Jacob C. Stroud's Blog
August 30, 2018
3 Reason Why I Am Excited!
I’m excited and here are the 3 reasons why:
Camping trip with my family! We are going to go camping this weekend. It will be a good time of relaxation and family fun. It’s getting closer to the Mississippi Peanut Festival! This year the Peanut Festival is October 6 and 7. I’ll be there again for the fifth year straight and I’ll be selling and signing books.Teddy’s Pirate Adventure is almost complete. I’m meeting with the illustrator tomorrow to get the completed illustrations. I have already been working on the layout so I just need to replace the draft images with the finals and review everything. And submit in KDP. I’m going to use my booth at Mitchell Farms as a dual purpose booth. Sell and sign books and come-and-go book release party for Teddy’s Pirate Adventure. If you enjoy posts like this one you can follow my blog or on one of my other profiles:
Amazon Author Page for Jacob C. Stroud
Twitter @jacobcstroud
Facebook Page jacobcstroudauthor
Instagram @jacobcstroudauthor
Google+ Jacob C. Stroud
Camping trip with my family! We are going to go camping this weekend. It will be a good time of relaxation and family fun. It’s getting closer to the Mississippi Peanut Festival! This year the Peanut Festival is October 6 and 7. I’ll be there again for the fifth year straight and I’ll be selling and signing books.Teddy’s Pirate Adventure is almost complete. I’m meeting with the illustrator tomorrow to get the completed illustrations. I have already been working on the layout so I just need to replace the draft images with the finals and review everything. And submit in KDP. I’m going to use my booth at Mitchell Farms as a dual purpose booth. Sell and sign books and come-and-go book release party for Teddy’s Pirate Adventure. If you enjoy posts like this one you can follow my blog or on one of my other profiles:
Amazon Author Page for Jacob C. Stroud
Twitter @jacobcstroud
Facebook Page jacobcstroudauthor
Instagram @jacobcstroudauthor
Google+ Jacob C. Stroud
July 25, 2018
Teddy���s 2nd Adventure
I just realized that I have not announced the title of my upcoming book, on this blog. The second book in the Adventures Of Teddy series is Teddy���s Pirate Adventure. Don���t worry, Teddy won���t be the rum drinking, ship sinking kind of pirate, he���s the kind of pirate that dreams of adventure and goes out into the world to find it.
I have added Google+ to my list of social networks. I would appreciate it if you follow me there.
Keep an eye out for more updates and maybe a sneak peek at one of the illustrations (with prior approval from the illustrator).
I have added Google+ to my list of social networks. I would appreciate it if you follow me there.
Keep an eye out for more updates and maybe a sneak peek at one of the illustrations (with prior approval from the illustrator).
Teddy’s 2nd Adventure
I just realized that I have not announced the title of my upcoming book, on this blog. The second book in the Adventures Of Teddy series is Teddy’s Pirate Adventure. Don’t worry, Teddy won’t be the rum drinking, ship sinking kind of pirate, he’s the kind of pirate that dreams of adventure and goes out into the world to find it.
I have added Google+ to my list of social networks. I would appreciate it if you follow me there.
Keep an eye out for more updates and maybe a sneak peek at one of the illustrations (with prior approval from the illustrator).
I have added Google+ to my list of social networks. I would appreciate it if you follow me there.
Keep an eye out for more updates and maybe a sneak peek at one of the illustrations (with prior approval from the illustrator).
July 14, 2018
I���m Writing Again, and What I Am Writing Might Surprise You.
It has been a little while since my last post, so I have some catching up to do. Last October(2017), I setup at the Mississippi Peanut Festival again. I sold a few copies of Teddy Visits Mitchell Farms and met a lot of wonderful people. One addition to my booth was a cut-out stand-in where kids of all ages could put there face in a stack of pumpkins next to a teddy bear in overalls. This was a fun family project, drawing and painting on a piece of plywood.
Teddy���s second adventure is still in progress, because some of the illustrations have not yet been finished. Once they are finalized, I will complete the layout and do any final edits to the book to make it print ready. I know it will be worth the wait to be able to publish a much better story than book 1, with professional quality illustrations.
