Writing The Sister took me 18 months. During that period I rewrote multiple times, changing the point of view, the tense, and even the genre. When I couldn’t write any more I paid for a professional critique, got feedback from beta readers, and still I wasn’t happy enough to submit it. After weeks of more tinkering there was absolutely nothing left I could do but I still hesitated in submitting it, was it ready? How do we ever know?
Writing The Gift has been a completely different experience. Writing to a deadline means I have not had time to go through the same process that I went through with The Sister. A process that involved putting in a drawer and coming back to it after a month with fresh eyes. Now I am coming to the end of my copy edits it is time for me to let go…
I’ve been re-reading a lot of books, specifically literary classics. As I think about my next project, I’ve also thought about my previous works, noticing the things I did wrong and that I’d like to improve on this time around. That’s what I like about Self-Publishing, with every new book there is something different that I discover (for better and for worse). This time around, I’ve been paying more attention to the interior layout and formatting of my books; how to do so properly for eBook and for the paperback.
I stood in front of my bookshelf and stared at the books. I went to another book shelf and stared at it. I went back to my bedroom (since my favorites are in the bedroom) and took a handful of books and scattered them on the bed. It hit me: Here is all the research I need to help properly format my books. I discovered in that moment that books can help Indie Authors in more ways than one. Obviously, reading them. Here are five more:
Book Cover Design
Probably the most obvious is Book Cover Design. Reading books can help Indie Authors to study the graphics of Best Selling books and how the design help to interpret what the story is about. Because I am not a graphic designer, I may not understand typography and all the important elements that should go into a Book Cover. True, I can pay someone to do this for me. However, if I am on a budget and therefore purchasing a premade cover, I need to understand how the colors and text all come together. Premades aren’t as easy to choose as they may seem since the author must choose one that will accurately represent the book.
Front Matter
One of the primary things I’ve been paying attention to is the front matter. This is the first few pages of the book before the first Chapter (or before the Prologue). It’s the title page, copyright page, dedication page, acknowledgment, forward, preface, introduction, and so forth. Looking at how professional-quality books format their Front Matters has helped me to understand the foundation of how it is to be done. I can see where the ISBN Number is, how the wording of the Copyright Notice is set up, and the credits to the editor, co-author, or illustrator. I can also notice that the Front Matter is not numbered or is numbered differently than the book Chapters. Either there are no page numbers or there are Roman Numerals instead.
Paragraph Structure
Another huge aspect of formatting for me with this next book is improving my paragraph structure. If you would take the time to browse the books on your shelf you’ll see how the paragraphs are lined up. Further, they are different for the kind of book. Young Adult books for very young adults (starting at maybe pre-teen) have text that is larger than general adult fiction books. They also have more space between them. This makes it easier to read. On the other hand, books that are harder to read or are for older audiences have text that has less space and is closer together. How does this help the author? We want our books to be appropriate for the grade level to which it is meant for. A children’s book is going to have the big text and lots of space but as we go up in grade level or age, then the text becomes smaller and less space.
Page Numbers
Another tidbit we can pick up from looking over the books we already own is the page numbering. While I add page numbers to my books Chronologically, I’ve noticed that some books (most of the ones that are Traditionally Published and that I grew up with), are numbered in a certain order: The “even” numbered page is on the left-hand page and the “odd-numbered page is on the right-hand page. I don’t know why as this style of page numbering isn’t very important to me, but it can come in handy for those who’d like to mimic this style.
Back Matter
Finally, books can help Self-Publishers to see how to properly format the back cover of their books. Maybe you’d like your picture in the corner with a brief bio or maybe you want it all blurb. If you don’t have a professional Book Cover Designer already, you can easily mimic a professional-looking back book cover layout for your print books just by taking the time to browse your bookshelves. This can even be done on the Spine. Have a Publishing Company behind your books? Maybe you can add your logo to the spine or on the back so it looks like “Your Awesome Publishing Company Name Inc.”
And now for my 2 cents….Be Inspired
What I find so inspirational about Malcolm X, is that he was what I like to call an uneducated smart man. He didn’t start as what people considered smart or expert, but a criminal, someone who robbed banks and snorted coke. The point is that he wasn’t someone you looked up to or came to for knowledge on a skill aside from running numbers. Yet, he became someone who spoke to and inspired millions of people. What I’m saying is that it is not who he was, it is who he became. By reading books and studying history his voice alone commanded the attention of thousands. I believe Indie Authors can do the same. Don’t underestimate yourself. Anyone can follow a trend or rehash the same kind of advice but until you’re willing to step outside the box and be different, until your are willing to do something beyond what you’ve never mastered, you will never grow.
