I'M BACK, BITCHES!

I feel like I haven't talked candidly on here in awhile. Not that I haven't wanted to, I just forget. So much is happening, I don't even know where to start. So, I guess I'll start at the beginning. 

I moved back from Vegas to Oregon in July of 2014. Back to my old hometown, back in with my parents. I needed time to heal and get rid of a pretty bad infection I had. After that, I took a couple of months off, relaxing and making music with my best friend, Jesse. Eventually, in September of 2014, I picked up a job as the office manager/production assistant for a local film production company. The company was a Father and son duo that didn't have the means or the passion to follow through with their plans, so unfortunately, I was let go in February of 2015. I reapplied at T-Mobile and was rehired in March 2015, in which I stayed until November of 2015. Now here is where it gets interesting.

I missed working in entertainment and being around performers who inspired me daily, so I found myself in conversations with my best friend and old boss about going back to work for her in Vegas. She agreed it was a good decision and we solidified a time frame: Mid-January. So here I am, once again, packing up my life to move across states. But this time, there is one big difference, my best friend Jennifer is coming along with me! She is like the sister I never had, so I can't believe it's real. We're both nearing thirty, have nothing tying us down, and are very creative types. I can't wait to get down there with her and paint the town red. 

Apart from that huge bomb, I have also recently been playing around with cover design. I've always wanted to know how to do it, and I'm no Picasso, but, I think I definitely have what it takes. The only thing I need to know how to do is format the cover for the print books. That is driving me absolute bonkers! Once I get that down, I can actually begin to promote my work. Imagine that I have only been doing this for a couple of weeks, and that it has all been done with Picmonkey! I created a Facebook page for the covers, just more as a landing page. I don't want to begin to sell anything yet, just want a place to begin to build my portfolio. Here are a couple of examples of my first attempts at cover design!

There is another thing I have been doing lately that has also been taking up a lot of my time. I have been making a lot of music with Jesse for our duo project, DarienMae. Currently, we have over twenty full songs, with about a third of them 100% mixed, mastered, and produced by Jesse. We uploaded a few new songs to our Soundcloud this week. I'm obsessed with our newest track, In Your Lane! I think I've listened to it over 100 times in the past week. 

I have been slowly getting writing done for The Road Back to Us. Yep, finally chose a title for the third book in my Foundation series. It was about time, and it's so fitting. I can't wait to see what the cover will look like! That is definitely one of my favorite parts of the publishing process. Now the hard part of writing a blurb comes. I am not looking forward to it. I have also been changing the other books in my FS to first person, present tense. I was just not happy anymore with my old writing voice and felt they needed a face lift. I hope to have that done by the time I release TRBTU. It should be released by mid-February. 

I recently had my Darkness Falls series re-formatted and now have them for sale on Barnes & Noble and Kobo, but sales are slower than molasses...as in non-existent. I don't know if it is just because no one knows they are available yet, or because those sites don't have the kind of traffic Amazon does. 

Check out these awesome promo graphics my graphic designer made me for Learning to Live. They are so pretty!

Of course this would just be a jumble of thoughts. That's what I excel at.

So You Want to Self Publish: Stage Seven

STAGE SEVEN: FINDING AN ATTRACTIVE COVER OPTION AT AN AFFORDABLE PRICE

FACT: It does not have to cost an arm and a leg to have a cover that can compete in the traditional publishing world.

When I first began to seriously think about self-publishing I began checking out stock photo websites to see if there were any photos I would even want to use. The first website I checked out was Shutterstock. They have decent photos, however, their price is a little steep. At $29 for 2 images, $49 for 5 images, or $229 for 25 photos it’s on the high end of stock photo websites. Originally, before doing my research I did pay the steep $49 for 5 photos.

