5 Point Social Media Blitz for the Time Poor.

Article also published on LinkedIn profile. https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-m-john-6b17a669/

When you're a creative, busy... creating, it's super hard to keep all the social media plates spinning. There aren't endless hours in the day, and as our visibility online grows, as we connect with new readers, investors, patrons, et al, we find ourselves joining even more social media platforms and online communities in order to create even more visibility and success.

It can be exhausting, and it can also be damaging if you let some of those platforms drift creating a footprint of earlier branding that may not fully reflect where you are now at.

In oder to keep a fresh, cohesive brand across the internet and social media world, I have created a process of consciously 'quick checking'. It can be really easy to be sucked into a sparkly new social media platform, plough all your current work, concepts, branding and time into it - but the danger is that the others lag behind and the connections you have worked so hard to build, start to grow stale.

Here is a quick 5 point check which can be done in just one or two hours of your time a month.

Before you begin, write a list of all the social-media platforms, forums and other places you have at some point made a profile for. (You'll be amazed, especially as like me, you've probably jumped on every up and coming subject related platform over the years. You may need to google yourself.)

MONTHLY:

1: YOU. Make sure all your profile pictures are a) relevant to the audience for that particular social platform, b) make it one of your more recent photos, and c) good quality, which means properly lit, properly cropped, and appropriate context. (It's really good practice to try and get photos of you taken on a regular basis and build up a folder on your desktop so you can just grab one - a good selfie has its place, too so don't be afraid to get in front of the camera) 

2: BANNERS. Don't underestimate the power of banners to be an effective advertising space. Does your banner demonstrate fully a) What you do? b) What's fresh and new in your world? c) Have either an explicit or implicit call to action depending on the platform.

3: POST. Write a single post (it can be a copy & paste on each of the platforms if time is really squeezed) but it should include where you've been, what you've been doing, what your currently excited about and will show you've not been inactive, just really creatively busy. It will also show you're still willing to engage, and your not abandoning your fan / reader / patron base. If people stumble across your page, it also shows that you aren't missing in the ether and no longer relevant.

4: ENGAGE. Spend 5 minutes engaging with 10 other people on that platform. Leave a comment on their post, ask a question, share a post - demonstrate that as well as swinging by to broadcast, you're willing to engage and connect. It gives the impression that you are a lot more active than you actually are.

5: DELETE. Ask yourself what each particular profile is doing for you. If it's not working, if you know in your heart that you don't have the time or inclination to invest in it, then delete it. It's better to have 3 or 4 really engaging, exciting, fresh and live platforms where people know where to find you than having a load of dead or dying fish in the water. Poorly managed social media platforms can do more damage than not having one in the first place.

If you do each of these 5 small tasks once a month - maybe allocated a specific day (such as the first or last of the month to make it memorable) then you'll soon find that your social media platforms are all up to date, relevant and creating more engagement. Good luck, and remember the trick with social media is little and often.

Introducing the founder of Little Bird Publishing....

That will be me.

Many of you don't realise that as well as being a 'full time' (that's a bit of an inside joke) writer, I am also the founder of Little Bird Publishing House.

Originally, I set Little Bird Publishing House up as my own unique press. It was designed to be the business front of my indie publishing career, and it worked really well. This was way back in 2010 when the idea of owning your own publishing house was still quite a novelty in the whole indie book world.

However, with the boom in indie books and authors, I began to see a LOT of dream paddlers; people offering to take your book, charge you a couple of thousand pounds and turn it into a bestseller - yeah, right!

It wasn't right - and it wasn't fair, and by late 2013, I had learned SOOO much on my steep learning curve, it felt time to help some other folks out. I began branching the idea of a publishing house with the establishment of two anthology projects. Dark Heart & Night Shade. It was an amazing way of testing the ground to see if I was ready to actually become not only an indie author, but a publisher, too. The Dark Heart & Night Shade projects led to some fabulous author friendships, and two of the authors are now fully-fledged Little Bird authors.

Fast forward to 2016 and we are a publishing family of ten; Hazel Robinson, Toya Richardson, Helen Whapshott, Alison Clarke, Martin Ferguson, Jo Richardson, Jill Turner, Katie M. John (me) and in 2017 Brandon Robb and L. Keane will be joining us. And when I use the term family, I don't use it lightly. As a collective of authors, we support each other, encourage, build, lend a hand, and generally hang out on social media.

My mission with Little Bird is and always has been that we are stronger together. That when we begin to work as a community of artists, amazing things happen - and they do.

I treat every single one of the books that run through Little Bird as dearly as my own, from the first initial edits, to the art work, to the marketing, to the love of the story - all Little Bird books are my beautiful nieces and nephews. Every author I work with is respected for their own unique and beautiful voice - that's what Little Bird is about; not crushing authors and creatives into a marketing book, but giving unique voices a chance to shine.