The PBS Blog was not my introduction to blogging. At first, I hosted a blog through Blogger in honor of my first novel The Aftermath. My second blog, A House of Poetry, was dedicated to poetry and hosted here on WordPress. Neither of these blogs went very far. When I transitioned from A House of Poetry to The PBS Blog, I had a different intention. This time around, I enjoyed blogging, and I did not want to miss a day of publishing content. I was relentless and almost obsessive. I posted three times a day for five or six days a week. My routine looked something like this:
Of course, you have to first produce something. This post is about getting your blog to work for you when you are away, but that doesn’t happen unless you have first created something.
My first tip to getting your blog to work for you even when you aren’t blogging is to be consistent in publishing valuable content when you first start your blog so you have tons of content to repurpose later.
My first posts did not do well far as engagement. But what it did was help me get used to writing publicly, posting regularly, and creating content that people will read weeks, months, and even years later. People are still engaging with posts I wrote four and five years ago because blog posts have a long shelf life, unlike a social media post.
I believe in hard work. I also believe that hard work pays off. These are pretty much the basic principles that help me to keep this blog going.
Update: We are now in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic, which we were not in when this post I first published this post in 2016. More people are at home now, which is a wonderful opportunity to engage your audience because people consume a lot of content. Time spent reading blogs and social media posts have increased significantly, with everyone being at home. On the flip side, there are also more distractions which means that you are easily forgettable if you are not showing up regularly.
Another thing to remember is that a post you publish today can blow up a year from now. A post with five likes now can get 50,000 likes in a year, depending on the spirit of the time and how it is relatable to your post. Here’s an example of what I posted in the original version of this post from 2016:
“Last week, a blog post I published two years ago suddenly got lots of attention. My stats were going crazy! Shooting up to over six hundred views within 48 hours, over 3,000 by the end of the day, and over four thousand shares on Facebook. This was an old post that new visitors were just discovering. This is a clear example of your blog working for you. If I wanted, I could have sat back and took an entire week off and made it up in views, likes, and follows coming in from that post alone. This same thing can work on articles that surround certain historical events, like 9/11. Maybe you posted something on 9/11, and two years from now, it gets all of the attention you thought it deserved when you first published it. It’s all about timing.” – Yecheilyah
You won’t have to worry about posting as much once you’ve been doing it for some time, and you won’t have to worry about losing followers when you are not blogging because there is enough content for people who have not yet discovered your blog to read.
Schedule Your Blog Posts
Although I was publishing a lot initially, it doesn’t mean that I was coming up with the content on the fly. I planned my posts out and scheduled them. If you go into your WordPress dashboard, you can schedule your blog posts so that they will go live without you having to sit in front of the computer or phone and do it manually. If you are in the US, I recommend scheduling it to go live at midnight so you can reach people all over the world who are in different time zones. We talked about this in another post already, so as not to be redundant, I will refer you to that post which you can find here.
Download the WP App (Or Whatever App is appropriate for your blog platform)
You can also download the WordPress app, which, once the post is live, helps respond to comments and share to social media on the go.
This is probably one of the best tips of them all because you can grow while you sleep, which is like working while you sleep. And who doesn’t like that?
Support Other Blogs/Bloggers
Publishing posts regularly is good, but it is not enough. It is just as important to follow other blogs, comment on other blogs and interact with other bloggers.
The more I interacted with veteran bloggers, participated in challenges, followed and commented on other blogs, the more I became aware of the little nuggets and tidbits I needed to help my blog, not only to grow but also to keep growing. And consistent growth is a goal that I consistently strive for.
Guest blogging, interviewing others, and being active within the community will help you grow even on days you are not blogging because you are leveraging your platform through others. Someone might not have read the article on your page, but if you were a guest on someone else blog or a more prominent blog reblogged/shared your post, their readers become your readers depending on the subject and how it is relatable to them.
It’s a challenge for authors who write and publish books to be consistent in publishing blog posts while trying to write books because blogging is still a form of writing. Whether you are publishing a poem, short story, article, how-to, research article, giving a testimony, or breaking down how a quote is inspirational to you, it’s all still writing.
One solution is that by frequently posting in the beginning, supporting other blogs when you are not blogging, repurposing content, and scheduling blog posts, authors can continually publish books without neglecting their blog.
The key is a little bit of discipline and networking with others, incorporating blogging into your platform building strategy as a necessary part of the work, and producing quality posts as early and as often as possible in your blogging journey.
Not willing to cope with Washington’s brutal winters, Kailani breaks up with restaurant owner Geoffrey and leaves her job to return home, returning to the warm weather and beauty of Hawaii, black sand, and the curling waves of the Pacific Ocean. In preparation to return, Kailani searches for employment and secures a position as personal chef to Lars Jorgensen, owner of Kaimana Surf Company, and his wife, Dr. Barbara Merriweather, on the West Coast of the Big Island in the district of North Kohala.
