Colleen Reviews The Stella Trilogy. Check it out. I am still out of town but pics of yesterday’s signing are coming soon. It was beautiful!
Month: February 2016
In Paperback and Amazon Kindle
Good morning Lovelies,
The Road to Freedom – Joseph’s Story is now available in Paperback and eBook on Amazon Kindle. This also means that the Stella Trilogy is complete and all three books are now available on the site, both individually as well as a bundle pack.
In the meantime, don’t forget…. I’m in Atlanta babies!!
Meet me in person at The Metropolitan Branch Library at 1332 Metropolitan Parkway from 12noon – 4pm for a signed copy of this book as well as the others in the series.
Why I Write Black
Because flowers grow in strange places
like tattered pieces of wood and recycled paper
Because history is frost bitten
and winter refuses to be comforted by the sun
bluish-white and numbed pain
cold skin
and prickling feeling
Because the sky don’t stay dark forever
but light ain’t taught in history class
Because some skirts
are too heavy
to lift without permission
Because Dust Tracks on The Road
was subtracted 3 chapters
Because some truths
are too big to sacrifice
on American alters
Because Zora died broke
and Nina died sad
Because their voices still sing
Because strange fruit still swings
Because ignorance is worth more than rubies
and diamond gems
Because no one has picked up the pieces
of truth
underneath the ruble
of bombed out churches
on 16th streets
Because little girls ain’t little girls no more
but crushed bones
and melted skin
a strike of disobedience
against premeditated sin
Because hope is stronger than despair
Because freedom is worth more
than all the
raisins in the sun
The Best Way for Writers to Use Amazon’s Preorder Feature
Great info over at Live.Write.Thrive on how to use Amazon’s PreOrder feature. Here are some key bullet points in the article that can help you to make wise preordering decisions (please visit the site for the entire article). Penny C. Sansevieri, Founder and CEO Author Marketing Experts, and best-selling author says:
- First Time Published Author: If you’re a newly published author, the idea of a preorder probably seems exciting, right? Your book is up on the Amazon site as time ticks down to its release. And while it seems exciting, it’s not advisable to spend a ton of marketing time on the book because you can’t get reviews (though there is a workaround for that), but using this to build a fan base may not be the best idea.
- Already Published Author: If you have a book out there (or several), and you’ve built a mailing list of fans, then preorder may be a fun thing to do to build excitement for your upcoming book.
I would still caution that the lion’s share of your work should only begin when the book is actually ready for purchase. Why? Because unless you are some mega-bestselling author, it’s hard to drive significant numbers to a preorder page.
The other issue is immediacy. If a reader wants something now, they may not want to wait for your book to be ready and will, instead, buy another Amazon-recommended book. Also, this is another reason to keep your preorder time short—which I’ll explain next.
<<<I only gave about 2 weeks for my preorders. Penny explains why you should keep your Preorder time short>>>
- Timing of Your Preorder: Though I know there are folks who are fans of long preorders, I am not one of them. Amazon allows you up to ninety days, but when I’ve done this, I have found that a month is just about right. That way you can promote it to family, friends, and even your e-mail list, and still build some momentum for it without spending a ton of time pushing a book that no one can read.
- Promoting a Preorder: Along the lines of what we discussed earlier, I would share this with your followers and your e-mail or newsletter list. If this is your second, third, or fourth book, the interest is going to be stronger than if it’s your first. But even a newbie author should not be discouraged from pushing this to folks who know you to let them know it’s coming. You can do this through images, blog posts, Facebook posts, and Twitter updates.
<<<Don’t Forget The Road to Freedom is available now for preorder at $0.99>>>
- Pricing Your Preorder: For reasons I mentioned earlier, I would keep your pricing low— even if you plan on raising it later. Why? Well, you’re competing with millions of titles on Amazon and your book isn’t ready (yet), so the immediacy isn’t there. If you want to entice an impulse buy, keep the pricing lower at first, then once the book is live, you can always raise it.
Thunderclap: 1 Day Left!
Soooo we are only one day away from the conclusion of my Thunderclap and two days away from my next release. Friday is release day for the 3rd installment of The Stella Trilogy and my Thunderclap is at an amazing 30%, not bad for a five day campaign!
Now, for the fun part. I have only ONE day left to raise the other 70%!
I am not going to be on Facebook any time soon but for those of you who are, I’d appreciate it if you told your friends about my thunderclap. You can tell them how nice of a person I am and how I would LOVE to have their support :).
OK, tell them what you want, just don’t forget the Thunder Link! Hey, I like that, “Thunder Link”. Has a nice ring to it.
Thunder Tip:
At this point I just like saying Thunder. Any who, here’s a tip:
Obviously, I started my Thunderclap late. When participating in any crowd funding, make sure to launch at least 2 weeks in advance. This will give the extra busy people in your life time to catch up with you. Secondly, if you are going to launch a campaign late (yes, like me), work smarter, not harder. This means you can’t be afraid to take risks. I knew it would be a challenge to launch a Thunderclap so late. I also knew I would possibly not reach my goal in time. So, to make up for what I’ll miss, I made sure to upgrade my plan to Thunderclap Lightening. Under this option, even if I don’t make my goal I will still get your support. That’s right! No one has wasted their time! To the 30 people who have supported so far, your social media messages will still post and your support will still count on friday! So you see, weigh your options. Know what works and what doesn’t. Know what will be a benefit and what won’t. With my campaign getting off to a slow start, it was a major benefit for me to go with the paid plan to ensure positive results.
Writer’s Quote Wednesday – Albert Camus
Good Morning Lovelies and welcome to another Writer’s Quote Wednesday. Today, I draw inspiration from Albert Camus, who before I saw this quote, I knew nothing about :).
I will be hosting a Book Signing party for The Stella Trilogy in two days, and the topic of my discussion will be Freedom. So you can imagine my excitement when I came across this quote. For me personally, it is not about rebelling against structure, for I live my life according to order and there are laws that govern me. However, this world is not a fair world. This world is not a free world. And as long as this world remains unfree, as a free woman, my very existence should always be in rebellion against it, lest I am a contradiction to my very self.
About The Author: From Biography.com:
Albert Camus was born on November 7, 1913, in Mondavi, French Algeria. Camus became known for his political journalism, novels and essays during the 1940s. His best-known works, including The Stranger (1942) and The Plague (1947), are exemplars of absurdism (EC places imaginary question mark here). Camus won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957 and died on January 4, 1960, in Burgundy, France.
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“What inspired you this week? Share your quotes!”
Silver’s Coming Attractions – “The Road to Freedom: Joseph’s Story (The Stella Trilogy Book 3),” by Yecheilyah Ysrayl
Check out Colleens post of my coming attraction! Coming Soooon.
The PBS Blog 