Paul Yoder's Blog, page 3

Have You Thought About Self-Publishing?

Have you been searching for a home for your finished manuscript for months with no luck of finding a publisher that is taken with your book? That doesn’t mean that your book is not good enough for print. There are options in today’s publishing scene, other than simply going with an established publishing house, which are viable, and in some ways are an even better deal than going with a publisher.

Now the argument between writers of “publishing vs. self-publishing” will always be an issue of debate. From my experience in publishing with both a publishing house and self-publishing, I can say there’s good points about both, and there are drawbacks of both. But so far, I’ve enjoyed, and have gotten more out of, self-publishing. A few pros and cons of going with a publishing house.
PRO: Marketing  and customers. In my opinion, the greatest asset a publisher can offer you is their ability to market your book to a wide span of people. It doesn’t hurt to have a budget when market, and with their access to many proven outlets to market your book, this can be one of the biggest helps an author can have when looking for sales.
PRO: They take a load off. Editing, proofreading, formatting, printing, sometimes cover art designing, and many other mandatory steps, a publisher can help you with. Each publisher is different in what they provide, but most publishers help to get your manuscript from computer to paper (or epaper), taking care of some, if not all of those steps that I mentioned above. If you’re not tech, or business, or art savvy, this can be a big help.
CON: Royalties. Be prepared to have a large bite taken out of your book sales from your royalties pie. Most publishers offer mere cents on a sold copy of your book, forcing your title to sell tens of thousands in order to start making you any kind of worthwhile income—and the hard fact of the matter is, most books published do not sell that well.

CON: The hassle. You probably are already well aware of this, but signing a deal with a publisher is a long, and usually very stressful endeavor. It can take months to hear back from a publisher who received your manuscript, just for them to look over your first chapter and send it back (if they send it back at all). I don’t even want to know how much I’ve spent on manila envelopes and postage, when only half of the time the publishers would even bother to use my self-addressed stamped envelopes to return my couple hundred page manuscript, which alone was an arm and a leg to print. Dumping money into the off chance that a publisher will pick up your copy can be disheartening. Next, the pros and cons of self-publishing
PRO: Royalties. These depend on who you’re self-publishing with and how much you’re pricing your book for, but generally the average profit made from a book sale will be somewhere around $2.00, a bit more if we’re talking about paperback or hardcover. When comparing this profit per book opposed to the 20 cents or less per book with a publisher, you have to sell roughly 10 times more the amount of books with publishers to make what you would when self-publishing.
PRO: No publisher contracts. You retain every right with your work. You can print it here, or there, post it on your blog, do whatever you want with it (within reason, even self-publishing has contracts, though they’re much looser). Once you sign a contract with a publisher, you’re locked in for however long you signed for, and you’re stuck fulfilling that contract on your end until the contract is up. Be very careful if you do sign one. Make sure it’s worth it. With self-publishing, you don’t have to worry about that.
PRO: Open-source. I compare going self-publishing vs. publishing house to PC vs. Mac. Sure, Mac products (publishing with a publishing houses) are flashy and impressive, like showing off your new iPhone (your badge of honor stating that your published with xyz publishing), but when it comes down to it, what should matter is which style suits you and your personality. Do you like the ability to do whatever the heck you want with your work, or do you want a publisher to tell you what’s important and what you should be doing with their product? Do you want to be able to hire a favored artist to design your cover? Most publishers have in-house designers that will work with you on cover art, and not always will they agree with you on who, or what, should go on the front of your book, even if you are a professional designer yourself.
CON: Marketing is left to you. Now, you’re part of the marketing plan even when you’re with a publisher, but with self-publishing, everything’s on you. Marketing can be like a second job that you don’t directly get paid for.
CON:  You take up the costs. Cover art, ISBN, printing, editing, proofreading, not to mention all that time dumped into research for all of this stuff. This can add up to a hefty price if not done carefully. Most of these costs can be avoided if you have the right connections though.
A consideration: Pride. neither a pro or con to some I suppose (some really aren’t affected by this point), but usually you deal with this issue in some way: and that issue is the stigma of self-publishing authors are lesser authors than those who sign on with a brick and mortar publisher. We all know the merits of a writer are unique and can’t be wholly determined by this one point alone, but your family doesn’t know that, your friends don’t know that, and people who ask what you do and find out that you’re a *dramatic voice* “self-published author” don’t know that. And it can hurt the pride every now and then when one of these people jokingly jab and say, “Oh, so you’re not like…you know, a real author,” when in reality, you’ve put just as much, if not more, into getting your book published and marketed than the author who signed with a publisher. Now, which route is best for you?
For me, I usually go with self-publishing. This isn’t to say that going with a publisher is the wrong choice. In fact, given certain circumstances (big enough publisher, publisher that goes beyond the extra mile, doing multiple contiguous series, etc.), I’d say that I might sign on with a publisher instead of going it alone. But, in most cases, I’d go with self-publishing—and here’s why.
Tech Savvy: If you know your way around the most recent word-processing programs, know how to properly format a book for print or eprint, upload documents in the appropriate file extension, and can navigate and tinker with whatever self-publishing platform you’re going to be publishing with, then you’re set to go to self-publish. If not, you’ll need to do some homework before you choose to. Ask people you know how to do these things. (You know me now. :) don’t be afraid to ask questions)             
The CovenantArtists/Designer: This isn’t a must, but it can help save a thousand bucks or so from hiring an artist to whip you up a cover photo. I love art, and almost went down that route in college. Regardless, I’ve painted off and on and keep up with design regularly. My wife is a professional designer, so we’ve pretty much got book art under control.