For a while now, I have thrown around the idea of writing a commentary or study book on some of the stories in the Bible. One of my reasonings about writing a Bible commentary is, to be able to write this book, I will have to study the stories. Even if I never publish the book, my understanding of God���s Word will grow. This project hasn���t started to move along yet so it might be a while before it is published.
Now I���ll tell about the surprise writing, at least it was a surprise to me. I am writing a crime mystery with psychological elements, clues to follow, and probably a few plot twists that develop as the characters are revealed. I started out thinking I was writing a short story but now I think it is a novel. So far I have a couple of main characters that are opposites, an unknown foe, and just the tip of the iceberg of what I hope will be an engaging story that will keep pages turning and entertain many readers. I want the target audience of this book to be anyone who enjoys a good clean mystery. I would love to be able to give you a date when you can get this book but the last time I estimated a publish date, I was over a year off and that book is still not available. I will need a few beta readers. If you are interested, just let me know.
Thank you for reading my ramblings. If you think anyone you know might enjoy this update please share it. If you haven���t already, please like and follow my Facebook page and my blog.
Teddy���s second adventure is still in progress, because some of the illustrations have not yet been finished. Once they are finalized, I will complete the layout and do any final edits to the book to make it print ready. I know it will be worth the wait to be able to publish a much better story than book 1, with professional quality illustrations.
For a while now, I have thrown around the idea of writing a commentary or study book on some of the stories in the Bible. One of my reasonings about writing a Bible commentary is, to be able to write this book, I will have to study the stories. Even if I never publish the book, my understanding of God���s Word will grow. This project hasn���t started to move along yet so it might be a while before it is published.
Now I���ll tell about the surprise writing, at least it was a surprise to me. I am writing a crime mystery with psychological elements, clues to follow, and probably a few plot twists that develop as the characters are revealed. I started out thinking I was writing a short story but now I think it is a novel. So far I have a couple of main characters that are opposites, an unknown foe, and just the tip of the iceberg of what I hope will be an engaging story that will keep pages turning and entertain many readers. I want the target audience of this book to be anyone who enjoys a good clean mystery. I would love to be able to give you a date when you can get this book but the last time I estimated a publish date, I was over a year off and that book is still not available. I will need a few beta readers. If you are interested, just let me know.
Thank you for reading my ramblings. If you think anyone you know might enjoy this update please share it. If you haven���t already, please like and follow my Facebook page and my blog.
I’m Writing Again, and What I Am Writing Might Surprise You.
It has been a little while since my last post, so I have some catching up to do. Last October(2017), I setup at the Mississippi Peanut Festival again. I sold a few copies of Teddy Visits Mitchell Farms and met a lot of wonderful people. One addition to my booth was a cut-out stand-in where kids of all ages could put there face in a stack of pumpkins next to a teddy bear in overalls. This was a fun family project, drawing and painting on a piece of plywood.
Teddy’s second adventure is still in progress, because some of the illustrations have not yet been finished. Once they are finalized, I will complete the layout and do any final edits to the book to make it print ready. I know it will be worth the wait to be able to publish a much better story than book 1, with professional quality illustrations.
For a while now, I have thrown around the idea of writing a commentary or study book on some of the stories in the Bible. One of my reasonings about writing a Bible commentary is, to be able to write this book, I will have to study the stories. Even if I never publish the book, my understanding of God’s Word will grow. This project hasn’t started to move along yet so it might be a while before it is published.
Now I’ll tell about the surprise writing, at least it was a surprise to me. I am writing a crime mystery with psychological elements, clues to follow, and probably a few plot twists that develop as the characters are revealed. I started out thinking I was writing a short story but now I think it is a novel. So far I have a couple of main characters that are opposites, an unknown foe, and just the tip of the iceberg of what I hope will be an engaging story that will keep pages turning and entertain many readers. I want the target audience of this book to be anyone who enjoys a good clean mystery. I would love to be able to give you a date when you can get this book but the last time I estimated a publish date, I was over a year off and that book is still not available. I will need a few beta readers. If you are interested, just let me know.