Every single Little Bird Book is worked until it is of a quality ready for readership - and the reviews, awards and fan-bases prove that.

I don't worry about markets and sales trends when it comes to selecting the stories we are going to publish, I focus on the story, on the author behind the story - and it doesn't matter if it sells 10,000 copies, or 10, every single story is important. Every single author's voice is important.

The thing about writing and defining oneself as an author is that it's freaking scary as hell. You're terrified that someone is going to 'out' you as a fraud, that someone is going to knock you down so hard that your'e never going to quite get up - and although it isn't always the nicest of worlds, by creating a community of authors who have genuine friendships grown through shared experiences and belonging to something a little bigger than being all by themselves, it makes the whole thing a lot less scary, and a hell of a lot more exciting.

In 2017 we see the next big step for us as a publishing house. We are the primary sponsors of Chapter.Con London and many of the Little Bird Family will be attending and manning our Little Bird super table, and we are also going to have a full publishing table at Leeds in 2018 with Hourglass Events. We are always growing and despite sometimes feeling like I have a million hats to wear, editor, designer, publisher, marketer, author, business woman, it's an amazingly fulfilling way to live.

If you want to find out more about Little Bird Publishing, or if you are an indie author who thinks that they might like to try a different kind of indie publishing, then you can see our public website www.thelittlebirdbookstore.com, which also has a link for authors to our publisher's website www.littlebirdpublishinghouse.com 



You can also come over and give us a LIKE at our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter at @LittlebirdPub - which amusingly is not a place you can procure beer from, but keep up to date with what we are all doing.

SERIAL READER.

Welcome to day 8 of the OctoberFrights Blog Hop. Today I'm talking serials and introducing you to my new dreadpunk, gothic, detective, fairy tale serial coming out in December called 'Beautiful Freaks'.

Leave a comment to be in with a chance of winning these really fab Jack earrings and a paperback copy of the orginal novel, Beautiful Freaks, which inspired the series.

I know that many of you have  fallen in love with drama series thanks to NETFLIX, HBO and FOX. And having the technology to record, store and consume episodes has made following series an even more delectable experience. I'm a series junkie too; Hannibal, American Horror Story, Game of Thrones, The Following to name a few that have captured my adoration over the last few years. There are many approaches to the consumption of serials, but whether you are a binger or a pacer, the one thing most people agree is that serials allow the viewer to really engage in a world, and to bond with the characters in a very unique fashion.

So T.V series are fab, but have you tried the same principle with your reading? I'm not talking traditional novel series, where each full length book is released at eagerly anticipated 12+
month intervals, but a weekly, Thursday downloadable episode, each of a short novella length and designed specifically to keep you on the edge of your seat as you wait for Thursday to come around again.

Whilst attending UtopYA I came across this amazing concept and curious, I became hooked. I love the whole experience of consuming an episode and then being forced to wait with anticipation for the next.

This December sees the release of my own 12 episode serial called 'Beautiful Freaks'.

BEAUTIFUL FREAKS: A 12 PART SERIAL
STARTING DECEMBER 3rd 2015 until 28th FEBRUARY 2016

PRE-ORDER YOUR DOWNLOADS NOW TO RECIEVE THEM INSTANTLY TO YOUR KINDLE OR E-READING DEVICE ON RELEASE DAY.
 

A dark and twisted saga that winds its way through the Victorian streets of London like a luxurious and lethal ribbon.

When a series of terrifying and seemingly paranormal murders occur at a rapid rate, panic and fear grip the city. Still haunted by the ghost of the Whitechapel Ripper case, Inspector Steptree is forced to admit the murderer he now pursues maybe even more wicked and brutal. As the case closes down on the mysterious No.7 club, owned by the enigmatic Evangeline Valentine, Steptree discovers that evil is far from a fantasy.

It is against this backdrop that Kaspian Blackthorne turns eighteen and begins his apprenticeship under the scientific maverick, Doctor Greyson, a pioneer in brain surgery, and human transplantation. Whilst Kaspian is introduced to the horrors and wonders of man’s scientific progress, he also begins an epic adventure of self-discovery and infatuation. Guided into the decadent and luxuriant world of the London West End night scene by his new friend Hugh Denvers, Kaspian tastes the sweet temptation of a life less ordinary, but such a privilege comes at a terrible price.

A cast of timeless characters and dark, grown-up fairy tales interweave to create a rich and haunting tale of fear and desire.

Based on the original novel, ‘Beautiful Freaks’ written and published in 2013 by Katie M John, this series is a development of that world. This is the first season of a planned three seasons.

You can find out more about this season and forthcoming seasons on the official site. www.katiemjohn.com

#Gothic #Dreadpunk #Paranormal #Demons #Fae #FairyTales #Phantoms #Vampires #Creations #Frankenstein #ParanormalRomance #Murder #Detective #Horror #SecretSocieties #CrossOver #UpperYA

 Published by Little Bird Publishing, Katie M John is the author of the U.K No.1 best-selling YA Paranormal Romance and Dark Fairy Tale series, The Knight Trilogy.

