Kim Iverson Headlee's Blog: Book Musings from the Maze of Twisty Passages, page 7

The Business of Writing: Using Hootsuite Pro's bulk message scheduler #ASMSG #MFRWOrg

Please bear with me while I wax technical today on The Maze to offer you tips and tricks for using Hootsuite's bulk message scheduler.
A Chaco Owl, Bodafon Farm Park, Llandudno (Wales)
13 July 2016, (c) by Couiros22
via Wikimedia Commons. Hootsuite is a software tool that allows you to manage multiple social media accounts across numerous platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and many others.

Since most of my social media marketing occurs via Twitter, I have been using the free version of Hootsuite to manually schedule up to 24 tweets per day, every day, at a rate of about one per hour (my rule, not Hootsuite's, since I don't want to overwhelm my followers with a constant stream of "Buy my book" pleas—and, you're welcome :).

With ten books in print, not counting the translated editions, my collection of reusable tweets now numbers in the hundreds. The chore of cycling through them, month after month, has become more time consuming. When Hootsuite recently offered me the chance for a 60-day trial of Hootsuite Pro—the only means of accessing the bulk message scheduler—I jumped at it.

The bulk message scheduler allows you to upload a comma-separated values (CSV) file that includes up to 350 messages of three components each: the date and time stamp, the message, and the link.


The 350-Message Limit.
As a software engineer, the 350 value seems rather random to me, so if you're wondering why the Hootsuite designers pulled that number out of their ow.ly little backsides, ask them!

The reason that your CSV file can contain "up to 350 messages" is that the maximum number the bulk scheduler will allow you to upload is 350 minus the number of messages already scheduled (either manually or in bulk) in your outgoing list. I believe the fine print also adds up all messages across all platforms, but since I only schedule messages to my Twitter account, I didn't pay close attention to that bit. The scheduler allows you to select the social media platform at time of upload.

The 350-message limit does not apply to any messages that you schedule manually.

My advice: Start small by creating a CSV file that holds a day's or a week's worth of tweets, and work up to larger bulk-scheduling sessions as you become more comfortable with the procedure.


Working with the CSV file.
Hootsuite's recommendation is to NOT use Microsoft Excel, but to work in a simple text editor. The reason is that the Hootsuite bulk message scheduler expects the UTF-8 encoding format and Excel won't allow that option. I cannot speak to the truth of that from experience, since I now use the open-source LibreOffice suite of programs instead of Microsoft Office.

My advice: Download & install LibreOffice, and use LibreCalc to work with your CSV file. LibreCalc WILL permit UTF-8 encoding for CSV files, but you need to remember to "Edit filter settings" each time you export a block of messages for bulk upload in Hootsuite.


CSV Field 1, the Date and Time Stamp.
When you activate the bulk scheduling option, you have the choice to specify date/time stamps in only one of two ways:

mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm
OR
dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm
Note 1: hh for the hour field is based on the 24-hour clock.
For example,  01=1 a.m. and 13=1 p.m.

Note 2: mm for the minutes field must end in 5 or 0.
For example, 00:00 will be accepted (12 midnight) but 00:12 will be rejected (12 minutes past midnight) by the bulk message scheduler.

If your date/time stamp field does not match the expected format, all of your uploads will fail.

My advice: In the master spreadsheet file you use for your messages to schedule, configure the date/time field to display the values in the way Hootsuite expects. For example, the cell might contain the value 09/01/2016 00:00:00, but it will be displayed as 09/01/2016 00:00 (because the seconds field is not recognized by Hootsuite, and including seconds in your date/time stamp will cause your uploaded messages to fail).

Note 3: As with the manual scheduling of messages via Hootsuite, all of your date/time stamps must be at least 15 minutes in the future, counted from the time of upload, or else the upload attempt will fail for any messages not meeting this criterion.

My advice: Play it safe by scheduling all messages at least one day in advance.


CSV Field 2, the Message.
Regardless of the social media platform for which you are using Hootsuite Pro to bulk schedule your messages, the maximum number of characters in this field is tied to Twitter's requirement to reserve 23 characters for a hyperlink, and Hootsuite's requirement to reserve one character for the blank space between the end of the message and the beginning of the link, or 140 – 24 = 116 characters.

Note 4: If you are copying message text from another source (for example, messages you have stored in Hootsuite's Drafts area, or messages from a master spreadsheet), make sure they are not punctuated with commas. This will cause extra columns to form in your exported CSV file (recall that the initials stand for comma-separated values), which will royally screw up your upload attempt.

My advice: I have applied a number of tricks to get around the limitation of not being able to use commas in bulk-scheduled messages, including:
deleting the commas,replacing commas with the ellipses (…) character, andrewording the message altogether.LibreCalc does permit a CSV file to be created using a different separator character, but for simplicity's sake I have not yet tried this option. If I were to try it, I would probably specify a carat (^) or vertical bar (|) since I don't use those in my tweets.

Note 5: Duplicate messages in your CSV file are not allowed. If you're running a campaign that repeats the same message several times per day, those messages must be scheduled manually. This isn't as bad as it seems, however, because the 350-message limit does not apply to the number of manually scheduled messages.

