Sally Harris's Blog, page 3

Book Club Event – right here in Camberwell on 6 August 2014

I’m so excited to be doing an author event for my local bookshop Dymocks next week!  It would be so fantastic if you could make it along to talk all things children’s books.  Here are the details:

Our guest authors for August are: Sally Harris & Hazel Edwards! I am sure most of you have heard of Hazel Edwards, of Hippo picture book fame, & Sally Harris is the author of some younger reader novels that are selling very well!

Dymocks Camberwell celebrated 2012 The National Year of Reading with the inauguration of our very own First Tuesday Book Club, each month. We hold this Book Club at Ebony Quill Cafe, commencing at 6.45pm to 8.15pm (doors open 6.30). This will give participants plenty of time to get home for the Book Club show on the ABC at 10.00pm.

We start the evening by talking about our favourite novels, both new & older ones. We will ask participants to comment about books they have read or are reading, just like a normal book club. We won’t be setting a monthly book, as we want to hear about as many books as possible, including old favourites. You may just want to listen at times and hear about other people’s experiences with their books. It is totally up to you!

We will provide some finger foods and beverages/tea/coffee on the night, as well as some giveaways supplied by publishers.

The cost for each evening will be $10.00 all inclusive.

Bookings are essential for catering purposes.

Please join us by booking on 9882 0032 or at camberwell@dymocks.com.au.  More info at https://www.facebook.com/events/15121...

Related posts:
Top reasons why your book isn’t selling and how to fix it
Review: The Fault in Our Stars

Website update (“It’s about time!” I hear you say)

After things didn’t work out for my plans to release Ruby Marvellous in November, the wheels really fell off my self-publishing bandwagon.  I found that I wasn’t interested in reading the blogs I normally follow, like Catherine, Caffeinated and The Creative Penn. I stepped away from blogging here at Frankly Books.  I stopped replying to emails. I found that if anyone asks me about my writing, my books, my dreams, I wouldn’t really engage in the conversation. I totally lost my writing and publishing mojo.

As part of relaunching Ruby and getting my groove back this March, one of the first things I had to do was to update this website.  There was a lot of old info and a lot of tired looking links. As you take a click around Frankly Books today, here are some of the things that you might notice are new/fixed/infinitely better than they were previously:

1. The ‘My Books’ page now features information about both of my books.  Crazy, but true.  You can download their first chapters free (and Ruby Marvellous is still free to download in return for a review over at StoryCartel.com for a few more days)

2. Both of my paperback books are now available for purchase by Australian readers on the sidebar of my blog.  I’ve also updated the pictures of Penguin-napper to be the most up-to-date, shiny, new edition.  Interestingly, they are both on sale at the moment at 20% off their usual price.  Just saying, if you were thinking of buying one, now might be the time …

3. There is a new ‘sliding drawer’ sidebar.  It’s that pink thing on the left that slides open when you click on it. It will also take you to StoryCartel.com at the moment.

4. I’ve updated my ‘Tweet Old Posts’ widget so that it only share my newest, most up-to-date posts with my friends on Twitter.  No more old, repetitive tweeteroos.

5. A less cluttered sidebar.  The adverts are out, the broken Pinterest link and anything else that seemed a bit unnecessary. Gone.

6. My Author Photo is now updated.  My hair is about twice as big as it used to be and the photo now reflects that.  All the important things, clearly.

7. The ‘About Me’ page has been updated to be even more about me as things are now.

7. Many of these same changes have happened to my Author page over at Amazon Author Central too. Cohesion and matching fonts mean that I can now sleep well at night.

It’s a bit fresher, easier to find what you are after, and I love it.

So, when was the last time you gave your author website a good clean-up?

Related posts:
Why I decided to give my book away for free
Be my guest …
Want a free copy of the first chapter of Ruby Marvellous? Yeah you do!

Why I decided to give my book away for free

NOTE: the images in this feed have been downsized or removed for copyright reasons. To see them in their unmodified state, please view the original post by clicking here.

The reason I’ve decided to give my book away for free is simple:  Great reviews help to sell great books.

Because of this, for the next 19 days, Ruby Marvellous is being featured on StoryCartel.com and it is available for you to download for free.  And if you download it, read it and write a review, you’ll then go into the draw to win one of three Amazon Giftcards.  Amazing, huh? Head to StoryCartel.com to download your free copy and get started.

