Guyssssssssssssss. Occasionally I can get my shit together long enough to bang out a guest post for other writerly lovelies. Today I’m on C.L. McCollum’s blog chatting about the pros and cons of self-publishing.
Read and digest all the things (ALL THE ARTICLES) before you decide to take the plunge.
SOON. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON.
It’s happening, cuties! The King releases November 21st, but it currently available for pre-order! I’m in the process of getting the paperback version sorted. I think it’ll be somewhere between $12.99-$14.99 because it’s well over 300 pages, but I’m so excited to get my hands on it.
Until then, the e-version will of course be available, and you can snag it for preorder now on Amazon and Smashwords! More e-retailers coming.
I had someone ask me a question on tumblr a few weeks ago regarding social media and authors. They were concerned about jumping onto too many social media platforms, as they weren’t super comfortable interacting with people online. While I had more than a few thoughts on the issue (coming from an internet introvert myself!), but the main takeaway was: GET ON ALL THE SOCIAL MEDIAS. Do it! Find your favourite and flourish. Each platform is another way to reach a new reader.
Today, let’s chat about Pinterest. I think it’s woefully underused by writers. It’s a great place to find writing advice articles and muse inspiration—all in one place.
Now, I can’t say much about selling books via Pinterest, mostly because I haven’t tried too hard with it beyond sharing covers and links to my books. But I know some writers absolutely rock sales through Pinterest, so it’s worth looking into.
What I primarily use Pinterest for is for inspiration! I have a storyboard for each book or series, and I love sharing it with readers. There are so many beautiful photos that really fit with the aesthetic of my books. And, honestly, sometimes I need to bounce back to my inspiration board to get in the mood to work on a book.
If you’re a blogger, Pinterest has a lot of readers and writers hungry for great articles about the wonderful world of writing. It’s a great place to share articles, though I know from personal experience sometimes people just pin your work for the pretty picture, not necessarily for the article attached.
I love Pinterest. It’s a place that I can go back to when I’m looking for articles and images to share instead of searching for hours to find the right thing. Like putting a penny in a piggybank, all the resources that you enjoy can be found in one place.
Mood boards. Inspiration. ~*~*~aesthetic*~*~*~* — Liz loooooooooooves.
There are plenty of reasons to love Pinterest, but don’t let it become a time-waster. I’m alwaaaays pinning on my phone while I watch TV, but be careful that it doesn’t suck you in. Finding faces for your characters and creating gorgeous boards for your books can suddenly get really time-consuming if you let it.
Now, if all my fangirling hasn’t at least tempted you to make a Pinterest account, read Kirsten Oliphant’s article on Jane Friedman’s blog for the more business side of writing and publishing.
I’m in the process of trying to make my cover collection for the Lovers and Liars serial a little more uniform so, you know, they actually look like they all belong together. While I have plans to have them professionally designed, with a little help from Canva I’ve been able to make some temporary new covers to carry me over until I can afford such an expensive undertaking.
As I mentioned in the third Lovers and Liars book, I’m also redoing the titles for each book to eliminate the supernatural creature Loki and Aphrodite face. I think it just gives a little too much away.
So, feast your eyes on the newest (temporary) covers! I’ll be going through all my Amazon, Smashwords, Goodreads etc. pages to make sure everybody matches. THEN it’s on to editing the books to make sure all the covers align. BUT. I’m really happy with them. They don’t scream SEX like the serial does, but hey. I like ’em.
Note: I will also be pulling Maenad‘s paperback, BUT it will reappear as a combined version of books 1 & 2, because it’s too itty bitty right now to sell as a paperback.
The King officially has an ARC sign-up form. If you’re interested in getting an advanced reader copy October 31st for review purposes, you can sign up today! Otherwise the final product will be published November 21st. I’m especially interested in readers who can actually post a review by the pub date or at least by the end of November.
Note: while the ARC will be strictly digital, the final product will be available in paperback and ebook.
In high school, I had a math teacher who was totally batshit insane. He taught Math Studies to us IB kids, and for anyone who knows the IB program, basically Math Studies was for the math illiterate folks out there—aka me. Anyway, the guy was crazy in a lot of ways, but he was also immensely helpful when you met with him one-on-one. A lot of the rambling, sweaty antics of class would disappear, and you’d realize you knew more than you thought you did with his careful prodding.
He also insisted I should be a lawyer because I liked to argue with every little thing he said—but that probably says more about me than it does about him.
One day, he gave us back our math booklets that he’d photocopy and give out for us to work on rather than just using our textbooks, and it was probably the first day we all collectively lost our cool. Because the bulk of our papers were marked with: Satisfactory.
We went ballistic. I attended a school where excelling in academics was big and it wasn’t unheard of for many to rock a 4.0 GPA term after term. And satisfactory was not in our vocabulary.
“What are you all upset about?” he demanded when we confronted him. “You did a good job. Satisfactory means you did what you were supposed to do.”
But satisfactory didn’t mean that to us. Satisfactory meant average, mediocre—we all wanted to be outstanding.
Fast forward seven years and I’m entering the publishing world, navigating the choppy waters of self-pub life one little doggypaddle at a time. People are rating my books, leaving reviews. Other authors talk about reviews, and time and time again, I see people lament a 3-star review like it’s the biggest travesty they’ve ever been dealt.
And hey, I can’t really say anything to it. I’ve absolutely felt the sting of getting a 3-star rating when I was hoping for a 5—I think we all have. But it certainly got me thinking: what’s so wrong with a 3-star review?
It’s higher than the mid-point of a 5-star rating system, right? Many rating systems define a 3 stars as “I like it”, right?
When I see authors feeling blue about 3 stars, I think back to that batshit insane math teacher.
“Satisfactory is not a bad thing! You did the work. It was good. A few errors, but otherwise fine. Now, stop bugging me about it.”
And I wonder if his thoughts on Satisfactory should factor in to how we view a review of our work the next time someone marks it a 3-star piece. Do we get upset because we don’t want to be average? Do we anticipate everyone will adore our book babyand crumble when they don’t love it as much as we do? What is it about 3 stars that tells us we aren’t good enough?
Thoughts? Opinions? What do 3-star reviews mean to you—either when you give them or when you receive them.
Liz Meldon - Romance Author 