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

After the horrible sight problems, my vision is back to normal and I will now catch up with the messages and activities on GoodReads!

I am also finishing some of the pending reviews I have on my list! :)

Must share the great news that now I am handling my short story anthology over to a professional editor in England. The full anthology "Stories of Duskland" is coming in March, 2014.

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! ^.^

Halloween is coming, and with it, mood and inspiration related to the occult and supernatural. Most people choose to talk about spooky stories and stuff…

But if you’d like to read about something spooky, powerful and beautiful such as Eternal Love, don’t miss this exclusive guest post by Isis Sousa @ Nyx Book Reviews. Ah, It has also a giveaway ;)

http://www.nyxbookreviews.com/posts/o...

Indulge also in the other special posts Celine Nyx prepared for this Halloween Season. Loads of cool stuff!

First of all, this is a post where I share the experience of what has worked for me so far. My books have a very specific niche, they are not for everybody – and each book out there may have tactics that may work better than those here…

The other thing is that I am a brand new author myself (author by accident) and am still trying to find my spot in the light – and note I sell very few copies a month as such - , however, these few tips I am sharing are starting to build up positive results for my work. Without further ado… Hope it helps you as well!

On Publishing:

- Publish your work on multiple platforms – Amazon, Smashwords, LULU, Blurb, Draft2Digital, etc. Plan your book distribution globally. Doing that, you will open the doors to potential readers from several countries, who are able to buy your work from their favorite shops and webshops. (When you make your work available at one channel only, such as Amazon, you give your potential readers no options, no freedom in choosing where she /he would like to buy your book.)

Have no budget? No problems! I never have one as well. I publish my print books via LULU. It means the only expense I need to have (once the manuscript is ready and edited) is to purchase a proof copy for approval. (In my case, I like to have the print copy proofed, too. But if you can’t pay a person to do that, take it easy and do it yourself, ask a friend, or exchange services with another author.)

- Multiple formats are important. When you publish your work as only ebook or only paperback, again, you limit the options for your readers. Everyone or most people like to read in a favorite format or specific format in a specific situation. For example: I like to read ebooks, but some days, due to eye fatigue, I like to read only print books. By making your book out in different formats, you make your work more desirable to potential readers.

- If you publish only ebooks, remember to make them available as Epub as well (not only as Kindle, as I see many authors doing). On the book giveaways that I do, 60% + of the winners always request Epub. It is only in the US that I’d say 50% of the winners on my giveaways request Kindle format. Not everybody has a Kindle or Kindle app – so get your book on LULU, Smashwords, Draft2Digital – these are free and will distribute your book worldwide as Epub + you can set a Kindle, too, of course, and have both formats!

Marketing:
Here are some free or very affordable ways to make some nice marketing to raise awareness of your title and get some reviews:

- Giveaways – Set up a print book giveaway on GoodReads, there are very cheap ways to do it, as for example, giving away one print copy to people in your country, if you don’t have a budget.

Can’t make a print giveaway? No problems, chap! Make ebook giveaways (remember to have both Kindle and Epub freebies available!). Two great sites for ebook giveaways are LibraryThing.com and BookLikes.com - it won’t cost you a thing, other than sending the files to the winners! Voi lá!

- Are you part of GoodReads groups? There are many groups where you can make a thread and offer free copies of your book in exchange for a review and those copies can be ebook :)

- If you have a little extra, you can purchase a Blog Tour service, or Blitz for as little as 30$, the smallest packages. Blog tours are a nice way to do some PR and reach new readers. You can use it also to giveaway free e-books.

- Partner with other authors and bloggers, by exchanging links or paying/trading ads in their blogs

- If you have a little extra budget, partner with a Facebook group, magazine, newspaper, website where you can place an ad. Remember to select those according to your niche. If you write horror, you may advertise with a partner that has a horror audience/readership, for example.

- Fair price: I have seen some author selling their books at horrible prices. If your book is too expensive, less likely people is going to buy it. A fair price makes readers happy :)

- Social media (my opinion, feel free to disagree): keep the bloody social media social! There’s nothing more annoying than people trying to sell books - or whatever –on social media :P

Write a new book
This is something I first heard and learned of Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords: Your new book is the best marketing tool for your other books. Write something good, great, and after some books, your titles will market each other. Don’t forget to include samples of previous books on your new books :)

If it takes too long for you to write a novel, don’t get stuck: write a short story, then, heh!

That’s all, folks!

Hi folks :) Here is a spotlight I am doing with indie author Anthony Avina , who I came across through Booklover Catlady Publicity(make sure you check her out, she is awesome!), when we did a small campaign to find reviewers for The Night of Elisa.

I have been interviewed by Anthony as well, you can read it HERE.

