky notes and daydreams. Now I’m over 60k words into it and plugging along as fast as my poor wrists will allow.

My published fantasy novel is getting a new cover art one last time. Third time’s a charm rings true in this situation. I’ll presenting that coupled with a three day free ebook promo soon. Definitely looking forward to that. I’ll let you all know as soon as I know.

I’ve been looking at my pen name a fair bit lately–not as an ego trip, but with all the cover art and behind-the-scenes publishing details. S.M. Welles… a perfectly good pseudonym, so why don’t I feel like I own it? I’d settled on it when I was either eighteen or nineteen. Welles comes from my genealogy and S.M. stands for “sans mal” which is Latin for “without evil”, a motto my family used back in the day when there were knights riding around. A sound, respectable way to pick a pseudonym that’s fun to explain how I came up with. Maybe I just need to give the name time on bookshelves and I’ll grow into and own it like my given name, Angela. I don’t have an alter writing ego while I’m busy drafting; just me possessed by my characters and the core of the story. Maybe I’ll pull a Stephen King and change it one day.

Still writing, still hopeful, still broke, and still trying to succeed at this whole full-time author gig. Wish me luck!

 

Free Short Story on Smashwords

I have my first short story up for free on smashwords.com. I believe you can download eReader-friednly versions and get a break from a computer screen to read something! This piece is but a drop in the sea of back story in my “Aigis” trilogy I’m penning. So here is a free sample to see if you like me as a writer and storyteller, and if you’d like my book. Yay, free samples!

Here is the link to the short story: Baku’s First Aigis

 

Slow Down and Handwrite–but not as Much as I Have

My addiction to workaholic mode has put my wrists out of commission in just three weeks. That took handwriting about 38k words (circa 120 pages), then typing them up , a good chunk of time spent playing WoW and block of hours playing LoL, some Skyrim while I eagerly anticipate the announcement of the first round of beta testers for ESO, and that’s about it. Count your regular daily habits that require the use of hands, like brushing teeth and carrying a tea mug to your desk, and suddenly you begin to realize how important your wrists are, and how little you can do when you need to stop using them. Yes, I’m writing this blog post today but it’s just going to be a short one. A little extra pain for a little personal gain.

All I want to do today is pass on a writing tip: handwrite your first draft. And in light of the lovely state of my wrists: don’t handwrite 12 hours a day or more, every day. My determination to write my post-apocalypse fantasy book as fast as I can has turned into bullheaded stupidity. Pain means stop.

But my brain is so full of energy; must keep going!

I’m telling you, pain means stop, kiddo.

My wrist’ll feel fine in the morning!

No it won’t.

Yeah, I woke up this past Tuesday and it didn’t feel too great. All I did that day was type up my latest chapter. By the end of the day, my right wrist (I’m a righty obviously) would twinge now and then, which would baffle me. I’d taken days off here and there to rest my brain, even though rest days would make me feel lazy because I didn’t write anything. Surely, I’d be fine in the morning. Yeah… no. I’ve basically turned into a grumpy couch potato who watches a lot of Animal Planet and NatGeo. I tried playing Pokémon on my DS but holding the device induced pain as well. At least I can still take the dog roller blading without incident. The exercise keeps me sane.

Anyway, the reason I suggested handwriting your first draft is because this magical thing happens in the process. Slowing down to handwrite allows your brain to come up with more ideas as you go, and when you type up what you wrote, even more ideas crop up. All these details to enrich the story present themselves, and suddenly you have a notes scribbled all over the place that you can’t wait to incorporate.

Now, with all that said, handwriting probably doesn’t work for everyone. The idea might make a lot of people cringe. Step away from the computer? Are you crazy, Angie? Of course I am! Sanity is overrated. But in all seriousness: try it. You just might like it. Find a writing utensil that feels comfortable to hold, and feels good as it draws the letters on the page. I like my sharpie pens. Once the paper and writing utensil have been established, find a good place to sit. I don’t have a preference but my wrist likes flat writing surfaces, instead of propping up the notepad on my quads. Get out of your house if there are too many distractions and temptations to get sidetracked. Maybe even turn on some classical music or white noise. I like having a low fan on to smooth out the ambience since it’s too cold to open the windows just yet. Birdsong, tree frogs, and wind through leaves are all soothing. It being still March in New England, the trees are still naked, so the third sound is… yeah. Not happening just yet.

Happy writing and don’t kill your wrists like I did!