Editing/Proofreading: You can get away with having your stuff edited by a writers group, or proofread by friends and family for a while, but it’s advised you seek out a professional editor/proofreader. I own an editing/proofreading business, so I feel a bit more comfortable going through my own work and having writer friends help me out with particulars than most, but even I often consult professional editors, because nobody knows everything.

Networking: You’ll need to work on building a large network of readers. These readers can be anyone interested in what you’re writing about, whether they be other writers, friends, family, acquaintances, or, and most preferably, plain ol’ bookworms.

Time: Probably the biggest qualifier in this list. DO NOT SELF-PUBLISH IF YOU DON’T HAVE THE TIME TO. If you just write your book, throw it up online, and leave it, you’ll only end up selling a few copies. Don’t waste your time writing a book to have it fail miserably. You need to market that book once a week at least, but every day if you can. That’s how you get started. You have to find new ways to introduce your book to people who may have already been marketed to by you. There are countless ways to do this, and they’re strewn all across the web, so go look for them. (I’ll try to do another post down the road on this point in particular.)


I have all of the mentioned above, so it makes sense for me to go down the self-publishing route, pocket the extra $2.00 per book (opposed to the $0.20 I would be making with a publisher) and remain free of contracts and dealing with the headache that follows when you throw an organization in with creative works.
Again, I understand that each person is different and appreciates different things. Publishing houses work great with some authors, and there are other authors, like myself, who would rather just be on their own in this regard. To each their own it’s true, but it helps to know before you go down either path which path is right for you.

The Children of Lilith Series by C. David Belt

I've been talking with author C. David Belt recently about his vampire trilogy, The Children of Lilith. Just reading through the descriptions of his books made me want to pick them up sometime in the future, so thought I'd share! If down the road I do pick them up and finish them, I'll do a review and let you know how it went for me.


A bit about the series
In all the 6,000 years that the Children of Lilith have walked among us, there has never been an unwilling vampire… until now.  

The Children of Lilith is the story of the world’s first and only unwilling vampire.  Set in present-day Utah, it’s the story of Carl Morgan, a decent LDS man who loses his wife and children in an automobile accident.  Then he witnesses the murder of his wayward sister at the hands of the beautiful and mysterious Rebecca.  When the police can’t find the killer, he goes searching for her.  Carl finds Rebecca, but she takes away everything.  She transforms him into the world’s first and only unwilling vampire.  Vampirism is a choice, and you’re choosing to become a serial killer, because you can only survive on HUMAN blood, not animal blood.  Carl is unwilling to murder to survive and he really doesn’t understand what has happened to him.  He’s found and mentored by Moira MacDonald, a two-hundred and seventy year-old Penitent (repentant vampire).  She teaches him how to survive without killing, how to stay true to his temple covenants (in spite of his condition), and how to get justice for his murdered sister.  But to Moira?  Carl’s very existence as an unwilling vampire turns her world upside-down, because Carl is an impossibility.  In the 6,000 years that the Children of Lilith have walked the earth, there has never been an unwilling vampire, because eternal damnation cannot be forced on someone: they must choose it, just as Moira did.  And yet, there’s Carl.  If he can exist somehow, there must be something about Moira’s condition that she doesn’t know.  Is it possible that, after two and a half centuries of searching for redemption and repentance with no hope, perhaps there might somehow be a way back?  Meanwhile, Rebecca’s vampire Master, Michael, plans to unleash a wave of new vampires on the city.  Carl and Moira must stop him before countless innocents are slaughtered.
 