Then, I decided to approach one of the cover designers off of Wattpad to ask if she would be willing to do my covers for me for a deal. I didn’t know it at the time, but the person I approached actually wanted to be a cover designer and by me asking her it gave her the necessary push she needed. We were able to work out a 6-book deal for a VERY affordable price, and the best part of all? She was absolutely incredible. She told me about a deal she found for 150 stock photos off a website called DepositPhotos for only $69.99. That was only $20 more than I had paid for my original 5 images, and I could have images for all of my books and then some. The only catch to the plan was you had 5 downloads a day and if you missed a day, you lost those downloads. Luckily for me, out of the 30 days in that month, I only missed 1-2 days. I ended up with loads of pictures for potential future novels. The only other stock photo websites I have found even semi-comparable in price and downloads were BigStock & CanStock. At BigStock you could get the exact same plan as I received from DepositPhotos for $10 more a month. At CanStock you can purchase a week worth of downloads (max=10 per day), totaling out to 70 downloads for $39.

Originally, I used Emmy from Cover Me Designs. She has premade and custom designs starting at an affordable price of $59.99. Most covers that are decently made and as nice as hers are upwards of $100-$500. I was looking at covers from Phat Puppy Art Designs, Okay Creations, and Damon Za when I approached her and I think hers are able to compete with theirs…but that’s just my personal opinion.

I have also had the pleasure of working with some other AWESOME cover designers and some not so awesome. Two other honorable mentions, are my current cover designer, Hilda from Dalliance Designs and my cover designer for Life After, Marisa from Cover Me, Darling. They were both absolute joys to work with, and I don't have enough good things to say about each of them!

You do not have to purchase the stock photo as well as pay for a cover designer…I just wanted to have control over which photos were used specifically, that’s why I went the route I did.

Remember, the first thing that people take notice of is the cover—you want that to stand out.

Happy #TeaserTuesday!

#‎LifeAfter ‪#‎TophersHEA ‪#‎RomanticSuspense #MustRead

 
Topher

Holy fucking shit. This girl is nuts.

I can’t help the smirk spreading across my lips. I bring my glass up to my mouth, taking another sip off of it.

“Look man, I won fair and square, and you want to be a sore loser? You knew what you were getting into when you agreed to play. I’m sorry you underestimated my skills.”

The giant of a man stalks forward toward the girl. She doesn’t move an inch. Badass.

She looks fierce behind her glossy black hair. The bottom of her hair is dyed teal, and she has chocolatey brown eyes. She is short, no taller than 5’2. She has an hourglass figure, and I’m pretty sure she’s Hispanic. Although much smaller than her opponent, she stands tall. There is no fear in her eyes. I can’t look away.

What’s even more entrancing is the fact that this isn’t just a two-person argument, there are two more goons standing behind the one in the altercation. They have their arms crossed in front of their chests, waiting for the right moment to jump right in.

“Give me my money back and maybe I’ll let you walk out of here,” the huge man threatens. He has bulging biceps and looks Hawaiian.

The ferocious girl glances up at him. “Maybe you’ll let me walk out of here?” She laughs, slamming the money back onto the pool table. “You’re going to pay me what you owe me, and maybe I’ll forget this ever happened.”

I don’t know this girl from Adam, but she’s downright insane if she thinks she can take him. I walk over to where they are standing, and the girl looks back at me, startled by my presence. “Excuse me guys, is there a problem here?” I address the hulk of a man.

He glowers back at me as his eyes flick between the badass chick and me.

“Oh, is this your boyfriend?” The Hawaiian asks, sarcastically.

The girl shifts her eyes to me and then narrows them. “I don’t even know who he is.” She swings her body toward me. “You might want to get out of here, it’s about to get ugly.”

Before I can register a clear thought, a clenched fist is coming straight for my face. I don’t have time to duck, and it collides with my cheek roughly. I stumble backwards, my eyes shooting around, attempting to locate the girl. She is scooping the money up from the pool table, and after she finishes, she takes off in a run.

Two of the thugs take off chasing after her, and I am simply left with the giant. He comes barreling towards me with his head bowed and plows into me. I gasp from the impact, falling backwards. He pulls back his arm, ready to hit me, but this I’m able to dodge. His fist hits the wall behind my head and I hear bones popping. He bellows out in pain, pulling his hand into his chest.

I stumble up and make a run for the door, looking back only when necessary. As I dash out into the street, I glance around, looking for the girl.