My advice: Bulk-schedule all your unique tweets for your selected time period (week or month or whatever), and then fill in the rest of the slots with manually scheduled messages.

Another "gotcha" I ran into is that within any message that contains a forced line break, that character is stripped out upon converting to CSV format.

My advice: Edit your CSV file to make sure all your messages read as you intended prior to running it through the bulk message scheduler.


CSV Field 3, the Link.
Twitter reserves 23 characters for each hyperlink regardless of its length, so this field contains no character-count limitations. The Hootsuite bulk message scheduler does automatically shorten all links as part of the upload process.

My advice: If you're scheduling multiple messages that include the same link, copy and paste the link field within your CSV file as many times as necessary, make the contents of each date/time stamp cell unique, following the guidelines mentioned above, and just change the message field for each line.


For more information and tips visit: https://help.hootsuite.com/hc/en-us/articles/204585120-Schedule-messages-in-bulk

Note 6: In the above article, it's reported that the inclusion of "Smart" (i.e., curly) quotes in your messages will cause upload failure. I tried it with curly quotation marks as well as apostrophes, and all of those messages scheduled successfully.

My advice: I believe the key lies in correctly applying the UTF-8 encoding to your CSV file. When in doubt, however, use straight quotes and apostrophes.


When you believe you have the CSV file in good order:
Log in to Hootsuite and navigate to your list of scheduled tweets on the Publisher menu option.Verify that however many messages you intend to bulk upload will not put your scheduled messages over the 350 limit. This may be accomplished fairly easily via Hootsuite Pro's option to view a month-by-month summary of scheduled messages.Under Content Sources, click on Bulk Message Upload. The Bulk Schedule Updates popup window will appear.Click Browse to locate your CSV file, and select it.Verify that you have selected the correct date/time stamp format option.Select the desired social media account from the drop-down list.Click on the SUBMIT button, and hope for the best. :) You will either see a report stating the number of messages scheduled, or a list of failures, in which case you can modify your CSV file accordingly and try again.When finished, exit the Bulk Schedule Updates popup window.Refresh your list of scheduled tweets to verify that your messages did get scheduled as planned.
Good luck, and happy bulk scheduling!

***

All this month, you are invited to…

— Follow Kim on Twitter
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— Leave a comment on any page of The Maze, especially if you have done the Twitter, Pinterest, and/or YouTube follow<

… and each action this month is good for one chance to win a copy of any of Kim's e-books.
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Audiobook spotlight on Unchained Melody by @REHargrave hosted by @MOBPromos

UNCHAINED MELODYby R.E. Hargrave
Marshall Chandler is a true American who grew up wanting nothing more than to serve his country to the best of his ability, by becoming a fighter pilot in the United States Air Force. On the eve of his first assignment, he meets the woman that will haunt his dreams and change his life. 
A single night to connect, but a decade to realize it . . . when one man is torn between the love of his country and what might have been the love of his life, how does he stay sane? How does he cope? And will he ever get a second chance at love? 
Sometimes fate works in mysterious ways.

