Tuesday Takeover: Play for the Win by EE Isherwood

When I first considered penning a book I was in my mid-40’s, had a full-time job, and supported a young family. In 2014 my grandmother passed away. For some reason, that event inspired me to write a short story set in a zombie universe. The little old woman in my story had to survive an encounter with her live-in nurse—who had become infected with the zombie virus. When I finished the 6000-word story, I loved it so much I wanted to keep going. I wrote a book about what she did next. Then I wrote two more books, with at least one more in the works.

Over the next year I lost my job and had months of free time to work on my writing. It slowly dawned on me they formed a coherent story that maybe…just maybe…someone would want to read. So I got to the hard work of editing, designing covers, and formatting for Kindle. I also spent a lot of my days doing research into self publishing. I wanted to do it all myself the first time, just so I could learn what goes into it.

The number one lesson I took away from all my research up until that point was to always respect your readers. Anyone who takes a chance on your book is going to spend several hours inside your world. Is it ready for them? Did you invest in a professional editor? If not, why? Does your cover look like it belongs on a shelf in Barnes and Noble? If not, why?

When I hit publish in December of 2015, I truly believed I was publishing for a few friends and my mom. I thought I was doing right by them. I edited the book myself several times. I put probably a month of man hours into editing those 90,000 words. I released with a simplified cover I felt was competent, though I had no illusions it was top notch. Being unemployed, it didn’t make any sense to invest money into something I had no idea was going to make a nickel for me in the short term.

In short, I wasn’t playing to win.

When you publish your book, think about why you are doing it. Is it to make money? Is it to wow readers? Is it to prove to your naysayers that you can publish it? Is it because you want to share something brilliant with the world? Is it because you think you are super awesome? Maybe you just want to prove to yourself you can do it.

If any of those are true, and you release without professional editing or a professional cover, you aren’t playing for the win. Think about any grand opening you’ve ever attended. If the business had dirt and debris on their parking lot, broken shelves and misplaced product on the inside, and clogged toilets, what are your chances of ever going back—even if whatever they were selling was brilliant?

Being an author is a strange place for an introvert such as myself. It simultaneously begs for humility and braggadocio. But promoting something that isn’t an absolute best effort is a formula for failure. So how do you stay grounded while playing for the win? Easy. Eliminate points of failure.

  • Book cover. If your cover doesn’t belong on a shelf at Barnes and Noble, are you sure you want to tell a reader it’s still good enough for their shelf? I thought my original cover was respectable, but my new professional cover makes my original look juvenile. Cost to cross this problem off your list: less than $150.
  • Editing. I rate myself as a decent writer and a decent editor. Not great, but decent. I read my manuscript end-to-end four times on printed paper before release. I had my wife read it. A trusted friend read it. Then I paid a professional editor to read it. She found an extra word in a sentence on page 3! If I had sent that book out for review, imagine my chances of getting favorables. Cost to cross this problem off your list: $200 at a minimum for basic proofreading services. Double that (or more) if there are deeper problems.
  • Story. OK, here’s where the rubber meets the road. People love your cover. They read the sample and find the editing is good. Now, is your story something people actually want to read? No, your Mom doesn’t count. No one you know personally can answer this question for you. Find a community of readers in your genre. Ask for beta readers. Listen to them. We all want to believe we are special snowflakes. Here’s the big secret: we aren’t. You are going into a marketplace that gets 6000 books a day—your competition! And that’s just Amazon. If your story doesn’t impress non-partial beta readers, you can’t possibly hope to get lots of glowing reviews, which are your book’s lifeblood out there. Cost: nothing.