You can find out more about Katie and her books over at her Amazon Author Page

Katie's Amazon Author Page

www.katiemjohn.com

@KnightTrilogy

LINK TO EPISODE 1 & 2 Of Beautiful Freaks out on Thursday 3rd December 2015
EPISODE 1
Amazon.UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B0164JRJYU
Amazon USA http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0164JRJYU EPISODE 2
Amazon UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0164K9GKY
Amazon USA http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0164K9GKY

DON'T FORGET TO LEAVE YOUR COMMENT. RANDOM WINNER SELECTED IN THE NEXT WEEK OR SO. LEAVE YOUR TWITTER HANDLE TOO.

Utopia 2 months on

This post is a week early, but as I am going on holiday next week, and I am really rubbish at scheduling posts, here goes.

UTOPIA and TRIBE: A POWERHOUSE OF AWESOMENESS.
So the effects of Utopia have calmed a little. Fellow Utopians are busying away with their WIPS and other cons, and all the other craziness of life that is the life of an author. However, what has happened out of that great explosion of socialisation is the cementing of some extraordinary friendships.

I have found a tribe, a sisterhood, and we speak most days and at least a couple of times a week via Facebook messaging, and we're getting brave enough to even attempt a proper video call -  I know, crazy social cats that we are.

This is what ultimately Utopia has given me - the feeling that I am not alone, and for someone who doesn't really mind going it alone, or at least that's what I have convinced myself over the years, the effect of friendship, understanding and shard vision has been quite transformatory. (Yep, making words up again)

BUILDING CHAPTER.CON: THE POWER OF THE TRIBE
It's this sense of tribe that has allowed me to embrace my fears and charge forward with Chapter.Con in a way that has made some crazy dream a few months ago into a serious reality. When I look at website, how full and rich the con promises to be, I am excited -- and I am proud of what I have built. However, it would not have been built without the love, belief, encouragement and spirit of my tribe.

My Tribe is AWESOME! Get used to that phrase because I am going to be using it a lot over the coming year. It was there willingness to reach out a hand and step up that has allowed Chapter.Con to take flight. They have promised to fly half way around the world to stand by my side, to share their knowledge, expertise, creativity and love with a UK book community.

And because of their faith and their willingness to tread this journey by my side, others have joined us. Seriously, you should check out the panel for Chapter.Con - it's mind blowing. And because of the panel, I have managed to entice a truly amazing Key Note speaker, who I can't wait to share with you at a later stage.

There's a Utopian core statement, 'Lift as You Climb' and I can not tell you how engraved this is in my heart. Creating Chapter.Con has been a real chance to payback to some people in the book world who have been there from the early days of my writing career. For example, I am so honoured to have Megan Mc Dade (From Reading Away The Days) to be our Official Chapter.Con Blog Co-ordinator and I know we are both extremely grateful to Jo Michaels who is acting as a Mentor and Guide (as well as one of my soul-sisters). Having Megan on board has allowed me to hand all of that side over to her and for a great blog team to be created. Utopia taught me to do that - to trust, to collaborate, to hand over to others. Something I've never really been very good at.


Then I get a reach out from the lovely Dena Ellis Oneal - a chance meeting at Utopia caused a spark of creativity. She wanted to know about Readers, and whether there was a special place for them at Chapter.Con - hell yeah! Without readers there are no authors (well not ones that eat) so between us we created the Chapter.Con Book Club, 'Reading My Way to Chapter.Con'. This is a brilliant idea on so many levels. You can find out more about it at the official website Book Club page (linked) or by visiting the Unofficial Facebook Page (linked)

Oh, yeah, about that! So because Megan and the blogging team, and Dena are amazing, they are establishing the joint fansite and book club group page for Chapter.Con so that the community can really start building.

So that's Chapter.Con and I guess you can tell from how much of the post it has taken up just how much life time it has taken up too.

However, other great things have been happening too. I have embarked on a currently secret project with two of the most phenomenally inspiring women I have ever met. It's a really exciting project and one which I am going to take immense pride and pleasure in sharing with you in a few months time when details have been secured. All I can really say is I AM EXCITED and INSPIRED!

WRITING LIFE.
Book Three of The Meadowsweet Chronicles is half written; progress has been a little slower than hoped, but I'm still perfectly on schedule according to the XCEL spreadsheet. I love spending time with my WIP - at the moment, with everything else going on, it's a perfect escape. Because it is Book Three, the characters pretty much write themselves; they are living real people who live and love and battle inside my head.

Planning out the next three books in the series has given me the confidence to just sit down and write without worrying - as a result, when I do get an hour or two, the word count jumps up. it is a direct result of listening to the UTOPIA panel on series, and the advice of Rachel Higginson and Bella Roccaforte that inspired me to take that goat by the throat and plot it all out. See, panels aren't just about ideas, they are about action.