Taming Reality

So this is my life right now: full-time writer/author, weekly unemployment checks, a game plan, lots of hopes and fears, and one big dream. I go to counseling once or twice a month so I can have an objective, unbiased view of my life from the outside. Yes, I have a loving and supportive family bursting with advice and ideas but sometimes I just want my family to be family and nothing more complicated. Just be good company, share good food and good laughs, and even a memorable game of boys vs. girls Pictionary, or even a fishing trip. You know: build good memories.

I’m in a wonderful yet delicate situation and my family is reacting with an understandable amount of fear. I’m getting advice from many angles, which is appreciated, but I’m also getting perplexed reactions. Friend, family, or stranger, they don’t know how to react to this dice roll in my life. Their reactions are unsurprising. I don’t expect anyone to understand.

I don’t know what it was about Friday, but I managed to eke out a whopping page in my post-apocalypse fantasy book. Instead I spent a lot of the day feeling like I need to cry. Thing is, the tears were stuck in my chest. I tried to remedy my jammed emotions with workaholic mode. Instead, I spent hours trying to get that one page out. I mostly stared at the blank spaces between blue lines and thought in circles about the story. I just couldn’t get into my characters’ heads. Their reaction to my frustration? Just wait. They didn’t panic; they did tell me to stop forcing it. So I listened.

I took my buzzing iMac to Apple’s Genius Bar, found out it’s just a fan and I’ll have my computer back in a few days (composing this blog from my 2006 computer), took my mom’s yellow lab to the dog park and watched him prance around with that big lab smile, along with snapped at him a few times to stop humping other dogs in the name of establishing a pecking order, and then I got engrossed in watching Despicable Me until my mom phoned me to come pick her up.

Oh, I also played an awesome round of League of Legends in the morning as Mordekaiser (lovingly nicknamed “Whoredekaiser”), teaming up with an Aussie friend of mine who played Blitzcrank (nicknamed “Fondlebot”). It was touch-and-go from the beginning, so I went for survivability, instead of damage output, and that gave my team the tankiness it needed to win 5v5 fights. I laughed, I screamed, I shook my fist at the other team, and in one epic clash, I was the sole survivor of all ten of us. *Flex*

Anyway, the morning’s distractions gave way to a melancholy I couldn’t figure out how to shake. I did lots and lots of thinking–evaluating my life, looking back at where I’ve come from, browsing other people’s success stories and noting how abridged their coverage is, looking where I’m possibly headed, asking myself if I’m doing the right thing, etc. I got to the point where I emailed my ePublisher, who went through the same joblessness and all-or-nothing approach to his own writing, which paid off just last year. This is what he said:

“These days, everyone is so focused on the traditional way of living even though it’s falling apart and don’t realize that success means taking risks. No risk, no gain.

I basically said to people, if I do this, and it doesn’t work, I can at least look back on my life and say that I tried. I will have no regrets. Otherwise I will. And if it does work out? Well, then I have an awesome life that few people can say they have, and I’m telling you Angie, I say to Cassie about three times a day about how much I love our life and how great it is. Words can’t express how great it is. But it takes sacrifice. Otherwise, by just going right into a traditional job, we already know the outcome of our life. Work like 30+ years, retire (which for us is impossible since social security will be gone, so will pensions and cost of living will go up). Basically, with a traditional job, we already know the ending to our story.

It might be hard, and it might not work out, but at least there’s that possibility.”

So here I am with nothing but my own thoughts to distract me from giving my life’s passion my all. While I’m scared as the rest of my family, I’d be a fool to not try. I have no backup plan if it fails. I’ll worry about that if such a day ever comes around. I’m doing everything in my power to make that day never exist. I’ll regret it for the rest of my life if I don’t try.

Wish me luck! And, if you are interested, take a look-see at my About page to find the link to my first fantasy novel of a trilogy Shield of the Gods. It’s the story of a teenage girl whom a god has charged with protecting the mortal realm. Thank you.

What I’ve Learned About Indy Publishing so Far: The $150 Comma

I have a few lessons I wish to share to all who are trying to make it onto bookshelves, and for those who recently have. Here are a few in no particular order:

1. Don’t assume everyone has done their job correctly.

2. Research prospective independent publishers and interview ones you like.

3. Marketing is mandatory.

4. Believe in yourself and your writing.

5. Follow your favorite (living) authors’ blogs.

6. Use Google.

7. Build a support system to get you through those rough days.

Now to elaborate…

Dont’ assume everyone has done their job correctly:

Today I learned a lesson that almost cost me $150 bucks. For one comma that  vanished to I wish I knew where. I’m working with two different Indy publishers at the moment, one for the eBook and one for paperback version. My eBook publisher has been awesome, really on the ball. No complaints whatsoever. My other one? Churns out beautiful stuff but then I gave what he submitted to me for my approval a green light to send to printers after assuming everything is correct.

