November Newsletter #1
Salutations Readers!
This is our first, much awaited newsletter!
First and foremost, I want to thank everyone for their patience. As some of you know this last month and a half has been a little tough on the family. I really appreciate all the positivity and good vibes. Thoughts become things, and with all the good ones it seems Dad is on the upswing. He's obviously still got cancer, but doing much better! So thank you all for chipping in on the good thoughts.
~There has been interest from you, my amazing readers, to become beta readers for my new releases! Proofreaders, basically, thus I have come up with a new game that will be played with each new book release.
Beta Bingo!
What is Beta Bingo, you ask? Come have a seat and I'll tell you.
Beta Bingo will be a numbers game. Every new book that I release, I'll ask people to play for the opportunity to be one of six readers to receive a copy of a new book before it's published. The copy will be edited and the purpose of a beta reader is to catch any inconsistencies or flubs made by me or my editorial crew. We're human, and after reading the same thing ten times, things like a misplaced comma or a repeated word or whatever gets overlooked. I don't want the same readers over and over again to beta for me just from a logistical standpoint and one of fairness. I intend that everyone who wants to beta gets a chance.
The call for beta bingo will be posted ON MY FACEBOOK PAGE and will look like this-
IT'S BETA BINGO TIME!!!! Comment below for your chance to land a copy of (the new book) before its official publish date. The 10th, 18th, 27th, 31st, 49th, and 62nd person to comment will be a beta reader for (the new book)
There are rules, regulations, provisos and quid pro quos....
This is meant to be a positive experience for everyone involved. Negative comments will result in me blacklisting you from ever beta reading for me again. I expect opinions are going to form, I expect suggestions and thoughts. I even expect that some of you will tell me what you want to see from the next book. Awesome! That's perfectly fine, but negativity is just right out.
Also, these are MY books and comments such as "I think you should have done this or that with this character." Or "Honestly, I hope in the future you convince "Top" to trust doctors. Perhaps have "Athena" go with him to appointments to talk about complementary therapy."
I say, nay nay. Please expect if you do anything resembling such a thing, I may respond in a somewhat sarcastic, potentially snarky manner. I think it's awesome and fascinating how each person reads and interprets my books, but these are mine.
If you've got such fabulous thoughts and suggestions, I encourage you with all seriousness and positivity, to write your own book.
I don't believe there are many of you reading this who are like that, it simply has to be said. I expect constructive criticism. All constructive criticism is good for me and later on for you as a reader.
So, rules and expectations are as follows-
1) You may have your say, but you might not get your way. Be prepared.
2) I'm not looking for anyone to tell me how they think I should write my books. I AM looking for people to assist me with quality assurance. i.e. Making note of repeated/missing words. Inconsistency in the number of people counted in the storyline. Bringing it to my attention if the formatting is a bit odd etc.
3) I write using Chicago Standard Commas. So if you were taught to use AP commas, Oxford commas or any other comma style besides Chicago Standard, I don't want to hear about it. I use Chicago Standard and so does my editor. Misplaced commas are going to happen, as I said, once you read something ten times you start to not even notice those little details. Which is where you come in!
4) YOU WILL NOT LEAVE SPOILERS ANYWHERE! Not on Amazon, not on Goodreads, not on the Facebook page or on forum boards. If you do so and I find out about it, you'll be beta blacklisted and will never again recieve an advanced copy. If you feel the urge that strongly to comment about things like Andi and Ohlen's broken bond (which is in the LAST PORTION OF THE BOOK) and your feeling about it, for the love of puppies, JUST WRITE TO ME! It's really amazing and truly humbling to know how you do or don't feel about things in the books, and I'd really rather you tell me about it, versus people who haven't read the book yet. I know there's a select few of you crazy peeps who buy books based on spoilers, and I stress 'select few' all I ask is that as a beta, you not ruin someone else's experience or expectations of the books by broadcasting yours.
5) Your pre-released copy will be in a format you cannot copy, change, or make additions to yourself. However, the usage of my works in your own books or sharing my content with anyone else will result in legal action. Again, I don't think there are many or any of you who would do that, but it must be said.
6) To play and win, your comments MUST BE ON FACEBOOK! Comments/entries left here on the blog will not count.
I have two ladies already slotted to beta for me this time, Kelly and Sonceia (Thanks ladies!) so for our first game I'll only need four more of you.
Let's play!
~In the beginning of next year, I plan to have a live Q&A. Sort of a chance for anyone to ask me questions about the books, or whatever it is you want to ask and get immediate feedback. The session will follow a workshop for beginner writers titled, "The Things I've Learned and How to Get Started!"
If any of you are interested in publishing your own books (SO AWESOME) the workshop will be about how to navigate self-publishing through Amazon, the basics of how to most efficiently use Scrivner, and for me to share some of the knowledge I've gained the past six months with others going through the same thing. Or interested in becoming a self-published writer. Those days where I hated life and considered not publishing? I know I'm not the only person who feels like that, so my intent is to help others avoid those nasty moments.
I'll announce the dates of the workshop and the Q&A ON FACEBOOK, so keep a weather eye out for that!!!
Have a wonderful week and thank you all again for the kind thoughts.
