Isis Sousa's Blog: Tragic Books' news - Posts Tagged "gothic"

I am absolutely glad in sharing that I will start my first book tour, with Fire and Ice Book Tours! http://fireandicebooktours.wordpress....

Here is the banner for the tour, and the page with info, blurb, excerpt and whatnot! :D

There are still slots available if you would like to host us! ^.^

Hope to see you on Tour!

The XIIIth hour at Duskland (Stories of Duskland) - 2nd Edition - Revised is now available for FREE at Smashwords!

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...

This is the introduction - of the upcoming short story series/illustrated book "Stories of Duskland", out by the end of March.

Have a good read! :)

The XIIIth hour at Duskland (Stories of Duskland) - 2nd Edition - Revised now FREE @ Amazon/Kindle through price match!

http://www.amazon.com/The-XIIIth-Hour...

Have a cozy read :D

I would like to share my experience of indie author & illustrator, on creating my debut work, a novella born out of a short story + the feedback of amazing readers!



Above, Leonhard, one of the protagonists of “The XIIIth Hour at Duskland” (short story) and “The Night of Elisa” (illustrated novella coming soon!).

Almost 2 years ago, I was sitting out in the balcony in one of my off days and started drafting a short story which came to my mind.

That short story was “The XIIIth Hour at Duskland”. When I thought it was finished, I looked for beta readers on Goodreads and a few people were kind enough to take of their precious times and good will to Read my material and provide honest feedback.

From that precious feedback, I changed several things in the manuscript. The essence of the story was the same, but I changed something to fit to grammar rules, cut words which didn’t fit for the characters and timeframe and so on.

I even put it for sale on Kindle and Smashwords , as an experiment. I wanted to know how the self-publishing engines worked, and how would be the general feedback of the readers.

Most people thought the story had grammar issues, it meant, no matter how hard I tried to improve it in this aspect (specially, when English is NOT my primary language), it really didn’t work. Lucky me, one of my readers were also an editor, the one I am working with to this day, Clare Diston.

She edited the text, and all grammar issues were gone and the story was presentable. Still, readers were complaining they missed more explanation behind the facts (short stories focus on actions and plot, different from a novel or novella, where you have room for characterization and details).

The readers wanted to know more about the main characters, what triggered the events we read in the story and so on.
It was clear to me I needed to do something about it and listen to the “vox populi, vox dei”. So, during the last semester of 2013, I decided to turn the short story ( 8.5 k words ) into an illustrated novella ( 55 k words ).

The initial idea became a beautifully illustrated Gothic Ghost story, divided into 7 chapters, where the settings are better explored and the characters have more time to make themselves living.

All thanks to the fantastic readers and curious people who takes time to read first time author stories and provide honest, constructive feedback! I learned a lot during the process, and now I have a better, more attractive product to offer, to give back to those who helped me and new readers.

I gave a new tittle to the novella (The Night of Elisa), it is all done and edited, now I am finishing painting the concepts and illustrations and preparing the manuscript/design for the publishing market.

The big learning for me as indie author was: LOVE the people who give you 2 and 3 stars (and even 1) if they are being honest in their feedback. Because that feedback can help you take your work to the next level, learn and work on a better product for your audience! In no moment I felt down when I got low rating, on the contrary, I knew each low rating on my short story was worthy a chest of gold!

Hope this story can inspire you or at least, give you some insight!

It’s been some time since my last journal, and I have been a bit “anti-social” lately to say the least, mainly for two reasons: I had some health issues this year and had to slow down and whenever I got better I had client work to catch up with.

I have some good news to share and it is that The Night of Elisa – my fiction debut was sent today for printing approval @ Lulu.com, which means once it is approved, it will b also distributed by Amazon network! Yay! I will make a new post once the ILLUSTRATED PAPERBACK is out!

The Nigh of Elisa was also added to Smashwords.com as E-Book (non-illustrated edition) – which you can see HERE and, also sent to Amazon Kindle and is now under review. Once the Kindle version is out, I will spread the word as well!

A little back story about this book is that it started out as a sort story, over two years ago, and during the last year it became an illustrated novella (55k words).

Now, I can’t wait to have the hardcopies available – so I can send copies to the lovely BETA READERS involved in the early and later parts of the process and, of course, give a few free copies on Giveaway!

Greetings, GR fellows! :)

The Blog Tour for The Night of Elisa has started before this weekend, but there is still time for you to come, join the tour, read interviews and participate on giveaways :)



The tour ends this Friday, the 13th! ^.^

Unveil the mystery!

This Friday, the 13th it is your chance to win a free Gothic read.

Visit The Night of Elisa Official Book Blog and find out how!

http://thenightofelisa.blogspot.com

Dear readers and authors, summer has been a rush for me. Too much work, too much going on in life. Things are slowing down and I hope to catch up with you this autumn!

I'd like to share the news about The Night of Elisa's Official Book Trailer, which was released today and it is available on Youtube!

You're welcome to watch it and share the link if you want :) Feedback is also welcome!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVDM7...

Now, hope you're all having a great time :)

The Night of Elisa is just available in 6x9 printed editions @ LULU:

*Illustrated Paperback, cream paper, glossy cover – 208 pages
*Illustrated Hardcover, white paper, wraparound glossy cover – 208 pages
*Non-Illustrated paperback, cream paper, glossy cover – 152 pages

The Night of Elisa – 2015 Calendar is also available!

Size: 11x8,5 in
12 pages with the book’s artwork (one page for each month)

By buying ANY product at Tragic Books / LULU webshop you also GET a FREE E-BOOK coupon!

Click HERE to learn more about it!

Author and illustrator Isis Sousa talks about “The Night of Elisa”, in a 15 mins fun video on Youtube. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWp4E...