Pratap Divyesh's Blog, page 16
July 16, 2018
Always Remember (You Are) – A Journal (College Rule-Yellow)
Always Remember You Are…
braver than you think,
stronger than you seem,
and loved more than you know.
Available as this 7×10″ journal or a pocket journal in two colors.
This is a Writing Journal and is larger than most. It contains 100 pages with lightly-lined pages for writing poetry, notes, lists, or ideas for your next book.
100 pages – lightly lined allow for perfect absorbency with ink, gel pens, or pencil
Perfect for making lists, creating poetry, or writing down your life reflections
Each journal contains an inspirational message
High-quality — Matte cover for a professional finish
Regular size at 7″ x 10″
Perfect for gift-giving
RMJ Journals by Rogena
AMAZON Barnes & Noble Goodreads
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July 14, 2018
Getting my TALON books published
My name is Gigi Sedlmayer and I live in Australia born in Germany.
After I finished writing (I have to say, it took me 15 years) the first novel in the Talon series about Matica and Talon, TALON, COME FLY WITH ME, I wrote lots of query letters and sent my manuscript to several conventional publishers here in Australia. And guess what? I always got that rejection letter back. I even lost count of them. I tried for many years. I failed. (Waiting for their reply)
Next, I approached an editor and agent and she edited my book, what I thought, properly. (Later one I found out, she wasn’t as good as I thought. Being German, I couldn’t tell the difference) She loved my book and she tried to place it with conventional publishers. But she too failed.
So I looked up all the self-publishers here in Australia and decided to let my book be published by BookPal in Brisbane. At that time, they were new here in Australia and weren’t as expensive as the rest. They did a good job with the designing of the cover page, the outlaying of the book, the distribution, and making an eBook and paperback. They also wrote a press release. But I had no contract with them.
When I finished the second book in the Talon series, TALON, ON THE WING, I approached them again. But to my horror, they became way too expensive. So I waited and in the meantime, I wrote the third book, TALON, FLIGHT FOR LIFE.
Not being able to publish the next two books, since they became too expensive, a friend of ours offered me to pay for these two books. Why? Because he just loved the first book and thought, the books have to go out, people have to read them. So I published them with BookPal again.
But after finishing the fourth book, TALON, CONNECTED, I looked for a different publisher. I know, there were cheaper ones out there, like Create space, but since one has to do nearly everything themselves, and I, not familiar with things like that, formatting and that stuff, couldn’t do it with them. So I looked for another publisher and found Aurora House. I found her on Facebook, asking her to review my first book. She loved it so much, that she told me that she is a publisher as well and if I like to publish my next book. She was cheaper and very nice people.
Since TALON, CONNECTED was already edited in that time, she just published it. Later she found out, that there were mistakes in it, but it was too late to correct them.
In the meantime, I wrote the fifth book TALON, ENCOUNTER. She edited it and published it.
Now I finish writing the sixth book, TALON, WINDSONG, it is waiting for editing. But again, I have to wait, for getting the money together. It’s not always easy. As much as I like to get the books out there, as fast as possible, but everything costs.
The books are not doing as well as we thought, however, the success is standing right behind the next corner. I know that. And that’s, why I never give up. Not that I could stop writing anyway, my head is full of the adventures, Matica, my main character, is facing.
In the meantime, my editor and publisher edited the first novel again and published it new. She thinks, the other books have to be newly edited as well, and I agreed. But finding the money again? It all is not easy.
That is my adventure, with my writing experience. It all took me over 20 years.
This post is contributed as the Guest post by Gigi Sedlmayer.
About the author:
Born in Berlin, Germany, in 1944. Studying architectural drafting in Munich, I met Albert in 1965, marrying in 1967.
May 1975 we moved to New Zealand. Became adoptive parents in 1989.