Here’s the good news. Playing to win is actually not that expensive. If you’re writing for anyone besides yourself, you can’t go wrong paying the $500 to edit and sheath your book. Sure, that may be a lot of money for a roll of the dice, but your book is your intellectual property that can sit in a variety of electronic bookstores FOREVER. You’ve created something that will generate revenue for you until the day you die, plus 70 years. Think about that, then adjust your math.When you hit publish you are either dumping a second-rate product into a bottomless pit with 6000 other books, or you’ve invested in yourself and your property to ensure you have the best chance of recouping your investment rather quickly. In my case, it took about 20 days with revenue from KDP Select, and I’m a nobody.Play for the win, believe and invest in your product, and give yourself a chance to succeed. Your readers will love you for it.

isherwood-250-promo

About:

EE Isherwood is a lifelong reader of post-apocalyptic fiction. In 2015, life gave him the opportunity to try his hand at writing and he began with a short story about a 104-year-old great-grandmother. Then he tossed her into the zombie apocalypse in his debut novel Since the Sirens. He wrote two more books about her as part of the Sirens of the Zombie Apocalypse series. A fourth volume is coming. Every day he goes to bed amazed he’s kept her alive for one more day.

http://amazon.com/author/eeisherwood

http://www.zombiebooks.net

Mar 15, 2016 | Posted by in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Tuesday Takeover: Play for the Win by EE Isherwood

Tuesday Takeover: Why Audiobooks Matter by Chris Barnes

Legend tells of a boy born in 1977 who just wouldn’t sleep. The boys’ mother, try as she might, just couldn’t get a full nights rest. One day, when the boy was six, a family friend suggested to his mother that she should give the boy a cassette player, some tapes and instructions that he could listen to as much as he wanted, but that he was not to leave the room until she came to get him for breakfast. Thus began a love affair with audiobooks that would last for all eternity. The boy, of course, was me.
I’ve loved audiobooks and audio drama for nearly 35 years, I listen at night and drift off to sleep in a different world every night. World created from the minds of authors and brought to life by the voices of their narrators.

This matters.

It matters because not everyone can avail themselves of traditional methods of reading. Whether it be because of physical reasons, or because, simply, they never learned to read. I know that this might be a shocking thought, that we live in the 21st century and there are still people out there who for whatever reason still don’t have this most basic of human rights. Audio matters because we can still give people the opportunity to visit these authors worlds and lift the words from the page and make them real.

My own jump from listener to producer came in 2009. I was casting about looking for online audio dramas, when I came across Brokensea.com whose extensive catalogue was impressive to say the least. I devoured their catalogue and loved it so much that I got in touch with them about I could get involved and have a go. They gave me an audition to do, using a really crappy mic that I had lying around and picked up a role, and then another, and another and I was soon being cast in things without even having to audition any more. After a little while it became apparent that I had a little talent for both the acting side of things and the post production of shows and in 2011 I took over mixing duties for Doctor Despicables Chamber of Cinema, a short podcast that compares horror movies of similar flavours, decides which one was the worst, then offing a member of the production team. I once had to create a sound effect that created one of the rottweilers from The Omen, firing lasers from it’s eyes and spinning saw blades from it’s mouth! Good times!

Somewhere along the way though, audiobooks found me again and I was given the opportunity to start producing actual audiobooks for a small press. I did post production on three books and I decided that I was going to take the chance and start narrating myself.

It’s now 2016, I have 25 audiobook credits to my name with at least 16 titles due so far this year. I’m audible approved and have earned the moniker of ‘The Voice Of Your Nightmares’ due to my specialising in the horror genre. That’s not to say that horror is all that I am, I do have books out in other genres, but horror is where my black heart gravitates to.

