#Two Tips for Indie Authors - No Matter Your Genre | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

brynwrites · 6 years ago

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What I learned while self-publishing.

@milkyteefs asked:

I'm unsure about the entire self-publishing world! Do you have a basic outline of the process? Some key highlights/headings of how you started and what connections you needed to make? Thanks again! <3

I went through the process of self-publishing Our Bloody Pearl this summer. Even with all the guides in the world it turned out to be a very grueling experience. I’ll be doing it again with Quasi Stellar soon, but I also hope to traditionally publish The Warlord Contracts trilogy.

First, let’s get this out of the way: Self published books are often very bad.

But they don’t have to be.

Self publishing requires you, the writer, to either wear the hat of everyone else at a publishing house, or be your own investor and pay for professionals to do the jobs you can’t. If you’re willing to put in that effort and money then you can come out with a more professional book than you might have had you published traditionally. If you’re not, then self publishing might not be the right road for you.

Now then, how do you self publish in a way that produces a professional book?

Fifteen Basic Steps to Self-Publishing:

1. Write and edit the book.

This is, understandably, the step that a lot of people get stuck at. Writing a novel is hard. Don’t worry about how or when you’ll publish it until it’s finished.

Just write it.

During this time you should also be marketing yourself as a writer. Learn more about that via my marketing tips tag.

2. Beta readers and critique partners.

Getting feedback from handpicked peers is essential for any book no matter which publishing route you choose. If these terms are new to you, learn more about beta readers here and critique partners here.

During your first book (or two) I recommend starting with critique partners and then moving to beta readers afterward, because critique partners will shred your novel down to the bare bones, which you usually really need the first few books you write. Critique partners will also generally pick at your grammar and typos though, which can be very useful at the end of the editing stage so that your manuscript looks cleaner to an editor (or agent, if you traditionally publish.)

3. Write your blurbs and summary.

While your story is in the hands of your final group of readers, you should already be working on blurbs and summaries. By the end of the publishing process you will need:

A back of the book blurb.

A one-two sentence logline style blurb.

A one page summary of the story.

Don’t put these off! They won’t get any easier if you wait. You can find tips on writing blurbs in this article.

4. Determine that you’re done making changes to the manuscript.

A writer who’s growing and learning will forever feel as though there’s something they can change in their manuscript, but at some point you have to decide that what’s done is done. You will always have another awesome book which will be even better than this one.

If you have trouble determining when this point should be, check out this explanation!

5. Make a publishing timetable.

Give yourself more time on your timetable than you think you need! Traditional publishing takes about two years for a reason. A lot of the steps below this point seem relatively simple compared to writing and editing a book, but they require you to learn new skills and spend a lot of time waiting for other people with busy schedules.

Five and a half: Start book two.

You might have already done this during the beta reading stage, but if not, start another book! Writers should never stop writing and editing (outside of planned vacations, emergencies, and mental health breaks, of course), so pick that pen back up and start pounding out another book.

6. Find a content editor.

If you ran a beta reading stage with 10-20 critical and knowledgeable beta readers in your target audience then congratulations, they served the purpose of a content editor already!

6. Find a copy editor.

A copy editor is the person who checks your grammar, sentence structure, flow, and word usage. I found my editor though the editorial freelance association directory. The main things to look for when choosing an editor:

Experience. This should include testimonies, information about any publishing companies they worked with, and the works they edited in the past. If you can’t easily access and double check these things, then keep looking.

Sample edits. Any editor worth your time will offer you a free sample edit. (For copy editing this is generally 750-1k words of your novel. I’m not sure about other types of editing.) Take advantage of this! Send the same sample to the top four or five editors who fit your price range and see who returns feedback that you jive with and feel comfortable paying.

What if I can’t afford a copy editor?

In general, you can probably get away without hiring a professional copy editor if you (a) find 3-4 solid critique partners who are willing to do a very detailed line edit and proofread of your final draft (do not take advantage of your fellow writers!! Offer them the same in return!!), (b) get free sample edits from a handful of freelance authors to see if they catch any major formatting issues you do regularly, and (c) learn what a style guide is and make at least a simple one for yourself while you do another round of proofreading.

Remember though, traditionally publishing exists specifically so that you, the writer, can get a professional edit without having to pay for it. If you want a professional book without putting in the investment, then querying an agent might be the better option for you.

7. Prepare to offer ARCs to reviewers and friends.

Getting reviews for your book is the most important marketing activity you can do. The sooner you contact reviewers about this, the more reviews you’ll have when the release date comes. Note that the large majority of book reviewers you contact will never respond. If you email 20 reviewers, expect to get one or two reviews out of it, most likely in 4-6 months. (Which is why you should email all your friends and past beta readers too.)

How do we maximize the number reviewers who will read our books?

You know those neat little lists of book blogs who will review indie books? Don’t use them. Anything that with nicely compiled and easy to get reviewer lists is going to be overcrowded with blogs who have two year wait-lists and 97% of them will never even email you back.

Instead, try searching for reviewers you already follow on twitter and tumblr. Look for semi-popular goodreads reviewers who put positive reviews on books similar to your own and check if they have a link to a blog, or an email for review inquiries. Find less well known booktubers that youtube links to off your favorite popular booktubers.

8. Format the book.

You can pay someone to format your novel, but its rather expensive for something that’s relatively easy to learn to do yourself using guides off the internet. Paperback and ebook formatting must be done separately, and your first time I would set aside a full Saturday to tackle each of them, just to be safe. If you have a program like scrivener, with a little tweaking you should be able to get a nice looking ebook with none of the hassle of learning html. There are many other options though. Do a little research to find the one which works for you!

(Note: If you’re printing a paperback you cannot get a paperback cover until you’ve formatted the book and know final page count for your print size!)

9. Hire a cover artist.

The book cover is the most important part of your book, so far as sales and success are concerned.

There’s a huge trend in self published books to skip this stage and work with photoshop or cavna instead. I would not recommend this. Cover artists for professional books do what they do full time. They know the market. They know what sells. So do some writers, but the truth is, many of the writers who think they can design covers, turn out the sorts of designs that are easily pegged as self-published books.

If you want a professional looking book that pops in the amazon charts, hire a professional.

There are a multitude of ways you can go about this. Some large cover art sites like damonza offer bundles which can get pricey, but let you back out with no charge if you don’t like their first drafts and include unlimited changes if you commit. There are also many freelancers who specialize in book covers, for a wide range of prices.

What if I don’t have the money to hire a cover artist?

If there is anything you don’t want to go cheep on, it’s your cover art. But let’s say you absolutely have to get a cover for cheap or free. There are people who do cover designs for $5 on Fiverr, and I think some of them actually turn out half decent covers for very specific genres, but its a gamble. A couple writeblrs do cover design as part of their day job and might be willing to do something cheep or for a trade. You could also learn how to design covers yourself, but if you want to compete with books whose designers went to school just to do what they now do full time, you’ll either have to put in a lot of time or be lucky enough to have a very good, easily executed idea for your particular novel, and hopefully not one with requires any stock photos unless you want to purchase rights to them.

Now, there are some exceptions. Some writers have a natural design brain, and some writers are in fact designers themselves. Sometimes you write a book where the perfect cover design is very simple and easy to produce yourself. But that won’t be most people, with most books.

So far I have seen exactly two of the hundreds of self publisher made covers I’ve seen have actually made me want to buy the story. I’m not trying to be mean. It’s just the truth.

10. Offer ARCs to more reviewers.

Now you have a nicely formatted book and everything! Who can resist that?

11. Do a cover reveal, and during the cover reveal, offer everyone there an ARC.

Cover reveals come in many different forms. Some writers just post the cover on their blog, some do livestreams on facebook, some do question and answer sessions leading up to the reveal, some even go all out and have other writers come talk about their books on their site for a full day prior to the cover reveal.

Do whatever works best for your schedule. The goal is to attract attention for the book, so make sure you link to anything you’ve already set up from #12, so people can easily find your book when you release it!

And, as always, give out ARCs.

12. Get your book and author profile set up on everything.

Prior to your book’s release you should have a goodreads author page, an amazon author page, and a bookbub author page, all with your book attached. You should also have a website and a mailing list (linked to via your ebook), prepared release announcements for every social media site you work off of, and be ready with attractive and easily noticeable links to the book’s sale page off your tumblr blog and website.

Keep in mind that some of these things will take a decent chunk of time to set up, and a few of them require a live human being to confirm you are who you say you are. Start them as early as possible!

13. Release the book!

Time to actually put the book out there for all to buy. You can do a similar hype release as you do with a cover reveal, if you so desire. Make sure you remember to post all your announcements and put up all your links.

Try not to check on the book’s sales until the following day! It does not help their growth or your mental health to constantly be haunting your sales charts. When you do check them, keep in mind that a book which sells two thousand copies in its entire life time has done well, all things considered.

The fantastic thing about self publishing is that you never have to stop selling your book. If you sell fifty copies your first month and then twenty the second and then five the third, you can always dive back into marketing, run a discount, apply for a bookbub ad, focus on marketing yourself as an author and gaining followers. You chose whether your book is done selling.

To offer pre-orders or not?

This is a toss up. In my experience, pre-orders aren’t a good idea for your debut self-published novel, even if you think you have a large audience who will buy them, because they take away from the sales you could have your release week, and the boost those sale give you on the amazon charts. If you do wish to offer pre-orders though, try going through ingramspark instead of amazon advantage, to save yourself tears and heartache.

To go amazon exclusive or not?

Many authors claim that you have to try both to know what’s right for any particular book. Do your own research and decide what you think is best for you.

Thirteen and a half: Start book three.

At this point you should already have finished at least the rough draft of second novel, so don’t forget to start your third book at some point!

14. Offer people read for review copies.

Especially if your debut novel is aimed toward broke teenagers and younger adults, there will be a lot of people who are interested in the book but aren’t motivated enough to actually buy it on faith alone. By offering free ebooks on a read for review basis, you...

Grow your reviews.

Create fans out of people who may have never read the book otherwise.

Have higher paperback sales, because readers who loved the ebook you gave them may decide to buy themselves a paperback.

15, unto infinity: Keep promoting your book into the sunset, while writing new books!

The time to stop promoting you book is whenever you feel you’ve had enough sales and reached enough readers. Until you reach a point where you’ve published so many books that you can’t handle marketing them all, you should still be trying to expand your readership!

And don’t forget to have a little bit of fun along the way. You worked hard for this. Celebrate it.

But what if I just want to get a book out there?

If your goal is not to publish a professional looking book with will expand your fanbase and set you on a path to full time authorship, but rather to have a piece of your writing available in a book format your friends and family can buy, then there’s no reason not to publish exactly how you wish to.

Are all these steps really necessarily?

I believe they are, at least for a debut novel. In fact, there are probably more steps which I missed entirely. But, if you can find multiple self-published authors who went through a less rigorous publishing process and still received hundreds or goodreads reviews, then by all mean, follow that process instead (and let me know about it!)

So which book did you self publish?

This one here! You can support me and my ability to keep giving writing advice by purchasing a copy today =D

#writeblr #writing resources #writers on writing #writers on tumblr #self publishing #authors on tumblr #writing tag: publishing

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garrettauthor · 7 years ago

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Hello, Writer, and welcome back to my life.

It's Writer Wednesday, the day where I give you my tips and advice on the art and the business of writing, and tell you how I do what I do as an indie author.

Today's question comes to us from patron Kristen Stevens, who asks:

How do you find a cover artist that you like?

That's it. That's the question.

We've been answering a lot of questions like this recently—questions about people to work with. There's been questions about editors, review teams, and beta readers. I hope that means the Writer Wednesday community is growing up, and we're finding the people we need in order to actually take our books to a done. I hope that's the case with you. Feel free to let me know.

All right. How do you find a cover artist that you like?

This is, again, one of those important ones. Your cover is the number one thing that sells your book.

It's a hackneyed joke in the indie publishing community that "Everybody says you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but everybody does, haha."

It's 100% true. That's why people design book covers. If people didn't judge books by their cover, every single book would just be white paper.

Before you even begin the search for your cover artist, you need to make several important decisions about your cover. And first you have to decide: what KIND of cover is it going to be?

I've talked about how you need to write what's important to you. You need to write something, not because you think it's going to be the biggest moneymaker, not because you think it's the hot genre right now—that will lead you to a career of misery—but because you WANT to write it, because you are passionate about it.

And it has to be in a genre that you truly love, or a combination of genres, if you're mixing and matching things a bit. That's fine.

Either way, it needs to be something that is important to you—WHEN YOU'RE WRITING YOUR BOOK.

But when it comes to cover design, you need to throw that whole viewpoint away completely.

Every artist, every author, and particularly every indie author, has to be able to switch between the art and the business side of things. When you are working on your book, you wear your artist hat. You with your passion, your tools, and your creativity.

When it comes to your book cover, you need to take off your artist hat and put it far away, where it is not going to influence your decisions in the slightest. And then you need to pull on your business hat and strap it under your chin.

Because if you make cover design decisions based off of the whims of your heart, you just won't sell any books.