1992 moved to Australia. Survived cancer, I started to write stories. One of the stories was about handicapped Matica and her giant condor Talon. Matica is me
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July 13, 2018
A storyteller’s take on what it is to be a storyteller
I believe if you are true to yourself in whatever it is you strive to do, or try to do, or wish you could do, or do-do, all I can say is… good for you. That is the first step into who you are, and what you are as a person inside and out. Writing is for me a place where I go to and talk to those characters we all have around us, but very few of us listen to. Characters must come to you, you cannot conjure them up, I know, I’ve tried, and guess what… Yep, you guessed it. It doesn’t work that way, and as a storyteller, if the characters are not willing to talk, then I take a long walk, perhaps it’s a daily walk, or turns into a few months. I know one thing for sure in my heart, a true writer doesn’t create in mass production. Any of the greats took years between inspiration, some of course, well… One shot, something or other, not sure how it goes. But you get my drift. Beware of those who say to you they loved your book and for just… blah, blah, blah we will make sure your book gets the recognition it deserves. Bull! Delete. Bye. Sure it is possible to get recognition out of the blue, like winning the lottery, problem is, you have to find the blue. Seriously, if you enjoy writing, because it is a given, and any given should not be taken lightly. Write. Don’t quit your job. Write. Keep living life. Write. Write. Write. One thing my mother told me was; never ever let anyone tell you that you’re nothing, no one, will go nowhere, for if they had who is telling you this, they would help you achieve your goal, not ridicule.
This post is Contributed by Author Vicki Zell
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July 12, 2018
New Writers Beware – One authors experiences in promoting his work.
In the last decade, things have changed dramatically in the writing and publishing business. Everybody with any kind of computer seems to be having a go at it and one consequence of this phenomenon is the growing number of predators ready to take your money! Some are genuine but many are not.
For example, you see an offer for an App to give you more sales, leads, or reviews. The introductory price is low, so you go ahead and buy. Then the spiel begins, you are informed that before your download starts you really need an extra. Whether you buy it or bypass it, you next are informed you also need another offer with a bonus book, then next comes a training offer, one new thing after the other, on and on all bumping up the total price.
At the end of each section, you see a line of print implying if you’re foolish enough to not want this fantastic offer, then click here to continue. That, of course, takes you to the next essential offer and so on.
Finally, if you haven’t given up in disgust and decided to lose what you suspect is really just a deposit for a vast system you do not need… you will eventually get to the end of the offers. There, if you can find it, at the end of a mile long page, is the place to click to get just what you first thought you wanted. You can almost sense the sneer in the wording pointing out what you’re missing.
What gets me is the contempt these people seem to have for the innocent budding writer. Nowadays, unless you part with enough money, even with a more genuine book promoter, the chance of making your first book go viral, is like winning a lottery and you know the odds against everybody doing that.
I still get caught occasionally nowadays but I should really know better.
I should mention that back in the fifties I wrote and sold a few SciFi tales. My rapidly expanding business life, however, soon put a stop to those fascinating activities, and apart from writing endless reports and technical papers I had to give up writing fiction, even though the ideas still kept coming. I made notes and put them away for another day.
Eventually though I decided to retire from my professional life, and give up all the foreign traveling. So early this century I retired to happily indulge in writing, editing and promoting my speculative fiction output. Now, I’m ruefully finding the essential marketing activities take up more of my time than the writing does. There are also other hazards I’ll mention later…
I spent some time trying to find an agent but apart from a couple who were overloaded with clients, nobody else ever answered, so I began looking into self-publishing, and I’m glad I did.
I found Createspace very useful for my paperbacks and then Amazon KDP for the eBooks. Altogether I’ve published over ten collections of speculative stories myself from macabre tales to science fiction and even some humor. I also set up a website using Webs.com.
My first YA novel was published in 2012 by an Indie Publisher in California. They also gave me a contract for a first sequel which I completed and later approved their final editing copy. However just before it was to be published they were taken over by another Indie Publisher. The new owner confirmed my existing contract and we negotiated two more. One for the second sequel to my YA novels series, which I completed and approved its final editing. The first sequel in the series was expected to be published around December 2016.
Nothing happened because the new owner was discovering he had a take on a project far greater than he was able to control and finance successfully. e.g. his grand plan to re-edit and reformat all the hundreds of titles he had acquired.
Things soon went from bad to worse, one staff turnover crisis to the next, then around the middle of this year, the new owner revealed some of his unsolved problems to me in a series of email exchanges. He still could not say when the paperback versions of my reformatted first two novels would be published, and definitely could promise nothing about other books I had contracted with him. I won’t bore you with details of his eBook problems. Then as compensation for my lost years, he offered to give me 95% of the YA imprint of the company.