The 39 year old me says “Audiobooks made me”

The 5 year old me says “Pass Another CD”

Chris Barnes is an Audio Book narrator and producer from Scotland. He has narrated several horror genre novels and is the voice of the High Moor series. You can usually find him in a small soundproofed cupboard finding new ways to terrify audiences. You can find me on:
Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Blog ~ ACX ~ Audible

Chris Barnes

Mar 8, 2016 | Posted by in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Tuesday Takeover: Why Audiobooks Matter by Chris Barnes

Tuesday Takeover: Inspiration for the Darracia series by Michael Phillip Cash

Cash - Article

Well, the baby’s shoelace is tied in a knot so tight we should just cut it off. Then her endearingly beat up sneakers, (tennis shoes to the rest of the world outside of Long Island) will be all dirty with brand, spanking new white laces. That won’t do. An hour later, Daddy vs. the knot, Daddy wins. She’s crying though, “What….What?  You’re in the laundry? Okay…I’ll give her a bottle.”  Nothing better than Daddy and baby time with a lukewarm bottle, milky bubbles drooling from her pursed lips. I check Amazon, relief that Stillwell is ranked, worried the number is lower than before. I look at the computer, my keyboard stares blankly back at me, but I hear my wife call,”Get Alex off the bus.” “Sure, no problem,” I respond, happy to help. The corner is freezing, my hands numb, my mind blank. The air is sucked from my lungs as if I stepped into a vacuum. Other parents sidle up next to me, as we stand in a circle searching for warmth. We smile at each other, our eyes streaming from the cold. The bus arrives and the kids bounce off, scarves unbound, mittens flopping, so we all take a minute to rebundle our bundles of joy. The walk back to the house is filled with stories about Jaden, Aiden, and Evan. The house smells of sausage and peppers, rice boiling over, and my daughter is screaming with delight that her older brother is home.

“Help with homework?” No problem, a pleasure, let me check Amazon first. Stillwell is up, a higher number, relief expands in my chest.  Listen to my son reading his new book, the words forming first silently as his mouth tries them out. He is triumphant, thrilled with the freedom of being able to read for himself. We proudly reread the book for the entire family.

Dinner is noisy, my daughter loves to squish her food and I can’t take my eyes off the ooze squeezed through her tight fist. It’s delicious, tart and sweet, like my family life. The golden light from our kitchen fixture bathes us in homey warmth. Beds, bath, more books, this time Daddy and Mommy do the reading. Then the sound of the house settling down, heat clanking in the old pipes, hiss of radiators, the kids yawns of satisfaction of a day jammed with activities.

It’s quiet, the computer screen lights the room, a beacon of judgment. It dares me to look up Stillwell one more time, accusing me of procrastination. The house is dark, my mind like a wax tablet waiting for impression. Nothing comes, not even interruptions. Please wake up, I urge my little girl. Call for me so I can walk away again. I can’t end this story, my characters have gone as silent as a tomb and won’t tell me what to do! What was I thinking? A full time writer? Who does that? Should I check Stillwell again? How can I end this book to get on with the next? I am drowning! The water is closing over my head and I can’t breath! Wait…can’t breath? I pause holding my breath. That’s it…I turn to the closing chapter of my next book in the Darracia series. I think I got it.

Michael Phillip Cash is an award-winning screenwriter and novelist. He’s written eleven books including the best-selling Brood X, Stillwell, The Flip, The After House, The Hanging Tree, Witches Protection Program, Pokergeist, Monsterland and Battle for Darracia series. Learn more about Cash here: http://www.michaelphillipcash.com/

Cash photo

Feb 29, 2016 | Posted by in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Tuesday Takeover: Inspiration for the Darracia series by Michael Phillip Cash

Tuesday Takeover: Being a Writer is Hard Work by Carole P. Roman

Caroles graphic
Captain No Beard’s refrain that being a captain is hard work is woven into each one of the ten books I have written in the series. I didn’t plan for him to say it, but the world weariness is something both the captain and I have shared many times in our lives, in many different situations.
 
I became a mother at twenty-two. I was the first of our crowd to embark on this portion of our lives, and remember vividly the shock at the unremitting volume of work, the mind-numbing exhaustion, the tense worry that I was somehow now in charge of someone who knew less than I did. The days ran together into a kaleidoscope of unending moments. I felt stuck on an out-of-control merry-go-round, that twirled with a steady abandon. If I thought being a teenager was hard work, I had no idea of the all-encompassing soul-sucking responsibility and job that parenthood commanded.
 