Thank you for reading my ramblings. If you think anyone you know might enjoy this update please share it. If you haven’t already, please like and follow my Facebook page and my blog.
Teddy’s second adventure is still in progress, because some of the illustrations have not yet been finished. Once they are finalized, I will complete the layout and do any final edits to the book to make it print ready. I know it will be worth the wait to be able to publish a much better story than book 1, with professional quality illustrations.
For a while now, I have thrown around the idea of writing a commentary or study book on some of the stories in the Bible. One of my reasonings about writing a Bible commentary is, to be able to write this book, I will have to study the stories. Even if I never publish the book, my understanding of God’s Word will grow. This project hasn’t started to move along yet so it might be a while before it is published.
Now I’ll tell about the surprise writing, at least it was a surprise to me. I am writing a crime mystery with psychological elements, clues to follow, and probably a few plot twists that develop as the characters are revealed. I started out thinking I was writing a short story but now I think it is a novel. So far I have a couple of main characters that are opposites, an unknown foe, and just the tip of the iceberg of what I hope will be an engaging story that will keep pages turning and entertain many readers. I want the target audience of this book to be anyone who enjoys a good clean mystery. I would love to be able to give you a date when you can get this book but the last time I estimated a publish date, I was over a year off and that book is still not available. I will need a few beta readers. If you are interested, just let me know.
Thank you for reading my ramblings. If you think anyone you know might enjoy this update please share it. If you haven’t already, please like and follow my Facebook page and my blog.
July 7, 2017
New Book Update (Hint: You arrr going to love it!)
Since my last post, progress has been made. An illustrator was chosen and she is busy working on bringing the new book to life! This book has action, adventure, mystery and fantasy wrapped up in a kid friendly story about your favorite adventure-seeking teddy bear. The story is complete and is going through a few rounds of proof reading. We hope to have the illustrations done by mid-August and then layout will start. If all goes as planned the book should be finished and ready to print before October!
I'm thinking about trying to do a book release event or party, maybe a local library would be interested? Would you be interested in coming to such an event? Would it help you make up your mind if there were light hors d'oeurves (like chips, cookies and maybe a veggie tray) and non alcoholic drinks (children's book!)
Thanks for caring enough to read my blog post!
I'm thinking about trying to do a book release event or party, maybe a local library would be interested? Would you be interested in coming to such an event? Would it help you make up your mind if there were light hors d'oeurves (like chips, cookies and maybe a veggie tray) and non alcoholic drinks (children's book!)
Thanks for caring enough to read my blog post!
November 2, 2016
Fall update and exciting news for the Adventures of Teddy Series!
This fall has been a busy one for me and my book. I was at the 6th annual Mississippi Peanut Festival selling and signing. I also visited two schools. My first ever school author visit was to Waynesboro Elementary School. My second and third presentations were at Columbia Primary School. I enjoyed telling the kindergarten, first, second and third grade students about being an author and reading Teddy Visits Mitchell Farms to them. I also gave them a sneak peak of the next book in the Adventures of Teddy series.
The big news:For a while now, I have wanted to work with a real artist for illustrating the books. I am now talking to some artists who are interested in working on the Adventures of Teddy series, and I think work on the next book could start soon. If all goes well, I hope to also put out a second edition of Teddy Visits Mitchell Farms with illustrations by the same artist who does the new book's illustrations. Hopefully I can release an official announcement soon.
The big news:For a while now, I have wanted to work with a real artist for illustrating the books. I am now talking to some artists who are interested in working on the Adventures of Teddy series, and I think work on the next book could start soon. If all goes well, I hope to also put out a second edition of Teddy Visits Mitchell Farms with illustrations by the same artist who does the new book's illustrations. Hopefully I can release an official announcement soon.
September 22, 2016
Happy Fall! Free Ebook!
Breaking News: It is Fall and Teddy Visits Mitchell Farms Ebook Version is Free this weekend!
