Maegan Provan's Blog, page 4
August 30, 2016
Struggling authors, please read.
By Kyle Perkins.
So lately I have heard from a few people that they feel like they should just give up on writing because for whatever reason, they are feeling like it just isn’t worth it anymore. Whether they feel like they aren’t getting enough attention, don’t have enough fans, or whatever the case may be, they are wrong, and here’s why.
Writers and authors have a gift, and because we have that gift, we have an obligation, a responsibility to use it. We may “just” arrange words in such a fashion that people enjoy reading them, but a heart surgeon “just” transplants hearts, and astronauts “just” go to space. We need to stop treating writing like it is simply a hobby that “anyone” can do, because that’s not the case. We “just” take people to places they can’t go on their own, and give them a form of escapism…
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August 23, 2016
Indie Authors Book Expo
Get ready to come see me, Joleene Naylor, and a whole slew of other amazing authors!!
So, I’m finally doing it. On November 5th, I will have a table at the Indie Authors Book Expo, held at the Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines. The best part of the event? It’s FREE to guests! That’s right, you can come see me and a slew of other awesome authors, including Maegan Provan, for FREE.
Want to see what awesome authors I’m talking about? Check out the uber cool slide show (WordPress won’t embed it, so sadly you have to click the link)
So get ready, and I hope to see you in November!
June 17, 2016
A Dog Mom’s Worst Nightmare
The following post is not writing related, but I hope that it helps someone all the same. Please note that what I am going to talk about it upsetting. It describes my personal experience with a single Petsmart Grooming Salon, and does not reflect the actions of all Petsmart Grooming Salons. (Cause you know slander and all that good stuff)
I am a dog mom. I have two handsome boys that I love unconditionally.
I have Oliver, an eight year old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel :
and Jack, a five year old Jack Russell/ Corgi mix:
On June 15th, 2016, I took Oliver and Jack to get groomed for the summer at the Petsmart Grooming Salon in Watagua, Texas. I was told they were going to be about three hours, and I was fine with that. They deserved to get cleaned up and all of that good stuff. I live about fifteen minutes from there, so I went home to wait for them.
They had visited that salon in February, right before my husband and I moved into our apartment.Everything went fine. They were happy, I was happy. It was pretty much a standard day. This time was a bit different.
About thirty minutes before they were ready, I decided to head over there. The apartment was quiet without them, and I thought they might have been ready sooner. When I walked into the salon, I was greeted by a slightly irritated groomer. I don’t remember her name. It’s not really important at this point. She told me that Jack had stressed out when she tried to do his nails. She stated that he tried to bite her and proceeded to poop all over the table. I must have walked in right after she finished cleaning up because she looked upset. She pointed out that Jack was still attached to the table, and asked that I leave so that she could finish his head. She said that she didn’t want him to look at me while she was trying to cut around the head.
A little shocked, I agreed to walk out and let her finish. I was concerned that he would have done something like that because it is so out of character for this friendly little ball of fluff. About another ten minutes go by and I decide I can’t wait anymore. I walk back in the salon, and I am told they are ready. Jack was leashed up and ready to go so the groomer gave him to me while she went to go get Oliver. I apologized for Jack freaking out, citing that that was out of character for him. She, along with the other two groomers in the room, said that dogs sometimes have bad days. It happens. I said that Jack doesn’t have bad days, but they kept implying he was just not in a good mood.
While the groomer was in the back, I kept looking at Jack’s face, and I noticed there was something odd about his right eye. I picked him up and carefully opened his eye a bit more with my fingers. There was a blood pocket forming along the top of his eye. The groomer brought Oliver out, talking about how good of a boy he was. I pointed out his eye and was told that their eyes get red when they get stressed out.I told them that this was not a red eye, it was a blood pocket. All three of the groomers acted like they had not seen it until I pointed it out, and had no idea how that could have happened.
Looking back at it, that seems like a bit of a cover up. I mean, if I noticed it almost immediately, surely they had noticed it. I decided that I would step next door to Banfield, the Petsmart vet, to try to get his eye checked. I was told that the vet had no appointments, and I started to stress out a bit. I had to know what was wrong with my dog.