6 years ago . . . Boston, MA (Outside of Hanscom Air Force Base)
Looking around at the swarm of bodies had me wondering how I’d gotten there. Between the loud music and the flashing strobe lights, my already blurry vision was getting blurrier. The smoking patio outside the club beckoned.
As I inhaled then exhaled, my head dropped against the wall behind me and I closed my eyes. The last two years had been intense. Nonstop missions fighting this ridiculous war in Iraq. I knew the American public had mixed feelings on the necessity of the resources which were being used at an alarming rate for The War on Terrorism. Especially the American men and women. Every time I managed to get a hold of the news, it included more deaths.
Part of me felt guilty that I was back in the States for a month when I should be over there with my fellow soldiers. The higher-ups had demanded I take the leave, however. They’d also made some pomp and circumstance about promoting me to Captain, which was bittersweet.
Ten years of service and I was achieving my goals. My call sign, Dallas, was now well-known thanks to the number of “kills” I’d logged. If I was given a target, I didn’t miss it . . . ever.
The impetus behind my heroic drive wasn’t so grand. Knowing that by giving myself over to the cause and allowing myself to become submersed in the mission, I didn’t have time to think about, remember, or ache at the absence of Melody in my life, didn’t discredit the fact that I was living in avoidance.
[image error] Amazon ✯ Audible ✯ B&N ✯ Kobo ✯ iTunes ✯ Goodreads La Petite MortTwitter ✯ Facebook ✯ Youtube1. How long have you been narrating audiobooks? I started narrating audiobooks about four months ago. Prior to that, I did a lot of commercials, selling anything and everything.
2. What made you decide to do this? I went through a bitter divorce last year. The divorce brought an end to a poor marriage of almost twenty years. In addition, my employment as a professor at a conservative Christian university came to an end. I "made students think" and "introduced new ideas." In that context, those were bad things. In order to restart my life, I was looking to find additional revenue streams. I started auditioning for audiobooks. I landed a few books in the history and self-help genres. However, it quickly became clear that my voice seems best suited for romance-erotica. The rest is, I guess, history.
3. Is it hard to ‘get into character’? Not really. I try to identify the characters with someone I know. Most characters fit someone. Once the connection is made, the character develops organically. Admittedly, it is harder with female characters. I am trying to work on my range with female characters.
4. Are there any characters you’ve narrated that you identify with?Yes. I recently narrated a story for Lori Remenicky, Invisible. The character Jax had lost a great deal. I felt Jax's pain, hurt, and anger. The story played with my emotions in different, strange, wonderful, and scary ways. I was not expecting that. I actually ended up shedding a tear in the middle of the narration.
5. What are your favorite genres to narrate? I really like history books. However, there is a passion, wonder, and excitement in the romance and erotica genres. These two genres are growing on me.
6. Are sex scenes difficult for you? Yes and no. I was raised in a repressive sexual culture. Sex was bad and something to be feared. The baggage is still in my head. However, in this new season of life, I am opening up. I am learning so much from the books. Most importantly, I now realize that "normal" is a construct. We are a wondrous and complicated group of people with different passions, desires, and wants. I hope my voice can ignite and stir fires.
7. Is there any genre you don’t narrate? I try not to discriminate. However, I would not narrate something that was illegal. The only time I have been uncomfortable was when an author incorporated a scatological scene. That was awkward. Unfortunately, narrators do not see the entire script before committing to the contract.
8. How was it working with RE Hargrave? Fantastic. She is so great and active on social media. We became facebook friends and communicated back and forth. A healthy relationship between author and narrator is a must, in my opinion. I would definitely work with her again!
9. Do you have a career aside from narrating? Yes. I am an editor for academic books. I am also an academic author (monographs, encyclopedia entries, articles, etc.).
10. Any favorite authors you’ve worked with? I have loved everyone that I have met. RE Hargrave in wonderful. The good people at Decadent and Blushing Books have been so kind to me. Leslie McAdam has been so supportive. Deb Markanton, a reviewer of romance and erotica, has been a true gem. We communicate regularly. She offers invaluable advice and support. I am in her debt.
11. How important are strong male characters to you? I think strong male characters who have real emotions, fears, and aspirations are important. Some psychologists have recently described a phenomenon among American men under the age of thirty: Demise of Guys. I think many women, whether or not they know that term, resonate with the frustration and hurdles in trying to find a competent and strong male who is not a jackass. Romance allows an escape, I think. The man on the page or in the ear is the man whom many women want. In fact, I am currently narrating a book in which the author interacts, physically and emotionally, with one of the characters. Fascinating stuff!
12. Do you narrate both male and female voices? I do. However, my female voices are still developing. I often work with a female narrator, Ruby Rivers.
13. What do you do for fun? What are your hobbies and interests? I exercise often. I am obsessed with my WaterRower. I also enjoy playing games with my son. A relaxing evening with a glass of wine and my love is paradise.
14. Does your ‘significant other’ support your narrating career? Yes, she is very, very supportive. We often narrate together. She edits most of my work (and does a fabulous job!). I would be lost without her.
15. Do you have any advice or comments to those who are interested in pursuing a narrative career or for any authors who are considering audio books?Yes, I would advise both the author and the narrator to open their imaginations. The transition to audio is more than a transition of mediums. The book is, in a very real sense, new. The narrator and listener encounter the characters, tone, and scenes in a new way.
PLEASE NOTE THIS VIDEO IS INTENDED FOR 18+ Domestic engineer. Author. Burgeoning editor. And quite possibly certifiable. Believing every story can shine bright with a bit of tenacious tough love, R.E. Hargrave is thorough and to the point. An international bestselling author, she takes storytelling and manuscript polishing seriously, working with her authors and on her own creations to ensure they come to life, crawling from the pages and into the reader’s souls. 
Hargrave lives on the outskirts of Dallas, TX and is married to her high school sweetheart; together they are raising three children. A native 'mutt,' she has lived in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Alabama, Texas, and California. She is fond of setting her stories—which range from the sweet to the paranormal, to the erotic and horrific—on location in South Carolina and Texas.Amazon ✯ Website ✯ Facebook ✯ Pinterest ✯ Goodreads ✯ Tumblr ✯ Twitter ✯ YouTube ✯ Bookbub a Rafflecopter giveaway MoB Promotions

***

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All this month, you are invited to…

— Follow Kim on Twitter
— Follow Kim on Pinterest
— Subscribe to Kim's YouTube channel
— Leave a comment on any page of The Maze, especially if you have done the Twitter, Pinterest, and/or YouTube follow<

… and each action this month is good for one chance to win a copy of any of Kim's e-books.
Please enter often, and good luck!

Eileann swallows a surge of fear in Ch 14/sc 1a of RAGING SEA by @KimHeadlee #amwriting

Graphic overlay c2016 by Kim Headlee. Though it doesn't feel like it in some respects, summer is indeed winding down. 

My daughter and thousands of other students her age have returned to college. My husband has returned to his high school math classroom.

For eight blessed hours a day, I have the house to myself once again.