The Unwilling: 
In all the 6,000 years that the Children of Lilith have walked among us, there has never been an unwilling vampire...until now.

Carl Morgan has lost everything. His wife and children were killed in a senseless accident. Then he witnesses the murder of his sister at the hands of a beautiful and mysterious woman named Rebecca. When the police cannot locate the killer, Carl takes matters into his own hands. But his search for justice costs him everything he holds dear.

Carl is unknowingly transformed into the world's first and only unwilling vampire. He is cut off from the light, damned to an eternity of darkness, barred from heaven and any hope of a reunion with his family.

Moira MacDonald, a repentant vampire, has roamed the earth alone for centuries seeking redemption. The very existence of an unwilling vampire, something she thought impossible, changes everything. Has she finally found a path to redemption . . . and an end to her loneliness?

Carl and Moira discover that Rebecca's vampire Master, Michael, plans to unleash a plague of vampires on the city. Can Carl and Moira stop the slaughter of countless innocents?

 The Penitent:

In 6,000 years, no vampire has ever defied Lilith, Queen of the vampires...until now.

Moira and Carl Morgan have saved the city from the horror of Michael and his evil wives, but victory has come at terrible cost.  And there are consequences to every choice, every victory.  Word has spread that someone has broken Lilith's power, that someone has defied the ancient Queen of the vampires.   And she's not happy about it.
 



 The Prophecy:
For 6,000 years, Lilith and her Children have walked the earth, hunting, preying, seducing, corrupting, ruling from the shadows...until now.

An ancient prophecy, spoken by Adam, Lilith's grandfather, foretells her doom. She will do anything, corrupt any innocent, murder countless mortals to save herself.  To survive, she knows she must destroy Carl and Moira Morgan.  The war has begun.  And Carl and Moira know, win or lose, it all ends here.







There you have it! All three books. Would you like to know a bit more about the author? Well keep reading then! Here's a bit about him and where you can find him.

Author Bio
C. David Belt was born in Evanston, WY. As a child, he lived and traveled extensively around the Far East. He served as an LDS missionary in South Korea and southern California (Korean-speaking). He graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and a minor in Aerospace Studies. He served as a B-52 pilot in the US Air Force and as an Air Weapons Controller in the Washington Air National Guard. When he is not writing, he sings in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and works as a software engineer. He collects swords (mostly Scottish), axes, spears, and other medieval weapons and armor. He and his wife have six children and live in Utah with an eclectus parrot named Mork (who likes to jump on the keyboard when David is writing).

You can find his books on the official The Children of Lilith website: http://www.unwillinghild.com

The Covenant by Paul Yoder

Title: The Covenant
Author: Paul Yoder
Series: The Bracken Covenant #2
Genre: Supernatural/Suspense

If you like suspense that runs a very thin line between reality and dark fantasy, this series is for you. Though the series is set in modern setting, its origins run back to the time of fey and forbidden fairytale.



Book DescriptionDr. Carver, who is the head of the English department at Stanford University, would not be the most likely of men to embark on a mission to save a group of kidnapped kids from devil-worshiping zealots in an underground facility, but after trailing a suspected colleague, and witnessing a kidnapping first hand, his pursuit quickly lands him in an underground bomb shelter, renovated as a secret monastery for a cult that calls themselves "The Bracken Covenant."

Dr. Carver and the group of kidnapped kids struggle to survive the horrors of the elaborate underground cultist den. Outnumbered and vulnerable, with the kids being easy targets for not just the demonic zealots, but the wretched, feral animal experiments that the zealots keep underground, Dr. Carver has to lead the kids through trial after trial of both man and beast to escape before the covenant can cave in the underground passages, trapping them inside a den of evil—doomed to share the same fate as the hundreds of tortured spirits that reside there.