I went up to the register, paid for Oliver’s grooming (Jack was comped) and I walked out. I called one local vet that typically took walk ins, but they said that they didn’t have the equipment, and recommend that I call their normal vet. Which I did. Their standard vet did not have any appointments available until Friday. So I grabbed the appointment and figured that I would just be mindful of any changes.
We come home, get all set for the evening, and I decide to play some World of Warcraft with my friends. At about eight or nine o’clock that evening, Jack’s eye has completely turned red with blood.
It’s a little hard to tell, but I think you can see the blood. His eye was swollen, and he had a bit of clear discharge, like tears. I decided that I couldn’t wait any more and took Jack to a twenty-four hour emergency vet.
The vet did a full check of his eye, and came back with a horrible diagnosis. My dog had been strangled. The vet assumed that he did it to himself while he was stressing out, but he was still strangled. His neck was also swollen from the leash tightening around his neck. The damage to Jack’s eye is only in the white part of the eye, and he has no other issues. He can still see and his sight has not been damaged.
Petsmart has paid for the cost of the vet bill, on top of refunding Jack’s grooming cost, and I am thankful for that. However, I am not happy that this happened to begin with. I am not happy that it was allowed to get to that point. If Jack were having a bad day, they should not have finished grooming him. I should have been called immediately. They should not have blamed him for being bad, as they did, but been apologetic for not calling me sooner.
I wanted to write this, not to shame Petsmart, but to warn other pet parents. The manager that handled this whole situation, who was actually incredibly nice, said that she hoped they hadn’t lost our business by this situation, and that the groomer was being reprimanded. Honestly, I will never step foot in a Petsmart again. I am completely devastated by the conduct of the groomers in that situation. My dog could have died, and all the groomers could do was blame him for his behavior. The groomer that was handling him should be fired. I am not always the person that calls for someones head, because I know that find a job can be hard, but this was animal abuse. My dog was in her care and she betrayed him.
I am mad at myself for putting him in that situation, and almost let her get away with putting the blame back on Jack. I almost didn’t say anything to them. But why? I was not at fault, Jack was not at fault. I am writing this in hopes of warning others before dropping their pets off. From now on, we will be using a groomer that works in a vet’s office. Plain and simple.
Think You Couldn’t Possibly Lose Your Amazon Publishing Account? Think Again.
There’s this indie author I know a little bit from the Kboards.com forum. Her name is Pauline Creeden, and she’s an ordinary midlister, like so many of us. I remember PMing her some time ago and gushing about how particularly beautiful one of her book covers is — the one for Chronicles of Steele: Raven.
Here, I’ll include an image. Gorgeous, eh?
Anyway, today I tuned in to Kboards and noticed that Pauline had started a thread. It contained what’s surely the worst news possible for an indie author: Amazon had closed her publishing account. All her ebooks had been taken off sale. Permanently. Here’s the email she got from Amazon:
We are reaching out to you because we have detected that borrows for your books are originating from systematically generated accounts. While we support the legitimate efforts of our publishers to promote their books, attempting to manipulate…
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May 26, 2016
New vlog!
Come check out my new vlog!!
May 17, 2016
Why I’m suggesting you should NOT buy these books
A scary, but all too familiar story about back handed publishing houses. I wish Ms. Petrova luck in her situation. You all need to read this!
photo purchased from Depositphotos
You might be gasping at the title of this blog post, and it almost makes me cringe to even type it. Because I’m suggesting that you do NOT to buy some of my books.
Here’s a little story:
There once was a young, naive author who signed contracts with not one publisher but two who have screwed her out of money and rights. Unfortunately this author didn’t know what the future held. With publisher #1, at least she got recognition and a name. It was a chance at being published that others hadn’t taken on her.
But publisher #2 was a good publisher (at the time). They were at the top of their game, doing every conference and book function in the industry. Some huge names were published there, so this stupid author signed a CONTRACT FOR FOREVER RIGHTS. Yes, you read that right–rights will never…
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May 4, 2016
Catching you guys up, and a short rant (sorry)
So I really really really don’t like the new set up for WordPress. It is incredibly difficult to share vlogs, and really just to navigate. I may feel this way because it’s been for fucking ever since I’ve updated. I’m sorry. I have filmed a few new vlogs, which I will just share the playlist here (hopefully):
Let’s see if that freaking works. The newest vlogs start at about #34, I believe. I have changed the formatting and now, instead of only talking about my books, I am talking about important stuff in the writing world. I will also talk about other things that are important to me, but right now we’re following the Amazon Kindle scammer issue.