(Cue the manic squealing. :D)

Okay, let's be clear: even when it's just me, I share the house with seven cats, one of whom snores. He's snoring right now, as a matter of fact. But that distraction doesn't hold a candle to the myriad demands of family.

With everyone else out of my hair, I can get back into a better writing schedule. The cats will just have to cope as best they can. Somehow I don't think that will be an issue for them.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....



Previous excerpts of Raging Sea 
Chapters 1–6 in Raging Sea: Reckonings  Chapter 7: Sc 1 | Sc 2 | Sc 3 | Sc 4 | Sc 5a | Sc 5b |
Chapter 8: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 2 | Sc 3a | Sc 3b |
Chapter 9: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 1c | Sc 1d | Sc 1e |
Chapter 10: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 2a | Sc 2b | Sc 3a | Sc 3b | Sc 3c |
Chapter 11: Sc 1a |  Sc 1b | Sc 1c | Sc 2 | Sc 3a | Sc 3b |
Chapter 12: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 1c | Sc 2 | Sc 3 | Sc 4a | Sc 4b | Sc 5a | Sc 5b |
Chapter 13: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 2a | Sc 2b | Sc 2c | Sc 2d | Sc 2e | Sc 2f |
Raging Sea Chapter 14, Scene 1a©2016 by Kim HeadleeAll rights reserved.
EILEANN clutched the basket of smoked salmon as she angled across the compound toward the wisewomen’s isolated broch, making sure that no one paid her heed. And why should they, she assured herself. She often brought gifts to the clan’s purveyors of womanly wisdom.

This time the salmon would represent not charity but payment.

Eileann reached the broch’s outer door, tugged it open, and slipped inside, thankful that her mission hadn’t been questioned. She did not wish to raise the clan’s hopes only to dash them if the confirmation she sought proved to be naught but a vagary of nature.

Waiting to greet her, holding a taper to ward off the gloom, stood the trio’s most recent inductee, a young woman now known as Fioruisge, “Spring Water.”

“Ah, Fioruisge, well met.” Eileann knew her birth name, of course, but out of respect for the wisewomen’s traditions, she kept it to herself.

The woman dipped a nod. “We were expecting you, my lady.” She turned to lead the way down the corridor to the inner chamber.

Expecting me?
 
Eileann swallowed a surge of fear and followed her guide.



***

I'm running a giveaway for an e-copy of Snow in July !
To enter, click HERE.

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***
All this month, you are invited to…

— Follow Kim on Twitter
— Follow Kim on Pinterest
— Subscribe to Kim's YouTube channel
— Leave a comment on any page of The Maze, especially if you have done the Twitter, Pinterest, and/or YouTube follow<

… and each action this month is good for one chance to win a copy of any of Kim's e-books.
Please enter often, and good luck!

Eileann swallows a surge of fear in Ch 14/sc 1 of RAGING SEA by @KimHeadlee #amwriting

Graphic overlay c2016 by Kim Headlee. Though it doesn't feel like it in some respects, summer is indeed winding down. 

My daughter and thousands of other students her age have returned to college. My husband has returned to his high school math classroom.

For eight blessed hours a day, I have the house to myself once again.

(Cue the manic squealing. :D)

Okay, let's be clear: even when it's just me, I share the house with seven cats, one of whom snores. He's snoring right now, as a matter of fact. But that distraction doesn't hold a candle to the myriad demands of family.

With everyone else out of my hair, I can get back into a better writing schedule. The cats will just have to cope as best they can. Somehow I don't think that will be an issue for them.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....



Previous excerpts of Raging Sea 
Chapters 1–6 in Raging Sea: Reckonings  Chapter 7: Sc 1 | Sc 2 | Sc 3 | Sc 4 | Sc 5a | Sc 5b |
Chapter 8: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 2 | Sc 3a | Sc 3b |
Chapter 9: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 1c | Sc 1d | Sc 1e |
Chapter 10: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 2a | Sc 2b | Sc 3a | Sc 3b | Sc 3c |
Chapter 11: Sc 1a |  Sc 1b | Sc 1c | Sc 2 | Sc 3a | Sc 3b |
Chapter 12: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 1c | Sc 2 | Sc 3 | Sc 4a | Sc 4b | Sc 5a | Sc 5b |
Chapter 13: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 2a | Sc 2b | Sc 2c | Sc 2d | Sc 2e | Sc 2f |
Raging Sea Chapter 14, Scene 1a©2016 by Kim HeadleeAll rights reserved.
EILEANN clutched the basket of smoked salmon as she angled across the compound toward the wisewomen’s isolated broch, making sure that no one paid her heed. And why should they, she assured herself. She often brought gifts to the clan’s purveyors of womanly wisdom.

This time the salmon would represent not charity but payment.

Eileann reached the broch’s outer door, tugged it open, and slipped inside, thankful that her mission hadn’t been questioned. She did not wish to raise the clan’s hopes only to dash them if the confirmation she sought proved to be naught but a vagary of nature.

Waiting to greet her, holding a taper to ward off the gloom, stood the trio’s most recent inductee, a young woman now known as Fioruisge, “Spring Water.”