Excerpt from The CovenantMaking it to the shelf which the candle burned on, he stopped and turned back the way he had come just in time to hear the chanting grow louder, seeing a hooded figure in the doorway before the door shut again. Someone had just entered the room.

Digging in his pockets, he pulled out the taser that he had taken from Mucot and aimed it into the darkness, nervously waiting for the figure to loom into the candle’s dim light.

It went quiet other than the consistent chanting from the ceremonial room, the voices getting louder and louder, making it impossible to hear if the zealot was approaching him or not, until, all at once, the chanting stopped, and the only sound that Dr. Carver could hear was a sloshing behind him, sounding as if in another room.
   Interested? Well what are you waiting for? Pick up a copy today and start your adventure!
as an eBook on Kindle - $2.99as a Paperback on Createspace - $8.99as a Paperback on Amazon - $8.99
If you would like to follow this author, we've got you covered! Here's all their little hiding spots. :)
Paul's BlogPaul's Author Facebook PagePaul's Twitter
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Author Casey Bond - Winter Shadows

Like I mentioned last post, I’ve been meeting up with a lot of fellow authors over on Facebook and Goodreads, and it’s been a blast exchanging books. It’s gotten me to read a great deal of material outside my standard fantasy, sci fi,  and suspense books. And like I always say, variety is the spice of life…and I love spice ;)

One of those authors that I’ve been talking to is Casey Bond. A wonderful person, and lovely to speak with. We’re exchanging books soon, and I’ll be reading and reviewing her novel, Winter Shadows, which releases Oct. 29th this year! So without ado, here’s a bit about her and her book: Author Casey Bond: She’s a Goodreads Author. Seek Casey Bond and ye shall find her! She’s on Twitter; follow her at @authorcaseybond. Her website is gorgeous (makes me jealous since I’ve got a wife that designs websites professionally, but just has never had the time to whip me up an author’s website). http://caseybond.tateauthor.com–where you can also find her blog. She’s a Mom and reads and writes after her beautiful little girls go to bed. Winter Shadows is her first novel and she has another one in the publishing works!

 A bit about Winter Shadows: A coming of age story following Claire, a young lady struggling to find her place in the world after losing her mother to cancer. After a corrupt American government declares a pandemic and forces residents into quarantine encampments, Claire and her father, along with other members of their Church and community, go into hiding in a cave system in rural West Virginia. While coping with the losses of her mother, home, friends, sense of safety and normalcy, Claire begins to pick up the pieces of her past, finding a new normal despite the darkness surrounding her.
While adjusting to a new environment, and the group of people she finds herself surrounded by, Claire is faced with several important decisions that will influence the path her life will take. Who can she trust? Who should she love? How can she survive? Forced to choose between Ethan's steadfast, mature love and the love of mysterious and dangerous Colin who appears. Claire learns the difference between infatuation and love. She becomes self-reliant and strong. Despite her newfound confidence, and the isolation in which she resides, evil is able to find her. While fighting against it, she reestablishes her faith in God and opens her heart to the possibility of love.

You can expect a full review with my thoughts on the book in a few weeks, so check back!

The Covenant is available in paperback!

Some great news! A little over a week ago, I published The Covenant in print! I got my first copy during that time, and man, it looks better in print than I was even hoping for!



You can get it either from CreateSpace, or Amazon, and if you do pick it up, I’d really appreciate a rate and review on Amazon after you’re done. That helps SO much.

As far as where I’m at with the next book in the series, I’m on track to finishing the concluding book in The Bracken Covenant Series by the end of this year.
I’m also making a lot of new writer friends over on Facebook, so come and join me there! 

Feudlings in Sight, by Wendy Knight

I'm back! Boy oh boy, the things writing a book will do to you. Sorry, I somewhat neglect keeping up with posts here when in the middle of writing a book, but I'm taking a moment away from my next book in The Bracken Covenant series to give a shot-out to my friend, and author, Wendy Knight. She's been working very hard on pushing her new book, and I wanted to help get the word out. Below should be all you need to know to decide if it's for you. And if it is, here's another one of her books in the series.

