Ah, time, one of the most precious commodities on earth. If you are like me, you protect it like Smeagol and his ring (Imagine me repeating "my precious" in a creepy voice while wearing a loin cloth). I literally have less than 60 minutes in the day to write. Don't believe me? Here's my work day schedule. 

5:50 am - Wake to Alarm. Hate life. Hit snooze. 
6:00 am - Get ready for work. Pet Cat. Tell children it is too early and try to convince them to go back to bed. Fail. 
7:00 am - Work. Change lives ... or class schedules. Give free pep talks. Change more class schedules. 
3:30 pm - Pick up daughter. Pick up son. Mediate fight over who gets to use the Ipad in the car. 
4:30 pm - Arrive home. Feed Herpes Cat and Over-weight Dog. Pick up mess. Change into what the hubs calls my "comfy (i.e. awful) clothes" 
5:30 pm - Make and eat dinner. Drive kids to gymnastics or swimming or underwater basket weaving. Facilitate baths, homework, Herpes Cat. Spend a moment to tell a story to the hubs, get interrupted by a kid and never finish telling the story. 
8:30 pm - Put kids to bed. Read stories. Turn on night lights. 
9:00 pm - Slap my face and pry open eyelids. Write. 
10:00 pm - Fall into bed and pray the kids sleep through the night. Repeat. 

So, if you are like me and life is always trying to get you down, I want to give you five things you can adjust so that you have 60 minutes a day to write. It isn't easy, but it is worth it. Here they are in no particular order.

1. Cut Out Three TV Shows a Week   Stephen King tells writers in his book On Writing to throw their TVs away. Now, not only is that bad for the environment (recycle, people), it is also very hard. Watching zero TV sounds like a death sentence to many. I am not suggesting anything that drastic. I suggest looking at your viewing list and cutting out your bottom three shows. Do you really need to know who won Cupcake Wars? Will life go on if you watch Parks and Rec in reruns later in life? Keep a few of your favorite shows. After all  this is your only life and you deserve to enjoy it, right? But, I'm certain you can live without a lot of what you watch. Try it for a week. I've found I don't even miss Oprah anymore. 

2. Say No I am a self-diagnosed people pleaser. That means whenever someone asks me to attend a PTA meeting or bake cookies or volunteer in the church nursery, I want to say yes. It is hard-wired in me to please others. But, the more I do those things, the less time I have. Are any of those things bad? No. Are they time consuming? Yes. One person cannot do it all. And by saying no, you are really saying yes to other possibilities. 

3. Limit Social Media Social media is a time suck. There are no ifs, ands or butts about it. I know you use it to promote your book. I know you need to build a fan base, get more Twitter follows and Pintress your character pages. But, it can also eat up your time faster than my kid with a box of Gogurts. You may need social media, but I encourage you to take a long hard look at the minutes per day you are using it. More than thirty minutes total for someone as busy as I am can be killer. If you have more time in your day, then by all means, indulge. However, you still need to pay attention to the time. Facebook and Twitter can be a black hole vortex where time goes to die. Set a kitchen timer for thirty minutes. When it beeps, leave your Farmville game and move on with your life. 

4. Socializing This is the point where you realize how lame I really am. I rarely go out. Like as in almost never. This is probably not a good thing. I have a handful of close friends that I see fortnightly. The rest of my free time is spent with my family, managing my house or writing. Will I regret not going out more or hanging with my peeps (do people say peeps anymore? Word.)? Maybe. Will I regret never making my dream a reality? For sure. It is all about priorities. You need to find yours and stick to them no matter what. 

5. Be a Crummy Housekeeper At this point Martha Stewart would revoke my lady card if she knew what a crummy house keeper I am. Now, Child Protective Services doesn't need to be called or anything. My kids are clean. My house is neat, but you certainly wouldn't want to eat off my floor. Also, I think the dust bunnies are scheduling a revolt. The sad part is I really like a clean house. I love my home to be tidy and smelling fresh. But with children and two weird pets, I'd have to devote hours a day to keeping it that way. So I don't. I let go. I even hired a cleaning lady twice a month. Am I less of a woman? Maybe. Do I care? Not when I'm making my word count every day. Dust bunnies be damned!

There you have it. Five relatively painless steps to add time into your day. What about you? How do you find time when there is none? 

When I look at that title above, it gives me chills. 800 books. I started this little adventure in August of this year thinking it would be great if a few people I didn't know read my book. How exhilarating to reach someone half way around country! As my sale began to pick up I thought, wouldn't it be cool to make a little bit of dough doing this? And, ta da! That started happening. What I could not predict is how much my sales have picked up since Christmas. I am on a tidal wave that just won't quit (hopefully it won't, please, please don't let it quit). But, I'm not here just to tout my success. I want to give you some tips to help you to sell right along with me if you aren't already. 

First of all, let's start with the numbers. Here's the breakdown of sales for February. The Breeders sold 552 and had 78 Amazon Prime borrows. Nessa sold 250. So, with only two titles on Amazon and one of them a novelette, I made roughly $1500. If I were to add one more title that sells like The Breeders, well, as Mater from the movie Cars would say, "Dag gum, dems some job quittin' numbers right dere." 

So, I'm selling well. The question is how? Well, I have a few good guesses as to why I'm doing well right now. I'll lay out the top five to give you an idea of what I think put me over the top. 

1. Write something people want to read. The Breeders is a cross-over YA/Adult dystopia. People are still out there looking for YA dystopias. So I am riding the crest of a Hunger Games wave and the odds are ever in my favor. I know other authors having similar success in genres like SciFi, Paranormal Romance and Erotica. That is the bonus of being an indie author. If you spot a trend that you are already comfortable in, you can write, edit and produce a book fast enough to ride the wave. Bottom line is no matter how good a book, if people aren't reading that genre, it won't get sold. 

2. Put out your best book. I took 18 months with The Breeders. I must've revised it 100 times. I am not exaggerating when I state that figure. I think I reread and changed that draft about 100 times. I had critic partners that were writers. I hired an editor and she did three passes on it. I have read a lot of self-published titles with my stint as reviewer for Underground Book Reviews. Most of them do not read like a book that has been revised 100 times. If you want a book to sell, it has to be as good as something sitting on a bookstore shelf. No short cuts. 

3. Reviews, reviews, reviews. I now have close to 80 reviews for my book. It has been a slow build, but now that I have amassed those numbers, the book is selling itself. This is something that takes time. Once you write the best book you can, be patient. If it's good, people will review it and momentum will build. 

4. Building platform. I read a great book called Platform by Michael Hyatt. I recommend it for any creative type that is trying to wheel and deal. From Michael's ideas I've been doing some major consideration in regard to my platform. I've tightened up my blog, posted more content and thought deeply about what topics might draw readers. I've started tweeting even though I didn't understand it. I've build a decent following on Facebook using an ad I bought for $50. I've also been reaching out to other authors in my genre, talking, sharing and cross-promoting. It's taken a lot of hard work, but I think I'm starting to see the fruits of my labor. Platform matters. 

5. Put out more titles. Nessa was an experiment to see if I could put out a quality short that would help sell my main title. As a novelette, or 30,000 words, it was quick to write (about a month) and it only cost me $100 for the cover art. I'm hoping since it is priced at 99 cents people will pick it up on impulse. I'm also hoping they'll like it and buy The Breeders or vice versa. So, each book is helping sell the other. Magic. 

So, there you have it, five ways I've found success selling books through Amazon. What about you, what's helped you make headway in selling your titles? 

First drafts are hard. No, let me rephrase. First drafts are as tough as fitting into my jeggings after a Chinese buffet. To put it precisely, they suck big time. Over ninety percent of writers who attempt a first draft quit before the end. That gives you, dear writer, worse than Vegas odds on completing your manuscript. But, I'm here to help. After writing my fifth completed first draft (check out my book The Breeders), I've outlined a seven step process that will get you to that golden finish marker. And it won't even hurt that much, I promise. 

Step One: Pre-plan
I didn't always pre-plan. I, like many of you, read On Writing by Stephen King and decided, "Yes, I'll just pants my way along and a gem will appear after all my toil." However, I missed one important point. I'm not Stephen King (a surprising fact no-doubt). But, pre-planning doesn't have to be highlighted grafts, two tons of sticky notes and color-coded pie charts. I do it rather loosely. My research is in the form of websites, articles and pictures, anything that paints my world in brighter colors. It's sloppy plot outlines and character sketches written in a google doc that no one will ever see. It's a map so I know where I am going and where I am going to end up. It doesn't have to be pretty. It just has to get me there. 

Step Two: Set a goal
I stick to 1000 words a day and more if I can carve out time. I work full time and have two little children, so time is like gold in my hands (I couldn't resist a Joe VS. the Volcano reference. Fans? Anyone?).  However, having little time is no excuse. Let me repeat: Having little time is no excuse. I've learned along the way that anything could stop me from writing: a bad day, indigestion, a poopy diaper (my kids, not mine). I'd never write if I let any little issue stop me. So I do 1000 words a day, six days a week. No excuses unless someone is bleeding, dying or on fire. (Or if Downton Abbey is on. Hey, a girl has to live once and a while). 6000 words a week will get you done with a rough draft in three months. Not too shabby. 

Step Three: Write, darn you, write
Here's the thing. Whenever I sit down to write, for the first five minutes I am always thinking I can't. When my little fingers touch the keyboard I think, "I've got nothing left. Whatever is inside my head feels more like moldy swish cheese than brains. I'll just do it tomorrow." See, our brains are condition to avoid something hard like creating a new world. Writing is hard work. But, we have to fight our brains. How, you ask? Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, that's how. 

You don't need a psychologist. What you need is a set of mantras. Below are the ones I use to kick my lazy brain into gear. 
 - If I just get started, I'll write something. And something is better than nothing.
 - I've felt this way before and been able to write by just making myself. I can do it     
  again.
 - It is okay if I write crap. I know I can always change it later. 
 - At least if I start I can meet my goal and feel good about myself, no matter the outcome. 

Once I give myself a good talking to, I write. No excuses. Remember: bleeding, dying or on fire. 

Step Four: Go Forward. Always Forward
Now once you're happily typing away, don't stop. No, really, don't stop. You may want to read the last few paragraphs and tweak them. You may find errors, spelling, something you missed. You may think that by fixing these things you are doing yourself a favor. You are not. This is your sneaky brain tricking you again. It thinks, "Boy, it's easier to fix what already exists, so let's just do that instead." Don't let it fool you. You must get words on the page fast or your momentum will die. This is the secret that those 90% that never finish don't understand. Words on page. Do. Nuff said. 

Step Five: Stop for Nothing
Imagine writing is an all night road trip from Florida to Michigan with two children under the ages of five crying in the back and your husband is throwing up in the seat next to you. (This really happened to me. No joke.) You are tired and sick. The smell from your husband is nauseating and you kind of want to put him in the trunk. You know you must get home or face trying to sleep in a Motel 6 with your fussy one year old while bed bugs climb up your nose and give you Herpes. Stopping is not an option. You pound two Red Bulls and you just keep driving.  

Writing is like this. Don't stop and come up with an awesome metaphor that takes you two hours to create. Write something like, "PUT AWESOME METAPHOR HERE," and keep on truckin'. Need a funny line? Write, "MAKE THIS FUNNY HERE," and go. Remember, momentum is your friend. 

Step Six: Finish. Like a Boss
Do the above for ninety days. Moses wandered the desert for forty years. You can write 1000 words each day for ninety days. Man, it feels good to write THE END. Kick the pants off the rest of the 90% who will never cross that finish line. 

Step Seven: Celebrate for One Day. Then get back in the saddle 
You get one day off for good behavior. Go out to eat. Watch a movie you haven't seen (and believe me there will be many to choose from). Frolic in the gales. Enjoy it. 

Then get your butt back to your computer and fix all the crap. And believe me there will be a lot of crap. 

But, Katie, you say, haven't you just accomplished writing a hunk of junk? Yes, but it is a complete hunk of junk and you will be surprised at how many things actually make sense. Sure there will be a million things to fix, but none of them would even exist if you hadn't made yourself bang out the draft. Remember, it is easier to fix something than to create something. So, you've just done the hard part. Congratulations. 

That's my take for good or ill. I'd love to hear from you on what works in your drafts. So, what about you? What techniques do you use to write a first draft?

In case you missed it, I began this series last week on my many experiments with marketing and my take on what works and what doesn't. You can find part one here and part two here. There is one very important marketing tool that I think may have been the single most important technique, so important I thought it deserved its own post. Are you ready for this mind-blowing secret? Here it is: giving your book away for free. 

The brain child for using this technique came when I began working with my super agent, Amanda Luedeke. She suggested that I try to increase sales numbers and rankings before we went to submission on The Breeders. I am always game for something that will make more money and create more visability, so I told her I was game for any idea she had. She suggested a five day giveaway through KDP Select. If you haven't heard, KDP Select is Amazon's book sharing program. If you opt in to KDP you agree to offer your e-books nowhere but Amazon. The upside is Prime Members can borrow your book for free. The down side is that Kobo, Barnes and Noble and Apple customers get no e-book love. I opted into KDP pretty early on in my writing adventure. It was clear from the start that Amazon was where I was selling and nothing was going on anywhere else. KDP worked well, allowing people to try my book for free through Amazon Prime. And I get paid a hunk of the money Amazon shares out for its KDP authors (roughly $2). 

Another thing KDP offers are promotional days where you can set your content for free. I had tried this before and given away a good number of free books. Each time I saw a little spike in ratings that would eventually slide back down. I had never tried a five day giveaway before, so I decided it was time and started to plan.

The interesting thing was we were approaching Christmas, a booming time for ebooks. Everyone gets sparkling new Kindles or Amazon gift cards in their stockings. I thought it might be a good idea to run the giveaway the week before Christmas and then return my book to $2.99, on the 23rd right before the sales boom. So, I set my five days up and held my breath. 

The result was tremendous. I gave away 2200 books in 5 days. I got a ton of reviews, sequel notification emails and Facebook friends. My book rating sky-rocketed (from 15,000 to 6,000) and I began selling quite a few more titles each day. I went from selling five books a day before Christmas to selling 15 a day after the promotion. And the wave still hasn't peaked. This month I am selling twenty-five books a day with little to no promotional leg work. 

So, the result is free days work, especially when they are timed right. Now, I know you'll have to wait a whole eight months before you can take advantage of the Christmas boom, but I think that any special event will help (i.e. the release of a new title or a marketing promo you are running). The free books you give away will likely translate into sales that will quickly make up for any lost revenue on those free days. 

So, there you have it, the not so big secret that has brought me success. What about you? How have KDP free days worked for you?

Book Marketing Part Four

On Wednesday I began this post on what works and what doesn't in self-promotion and marketing for authors. You can find part one here. The next five strategies are those that I have found most effective. Again, these are just my own personal experiences and not an exhaustive list. 

5. Sequel Notification List or Newsletter
I saw my good friend and awesome writer A.G. Henley use this and picked it up immediately. She had a sequel notification sign-up on her blog and mentioned it in the back material of her book, The Scourge (seriously, if you haven't read it, you need to). I have found this to be exceedingly helpful. I used Feedburner to create the widget on my website. It took a little bit of reading and tinkering, but for a girl who isn't particularly tech savvy, I was able to pull it off. 

The Result- I have a sequel notification list about fifty readers long so far. This is an invaluable tool and once it is set up, it runs itself. DO IT. 

4. Kismet Review Blog Tour
This one is hard to recommend because I haven't actually participated in it yet. I am signed up for a Kismet Review Blog Tour in March. Kismet is a top notch review site that puts on blog tours, review tours and the like. A.G. Henley introduced this one to me, as well. She said she really enjoyed it and got over twenty great reviews (remember, review numbers count) and had a lot to tweet about. The price isn't for the faint of heart, however, so if I don't see a lot of increase in sales this will definitely be a bust. 

The Result - Hard to say, but this one is a gamble because of the high price. I'll have to follow up to let you know if I think it was worth it or not. 

3. Blogging
This goes without saying, but blogging is huge. It draws people to your content, your website and your books. I maintain two blogs (scary, I know). The first blog is a review site dedicated to Indie Publishing. We get a ton of hits every day (upwards of 1500) from writers just like you and I who want reviews. How many of those readers go on to buy my book? Again, it is hard to say, but it is definitely nice to be able to do an announcement post and know that at least one thousand people are likely to stumble on it that day. 

My blog gets far less traffic and it is much newer. The nice thing about having my own blog is I can post whatever I want. I can do giveaways, host guest and ramble. The drawback is writing content. It is not easy to find time. 

The Result - Every writer needs a blog. Not an option. DO IT. 

2. Social Media
I was already on Facebook before I became an author, so I decided it would be easy to create an author Facebook page. I like having a separate profile for my writing so I am not inundating my friends and family who aren't interested in hearing about my book twenty-four/seven. It may be a bit more work to maintain both, but not much. I check in on Facebook a few times a day to post, respond to a few comments and get out of there. It can be a time-suck, so I keep one eye on the clock. So far I have 340 fans. It's nice to have numbers like that when you are releasing something new. 

Twitter is newer for me, and not as user-friendly in my opinion. I am using it, though. I know many people prefer it as their new method of online interaction and I need to be where they are. It doesn't come as easily, but a post once a day is fine and easy to fit into my schedule. 

The Result - Having 340 Facebook fans and 70 Twitter followers is better than having none. I am sure the more I'm on there, the more people I will reach. 

1. Writing New Content
Nothing drives people to your work better than liking something else you wrote. I am sure you've heard the more you can publish the better. I'd like to think that the more WELL-WRITTEN work you can publish the better. Sure, you can churn out content like a madman, but all these suggestions cannot make a bad book into a good one. Marketing a bad book will only make it fail faster. So, write good content and write it fast. (Ha! That's like saying, just don't eat cake to someone who wants to lose weight.) 

The Result - My new novelette is selling well and The Breeders continues to sell well (5500 on the Amazon rankings today). I hope to have a new book published in May and hopefully the sequel to The Breeders in August or September. The bottom line is, if you want to make it as an indie author you have to write a lot. No excuses. Then you will see results. 

So, there you have it. Ten marketing strategies and their pros and cons as I see them. I'm always reading, tweaking and revising and I'd love to hear from some of you as to what works and what doesn't in the comments below. So, in regard to marketing, what works for you?

Book Marketing Part Three 
Book Marketing Part Four

The Breeders is over six months old now and in that time I have done my share of trial and error marketing to let people know about my work. If you are like me, marketing sometimes feels like fumbling around in the dark, so I thought I'd take a moment and list the top ten marketing strategies that I have found to be successful in my experience. This is by no means and exhaustive list, but just some observations of someone who's been there. 

10. Google AdSence Advertising 
Ever see those little ads on the sides of your gmail account advertising anything from Mortgage Insurance to Free Copy-Editing? Well, I took twenty-five dollars and made a Google AdSence ad just to see if it might drum up interest. The nice thing about Google (or not so nice depending on your Big Brother view of it) is they read people's email  and tailor ads to fit potential clients. The bad new is that many people don't pay attention to those ads. I know I don't. 

The Result - I'm pretty sure nothing. In my opinion not worth the money. 

9. Blog Begging or "Can you please review my title?"
Every marketing book from here to Kingdom Come says you need reviews. You must get reviews for your book or it will languish and die faster than the plant in my office at work (seriously, I have a black thumb).  However, getting reviews is difficult, nay, nearly impossible. I spent hours sending out query emails to book bloggers for weeks on end. I'd say that 90% of the people ignored me. The bonus, I did get a few reviews and connected with some bloggers, but most blogs either won't read self-published or are swamped up to their pretty little eyeballs and cannot possibly take another book.

The Result - Too much time and energy for only a few reviews. 

8. Begging fans to review your book.
Once my random emails to book bloggers stopped working, I turned to my fan base. I made sure to put a request for reviews at the back of my book. I put a plea or two out on Facebook. I made sure to email everyone who wrote me on my sequel notification list (we'll get to that in a minute) and requested reviews. The upside was many responded and did so. The downside was some still ignored me.

The Result - Totally worth it because it require little energy or time. You may not get many reviews, but every little bit helps. The downside is you may feel a little bit like a pest, but you really have to get over that in today's business. 

7. Giveaways
I have tried two giveaways so far: one for signed copies of my book and one for a free amazon gift card. Both upped my twitter and facebook action and drew people to my blog. Both were pretty easy as I used Rafflecopter and that makes it exceedingly simple. The Amazon gift card raffle corresponded with the release of my new novelette in the hopes of drawing new people from Twitter to my site with the tag #free. Unfortunately there's about a million tweets a day with the tag #free. 

The Result - The blog traffic was nice, but each giveaway was expensive and only had about 30-50 entries a piece, most of which were already fans. I may try this again, but I hear the bigger the item, the more traffic you get. Maybe I'll try it with a fifty dollar gift card or a Kindle paper white. Spending that kind of money is risky, though. You may not get a return on your investment. 

6. Facebook Ads
Facebook offered me fifty dollars in free advertising a couple months back, and I am a sucker for free. At first I tried a straight-forward ad, something like "Katie French's book The Breeders, a Young Adult Dystopian yada yada yada." Nothing happened. No one clicked on it. The money just sat there. So I decided I'd try to be funny (not easy, but I have been known to make people laugh from time to time). I created this ad. "Nine of out ten dentists agree that liking my Author page helps fight gingivitis." Then I sent that puppy out. The amazing thing was people clicked on it. A LOT. I got about one hundred new likes with that fifty dollars.  Now the question is, how did that relate to sales? That's the hard part; I'm not sure. No one can say that any of those people have bought my title. But, the good news is, they hear from me a lot and the more they hear, the more likely they are to buy. 

The Result - I liked this strategy so much I'm trying it again. Funny ad is a must. If you can't be funny, I don't think it is worth it. 


Okay so there you have it. Tune in on Friday for the next five marketing strategies that are a must in self-promotion. So, what works for you? Leave your comments below. 

Book Marketing Part Two
Book Marketing Part Three
Book Marketing Part Four

I'm very excited to announce that Nessa: A Breeders Story will release Tuesday, February 5th. The genesis of this story began when I polled readers in December and asked which character they'd like to see more of. Surprisingly, many of you said Nessa Vandewater, Clay's mother and surprise twist at the end of book one. From there, Nessa's story grew and I have to say I am pleased with how it turned out. I hope you'll like it too and it will tide you over as I pound out Breeders 2. The novelette will only be 99 cents, so it will be affordable to die hard fans and new readers alike. Here's the pitch to wet your whistle. 


Eighteen-year-old Nessa knows what it’s like to be an endangered species. Grown up in a dying world where nine out of ten babies are born male, she survives by trusting no one. When Marlin, the nineteen-year-old gunslinger with the sky-blue eyes, kills the man who has been keeping her enslaved, Nessa decides this handsome stranger might be her meal ticket. What she doesn’t realize is love is still possible, even in their decimated world. When Nessa discovers she’s pregnant with Marlin’s child, her difficult life now teeters on a knife’s edge. Can she bear to bring a child into their shattered world? Better yet, can Marlin keep them safe from those that hunt Nessa?

A companion story to The Breeders, this prequel novelette (34 pages or 10,000 words) explores the origins of two important characters and gives a deeper look into their background. It contains minor spoilers to the novel and is intended for mature teens and adults.

The end of the year is usually a time for reflection and I've done my share. This has been an extremely exciting and enlightening year and I thought I'd take a moment to share some of my (however small) insights into what I've learned in the biz so far. 

As you may know, I self-published my debut novel The Breeders this summer. I did this with no small amount of trepidation. What if no one bought it? What if lots of people bought it, hated it and pulled out the pitch forks? My mind spun the horrible disasters wheel and feared where it'd land. (On a side note, I'd really like a horrible disasters wheel).  Six months later, the results have been overwhelmingly positive (grammatical errors aside).  Below is a short list of reasons why I think it is smart to self-publish even if you are seeking out a traditional deal. 

Benefit One: Putting your book for sale forces you to act like a "real" author.
I've been writing novels for five years. Few people knew it. I did it in quiet moments, alone in my bedroom or at a cafe. I didn't talk about my writing. Heaven forbid I'd get caught in one of those conversations where someone asks what I'm writing and I awkwardly mumble the plot before I can segue-way into, "What's new with you?" 

Then I put my book up for sale. 

Now practically everyone I know is aware I'm a writer and most of them have read the book (gasp). I can no longer hide. But, that's okay. I have to learn to talk intelligently about my book. I have to lift my head and say, "Yes, I'm a writer," when asked. And I've learned it's not nearly as horrifying as I thought. 

Benefit Two: Learn to market, baby. 
At least one million posts have already been written about the writer's role in marketing. We must do it all. Some pre-published authors are already marketing, but if they have nothing to sell, it's difficult. You can blog, Facebook (is this a verb?) and Tweet, but it's hard when there's little to say.  Now that my book is for sale, I've taken social media seriously. There's nothing more motivating than having fans find you on Facebook or Twitter. You're building a fan base and, yeah, you're going to need one of those. 

Benefit Three: Money!
Right now I'm making money. Yes, right now. It's not a lot. I can't quit my day job, but I am making some dough which, if my math serves me right, is more than none. There have been indie authors that have made hundreds of thousands of dollars and then went on to sign and for an even bigger deal. In my mind more money is better than less money. Why not make money while you wait?

Benefit Four: Agents will still represent you if you self-publish.
There was a time when agents wouldn't touch you with a ten foot greased up fishing pole if you self-published. That time is dead. Many indie authors are finding agents after they self-publish. Sure, sales numbers give you clout, but a good book is a good book. Don't think because you put your book on Amazon, you've closed doors.

Benefit Five: Hearing from fans.  
This is by far the best reason. I love hearing from fans. It makes every moment spent alone in my bedroom writing while my friends are out seeing movies or frolicking through the gales worth it. To hear from someone that they loved my book or that it resonated with them is priceless. This reason alone makes self-publishing worth it.


Well, there you have it: my take on self-publishing. The first six months have been eye-opening and exciting. I can't wait to see what the next will bring. I'd love to hear your opinions on the subject below. 

Part coming-of-age story, part thrilling ghost tale, The Haunting at Beecher Hill, surprised me. The story follows Jace Griffin, a likable fifteen year old still struggling to make his way in the rough landscape that is high school. In the opening scene Jace takes a dare and goes into the woods, an innocent enough act if these were just normal woods. These woods hold secrets that make the boys wary. Murders happened here and, as Jace finds out when he enters, the ghosts violence has wrought still linger. Jace gets a terrible nose bleed, blacks out and when he awakens realizes that nothing is the same. He is now haunted by the ghost of a murdered boy. He sees visions, hears voices and now doubts everything around him. He finally lands a girlfriend, but blows it when he has a vision of her as a bloated corpse. Jace must unlock the secrets of the past if he will ever be able to save his future.

The Haunting at Beecher Hills is solidly written. The characters feel real and the dialog is fitting. I had no trouble with setting or transitioning from one scene to another. And I like Jace. He is a sweet, well-intentioned young man who suffers greatly when this ghost attaches himself. There were parts that were down right scary. Luttery does not mess around when it comes to suspense and horror. I think those were the key scenes in the book, scenes that made me turn the light back on in a dark room or look behind me as I walked down the hall. It is hard to write horror and Luttery does it well.

There were a few things that struck me as odd in this book. For one, I was never sure if this was a YA book or adult. The protagonist is fifteen, so that suggests YA. However, the language (f-word) and sexual content made me think it was aimed at least at older YA. I would recommend the book for mature audiences. Another issue I had was that the book started off with the hauntings, but lost some momentum as Jace traversed through the world of high school. It took too long to get back to the paranormal happenings for my taste. There were a few errors, but nothing to stall my reading. Overall, it's a solid effort for Luttery and I think he has a strong career ahead of him.

My stint as a published author is about as long as I project Honey Boo Boo’s TV career will  be. However, in my short three months of author-dom I’ve learned a lot. I wanted to take a moment and share with you my experiences as I see them in case some of you are thinking of diving into self publishing, too.  

First, it’s hard to know how much success is enough to make me satisfied. Sales have been okay. After the first surge, I’ve made enough money to buy myself lunch every day. I have hovered at 30,000 in the Amazon rankings every day. Now if you consider that is out of almost 4 million books, 30k doesn’t seem all that bad. However, when you are an overachiever like I am, sometimes I feel disappointed that I haven’t rocketed to stardom yet. However, with my cognitive behavioral training I have reframed my disappointment into a real sense of accomplishment. Have any of you seen the movie Fight Club? Of course you have. Now remember the scene where Tyler Durden asks every man in the car what they want to do before they die and then lets go of the steering wheel? Well, my answer was always publish a novel. Now I can let go of the wheel and know that a major box has been checked. My children and their children on until the apocalypse comes (I write dystopian, remember?) can read a piece of me. I like that thought.

Second, there is never enough times one can check their Kindle Direct sales page that will satisfy. It has become a bad habit of mine. I check it before I go to bed, when I wake up and many, many times in between. I am thinking about going and checking it right now, so if you will excuse me... There. I’m back. You see, it’s a bad, useless habit. If only my keyboard could give me a mild electric shock every time I type in Amazon, I might get more done.

Lastly, I was blown away, by the outpouring of support from my friends, family and surround community. I compare it to attending my own funeral without all the crying (only a few tears were shed and all by me). I knew my family would like it. I knew my friends would give me an atta-girl. What I didn’t expect was everyone (and I mean everyone) I know coming out of the woodwork to fawn over me. People I hadn’t spoken to since high school reposted my facebook posts to get me sales. Colleagues told all their students to go out and buy my book. Friends of friends of friends wrote me and told me how much they enjoyed reading it. If nothing else comes from publishing, these last two months have been worth all the love I have received.

There is so much more I could reflect on, but as I said, I’m still an author-ette cutting my baby teeth on a sequel. I can smell good things ahead, and if you are willing, I’ll take you along for the ride. Thanks to everyone out there that has supported me. Lots of love coming your way.