“Ah, Fioruisge, well met.” Eileann knew her birth name, of course, but out of respect for the wisewomen’s traditions, she kept it to herself.

The woman dipped a nod. “We were expecting you, my lady.” She turned to lead the way down the corridor to the inner chamber.

Expecting me?
 
Eileann swallowed a surge of fear and followed her guide.



***

I'm running a giveaway for an e-copy of Snow in July !
To enter, click HERE.

MailChimp subscribers to The Dawnflier receive exclusive giveaway opportunities.
Subscribe today so you don't miss out!
***
All this month, you are invited to…

— Follow Kim on Twitter
— Follow Kim on Pinterest
— Subscribe to Kim's YouTube channel
— Leave a comment on any page of The Maze, especially if you have done the Twitter, Pinterest, and/or YouTube follow<

… and each action this month is good for one chance to win a copy of any of Kim's e-books.
Please enter often, and good luck!

The Business of Writing: Copyrighting Your Book #MFRWOrg #ASMSG

Photo © Scanrail | Dreamstime.com - Copyright symbol on computer keyboardHere I am, getting ready to release my book The Business of Writing, and I've neglected to discuss book copyrighting.

So sue me. :D

The Basics.

You do not have to register your book's copyright. From the moment it exists in tangible or digital form, your work is automatically protected under US copyright law. Simply affix a notice in the frontmatter using this format:

Copyright ©20xx by Your Name
If you don't have access to the © symbol, it's acceptable to substitute the text equivalent: (c)

That's all there is to it.

Under Title 17 of the US Code (Copyright Law of the United States), an author's work "endures for a term consisting of the life of the author and 70 years after the author's death." There are exceptions for works of various types that were created before certain dates, but the lifetime plus seventy years duration is the general rule.

The full contents of Title 17 may be viewed via this web page: http://www.copyright.gov/title17/. For your convenience, it's organized by chapter, and you have the opportunity to download Title 17 in its entirety as a PDF file. Each chapter may be viewed either as HTML or as a PDF file.


The Next Level.

Although all created works enjoy automatic copyright protection, registering the copyright is a means of formally establishing the date of creation, which then becomes crucial in winning a plagiarism lawsuit. All traditional publishers and most small presses execute this option for every book they publish.

If your book is ready to be released into retail channels, or it already has been, and you wish to secure the next level of protection for your book, registering the copyright may be accomplished via the following steps:
Visit the electronic Copyright Office (eCO; http://www.copyright.gov/eco/), affiliated with the Library of Congress, and establish an account.On the left-hand menu, under the category "Copyright Registration," in most cases you will select "Register a New Claim." A "claim" in this context means that you as author or publisher are claiming that the copyright of the work should be registered to you (or the author you represent). It has nothing to do with claiming copyright infringement.Follow the prompts to describe your work. The help files are quite extensive and will open in a new tab for your continued reference. In addition, the eCO home page contains links to tutorials and other tools.Pay the appropriate processing fee ($55.00 per title for online registration, regardless of whether you are required to mail physical copies of the book or are entitled to upload the digital version). Payment is accomplished via pay.gov, the payment site operated by the US Treasury Department, and you may choose to pay via electronic funds transfer from your bank account or via credit card. You must scroll down the page until you get to the credit card payment option.Submit the required number of copies of your work. If it is only published electronically, you may upload a qualifying electronic file. However, if your book exists in print as well as e-book editions, and it is already published, then you must mail two copies of the "best edition" within 30 days to the Library of Congress at the address they provide during that phase of the registration process.
Once your books have been received and processed, the Copyright Office will mail you a certificate of registration.

The eCO web site is a bit cumbersome, but it's possible to create templates if you expect to be registering several titles containing much of the same data, such as author name and contact information.

Good luck with this and all aspects of your publishing endeavors!
***

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All this month, you are invited to…

— Follow Kim on Twitter
— Follow Kim on Pinterest
— Subscribe to Kim's YouTube channel
— Leave a comment on any page of The Maze, especially if you have done the Twitter, Pinterest, and/or YouTube follow<

… and each action this month is good for one chance to win a copy of any of Kim's e-books.
Please enter often, and good luck!

Arthur calls for the vote in Ch 13/sc 2f of RAGING SEA by @KimHeadlee #amwriting

Pendragon Cove Press logo
c2014 by Natasha Brown. In standard retellings of the Arthurian legends—versions wherein Arthur is depicted as having more than one half sister—he is at odds with all of them.

This can lead to undesirable redundancy, however.

Some authors address this issue by condensing the number of sisters down to one, usually the most famous of the lot, Morgan le Fay. The oldest versions, however, show Arthur as having three sisters. This is more than likely a nod to the ancient Celtic storytelling practice of triads; in other words, giving the hero three of something as homage to the triple goddess or, in Christianized versions, the Triune God.

I hark to the concept of triads in The Dragon's Dove Chronicles ( Dawnflight , Morning's Journey , Raging Sea , etc.) in giving my Arthur character three sisters: Yglais, Annamar, and Morghe. I eliminate any redundancy by showing different sorts of relationships between the siblings.

In today's excerpt from Raging Sea , Arthur demonstrates how he feels about his sister Annamar and her children.