However, due to the explosion that has been Chapter.Con, my plans to serialise 'Beautiful Freaks' are a little delayed (only by a week or so, but with my spreadsheet, that could be a problem.) I have a rescue plan in mind though.

DAY 1: UtopYA from Your Armchair + Epic-scale Swag Giveaway

Welcome to Day 1: It is Monday 15th June and there is just 1 sleep to go until I fly out to Nashville and 3 sleeps to go until the UtopYA Reader and Author Con officially opens its doors (although to be honest with you, the pre-party starts Tuesday night)

Today it is my great pleasure to introduce you to the virtual stand of Jolene Buchheit, author of 'Best Foot Forward' and Kelly Risser, author of the 'Never Forgotten' series.

Don't forget to enter the epic-scale UtopYA Swag giveaway at the end of the post. You can enter everyday of the virtual con and a full list of prizes and details can be found in this post HERE

JOLENE BUCHHEIT

THE BLURB: 'Best Foot Forward'

After one bad experience, Iowa high school senior, triathlete, and fangirl Lucia “Luc” Guzman swore off relationships. Well, that was until Connor Kohlton and his southern accent moved to town. With the help of her childhood best friend, Jax Weber, she discovers her “college only” dating rule may be causing her to miss out on a great guy. Luc's parents have always taught her and her sister to put safety first and she applies that rule in all areas of her life; her training, her work, and her heart. However, she must throw caution to the wind when she decides she can’t fight her feelings anymore… But what will it cost her? When things start to fall apart, it’s hard to tell who’s to blame, because everyone is putting their Best Foot Forward.


ABOUT JOLENE

Jolene Buchheit is an advocate for teenagers, a substitute high school teacher, and an author of young adult books. While attaining her Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work, she volunteered to read and edit her fellow students’ research papers because of her love of the written word. Since then, she has written a contemporary novel entitled Best Foot Forward and the first book in the Greek-inspired paranormal Charmed Song Series called Charmed Harmony. When she is not reading, wrestling her two children, or dating her husband, she spends most of her time fan-girling. She is always willing to chat about various TV shows, movies and especially books. You can keep up with her adventures at www.JoleneBuchheit.com in your free time, if you are blessed enough to have some of that.

FIND MORE ABOUT JOLENE and HER BOOKS at www.jolenebuchheit.com

JOLENE'S AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE is HERE

Buy 'Best Foot Forward' at Amazon.co.uk

KELLY RISSER

***BOOK ONE FREE DOWNLOAD***

 

Blurb: The 'Never Forgotten Series'
 

The Never Forgotten journey follows Meara as her mother's illness forces them to leave their old life behind. Meara discovers an amazing new world full of secrets, and a past she had no prior knowledge of suddenly becomes vital. As things unfold, she discovers there are more than regular battles to be fought. In a world filled with folklore and stories of the sea, an ancient hatred, as old as time, exists. This is a tale of love and loyalty, tragedy and hope, but above all, friendship and bravery that will be always remembered.

 

ABOUT KELLY

Becoming a published author is a lifetime dream come true. As a child, I subjected friends and family to my ʺKellyMarkʺ greeting cards (ʺWhen you care enough to make the very best.ʺ), poetry, homemade magazines, and short stories. In high school, my short story, ʺIf Only to Escapeʺ was published in the local paper, and I won a writing contest for my children's story, ʺTelevisella.ʺ In college, my creative writing tapered off, but I still managed to write the occasional review for The Marquette University Tribune. Once I graduated, I mixed creative writing with business writing, and I've held positions in Advertising, Marketing, and Instructional Design/eLearning Development.

Today, I am busy writing my next book. When I'm not writing, I'm reading, hanging out with my husband and two kids, or playing with our Whoodle.

FIND OUT MORE at Kelly's website www.KellyRisser.com


VISIT Kelly's AMAZON PAGE Here

GET BOOK ONE FREE Here at Amazon.co.uk

 

 

EPIC-SCALE UtopYA SWAG GIVEAWAY for UK Readers

 



a Rafflecopter giveaway

10 TIPS TO REDUCE YOUR EDITING COSTS: Preparing your MS

This is going to be a short and sweet post because I am currently undertaking the second round of edits on 'Vengeance'. Any of you second + bookers will know how consuming this is. For you newbies, rewrites and edits take almost as long as the original writing - if not more.

Writing 'The End' at the end of your story is a bitter sweet triumph. Seven novels in, I now reserve the popping of the champagne cork for the actual publish date; instead I buy in the quality coffee, a bulk supply of Jaffa cakes and A4 plain paper.

So editing. It's a difficult beast to wrestle. Everybody I've ever spoken to in the indie publishing field agrees that a professional edit is essential to avoid public devastation in the review game. I agree absolutely. Readers have an amazing ability to spot a type error or grammar error at a hundred paces.

