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TMI? I Don’t Think So by Kitty Bucholtz

June 9, 2021 by Kitty Bucholtz in category It's Worth It by Kitty Bucholtz, Writing tagged as #BookBuzz, creativity and the brain, encouragement, finish your book, pitching to agents and editors, Write Now Workshop Podcast

I’m always teasing my husband that I’d be Dr. Kitty at least once by now if I could go to school as much as I want…which is almost always. Hahaha! I love learning! I know the Internet is full of information — too much information to not get sucked into procrastination mode if you’re not careful — but focused learning is important. It’s good for your brain, and it’s good for your career.

There have been so many great topics on my podcast in the last month that I wanted to let you know so you don’t miss something that could be really helpful for you! As much as I’d love for you to subscribe and listen to every episode (!), be careful not to use “learning” as a way not to act, whether it’s writing or editing or submitting or marketing or any of the many other things we writers must do with our time. But in case you missed something that could help you where you’re at right now, here are links on YouTube to the latest episodes. You can also find them on your favorite podcast app or on the Episodes page of my website.

Episode 247 is an interview with agent Cynthia Ruchti, Are You Ready for a Literary Agent?

Episode 248 is from me asking the question, What Will It Take to Finish Your Book?

Episode 249 is a great discussion between me and writing coach, Ann Kroeker, about How to Find the Right Coach.

Episode 250 (woohoo!! 250 episodes!!) is an interview with author Jody Hedlund on Building Book Buzz.

Episode 251 is one of my Encouraging Words episodes, 5 minutes of encouragement to relax and say, This Isn’t Working For Me, when you feel things are going in a direction you’re not comfortable with.

And tomorrow’s episode, #252, will be super interesting in terms of the mind-body connection when I talk with autistic biohacker Jackie McMillan, Are Creativity and Lymphatic Movement Linked?

If you’re interested in learning more about what I do as a writing coach, you can visit the coaching page on my website, https://www.writenowworkshop.com/writingcoach/. Feel free to reach out with any questions. I love to help! And if you’re thinking of self-publishing, download my free Self-Publish Your Book Checklist, a fillable PDF that will help you organize all the information you need in order to self-publish your book.

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A Frog by any other name… from the Irish Poetess’s Typewriter by Jina Bacarr

May 11, 2021 by Jina Bacarr in category Jina’s Book Chat, Writing tagged as fairy tale, historical, historical fiction, historical romance, poem, prince, World War 2

I’ve been writing humorous poetry since I was a wee girl at me Irish grandmother’s knee… she’d chuckle and get on with baking her apple sugar pies and then winding her blue rosary around her gnarled fingers, praying, ‘What’s the lass going to come to with these ditties?’

I write.

Novels, mostly historicals these days and I’m finishing up a second Paris WW 2 novel while pulling all-nighters… I needed a break, so here’s a lighthearted poem about everyone’s favorite frog from this Irish Poetess.

Put the kettle on and Enjoy!

Jina

——————–

The art of writing fairy tales

is a joy I claim.

But frog or toad, what’s in a name?

’Tis a prince I seek at the end of my tale

And that happily ever after, but to no avail

Ah, but yes have I the power of the pen

So with my snappy keystrokes Poof! I say.

He’s here. Amen!

————

Here the first in my Occupied Paris series:

The Resistance Girl

Juliana discovers her grandmamma was a famous French film star in Occupied Paris

And the shocking secret her mother never told her…

5* ‘… a beautiful and poignant historic fiction that left me in tears’ Jessica F NetGalley

US https://amzn.to/33Jc9km

UK https://amzn.to/3bU18Qv

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Release Month…What Happened?

May 5, 2021 by Tracy Reed in category Writing

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers.

I just finished the first release month for The Good Girl Part Trois. That statement brings to mind a good question…how long is the new release period for a book? I haven’t got a clue. I saw some blogs hinted at one to three months. Here’s the thing, depending on the supplemental formats of your book, your new release period can last a few months.

Check out this timeline:
eBook Pre-order: 30+ days
eBook Release Day: 1 day
eBook Release Month: 30 days
Paperback Release Period: 30 days
Audio Release Period: 30 days
Hardcover Release Period: 30 days

If you used this proposed plan, your new release would last 5+ months. This seems like a long time and it doesn’t count the amount of time required to write the book.

Here’s what I mean. If I’m focused, I can write a book in a month. Then add in another week for a couple rounds of edits before sending it to my editor. While waiting to get my book back, I deal with the other aspects…cover design, social graphics, ads and setting up a launch strategy. Those things can add another month to the timeline. Don’t forget edit review. When you combine those tasks with the release schedule, you will have been with your book almost a year. In your mind, your book is no longer new, because you’ve moved on to the next book.

How did it go? I had a forty percent increase over the first month. Let me clarify the first month was only a couple of days, thirty day pre-order and a couple of free giveaway events.

What were the results of my efforts?

Ads…

BookBub…not too good. This is unusual for me to admit, I gave up. I tried four different ads and none worked for book three. However, they did well for the other two books in the series, but I attribute that to those books being free.

Facebook…good. I haven’t done a thorough assessment, but it appears the ads are paying for themselves. Again, the ad I’m running (I turned off the ones that weren’t producing) is doing well, but I’m about to tweak the copy to reflect that only one book is free.