Cover design is the number one part of indie publishing where you must be absolutely 100% market-driven in order to get the best results.

Before anybody misunderstands, obviously you still have to be honest. Honesty IS market-driven. Dishonest people don't last long. Don't ever design a cover to "sell a lot of books," but which isn't REPRESENTATIVE of your book.

Theoretically, you could design a cover that looked just like a Jack Reacher novel. They're simple: a textured background with a target symbol.

Shoppers might assume it was a Jack Reacher cover and buy it for that reason. And then they would be very pissed off at you, because you're not Lee Child and it's not actually a Jack Reacher book.

Never do that. That's not being market-driven, that's being dishonest and criminal.

Designing a market-driven cover means finding out what sells well in your market and doing that in a way that is representative of your book.

I think of book cover designs in three broad categories.

THE GRAPHIC COVER

The graphic cover doesn't usually contain illustration. It rarely depicts characters. It's about symbolism.

This is the only one of my books that has a graphical cover. It's a simple symbol, designed to perfectly encapsulate what the reader will find in this literary book.

And graphic covers are primarily seen on literary books, including YA lit, such as John Green's The Fault in Our Stars:

Graphic cover. One of the best graphic covers out there.

And while we're talking about the Green brothers, the cover of Hank Green's new book was just released:

Another graphic cover. No real image, just a simple design communicating a lot of meaning.

In addition to literary and YA lit, nonfiction often features graphic covers.

THE PHOTOSHOPPED COVER

The next broad category is photoshopped covers. That's what I call them. There might be a better name, but you understand me.

Mark Dawson's books are perfect examples. A man on the run, usually with a gun, on a city background. I'd guess that two or three stock images are combined in each of these, in a very artistic way.

But photoshopped covers CAN get much more complicated.

This is the second edition cover of Nightblade, the one I had before my current cover. It's all Photoshop. About fifteen images from stock photo sites, combined to create this image.

Photoshop covers are also massively popular in romance. Two very attractive people, representative of the main characters of your story.

Photoshopped covers are also very popular in urban fantasy, and then there are some very good ones in military sci-fi and other sci-fi. You can definitely do photoshopped covers for genre, it's just more applicable to CERTAIN genres.

THE ILLUSTRATED COVER

The final broad category is the fully Illustrated cover, where every single pixel on the cover (except for the lettering) is hand-drawn by an artist.

These covers can be complex or simple. My individual books have one character on the front, and then for the bigger volumes, I have multiple characters from an iconic scene.

Illustrated covers are immensely popular in epic fantasy. They're the go-to standard. But illustrated covers are also very popular in sci-fi, particularly space opera—to the point that space opera covers can look a little bit samey.

Similar images of a planet in the background and a tiny little ship flying past it. They're great, but I do like some variation from that very common theme.

So the first big decision that you have to make is: what kind of cover are you going to get? And that is entirely dependent on your genre.

If you are writing epic fantasy, I firmly believe that you must do an illustrated cover. The one prominent exception that I can think of is George R.R. Martin and the Song of Ice and Fire books, which LOOK like photoshopped covers. And I'm not even sure about that. They're simple elements on a textured background. They could be illustrated, or they could just be heavily photoshopped.

If you're writing space opera, I think you should have an illustrated book cover, though I haven't done full market research on that. If the biggest space opera books of all time haven't had illustrated covers, don't feel obligated to do so.

If you're writing urban fantasy, paranormal romance, thriller, or regular romance, you almost certainly want a photoshopped cover. That's the standard. That's what your readers are looking for.

And if you're writing YA or literary fiction, consider a graphic cover.

But you have to make this decision first. It does no good to find an amazing Photoshop cover artist if you're writing epic fantasy. It doesn't matter how amazing they are. That's not what your genre demands.

While we're on the subject, because I can just see somebody bringing this up: The Name of the Wind has a photoshopped cover.

It's also an awful cover. It's one of the worst covers I've ever seen come out of traditional publishing.

I'm sorry. It's one of my favorite fantasy books. The cover is just not great. It is anti-great.

(And I can say that because it's not MY cover artist. Looking at you, Terry Goodkind.)

Moving on.

So you've determined what kind of cover that you need, based on your genre. Now comes an even harder part. Now you have to find the right person.

Not just the right person, but the right person who you can easily communicate and work with.

Not just the right person who you can easily communicate and work with, but the right person who you can easily communicate and work with, and who you can afford.

And I have no easy solution for you. I looked for a very, very, very long time before I found my current three cover artists, and I tried lots of covers before them that didn't work out, for one reason or another.

I have designed entire covers that were taken to full completion—and of course I paid for them—and I didn't use them, because the vision was not executed correctly. It was executed WELL, but that artist and I didn't jive on what we were going for.

That's the thing. It doesn't mean that that artist was bad. It just means that we aren't in sync enough to work together as author and cover artist.

I know they can turn out great work. I looked at their portfolio before I hired them.

But people can have compatibility issues, as I have discussed before. You can find a really good editor who YOU cannot work with. That doesn't mean they're a bad editor.

So you've got to do the grind, walk the beat. You have to look at art websites. Spend a lot of time on deviantart, if you need an illustrated cover. (There's good Photoshop work on deviantart as well.)

Talk to other authors. Find out who they used. Find covers from your contemporaries and ask where they got them.

Talk to a bunch of artists. Find out how their process works. Find out how much they charge.

You might go through five artists who you don't work well with—who would be perfect, and their art is very good, but something's off. You don't work well with them, or you can't afford them.

And then, finally, you'll find the person. You work well together, you're in sync, and you can afford them.

I can make a couple of recommendations. These are people I know and have worked with in one capacity or another over the years.

My three cover artists for illustrated covers for the Underrealm books are Sutthiwat Dechakamphu, Sarayu Ruangvesh, and Miguel Mercado. Their names are linked to their artist accounts.

If you're looking for illustrated covers, you should absolutely hire them. I don't generate enough work to keep them working full time, and they deserve stunning careers as artists.

If you're looking for Photoshop covers, Domi over at Inspired Cover Designs designs my text templates, and she does a lot of Photoshopped cover work for indie authors.

For more graphical covers, the best person I can think of is Risa Rodil. I've never commissioned a book cover from Risa, but she is an amazing graphical artist who has done lots of work with the vlogbrothers (and with me) for merch.

You've seen my "Have I Mentioned I Write Books?" t-shirt. That's a Risa piece of artwork. If I had a book named Have I Mentioned I Write Books? (maybe one day) I would totally take that piece of artwork and slap it on the cover.

Again, all these artists are amazing people. They're easy for me to work with, they're super flexible, and I have had a great experience with them every single time.

They might not work for YOU, because some people just don't work together. So if you do happen to reach out to one of these people, and it doesn't work out for whatever reason, it doesn't mean they're bad. It doesn't mean you're bad. It just means you need to keep searching until you find the people you click with.

That has been what I feel like was a very, very long answer. Thank you so much for the question, Kristen. I hope that you and others found the answer helpful.

A reminder to everybody else watching this video that my $5 patrons on Patreon, like Kristen, are the only people who get to ask questions for Writer Wednesday, and they get these videos two weeks ahead of everybody else. If that sounds interesting to you, check out my Patreon.

Thank you so much, and I will see you next Wednesday. Bye!

#writer wednesday #writing #writing advice #book covers #cover artists

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serendipei · 7 years ago

Text

promise me | pjm

a/n: this took super long to write but it was super fun!!! i love it so much ❤❤

genre: fluff, a dab of smut, author!reader

warnings: smut mentions,

pairing: jimin x reader

words: 5.2k

The book store was like a secret sanctuary for you. You liked to spend hours on end, wandering the seemingly looming bookshelves. By now, you had probably read every book inside that bookstore, but it didn’t matter. You loved every single piece of ink covered paper all the same.

No one ever read anything anymore. Since technology had advanced, there was no need to read anymore. No need for paperbacks or hardcovers. Instead, people could pull out a new gadget and pull up whatever they want on that. You, on the other hand, was always the odd one out. You had been handed these things all your life, but your heart had always yearned for the feel of rough surface instead of thin technology.

Most people that read your work don’t recognize you. There aren’t many of those people, but there are enough to prove that you are indeed a successful author. However, your appearance contrasts to what everyone thinks you are, and you have yet to show your face to the world. Instead, you had put a portrait drawn by none other but yourself in the back of the book, giving them the only hint of your facial features that they would ever get.

To those who see you, though, you appear to them as a slightly taller girl. You’re lanky, but not too skinny. Your hair is on the curlier side, which tends to bother you every day. Large, round frames of glass sit on your face, and freckles dimple the surface between your eyes as well as under them. You dress like a normal journalist; big brown trench coat with big pockets, leggings, a baggy shirt, a book bag, converse and a beanie. You’re a hippie to the world as it is now.

What you don’t expect to encounter while disappearing into your mental world, as a fact, is bumping into a hard figure that wasn’t the bookshelf. Instead, it was around your height, maybe even a few centimeters taller, but that’s it. You stumbled back, the words on the tip of your tongue as his wide brown eyes met with your panic filled green eyes.

“I-I’m so sorry,” you blurted, the words curling off your tongue and into the air as quickly as possible, a slight stutter tagging along as your heart began thumping in your chest. You didn’t like talking to people, you were possibly the most anti-social person you knew. Anxiety made it hard to have friends, as you were constantly apologizing for things you didn’t even realize weren’t your cause.

Upon blurting, you began taking in what the boy looked like. He had ashy brown hair, obviously newly dyed as streaks of blonde poked out here and there. Personally, you thought it added character, but you barely knew this guy, let alone were you on a base where you could compliment his hair. He had a cute face, too, with wide, puppy like brown eyes and thick, plump lips. His nose was small, and it complimented him.

However, he seemed to be pure muscle from what you had bumped into, as well as the skin tight shirt currently hugging him beneath his baggy hoodie. You were too busy analyzing him, that you didn’t realize he had began talking, all whilst looking highly amused. A deep shade of red covered your face, now cancelling out your freckles as your cold hands slipped into the deep, rough fabric of your jacket.

“You didn’t hear a word I just said, did you?” He hummed, his voice sweet as honey and thick in the air. You would’ve normally been swooning if you didn’t know who he was. If the hair didn’t give it away, his voice and muscle did. This wasn’t just some normal commoner you had ran into.

No, it had to be world famous vocalist Park Jimin.

“I, uh, no,” you cleared your throat, looking down at your feet, which were nervously shifting. You just wanted to disappear into thin air at that moment, but you couldn’t. He chuckled in the background, you could hear the almost angelic sound. How could anyone not? Then again, it was most likely just you two in the book store for right now.

A hand that was more on the tan side flew through his hair, letting some of the strands fall back and then onto his forehead. “I said it was okay, and that you seemed to be in your own private mind world.” He described, a finger tapping his temple. You noticed a large brown freckle there, and it intrigued you. You snapped out of it early though, he was famous, and you weren’t.

“I totally was, I didn’t see you at all. Anyways, carry on, I’ll just…” You swallowed, a bead of sweat rolling down your neck. It was the worst time ever to start sweating out of cold nerves, but here you were. You quickly tried to slip away, laughing in panic and fake happiness.

But before you could disappear into the bookshelves completely, he suddenly yelped, “wait!”. You felt a hand wrap around your arm, surprisingly warm, stopping you in your tracks. You tripped, almost falling, but Jimin thankfully saved you from that horrible path by pulling you back up. Otherwise, you would be on the ground by now, embarrassed and with a flushed face. This time, he had a motive to try to talk to you.

“Actually, I was going to ask- do you know where I can find the book ‘Promise Me?’ I heard the series was really good, and yet, I can’t find it.” He said, this time voice riddled with a sheepish tone. Your eyes widened. ‘Promise Me’ was a series you had written and was still writing. Someone like him was trying to read your books. The thought hit you like a bullet, ripping through your mind and almost destroying your ability to do anything else.

You didn’t let that show on the outside though. Instead, you freed yourself of his grip, your tongue darting out to lick your lips ever-so-quickly before disappearing. You were pushing up your glasses, already leading him to the shelf where you had memorized the fact your books rested here. “Yeah, actually, follow me.”

The bookshelf was only around two footsteps away, yet you still stumbled, accidentally tugging Jimin forward. With an embarrassed huff, you let him go and pointed to the very bottom shelf of the tall, brown case. You needed to get out of there, and fast, if you were to survive the rest of the world’s wrath.

He didn’t have time to look up and say anything, though, because you were already bolting out of the store. With a jolt you realized you had really been sweating, because the part under your glasses where the bridge of your nose was had collected some of the drops. You wiped your nose quickly, now paying attention to your surroundings.

Rain was falling, a loud pattering sound echoing throughout the city as it hit the gray cement. Cars didn’t help; tires hit the large puddles beginning to accumulate on the side of the road, and you groaned as you realized you had to walk in this. Flipping up your hood, you quickly looked around again before heading straight towards your rather small apartment building.