Astraea Press is celebrating their first cover reveal; Wendy Knight's Fate on Fire novella, Feudlings in Sight! Available Thursday on Astraea Press, Amazon, and all other major ebook retailers!
Blurb:Boys of war suck at romance. Charity Delyle has lived in the shadow of her Prodigy cousin and his powerful Guard since the day she was born. And she doesn’t mind—really. Except that being in Hunter’s shadow means that he can’t see her. And she’d like that to change. Hunter has one purpose in life: Protect the Prodigy, or die trying. That means a social life, school, and even Charity come last until the war is over. For the most part, he’s okay with that—he can lose everything if he has to…except his seer. Starting at a new school should be much safer than living in a war-ravaged Carules headquarters. But this new school is different than the others. Friendships are forged and destinies are questioned, and Hunter’s decision could cost them all everything they’ve been hoping for.
Excerpt:“Okay, do you want to practice the ones we learned last week or just start new ones?” She had carefully color-coded the spell book with sticky tabs — spells they had mastered, spells they had practiced, spells that would come in handy one day — she was very organized. And if the Council ever found out she put sticky tabs in a book that was over three hundred years old, they would kill her completely dead. “Learn as much as you can, Shane. Gonna be hard to find a place to practice in the mountains of Utah, surrounded by Normals.” Hunter idly traced spells in the air, letting them fizzle and die without igniting them.

Indie Publishing – How to Do Newsletters Right

When it comes to indie publishing, there’s a great many things you can do to market your book. I’m not going to try to tackle them all here in this post, but I am going to offer one suggestion that has worked for me. It’s a unique way to grow a newsletter following.
The word “newsletter” alone can put me off, since I have had companies spam me with unwanted newsletter info in the past, and they made it very hard to get off the list, but when it comes down to it, a newsletter about your next book, or a newsletter about a sale on your whole library, addressed to the right people, can turn into a very helpful and awesome heads-up for readers interested in you as an author.
The problem then is, how do you get people on your newsletter list that are genuinely interested in your work who aren’t going to be annoyed at a few newsletters from you each year? Here’s what I did:
At the back of my last book, I had a section titled “About the Author” or something to that effect. In it, is a one or two short paragraph sequence about me, about my books, books in the series, etc. But at the end of all that is this bit:
I’d love to hear back from you! You’ve listened to me page after page, and I’d appreciate your thoughts on the book, questions about the series, or if you have questions about writing and publishing. You can contact me at paulwroteyoder@gmail.com. I’ll let you know when my next book is coming out once you’re on my contacts list. So even if you don’t have much to say, send me an email just saying “Hi, and thanks for the read,” if you want a heads up from me on my next title.
Yup, this is what you think it is—it’s an opportunity for the readers to connect with me about the story, and a chance for me to put them on my newsletter list. It’s a positive all around for both the reader and the author. If I could email any given author of a book I enjoyed and get a response back from them, that’d be something.

It takes time to reply to all the responses as an author, but worth it! Who doesn’t like to hear good things about their work? And as for the criticisms—well, there aren’t too many of those, but when they do come, they’re usually helpful tips to keep in mind going forward.
You may wonder if sending them newsletters after that initial contact might be seen as spam, but the key here is to not overdo it. I currently only send out letters to my reader’s list every time I have a book published, or when something big happens with some of my past books, like getting an eBook printed, or a huge discount for all of my books. The point is to keep your contact sparse, only nudging them when there’s something big to report. That’s how I do it anyways, and it’s been working well for me so far.
I hope this tip helps you and your publishing effort! I know most authors feel overwhelmed when they finally finish a book and realize how much marketing is ahead of them. Just know you’re not alone. Keep at it and you'll do fine! :)