The two goons are lying face first on the pavement, writhing in pain. There is only one other person in the entire parking lot; it’s the girl from earlier, perched on a Harley Davidson.

Did you do this to them?

I’m getting hard just thinking about how different she is than any other girl I’ve ever met.

“Hey!” I shout out as I lunge toward her.

“You really shouldn’t have done that,” she says calmly, securing a black helmet over her shiny, straight hair.

“Look, I’m sorry, but I don’t condone physically attacking a woman. I may be in the minority here,” I joke with a smirk.

She looks back at me, stone faced. “I don’t know who you think I am, but I ain’t no prissy bitch. I can fight my own battles.”

“Who are you?” I ask curiously, unable to stop myself.

She shoots me a quick grin. “In your wildest dreams, white boy.” She revs the engine of the bike, and takes off with a jolt.

Seriously though. Who is this girl?

Buy Now -

Amazon US

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Amazon AU

So You Want to Self Publish: Stage Six

STAGE SIX: FINDING A PROFESSIONAL EDITOR AT AN AFFORDABLE PRICE

The biggest complaint I hear from self-published authors is that they cannot afford an editor. I get it, finding a decent, professional editor can cost you upwards of $200-$2000. I don’t have that kind of money either. But, this does not mean you should simply skip this step—in fact, I would highly advise against it.

As self-published authors, it’s already so difficult to get our foot out there as it is, and there is a common misconception that because we choose to self-publish it’s because our work is not as good as the traditional publishing standards. THIS IS NOT TRUE. However, we need to prove ourselves in the writing community and show that self-published works are and can be just as captivating as what is out in the world today.

There are a few freelance websites I have found that are helpful in finding an editor that will not only vibe with you, but also may be in your price bracket. The two websites I would recommend are:

Elance & Guru.

Most of the freelance editors listed on the sites have specified whether they have an hourly rate or whether it is a flat rate, but you can also post up a job for the editors to bid on based off of what you can afford. I’ve spent countless hours on these sites researching the different options as well as reading testimonials. One thing that you have to keep in mind with editing is there are multiple different types of editing, so when you approach an editor, you need to know exactly what you are expecting out of them.

The different types of editing are:

Substantive Line Editing and Heavy Editing: This can verge on an almost total rewrite of the book, but it usually proceeds on an incremental, detail-oriented level. In addition to performing the tasks of simple copy editing, a good editor takes an active role in initiating changes. In a heavy edit, sentences will be polished and reworded to improve clarity and flow and to get rid of repetition, clumsy wording, an overuse of passive voice, and convoluted sentence structure. Facts are checked and corrected, sections may be rearranged if necessary, and subheads and chapter titles might be reworked to make them catchier, funnier, or more dramatic. If, in their writing, authors occasionally become argumentative, cite personal theories as facts, use too much slang where it is inappropriate, or have a blind spot about when their tone is no longer “reader-friendly," a good editor will make suggestions to remedy these problems. In numerous ways, an experienced editor will point out problems the author has overlooked and will help authors find their voice, refine their vision, and bring their manuscripts to a more perfect state.

Copyediting: For a light to medium copyedit, the copy editor will correct grammar, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and problems with syntax; will ensure that singular pronouns represent singular nouns and plural pronouns, plural nouns; will put the work in proper manuscript format; will standardize notes, bibliographies, and reference lists; and will make style decisions regarding punctuation, source citations, whether to spell out numbers or leave them as numerals, capitalization, Latin abbreviations, foreign words, quotations, how to use academic and military titles, when to italicize words or use quotation marks, etc., etc., ad infinitum. The copy editor will take care of endless details that most authors are unaware of but publishers are passionate about.

*Proofreading: A proofreader provides a final check of the file for minor mistakes in spelling, punctuation, spacing, and so on, before the manuscript, article, ad copy, or web content is published.

*Proofreading is actually not a type of editing, however it is just as necessary as editing, which is why I have included it in this section. It is normally the last step you take before publishing.

Check out this interesting article on freelance editors that I found on Writer’s Digest.