The next time you saw Park Jimin wasn’t necessarily in real life. Instead, him and his boy group were doing a showcase on the TV that you had decided to turn on while brainstorming for your third installment of the series you had been working on for a while. You were extremely surprised to hear certain words tumble out of the now silver haired boy.

“Also, shout out to the author of the ‘Promise Me’ books. You write really beautiful books, and I can’t wait for the third book.” He seemed to say, the words filtering through your TV. You whipped around, eyes wide as you stared at the TV, almost dumbfounded.

You were so dumbfounded that you didn’t notice the chair you were currently resting in was tipping over. Within seconds of turning around, you were thrown onto the ground, chair clashing with your body after you hit first. It didn’t break, but you felt like you did. Pain throbbed all spots of your body, mostly the right side as you shifted, pushing the chair up and off of you.

The glasses you were wearing had fallen onto the ground, and you stumbled to find them, quickly putting them back on when you did find them so that you could see. You put the chair back to where it was originally, huffing with effort. A hand flew up to wipe the beads of sweat now forming on your forehead, attention falling back to the wide box in the front of your small apartment room.

The camera had moved on from Jimin and now was focusing on another bandmate, who you barely remembered the name of. It was like… Jungkook? Yeah, you were sure that was his name. He was seemingly the youngest, and had a very boyish look. His face contrasted his body, though. You clicked your tongue, shaking your head slightly as you turned back to the laptop setting upon the hickory desk you had managed to force into the room.

‘First sentence… first sentence…’ Your mind urged at you, trying to spit out words to type into the laptop in front of you. However, no matter how much you tried to search your brain for the words, nothing came out. Your fingers lay still, not wanting to type anything in fear of it being a useless idea. Most of the time, ideas would flow through your mind like a river waiting to spill, but today, that river was drier than a desert on a summer day.

The only thing clear in there was the words “Park Jimin”. For some reason, ever since that day in the bookstore, you couldn’t clear the boy out of your mind. Normally you didn’t pay attention to mainstream music, you thought it was okay but you preferred indie. Things like Dean, Crush, DPR Live, Heize; people like BTS were too famous, and their music sounded like stuff that came straight from another boy group.

You closed your laptop, a loud groan escaping from your mouth as you let your hands find their way to your head. They held your face, your eyes closing as you let your mind rest for a few seconds. Often enough you would be up all night, spending your time brainstorming ideas instead of sleeping. It was a bad habit you most likely needed to fix, but were you going to? Absolutely not.

Instead of staying there and getting frustrated over some measly writers block, you grabbed your book sack and stuffed some of your journals in there, throwing it on and slipping some shoes on. You figured you would go to your friend’s, brainstorm there. He could help you, as he was a fellow writer, although lately he had been going for the singer career. All that you had done at his decision for that was laugh and call him crazy. He was dead serious, though.

Not forgetting your car keys, you exited your apartment and made your way down stairs, careful not to trip (you had done that enough lately.) as you walked as fast as you could. Within no time you were outside, jogging to your car. Today was contrasting yesterday, with the bright golden rays of the sun lighting everything around you. It seemed cheery, but you could care less.

After Jaehyun had dragged you up, he had actually done a pretty well job of making you look more presentable. For a guy like him, he had a decent sense of fashion, you quickly found. Your hair was now up in a messy but also somewhat put together bun, clothing now matching. You looked presentable.

You pushed the door to the records shop open, the bell hanging on the door chiming loudly as the both of you stepped in. Music played from speakers hidden near the ceiling while racks of albums and records stood tall everywhere. It was like heaven to you, and you couldn’t stop yourself from smiling widely. You loved music.

“Calm down there, you look like you just found diamond among a pile of rocks.” Jaehyun mused from beside you, his hands tucked neatly into his dress pants and his hair now styled back. He looked quite nice, and the more you walked around with him, the more people somewhat audibly swooned over him.

“You should know by now how much I love music,” you snorted, rapidly going through shelves to try to find albums you wanted. Luckily, no one there recognized you from the messy portrait in your books, and you were still in the clear for public interaction.

Another bell chimed, and you didn’t bother looking back. A multitude of voices was added to the not-very-busy background of the record shop, and you were just going to pass the voices off as a group of friends. Jaehyun began aggressively tapping your shoulder, almost shaking it, as he faced away. Something had caught his attention.

Grumbling, you turned to him. “What the fuck do you want, Jae-” you nearly dropped the albums you had collected in your arms, now understanding why Jaehyun was so focused on the scenery in front of you. There, by the door, stood a group of 7 boys, all laughing and giggling as they conversed with eachother. No one else in the shop seemed to notice, or care.

“Why the hell would BTS come to this record store at this time?!” Jaehyun turned with you, aggressively (and slightly panickedly) hissing in your ear. You shrugged, pretending you were still paying attention to the records in front of you. You realized this was the second time you had encountered Jimin now.

“I don’t know! Just act normal,” you hissed back, slapping Jaehyun’s arm. You quickly tried to hide your face, because if Jimin saw you, it would be all over. Jaehyun went back to picking out albums for you and requesting stuff, and you eventually forgot that BTS was currently in the shop at point.

You looked up at Jaehyun, smiling and laughing at a joke he made, before a voice next to you made you jump. You almost fell onto Jaehyun, who now stood tall behind you, making sure you didn’t faint due to anxiety.

“Hey, wait, aren’t you the girl that helped me find the book at the bookstore? Ah, uh, what’s your name…” He quickly seemed to try to jolt his brain, staring down as he focused on thought. Jaehyun had no clue, and was now curious on what happened. You had never told him you had met Park Jimin before. Your face flushed as you stuttered, back into your flustered state from yesterday.

“I uh, actually never gave you my name. I-its Y/N.” You embarrassedly explained, the blush on your face turning even darker (if that was possible by now.). Jaehyun had never seen you like this, and was genuinely interested on what happened. No one else had ever made you like this, not even your crushes from school. Jimin was blushing too, his own face now red from embarrassment.

“O-oh! I didn’t realize that. That’s kinda cool… you have the same name of…” He trailed off, suddenly squinting at your face. It took him a moment before his eyes widened, something obviously clicking in his brain as he licked his lips. He began moving, pointing at you and smiling.

“You’re seriously the writer of ‘Promise Me’?! I’m like, a huge fan-” he giggled, cut off by someone else suddenly appearing, the boy slinging his arm around Jimin’s shoulders. Jaehyun realized that it was Jungkook, and suddenly he himself was getting shy. You looked up at him, feeling him tense with the arrival of Jungkook. Jaehyun was staring at the younger, the two having some intense eye contact.

Both you and Jimin seemed to notice, because both of you happened to begin chuckling at the same time. Jungkook looked down, blushing furiously as Jaehyun looked to the side. The taller of all three of them had his hands nervously tucked into his pants. You and Jimin wiggled your eyebrows at each other.

“A fan, huh? Well, that’s nice to know because I’m fan of yours,” you said, recovering from your flustered state and transforming back into the confident girl Jae knew. Jimin smiled, holding his hand out for you to shake. You indeed did, dipping your head slightly and smiling back. It was too formal, and seen more of a joke than anything.

“Hey, actually, I need a certain album; Jimin, you wanna look with me?” You proposed the idea, glancing between Jungkook and Jaehyun, who was eyeing you like you were crazy. You saw Jaehyun swallow nervously. Jimin seemed to get the hint and nodded, following you to another section of the store. You didn’t hesitate to talk when you got far away enough.

“I swear I’ve never seen my friend that starstruck by someone ever before,” you hummed, leaning against the shelf. Jimin did the same, laughing as he shook his head. You couldn’t help but think it was one of the most beautiful sights you had ever seen. What the fuck? Y/N, no, you’re famous, he’s even more famous, you can’t begin to like him, your inner mind snapped at you, and you knew it was true. You couldn’t think about him that way.

“Honestly, the sexual tension between those two was intense. What’s your friend’s name?” He asked, folding his arms. His tongue poked out of his mouth just the tiniest bit, you noticed, and you quickly looked back to his wide eyes before he noticed.

“Jaehyun. Yours was Jungkook, right?” You asked, squinting slightly as if contradicting yourself. Jimin laughed and nodded, not questioning how you knew it was Jungkook. He practically already knew. You glanced over to where Jaehyun and Jungkook were, grinning as you saw the two eagerly conversing. You nudged Jimin, pointing to the two. He tried not to laugh.

“Can I say, 'future couple’?” You whistled, to which Jimin nodded aggressively. His silver hair flopped loosely around, and you pressed down the urge to run your fingers through his silky locks. It just looked so�� soft. He turned around and you both fell into a conversation, easily talking. He was surprisingly attentive, and intelligible to talk to.

Time flew, and when you checked your phone, your eyes practically bulged. You had an event to attend, which Jaehyun was also going to. You looked back up at Jimin, who had an eyebrow raised. What had got you so flustered?

“I really, really need to go, I didn’t even realize what time it was.” You chuckled breathily, panicking slightly. Jimin nodded, understanding the urgency of events. He didn’t want to stop talking to you, so he immediately began talking again.

“Before you go, though, could I get your number? I’d like to keep talking,” he suggested, and he was dead sure he saw you blush instantaneously. You just nodded, though, and shakily took out your phone for him. He entered his number, before taking out his own phone and collecting yours. Holy shit, I just got Park Jimin’s number, you thought, eyes widening. Your movements stuttered as you put your phone back, moving away from Jimin timidly.

“Bye~!” Your voice wavered, tiny now compared to the chatty person you were a few seconds ago. That’s okay, though, Jimin couldn’t resist thinking you were cute. You made your way back to Jaehyun, who was wrapping up his conversation with Jungkook. He had finished right when you got there, waving bye to Jungkook as the two exchanged smiles.

You grabbed Jaehyun’s meaty bicep and began to drag him out of the store, hurrying towards your car. He stared at you, kind of confused when you threw him into the passengers seat. He waited for you to get in the drivers seat to pelt you with questions, though.

“How did you know Jimin? Why did you guys leave me? Where are we going-” he rambled, before you pressed a finger to his lips, shutting him up. You didn’t want to deal with his questions quite yet, and you needed to meet your manager at the event. He barely accepted letting Jaehyun attend this event, let alone being late as well.

Jaehyun didn’t talk the rest of the way.

This chair was extremely uncomfortable. You hated plastic chairs, and this one had no arm rest, so it was even worse. Your fingers ached with every penmark, your eyes tired of seeing your own books at this point. You were sure you didn’t want to see another copy of your book any time after this event.

The only thing keeping you going was Jaehyun’s hands on your shoulders, gently massaging them to make sure you didn’t tense up too badly, as well as the beyond happy faces of fans passing through. Some cried, some were quiet, some wanted skinship, some were loud, and others wanted info. All were annoying, except for the quiet ones. It made you happy knowing people loved your work, though. You didn’t mean it when you said your fans were annoying.

You stuck it out, though, making small conversation with Jaehyun every few seconds. He endured it too, knowing these events were tiring. Some fans were amazed at how pretty you were, your face no longer a mystery to the fandom. You were sure there would be fancams and pictures all over the internet after this. Some asked if Jaehyun was your boyfriend, and you just laughed and said no. One fan, though, stood out.

“Do you know Park Jimin?” He had asked, although you couldn’t read his face because a mask wrapped around his face. He had a cap on, too. You just smiled, nodding slightly.

“I do, he’s a friend of mine,” you simply answered, finishing off the signing with one last person. Everyone else had left, and that’s when he took off his cap and mask. No longer than 3 hours later, Jimin was back, having escaped his own event to attend yours. You were astonished, jaw dropped as you observed him.

“Well hello there, friend,” he teased, smiling so widely that his eyes made crescents. You laughed. Unbelievable. Park fucking Jimin attended my signing event. You repeated in your head, Jaehyun gawking at the both of you yet again. Before both of you could talk, Jaehyun butted in.

“Okay, how the hell do you two know each other?” Jae demanded, sassily putting his hands on his hips. Jimin blinked, looking up at him and then at you. You leaned back, shrugging as you pushed your glasses further up your nose.

“She helped me look for a book,” Jimin said, and Jaehyun just nodded, lost in thought. It was an entirely possible situation, as Jae knew you spent a lot of time at that bookstore around the corner. You blushed slightly at the thought, now rubbing your face. Why did you blush at everything Jimin did?

You couldn’t find an answer to that question.

#jimin #park jimin #park jimin scenarios #jimin scenarios #park jimin fanfic #jimin fabric #park jimin fluff #jimin fluff #bts scenarios #bts fanfic #bts fluff

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easy-tae-breezy · 7 years ago

Text

Princess | Librarian!au (?)

Members: Yuta/Reader

Genre: Librarian!au (?) | Fluff

Word Count: 1,700

The crisp Sunday morning cut through the bare street as you wander through the new town. Moving towns had always been an idea that intrigued you and so after graduating into adulthood you decided, why the heck not?

Sunlight radiated through the network of alley ways, lighting up the small, family-based stores. All you wanted to do was explore the fresh, new town to its full potential and pop into each shop but the one thing stopping you was the desire to find a very specific treasure, a book, to be exact.