But here's the real pain of an edit, and it's not that someone helpfully rips apart your beloved MS, it's the cost. For a full professional edit on an 80,000 word manuscript you can pay anything between £400 and £1000.  A perfectly reasonable amount considering how many hours of somebody else's life a complete edit and commentary takes.

But...

The sad fact is, most indie published books will be lucky to sell 30  copies a month, and because of a whole other blog post of reasons, most indie books have to fight their way on the $0.99 platform, which Amazon penalises with a 30% royalty. I guess, by now, those more mathematical than me have worked out that to just cover the editing costs alone, you need to sell ..... one hell of a lot of books! I mean, you have to be selling at the same level as the blockbusters.

So what can you do? You can reduce your editing costs substantially (I pay around £200 for an 80-100 word edit) because I have proved with my editor that I'm not a big job. I ensure that my MS is in a state that makes it a relatively 'easy' job that doesn't take a lot of their time.

Here's how I do it, and as ever with my 'advice' posts, I'm still living and learning, and making those big old mistakes, so this isn't expert and I haven't perfected it all yet - not by a long way, but the more I do it, the better I get at it.

1) I PLAN and PLOT out my books carefully, minimising plot inconsistencies as much as possible.

2) I accepted my weakness in never learning formal grammar (80's empathy, write a diary entry type of English education) I purchased  a grammar book and I tried to learn it, cover to cover. I learned why we actually use commas and punctuation - and no, it's not where you naturally breathe or pause; it's all to do with clauses. LEARN YOUR CLAUSES!

3) Follow, with diligence, the their / they're / there / its / it's / you're / your checklist - every time any of these are used in a sentence, stop and double check - and then triple check. These are the MOST COMMON ERRORS, and unless you consciously attack them, they will slip through.

4) Put your MS onto 140-150% ZOOM and edit it big - I know it will look ugly and you'll want to look away, but it makes you read your MS sentence by sentence and makes smaller, minor errors like possession apostrophes and the list above, a lot more obvious. It stops you scanning, which we all inevitably lapse into.

5) Complete your primary edits AS YOU GO. At the beginning of each writing session, start by heading back over the section you read before. This will not count as a full first edit, but it is great for the first stage of snagging those pesky errors, putting you in a much better place for your first rewrites, and it is relatively painless.

6) Make a proper CHARACTER LISTS / NOTES as you go, you'd be amazed how hard it is to keep track of those minor extras. Note any details you give, such as eye colour, hair colour, tattoos - you'd be amazed how you can slip like that.

7) Get some A4 paper and after the first edits of each chapter, write out a quick set of notes on what is happening and any threads that need to go throughout the rest of the MS. UNDERLINE THREADS in red, so it makes easy reference, these threads might be symbols, objects, concepts etc. Don't write too much for each chapter; just a few lines 5-10.

8) Eradicate any non necessary words. Read sentence by sentence. Is every word needed? Can you SIMPLIFY and REORDER the sentence structure so it reads with more clarity and simplicity. This doesn't mean you should eradicate some of the longer, more poetic imagery or sentences, but use them sparingly to create the biggest impact; they're precious.

9) Check that DIALOGUE PUNCTUATION. If you're not sure then learn once and for all how punctuation works in dialogue clauses.

10) EDIT SOBER and fresh. As Hemmingway once reportedly said, 'Write drunk, edit sober'. To be honest, I try to do both sober now; it's less of a hangover in all senses. Of course when I embarked on my first novel it was the romance of the paperback writer, late nights into early mornings, bottles of red wine and glasses. Now, you're most likely to find me writing early in the morning with the fresh coffee, freshly showered and ready for 'work'. As a result, my writing is much cleaner (in all respects LOL) I now save the red-wine for the inspiration moments, the note-taking and the poetry first drafts :)

When all of this has been done, then it's time to find an editor who will be brutal and honest. If you've already been brutal and honest with yourself, then their lives will be easier and it will cost you less in all senses.

Remember, it is NOT your editor's job to take your drunken, inspired, creative outpourings and tidy them up into a novel that is readable and five-star worthy; they're there to edit, not re-write.

 Also, a small caveat, this post has not been edited, and so the errors in it go to serve my point LOL.


So, fellow writers, I'd love to know how you approach your edits? Drop your advice in the box. Feel free to disagree. Living and Learning.

Help! Everybody Is Doing Better Than Me! #Authorchat

You know those days - you're trying desperately to focus down on your WIP, the deadline is looming, it's the next book in the series and you've been trying to crack on with it, but you find yourself constantly heading over to Facebook and Twitter, where you're assaulted with all the brilliance of your author friends.

You're pleased for them, genuinely you are, but it makes you question yourself even more. You look longingly at their Facebook posts; citing new glittering 5 star reviews, becoming finalists in The Best Indie Book on The Planet; there are pictures of them at signings and conventions, and in the local press, and you....