I gave his offer a lot of thought but in view of my advanced age, my foreign location, and lack of the required resources I decided against it. Fifteen years ago I probably would have accepted.
He alternatively offered to cancel all the contracts with me, for free and in writing. I accepted and after more thought decided to continue self-publishing. I couldn’t face the thought of trying to find an agent again or another publisher and waiting months for answers to my query letters.
I’ve now republished my first two YA novels myself with my own imprint, and signed them up with an international distributor and will publish the third in the series shortly. My 4th. novel in the series is about one third written to date and progressing..
My most successful effort to date, however, has been to self-publish a non-fiction analysis of the coming Artificial Intelligence revolution, in a book entitled, THE SINGULARITY IS COMING. It has become my best selling title because in October 2015 it was acquired by the IT Books Division of the Chinese Information Ministry Publisher, PTPress in Bejing. for publication in simplified Chinese eBook and paperback versions, released in June 2016. So how did that breakthrough come about? Their Publishing Manager found me while searching over the Internet. In his own words, “I wanted a follow up to Ray Kurzweil’s book on the subject and your book is concise and easy to understand.”
So my simple secret to success appears to get yourself featured on the Internet, everywhere and as often as you can.
Make sure your name and your essential website URL appear whenever a potential reader enters anything relevant in the search entry box on any browser. Inexpensive experts waiting for you on www.fiverr.com can provide all the facilities you need to achieve your objective. When you have done all you can, check your website regularly, add anything new and keep it updated, but above all… be patient, like me, and never miss an opportunity.
My experiences have brought me closer to understanding that life is full of adversities. If you don’t have the money or the time to be a perfectionist, there can be contentment in accepting adequacy, defined perhaps as the acceptable limit of one’s abilities. I must end by saying never give up until you get as far as you truly believe you can and only stop, or pass away perhaps, just before that.
This post is contributed as a Guest post by Tony Thorne MBE.
Tony Thorne MBE is an Englishman, born and technically educated in London, England, was originally a Design Engineer, but is now retired and living in Austria. He writes near future fiction and has his numerous books published, in America, China, and the UK.
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Last Night, When I Prayed
A compelling Christian fiction about one little boy, A.J., who relies on his angel, Demetri, to answer his prayers. Demetri runs into some evil turbulence on the way to deliver a prayer to Heaven. This story is one we all can relate to as we pray to God for solutions and trust in the Divine to hear our plea. Heaven, Hades and the struggle against angels and demons are all depicted in this illustrated message about spiritual warfare.
“A creative and insightful story of the power of prayer. “Last Night, When I Prayed” reminds us that no prayer is insignificant.”
— Jacki Drane, Chi Alpha Campus Ministries
“As Sunshine Rodgers’ wonderfully illustrates, prayer is always powerful and effective. As a person who battles to be always thinking truth and to not doubt,
this book is a great encouragement!”
— Chuck Lester, Tennessee Chi Alpha Director
“An imaginative glimpse into the unseen world of spiritual warfare and the hope we have that our prayers are always heard.”
— Matt Drane, Campus Minister at the University of Memphis
AMAZON Barnes & Noble Goodreads
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July 11, 2018
5 Book Marketing Steps to Take Before You Publish
Marketing is very important if you are doing a business because it helps you to earn a lot of new clients, retain the current client, improve traffic to your business website, enhance client engagement, improve sales, boost up profits, etc. But, have you ever thought of marketing when you write a book of your own? If you haven’t thought of marketing your boo so far, you should think about it since it lets you reach to more readers, improve the visibility of your book, increase the readers of your book, and also to sell more books than ever before. Book Marketing is essential If you would like to achieve your goals.
It is very important for you as a book writer to understand the best and effective ok marketing tricks and ways to promote your book before you publish your book. Book marketing is really helpful and valuable for book publishers, self-publishing authors, book authors, and e-book publishers who wish for selling more books. A complete book marketing campaign brings into play a combination of tactics. It is possible for a book author to start an effectual book marketing campaign devoid of the support or assistance of book marketing professionals in the field.