Anthony writes mostly horror/speculative Fiction, and recently he wrote VOID, a drama, which shows the struggles of a group of friends.

I reviewed both VOID and Bedtime, being the latest also my favourite, it gave me chills at a certain point! Click on the respective links to check it out.

And below, you read a cool interview with him. But before you read that, make sure you also peek on his AMAZON PAGE

1 - When did you start writing? What triggered your writing will?
A - I started writing when I was fourteen years old, but didn't start publishing until 2010, when I was 20 years old. It was in my creative writing class that I realized I wanted to be a writer. I was reading Stephen King and Peter Straub's The Talisman, and at the time we were asked to write a short story. The way The Talisman was written, the idea of this epic adventure where the fate of the world hangs in the balance, helped inspire a short story in which a man is given the power to alter reality with his writing, but invites an evil presence into the world in doing so, and must set things right before the world is destroyed. That story eventually became my published story, Death for Sale.

2 - Which are the most important aspects of your work as author?
A - My main goal is to entertain my audience. If I can integrate a message or change the preconceived notions of soceity, then that is an added
bonus. I just want to have my readers get lost in the story, and to feel enthralled with the plot and the characters.

3 - About “Bedtime”, how did you get inspired to write story? Were you afraid of the monster in the closet as well when you were a kid?
A - I actually came up with the idea after I thought about the various different fears and phobias people have, especially the fears we have as children. I wasn't afraid of the monster in the closet necessarily, but I was afraid of shadow people as a child, (another story I plan to write), and when I was thinking about that fear I had, I began to think about the other things children tend to be afraid of, and how there aren't many
stories out in mainstream entertainment right now that explore these fears thoroughly, so I came up with this story of a creature feeding off of the fear and drama in a family's household. That's how Bedtime was born.

4 - Which are your favourite fiction genres, to both write and read?
A - My all time favorite genre to both write and read in is definitely the horror genre. I do enjoy science fiction, fantasy and thrillers as well, but I've always been drawn to the horror genre. I like seeing a person's true, base nature emerge in the face of a truly scary situation.
Whenever you read a book and a group of people are pitted against a killer or monster of some sort, reading how these people react is such a fascinating and thrilling part of the book, and I've enjoyed exploring that as well in my own books. Stephen King's novels have always been the biggest reason I got as heavily into the horror genre as I did.

5 - What’s the most challenging part of being an indie author?
A - Finding a way to get your book in front of readers in an age when self-publishing has become such a popular thing for authors. Any time I find a reader has downloaded or purchased my book, it's the greatest feeling in the world to realize someone is reading the book you've poured so much time and effort and love into. Learning how to utilize social media and connect with both readers and authors on a more personal level has been something I've been working on a lot over the past year, and I'm happy to have met so many great people along the way. Finding a way to navigate
the self-publishing market and reach a wider audience is definitely the biggest challenge, especially when you're on your own and have a low budget.

6 - About "Void", where did you get the inspiration for the problems the group of friends go through? What made you decide to write about that?
A - I got the inspiration for the problems the characters of VOID face from the world around me. Living in the US, there are so many politically charged subjects that divide and fuel hatred on many fronts, from both gender and sexual equality to religion and marriage. I've always been a big believer in equality and appreciating the differences between people. A person should be allowed to love whoever they want, and everyone should have an equal chance at enjoying all that life has to offer. I also got inspiration for the character of Javier especially from my own
experiences. Over the last six years or so, I've lost both an uncle and a grandfather to various illnesses, and I understand what it's like to lose someone you love. Not in the same romantic love kind of way that Javier does, but loss is never an easy thing to go through, and I've known people who don't seem to understand what kind of depression can settle over someone after a big loss like that, so I wanted to highlight the
struggle of overcoming loss, and finding a way to enjoy life after loss.

7 - How was the writing experience of putting together a drama, after focusing on horror genre for many works? How did it impact your writing?
A - You know there's a quote by Mark Twain that summons this up for me perfectly. He said, "Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't." I think this is a perfect summary for my experience writing drama over horror. In the horror genre, there are endless possible paths to choose from because utilizing the supernatural or serial killer elements are often not based in reality, while a drama has to follow the rules of real life. You want there to be perfect, happy endings, but while this can happen for some,
not everyone is going to come out on the other side of the story unscathed. Whether it's physical or emotional pain, life is hard, and I think writing this drama had to be a reflection of life itself. Having to ground yourself in a real-world setting is a lot more difficult for me than
it is to explore the fantastic realms of the horror genre. It was a challenge, but it was a challenge I enjoyed conquering, and I couldn't be more thrilled by the end result.
.........................
And that’s it, hope you have enjoyed it! :)