I have moved (again) but my husband and I are back in a populated area, which is nice. I enjoy being around people that don’t abuse animals or mooch off of me. Plus, I get to live near my best friend, which is awesome. I am still working on the rewrites for Celine, but it should be done in the next few months.
Other good news, I am launching my own handmade soap company in a few months, with a couple of my friends. We are called Bunny & Bee. The company is launching in just a couple of months, so stayed tuned for more on that.
On to my rant. I enjoy making book covers. I haven’t had as much time lately, but I do enjoy it. It’s fun. However, some times you get a client that is ridiculous. I don’t mean a ‘haha’ kind of ridiculous, I mean a completely unprofessional kind of ridiculous. I have been contacted by an individual sporadically for the several months and I can’t do it any more. At first, I understood, things happen. Now every time this person pops back up their first question is about how much I charge for this, that, and the other, regardless of how many times I tell them the exact same thing. I’m a woman of my word. If I tell you something is going to be $45, not including cost of stock images, then that is what the price is. I understand this person doesn’t know me, but they have asked the same question the last 3-4 times they’ve messaged me.
As both an author and cover artist, being able to see from both sides really sucks. I want to be super angry. We’re talking flying off the handle, cuss filled ranting. I’m not going to do that. What makes me not want to work with or for this person is their long stretches of being gone, then acting as though it is my fault that we have not stayed in contact. In any business exchange, prompt responses are key. When I am the last one to say something in the conversation, traditionally the other person should respond. Otherwise, it’s a monologue, or a blog post.
To be honest, I have so much going on in my life, that I can’t wait around for someone that may or may not respond for 2-3 months at a time. This is probably going to put me on some kind of list, but whatever. I’m not demanding that people behave a certain way to please me specifically, I am just speaking about how I feel. (I hope this makes sense.)
Anyway, thank you guys so much for reading. I promise to try to be better about keeping up with these posts.
May 2, 2016
Dear Cool Mom
Photo credit: nenetus @ FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Dear Cool Mom,
You probably don’t remember me, but I remember you. How long has it been? Three years? Four? Doesn’t really matter, because I doubt you’ll read this letter.
While you were being the fun mom hanging with the preteens in the skate park, I was sitting on the bench outside eating McDonalds. The fat mom eating McDonalds. You thought it would be funny to mock me and to tell your children I didn’t really need those fries. My kids heard you. It made them angry and hurt their feelings, and probably embarrassed them too. I wonder if it embarrassed your kids. I wonder if you were embarrassed when you realized my kids heard you.
This isn’t going to be one of those letters where I justify my weight, because I don’t owe you an explanation for how I look or what I choose…
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April 1, 2016
Real Writers Don’t Self-Publish
Yes to all of this. A perfect response to those that think self publishing isn’t viable.
One of the things I love about doing what I do is that I have the ability to connect so closely with you guys and speak on the topics that matter to you. Yesterday, a fellow writer shared an article from The Guardian, For me traditional publishing means poverty. But self-publish? No way. She wanted my take on what the author had to say.
All right.
For those who’ve been following this blog for any amount of time, I hope I’ve been really clear that I support all paths of publishing (vanity press doesn’t count).
All forms of publishing hold advantages and disadvantages and, as a business, we are wise to consider what form of publishing is best for our writing, our work, our goals, our personality, etc. But my goal has always been to educate writers so they are making wise decisions based off data, not just personal…
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March 31, 2016
Copyright Infringement: A Warning to all Authors
I would like to share a letter sent to me by a fellow independent author, who wishes to remain anonymous, about a website claiming to be promoting independent authors, when in reality it appears that they are offering free downloads of the work of dozens of us.
If you are an author, independent or otherwise, I urge you to read this letter and investigate the site yourself. Find out if your work is posted there and take appropriate action to have it removed, or, at the very least, make sure you are willing to grant permission to the site owners to list your work.
Making money as an independent author is difficult enough without pirating sites giving our work away under false pretenses AND without our permission.
Please share, tweet or reblog this post in order to spread the word through the independent author community and, hopefully, put some pressure…
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