Related posts:
Don’t forget to download your free e-book!
Diary of a Penguin-napper has gone free!
Get your free sample of Ruby Marvellous!

Rrrrrrewind and rrrrrelaunch!

Book publishing-wise, the last three months have been a bit of a nightmare.

First of all, there were a zillion stuff ups with uploading Ruby Marvellous and getting it printed here in Melbourne.  I’ve been a big fan of working with Lightning Source to get my books printed locally and delivered within a few days.  The finished products look amazing and are good quality.  With Diary of a Penguin-napper, things were easy – I just uploaded my book PDF and cover, then had it printed.  With Ruby Marvellous, things just didn’t go as smoothly.  There were problems with fonts needing embedding and it took several weeks to get right.  There were miscommunications at both ends.  The November 15 launch date came and went. As did the November 30 back-up.  When I left for a month long holiday in the US on December 13, the books that I’d planned on posting out to people before I left were still being processed.  Come the beginning of February, the books had finally been picked up and posted out, but that was it.  The blog tour hadn’t happened. The launch party hadn’t happened. The promo material hadn’t arrived. It was, for the most part, a non-event.

And that was so dispiriting and so completely disappointing.

It was awful that I’d been working on a new manuscript to get it ready to be a published book for nearly two years and that after all of that effort, all of the blood sweat and tears, only a handful of people (that I’m not related to) have actually read it.

Sure, there have been some positives. 717 people requested Ruby Marvellous through a Goodreads giveaway that I ran.  That was more than Penguin-napper the year before.

I’ve received some amazing feedback from people who have read the book. “I loved it, even more than Penguin-napper,” said one friend on Facebook. Or “I had a day at home time and I read your book. I couldn’t put it down. I love it. You have such an amazing imagination,” texted another.

So, after being glum about how things have gone for Ruby so far, I’ve decided that I need to rewind and relaunch.  March is going to be a marvellous month.  A ruddy marvellous month.  A Ruby Marvellous month.

Over the next 31 days, I’m going to be posting here every day.  I’m going to be trying to get my mojo back.  There will be:

- Plenty of opportunities to get copies of both of my books as ebooks for free

- Limited edition illustration prints from Ruby Marvellous

- Discussions about my various advertising campaigns

- Hopefully some Guest Blogging

- A book site launch

- 3 Amazon Giftcards to be given away

- My top tips for self-publishing in Australia

and lots, lots more!

So, join me and let’s make March a month to remember!

Related posts:
Be my guest …
Get your free sample of Ruby Marvellous!
Want a free copy of the first chapter of Ruby Marvellous? Yeah you do!

Get your free sample of Ruby Marvellous!

NOTE: the images in this feed have been downsized or removed for copyright reasons. To see them in their unmodified state, please view the original post by clicking here.

It’s heeeeeere!  I’m so excited.  Seriously, I can’t even explain it!  This book has been so much harder to write, develop, edit, polish and bring to a finished product than Diary of a Penguin-napper was, and I’m just as nervous about releasing it out there into the wild.  Such a big moment and such hard work to get here. But here I am.

So, enough of the emotional stuff.  Let’s have some fun!  Want to see the cover for Ruby Marvellous?  This is yet another triumph created by Andrew Brown of Design for Writers.

Beautiful, huh?  This is the third cover that Andrew has designed for me and every time he has shown infinite patience with my dilly-dallying about colours/fonts/images/etc and has done such an amazing job. Love it!

Now, want a taste of what’s inside?  Course you do.  Well pop over here and you can download the opening chapter (and a bit) to get a sneak peek of what’s to come.

Annnnnnd, there’s more!  If you like what you’ve read, Aussie readers can pre-order your copy of Ruby Marvellous for just $12.  Every copy will be signed, specially gift wrapped and posted out to you in time for you put it under your Christmas Tree. (Sorry US and UK readers – you’ll be able to get your copy through Amazon when it is released at the end of November!)

Pre-order your copy now!

[contact-form]

Related posts:
Want a free copy of the first chapter of Ruby Marvellous? Yeah you do!
Be my guest …
Diary of a Penguin-napper has gone free!

Want a free copy of the first chapter of Ruby Marvellous? Yeah you do!

So, do you want me to release Chapter One of my new book Ruby Marvellous for you to check out (before you buy 20 copies for every child that you know/are related to/live next door to for Christmas this year)?  Yeah, you do.