Having spent all day yesterday researching numerous dead ends, you discovered a little private library that had the book in their collection and after having briefly chatted with the owner, you found they were willing to lease the book to you for free due to your keen enthusiasm. The owner revealed herself to be an elderly lady with the same passion for books and warm tea, similar to the passion that you had and was more than happy to meet ‘someone so young yet so alike’. Over the phone she sounded legit enough to visit the next day and so here you were. The only problem now, however, was that the store was incredibly hard to find within the vast web of alleyways.

Skimming past family restaurants and indie cafes, you finally find the particular store you had long been searching for, Maple’s Pages. It easily stood out in comparison to its neighbouring buildings as it possessed an antique aura with very little to none of its features striving to be modern or contemporary. Its walls were of a beige cobble stone brick and had bits of darkness and moss growing in small cracks. Cosy.

The green wooden door was left slightly ajar with a sign reading ‘Welcome, we’re open’. Its partly shielded windows revealing several rows of endless bookcases that were also coloured the same vintage green colour as the door.

You hesitantly push the door open further, causing a ring to echo from the small bell hanging above the opening. Slowly stepping forward while looking around, you observe a small desk tucked in the back of the room with a sleeping figure resting with their legs propped up on the table-top.

“Hello…?”

Nothing.

The lean figure continues to lightly snore under the open book on their face, their chest heaving up and down in time to their relaxed breaths. You begin to make your way closer towards them, sceptical that the figure was the elderly Maple you had spoken to yesterday judging by the boyish fashion and broad shoulders.

“Excuse me… Ahem! Maple?”

You say a little louder with curiosity lingering in your words. The masculine form briefly stops breathing. You take a cautious step back… The man across from you sighs with a low voice and reaches for the book balancing on his face, revealing an attractively scowled expression.

His dark brows knot in confusion, his eyes half-opened with drowsiness, half-opened with annoyance, peer at your timid stance. As he fully awakens he begins to look you up and down, licking his lips in a jokingly seductive manner as a smirk tugs on the corners of his lips.

“HEY!” You yell while attempting to cover your fully clothed body, your face reddens at the attention from a devilishly handsome man. He merely laughs at you response, beaming an amused smile.

“Lighten up, I don’t bite, princess,” he winks at your direction, briefly pausing to stand up and introduce himself.

“I’m Yuta, Marin is my gran but she calls herself Maple because apparently it draws in customers...”

He says sarcastically with a hint of guilt as he throws his hands out gesturing to the empty store.

“Don’t be so harsh! She seems really kind… Plus she has an excellent taste in books,” You say matter-of-factly.

“No way. Don’t tell me…”

“What?”

He faux-ponders by placing a slender finger on his plumped, pouting lips, staring straight at you, making you slightly shy at the undivided attention. With a mini ‘ah-ha’ moment, he extends his finger to point at you with a perfect smile gracing his handsome face.

“You’re the nerd that wants to borrow that book, ah… What was it called again…? Music of Ancient-”

“The Music of The Most Ancient Nations,” you interject quickly, “yes, I am that nerd, butthead.”

A glint of enjoyment glazes over his eyes as he deviously chuckles to himself once more.

“Ah, well that’s a shame,” he sighs with a pouting face, pacing closer towards you, “I don’t know where it is.”

“What do you mean? How could you not know, your Maple’s grandson,” you doubt his claim, voice rising slightly.

“Well, I, personally, am not too keen on books like gran is. But she insisted to go to the market and get the finest tea for her book-loving-pen-pal, leaving me, someone with no knowledge on books, to look after the store,” he explains, slyly walking around you with his arms crossed.

“So I have no idea where she put it,” he continues with a smirk, “but my guess is that it’s somewhere in this room.”

“Great thinking, Sherlock!” You sarcastically exclaim, “Go ahead and find it and we can wait for-”

“Ah, ah, ah, princess,” he interrupts, standing before you while shaking his finger “not so fast.”

“Ugh, I don’t have time for this, you dork, just give me the book,” you whine as you lightly smack his finger out of your face..

“Hey, is that really any way to talk to your future prince?”

You outwardly snort, playfully pushing Yuta out of your way as you begin to explore the vast amount of books resting on the shelves around you.

“If you want it, you’re gonna have to find it, honey. I was in the middle of something,” He places his two hands under the side of his face, pretending to fall asleep.

‘Well if anything, he would have been a distraction, clearly wasn’t going to help me anyway…’

You allow your fingertips to gently graze on the spines of the books as you read each new individual title, recognising a few of the authors’ names. Occasionally you’d pull out a book or two, only to place it back in its rightful place after having mentally listed which ones to read in the future.

After having scoped through the first aisle you make your way to the next set of shelves, picking up another interesting book along the way. However, instead of an empty space being left behind from the book, a pair of crescent shaped eyes on the other side of the bookcase peep up at you with curiosity. Frightening you at first, you gasp, but soon relax as boisterous laughter erupts from Yuta.

“Geez, you scared the crap outta me, Yuta!”

“Haha, you’re a delicate one aren’t you?”

You groan slightly but let out bubbly, light giggles afterwards at the childish antic and bashfully place the book back into its original resting place, continuing your leisurely walk down the row of books. From the corner of your eye you notice Yuta wearing a bright smile on his lips as he follows you on your mini-conquest. His once irritated eyes now gleamed with affection and interest as you continued to admire the collection.

Your steps come to an abrupt halt after spotting a particular book perched on the highest shelf- ‘that’s the one!’

“I found it, Yuta! Haha, yes! Can I go get it?”

You point towards the shelf with your cutest smile, internally cursing at how easily you had grown accustom to the man’s presence and how excited you let yourself sound.

“Be my guest, princess,” he replied, while bowing his head and placing his hand over his chest, mimicking a butlers gestures.

You teasingly thwack his shoulder and begin tip-toeing to reach the book. Struggling, you decide to recruit the small stool from in front of the desk to help you and with the help of the extra height, you grip the book easily. However, you begin to feel your balance faltering as the stool below you rocks slightly. Your feet try to step off the stool but the rest of your body’s inaccuracy causes you to miscalculate the step as you inevitably fall backwards, book still in hand.

You squeeze your eyes shut, bracing for the fall.

When the fall never hits you, you peak one of our eyes open. A concern-painted Yuta meets your gaze, his lips pushed in a slight ‘o’ shape. His eyes staring right back at you, briefly wondering down to your lips. His strong arms carefully holding your figure mid-air, providing a sense of security.

You blink in shock, the haze of the situation melts and Yuta’s concern eases slightly. You begin to stand up straight with one hand clutching the book to your chest, the other still grasping a bundle of the man’s shirt. He smiles to himself as you don’t back out of his embrace.

“You can let go now, princess.”

Your face reddens with embarrassment as you release your tight grip on his clothing, clearing your throat and mumbling an apology.

“I think I ought to leave…”

‘Oh my gosh… How embarrassing ugh…’

“Haha okay, come here, silly. I gotta check the book out for you first,” he sighs but the charming smile on his face never wavers.

“Tell Marin I’m sorry, I’ll visit her another time, I’m not feeling too well,” You regretfully apologise with your head hanging low, humiliation showing through the hot blush on your face.

Yuta chuckles and nods as he collects the book from you, jogging over to the desk and quickly writing in it. Before you know it, the book is back in your possession with a small piece of paper peeking out the top of it and Yuta is quietly guiding you with one hand gently pushing the small of your back towards the door. Before you leave Yuta whispers to you with the heat of his breath tickling your ear as you keep your embarrassed expression away from his sight. Although you hadn’t looked you were certain he was wearing that sinful smirk of his.

“Be sure to read it before you come back, princess.”

You merely nod, registering no meaning to his words, and let out a brief ‘thank you’ as you start speed-walking walking home.

The sheer embarrassment of the fall had solely occupied your mind on your way home as it painfully replayed for the nth time, distracting you from any of Yuta’s dialogue. Only when you had reached home and shut your front door did your mind dare to think of Yuta and the intent of his last words to you.

Be sure to read it before you come back, princess…

‘What the heck was that about...?’

You reflect on his absurdity as you turn the first page. A slip of paper falls to the floor near your feet, picking it up you notice scribbles of a number and small note: Instead of checking out the book, how ‘bout checking out me over dinner? I didn’t get your name too, princess. ;)

Yay! Thank you for reading! :) Hope you enjoyed it. Lmao I’m totally gonna change the title later to something more cute. Any thoughts, feedback or kind words are greatly appreciated <3 Have a wonderful week.

#yuta #NCT #yuta scenarios #nct scenarios #yuta fluff #nct 127 #nakamoto yuta

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readingontheedge · 5 years ago

Photo

What Heals the Heart

Cowbird Creek Book 1

by Karen A. Wyle

Genre: Western Historical Romance

Print Length: 266 pages

Publisher: Oblique Angles Press

Publication Date: October 15, 2019

Joshua Gibbs survived the Civil War, building on his wartime experiences to become a small town doctor. And if he wakes from nightmares more often than he would like, only his dog Major is there to know it.

Then two newcomers arrive in Cowbird Creek: Clara Brook, a plain-speaking and yet enigmatic farmer’s daughter, and Freida Blum, an elderly Jewish widow from New York. Freida knows just what Joshua needs: a bride. But it shouldn’t be Clara Brook!

Joshua tries everything he can think of to discourage Freida’s efforts, including a wager: if he can find Freida a husband, she’ll stop trying to find him a wife. Will either matchmaker succeed? Or is it Clara, despite her own scars, who can heal the doctor’s troubled heart?

EDITORIAL REVIEWS

“What Heals The Heart is a time-machine in a compact tome.… If you love period pieces, Karen A. Wyle’s book will satisfy even the most discerning reader. This elegant novel is an exquisite example of romance at its finest!” – Indies Today

“Ms. Wyle’s understanding of the time period described in the book is impressive… . The love story that develops is endearing and timeless… . My world felt right while reading this book, as if I’d found an old friend and sat for a while to drink coffee and chat about life or love. I give What Heals the Heart five out of five stars. It is one of the best modern historical romances I have read in recent years. Fans of historical romances will enjoy this book. Ms. Wyle, if you’re out there reading this, just know I’m a huge fan now.” – Kathryn Blade, author and reviewer

“Brilliantly connects the reader to the characters reliving collective trauma … . She was able to bring a perfect amount of lightness (small town matchmaking and quirky friendships) to balance a tough subject. The friendships in this novel were phenomenal and I loved every single one of them. Wyle is able to create characters who I wanted to befriend… . Characters I fought for, cheered for, loved, and in all honesty, cried for and with.” – Honestly Austen

“This one is a must read for historical fiction buffs. Ms. Wyle has done her homework and it shows as the dust gets in your eyes, and the smells of horse and prairie fill your nostrils. A wonderful atmosphere that feels like stepping back in time as the manners, the speech and the neighborly attitudes come alive. Truly a hidden gem … that shares a slice of one man’s life, loneliness and caring ways.” – Dianne Bylo of Tome Tender

“"The resolution scene is worthy of Jane Austen… . Wyle’s writing is equally excellent throughout… . Word by word, sentence by sentence, page by page, Wyle does not let the reader down.” – Danusha Goska, author and scholar

“Wyle’s historical romance is a fantastic tale of life on the prairie for a country doctor still dealing with his war experience… . [H]umorous, touching … a wonderful read that kept me interested from the first page.” – Teresa Grabs (author of Wish Upon a Leaf)

Excerpt from Chapter 2 of

What Heals the Heart

“Boot blacking, coffee, cornmeal, flour, soap. Put it on your tab?”

“Thank you kindly.” The suggestion would, in fact, save him some embarrassment. His patients had lately been paying in roast chickens, bacon, cream, potatoes, even horseshoes — all welcome and useful items, but it left him short of coin.

“And you’ve got a letter.”

This would take some juggling. Joshua picked up the envelope first, opening it and extracting the letter, tucking the envelope into his vest and laying the letter on the counter. Next, he grabbed the sack full of supplies in his left hand and picked up the letter in his right. That left him without a way to tip his hat, so he nodded his goodbye and walked out, glancing at the letter as he went. Major, idling in the street, jumped up to follow.

Joshua knew he had not been a satisfactory correspondent. The last letter to his mother in which he had mentioned anything of actual importance had been the letter he sent on his way west, trying to explain why he had felt compelled to leave his family and his home so far behind. Even as he sent that letter on its way, he had known it would fail in its mission. What he had been unable to say to her face, he had been equally unable to put into words on paper. Either would have required that he call to mind, and then stain her memory forever by recounting, the life he had lived as a soldier and a medic. Without that understanding, how could she understand how unreal and hollow the civilized life of Philadelphia had become for him?

His mother still wrote every two weeks, however, and he’d been awaiting her latest for several days. Now he saw what had kept her busy. His middle sister’s baby had come — except it was twins! A boy and a girl. He could imagine his younger and oldest sisters knitting madly to deal with the surprise.

As for his father — what? He was writing a book?

Joshua had been paying just enough attention to where he was going that he didn’t trip on the planks in the street or walk in front of any horses. But not enough, it turned out, to avoid walking smack into someone. He started backward, dropping his sack, and stammered apologies, while Major added to the confusion by circling the scene and barking loudly.