The most excellent book marketing approach unites online and offline elements, and if done correctly, it will improve the sales as well as the readership of your book. Here are top and effective 5 book marketing steps to take before you publish:
Make Use of Social Media
Keep in mind that book marketing campaigns definitely derive benefit from the effective use of online social networks. Since the majority of people around the world regardless of their age and gender spend much of their everyday time in different social media sites; you can go a long way into promoting your book to a larger audience by capitalizing on social media. Social media networks including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, etc, look like to be the center of attention for most book sales promotion these days.
You should create an account on all the social media sites and tell about your book that persuades the readers to buy your book once it gets published. Be social, active and engage with your readers in social media. Share, and pass on information about your upcoming books with your readers on social media. Be active in your Facebook groups and social media accounts, and also try to take part in online forums. Share news of your book in diverse social media sites, but stay away from any buildup messages.
Increase Your Web Presence
If you would like to sell more books and also to take your book to more readers across the world, you should think about increasing your web presence. You cannot thrive as a writer in the modern digital world without giving preference to developing the web presence. Create accounts on different social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, etc, so that readers can find you and your books. You should write about your upcoming books and post it on your social media accounts.
Make sure to update your visitors about the status of your forthcoming book. If you have a website that includes every detail of your book, you should implement best SEO methods to drive more traffic, improve the visibility of your website, and improve the sales of your book and also to enhance the readership of your book. You have to inquire fans to post their reviews on your Facebook page and also in other social media sites.
Build Your Fan Base
It is essential for you to build a community of fans and customers before you release your work to the general public. By the time your book comes out, you should have a solid base of readers and fans to work from. Remember that a loyal and strong fan base that was developed from marketing activities will aid you to sell more books and also to improve the readership o your book considerably.
You can build your fan base by means of beginning a FB campaign, starting a Google campaign to boost traffic to your site, connecting with other writers, engaging with readers, writing blog posts, keyword your blog posts, hosting guest bloggers, becoming a guest blogger, commenting on other blogs, becoming more active on different social media channels and many more.
Update Author Website or Blog
In the present day, the best parts of writers have got websites or blogs in order to inform their readers about their past works, current works and also the future works. It helps the writers to connect with their readers every time and also inform them when he publishes his next work or the genre or theme of the work. Updating author website or blog when writers are about to publish their book will help them to notify their readers about their upcoming book, its releasing date, etc.
When launching a book, you have got to invite people including reviewers, fans, media, readers, etc. An updated website or blog can do the job for the writer. An updated website or blog should have the Author photo, Author bio, Book cover, Links to purchase the book, Links to purchase any past books, details about the book section, Social media links, Email sign up, etc. The objective of updated website or blog is to persuade visitors to stay on a publisher or author website, learn about a book, and provide them with a reason to return again.
Maximize Your Book’s SEO
One of the unavoidable elements of book marketing is SEO. The writers should maximize their book’s SEO if they would like to take their book to the wider audience, enhance distribution and boost selling of their book. Effective SEO methods will aid every writer to gain the faith of prevalent audience and also to get traffic to author website or blog. One method to efficiently advertise your book and sell more books is to optimize the book’s metadata for search engines. Promote your book with certain Keywords and keyword phrases. It will assist you to allow search engines to easily find your books.
This post is contributed as a Guest post by Susan Taylor.
I am Susan Taylor. I am working as a freelance writer for the past many years and I love writing which is the main reason for me to pursue my career in freelance writing. Presently, I work for dissertation writing services online and it helps me to deal with papers on a daily basis. I love writing blog articles whenever I get free time.
Social Links: [Website] – [Twitter]
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July 10, 2018
After the Fall
Why does everything she loves always leave? On their anniversary trip to meet her favorite band, Sarah Gregory realizes that she is all alone. Her parents left her. Her husband left her. All she has left is the happy memories.
Or so she thought…
Upon going through Mason’s belongings, Sarah discovers a letter. One that will throw her for a loop. Mason had a secret family. Going down to Texas to find out who they are throws Sarah into a whirlwind. A new family, a new home, everything she has ever wanted. Until she meets Travis..