Back in November 2012, in the lead up to releasing Diary of a Penguin-napper, I released the first chapter when the Facebook page hit 100 likes.  Currently, the Facebook page is on 199 likes.  Once it clicks over to 200, I’ll release the first chapter of Ruby Marvellous. Fair deal?

Head over to the Facebook page and get your ‘like’ on.  Even better, if you are lucky number 200 and you email me at sally [at] frankly-books.com, I’ll even send you a free copy of the eBook once it has been released in a few weeks time.  Yep, I’m nice like that.

Related posts:
Get your free sample of Ruby Marvellous!
Be my guest …
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Proofreader Julia explains why you need a proofreader like her!

NOTE: the images in this feed have been downsized or removed for copyright reasons. To see them in their unmodified state, please view the original post by clicking here.

 

I am such a creature of habit.  When I find something I like, I always go back to it.  At the time when I first published Diary of a Penguin-napper, I was happy with every aspect of it apart from one: the proofreading.  There were three different people who did the proofreading for me – the first was the brother of my illustrator who was training to become a proofreader, the second was a paid professional proofreader and the third was a friend of mine who works in the media.

Of those three, the first did a reasonable job, considering that he was still learning the ropes and he did it for nothing.  In those circumstances, I was impressed with what he did.  I figured that he had picked up quite a few of the errors, so hopefully there wouldn’t be much for the professional proofreader to pick up.  I was right.  The proofread that came back from the professionals had only fairly minimal errors to be seen. Then, I gave it to my friend.  The idea was that he would just check for any final details that needed to be corrected.  The ideal was that he would find no errors, the reality was the maybe he would find three or four.

I was pretty shocked when the proof copy of the book came back filled with post it notes of typos and missing word errors that needed to be corrected.  Sorry, what?  Let’s just say that I was unimpressed that I’d just spent $7 per 1000 for professional proofreading for 25,000 words to come back with some glaring mistakes.  Normally, I’m more than happy to promote the freelance services that I use to get my manuscript into shape as a book, but not in this instance.  There is no way I could recommend them.  Needless to say, I was on the hunt for a new proofreader for my second book.

Enter Julia.  I came across her on Twitter back in March and favourited her tweet, knowing that in the future I’d be in the market for a new proofreader.

I didn’t even look back on that Tweet until about June, when my manuscript was finished and had been sent off to the manuscript assessor.  Then, I started hunting for quotes. There were two things that impressed me about her:

1. She offered to do a sample proof of the first chapter of Ruby Marvellous to be sure we were both happy with what we would be signing up for and

2. She is seriously reasonably priced!

Anyway, she’s my new favourite person and I could go on about how happy I am to have come across her on Twitter.  But, I figure I’ve gone on enough, so why not let Julia write a guest post and explain to you all why you need someone like her as a proofreader.  Here she is:

 

Why does an author need a proofreader? The answer becomes all too obvious to some writers, alas! The one thing that no author needs is bad reviews that focus on grammar and spelling, and once these reviews are out there, they don’t go away.

Nobody, and I mean nobody, can proofread their own work! No matter how educated or intelligent a writer is, the fact is that the author is too close to their work and can’t see the wood for the trees. When you read your own work, you see what you expect to see, not what’s actually there! I’ve been given novels to work on that the author has gone through multiple times – and I’ve still found scores of mistakes! Everyone makes typos, there’s not a writer alive who doesn’t.

I would say, by all means ask a friend or two to look through your work for typos. They will probably spot quite a few. But your friend has a different mind-set to me; I don’t know you, I don’t know anything about your work, it’s all completely new to me. I don’t know what to expect – but I will find those pesky typos, it’s a whole different ball game when proofreading is your job! I always offer to proofread up to 5 pages for any author, free of charge and without obligation, so that they can see if what I do is what they are looking for.

It’s hard to say when I became a proofreader, because I sort of grew into it. From almost as early as I can remember, I have loved reading. I am in awe of anyone who can write a book or a story. I used to walk to school with a book in front of my face (dangerous!) I was very good at grammar and spelling at school, and learned foreign languages easily. When I started work as a secretary, I used to automatically correct all documents, in fact my boss used to insist that nothing left the office without my checking it. Then one day I thought – I can do this full time!