In celebration of Fall and the opening weekend of the Pumpkin Patch at Mitchell Farms, the Kindle ebook version of Teddy Visits Mitchell Farms will be free on Amazon Friday, Saturday and Sunday 9/23/2016 through 9/25/2016! If you own or have access to a PC, Mac, Apple device, Android device or Amazon Kindle or Fire device you can read Kindle ebooks.
To get the book go to http://bit.ly/TVMFKindle
My thoughts on Fall...Fall is one of my favorite seasons, definitely in the top four. Technically it's not the seasons that I enjoy but it is the changing from one season to another. The transition from Summer to Fall is extra special because it is so visual. All summer long it's green, green, green, green then suddenly Fall comes and you see red, orange, yellow and brown! Also the heat of summer is so hot that when the temperature starts to drop, it is like a breath of fresh air. Another reason why Fall is so great is all the Festivals. A few that come to mind are: Mississippi Peanut Festival, Mississippi Pecan Festival, Loblolly Festival, Dairy Festival, Hattiesburg Food Festival, South Mississippi Fair, church and school Fall festivals...and the list goes on. Happy Fall!
In celebration of Fall and the opening weekend of the Pumpkin Patch at Mitchell Farms, the Kindle ebook version of Teddy Visits Mitchell Farms will be free on Amazon Friday, Saturday and Sunday 9/23/2016 through 9/25/2016! If you own or have access to a PC, Mac, Apple device, Android device or Amazon Kindle or Fire device you can read Kindle ebooks.
To get the book go to http://bit.ly/TVMFKindle
My thoughts on Fall...Fall is one of my favorite seasons, definitely in the top four. Technically it's not the seasons that I enjoy but it is the changing from one season to another. The transition from Summer to Fall is extra special because it is so visual. All summer long it's green, green, green, green then suddenly Fall comes and you see red, orange, yellow and brown! Also the heat of summer is so hot that when the temperature starts to drop, it is like a breath of fresh air. Another reason why Fall is so great is all the Festivals. A few that come to mind are: Mississippi Peanut Festival, Mississippi Pecan Festival, Loblolly Festival, Dairy Festival, Hattiesburg Food Festival, South Mississippi Fair, church and school Fall festivals...and the list goes on. Happy Fall!
October 23, 2015
Give Away the Kindle Version to Sell the Print Version?
I'm trying an experiment, can I give away enough Kindle books to increase the sales of the print version of Teddy Visits Mitchell Farms(Link).Hopefully something like this will happen:
Free downloads = Reads = Exposure + Shares = More Sales = Reads = Exposure + Shares = More Sales... Think of this as a circle with free downloads going in and dollars coming out.
To facilitate the free downloads I am using Kindle Select. That allows me to give it away 5 days per quarter. One free day was used after the Mississippi Peanut Festival, two more this weekend and two more next weekend. These dates were intentionally chosen to coincide with Mitchell Farms' pumpkin patch. My thought process on this was that people at Mitchell Farms might want a book about Mitchell Farms. Throw in some flyers on the counters of the farm's stores, a bitly address(Bit.ly/TVMFKINDLE), and some social media sharing and hopefully this will eventually lead to more sales. We shall see.
May 7, 2015
About Time, Thoughts about real life as an aspiring writer, Part 2
Continuing my series about my experiences, thoughts and lessons learned on my journey to becoming a writer is this second installment best subtitled "About Time".
Time can be seen as a gift or the perceived lack thereof can be seen as a curse.
One of my author bios says something like "he has always wanted to become a writer...". This is true, especially since I found that my childhood aversion to reading books was not the fault of the books but it was more of the "I'll do it but I won't like it" attitude I had toward compulsory assignments. So this leads to the question, if I have really "always wanted to be a writer", why did I not start sooner? I don't know if I can pinpoint it down to one single reason (or excuse, take your pick) but here are a few:
1. I was too busy. I work a full-time job as a computer programmer, meaning 8-5 Monday - Friday and sometimes more. I have a wide and two children.
2. How could an unknown first timer break into the publishing world? I don't know any publishers. I can't afford the expensive fees I've heard about to get a book published.