When she arrives, the Jorgensen’s house is beautiful, and this sous-chef is ill-prepared for what awaits beyond the lush tropical gardens of palm trees, midnight jasmine, red ginger, and pergola laden with hanging Jade. As Kailani settles in, a series of events begin to unfold that question the stability of the Jorgensen household. First, Lars and Barbie don’t seem to like each other much, which could have something to do with Barbie’s roaming eye.
When Barbie asks Kailani to make more nutritious meals to reduce her family’s craving for junk food, the kids dislike Kailani’s healthy cooking. Nevertheless, this is not the full scope of Kailani’s issues. As Geoffrey relocates to Hawaii to be with her, things start to become strange, and a body is discovered on the Jorgensens’ property.
I liked reading about the kinds of meals Kailani would make for the family because she is a chef, especially as she started to get inventive to convince the kids to eat healthily. I got a sense of Hawaiian culture through it.
I also like how the plot focuses on this one family. That gives the story a TV show feel, which I like. Whenever I put my Kindle down, I think about what I will read in tomorrow’s House of the Hanging episode. The Jorgensen’s are off the chain.
What’s really going on in the house with the hanging Jade?
Ratings:
Plot Movement / Strength: 4/5
Entertainment Factor: 4/5
Characterization: 5/5
Authenticity / Believable: 4/5
Thought Provoking: 5/5
Overall Rating: 4 / 5 stars
House of the Hanging Jade is available now on Amazon!
Be sure to contact this Best Selling Author at the links below!
Note: This article can apply to ANYONE just starting a business, not just writers, who would like to understand more about platform building. Just replace writer / author with your profession.
Platform building is not something we writers want to hear about AGAIN. Honestly, we all really just want to write books, publish them, and then crack open bottles of wine to celebrate. Next, we wait. And wait. And wait. What are we waiting for? We’re waiting for the readers to come of course, isn’t everyone? No. Some people have readers before they even come out with a book flocking to their Amazon pages or Author websites to buy. Some people do not have to build a fan base after they’ve published a book, tweet until their fingers ache, or spam their family and friends on Facebook. Some people seem to just have thousands of readers already lined up at…
I need to get my time zones right! Lol. The Story Reading Ape has surprised me once again with the publishing of my Guest Post. *Comments disabled here. Meet me on the Ape’s blog!*
When I published my first book, I didn’t see my writing as a business. It was just me doing what I’ve always wanted to do. However, as I began to learn and as I continue to learn, I quickly discovered why Self-Publishing requires so much work: It’s a business.
That doesn’t take away from the fun of it, but the realization did help me to become more organized. I quickly learned why no one was buying: I wasn’t working! Writing is working, technically, and I was doing plenty of that. However, I was not working on the skill of writing, researching my industry, understanding tips to help me to write better books, promoting, marketing, and everything in-between. I was writing, sure. But the business of writing? I didn’t even know it existed. I was a writer and that was all. When I got into the business of writing however, that’s…
Title: SICKER – Psychological SICK Series Book Two
Author: Christa Wojciechowski
Print Length: 107 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1533513538
Publication Date: April 13, 2016
Language: English
ASIN: B01CWGKIL0
I’m amazed that John can be even sicker in book two of Christa’s psychological thriller than in the first book. If you’re new to this blog, you can read my review of book one in this series here.
In book one, we pick up where Susan Branch left off, having just learned the truth about her husband’s ongoing ailments. Because of these circumstances, she was deprived of a fulfilling marriage and a feeling of self. These ailments compromised the most private aspect of her: her thinking. A disease brought on by a sick person robbed her of what may have been.
John’s secret is so bizarre that Susan is caught up in a wrath that consumes her and is forced to question her own sanity. As a medical professional, how could she miss so many of the signs that revealed the true nature of her husband’s illness? How could such an illness, so much more superior than physical bruises, have gone unnoticed?
Sicker focuses on the source of John’s obsession as he recounts a childhood riddled with sadness, loneliness, and trauma.
While my first impression from the first book was that he was mentally unstable, book two offers much more insight, changing my initial judgments. As crazy as this sounds, I almost feel sorry for John. This book made me think about the importance of love in our lives. The need to feel loved and be loved is critical to our operation and balanced and healthy individuals. People denied the privilege of this love become the same people we deem crazy in mental institutions. The truth is, it doesn’t matter whether you grew up with a silver spoon in your mouth or a plastic spoon; everyone everywhere at some point in their lives needs love, without which we are no longer human beings and can, therefore, be driven to do unspeakable things.
Ratings:
Plot Movement / Strength: 5/5
Entertainment Factor: 4/5
Characterization: 4/5
Authenticity / Believable: 5/5
Thought Provoking: 5/5
Overall Rating: 5 / 5 stars
Note: This article can apply to ANYONE just starting a business, not just writers, who would like to understand more about platform building. Just replace writer / author with your profession.
The PBS Blog 