His victim, Joshua realized, was the tall green-eyed woman he had seen in the street the day he first met Mrs. Blum. She had managed to stay on her feet and now stooped to help him retrieve his groceries, whisking them away from Major’s investigative sniffing. Her hands looked strong, with long fingers; it took her almost no time to fill his sack again. She stood up, neither smiling nor frowning, and handed him the sack. “I hope that isn’t bad news in your hand.”

He tried to pull himself together enough to answer her. “Uh, no, not bad news. Just news. Babies. Two of them. That is, my sister just had twins.”

The woman’s eyes widened. “Congratulations to your sister! I’m sure she’ll cope splendidly.”

An interesting way to put it. Was she speaking from experience, and if so, her own or someone else’s?

Manners! What would his mother — or for that matter, Freida Blum — say? “I beg your pardon. I’m Joshua Gibbs.”

The woman tilted her head slightly and nodded in what might, unlikely as it seemed, be approval. “The doctor. I’ve heard of you. People speak well of you.”

Did they? He supposed they might. The comment left him feeling absurdly pleased. With some difficulty, he suppressed a foolish grin.

He was becoming curious about the woman’s identity, but accidental assault was hardly the basis for him to ask about it. She took pity on him and volunteered the information. “My name is Clara Brook. We’re recent arrivals. Our farm is a little over four miles to the southwest.” He was not that good at accents, but thought she might have grown up in or near Kentucky.

Joshua had about an hour before he needed to be back for his afternoon office hours. How much money did he have on him? He’d grabbed a few coins in case he needed them at the general store. It should be enough, at least if he held himself to a single scoop without toppings. “May I buy you an ice cream? As an apology for my inexcusable carelessness?”

Miss Brook looked at him gravely. “Hardly inexcusable. I’ve seen —” She cut off the comment and said instead, “Thank you. That would be very nice.” Not a fan of hyperbole, it seemed, in others or in her own speech. Joshua led the way, in case Miss Brook had not yet learned the ice cream parlor’s location. Major had apparently decided to adopt her, trotting by her side rather than his master’s. When they reached their destination, Miss Brook paused and gestured toward the dog. “Does he accompany us or no?”

Joshua shook his head, having decided previously that ice cream was unlikely to be a good addition to Major’s diet. Miss Brook then startled Joshua by snapping her fingers toward Major and pointing to a position near the window. Major immediately sat.

The clerk at the ice cream parlor looked at Joshua with some surprise as they entered. Joshua asked Miss Brook’s preference, ordered her single scoop of strawberry along with his own vanilla, paid — narrowly escaping the embarrassment of coming up short — and carried both plates to the little table next to the window.

Now what? Well, she knew he had sisters, one of them with new additions to her family. Surely he could ask after similar details, at least indirectly. “How have you and your … your family been finding Cowbird Creek? Is it what you hoped, when you decided to settle here?”

Somehow it failed to surprise him when she avoided a conventional response. “I wouldn’t say we know enough, yet, to answer that question. Or perhaps I should say we didn’t have very specific expectations. My parents wanted to buy land, to leave my brother someday, and there was land for purchase here. It’s a deal of work for the four of us, but we’re used to work.”

A brother, but no sisters — at least none still at home. It was unlikely she’d lost sisters in the War of Rebellion, but she might have had more brothers before that long and bloody nightmare. All through his childhood, he had wished he had brothers instead of, or in addition to, three sisters. That wish, too, had died in the war.

It was Joshua’s turn to say something, but nothing came to mind. Miss Brook did not seem to be one of those women who could set a man to talking. Or maybe she chose not to do so. He could think of only one inane question. “What are you growing, or raising?”

Her left eyebrow twitched upward. “The usual, I suppose. Corn, oats. I have some interest in planting winter wheat, but my father has not yet agreed. I have a vegetable garden, though I’m still getting accustomed to the weather and how it affects what I can grow. We raise hogs — and chickens, of course, but mainly for our own eggs and our own pot.”

He might be carrying home some of those eggs, some day. They would be good eggs, he’d wager — he guessed she took good care of the hens.

Before he could come up with some other conversational gambit, she asked him, “What’s the most surprising thing about Cowbird Creek? Something we wouldn’t have had a chance to learn yet?”

There was a question he hadn’t heard before. “Hmm. Let me think.” Madam Mamie’s establishment was tonier than some, but even if that counted as surprising, he could hardly mention it. And the presence of a Jewish widow was unusual, but he doubted Mrs. Blum would appreciate being held up as a local oddity. “Our Chinese laundryman struck it rich — well, maybe not rich, but close — in the California gold fields.”

Miss Brook smiled, the first smile he’d seen from her, but quickly went grave again. “I don’t think I’ll mention it to my brother. He used to hanker after the gold fields himself, and I’d be sorry to remind him.”

She had finished her ice cream, and he needed to be back for any patients needing him. He took a final spoonful of his own and stood up. “Miss Brook, it’s been a pleasure, despite my regrettable way of introducing myself. I’m sure I’ll be seeing you again.”

That eyebrow twitched again. “I agree. Though I hope it won’t be in your professional capacity.”

Cursing his clumsy tongue, he bowed and escaped back to territory where he was less likely to put a foot wrong.

Add to Goodreads

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Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46829373-what-heals-the-heart

Buy Links

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/What-Heals-Heart-Cowbird-Creek-ebook/dp/B07VH1Q6C6/

B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/what-heals-the-heart-karen-a-wyle/1133948935?ean=9780998060453

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Karen A. Wyle was born a Connecticut Yankee, but eventually settled in Bloomington, Indiana, home of Indiana University. She now considers herself a Hoosier. Wyle’s childhood ambition was to be the youngest ever published novelist. While writing her first novel at age 10, she was mortified to learn that some British upstart had beaten her to the goal at age 9.

Wyle is an appellate attorney, photographer, political junkie, and mother of two daughters. Her voice is the product of almost five decades of reading both literary and genre fiction. It is no doubt also influenced, although she hopes not fatally tainted, by her years of law practice. Her personal history has led her to focus on often-intertwined themes of family, communication, the impossibility of controlling events, and the persistence of unfinished business

Author Links

Website * Blog * Facebook * Twitter * Amazon * Goodreads * Smashwords * Newsletter

Joshua had learned over the years to assume a calm and reassuring manner, whatever the condition in which a patient presented himself. Such a demeanor calmed the patient in turn, giving confidence that the doctor could cope with whatever mishap, or even calamity, had occurred; and a calm and confident patient would be easier to deal with.

But it took a positive effort of will to avoid any sign of alarm when Hawkins, of all people, banged at the door of Joshua’s office, pushed it open, and entered with Clara Brook leaning on his arm, shivering and pale.

Even as Joshua stared, Clara straightened up and looked about her in evident dismay. She muttered something under her breath; Joshua could not catch the words, but it had the rhythm of a curse.

Hawkins led her to a chair and pressed her into it before addressing Joshua. “I was passing by the town square when I noticed Miss Brook sitting on a bench nearby. I tipped my hat and said good morning, but she didn’t say nothing back to me. Well, that wasn’t like her, seeing as we’re acquainted, so I looked closer, and I saw she looked poorly, as you’ll have noticed when we come in. Well, I may know a thing or two —” Hawkins paused and thrust his chin up and his shoulders back, then slumped down again. “But I don’t rightly know what to do when a young lady gets the vapors. So I thought, may as well bring her over here and see what you could do for her. But looks as if she’s going to be just fine, without no special treatment.”

Indeed, as much color as Clara usually possessed, if not more, had returned to her face. A moment more, and she stood up, her posture almost aggressively straight. She took the barber’s hand. “Thank you for assisting me. I am only sorry to have caused you concern.”

“Weren’t no trouble, miss. And I’m right glad to see you looking better. I’ll be on my way.” He smiled at her before releasing her hand, nodding stiffly at Joshua, and taking his leave.

Clara shook her head as if dislodging unpleasant images. “I hope you will believe that I am not often afflicted with what Mr. Hawkins calls ‘the vapors.’” She paused and went on more quietly. “Or at least, not for such causes as are traditionally attributed to delicate females.”

Joshua would have very much liked to inquire as to other likely causes for her symptoms, now or in the past, but her manner made all too clear that any such question would be unwelcome. He could not force his diagnostic efforts on her. “Are you feeling quite well again?”

Clara lifted her chin in a gesture echoing Hawkins’ defiant posture. “Perfectly. You’ll have no need to rummage for smelling salts or other such remedies.” She forced a smile, an expression that sat poorly on her face and troubled him more than a frown would have done. Then some thought evidently crossed her mind and gave rise to a look of more genuine amusement, or even mischief. “And I defy you to hold so firmly to your low opinion of Mr. Hawkins, after he has demonstrated such gallantry.”

As more than once before, she left him stammering for a reply. She awaited none, but turned and fairly marched out the door.

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amazonauthorinsights-live · 8 years ago

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Secrets to successful self-publishing careers

By Cynthia Shannon

{Article_Date}

It takes a village and then some.

The self-publishing landscape has changed. Ask any indie author who has been at it for a while, and they’ll likely agree that what used to drive discovery in self-publishing isn’t what works now, and there are no guarantees that what works now will continue to work in the future. “The moment you think that a particular activity is the “best” one, it gets stale and something else catches on,” says David Estes, author of the popular YA series The Dwellers Saga and Slip. The problem with discovery might be due to the dramatic increase in self-published titles, giving readers more choice but making it more competitive for authors to stand out. According to a recent Bowker report, the number of ISBNs from self-published books grew by 375% between 2010 and 2015. There were 727,125 ISBNs assigned to self-published titles in 2015 alone. If anything, this likely under-represents the number of indie books, as many popular self-publishing platforms don’t require an ISBN to release a book. Self-publishing is an attractive option to the approximately 81% of Americans who want to publish a book some day, and more self-published authors are making a living today than traditionally published authors, according to Hugh Howey, bestselling author of Wool, citing an Author Earnings report. But don’t think that simply hitting "publish" is all it takes. “I would upload my book to the KDP platform, fill everything out, and hit publish. Then the program would think and think, and then—nothing. No book live,” remembers Shannon Mayer, author of Raising Innocence. “I spent three days trying to figure out why it wouldn’t work before I stumbled on the reason: I hadn’t put in who the author was!” Technical difficulties aside, self-published authors realize too late that publishing a book is a lot of work. We asked three bestselling indie authors how they turned their passion into a career, and for their advice on approaching self-publishing successfully.

The Secret of the Self-Published Writer: It Takes a Village

While writing is a solitary endeavor, self-publishing isn’t—or shouldn’t be—if you want your career to take off. Chanda Hahn, who worked as a bookseller and children’s librarian before writing her bestselling Unfortunate Fairytale series, knows what areas she needs to outsource to professionals, like copy and line editing, and what can be done in-house. “My brother-in-law does my covers, and I’ll find the models and get a cover shoot done for the book. I found one model in a Panera Bread while I was eating lunch!” As a former accountant, Estes realized that he needed to approach his self-publishing career like a business. “My goal is to publish a finished product that is as high-quality as possible at the lowest cost. I try to save money where I can, but I do not do so at the sake of quality.” Authors simply cannot go at it alone, and being realistic about where your strengths and weaknesses are will help you identify where you need help. “I have zero skills with graphic design, so I outsource the cover design to a trusted friend who happens to be a graphic designer,” says Estes. And yet, because of the nature of the beast, every responsibility ultimately lays with the self-published author. “Every choice I make for my books and my stories from plot, editing, cover art, marketing… it’s all on my shoulders,” says Mayer, who has written more than 30 books. This level of involvement is what initially appeals to indie authors, but the scope of what needs to be done (and done well) can be overwhelming for someone who tries to do it all alone.