The Dark Path with Publishers

It’s about time I talk about my wretched experience with publishers, and why you might want to consider self-publishing instead.
The big question this decade has been, Should I go traditional, or should I go the self-publishing route? Increasingly so, many have been saying to go the self-published route, and I have to side with them.
For the record, I’ve published three works. Two self-published, one published by a small publisher—and let me tell you, going with them instead of publishing on my own has been a regret that has stuck with me every night since I’ve signed that contract with them.
As a disclaimer, this is only my opinion and my experience. I believe some authors out there can do well going strictly the traditional route. It all depends on people’s circumstances. But I’m not talking about those people, I’m talking about my experience—something I’ve lived through and know happened for a fact.
I just read a compelling article from the author Dean WesleySmith on why you shouldn’t start up with traditional publishing, but should start self-publishing, and maybe even not ever deal with traditional publishers. It’s a great read, and he’s quite impassioned about his viewpoint. I suggest giving it a read sometime. But why I bring that article up is because my recent publisher, Unlimited Publishing (AKA UP), is guilty of many of the money-grabbing practices that Dean describes in his article, and it’s sad that I realized this too late.
 My Experience with UP
Part of the contract I signed with UP states that I’m not allowed to discuss specifics about the pay or the contract itself, but I can mention my experience with them in general.
Originally, I had sent them this proof to work with It is understandable that signing on with a publisher means that you are ultimately going to take a smaller cut of the profits, but it is also expected that you’ll receive something for having the publishers take that cut. For me, it was the editing, formatting, cover art, purchasing the ISNB, publishing it on multiple different outlets, and marketing. I figured these services would help recoup the low profit I’d be making per book sale. (It’s down to cents what I make from the book I signed with UP, when I make around $2.00 with my self-published pieces.)
So, you can imagine my disappointment with UP when they changed one word in my manuscript for the editing treatment that they promised, formatted the book for publishing on the Kindle (but in the process added errors to my text that I had to notify them of to change), was going to publish my book with this cover…  Which after I mentioned some obvious poor design choices, they changed it to this... And once it came out, their attempt to “market” my book came down to telling me to sign up for Google Alerts, and asked me to retrieve some fax numbers from local outlets for them to send a fax out to.
I was less than happy about how our relation had gone at that point; but, I’m a pretty laid-back kinda guy, and decided to wait a few months to see if they kicked into gear in four or five months.
I asked how many copies I had sold, but was given no number. I mentioned the quarterly payment was coming up, but was told that I had to reach a high threshold amount of sales before I could get paid, I wanted to know if they had any plans of continuing to market my book and was told that maybe I should stop being lazy and start marketing my book for them (like I wasn’t already, literally out in the streets, speaking to creative writing high-school classes, doing my best with the usually social media outlets, begging anyone I had connection to in the world to PLEASE READ MY BOOK, working my butt off every day trying to promote my work).
Eventually, enough was enough, and I mentioned that I wasn’t happy with the way our relationship had gone, and, even though I knew they had me in a contract and that they didn’t have to respect my request, I wanted out, and if they would be so kind to just terminate the contract, I’d be very please.
Of course they place my dissatisfaction and blame on myself, saying that if I didn’t complain so much, and, again, spent more time marketing the book, that I’d be getting more sales—but that wasn’t my point. My point was they were not delivering on their promises, and to be honest, at that point I started to wonder why should I try to sell my book for them? I made only a fraction of profit from each copy, when they made over half of the total sale, and there was no talk whatsoever now about print publishing, which they had previously had alluded to as being almost an inevitable course for my book.
It’s a sad story, and one that’s not ending anytime soon. I’ll have to wait just under three years now to get my book back from them, and that’s sad since I’m working on the rest of the series, and will need to wait to release a box-set of that series.


 
The Takeaway
My experience isn’t unique. I know others have had similar experiences with publishers. And while much of it comes down to doing you research and making sure you know what you’re signing up with, a big portion of this whole fiasco with my publisher couldn’t have been foreseen, since they listed much of what I desired a publisher to do in the contract, saying that they’d provide it, but then only completing the legal bear minimum to make sure they weren’t going to get into a lawsuit over it.
This is why self-publishing is my road going forward. I’ve been scared off from traditional publishing for the time being. I tried that route and got burned. I’m not saying it’s an invalid route to take. I’m not saying everyone’s experience will be similar. I’m saying that this is what happened to me, and for you to take that experience into account. Take from this story what you will, and hopefully I’ve helped some other writers out there become the wiser, not having to go through this sort of experience themselves.  

