Alan Thicke

I took a day off from doing anything yesterday when I heard the news that Alan had died. I worked with him a month ago to the day that he passed. I'm still in shock as he was a very kind, sweet and encouraging person to meet. He had a presence about him that was joyful and welcoming, just so easy going and fun to be around.  Knowing that a few days ago, he reached out to give me and a friend supportive words and I didn't get to respond, hurts so much. He will surely be missed. Rest In Peace.
😢

To Amazon, or not to Amazon...

While I'm hammering away on my edits, I'm still perusing the forums where a lot of discussion has to do with Amazon rules, sales, tricks and trades and even with all of these things, the market there seems so saturated and a lot of indie Authors report dismal if any sales. After watching a video from a best selling indie author, she advised to start elsewhere for the reasons I mentioned above.
I'm considering it, but also am not wanting to NOT, have my book available at every possible venue I can get it in...I wonder how many indie's have tried this?  Would it be silly or strategy and if there is a strategy, what is it?!

Birthday celebration and loong chapter

Well i took some time to de-stress a little and celebrate a couple loved ones birthdays. I did work an hr or so over the weekend, but this chapter is by far the longest. Also i'm finding myself re wording sentences and adding content and I think it will help. Anyway....Still on chapter 5 of 20 and hope to be done before Christmas Eve. My new goal to release is the week before Valentines day since its unlikely I'll be anywhere near my December 20th deadline. Onward!

Book Banner!

Alright so my book banner has been completed by an awesome lady Author Alexis Wills (www.authoralexiswills.com) and I couldn't be more happy with the result! Check it and her out as she has a new book coming out this month and it looks steamy! On to chapter 4!

Book Tours, Beta Readers and Reviews oh my

As I continue the tedious process of printing and physically reading and editing each chapter, I've also been doing more research as well as reading and socializing on the front of promotion more. I didn't know there was such an art form and taboo a subject as it relates to reviews.
I didn't know there were different rankings of reviews, verified vs non on Amazon, then you have Goodreads and there own criteria as well as bloggers who will review if you send a free copy, or in some instances pay for the review. Then there's Kindle free days and a whole algorithm to try and figure that out to your benefit.

And what exactly is a book blog tour? I'm not all together sure yet. I know what a regular book tour is, but I find the blog kind really fascinating and quite fun. You can cover alot more ground and get so much exposure on an electronic level that perhaps a limited physical tour would get you if im correct in my assumption, but i could be wrong...on to chapter 3

Okay

Ya know the slang term "Pimpin' ain't easy"? Same goes for the self publishing process. I was lucky to stumble upon a fellow Goodreads member's review of a book on self publishing: "Navigating Indieworld: A Beginners Guide to Self Publishing and Marketing Your Book" by J.A Gerber, and Carol P. Roman (Say that four times back to back) and got it last night.

 I whizzed through the first 4 chapters before I realized i still had my polishing to finish up so I printed the first chapter, read it, FOUND MISTAKES my computer eyes apparently missed, fixed those, read it out loud, rewrote some sentence structure, and will edit the first chapter according to what is on this physical page. That took two days roughly because I re-read what I did last night, made a few more tweaks and am satisfied with the new chapter flow now. If I can knock out 2 or three chapters a day, I may be able to keep my schedule but who knows... I'm honestly flabbergasted at the difference between reading your material on paper versus the computer and the things you catch... On to chapter two!

Book Cover done

Now that I've FINALLY decided on a Book Cover and title, I'm well into attacking my edits. In a perfect world, I'd love to have this thing released before Christmas or Valentines day the latest, but really in 15 days, I would like to try and make it happen. I've spent so long fretting over every detail, afraid to take the plunge, that I just want to pull the bandaid off already and join the Indie Author Club.....but I still want to make sure I put my best foot forward. If anyone knows good editors, beta readers etc, please share!