Everything was NOT correct. The wrong draft of my prologue was printed with everything else. And there’s a missing comma and period on the back of the jacket. Despite all this, there’s a silver lining: my books are print-on-demand. A revision will be sent to the printing people and all will be well.

Lessons taken from this: just because I emailed the fixes to be done, doesn’t mean they were done, and just pick up the damn phone. Not everyone is as detail-oriented as myself. That and said paperback publisher communicates exponentially better via phone. I prefer to communicate via email. Oh, well. That’s just too bad for me if I want my paperback done right.

Research prospective independent publishers and interview them

There are a ton of them out there, and there are a ton who are just trying to scam writers who are desperate to see their hard work published. Not sure where to find Indy publishers? Look inside your latest eBook that’s priced five bucks or lower. It’ll tell you who their publisher is. Or if you find them on Google, look up they books they’ve published and check how well they’re selling on amazon. A book is in the green if it’s broken the 10k mark.

Getting to know an iIndy publisher is like agent hunting, but you’re the agent and they’re the ones hoping to do business with you. Pick a publisher that knows how to work your genre. My paperback publisher doesn’t really know my genre but, thankfully, my eBook one does, so I’ve been able to salvage my less than ideal situation. I also had to fire my first ePublisher because he wasn’t a good fit. Thankfully I didn’t pay anything up front with him so it was a tiny inconvenience. Also, avoid upfront fees if you can. In most cases those demanding money up front are scammers. Research with your pal Google and check the viability of your sources!

Marketing is mandatory

I hate marketing, yet this is the pivot point where a book either sinks or sells. If you make it available to purchase but don’t do anything to get the word out, it will not sell. Unless you have thousands of cool friends, don’t rely on Facebook to be your only outlet, nor just a blog. You need real marketing muscle and people who know how to work what you’re selling. As I’ve been trying to spread the word about my book, I’ve begun to understand why agents don’t want to represent you unless you’re basically already famous (a.k.a. have a platform).

Follow your favorite (living) authors’ blogs & use Google

They are successful people in the know. Follow in the footsteps of success. Don’t pepper them with questions you can answer yourself with the help of Google and such. Instead, send them fan mail. Don’t spend money on self-publishing books. All the information you could possibly need is free (I’m finally following this bit of advice myself).

Believe in yourself and your writing & build a support system to get you through rough days

This is a bit of a duh, but easily overlooked. I’ve overlooked it for cryin’ out loud. Making it in the literary industry requires a mind-boggling amount of work. Don’t do it alone. Expect moments of delusions of grandeur, expect people to give you stupid advice and discouragement, but expect yourself to persevere. Know why you write. Write every day you can, and give your brain a break when it needs to recharge. And don’t write in another room while cooking. You will burn shit.

Marketing venues I’m testing once my paperback is fixed:

goodreads.com

newspapers and magazines

radio

Indy publisher contests

Here are two blog posts I high recommend taking a moment to read. They’re from two successful authors:

http://www.williamking.me/2013/03/06/anatomy-of-an-e-book-sale/

http://catherineryanhoward.com  (this person has links to so much advice you should Google)

eBook Version: Check. Paperback Version of Total Awesomeness: Check!

Today I got my very own copy of my first fantasy book in the mail. That pen name on the cover: mine. The words, the characters, the story–all that creativity: mine. It’s a surreal thrill. I’m the magician behind the cover. It’s… I’m feeling very thankful today for all the support I’ve gotten to reach this point.

Still, I can’t just sit here and brag/gloat/whatever; I have to market myself. Working with independent publishers, the bulk of the marketing is left up to me. My book will just fall through the cracks if I don’t spread the word that I and my book exist. So, let the next phase of hard work begin!

By the way, Shield of the Gods is the story of a teenage girl whom a god has charged with protecting the mortal realm. Here are the links to amazon.com and B&N:

http://www.amazon.com/Shield-Gods-Aigis-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B00BA0416S/ref=tmm_kin_title_0

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/shield-of-the-gods-sm-welles/1114752278?ean=9781935991878