 

The Dream Keeper

I’m back! It’s been a week or so (I’ve been hard at work writing the next installment in The Bracken Covenant series) but recently I became acquainted with a fellow writer in a writers group I’m in, and he’s recently published a book that I wanted to let you guys know about. That having been said, give his book a look. If the teaser catches your interest, his book will too, so pick it up.
THE DREAM KEEPER Dreams: Dorothy called it Oz, Alice called it Wonderland, but Nightmares call it HOME.
When an evil shifter takes over the gateway to the realm of Dreams, it falls to 14-year-olds Parker and Kaelyn to stop him. Their only hope lies with Gladamyr, the Dream Keeper, but can they trust a Nightmare to save their world? 
ISBN: Hardback: 978-1-939993-01-4, Paperback: 978-1-939993-03-8, EBook: 978-1-939993-02-1
PRICE: Hardback: $19.95, Paperback: $12.99, EBook: $4.99.
BIO: Mikey Brooks is a small child masquerading as adult. On occasion you’ll find him dancing the funky chicken, singing like a banshee, and pretending to have never grown up. He is the author/illustrator of several books including BEAN’S DRAGONS, the ABC ADVENTURES series, and author of the middle-grade fantasy-adventure novel, THE DREAM KEEPER. He spends most of his time playing with his daughters and working as a freelance illustrator. Mikey has a BS degree in Creative Writing from Utah State University. He is also one of the hosts of the Authors’ Think Tank Podcast .
AUTHOR LINKS:Website: http://www.insidemikeysworld.com/ Amazon Author page: http://www.amazon.com/Mikey-Brooks/e/B00B8ICZ4WBlog: http://writtenbymikey.blogspot.com/Podcast: http://www.foreverwriters.com/category/podcast/Goodreads at: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17727253-the-dream-keeper Facebook at: http://facebook.com/writtenbymikeybrooks Twitter as: @writtenbymikey WattPad: http://wattpad.com/MikeyBrooks

The Bracken Covenant

 A bit on The Bracken Covenant
The Bracken Covenant is a dark and enlightening book series that will lead you to forsaken cultist dens, leaving you wondering if you’ll ever make it out alive.


The Bracken Covenant series is an occult/suspense fiction series with gothic ties. The premise of the series begins with the journals of victims of a horror experiment being found, read, and passed from person to person, the journals affecting the readers each in different ways. Tome of Victims is the novella that sets the stage for the following books in The Bracken Covenant series.
The first full-length book in the series, The Covenant, follows directly after Tome of Victims, and follows a professor as he learns of a kidnapping that one of his colleagues is involved in. Following the kidnapper, he discovers an underground cultist hideout, whereupon he becomes a captive, trying to escape with his life, along with a group of desperate kidnapped kids that he finds down in the cultists’ den.
The second full-length book is scheduled to be published later this year. I’m currently writing it, and what I can say about it is that the main protagonist will once again be Dr. Carver, the lead professor from The Covenant.


Tome of Victims(prelude story in The Bracken Covenant Series)
Tome of Victims by Paul Yoder

When the century-old ruins of a madman’s torture chamber are unearthed, they release one of the most deadly weapons known to man—knowledge.

A set of journals hold the accounts of multiple victims of a psychotic mad-man’s death experiments. Once these journals are discovered and dispersed, the owners soon realize the truth of the journals.

Call it a curse, or define it as the grave psychological effect that the written word can have on a human’s mental faculty, but all proprietors of the journals, soon after acquiring the tomes, fall prey to ill, and even deathly, fates.
Tome of Victims is available on Amazon for $2.99

The Covenant(first entry novel in The Bracken Covenant Series)
The Covenant by Paul YoderDr. Carver, who is the head of the English department at Stanford University, would not be the most likely of men to embark on a mission to save a group of kidnapped kids from devil-worshiping zealots in an underground facility, but after trailing a suspected colleague, and witnessing a kidnapping first hand, his pursuit quickly lands him in an underground bomb shelter, renovated as a secret monastery for a cult that calls themselves "The Bracken Covenant."

Dr. Carver and the group of kidnapped kids struggle to survive the horrors of the elaborate underground cultist den. Outnumbered and vulnerable, with the kids being easy targets for not just the demonic zealots, but the wretched, feral animal experiments that the zealots keep underground, Dr. Carver has to lead the kids through trial after trial of both man and beast to escape before the covenant can cave in the underground passages, trapping them inside a den of evil—doomed to share the same fate as the hundreds of tortured spirits that reside there.
The Covenant is available on Amazon for $2.99