Previous excerpts of Raging Sea 
Chapters 1–6 in Raging Sea: Reckonings  Chapter 7: Sc 1 | Sc 2 | Sc 3 | Sc 4 | Sc 5a | Sc 5b |
Chapter 8: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 2 | Sc 3a | Sc 3b |
Chapter 9: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 1c | Sc 1d | Sc 1e |
Chapter 10: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 2a | Sc 2b | Sc 3a | Sc 3b | Sc 3c |
Chapter 11: Sc 1a |  Sc 1b | Sc 1c | Sc 2 | Sc 3a | Sc 3b |
Chapter 12: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 1c | Sc 2 | Sc 3 | Sc 4a | Sc 4b | Sc 5a | Sc 5b |
Chapter 13: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 2a | Sc 2b | Sc 2c | Sc 2d | Sc 2e |
Raging Sea Chapter 13, Scene 2f©2016 by Kim HeadleeAll rights reserved.
Urien repeated his anti-Saxon sentiments even louder and angrier, getting a sizable number of chieftains to express agreement. He shared nods with them before addressing Bann. “I demand a vote! It is my right as a member of this council!”

Chieftain Bann seemed prepared to grant Urien’s wish but stopped before uttering a word. He stared toward the far doors, sympathy cascading in palpable waves over his countenance.

Arthur faced about to see what Bann was looking at.

And damned protocol for the second time that day to rush over to his sister Annamar and her two youngest children, Medraut and Cundre. All three looked bedraggled, weary, and fearful, and it wrenched Arthur’s heart to its roots.

Annamar collapsed against him, sobbing, and he held her in a long embrace while her children and Ygraine and Gawain and the rest of the family, even Morghe and Urien, clustered around them. “Loth?” Arthur whispered to Annamar, hating the answer but needing to know. “Is he—”

She pulled back and dabbed her nose with a cloth. “He lives. And fights. Gareth is with him. At least, as far as I know.” Her chin started trembling, but she set her jaw. “Loth sent us here while we could still get away, but I-I think—that is, I’m fairly sure that—that—” Thrusting a fist to her mouth, she jerked her head aside.

“Dunpeldyr may well be under siege by now, Lord Pendragon,” said one of the warriors who had accompanied Annamar and her children. “We need your help!”

“And you shall have it.” Council’s permission or no, Arthur would find a way. He looked back toward Chieftain Bann, who nodded at him. “My lord Bann, I suggest the council take that vote now.”


*** The end of Chapter 13 ***

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Release blast for Dark Brew by @DianaLRubino @MOBPromos with #giveaway

DARK BREWby Diana RubinoPublisher: The Wild Rose PressGenre: Time Travel Romance


Two months in the spotlight change Kylah McKinley’s life forever. Falsely accused of murdering her husband Ted, she learns through past life regressions that she’s the reincarnation of Alice Kyteler, a Druid who lived in 14th century Ireland. Major events in her life parallel Alice’s.

Someone tried to kill Kylah along with Ted in a hit-and-run. Who can hate them both this much? Her journeys to the past as Alice give her the answer.

As Kylah’s trial date approaches and she fights to maintain her innocence, she must learn from her past or forever be doomed to repeat it.


Kylah shut Ted’s den door. She couldn’t bear to look at the spot where he gasped his last breath. His presence, an imposing force, lingered. So did his scent, a blend of tobacco, pine aftershave and manly sweat. Each reminder ripped into her heart like a knife. Especially now with the funeral looming ahead, the eulogies, the mournful organ hymns, the tolling bells . . .

These ceremonies should bring closure, but they’d only prolong the agony of her grief. She wanted to remember him alive for a while longer, wishing she could delay these morbid customs until the hurt subsided.

Throughout the house, his essence echoed his personality: the wine stain on the carpet, the heap of dirty shirts, shorts and socks piled up in the laundry room, the spattered stove, his fingerprints on the microwave. But she couldn’t bring herself to clean any of it up. Painful as these remnants were, they offered a strange comfort. He still lived here.

“I’ll find that murderer, Teddy,” she promised him over and over, wandering from room to empty room, traces of him lurking in every corner. “I’ll do everything in my power to make sure justice is served. Another past life regression isn’t enough anymore. I know what I have to do now. And I promise, it will never, ever happen again—in any future life.”

She inhaled deeply and breathed him in. “Go take a shower, Teddy.” She chuckled through her tears as the doorbell rang. She cringed, breaking out in cold sweat when she saw the black sedan at the curb.“Not again.” No sense in hiding, so she let the detectives in.

“Mrs. McKinley, we need your permission to do a search and take some of your husband’s possessions from the house,” Nolan said.

“What for?” She met his steely stare. “I looked everywhere and found nothing.”

“Mrs. McKinley, the cupboard door was open, four jars of herbs are missing, and the autopsy showed he died of herb poisoning. Those herbs,” Nolan added for emphasis, as if it had slipped her feeble mind. “Foxglove, mandrake, hemlock—and an as-yet unidentified one,” he read from a notebook. “The M.E. determined it was a lethal dose.”