I think you have to love proofreading in order to do it properly. And you don’t have to go to college to learn how to do it, though of course some do choose to. The most important thing is, you have to have a real passion for correcting text, this passion cannot be taught, it has to come naturally.

There is a difference between proofreading and editing fiction. Editors will perform services such as: suggesting cutting out characters; changing or omitting dialogue; changing the narrative arc of the novel; moving chapters around; various other suggestions that will in their opinion improve the book. I don’t alter the writer’s work apart from correcting it; I don’t consider it my role to interfere with the writer’s ‘voice’.

Proofreading should take place after the novel has been edited, and been through however many re-writes the author wishes to do. If you use an editor, your proofreader should receive the manuscript after the edit has been done, because after the edit there may be more corrections to be made. To summarise, the proofreading should be done as the last stage before formatting and cover design.

I love getting lost in a book, and feeling I’ve really helped to make it ready for publication. I get a great sense of pride when I see the book for sale on Amazon, and I think, ‘I worked on that one!’ I repeat, I am completely in awe of writers, I can’t do what you do! I am always happy to hear from any authors, whether experienced or just starting out. At heart, I am a reader and a fan, and I never know what wonderful new books are out there waiting for me to discover them!

To get in touch with Julia, follow her on Twitter @proofreadjulia

or drop her an email juliaproofreader at gmail.com

Oh and while you’re there, don’t forget to follow @franklybooks too!

She’s seriously fantastic – your readers will thank you for it!

 

Related posts:
10 steps for editing your writing
Three people who shouldn’t read your first draft – ever!

Be my guest …

Today’s post is a bit of a shout out to all bloggers out there!  I’m on the hunt for a few friends to join me here on the blog at the end of November and I was wondering if that might be you?  Possibly?  Ok, read on …

1. Guest Post

Would you like to write a guest post to appear here on Frankly Books?  Awesome! It needs to be somehow related to self-publishing but other than that it is up to you.  You need to have your own blog for me to connect back to and I won’t be taking articles containing affiliate links.  I’ll even put an ad for your blog on my sidebar for the month of December.  Too easy!

2. Review copy of Ruby Marvellous

Do you write book reviews on your book?  I’m on the hunt for reviewers for Ruby Marvellous. I’m happy to send through either a paperback or a e-book copy for you, but you’ll need to have time to read and review it on your blog in Dec/Jan (and preferably on Amazon/Goodreads/etc too).

3. Book Blog Tour

Just like I did with the launch of Diary of a Penguin-napper, I’m really excited to announce a blog tour coming up for the last week of November/first week of December.  If you’d like me to drop by your blog (and provide a giveaway copy of Ruby Marvellous for your readers) then let me know!

If any of the above appeals to you, please don’t hesistate to drop me a line at sally [at] frankly-books.com and let me know what you’d be keen for. It’s going to be (ruby) marvellous!

Related posts:
Penguin-napper Blog Tour – Week 2 Digested
Want a free copy of the first chapter of Ruby Marvellous? Yeah you do!
The Diary of a Penguin-napper Blog Tour

Self-printing goals: Was self-publishing Diary of a Penguin-napper a success?

NOTE: the images in this feed have been downsized or removed for copyright reasons. To see them in their unmodified state, please view the original post by clicking here.

Back when I started this whole self-publishing caper in October 2012, I really had no idea how I’d go and it caused me a lot of sleepless nights, lying awake wondering if I’d made the right decision to self-publish or not.

In order to track my progress and give myself something to work towards (and something to hopefully celebrate along the way) I decided to set myself some goals.  I promised to come back in 12 months and tell you (a) What my 4 goals were and (b) How close I came to achieving them and here I am.  And how did I go?

1. Embarrassment Level Goal

This is the minimum number of sales that you would need to make to not be totally humiliated and have to move to some remote island in the Pacific to hide.  For me, that goal was 200 paperbacks and I’m pleased to report that I’m not writing this post from a remote island.  I actually achieved this goal within the first 2 weeks of my book going live on Amazon, thanks to lots of time spent on blog tours, tweeting, sharing and family and friends on Facebook and an book launch event at the school where I was teaching.

2. Break Even Goal

This is the number of sales that you would have to make in order to make back the money that you spent on the whole venture. In total, it cost me around $2000 to take Diary of a Penguin-napper from manuscript to publication.  This included things like:

Manuscript Assessment
Editing
Proof Reading
Cover design
Purchase of fonts, stock photography, etc.
Approx 30 custom illustrations
Proof copies
Marketing materials

And I’m proud to say that I’ve sold enough copies to cover these initial set-up costs and I’ve been able to put enough aside to cover the costs of publishing my next book Ruby Marvellous in November this year (for significantly less than the cost of Penguin-napper too! Win!)

