We’ve hit 5000 views for the year! It’s a record! Celebrate with a new poem!
Salve! Congratulations to the blog, and major thanks to you, the readers of this blog, for your inspiration! To celebrate, here’s a poem called Belief. I wrote it and planned to share it later, but now seems an apt choice for this to be shared. Remember to subscribe and follow along on my writing journey! C&C always welcome!
A Steampunk Shoutout for Fellow Authors and Bloggers
Hi all,
Another blogger is on the lookout for good steampunk websites, blogs, writers, etc, as she is looking to compile a big list about them! Hop on over and check out her site For Whom the Gear Turns – I also recently backed her kickstarter to send her to several steampunk conventions (since I don’t have the time to go and it’s always fun to get another writer’s point of view on a convention before I commit the time or money to go to one!
(Full Disclosure – Iron Tribune has an ad up on her site (Part of the reward for the kickstarter pledge) – But then again you already own Iron Tribune, don’t you?)
Here’s a preview below. Enjoy!
Should you go with just an Author Blog or both a Blog and Book Website? My take on this tricky question for self-published authors.
Greetings all!
A close friend of mine is in the process of publishing her novel. She asked me whether or not she should create a separate book website similar to mine, to go with her author/personal blog. It’s a great question that I wanted to share with you, my loyal readers.
Pros of Going with a Book Blog and Website
1.) If you ever plan to write about a different series/world/genre, it helps to differentiate. For example, lets say I suddenly decided to write about paranormal fantasy. Most people reading this blog wouldn’t be extremely interested. But I could continue to update my book website with small tidbits and bonus features. Alternatively, I could create a book website just for my new series, and keep this current blog focused on alternate history and steampunk (A much better idea).
2.) Flexibility – different sites offer different capabilities. Some require a lot of money to really stretch the boundaries, or a personal web designer. I also like having a separate site because I can send people to the Wix site via mobile or through my business cards. It looks professional and is topic specific – focusing on the novel, not on self-publishing as a whole.
3.) Fan Support – A book website with a forum can allow fans to discuss and present their ideas on that site, and allow you to monitor your readers’ ideas and input, without having to sift through different areas.
Cons of Going with a Book Blog and Website
1.) Time – You have to make and upkeep two separate sites. My Wix site is still waiting to be updated with Roma Aeronautica’s information. That’s on the agenda for this weekend.
2.) Money – You have to pay to host two websites. Or alternatively, deal with annoying free ads and such. It depends on your own choices too. brasslegionnaire.com is a lot more professional sounding than wix.brasslegionnaire.com after all.
3.) Separation of readers – This is a possibility if you have multiple blogs. You can separate your readership and reduce traffic to each site individually. That being said, you can also allow specific segments of your readership to ignore parts that they don’t care about, and focus more on what they enjoy and like!
So looking back, what would I recommend?
Well, personally, seeing as how I already have two sites and plan on building the world of the Steam Empire Chronicles to include ten different stories, I think a separate site for them is great! Especially when I plan on creating an additional series or world.
Would I recommend two sites to a beginner? Absolutely not. If you want to blog, then you should focus on creating a blog and building that audience faithfully and consistently. Small steps are easier to take, rather than big leaps.
What do you think? One or two sites? More?
10 things every aspiring author should do before their book comes back from editing!
Hello all!
So it’s been about 4 weeks now since I sent Brass Legionnaire off to the editor. I’ll admit freely, once it was out of my hands, I sort of… blanked. I was truly faced with a ‘now what’ type of situation. So for the last couple weeks I’ve been trying to tie up other loose ends that I figured I might as well get done now. So in my free time (My day job and graduate school keep me fairly busy, so that’s rare right now!) I put together a list of a few things that you can do while waiting for the book to come back.
1. Get some nice cover art (Mine was handled by the great people over at Streetlight Graphics, but you can also check out 99 designs or deviantart and post a job offer on either one.) Alternatively, if you’re a great artist or have a deft hand on photoshop, hunt down what you like and tweak it in the best ways. Great way to do it on the cheap if you need to.
2. Set up a personal author blog or website (Like this one) or perhaps even a website just for your book or series. However, don’t jump the gun too early. I have my entire website ready to go on Wix – a flash driven site that is really quick and simple to use – but I haven’t gone live yet because I feel a bit silly doing it without a product to show! Since I can’t do ‘preorders’ I’m simply holding off until the book goes live, then I’ll probably buy one of the smaller packages just so that I can get my domain name (and not have to worry about having other stuff in my URL), but I’ll save my money until then!
3. Set up a business/promotion plan – How will you promote your book? What will you do? Will you advertise? if so, where? Who is your specific target audience? What is best for them? Text ads, picture ads? You’re going to have to do some hard thinking on this one. Don’t limit yourself just to facebook or google. There are a variety of other sites out there that host ads, so find one that is more likely to be frequented by the people you are targeting!
4. Create a free audiobook sample of your first chapter. A lot of people offer a ‘free sample’ of their book to entice readers in. Even if you don’t plan on doing a full audiobook, a sample chapter (read by you, or someone you know whose voice is better!) can draw in a whole host of new people. Make it free on iTunes, put it up on YouTube. The more exposure, the more likely you are to rope someone in who is actually interested! Personally, I’d want to make it a full audiobook eventually, but in the meantime, it’s another cool way to build some hits.
5. In connection to that, create a book ‘trailer’ all you really need is some basic knowledge of iMovie or another video editing program and some effects and definitely your cover art. Alternatively, you can pay someone to make a (probably better) product, but it will cost you. For example, a basic book teaser at Circle of Seven productions will set you back a cool $800. But if you’ve got the money to spend…
6. Make some business cards/bookmarks. One of the most basic things to do is make a nice business card with your name, email address (not your phone number!) website, and title (you are a soon-to-be-Author!) along with a picture of your cover art. Don’t have cover art yet? Set it up except for that one part. Then it’s a simple copy and paste situation. You’ll probably want to use photoshop for this, but you can pay someone to do it. Personally, I like the control (And also screaming at my computer when photoshop goes wacky!) Then, it’s a quick upload to vistaprint or Zazzle. Be even fancier, add a QR code to the back and direct it to your website! Integration baby!
7. Set a reminder to copyright your book when it is done editing. No really, you need to remember to do this! Click here to find out more. You can also pre-register your book if it is in the process of editing to get a bit of a head start on the copyright process – Another chunk of money you need to shell out, but you don’t want people stealing your hard work now, do you? I’ll be honest though, I’m not sure if the pre-registration is a good deal. Readers?
8. Make sure you’ve got an account on Goodreads, Amazon, Smashwords, and anywhere else you plan on selling your book.
9. Make sure you’ve got a well-written synopsis for your various book pages and a good blurb or two for your front page or inside cover.
10. Write your bio, your acknowledgements, then sit back and wait!
Anything I forget? Please let me know! (Due credit where credit is due 🙂 )
Modern Papyrus 