...well you feel like you're treading through mud. You've worked just as hard, just as smart. You've done everything that every writing and publishing blog has told you to do - but the sales are quiet, the reviewers all see completely buried under TBR piles and, worse of all, you're plagued by thoughts of quitting.

Well don't - don't ever give up, because 90%* of success is down to sheer bloody mindedness.

TOP 7 TIPS FOR BREAKING THE CYCLE OF GLOOM - (because 5 wasn't enough and it's not as complicated as 10!)

1. STALK (clearly in a non threatening or creepy way) your author buddies by visiting ALL of their social media platforms; maybe they are doing something that you aren't - it's easy to be standing so close to the trees that you fail to see the forest. Maybe you're missing something really obvious - like not properly engaging with your readers. (Make notes! I'm serious, this is like homework.)

2. REVAMP your blog, your website - create a logo, update your bio: remember you are a professional and maybe your 'tiredness' is being reflected in the state of your social media platforms. Who wants to visit and engage in a blog that hasn't been updated in a month, or a website where everything seems so static?

3. PLAN; make it pretty and use coloured pens. It doesn't matter if you never look at it again, but it will help you focus on your end goals and remind you of all that marketing stuff you already know but aren't putting into practice.

4. RECONNECT with your fan-base, your author community, your FB page followers. It can be really difficult when your esteem is low to keep a public face. Many of my author buddies are introverts - myself included, and one of the recurring patterns I see is a negative self-fulfilling cycle of disconnection. Because we feel that we aren't as shiny and glittery as our fellow authors, we retreat.

5. ADMIT it, you know there are flaws in some aspect of your publications; it maybe the blurb, cover, ending, you've never quite been happy with. Change it. Simples!

6. GIVE to others and the karmic nature of the universe will come full circle. If you don't feel that you have much to shout about your own work, then showcase and spotlight your buddies. Cheerlead and support them. Become a totally engaged member of the author community and watch as the love is returned.

7. WRITE your WIP. A lot of the most successful indie writers out there are doing so well because they have momentum. By writing a lot, and getting more publications out there, they've got more to talk about, there's more energy, more excitement for potential readers to engage with. It keeps their marketing profile fresh and energised. It also keeps readers invested.

Now these tips are not coming from some kind of sanctimonious self-appointed expertise, (heck, I've even made some of the stats* up) but they come from my own broken ego. It's hard, and the longer you've been doing it, the harder it becomes in some way. It can be hard to maintain the youthful optimism of when you started out, and things are getting tougher.

Thanks for stopping by. I'd love it if you shared your own tips for pulling yourself out of the inadequacy doldrums. Let's connect and engage :) x

This writer's life ... The attack of the lazies.

Welcome back creativity. The sun is shinning, the birds are singing - the muse is dancing. Creativity is a strange thing - well in my experience. I can easily understand the link between artistic genius and insanity, (however I seem to be having more of the insanity and a little less of the genius!)

So why haven't I been writing?

For me creativity is a fickle and bewitching thing. She will quite often arrive with the sounds of trumpets and then fade away in the middle of the night leaving me a little confused as to why I'm sitting on the sofa unable to face the WIP.

I'm amazed by some of my fellow writers who appear able to keep up a relentless pace of productivity. I click onto their Amazon site and see that they have produced 12 or so (yes that wasn't a type error) novels in the last two years and I sigh with something like a mixture of longing and perplexity.

You see it's not a lack of inspiration. It isn't writer's block. It's a different beast entirely. The stories are there in my head. I'm often mentally writing whole scenes as I'm doing the school run, the ironing, the hoovering, the commute to work, the shopping, the ... (ah, the joys of the writer mom with day job too)

I too have at least 12 novels all there waiting like little beans tucked up warm and snug in the dark of my imagination but it's getting them actually written. And I can't even say it's a time issue. There has been plenty of time in the last month when I've been sat on the sofa stuffing my face with baklava and watching Man versus Food (Which is understandable because it's awesome but for the third run through?) when I could have been sat at the desk writing the last 10,000 words of my new novel.

Yes, you noted that... the LAST 10,000 words, so the other 65,000 have been written and I'm idling away the time when I should be racing towards victory and pounding my deadline into the ground - which oh, thinking about it was meant to be June. I guess we'll make that July now. (Note to self, go change the dates on website)

I've tried to be more disciplined; to write a daily quota but it just isn't me - my muse just rattles her chains to the point I cannot focus.

Now you see, I'm at the end of this post and I haven't even managed to arrive at the solution I hoped the writing of this would offer LOL. So I guess it's up to you guys to offer me your tips on how to beat the attack of the lazies.