Travis has been working to get his own ranch going and he can’t wait to show it to his friend, Mason. The day he is supposed to arrive, Travis discovers that Mason has been dead for almost a year. But when he meets Sarah, his whole world tumbles upside down. He falls in love quickly but will she ever be able to give him her whole heart or are they just doomed from the beginning
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Big Flies
After Chester Daniel David, highly celebrated travel writer and hospitality critic, dies in an automobile accident, his son, Leland, is the heir to his prosperous estate. Among the late writer’s possessions are stacks of magazines hidden in an attic that suggest that his stories about his world travels were less than authentic.
As Leland grew up, it seemed as if his father was never home. If he wasn’t at the exotic locations depicted in the various publications, then where was he? And what was he doing?
In a witty mystery that simultaneously follows the lives of the father and son, clues that Chester leaves behind point to notorious unsolved crimes committed within a fifteen-year span:
The D. B. Cooper plane skyjacking and ransom demand in the Pacific Northwest
The theft from a Caribbean museum of a twenty-four-carat-gold cross recovered from a sixteenth-century shipwreck
The inexplicable vanishing of $1 million from the Chicago First National Bank
The theft of a collection of priceless artifacts from a Mexican anthropological museum
As Leland unlocks the mysteries surrounding his father’s true life, he finds himself with even more unfathomable questions that he never anticipated asking about his family—and himself.
AMAZON Barnes & Noble Goodreads
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July 9, 2018
Scene of the Crime
A calculating cold-blooded predator closes in…
When a community has barely recovered from a ruthless serial killer six months earlier; now two more horrifying murders hit the radar again. It leaves police burdened with two of the most shockingly contaminated crime scenes ever documented in California’s law enforcement history. The Slayer works behind the scenes as a sinister puppet master, precisely pulling the strings, taunting the police without leaving any viable evidence, and orchestrating his killer hit squads.
The sheriff and district attorney bring in the best investigators. Reunited again, Dr. Chip Palmer, a reclusive forensic expert, joins DA Inspector Kate Rawlins to sort through the crime scene aftermath in search of the truth—all without a probable suspect or a solid motive. Complicating the investigation—sparks reignite between the two.
Ratcheting up the suspense, Chip suffers a nasty fall hitting his head, impairing his perception and giving him a mind-blowing ability for specific detailed recall. Palmer and Rawlins assemble an unusual team including a rookie detective, a forensic supervisor, and an ex-military operative turned bodyguard. After one of their own is kidnapped and the investigation is taken over by the FBI, the now rogue team must pull together their own resources—alone—with a killer waiting to take each one of them out. Scene of the Crime takes no prisoners and leaves everyone fighting to stay alive.
SCENE of the CRIME is a stand-alone novel and the second book in the Chip Palmer Forensic Mystery Series, following the Silver Award Winner from Readers’ Favorite, BODY of the CRIME.
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DAVID JANSSEN – Our Conversations: 2 Volumes
Michael Phelps crossed paths with David Janssen, star of The Fugitive TV series, when working security detail at a party Janssen was attending in Los Angeles.
Little did either anticipate that one conversation would be the beginning of a friendship which would span 15 years – up to the time of Janssen’s unexpected passing.
Michael Phelps, co-author of David Janssen – My Fugitive, written with Ellie Janssen (David Janssen’s first wife) was encouraged to write about his friendship with the star.
After giving it some thought, Phelps decided to make an attempt at providing Janssen’s fans with a glimpse into the heart and soul of David Janssen, the man he was when not in front of the camera’s eye.
Phelps re-visited hundreds of conversations he and Janssen shared about various subjects including his marriage to, and divorce from, Ellie Janssen; his relationship with Rosemary Forsyth; his thoughts about the people he held close to his heart; his alleged womanizing and drinking habits; his impressions of the various people he met in the acting business, from producers, directors and writers to the actors themselves; his courtship, marriage to (and planned divorce from) Dani Greco; his thoughts about certain roles and characters he played and a host of other subjects.
Alas! David Janssen – Our Conversations was born, an undertaking which would take in excess of four years to complete, a memoir in which Phelps shares many of the conversations he and David shared with the world but, especially, David Janssen’s fans.
This story is told in two volumes because of its length. Be sure to check out the second part of the story, David Janssen – Our Conversations: The Final Years.
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