AMS…I turned them off the second half of the month. Risky move, but it saved me money. I picked up sales from the Facebook ads.

Newsletter…I really don’t remember how these did.

Promotions…

These did exactly what I wanted. The free giveaways led to pre-orders and sales of book three. Plus I added 1000+ new additions to my mailing list.

Reviews…

This one really pleased me. Reviews help drive sales of a series. I had a few reviews on the first two books in The Good Girl series and was going to book a spot with a review service. However, I waited too late to get reviews before my release. Upside as a result of the free promo I got about the same number of reviews I was going to pay for. Plus I got reviews for my new release. Here are the review numbers for the series as of this post.

The Good Girl Part One 47
The Good Girl Part Deux 28
The Good Girl Part Trois 12

If I’d booked a review service I was going to have to give the first two books away as well. By participating in two free giveaways, I got more than I asked for. I was in the number one spot in a couple of categories on several of the Amazon stores for quite a while.

If I had gone with the service, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to get eyes on me. Making the books free for a month across all platform, helped me get noticed and sell some backlist books.

So where am I in the release timeline? I’m still pushing the ebook and prepping for the print book release. I just received my print proofs from Ingram Spark. OMG!!! I have found my print book soulmate. I love the way these books turned out. I have a couple of things to fix which were my fault. I’ll talk about my experience with Ingram later. I also used the Vellum print book tool. I really liked the template I was using…thank you Kitty Bucholtz, but I was so overwhelmed with work, I needed a quick fix. I’ll share about my experience with this tool later.

The other thing I’ve decided to do, is make The Good Girl Part One permafree. I want to see how the series does with book one free and pushed with Facebook ads.

Happy May. See you next month.

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Titanic and Me by Jina Bacarr: How I discovered the ship of dreams and how you can listen to my novel on Spotify

April 11, 2021 by Jina Bacarr in category Jina’s Book Chat, Writing tagged as historical fiction, historical romance, romance', ship of dreams, Titanic

Once upon the ship of dreams… me dressed as a first class lady

I read ‘A Night to Remember’ a million times, imaging myself on the ship of dreams wearing an elegant gown and long white gloves, dancing in first class with a handsome gentleman. Then reality would set in and I realized I’d more likely be in steerage since my family came over from Ireland.

The place dreams are made of…

When I was a little girl, I lived with my Irish grandmother for a while and I remember sitting at the big, wooden table with her as she added flour, milk, and herbs to leftover mashed spuds for potato cakes, or wound her blue rosary beads around her gnarled fingers while she spun tales about life in Ireland. Grand times they were, and a lovely thread woven through the quilt of my childhood.

Books were my companions back then and I’d read anywhere, anytime. I read tons of romances, but I’d often end up in the history section of the library looking for more stories about the Titanic. Imagining sneaking into first class and pretending I belonged there. Something I found hard to do growing up since we moved a lot and I was always the ‘new kid’ (I went to fifteen schools before college). I yearned to be among the popular kids at the beach, but somewhere in my heart, I knew the way to better myself was reading and the rest would come later.

Reading was my world.

That became the basis of my heroine, Ava O’Reilly, in THE RUNAWAY GIRL, a girl who wants to better herself by reading books but it’s forbidden to the servants in the grand house in Ireland where she’s in service.

Then when she’s wrongly accused of stealing a diamond bracelet, she escapes.

To the Titanic.

And every tale I’d heard at my grandmother’s knee, every book I’d read, every film about the ship of dreams I’d watched over and over again became the fodder for telling my own story about the Titanic.

Based on my girlhood and love of books.

And the sea.

And yes, romance, too.

And how an Irish girl makes a daring choice on that fateful night when the Titanic hits an iceberg at 11:40 p.m. that changes her life forever…

And mine, too.

Spotify has a wonderful platform for AUTHORS and their novels!

You can listen to THE RUNAWAY GIRL on Spotify HERE. All you need is a FREE Spotify account!

https://youtu.be/S-33oEM4DlI

THE RUNAWAY GIRL

Two women hold the keys to his heart. Only one will survive that fateful night…

When Ava O’Reilly is wrongly accused of stealing from her employer, she has no option but to flee Ireland. The law is after her, and she has only one chance at escape – the Titanic.

Aboard the ship of dreams, she runs straight into the arms of Captain ‘Buck’ Blackthorn, a dashing gentleman gambler who promises to be her protector. He is intrigued by her Irish beauty and manages to disguise her as the maid of his good friend, the lovely Countess of Marbury. Little does he realise, that the Countess is also in love with him.

As the fateful night approaches, tragedy strikes further when Ava is separated from Buck, and must make a daring choice that will change her life forever…

A sweeping historical romance set aboard the Titanic, from the author of Her Lost Love (Christmas Once Again).

Praise for Jina Bacarr:

‘A delightful holiday romance that has all the charm of a classic Christmas movie. Christmas Once Again is perfect for anyone who loves a holiday romance brimming with mistletoe, hope, and what ifs.’ Andie Newton, author of The Girl I Left Behind

‘A breathtaking holiday romance that is sure to stay with you long after reading’

‘A mesmerizing holiday romance that is sure to sweep you off your feet and take you away to another place, another time.’

‘A fabulous book you won’t want to miss’

THE RUNAWAY GIRL e-book, print and audio book: