Shouldering Author Morale…

If you look up the word morale in any dictionary chances are it reads: the degree of mental or moral confidence of a person or group. For me, as an author, morale means much more than that. It is that needed punch in the arm authors give each other, that WOO-HOO for a 5 star review, that tweet or share or shout out to help authors with their sales, and that blog post comment to help them get on the cyber map.

So how do you go about bolstering author morale? Follow the Golden rule. Treat other authors precisely as you wish them to treat you. If they don’t respond at once, keep at it, again and again and again. If there’s no response, no Esprit de Corps among them, then it may be time to move on and find another group of authors willing to help build your author platform with you. Then, once you’ve establish an Esprit de Corps, you go the extra mile.

Going the extra mile is the state of mind you must develop in order to build morale and keep the momentum going in ANY endeavor. And going the extra mile makes you indispensable to others. You do for them what no one else does. And if they ask what they can do for you, tell them. So the next time you find yourself perusing your favorite social network — go the extra mile and give an author a boost. Share their wares. Like their post. Comment on their blog. Tweet their stuff. Friend and follow them. Trust me—you’ll get it back in aces.

Thanks a heap for reading my blog. Authors, if you have time, please leave a comment and share what you do to go the extra mile with other authors. If you’re a reader, please share what you do to boost your favorite author’s presence? I’d appreciate your input. Cheers! 

Hear ye, Hear ye…Sharon Ledwith’s Updates and News…

Well this has been an interesting 2015 so far. Never saw what has happened coming, but life is full of surprises, isn’t it? It began with the closure of my former publisher, Musa Publishing at the end of February, which took all their authors by surprise, including me. Rather than rushing to self-pub and get my two time travel books back up on Amazon and my website ASAP, I decided to contact a new publisher I met at the Windsor-Essex Book Expo last fall. My intuition paid off because I was signed within the week, and found a new home for my MG/YA series with Mirror World Publishing.

A few other Musa Publishing young adult authors have signed on board with Mirror World Publishing, so I’m looking forward to reconnecting and working with them!

Re-release Dates are as follows:

The paperback and ebook for The Last Timekeepers and the Arch of Atlantis will be released on June 17, 2015, through Mirror World Publishing. I will add the new buy links to my website when available.

The paperback and ebook for Legend of the Timekeepers with be released on August 1^st, 2015, through Mirror World Publising. I will add the new buy links to my website when available.

NOTE: Both books will be available EVERYWHERE in the world. Yup, you read that right! So you can go into your local bookstore (chain or independent) and ask to order my paperback if you wish. Or if you’re a lover of ebooks, go to Mirror World Publishing’s Web Store or Amazon and grab your virtual copy there. Gotta love technology!

Book Blog Tour Announcement:

I’ve set up a book blog tour with Sapphyria’s Book Promotions from June 17 to June 26^th to help spread the word about the re-release of The Last Timekeepers and the Arch of Atlantis. It should be a blast with prizes to be won (signed paperback, Babel necklace) new readers to meet, and getting back out into the published world again. Looking forward to reconnecting with my audience!

Goodreads Giveaway in June:

Love doing these! I’ll be setting up a Goodreads Giveaway for multiple copies of The Last Timekeepers and the Arch of Atlantis during the month of June to celebrate the re-lease of book one, so stayed tuned!

Local Stuff:

I thought I’d stretch my sales wings and join Mirror World Publishing at their book during the Art in the Parking Lot craft show on Saturday, May 30th. Great place to meet local readers and enjoy the weather! Plus the show is only a few weeks before my book is re-released, so it’s a win-win for sharing my wares and getting back into the spotlight!

Updates:

This month has been hectic! It started out with half the family getting together for Easter dinner, followed by my hubby and I going to watch the Toronto Maple Leafs (our favorite NHL team) play the Columbus Blue Jackets. Um…yeah. Need to find another favorite hockey team. On the book business side of things, I’ve been busy tweaking and editing my paranormal romance/suspense for my agents at Walden House (Books & Stuff) due mid-April. My agents also have Lost and Found, book one of Mysterious Tales from Fairy Falls series in the hands of a list of traditional publishers. Unfortunately, Disney Books passed on the series after serious consideration saying they liked my writing and the story, but it didn’t make the final cut. Oh well, I believe things happen for the best. Chin up, and keep smiling!

I’ve got edits due May 1^st for The Last Timekeepers and the Arch of Atlantis, so I’ll be busy the next two weeks getting those done for my new publisher. After finishing up with these changes, I’ll be back in the writing saddle again to work on book two of The Last Timekeepers saga, which is tentatively called The Last Timekeepers and the Dark Secret. I’ll be glad to start creating fresh stories for my readers who have been so patient! Big hugs to all of you! Cheers!

A Blast from the Past: Big Little Books®...

Growing up, I remember having a good chunk of my bookshelf filled with Big Little Books®. Titles like Black Beauty, The Last of the Mohicans, Ivanhoe, Robin Hood and other classics entertained me throughout the late 60s and well into the 70s. They were the coolest books that snuggled nicely into the palm of my hand, and gave me such pleasure as a child. I literally lost myself in those books. Swimming with these nostalgic thoughts and feelings got me wondering how these fascinating and unique books started out. So…I did a little digging.

During the 1930s, as movies, radio, pulps, and comic strips developed, the Big Little Books® appeared on the scene. The product was small, stubby, thick, and inexpensive. The books drew much source material from motion pictures, radio, and comic strips and successfully competed with pulp magazines and comic books until the end of the decade. They served to promote films and radio programs and were produced in such quantities that they could be sold for a dime.

In 1932 the seemingly paradoxical term Big Little Book® was given to certain books published by the Whitman Publishing Company of Racine, Wisconsin. The term promised the buyer a great amount of reading material and pleasure (BIG) within a small and compact (LITTLE) book. These Whitman books set the standards for similar books, and Whitman's copyrighted description has become popularized in a generic way to umbrella similar books.










The first BLB, The Adventures of Dick Tracy, came off the presses just before Christmas in 1932. It
preceded the first true comic book by a year, and the subsequent BLB production spanned more than a half century. Within the span, there are historical patterns which clearly define three major periods of publication.

The Golden Age (1932 to mid-1938) is a description reserved for the most interesting, influential, and memorable production of the books. These were the true Big Little Books®. During this period, the effects of the depression were still being felt, and numerous publishers besides Whitman produced inexpensive BLB-type reading materials of great variety. In mid-1938 the two major companies, Whitman and Saalfield, made major changes in their trademarks (Whitman's Big Little Books® became Better Little Books® and Saalfield's Little Big Books® became Jumbo Books®).

The Silver Age (mid-1938 to 1949) produced a less innovative set of books. Their production was influenced by the growing comic book market and paper shortages during WWII. The number of competitive companies diminished. Only Whitman maintained a continuous output of books through the war years. It used the "flip-it" feature extensively to attract buyers, and as these years went by, the books gradually contained fewer and fewer pages. In 1949, the last Better Little Book®, Little Orphan Annie and the Ancient Treasure of Am (288 pages) was published.

The Modern Age (1950 to the present) is characterized by more than 40 years of sporadic and short-
lived attempts to revive the books in different forms and with different content: New Better Little Books® (1949-50); BLB TV Series® (1958); the hard cover 2000-Series (1967-68); the soft cover 5700-Series (1973-present). During this period, Whitman became subsumed under the auspices of the Western Publishing Company.


So if you’re wandering through a garage sale or flea market and happen to spot a Big Little Book® in a pile of dog-earred novels, do yourself a favor and buy it. It just may be the start of a beautiful relationship between a child you know, and the written word.

Guest Post: Best Friends…Forever? (Landry’s True Colors Series) by Krysten Lindsay Hager

I have always loved reading books that use humor and have realistic (and relatable) characters. I decided to write the book I wanted to read when I was in middle school and I’m overjoyed it’s now a series where people can follow along on Landry’s journey through dealing with friendships, the ups and downs of school, crushes, and insecurities. Sure, going back to that time in my own life was a little crazy, but lucky for me there weren’t camera phones to capture me dancing in the grade school talent show…while wearing jean shorts. If you’re not cringing yet, let’s just say I also had a moment of “genius” where I thought my super dark brown hair would look amazing with “Sun-In” highlights that actually turned my hair a lovely shade of copper. Sigh.

The Landry’s True Colors Series is a clean reads young adult/middle grade series about friendship, self-esteem, fitting in, middle school and high school, frenemies, modeling, crushes, values, and self-image. Best Friends…Forever? was ranked at #1 on Amazon’s Hot New Releases in Children's Books on Values and #1 on Amazon’s Hot New Releases in Teen & Young Adult Values & Virtues Fiction. True Colors is an international bestselling book.

Tag line: Good friends have your back, but some go behind it.

Blurb:

  

Landry Albright hopes the new year will start off in an amazing way—instead she has to deal with more frenemy issues, boy drama, and having most of her best friends make the cheerleading squad without her. Suddenly, it seems like all anyone can talk about is starting high school next year—something she finds terrifying.

 Landry gets her first boyfriend, but then gets dumped just as things come to a head with her friends. She feels lost and left out, but finds good advice about dealing with frenemies from what she considers an unlikely source. Landry faces having to speak up for what’s right, tell the truth (even when it hurts), and how to get past the fear of failure as she gets another shot at competing in the American Ingénue modeling competition.

Excerpt:

“Landry, it’s gotta be so awkward for you to be going to Vladi’s school next year,” Tori said. “I mean, what if you run into him during the tour?"

"It’s a huge place,ʺ Ashanti said. “People break up all the time. It’s not a big deal.ʺ

Tori raised her eyebrows as if to say, “Yeah, right,” and went back to her sandwich. Meanwhile my delicious homemade soup was no longer sitting well. It never occurred to me Vladi might be around during the first pre‑freshman tour. I would be mortified if I ran into him and he was with a girl. Or worse yet, running into him, and he was with Yasmin. Plus, I hadn’t told my mom about the breakup, so if she saw him, she’d probably go over to talk to him. I could already imagine it: “Landry, Vladi’s here! Hon? Why are you hiding behind the garbage can? Your boyfriend, Vladi, is here. Come say, ‘hello.’ Stop trying to run away. Why is everyone laughing and pointing at you and calling you a ‘loser dumpee?’ What does that mean?”

Well, maybe the world would end and I wouldn’t have to deal with high school or Vladi and my mother running into each other.

****

Sadly, the world did not end, and on Thursday, we all had to go to the high school for a freshman information night from 6 to 9 p.m.

Book Trailer:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFp2fPFbvTQ&feature=youtu.be

Author bio: Krysten Lindsay Hager is a book addict who has never met a bookstore she didn’t like. She’s worked as a journalist and writes middle grade, YA, humor essays, and adult fiction. She is originally from Michigan and has lived in Portugal, South Dakota, and currently resides in Southern Ohio where you can find her reading and writing when she’s not catching up on her favorite shows. She received her master’s degree from the University of Michigan-Flint.

What people are saying about True Colors (Landry’s True Colors Series Book One):

From Teenage Book Recommendations in the UK: "This is a fantastically relatable and real book which I feel captures all of the insecurities and troubles which haunt the modern teenage girl. It is about a young model who has to go through tough times when she is torn between a life as a model and managing her friendships. You learn which friends she can most trust and which will create the drama typical of teenage life. Follow the life of Landry and try to see if you can find out which are her true friends before their true colours are revealed. This book is all about relationships, hopes and truth. I loved this book!"

From Books & Authors Spot: “This book is such an inspiration for those who just care about their looks and are tensed about them. This thing is looks aren't everything. This book is related to every teen's problem. Hager has written a very inspiring novel.”

Buy Links:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Best-Friends-Forever-Landrys-Colors-ebook/dp/B00UIP1N5S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426663576&sr=8-1&keywords=krysten

Amazon international: http://authl.it/B00UIP1N5S

Barnesandnoble.com: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/krysten-lindsay-hager

itunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/krysten-lindsay-hager/id890673226?mt=11

Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/search?query=Krysten%20Lindsay%20Hager&fcsearchfield=Author&fclanguages=all

Connect with Krysten:

Website: http://www.krystenlindsay.com/

Instagram: http://instagram.com/krystenlindsay

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KrystenLindsayHagerAuthor

Twitter: https://twitter.com/KrystenLindsay

Building Book Sales using the Reverse Engineering Method…

Remember that kid who decided to take apart a toy just to see how it worked? And then, surprise…that same kid couldn’t figure out how to put it back together again. We authors can sure learn something from that one kid. We can learn how to use reverse engineering to figure out why readers buy our books. Think about it. Kids take something (computer, radio controlled car, Barbie dolls) apart to see how it works, get to the guts of what makes that thing go, run, fly, burp. So why shouldn’t authors be able to take apart the sale that lured readers to buy the book in the first place?

The first question you should ask yourself is: Why did you purchase insert name of book? Was it because it was your friend’s book? Perhaps a suggestion? Or a book you learned about through a review? Was it an emotional purchase? A New York Times Bestseller? Or was the book part of Oprah’s book club? I want you to chase down the sale and figure out what made you buy that certain book. Got it? Good.

Now once you do this kind of reverse engineering you can build a profile for the sale. You get to see how a sale is built. You get to know how the book market works. That’s when you can develop a marketing strategy for your own books. Get it? Great.

A lot of times you’ll find the answer is word of mouth via the social media, or a friend suggested the book (or wrote it), or they passed by a bookstore window and the cover caught their eye. Even Oprah has the golden touch. Dig deep, and find the reason for that sale.

While doing my own reverse engineering, I suddenly saw this quote from Bill Gates in my Twitter feed: “You’re most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” That’s when it hit me. Book reviews. Not the one-star reviews you get from trolls, but those reviews that seem sincere, yet only give you a 3 star. Those are gold. Use these kinds of reviews to fine tune your writing. Listen, really listen to what the reader/reviewer is conveying to you, and apply their advice in your next book if it rings true with you. I know you can’t please everyone, but you can certainly make changes in your writing that will help boost your book sales and reach new readers.

Thanks a heap for reading my blog. Authors, if you have time, please leave a comment and share what you do to track down your book sales. If you’re a reader, please share what leads you to buy a certain book? I’d appreciate your input. Cheers!

9 Things to Make Your Life a Little Better…

Happy Spring everyone! Since this season is all about new growth, renewal, and fertility it’s only fitting that I share a post that reflects the promise of better (and brighter) days ahead. The following is taken from a Hallmark® birthday card I received from my mom this year. Trust me it’s worth the read, and guaranteed to put a smile on your face…

Trust your instincts. If it doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t…fun, tempting…maybe, but not right.

Remember your manners. It doesn’t cost you anything, but speaks volumes about who you are. Having CLASS starts with this.

Never let possessions “own” you. It’s just STUFF! The most valuable things in life—friends, respect, love, knowledge—don’t cost money… Hokey, but true.

Nurture your friendships. The investment you make in true friends will pay huge dividends all your life—remember, you can’t make an old friend.

Keep your hands clean. This is meant both literally and figuratively… It will save you a lot of regrets later…

Believe in yourself. Another hokey one, but you DO happen to be the only YOU in existence, and you’re also the only person in the world who can TRULY hold you back in life…

Be grateful. Don’t waste all your todays in anticipation of some grand tomorrow. NOW is all we’ve got. Live in it!

Treat others the way you want to be treated. Just because you’re smarter or richer or prettier than someone else doesn’t mean you’re BETTER. It just means you’ve been more blessed.

Always keep playing. Who says adults have to give up toys? Keep the little kid inside you alive… it keeps your imagination primed. Silly is good. 

I’m kind of partial to the last one! Thanks a heap for reading my blog. If you have time, please leave a comment and share some of the things that have made your life a little better. Cheers and have a great week!

Guest Post: Top 10 Foods to Improve Your Memory by Sara Daniel...

Most of us are probably not going to end up with amnesia so severe our memory of the past ten months is completely wiped out as happened to my heroine Gwen in Loving the Amnesia Bride. However, if you’re anything like me, you walk into a room intending to do something, which had to be important since you went there with a purpose. But now you’re standing inside the doorway with no earthly idea what you walked all the way across the house to do.

Or you’re all ready to run some errands…if you could just find where you left your darn car keys. Really, how far away could they have disappeared in the two hours since you last drove the car??? Clearly, it’s time to address the problem. And the problem is not the keys.

Below are ten foods which have been scientifically proven to deliver health benefits to your brain—improving memory, focus and concentration. So, let’s start eating!

1. Blueberries – All berries are good options, but blueberries are the superhero food choice! Blueberries protect the brain from oxidative stress and may reduce the effects of Alzheimer’s, dementia, and premature aging.

2. Salmon – Salmon is high in Omega-3 fatty acids, which are essential for brain function.

3. Broccoli – Broccoli has nutrients for healthy blood flow, protection against free radicals, and removes heavy metals that can damage the brain.

4. Beans/Legumes – These excellent sources of complex carbs and fiber provide a steady supply of glucose for the brain without the risks of sugar spikes. They are also packed with folate, a B vitamin critical to brain function.

5. Avocados – Although high in fat, the avocado is a monounsaturated fat, which promotes healthy blood flow to the brain. Their antioxidants protect the brain from free radical damage. They also contain potassium and vitamin K, which protect the brain from the risk of stroke.

6. Pomegranates – Either the seeds or the juice will do, protecting the brain from free radicals with their strong antioxidants.

7. Sunflower Seeds – These, along with other seeds, are packed with protein, omega fatty acids, B vitamins, and tryptophan, which the brain uses to boost mood and combat depression.

8. Whole grains – If you’ve ever bought whole grain bread, the advertising on the package probably shouted that whole grains reduce the risk of heart disease. And if your heart’s healthy, that’s good news for your brain.

9. Almonds and other nuts – Nuts are extremely good for the brain and nervous system. High levels of vitamin E protect against dementia and cognitive decline by protecting the brain against free radicals and improving brain power.

10. Chocolate – Chocolate, especially dark chocolate, has strong antioxidants and can improve concentration and focus. It also stimulates the production of endorphins, putting you in a good mood. 

Now, excuse me while I munch on some chocolate-covered almonds and look for my car keys!

  Sara Daniel writes what she loves to read—irresistible romance, from sweet to erotic and everything in between. She battles a serious NASCAR addiction and was once a landlord of two uninvited squirrels. She lives her own happily-ever-after romance with her hero husband, and she gets amnesia at least three times a day because she can never remember where she left her keys!

Learn more about Sara on her website and blog. Subscribe to Sara’s newsletter. Stay connected on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.