PIRACY KILLS ART

Today I have had to contact FIVE different 'file-sharing' sites to have my 'pirated' book files taken down. This is a huge disappointment to me; I like to believe that the human race is essentially decent and yet I am staggered to see how many members and Facebook likes these sites have.

Not only do I NOT expect this kind of cheating and stealing from fellow members of the human race - I am stunned that READERS - yes, beloved, intelligent conscientious READERS, could ever think that this is okay.

If you want my book that badly and can't afford the £0.79p for a book that took me over two years to research and write, then contact me - I'll send you a FREE copy! In fact, if you head on over to my site www.theknighttrilogy.com I am GIVING EVERYBODY a FREE copy.

You see it's not about the money (well, sadly I do need to eat and fund a roof over my head and pay for the girl's school shoes, swimming lessons and ....) but it's the principle. You can have all of my books 1-3 in the trilogy for £2.50 so why would anybody want to cheat me out of that?

Piracy is a betrayal. It's grubby and it's self destructive. People want writers and artists to produce work and yet a frighteningly large proportion of people seem unwilling to pay for it. Newsflash - AN AUTHOR CANNOT INVEST THE TIME TO WRITE  IF THEY CAN'T SUPPORT THEIR FAMILY - they have to go and work at something different, something that will pay! And for every hour they are stuck in an office job, stacking shelves in the supermarket or doing something else, they are NOT writing your beloved stories.

I am an independent writer. I am not rolling in film-deal royalty checks (and it wouldn't matter if I was) The people who download my book on file sharing are AS GOOD AS ROBBING MONEY OUT OF MY POCKET. People who would never dream of sneaking up beside me whilst I'm pushing Betty Boo in her pram, in order to stick  their sticky little paws into my handbag and steal money from my purse, will sit in their homes and happily, without conscience, steal from me. This really, really saddens me - what are we without moral integrity?

The Indie Author: The tethered Cash Cow?

It's now officially official, there has been a reading revolution and it has happened super quickly. In 2011 14.9 million e-readers were shipped world wide, add that to the 14.9 million of 2012 and the predicted 10.9 million expected to be shipped in 2010, we get a shed load of people who own an e-reader. (That's not counting the tens of millions who own a tablet with e-reading application)

Undoubtedly Amazon led the way in the e-Reader revolution with its Kindle e-Reader. The mega powerhouse that is the Amazon book store was suddenly portable and instantly on hand to anybody with one of their magical little devices.

When coupled with its incredibly easy to use self publishing platform the indie book revolution exploded into the world. I was fortunate to be at the right place in the right time at the end of 2010 with the release of my first indie published book.

At the time, Amazon offered writers like me the opportunity to indie publish their work and have a 'level' playing field amongst the traditionally published houses - in fact a possible advantage. Offering 70% royalties on books over £1.49 was an incredibly enticing opportunity. Some writers who were canny enough to be prophetic already with a back catalogue of 10+ books even found themselves making hundreds of thousands of pounds (and we've heard about the millionaire indies, John Locke and Amanda Hocking)

But with the e-Reader thing going bonkers and the self-publishing world changing every turn of the Atlantic clock, the bubbles of optimism were sure to burst. And so they have...

The impact of the $0.99c Price wars: And the real winner is...

Firstly nobody really understood or thought that the price wars would impact on indie works so much. Humbled by their legacy-reputation of vanity publishing, indies soon realised that in order to gain a readership they would have to lower the price (and value? of their book) to $0.99 / £0.79p. I resisted for a long time, not because I believe readers should be milked for every cent, but because I knew that the $0.99c route was a very perilous one indeed. In the end market forces forced the decision on me and I lowered the price of my first book to $0.99c. It was a gamble that paid off in lots of ways but Amazon was quickly becoming Saturnine; yes, you can lower your book to $0.99c but you will only get 30% royalty.

There are now hundreds of thousands of $0.99c books on Amazon, and that is a lot of $0.70c profits filling up their coffers.

I am yet to understand why there is this difference in % royalties other than Amazon knowing that they are on to a very, very good thing and the indie writer is now nothing more than a domesticated cash-cow: Tethered fast by the KDP select program which insists on exclusivity to take part.  Goodness knows why (other than it being an overt attempt to monopolise the book selling world)

KDP Select & The dangers of all your eggs in one basket: 

In principle this is an excellent facility. When it first came out I jumped at it and had several very successful promotions. However it was early days for The Knight Trilogy, and at that time I was happy to be 'exclusively' on Amazon. But as time has gone on and I've had my docs specially formatted for Smashwords premium catalogue (allowing me access to iTunes / iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Nook and Kobo platforms, establishing profiles on each of them) I am reluctant now to pull The Knight Trilogy out of those for the sake of being able to freely give away a couple of thousand copies on Amazon.