The workload changed. Less laundry, more drama. Nobody likes me, your child complains, your child is not working to his full potential, the teacher complains, you don’t make time for us, your spouse complains, we never see each other,your parents complain, you’re no fun anymore, your friends compl…oops. The friends evaporated with the work load.
 
So, now that the kids can wipe their own…noses, you’ve moved back to the work force, just to prove that like Superwoman, you can do it all too. Whether it’s a head cold, a deadline, a business obligation, or science fair, you break your back showing everybody you can do it all, with a smile, and only your therapist and your mother know that being a mom/businessperson is hard work.
 
You’ve arrived. Almost at the finish line and you’ve decided to squeeze another career into your resume of caretaker, councillor, chauffeur, teacher, cook, chief bottle-washer, and what ever you went to college or trade school for. You decide to live your dream and become a writer. You write your first book. Didn’t you know it has to be illustrated, formatted, edited, then edited some more? What about marketing, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, oh we left something out. I don’t know what, but I know I did. Pin it, did you remember to PIN IT!!  Where, I’m not sure, but you better PIN IT somewhere! You published, but the facts are wrong. Take it back and get it right. You may have offended the people on the left, or maybe it was the folks on the right. Does it matter?
 
Being a writer is hard work. It really is, but like all the professions and jobs I’ve taken on in my lifetime, this I know for sure.  It was all was worth it!
Named to Kirkus Reviews’ Best of 2012 for her first book, award winning author Carole P. Roman started writing as a dare from one of her sons. Roman is best known for her Captain No Beard series, but she has many compelling series that will captivate the hearts and minds of young readers. Check them out here: http://caroleproman.com
Carole Roman
Feb 22, 2016 | Posted by in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Tuesday Takeover: Being a Writer is Hard Work by Carole P. Roman

Tuesday Takeover: A Time To Every Season by Caroline Gill

writer's block cat

As a writer, I want to tell the very best story I can. A new story, a journey into the unknown not

yet taken a thousand other times. For me, the crux of each novel begins with a dream. No,

really. Not a dream of what I will do or where I will travel, that’s not what I mean. Each of my

novels begins with a big, plump pillow and a warm, insanely soft blanket. Cats are probably

artists and writers too, it occurs to me.

Ode to Nap time, that’s what I mean. Nap time, the event in a day children resist more than any

other. The same event most adults long for in the middle of a crazed and hectic schedule. There

are numerous studies (scientifically recorded and all) about the restorative properties of an

afternoon siesta. Between 20 minutes and an hour, not longer and that’s all I need for inspiration to strike.

I put in my bright orange silicone earplugs, drink a cup of hot cocoa or tea, close my eyelids and

put the problem in front of my mind: What happens next? I ask a thousands layers of myself,

sleeping, dreaming, subconscious. Replaying the current scene in my head, I get up to the crux

point and fall asleep. And into that dream I wander, sorting through a hundred choices each

character might make, sifting each like sand through my fingers, until I find the right one.

It is right I can tell because it fits perfectly with what has gone before and opens new horizons

with its invention. That’s when I know where the story goes or sometimes how it will get to the

next point in the plot.

Unexpected, revelatory, restorative nap time: an author’s best friend.

And chocolate.

Bio:
Caroline A. Gill went to school at UCLA and NIU. She married the love of her life. Facing the world with children made her aware of how vulnerable they are. Weaving tales of courage, she tries to find hope. Living near the great California Redwoods, she finds a sense of the finite and infinite touching. The creative world is like that, especially when authors feel inspired.  She’s the author of Flying Away, a YA dystopian, supernatural paranormal fantasy. www.authorcarolineagill.com

Caroline Gill

Feb 16, 2016 | Posted by in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Tuesday Takeover: A Time To Every Season by Caroline Gill