~Isabel
This is our first, much awaited newsletter!
First and foremost, I want to thank everyone for their patience. As some of you know this last month and a half has been a little tough on the family. I really appreciate all the positivity and good vibes. Thoughts become things, and with all the good ones it seems Dad is on the upswing. He's obviously still got cancer, but doing much better! So thank you all for chipping in on the good thoughts.
~There has been interest from you, my amazing readers, to become beta readers for my new releases! Proofreaders, basically, thus I have come up with a new game that will be played with each new book release.
Beta Bingo!
What is Beta Bingo, you ask? Come have a seat and I'll tell you.
Beta Bingo will be a numbers game. Every new book that I release, I'll ask people to play for the opportunity to be one of six readers to receive a copy of a new book before it's published. The copy will be edited and the purpose of a beta reader is to catch any inconsistencies or flubs made by me or my editorial crew. We're human, and after reading the same thing ten times, things like a misplaced comma or a repeated word or whatever gets overlooked. I don't want the same readers over and over again to beta for me just from a logistical standpoint and one of fairness. I intend that everyone who wants to beta gets a chance.
The call for beta bingo will be posted ON MY FACEBOOK PAGE and will look like this-
IT'S BETA BINGO TIME!!!! Comment below for your chance to land a copy of (the new book) before its official publish date. The 10th, 18th, 27th, 31st, 49th, and 62nd person to comment will be a beta reader for (the new book)
There are rules, regulations, provisos and quid pro quos....
This is meant to be a positive experience for everyone involved. Negative comments will result in me blacklisting you from ever beta reading for me again. I expect opinions are going to form, I expect suggestions and thoughts. I even expect that some of you will tell me what you want to see from the next book. Awesome! That's perfectly fine, but negativity is just right out.
Also, these are MY books and comments such as "I think you should have done this or that with this character." Or "Honestly, I hope in the future you convince "Top" to trust doctors. Perhaps have "Athena" go with him to appointments to talk about complementary therapy."
I say, nay nay. Please expect if you do anything resembling such a thing, I may respond in a somewhat sarcastic, potentially snarky manner. I think it's awesome and fascinating how each person reads and interprets my books, but these are mine.
If you've got such fabulous thoughts and suggestions, I encourage you with all seriousness and positivity, to write your own book.
I don't believe there are many of you reading this who are like that, it simply has to be said. I expect constructive criticism. All constructive criticism is good for me and later on for you as a reader.
So, rules and expectations are as follows-
1) You may have your say, but you might not get your way. Be prepared.
2) I'm not looking for anyone to tell me how they think I should write my books. I AM looking for people to assist me with quality assurance. i.e. Making note of repeated/missing words. Inconsistency in the number of people counted in the storyline. Bringing it to my attention if the formatting is a bit odd etc.
3) I write using Chicago Standard Commas. So if you were taught to use AP commas, Oxford commas or any other comma style besides Chicago Standard, I don't want to hear about it. I use Chicago Standard and so does my editor. Misplaced commas are going to happen, as I said, once you read something ten times you start to not even notice those little details. Which is where you come in!
4) YOU WILL NOT LEAVE SPOILERS ANYWHERE! Not on Amazon, not on Goodreads, not on the Facebook page or on forum boards. If you do so and I find out about it, you'll be beta blacklisted and will never again recieve an advanced copy. If you feel the urge that strongly to comment about things like Andi and Ohlen's broken bond (which is in the LAST PORTION OF THE BOOK) and your feeling about it, for the love of puppies, JUST WRITE TO ME! It's really amazing and truly humbling to know how you do or don't feel about things in the books, and I'd really rather you tell me about it, versus people who haven't read the book yet. I know there's a select few of you crazy peeps who buy books based on spoilers, and I stress 'select few' all I ask is that as a beta, you not ruin someone else's experience or expectations of the books by broadcasting yours.
5) Your pre-released copy will be in a format you cannot copy, change, or make additions to yourself. However, the usage of my works in your own books or sharing my content with anyone else will result in legal action. Again, I don't think there are many or any of you who would do that, but it must be said.
6) To play and win, your comments MUST BE ON FACEBOOK! Comments/entries left here on the blog will not count.
I have two ladies already slotted to beta for me this time, Kelly and Sonceia (Thanks ladies!) so for our first game I'll only need four more of you.
Let's play!
~In the beginning of next year, I plan to have a live Q&A. Sort of a chance for anyone to ask me questions about the books, or whatever it is you want to ask and get immediate feedback. The session will follow a workshop for beginner writers titled, "The Things I've Learned and How to Get Started!"
If any of you are interested in publishing your own books (SO AWESOME) the workshop will be about how to navigate self-publishing through Amazon, the basics of how to most efficiently use Scrivner, and for me to share some of the knowledge I've gained the past six months with others going through the same thing. Or interested in becoming a self-published writer. Those days where I hated life and considered not publishing? I know I'm not the only person who feels like that, so my intent is to help others avoid those nasty moments.
I'll announce the dates of the workshop and the Q&A ON FACEBOOK, so keep a weather eye out for that!!!
Have a wonderful week and thank you all again for the kind thoughts.
~Isabel
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