3. Fear of failure. What if I wrote a book and everyone hated it? Could I handle writing something and it not selling? Would I end up with a stack of unsold copies?
Once I answered my own questions, I didn't any reason not too write. Here are my answers:
1. We all have the same amount of time in a day, its just a matter of prioritizing what we have to do with what we want to do.
2. Simple answer, self-publish. When I found out that one of my co-workers sister made a full time career out of self-publishing books through Amazon, I set my sights on their sites kdp.amazon.com and createspace.com. This would allow me to publish a paperback and Kindle version almost for free.
3. Some fears are meant to overcome, and for me F.O.F. was one of those fears. It helped to make it easier to make the jump when I found out that Amazon self-publishing services are almost free. My thought process was that if I "failed" it couldn't really hurt me, just my pride. Sure enough, I'm not in pain, even though I have only sold into the double digits.
Another angle I could use to look at time in the process of writing Teddy Visits Mitchell Farms is the time I spent writing it. It took much longer than I expected to finish. I'm pretty sure I stayed up all night several times writing, working on the layout and editing the book. I think it was all time well spent because I learned so much about the publishing process and I had a lot of fun doing it. I'm still having fun when I'm able to use some of my time to blog, post, or tweet. Today I took some of my day off and donated a copy of my book to the local public library, while I was there I got a library card.
Writing Tip:
If you have written something , a book, article, blog post, paper, report, anything, you need to proofread it. If you can afford the time, step away from it for a while and come back and read it again. If you can afford an editor, hire one. While I haven't yet taken my own advice on this, because I'm cheap, I plan to use an editor for any novels I write.
The next part of this series might include something about character development.
Time can be seen as a gift or the perceived lack thereof can be seen as a curse.
One of my author bios says something like "he has always wanted to become a writer...". This is true, especially since I found that my childhood aversion to reading books was not the fault of the books but it was more of the "I'll do it but I won't like it" attitude I had toward compulsory assignments. So this leads to the question, if I have really "always wanted to be a writer", why did I not start sooner? I don't know if I can pinpoint it down to one single reason (or excuse, take your pick) but here are a few:
1. I was too busy. I work a full-time job as a computer programmer, meaning 8-5 Monday - Friday and sometimes more. I have a wide and two children.
2. How could an unknown first timer break into the publishing world? I don't know any publishers. I can't afford the expensive fees I've heard about to get a book published.
3. Fear of failure. What if I wrote a book and everyone hated it? Could I handle writing something and it not selling? Would I end up with a stack of unsold copies?
Once I answered my own questions, I didn't any reason not too write. Here are my answers:
1. We all have the same amount of time in a day, its just a matter of prioritizing what we have to do with what we want to do.
2. Simple answer, self-publish. When I found out that one of my co-workers sister made a full time career out of self-publishing books through Amazon, I set my sights on their sites kdp.amazon.com and createspace.com. This would allow me to publish a paperback and Kindle version almost for free.
3. Some fears are meant to overcome, and for me F.O.F. was one of those fears. It helped to make it easier to make the jump when I found out that Amazon self-publishing services are almost free. My thought process was that if I "failed" it couldn't really hurt me, just my pride. Sure enough, I'm not in pain, even though I have only sold into the double digits.
Another angle I could use to look at time in the process of writing Teddy Visits Mitchell Farms is the time I spent writing it. It took much longer than I expected to finish. I'm pretty sure I stayed up all night several times writing, working on the layout and editing the book. I think it was all time well spent because I learned so much about the publishing process and I had a lot of fun doing it. I'm still having fun when I'm able to use some of my time to blog, post, or tweet. Today I took some of my day off and donated a copy of my book to the local public library, while I was there I got a library card.
Writing Tip:
If you have written something , a book, article, blog post, paper, report, anything, you need to proofread it. If you can afford the time, step away from it for a while and come back and read it again. If you can afford an editor, hire one. While I haven't yet taken my own advice on this, because I'm cheap, I plan to use an editor for any novels I write.
The next part of this series might include something about character development.