Thinking About Marketing First

Writing, editing, designing, pricing…the last thing indie authors usually think about when they finally hit "publish" is marketing the book. But readers can’t buy a book they’ve never heard of. While there are many outlets and opportunities for authors to promote their books, Goodreads remains the largest site for readers, with more than 50 million members. “I joined Goodreads as a reader, not an author,” says Estes, which anyone can see by checking out his robust bookshelves. Estes found several groups in his favorite genres where he could chat about books, TV, movies, and the like. “A few of the group members realized I was an author and decided to try my books simply because they were curious.” He began participating in formal group “Read to Review” programs, where he would offer free copies of his books in exchange for reviews. “That’s where I first started growing the seeds that would become my fan base, eventually expanding into my official Goodreads fan group.” David Estes Fans and YA Book Lovers Unite! has more than 3,000 members, but the group is not just about him. He and his two moderators ensure there’s something for everyone, whether that’s playing Book Bingo or conducting interviews with other authors like Marissa Meyer, Hugh Howey, and Jennifer Nielsen. Estes estimates that he spends about 10 hours hanging out in the group, and about 15 hours on Goodreads overall per week. Many self-published authors spend most of their marketing efforts on social media because they spend more time than money on it. “Once I’m [online], hours pass and I have no recollection of where they went!” Hahn credits Goodreads with helping her connect readers with her books. Her newest book, Lost Girl, will be the first one for which she’ll share advance reader copies for early reviews. “I’ve always been lucky enough to have very dedicated fans that want to share their love of the book by posting reviews.” Does she read her reviews? “Never. I may see my book and see that it has a number of reviews, and I’ll think, “Five thousand reviews…that’s awesome.” I don’t want to know how many are five stars or one stars…that’s not what’s important. What is important is that I wrote a book that made the readers feel something and respond, whether that is negative or positive.” UnEnchanted is the first book in the five-part Unfortunate Fairy Tale series, and the author has received more than 32,000 overall ratings to date. The unconventional fairy tales incorporate fantasy and adventure, and appeal to a teenage audience looking for a twist on their favorite stories from childhood. “A few weeks after I published, I started to get quite a few emails from agents. I knew I was doing something right and then the paychecks started to come in.” Mayer offers a free eBook to anyone who signs up for her mailing list on her website, which accomplishes two things at once: building a dedicated list of interested readers, and putting her book out there to get ratings and reviews. Estes agrees: “The more readers that download your book, the more reviews you’ll get. Whenever my books are on sale or I have a new book coming out, I have a large group of readers I can immediately contact.”

Parlaying Self-Publishing into a Viable Career

Self-published authors need to realize that it’s a marathon, not a sprint, and it’s usually not the first book that will be your greatest hit. Nor the second one. “I’ve seen authors spend two years promoting one book and never write book two,” says Hahn. “When I first published, I released three books in six months. Then I was releasing two a year.” “Some [indie authors] will hit it big with one book and think they’ve 'made it.' I know I used to think that way,” says Estes. “The momentum from The Moon Dwellers has lasted for a long time, but I know it will eventually run out, which is why I’m always publishing new material and trying to shift my readers’ focus to my new books, so I can generate new income streams that will keep my career going for years to come.” All three authors have been fortunate and savvy enough to be able to support themselves and their families through self-publishing, but they still see the value in a traditional publishing deal because it allows them to reach a new set of readers. “I went in with an attitude that I would succeed at writing no matter how long it took,” says Mayer, who recently signed a deal with 47North, an Amazon Publishing imprint. Hahn is willing to entertain the idea of traditional publishing if the right publisher came along, but she’s happy with the support she’s received from Amazon's CreateSpace, and grateful to Trident Media Group for their help with foreign rights deals. Estes and his agent are currently pitching his new high fantasy series to publishers, which he’s excited about. “People are still reading! The gap has vanished between indie and traditionally published authors. We are finally on a level playing field, and hard work and good writing will always yield success in the end.”

5 Tips from Self-Published Authors

Get as many reviews as possible. “Without reviews, you have no chance at selling books. When you first publish a book, particularly a standalone novel or the first book in a series, your sole focus should be getting reviews, rather than selling books.” —David Estes Choose your team wisely. “[Hire people] who already have an understanding of the industry. While you as the author can work with them to teach them the various areas where you need help, it's great if there is already a basic understanding of what needs to be done.” –Shannon Mayer Share your work. “The biggest challenge is finding what works and how to get your book in front of readers. Fans love giveaways and Goodreads makes it easy to do giveaways.” —Chanda Hahn Make your book available. “Some authors even choose to make their book perma-free, which allows the broadest number of readers to give it a try and possibly leave a review. If you do decide to offer your book for free, don’t forget to spend a little of your marketing budget to help you spread the word about your book.” —David Estes Let your writing breathe. “When writing a new book, it takes a few chapters to find your voice and rhythm, and I have a tumultuous relationship with my manuscript. Most days I write easily and other days I need chocolate motivation and coffee to get words on paper.” —Chanda Hahn

This article originally appeared on Goodreads.

Cynthia Shannon

Cynthia Shannon is an Author Marketing Specialist at Goodreads.

#publish #publishing options

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lizzielambwriter · 5 years ago

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Photo by Leo Cardelli on Pexels.com

As an indie author it’s important for word of my books to get out there. If I don’t go the extra mile to promote my novels, no one else will. So – how do I achieve this I hear you ask?

I achieve this by accepting invitations to appear at book fairs, signings, author talks or library visits. I use these events to create blog posts and promos which I disseminate via Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and two retweeting groups I belong to. This could be viewed as casting my bread upon the water in the vain hope that the fish will bite. However, I find that getting my name out there in a variety of ways reaps dividends.

Here are some of my top tips

There are many social media sites and they can be a real time suck, taking you away from your WIP. Experiment to find which ones work for you. I focus on: Facebook (personal, author page, groups) Twitter, Instagram and my website/blog. I also belong to many Facebook ‘groups’, it takes a little time to figure out which ones work get little or no traffic, so don’t be afraid to leave a group if you’re getting nothing from it. LIfe’s too short.

Increase your social media presence

As a result of increasing my social media presence I have been invited to appear in Writers’ Magazine (blog tours – 2018), Writers Forum (my writing space – 2019) De Montfort University to lecture final year creative writing students, library visits, author talks and workshops. One word of warning – book sales are not always guaranteed so do check in advance that you will be paid for the talk, be offered petrol expenses and whether or not the venue will want 10% of your book sales. Yes, really (!)

Narberth Book Fair – Wales – September 2019

Get out and about

I believe that my books deserve to be brought to the attention of the largest number of readers possible so I canvass different venues to see if they would like a visit from an indie author, or authors in the case of New Romantics Press. So far, I/we’ve appeared at Aspinalls of London, Waterstones Kensington High Street and hosted literary lunches at top Leicestershire venues to raise money for charity.

Get organised

Keep your author bio, author photo, links etc up to date. Be organised, you don’t want to be hunting around for an excerpt of your novel when an outside agency approaches you. Invest in a mobile phone capable of taking decent photos and syncs with your computer.

Join author groups where you can learn from others. I’ve been a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association since 2006 and co-organise the Leicester Chapter with June Kearns. What I’ve learned from other authors has been invaluable. I used to belong to local writing groups where members critiqued each other’s work. They didn’t work for me, but they might work for you.

Don’t be afraid to enter competitions, but choose wisely as they can be time suckage, too. Remember to publicise the good bits which you’re happy to share and project a positive image of yourself and your novels.

Check out the great promotional apps out there: Canva, Ripl, Photolab Photofunia – you have to stand out from the crowd.

Once you’re published and have proven sales, join professional groups such as the Society of Authors. It might not do much to raise your profile in the short term but offers invaluable professional advice on contracts, tax matters. Using the #SOA tag on your profile identifies you as a serious writer.

Carol Bevitt, Adrienne Vaughan, Lizzie Lamb, Marcia Holah, Caroline Bell-Foster, Marilyn Rodwell

Remember your fellow authors

Make friends, be generous to other writers but don’t expect them to always return the favour. Invite authors on to your blog, ‘like’ any blogs you read and (if time allows) leave a comment. Read and review their books (don’t be afraid to ask them to do the same for you). Retweet authors in your genre, like their posts on Instagram etc. A good time for this is via your mobile phone when you’re watching tv (!) Remember the USA doesn’t come on line until (roughly) 3pm.

Carole Matthews

Trisha Ashley

Adrienne Vaughan

Jolly Jilly Cooper

Sue Moorcroft and Heidi Jo Swain

Cathy Bramley and Carole Matthews

Kate Hardy, Rosie Hendry

Sarah Mallory

Be ready for opportunities

Over the past two years I’ve been offered an Amazon Prime Deal and an Amazon Kindle Deal in India. The former arrived via email when I was in John O’Groats on a research trip and I had to respond straight away. See what I mean about always having your phone with you, always being alert?!

I’m currently waiting to be accepted on the Women’s Institute and Rotaract circuit where I will talk about writing, travels in our ca, I’ve just signed up to Kindlepreneur and downloaded software to hone my tags and categories more effectively and increase my novels’ visibility on Amazon. The learning never stops.

AND FINALLY . . .

If I’m allowed a small boast (it’s my blog – right?) I’d love to share the article in WRITER’S FORUM where I talk about my writing space. Quite an achievement for an indie author.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

So – good luck with all your enterprises. Don’t wait for luck to strike, go out and make it happen. And, if you see me on social media, do ‘like’ and ‘share’ my posts – I always pay it forward.

Slainte Mhath –

Make Your Own Luck – tips for indie authors As an indie author it's important for word of my books to get out there. If I don't go the extra mile to promote my novels, no one else will.

#Adrienne Vaughan #Carole Matthews #Cathy Bramley #De Montfort University #Jilly Cooper #Kate Hardy #Kindlepreneur #Lizzie Lamb author #Melinda Hammonds #Narbeth Book Fair #Romantic Novelists&039; Association #Rosie Hendry #social media presence #Society of Authors #Sue Moorcroft #time suckage #Writer&039;s Forum #Writers&039; Magazine

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cathygeha · 7 years ago

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Lex and Elizabeth can finally be together as mates. But the Lycan who killed her is back, and he's threatening the King. Will they be able to bring down the threat to their future happiness, or will Elizabeth's fears tear them apart? Find out in the newest edge of your seat title in Candace Blackburn's Return of the Lycan King Trilogy!

Rafflecopter for Return of the Lycan King: Book 2: Lex and Elizabeth Blog Tour Giveaway:

Candace is offering one (1) lucky Grand Prize winner a $25 Amazon Gift Card and three (3) Runner-ups an eCopy of Return of the Lycan King: Book 1: Nicholas and Kristen! To enter, simply fill out the Rafflecopter below:

Direct Link:

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/b050ef29508/

About Return of the Lycan King: Book 2: Lex and Elizabeth:

Title: Return of the Lycan King: Book 2 Lex and Elizabeth

Author: Candace Blackburn

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Release Date: April 17, 2018

Publisher: Candace Blackburn

Series: Return of the Lycan King Trilogy

Format: Digital eBook

Digital ISBN:

ASIN# - B07C7LG4L1 Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39851749-return-of-the-lycan-king Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07C7LG4L1/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1523986646&sr=8-2&keywords=candace+blackburn Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/return-of-the-lycan-king-candace-blackburn/1128520609?ean=2940159098443

Synopsis:

Lex thought he'd lost her, but Elizabeth is back and she is his mate. But between her getting used to life as a Lycan, threats from dangerous elements looming over their heads and very odd changes in the Lycan kingdom happening all around them, nothing will be easy. Lex and Elizabeth's love has to be the strength to pull them through.

Available at: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Kobo | Goodreads

Excerpt:

Candace Blackburn

"Alexei, are you okay?"

"No. I'm not." He turned, facing her now but still staying by the window. Keeping distance between them. "If those two... damnable women had not drugged my stew. If you hadn't seen me with them. If you hadn't been attacked. So many what ifs, and so many lost years. All this time, we could've been together. We could've had every night together. Met every morning in each other's arms." He slashed his arm through the air. "No weeks or months spent wondering if I'd get to see you again. No missing you with every beat of my heart." The tears steadily flowed. His canines had dropped, and his eyes held the unmistakable telltale yellow of a transitioned Lycan. Claws tipped his fingers. Wolf and man seemed to battle for control, and Lex was emotionally raw. "So many nights I wished you were there, so I could tell you I loved you. Every night, I prayed you were safe. And many nights, I asked God why you couldn't be mine. But. You. Were. And the idiocy of three people cost us two thousand years of happiness."

"You're right," she said as she rose off the bed. "I can't understand why any of this happened. I've questioned the very same thing, and can find no answer. But we're here together now. And isn't that what counts?" He watched as she took slow steps toward him, and his expression slowly began to soften. "In a matter of speaking, you claimed me that night in Portugal, and we've been together since."

His eyes momentarily widened in surprise. "Yes, but we spent so many nights apart. Nothing should have separated us. Nothing." He was right. There was no sense trying to talk him down when she believed what Lex said just as strongly as he did. "You mentioned Portugal. Were you following me?"

Nodding slowly, she now stood in front of him. "Yes. Jules made sure I had control of my hungers, and taught me how to use my strengths. Once that was done, and I was confident in my abilities, I went in search of you. By that time, you were serving the King. And I followed you on your missions."

"When I saw you, I damned near lost track of what I was doing."

She smiled, remembering making eye contact with Lex for the first time. The sensation was electric, the pull of a Lycan mate bond weakened, but still present. "But you did your job, and then you came to me."

His claws retracted, and a smile curling his full lips, he nodded. "And then I came to you." He pulled her into his arms, and embraced her firmly. "I mourn all the moments we lost."

"As do I, Alexei. But we have the future."

His chest shook as he exhaled a ragged breath. "Yes we do. I can't lose you again, Elizabeth."

"I'm here now, and I'm not going anywhere.”

Other Books in the Return of the Lycan King Trilogy:

Return of the Lycan King: Book 1 Nicholas and Kristen

One life, one mate. Nicholas Konstantine has been waiting over a thousand years for his mate. But when he finds her, she's completely unaware of her Lycan biology, and she's battling her own personal demons.