 I'm increasingly wary about putting all my eggs in one proverbial basket - especially with a predicted fall in e-Reader sales (predicted to be as low as 8 million in 2014) as Apple, Samsung and Android tablets come storming up the market. (For more information on these market trends head over to http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Tablets-Surge-Ereaders-Struggle/1009555 )

I opted out of the KDP select program for this very reason about 12 months ago in order that I could investigate other platforms - unfortunately, such is Amazon's hold on the worldwide market that sales on sites such as Smashwords and e-zreader are very minimal.

How to make a living on Amazon: Series and coming to an agreement with your readers

I'm lucky that the genre and audience I write for lends itself towards series, which means I can afford to have my first book on at 0.99c and then have the rest of the series on at a more realistic living price. (Point of note: I have a 88% follow through on readership, with readers happy to pay £1.49 - £2.49 for books in the rest of the series.)

Interestingly though the readership thing is complex and despite having an 88% 'loyalty' for The Knight Trilogy, my stand alone novel 'Beautiful Freaks' has really struggled and I am probably going to have to lower that to $0.99 for a time (Gut galling as it is by far a more technically accomplished book and a gorgeous story - it's the favourite of all I have written)

I love writing, I love story telling even more. I want to spend my life writing books but I need to be able to pay my mortgage and put shoes on my children's feet. So I'm going to marry my love of writing with my business head; I am writing a 7 book series - and no I'm not compromising on quality. It took me four years to write the Knight Trilogy. I am planning on writing and publishing book 1-2 of The Meadowsweet Chronicles this year. I couldn't have done this four years ago (or before completing NaNoWriMo or investing in Scrivener) but I am more skilled, a stronger writer, wiser about what my readers want from a book. My readers want beautifully, passionately, honestly told stories that let them escape. They do not want the wordsmithery of Umberto Eco or the almost too clever genius of Will Self that leaves them feeling intellectually unworthy. My readers are clever, astute, savvy and will not take any messing - they know what they like and they have high expectations: I strive to meet them. My love of writing and their love of reading will make us a happy bunch.

From the business point of view, the books will be lower priced at the beginning of the series (after all my readers are taking a gamble with their hard earned cash) and then we will come to a compromise whereby the reader acknowledges my need to eat and their need to read on. However, I will never screw my readers over by whacking them with a $24.00 price tag for one of my new releases! (They'll stay below the $3.99 tag)

N.B Bundles: You can see from the image that another way around the 30% royalty issue is to bundle all your books into one and then charge $3.00  for the complete bundle. This way your reader is still paying the golden 0.99c a book but the writer is getting 70% royalty. It's swings and roundabouts - you lose the potential of a higher gain by readers going onto buy 2-3 at a higher price but you capture a 70% royalty outlay from the start. A few of these a month really boosts your royalty account.

How to bite back the hand that feeds: Refuse to play Amazon ball.

There is no denying that as an indie, I NEED Amazon and apart from their blatant exploitation of my vulnerable position as an indie, they serve me very well. Over 90% of my sales come from Amazon and it is because of them that I have bread on my table (I could afford wine to go with it if they cut me a 70% royalty on 0.99c!)

But there are ways that we could change things and one of these is promoting more of our work with the Smashwords links. Smashwords is a 'hidden' shop. Authors and those in the writing community are mostly aware of it and it has become very much the place where authors buy their own reading material. Smashwords offers a set royalty of 70% regardless of list price. It also allows the author to run coupons, giveaways etc without the demands of exclusivity.

Smashwords gives readers the choice of their download format - catering for almost every form of e-Reader and tablet device. Just because a reader has a Kindle it doesn't mean they are trapped into buying their works from Amazon - we can chip away at their sales monopoly. Readers can hop over to Smashwords, fill their Kindle with $0.99c books and know that the writer is getting a fair deal - a living wage.

Call to arms: 

• When tweeting links to your books alternate them between the Amazon page and the Smashwords page. 
• Write a blog post explaining to readers the buying options they have and how you are striving for a better deal for writers. 
• Refuse to put all your books on Amazon at $0.99 and help to push the 'norm' back to $1.49 and a 70% royalty agreement
• Love Amazon for all they do for us but don't let it be unconditional. Run your giveaways through Smashwords and spread your book across various platforms (Beware the falling e-Reader sales) 

USEFUL LINKS:

SMASHWORDS PAGE: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/katiemjohn 

e-READER ARTICLE at emarketer.com http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Tablets-Surge-Ereaders-Struggle/1009555

Added at 3.39 Saturday 23rd Feb: 

As I said in the post, things change so rapidly and here is living proof over at Publishers' Weekly

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/content-and-e-books/article/56042-indie-booksellers-sue-amazon-big-six-over-e-book-drm.html 

It seems that it isn't only authors that are feeling the tethered effect of the Amazon powerhouse. Several independent booksellers are suing publishers over DRM and the monopolisation of the e-book market by Amazon.

 “Consequently,” the complaint states, “the vast majority of readers who wish to read an e-book published by the Big Six will purchase the e-book from Amazon.”