3. Achievable Aspiration Goal

This is again a numerical goal that isn’t too easily achievable, but, with a bit of hard work, you’d be really happy if you got there.  For me, that was 1000 sales and, well, let’s just say I’ve totally smashed that.

4. Pinch me! I’m Dreaming Goal

This is your ‘something to daydream about’ goal.  If this goal happened, you’d be absolutely ecstatic, thrilled and probably over the moon as well.  This goal is not a number, but most probably an event.  I decided that my goal would be to have my book in a bookshop.  I picked this not only because I thought it would be awesome, but also because I knew that it would make me get out there and approach bookshops as potential stockists.  I’m pleased to say that as I write this post, Diary of a Penguin-napper is currently available in BookTalk in Richmond (Melbourne), Collins Booksellers in Mildura and Dymocks (Melbourne).  There are a few other bookshops that I am also looking to approach when Ruby Marvellous is ready to hit the shops too.

It is hard to believe that this time last year, I had never brought a book to market, let alone sold a copy of it.  Here I am, 12 months later, having sold far more than I even anticipated that I would (or could).  Additionally, I have learnt so much more about the process and running a business than I ever would have doing this any other way.  The fact that I’ve even been able to achieve my ‘Pinch me!’ pie in the sky goal just blows me away and I’m feeling totally motivated to try and beat these figures with my new book, Ruby Marvellous, coming out at the end of November, 2013.

Do you have goals for your self-publishing ventures?  Are you getting close to achieving them? Do you think self-publishers even need goals? Tell me below!

Related posts:
Setting goals for self-publishing
Cover Reveal: Diary of a Penguin-napper
Diary of a Penguin-napper has gone free!

I’m in love … with my new book formatting

NOTE: the images in this feed have been downsized or removed for copyright reasons. To see them in their unmodified state, please view the original post by clicking here.

Right, so if you’re playing along at home you’ll know that I’m in the process of sharing … well the process!  Week 1 saw me sharing why I believe manuscript assessments are a good starting point. In Week 2 we talked about the value of good quality beta readers and now, in Week 3, the real fun begins: formatting your manuscript into a book.

Up until this point we’ve employed experts and discerning friends to help us.  This is something you are going to do on your own and therefore it is also where you can go horribly wrong.

When I formatted Diary of a Penguin-napper I did it using Adobe InDesign as I happened to have the software and managed to work out how to use it without giving myself a bald spot from pulling out too much hair.  You can read about my InDesign adventures here.  That was back when I had loads of time and infinite patience for the whole experience.

This time, I’m pressed for time, plus it’s been 12 months since I’ve used InDesign and yes, I’ve completely forgotten how to use it and no, I’m really not interested in using up any more hours of my life learning how to use it again.

And luckily for me, I didn’t have to.  Say hi to my new best friend: Book Design Templates

This site was created by Joel Friedlander (The Book Designer) who is font of knowledge when it comes to all things self-publishing and he knows a badly formatted book when he sees one!  He created this collection of pre-made book formats, which writers can download (alongside a set of easy instructions) to help them format their book).  It is, however, so easy that I only made it through the first few pages of instructions before I had the hang of it.

For my new book, Ruby Marvellous, I’m using on of the children’s templates called Affection.  Yes, I’m feeling the love for it right now.  Here is a sample of what the first page spread in my book looks like:

Cute, huh?

I know that I previously said that I’d be InDesigning everything because I love it so much.  Well, this is something that I love just as much and it has taken much less time/patience/sanity, so that it a plus too.

In addition (because I’m clearly just full of helpful information tonight!), I’ve got another top tip for you.  Did you know that you can use Adobe Acrobat to compile groups of PDF documents?  It’s really easy to do:  you just choose the option to ‘Combine Files into PDF’ from the start menu, add your files in the correct order and voila! One PDF made for you! Love it and it’s been great to use to add all different pages, sample chapters, etc all into one PDF to upload to Createspace.

Related posts:
InDesign Vs Word for Book Formatting
Five apps for writers that I love (and you will too)
My new best friends for formatting e-books