Kristen O'Connor is a recovering addict, with some major trust issues. By not letting anyone get close, she won't get hurt. Yet after one meetiing with Nicholas, her walls are crumbling, and she wants more with this man.

But Nicholas reveals his Lycan side, and hers as well. In addition, ghosts from both of their pasts come back to haunt them. Will they face everything together, or will Kristen's fears be stronger than her love?

Available at:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Kobo

Goodreads

About Candace Blackburn:

Candace makes her home in North Carolina with her high school sweetheart husband and their two sons. She's an indie author who has published two previous romances (with a bit of fantasy in each), Tristan's Redemption and Nate's Forgiveness. Her current works are all paranormal romance (her favorite genre to read!) and are set in her home state. She loves coffee, cold weather, the Boston Red Sox, the Carolina Panthers, and hearing from fans.

Connect with Candace: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon

http://www.barclaypublicity.com/

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valeriebielbooks · 7 years ago

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October Writers’ Forum

In my journey through the steps of independent publishing, refining my writing skills, and most recently completing a successful agent search, I’ve come across some excellent information, tips, tools, and shortcuts that I think would be beneficial to any writer. Once a month, I’ll share the “best of” information and news from the publishing industry as well as feature other authors and writing instructors with tips to share. I am incredibly thankful for the assistance and advice given to me from writing and publishing professionals and am happy pay that forward. On a professional level, I also use my publicity and editorial skills to aid other authors through my company Lost Lake Press.

November Book Events in Wisconsin

The Wisconsin Book Festival is celebrating its 15th year with a diverse schedule of events featuring authors of every genre from October 27 to November 5 (and additional events all year long.)

Additionally, we are very fortunate in southern/south-central Wisconsin to have indie bookstores with extensive schedules of author/book events. In fact, there are so many in November that I can't fit them all here. Please check out your favorite bookstore's event schedule by clicking below.

Mystery to Me Bookstore, 1863 Monroe Street, Madison

A Room of One’s Own, 315 W. Gorham Street, Madison

Boswell Books, 2559 N. Downer, Milwaukee

Books & Company, 1039 Summit Avenue, Oconomowoc

Featured Subject

Alliance of Independent Authors and Indie Author Fringe

If you are an indie author or contemplating taking that plunge, you must familiarize yourself with the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) and their online conferences called Indie Author Fringe, which are “fringe” to the major global publishing fairs. ALLi “brings together the most up-to-date self-publishing education and information available and broadcasts it to authors everywhere.”

The recent schedule of online sessions offered in conjunction with the Frankfurt Book Fair included many excellent pre- and post-publication topics. Here are my favorites:

Seven New Trends in Digital Book Advertising for Authors with Mark Dawson

Finding Your Profitable Niche as an Indie Author with Dave Chesson

The Economics of Audio Books: An Author Case Study by Ian Sutherland

Do Facebook Ads Really Work for Books? The Facts: Michael Alvear

Bookbub Ads for Beginners by Adam Croft (Yes, you can advertise with Bookbub even if you can’t seem to land a daily featured deal.)

There were also plenty of sessions focused on getting started in self-publishing if are weighing your options. Really a treasure trove of information and a great place to start as you’re educating yourself about the indie publishing industry.

Pre-Publication Information

Using the Right Images for Your Blog or Social Media

This might seem like the least of your worries as you begin your publishing journey. After all, you’re supposed to be spending your time WRITING. However, you will at some point write a blog and/or curate your brand and message to followers via social media platforms. You’ll be including images in those posts and those Images Matter! You will always have higher engagement if you use images. (Here’s a fabulous article on writerswin.com that gives you the image specs for most social media sites.)

BuildBookBuzzz.com tells us how to pick the right images for our blog posts. My favorite piece of advice is to not be too literal in your choice of images. (This is a mistake that I make somewhat frequently.)

You want to make sure you’re using photos or graphics that are free to use—if you’re not designing your own graphics or using your own photos. You can always purchase images, but there are many free image-sharing sites that might have exactly what you need. Digitalpubbing.com lists 18 sites where you can find photos, BuildBookBuzz.com also lists free stock images sources.

Pricing Your Books

This question always comes up. How do I price my books? I still wonder if I’ve hit the right price point, and after reading this article by author Dean Wesley Smith, I might make some changes. The nice thing about indie publishing is that this is our decision to make. Whether you are a new or established author, this is worth the read.

The Newest Issues and Considerations about Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited Program

More trials and tribulations over at Amazon . . . are you sick of this subject yet? I’m getting a little tired, however, with such a high percentage of the independently published book market being reliant on Amazon, we must stay informed! Most of the problems are stemming from manipulation of the Kindle Unlimited program, which is the subscription service for readers that authors enroll their books into and are paid for the pages read.

The following articles were all written by independent publishing expert and author David Gaughran, who is a wealth of information and writes detailed articles on so many subjects important to succeeding in the indie pub world.

Here’s the quick scoop:

Gaughran first tells us about Amazon’s fake book problem in a detailed article in June—explaining how some bad actors are using clickfarms to manipulate the best seller charts.

He then explains how he decided to take the leap and test his books on Kindle Unlimited in August, using some of their built-in promos like Countdown Deals. (This means his e-books were exclusive to Amazon and couldn’t be available for purchase anywhere else.) Check out the crazy stuff that happened to him in this article: https://davidgaughran.wordpress.com/2017/08/12/the-only-rule-amazon-truly-cares-about/

Then later in August, he provides a summary article about the Kindle experience that is worth a read (even if you aren’t exclusive to Kindle.)

Just last week, Gaughran details the saga of Amazon attacking legit authors but seeming to continue to ignore the scammers, making for a difficult time for a few relatively well-known indie authors in his article: Amazon’s Hall of Spinning Knives. (The title made me laugh, but really this isn’t funny as it is costing legit authors some serious money.)

Most recently, Gaughran writes a smart analysis of the conundrum indie authors face – whether to embrace Kindle exclusivity or go wide with your marketing strategies.

No matter what strategy you decide on, at least you’ll be up-to-speed as you market your books. I find that David Gaughran is a partner we can trust for solid info!

Post-Publication

Independently Published Authors – Libraries Are for You!

I recently spent two days at the Wisconsin Library Association hanging around with some of my favorite people, and I was surprised and pleased by how many librarians asked how they could find well-written independently published books. What a great question! The authors in attendance referred librarians to winning contest lists for indie and small presses and to sites like IndieBRAG that only give a gold medallion to books that meet their high standards. (If you haven't submitted your books for consideration over at IndieBRAG, you should do so immediately. This supportive community provides excellent indie book recognition and advice.)

This reminds me that those of us who have been intrepid enough to publish independently should not shy away from the library market. This article by Amy Collins on the Book Designer website remains relevant more than a year after its initial publication and provides a succinct 9-step list on how to get your books into libraries.

The Evolution of Libraries

Libraries are a hub for so much more than books. Nowhere was this more evident than at last week’s conference . . . Wisconsin like most other states provides exemplary services to patrons well beyond book lending and incorporates new trends and technologies. There’s so much our libraries have to offer. An articleI bookmarked a year ago by best-selling author of “The Memory Box” Eva Lesko Natiello recognizes how the ability of libraries to embrace what’s new can only bode well for the independent author.

How to Make the Most of a Professional Book Review

You’ve landed a wonderful review from a professional or editorial book reviewer. Now what? After you’ve done your happy dance around your desk, you need to jump into action to make the most of this praise. The BookBaby blog lists eight things to do with this review. It’s important to make sure it is visible to potential readers and seven of the eight steps address this. However, the most important step might be what you do with a not-so-great review . . . don’t take it personally but definitely see if there’s anything in the reader’s critique that can improve your writing.

As always, I hope that these articles help you on your writing and publishing journey!

Happy Reading & Writing, Valerie

#indie author #self-publishing #self publication #independent publishing #writingadvice #writing tips #author help #wisconsin books

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nanowrimo · 8 years ago

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6 Tips for Finding Your Perfect Beta Readers

You wrote a novel! Now what? NaNoWriMo’s “Now What?” Months are here—this January and February, we’ll be helping you guide your novel through the revision and publishing process. Today, editorial consultant and professional beta reader Jody T. Morse shares her guidelines for finding the perfect betas:

Regardless of how you plan to publish your novel—indie, small press, or big-six publisher—there’s one step that all writers should incorporate into their writing routine: beta readers. These fresh-eyed feedback folks can be priceless at sniffing out the plot holes, speed bumps, and detouring tangents in a manuscript. Here are my top six tips for finding beta readers and utilizing them to the nth degree:

1. Know where to find your betas.

While betas can be found anywhere there are literate citizens, your genre and subject matter will dictate where you’ll find your ideal catch. If you’re writing a story centered around a prison break, consider staff at a local jail or former (hopefully reformed) inmates. Your YA romance might best be read by one of your old high-school teachers or those teens you pass every day on your jog, texting on a park bench. You want betas who want to read stories like yours. If you go for a pro, checking with reputable editors, published authors, or writers’ guilds can be helpful to your search.

2. Know your reader avatar.

Once you’ve decided on the target demographic for your book, you have the key to selecting your optimal beta readers. Asking your neighbor’s third grader to give you feedback on a psychological thriller rampant with innuendo and gory murders makes no sense at all. Turning to a Dan Brown fan or Stephen King-o-phile would be a better beta fit. An additional strategy is to seek out readers for insight into controversial character details or themes, ones you’ve researched but not lived through. A nun may not be your ideal avatar, but she may be able to tell you where you’ll lose Christian readers in your retelling of Jonah and the Whale: Jaws v. Jesus.

3. Ask for what you need.

Don’t be afraid to give your betas a checklist, template, or list of questions to help guide them on the feedback you’re most in need of. As a professional beta reader, I have a feedback form I use that includes basics like plot, structure, flow, word choice, voice, setting, etc. Then I customize this sheet, as needed. Make your own or look online for samples.

4. Give a deadline.

Professionals should set a deadline in the initial contract, but even if you’ve decided to go with betas that are reading for pizza and beer, giving them a due date is imperative. In fact, I suggest asking them up front if they can realistically achieve a full read-through--which means written suggestions and/or chatting with you about the story--within the time frame your publishing schedule requires.

5. Figure out how many you’ll need.

There’s no right or wrong answer on this one. If paying professionals, you can plan on one or two. When using non-pros, you might want to wrangle a few more. But be wary of too many initial readers; you could get bogged down with a tsunami of feedback, discover you’ve become overwhelmed, wave the white flag, and jump ship.

6. Know when to use them.

You’ll want to employ these fishy feedback fiends after you’ve done the major rewrites and light line edits but before you get to work on serious copy edits. No sense editing passages that may end up on the cutting room floor. However, you’d also hate to lose the attention of a good beta reader due to rampant misspellings, chapters out of sequence, or grammar gremlins.

Remember, you’re the alpha writer. Now get out there and find your betas!

Jody T. Morse is a freelance writer, editorial consultant and professional beta reader. She loves playing the field with writing, from coffee table mag articles to spec fiction blogs to haiku poetry. She’s currently editing the first book of her fantasy novel series, Feathers of the Phoenix (written during NaNo 2016), and is putting the finishing touches on an interview article featuring the Mayor of Houston. For more information about Jody, visit www.bountifulbalconybooks.com, her NaNoWriMo profile, or her Amazon author page.

Top photo by Flickr user duluoz cats.

#nanowrimo #now what #by oll guest #Jody T. Morse #editing #beta readers

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kintailscape · 8 years ago

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Awesome Con 2017- Day 1

Friday, Day 1: I woke up about an hour later than usual and had a leisurely but efficient breakfast before heading off to the Metro. I began reading Pack Animals (Torchwood #7) by Peter Anghelides on the long ride to the Library of Congress. While walking from the metro station to the LOC building, I passed two women around my age taking photos of a group of people walking across the street, escorted by the police. I have been watching news nonstop for the past two weeks, but I didn’t recognize anyone in the group (and I’ve been watching a lot of news). Looked like it might have been a representative and her congressional aides, but I’ve no clue. Anyway, I got to the Thomas Jefferson Library of Congress Building a little before 11.

The Library of Congress put together a really neat pop-up exhibit only available for a few days, called Library of Awesome. It was filled with parts of the LOC collection, grouped by themes. It was a great reminder that the LOC preserves these parts of culture that are important to fans. The people behind me as we went through the different exhibit rooms were in the most AMAZING Wonder Woman and Black Panther outfits ever. There was also a brave young man in an amazing Fantastic Four outfit. There were so many great comics on display, I couldn’t begin to list them all. But I did take photos of some of my favorites. In one room they had clips from TV shows playing and I walked in just as Buffy was sacrificing herself (feels!), following by a clip of Doctor Who with the Tenth Doctor. It was a surreal to be standing in the largest library in the entire world, watching Buffy and Doctor Who and looking at first appearances of comic book characters in print! There was also a neat letter from Gene Roddenbery to Carl Sagan.