Sherlock Holmes got nothin’ on him, she thought.

“Where’s this cupboard, ma’am?” Egan spoke up.

“Right there.” She pointed, its door gaping exactly the way she’d found it that night. Nolan went over to it and peered inside.

“Ma’am, it would be better if you left the house for a half hour or so. Please leave a number where you can be reached,” Egan ordered.

Nolan glanced down the hall. “Where is your bedroom?”

What could they want in the bedroom? “It’s at the top of the stairs on the right. But we didn’t sleep together,” she offered, as if that would faze them. It didn’t.

After giving him her cell number, she got into her car and drove to the beach.

An hour later, she let herself back in and looked around. They’d taken the computer, her case of CDs, her thumb drive, her remaining herb jars, Ted’s notebooks, and left her alone with one horrible fact: This was now a homicide case and she was the prime suspect.


Amazon-kindle ✯ Amazon-paperback ✯ B&N ✯ The Wild Rose Press ✯ Goodreads


Diana’s passion for history and travel has taken her to every locale of her stories, set in Medieval and Renaissance England, Egypt, the Mediterranean, colonial Virginia, New England, and New York. Her urban fantasy romance, FAKIN’ IT, won a Top Pick award from Romantic Times. She is a member of Romance Writers of America, the Richard III Society and the Aaron Burr Association. She lives on Cape Cod with her husband Chris. Together they own CostPro, Inc., an engineering business. In her spare time, Diana bicycles, golfs, plays her piano and devours books of any genre.




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The Business of Writing: Pricing Strategies for Older E-books #ASMSG #MFRWOrg

Pre-decimal till, Museum of Liverpool.
Photo by Reptonix; free Creative Commons
license via Wikimedia Commons.Welcome to the third and final installment of my series about book pricing on The Maze!

If you need to catch up, I covered print book pricing in part 1. In part 2, my article about e-book launch pricing, I cautioned against succumbing to the temptation of setting an e-book’s price in perpetuity, unless you’re making the title permafree.
The same caution applies to older titles, perhaps even more so, for several reasons.
Lowering a book’s price periodically is a good way to entice new readers to try your work. This technique is especially helpful if you run regular Amazon giveaways to build your audience there. Everyone who follows your Amazon author profile will receive an email notification whenever you have dropped the price on one of your titles, which comes in handy to give your featured book a ranking boost prior to its scheduled advertising promotion such as BookBub. Success tends to breed success, and you cannot take advantage of this marketing principle if you never change your book’s price.Amazon has begun changing their comparative pricing policy on all products. For books, this means that they will eventually stop comparing your title’s print and Kindle edition pricing on the book’s product page. In other words, once they have completed this policy switch, you will no longer see your book’s print price crossed out, with its Kindle edition price underneath, to urge customers to buy the digital edition.If you don’t drop your book’s price at other retail sites such as Nook Press and Kobo, you won’t be able to avail yourself of Amazon’s price matching feature. Seeing the regular digital price crossed out with the price-matched value in bold print underneath can be a powerful sales incentive for many customers, especially those who are already predisposed to purchase your work. Everyone likes to believe that they are getting a great deal, and this technique is an effective way to create that impression.Even setting a permanent $0.99 price for your book may hurt your sales in the long run. Unless you’re planning to offer it free from time to time, you won’t be able to run a 99-cent promotion on BookBub due to their rule that no book will be considered if it has been offered at the submitted deal price for more than fourteen days out of the past ninety.
If you’re looking to do something drastic to breathe new life into an older title, especially if you have invested in a new cover and have overhauled the text, you cannot get more drastic than unpublishing it on all platforms, and then relaunching it a few months later. I have seen some authors take this action, though I have no insight on how their books’ sales fared after relaunch.

The key takeaway is that you are given tremendous power with your vendor account to steer your book’s retail career, and you will be well advised to take full advantage of this power everywhere you release your book for sale.

***

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There's no reasoning with unreasonable men in Ch 13/sc 2e of RAGING SEA by @KimHeadlee #amwriting

Pendragon Cove Press logo
c2014 by Natasha Brown. As warleader, wielding no political authority, Arthur at this point in The Dragon's Dove Chronicles must play the long game, especially when it comes to dealing with his rival and former subordinate, Chieftain Urien.

And Arthur's game is a tricky one indeed. There is little love lost between these two alphas since Urien lost the woman he had hoped to marry—and her vast wealth—to Arthur in Dawnflight .

In today's excerpt from Raging Sea , Urien demonstrates just how much of a hold his wife, Arthur's youngest sister Morghe (Morgan le Fay), has upon him.


Previous excerpts of Raging Sea 
Chapters 1–6 in Raging Sea: Reckonings  Chapter 7: Sc 1 | Sc 2 | Sc 3 | Sc 4 | Sc 5a | Sc 5b |
Chapter 8: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 2 | Sc 3a | Sc 3b |
Chapter 9: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 1c | Sc 1d | Sc 1e |
Chapter 10: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 2a | Sc 2b | Sc 3a | Sc 3b | Sc 3c |
Chapter 11: Sc 1a |  Sc 1b | Sc 1c | Sc 2 | Sc 3a | Sc 3b |
Chapter 12: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 1c | Sc 2 | Sc 3 | Sc 4a | Sc 4b | Sc 5a | Sc 5b |
Chapter 13: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 2a | Sc 2b | Sc 2c | Sc 2d |
Raging Sea Chapter 13, Scene 2e©2016 by Kim HeadleeAll rights reserved.
Chieftain Bann rose from his bench to face Urien. He lifted his arms, and the crowd quieted.

