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
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.
0 0 Read moreTitanic 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
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!
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:
1 0 Read more
Fearless
March 10, 2021 by Tari Jewett in category Charmed Writer by Tari Lynn Jewett, Writing tagged as 2021, Fearless, romcoms, Tari Lynn Jewett
For the last few years, instead of making New Year’s resolutions, my friends, authors Caraway Carter, Jeri Bronson and Ellen Kosuda have picked a word to inspire us for the year. A word to help us reach reach goals. A word to hopefully make us better people. In 2020 my word was Focus. It turned out to be a really good word for me, especially during a year of isolation and chaos. I focused on two things. My writing and my health. I released four romcoms last year, and I lost 86 lbs. that I desperately needed to lose.
I had a hard time picking a word for 2021, and it wasn’t until late on New Year’s Eve that I finally realized what my word should be. FEARLESS. My word for 2021 is Fearless.
There are people who think I’m already fearless, but the truth is, I tend to work out of fear. Fear of not being good enough, fear of failing…fear, fear, fear.
So here it is March, and already I’ve found this a challenging word. Which probably means it’s the right word for me. Two weeks into the New Year I was seriously doubting whether I should be writing at all. Whether I should just walk away, enjoy the freedom I have now that my kids are home, and I’m not working. Cook, keep house and sew for grandbabies.
But that word kept popping up, and I’d push myself a little more…and a little more, until I’d pushed myself through that crisis of confidence.
The most fearless thing I’ve done this year, is to stay alone in our little house in Arizona, that’s in the middle of nowhere. Okay, not really in the middle of nowhere, but it kind of feels like it. I’ve never been alone before. Even when Hunky Hubby had to work out of town, I always had kids with me. And HH and I don’t like to be separated. But, I thought that time alone would free me up to get more work done. I was right. And while I missed Hunky Hubby, I really enjoyed those two weeks of freedom and I won’t be afraid to do it again.
And this week I conquered another fear. I submitted a romcom to a publisher, and I’ll be waiting anxiously for their response. I realized if they don’t accept it, I can publish it myself. I CAN DO IT MYSELF!!
Now on to my biggest writing fear. I have to finish Fascinator. Fascinator is my full 1920’s women’s fiction novel that I’ve been working on (or not) for several years. A friend told me a few years ago that I was the only one she knew who used writing to procrastinate on my writing. And that’s probably true. To a great degree, writing my romcoms, which are fun and light have been a way to procrastinate on my more serious novel, which for me is a test of whether I can really write.
So, time to pull on my big girl panties and woman up. I’ve got this. I’m FEARLESS. Oh, and my word for 2022 came to me this week. But I’ll share that later.
Do you ever feel like hold yourself back? What areas do you need to be more fearless? Or are you already fearless? Share your stories, I could use some inspiration!
7 0 Read more
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