Milestone issues including X-Men #1 from 1963, Fantastic Four #1 from 1961, and Watchmen #1 from 1986 First appearances of Batwoman and Dick Grayson aka Robin! Kyle Jinadu & Northstar get married! Buffy on screen, popular recent media series on display Ralph Ellison collection lends its room to this exhibit Library shop even had some geeky things for purchase… including some March graphic novels

After fully enjoying the exhibit, I went out in search of food. Google said there was a Subway in a nearby building. So I headed to the James Madison Library of Congress Building. I found my way up to the cafeteria on the 6th floor. I wasn’t entirely sure I should be there, among the congressional aides and LOC staff. But the security guard seemed to have no problem with it and a very nice woman in the elevator who worked in the building gave me exact directions there. The view was wonderful, and the sushi was delicious. I read while I ate. I got a little lost trying to find my way back to the elevator, but I made it in the end. Then I headed back to the Metro to get to the Convention Center.

It was strange being back in the Convention Center only a few months after #AWP17. It was all arranged differently–our registration hall had been turned into a cool, dark, moody video gaming center! And our bookfair space was where I knew I needed to head for Awesome Con registration. I already had my badge, so I just picked up a program and headed down three floors to the exhibit hall. I had one mission for Friday: find Andrew Aydin and have him sign my copy of March. But when I got to Q1 in the Artist’s Alley, there was a woman selling lovely jewelry in his space instead. Confused, I checked the program and the signs; no changes there. I ran into a friend and chatted for a bit. Then I checked social media; apparently Mr. Aydin was not going to be able to attend due to a personal matter. Well, darn! But these things happen. Hope his family’s okay.

So I found myself with a few hours of free time before the first panel I wanted to attend. I wandered around the exhibit hall, sticking mostly to the Artist’s Alley and spending much of that time in Pride Alley, which was new to the con this year. It was a nice little LGBTQ+-friendly space with all sorts of things I wanted to buy. I ended up buying way too much fanart and a graphic novel that is just my kind of thing that I can’t wait to read. I stumbled upon Karen Hallion’s exhibit space and bought a few postcards; it was wonderful to meet her and be able to tell her how fantastic her art is, because I’ve loved it for years and have some of it on t-shirts. I also bought an Outlander book necklace with a dragonfly and a Celtic charm on it. I have ZERO free wall space at home, yet I bought at least 10 prints for myself (and a few as gifts). I even bought an original art piece (done by an artist in from South Africa) that was creative and adorable and unintentionally sexy; I NEVER see my favorite kink portrayed in art, let alone fanart, so I absolutely had to buy it. #NoRegrets!

I had some tough choices to make as far as panels. I ended up choosing so that I’d get a good variety and pack in as many as possible (lots of panel times overlapped) while still hitting the evening Stucky one I knew I definitely wanted to attend.

3:30 PM-4:15 PM Nerdiquette/Anerdomy: Geekdom in Theory & Practice A nice way to start out the con, talking about geek culture. We began with Felicia Day’s definition of a geek as someone who dares to love something unconventional and moved on to topics like marketing’s role, the nerd culture stigma, the differences between sports fans and the sorts of fans we are, and if it stops being a subculture if it gets too big. The moderator kept diving into much more critical analysis of it all, including ways of testing geekdom’s coherence. I didn’t follow every philosophical reference he was throwing out there, but I enjoyed it anyway. I found the discussion regarding reactionary exclusionism to be especially interesting, as I’d not considered the idea of geeks feeling the need to covet and protect what we are passionate about and keep it as our own because we were excluded/outsiders.

4:30 PM -5:15 PM YA Literature Today I wish I’d done more prep, because I had two of the presenting authors’ books at home and didn’t bring them! Panelists discussed a lot about the things they like about writing YA (really interesting characters with really interesting problems, can work in any genre, we have all been teenagers but we still wonder who we are) and how to increase diversity in books and creators of books. The best part: they shared info about their own works and shared book recommendations. The worst part: so many good recommendations! I feel like I need to quit my job and just read YA full-time now. For recs & notes from this panel, see my book blog.

5:30 PM-6:15 PM Following Your Bliss: How the Stories We Love Can Help Us Succeed This wasn’t exactly what I’d been looking for. Attending this felt a little like listening to a motivational speaker. Using himself as a case study and tapping heavily into Joeseph Conrad’s “Hero’s Journey,” Russell Walks attempted to inspire us to follow our bliss to find success. “Storytelling is more than just guns and bullets. It’s what we have in here,” he told us, patting his chest above his heart. I was hoping for useful, specific tips rather than inspirational sayings. But I do like the concept that we’re all on our own hero’s journeys and our friends are our goofy, supporting characters. And I can’t disagree with things like “Tell yourself this is what you’re meant to do and don’t give up!”

Afterward, I was going to stick around in the room to attend Whose Roll is it Anyway? (a sort of interactive RPG where the audience controlled the twists and turns instead of the DM), but that was cancelled. This made me shuffle my slots around a bit again. I ended up being able to snag a seat in room 144BC and staying put there for the next three panels! That was both convenient and due to the fact that that room’s programming all aligned with my interests.

6:00 PM-6:45 PM Full Spectrum: Why color in comics matters This panel had a nice balance of identifying current problems and looking at current trends/solutions. I liked the observations that, throughout history, most trendsetters in the comic industry have been indie. I also loved the helpful tip of don’t just yell when there’s something bad, start yelling about the stuff you like! Other discussion topics include: recent reaction to Marvel news (putting out Black Panther trailer then cancelling Black Panther: World Of Wakanda), the difference between making a cast diverse organically and changing characters (reskinning) to make them diverse, how the binging culture changes the way we consume comics (monthly issues vs. TPBs), and how Check Please is an awesome fan-interaction model (it is!). I also loved this comment from one of the panelists (slightly paraphrased because I was writing so quickly) “Lately, people over-complicate things. Just write human beings. Give everyone a chance and diversity automatically comes about.”

7:00 PM-7:45 PM Stop Queerbaiting, It’s Time to Be Brave One of my friends magically appeared beside me just as the panel was about to start, which was a lovely surprise. Another lovely surprise was the panel starting out with a mention of one of my favorite pairings: Wolfcrawler! The panelists were brilliant, passionate, and prepared. But they were also largely preaching to the choir. Sure, an explanation of queerbaiting was a great place to start, and explaining in detail why it’s hurtful, not brave, and insulting was important. But the majority of the presentation consisted of examples and explanations of why it’s horrible. At the very end they did manage to squeeze in a little bit about what we can do (which was mostly, consume the content of the people doing it right). So, by the end of the panel, I mostly felt frustrated and mad at some of those content creators who do this to us.

A few things I wrote down include: are the creators/producers really blind to what they’re doing?, they might think they’re doing something nice for us but they’re not, you shouldn’t have the freedom to jerk us around, we need real bravery from our allies, we deserve better, we’re desperate to see ourselves represented as a living main character, makes being gay into a joke, makes gay into a gimmick, there are no repercussions, you can’t be what you can’t see, Netflix and Chill could be Netflix and Educate. My three favorite quotes from the panel were:

“Prancing is very intimidating to the straights”

Regarding fandoms that have “invisible queers” (creators say that there are totally some queer characters in the world/universe, we just haven’t seen them yet) “SHOW US! Specifically I’m talking to J.J. Abrams about the cute one in the jacket and the cute one that gave him the jacket.”

“Albus Dumbledore is the very definition of a peekaboo queer.”

8:00 PM-8:45 PM Not Without You: Discussions and Reading from the Stucky Anthology This was easily my favorite part of the whole day. First, there was a great conversation about what makes Steve/Bucky so appealing and how each of the panelists fell in love with the pairing. It was interesting to hear that so many of them came to it because of Bucky. Second, panelists that came from all over the world specifically to be on the panel. Third, hearing slash fanfic read out loud by the writers themselves at a general con was amazing. Fourth, amazing Bucky and Cap cosplayers sitting in the front row (sorry, I don’t mean to objectify you, but you were sweet and really helped set the mood for those of us seated behind you). Also, someone mentioned a His Dark Materials AU with Stucky that I now I have to track down. I was able to buy a copy of the absolutely beautiful anthology at the end of the panel. I really wanted to stick around and have all the writers autograph it, but I knew that would take a long time and there was kind of a jumble as we reconvened in the hallway. So I ended up just heading to the next panel.

9:00 PM-9:45 PM Trekoff LIVE! -The NSFW Star Trek Comedy Show!/>I was a few minutes late, but I don’t think I missed much. This is only my second time attending a live taping of a podcast at a con, and this one was much more lively than the first. The game we played as a group was to figure out how to staff a ship of the most fuckable Star Trek villains. The hosts took us through every entry in the Star Trek franchise, pulling up both well-known and obscure villains and having the audience choose between two at a time to determine who was more fuckable. Some were easy choices and others were more difficult. There were also some pretty convincing creative arguments for and against some of the characters. I was surprised to find characters like the Borg Queen and Evil!Hoshi beating a lot of others. I was surprised characters like Q and the three-some of Kor, Koloth, and Kang didn’t go further. Benedict Cumberbatch’s Khan made it pretty far but didn’t ultimately win! Who won? I can’t even remember. You’ll have to track down the episode!

I headed home after a long, tiring day and made more progress on my book. When I had to switch trains, it took almost half an hour for the right color train to arrive. So I did get a lot read but I didn’t get home until nearly midnight (at which point I still had a load of laundry to do before bed).

Awesome Con 2017- Day 1 was originally published on The Fangirl Project

#thefangirlproject

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piuswong · 8 years ago

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Future of Podcasting

Podcasters and podcast listeners, imagine yourselves five, fifty, or a hundred years from now. What do you see in the world of podcasting? What would you want to see?

I wonder this, myself, having started down this road not too long ago, listening to podcasts first from NPR and bigger indie producers, then finally producing my own. I wonder how long the medium will stay the same. I assume that, like all other forms of media, it will definitely change and grow into something more. What does "something more" mean?

Book technology started centuries ago, if I remember my elementary school studies correctly. We first learned how to make paper from from processed papyrus. Then we wrote with different inks, languages, printing methods, and binding methods. We learned to share books in libraries, sell them in corporations, teach with them, entertain with them, change communities with them. Now we publish them more easily, spread them over the internet, play them over car radios, and can hold a thousand of them in your pocket on an electronic device. Even with all these achievements, books are still evolving, and I love that about books. I want podcasts to evolve like this, too, and faster.

I know so many of us want to revolutionize podcast popularity and access. From iTunes to all the new podcast media companies, many people are working at this. Maybe in five years podcasts will be as ubiquitous as books and TV, and we will be able to find them even more easily. Podcast libraries could have their own Dewey Decimal System or ISBNs for organizing them by show and episode. Technology could automatically categorize episodes by analyzing their audio, like Audiosear.ch and others are starting to do.

Technology would improve access to underserved or niche populations. Audio analysis technology could auto-transcribe episodes for foreign-language listeners or the for hearing-impaired. We could search for podcasts by region (From my neighbors? From China?) and style (Interviews? Reporting?), in addition to genre or subject matter. Recommendations for podcasts could come not just from new apps, but across platforms and through the Internet of Things. Your TV could suggest to fans of Shark Tank to listen to The Edupreneur Podcast or StartUp. Your school report card could suggest to Mom and Dad that you might like Tumble. Your refrigerator could hear you speak French and sense that you just bought a lot of lox, and then suggest you listen to the episode of On va déguster where they give the lowdown on Scandinavian cooking en français.

When I posted this question on Reddit some days ago, user CharlesWiltgen warned that we should work toward a future that I hadn't thought of: one where podcasts were ensured to be open-access. Companies would not control the channels of distribution. There would be no restrictions of podcasts to certain platforms, and anyone could listen to podcasts on whatever device he or she chooses. There would be a clearer definition of what a podcast is, maybe clarifying legal and commercial contracts around podcasting. Maybe we can prevent problems that musicians sometimes see in the music industry, and original authors, artists, and producers will always get credit and compensation that's fair to all parties.

I want to see podcasts for even more social good, beyond documentary and education, and moving into medical and therapeutic realms. Maybe physical therapists can coach their patients via audio or video podcasts in patients' homes at their own schedules. Counselors and psychiatrists could deliver audio tips on anxiety reduction daily. Doctors could help teach autistic children to respond to different voices or sounds in a more controlled way. Weekly newsletters and reports in medicine and science could automatically be translated into spoken podcasts for listeners to hear away from books and screens.

Podcasts could create new forms of art, games, and entertainment. Could we have "Choose your own adventure" podcasts for listener interaction? Can stories told on podcasts automatically change voices according to user preference, like we change our voice guidance on our GPS devices? Will we make musical or audio art galleries, where different combinations of podcasts played together might form different aural experiences?

In all these thoughts, I've been asking myself two questions, interchanged without much distinction: "How will podcasting change?" and "How should podcasting change?" In reality they have different answers, although my optimism mixes them together. I hope that we don't sacrifice privacy, freedom of speech, or safety in any future podcast growth. I don't even know what other dangers we should watch out for. I just know that podcasting still has so much potential, so much room for new ways of doing things. Where else will everyone take it?

#podcasts #podcasting #future #technology #evolution

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