“My lord Urien, we share your outrage, and we agree that this wrong should be redressed. But I speak for everyone on the council when I say that all the troops we can spare at present are already committed to the Angli campaign—”

“Damn the Angli! They can wait! The Saxons need to be punished now!” Urien’s coloring was careening toward a dangerous shade of red.

“Then I wish you good fortune in your campaign, Urien,” said Arthur. “I can fight only one war at a time. Most of the legion is at Senaudon by now. To pull them back a second time will doom Clan Lothian.” And my other sister and her children!But of course there could be no reasoning with unreasonable men. Urien repeated his anti-Saxon sentiments even louder and angrier, getting a sizable number of chieftains to express agreement. He shared nods with them before addressing Bann. “I demand a vote! It is my right as a member of this council!”

Chieftain Bann seemed prepared to grant Urien’s wish but stopped before uttering a word. He stared toward the far doors, sympathy cascading in palpable waves over his countenance.

***

I'm running a giveaway for an e-copy of Snow in July !
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The Business of Writing: Ebook launch pricing strategies #ASMSG #MFRWOrg

Pre-decimal till, Museum of Liverpool.
Photo by Reptonix; free Creative Commons
license via Wikimedia Commons.Welcome to The Maze's second installment of a three-part series on book pricing. 

For your convenience, if you missed part 1 about print edition pricing, you may view it here.

This week I tackle the trickier concept of e-book launch pricing.

Why is e-book pricing trickier?

Because with the establishment of a vendor account for digital publishing comes the relative ease of controlling your book’s pricing.

There exists a great temptation to set a price and leave it in perpetuity. That’s the easiest approach, but unless you have decided to make your book permafree, in the long run that practice will cause more harm than good for its sales figures.

The launch price of an e-book depends upon a number of factors, including:
An author’s popularity. The bigger your fan base, the more you can get away with pricing your books higher than your book’s competitors.Whether the book is fiction or nonfiction. Like it or not, digital fiction is now being perceived almost as a commodity, with readers demanding to read an author’s blood, sweat, and tears for nothing or next to it. Not so with nonfiction e-books, which can attract a fair number of readers even when priced at $9.99 or more.The popularity of your book’s genre or subject matter. In general, books written for more popular genres can enjoy more sales at higher prices, but in a decision between two books by different authors, where both authors are unknown to the customer, she will usually opt for the lower-priced book unless influenced by other factors such as reviews, cover appeal, or synopsis.If part of a series, its sequence number. Most authors discount or make permafree the first book in their series after other installments become available. This entices readers to acquire the earlier works for a modest investment, potentially earning the author more fans along the way.
When establishing the price of your book’s digital edition, you need to ask yourself whether you would rather maximize the number of downloads, or maximize your royalties.

Among the major e-book distribution platforms—Nook Press, Kobo, and iTunes, in addition to KDP—Amazon is the only one that forces authors to set a certain price in order to earn its highest royalty payout percentage. For all Kindle e-books, the minimum price to earn 70% royalties is $2.99 and the e-book must be priced no higher than $9.99; otherwise, the author earns only 35%.

If you wish to maximize your Amazon profits, then, you need to price your e-book to fall within the 70% royalty window. At a 70% royalty rate, a $2.99 book will earn the author $2.09 per download. At $0.99 and an enforced royalty rate of 35%, the Kindle edition of your book will earn $0.35 per download. It will take six sales at ninety-nine cents to surpass the royalties earned from one sale of a $2.99 book. If you think your title will perform well when priced at $2.99 or more, then go for it!

But if you’re like most independent authors whose work struggles to bob above the ocean of books available to readers, then you may be better advised to launch your title at $0.99 and hope to attract proportionally more readers at the lower price point.

That’s how I, as a relatively unknown author at the time, was able to get almost two thousand paid downloads of my medieval paranormal romance Snow in July during the first three months following its July 2014 release with no advertising on my part except for two blog tours. Those aren’t astronomical numbers by any stretch of the imagination, but the performance was good enough to keep Snow in July lodged in Amazon’s top twenty for the category of Teen and Young Adult Historical Romance for several weeks running, earning many more downloads by readers who habitually shop off the first page of the category rankings.

The ninety-nine-cent book launch strategy is by no means a proven formula; so many other factors affect buying decisions, including a book's cover, genre, synopsis, keywords, release date, and its author’s popularity. But in today’s climate of digital fiction being perceived as a commodity, it’s not a bad plan to follow.

Breathing new life into an older title is trickier still, and I will tackle that subject next week.

***
All this month, you are invited to…

— Follow Kim on Twitter
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Please enter often, and good luck!