Monday, November 30, 2015

While We Wait - Week #1 Blood Moon ~ Chapter Two!

Good evening Everealmers! 

As promised, here is a sneak peek into Blood Moon, Book Three of the Everealm Series! This is Chapter Two. The short Prologue and Chapter One can be found at the end of Wildfire. Chapter Two begins after Wildfire ends, so only a couple of weeks have passed since the Winter Ball.

Next week, stay tuned for a game of Who Said It? and a chance to win ALL THREE books in paperback! 

NOTE: Chapter has had a rough edit and proofread. Final edit is to come. There may be a few small mistakes I haven't caught yet.

Enjoy!

~J.D.

NOTE: I moved the chapter to a separate page to prevent spoilers. If you haven't read books 1 & 2, DON'T CLICK. Spoilers may lie ahead. Thank you! :)

CLICK HERE TO READ: BLOOD MOON ~ CHAPTER TWO!

Monday, November 23, 2015

New video! Blood Moon Release Date, Giveaways, & More!

Check it out! :)


If video doesn't work, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2Pu8Y64Bjk

Gorgeous earrings that are part of the blog tour giveaway! Click here to be taken to the amazing Etsy shop: Rabbitwood and Reason!

Blog tour info:

Wildfire Blog Tour Schedule

(Will be updated with new links throughout the week!)

November 23 Interview and review
happy tails and tales

November 23 Interview
Books That Hook

November 23 Spotlight
Share My Destiny

November 24 Spotlight
3 Partners in Shopping , Nana, Mommy, and Sissy, Too!

November 24 Spotlight
Lisa’s World of Books

November 25 Interview
Butterfly-o-Meter Books

November 25 Interview
Roxanne’s Realm

November 26 Guest blog
Books N Pearls 

November 26 Spotlight
Book-o-Craze

November 27 Spotlight and review
The Angel’s Pearl

November 27 Spotlight
Geeks In High School

November 30 Guest blog
Urban Fantasy Investigations

November 30 Spotlight
Fang-tastic Books

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Self-publishing... (Or in other words... learning as I go!)


When I decided to write a book series, about a year and a half ago, I didn't realize exactly how deep into self-publishing that I would get. I also didn't think, even for a second, that I would receive as much positive response as I have. From the beginning to now, the self-publishing process has been a roller coaster. But I can hardly complain, because if this were 20 years ago, I might not have been able to publish my series, at all!

Here are a few things I've discovered along the way (so far!). Forgive me, but I'm in the mood for gifs, tonight. :)

~ Mistakes will happen! 

As with any new adventure, you're bound to hit a few bumps in the road. When you are doing most everything yourself, there isn't someone there to point out the mistakes. However, the digital age makes it much easier to correct my mistakes. For example: I recently discovered that the paperback cover of Wildfire had a spelling error on the back. Thankfully, only a small number of copies had gone out at that point, mostly for giveaways, so there are only a few floating around. If you have one, consider yourself the lucky owner of a special edition! :) But fixing it was super easy. I just corrected the image file and re-uploaded it. From here out, the paperback covers are error free (I hope!)

~ Waiting for feedback is excruciating!

You know people are reading your books. You can see the downloads and the "currently reading" statuses, but you never know if/when someone will post a review. The worst situation is when someone finishes the book and puts "Review to come" without a star rating. It makes me crazy anxious wondering if they liked the story or not. I find myself constantly checking to see if the review is posted yet. I love when readers update their progress (and thoughts) on Goodreads or Twitter as they read along! I can usually gauge if they are/aren't enjoying it, thus far. Either way, waiting to get feedback is torture! I know I'm not alone with this. In my best Tom Petty voice, "Oh, the waiting is the hardest part..."

~ Editing matters!

No, I don't use a professional editor. However, I have great proofreaders who find a vast majority of my errors. I also use Grammarly, which reminds me to stop using loooooooong sentences, which is one of my bad habits, along with too many commas. Oops! I've picked up a terribly edited ebook (or one that wasn't edited, at all!) and couldn't even get past the first few pages. If I have to spend the entire time correcting errors in my mind, I can't pay attention to the story. So I do understand the importance of proofreading.

~ Competition is greater than ever (but fellow authors are really supportive)!


~ Connecting with readers is a lot of fun! 

I didn't realize just how much fun I would have connecting with readers on Goodreads, Twitter, this blog, other blogs, etc. I also love seeing readers connecting with each other. It's nice to know I'm not alone in this endeavor and it inspires me to write. Authors who sit back and watch, rather than participating in discussions with their readers are really missing out.

~ Goodreads is an author's BEST friend! 

I had never even heard of Goodreads.com until I decided to publish Everealm. I'm not even sure how I found it but I'm glad I did! If you are an author, I highly encourage you to create and maintain an author profile on Goodreads. I see many authors who have a page but do not use it which is wasting a great opportunity to connect with readers. Besides the fact that you can see when people are reading your book and their feedback, you can host giveaways (for paperbacks), post status updates, videos, etc. Personally, my favorite part of using Goodreads is the fact that I can, and have, received private messages from readers. They can ask me questions or give me feedback. It's more casual that way.

~ Formatting is the devil in disguise!

Uploading a manuscript anywhere on the internet requires proper formatting. Each website (Amazon, Smashwords, Createspace, etc.) has their own guidelines and requirements for uploading. This means you have to format your book differently for each site if you want it to be accepted. Smashwords has the most irritating "rules" of the sites I've used, but all of them cause a headache. After uploading and re-uploading, over and over, you begin to understand why authors pay someone to do it for them.


That's all for now. I'm sure I'll do a "Part 2" later on. :)

~J.D.

Friday, November 6, 2015

New in November!

Greetings from Everealm!

I can't believe how busy this fall has already been. Between cookies and writing, I haven't had a lot of time to be on the computer, which makes me sad. I have been checking in on my favorite blogs, though, at least twice a week. And I've tried to Tweet a few times, but mostly I've been working on Blood Moon. And guess what..?

It's halfway finished! Yay!

But enough about what has already happened. Here is what's NEW in November!

NetGalley: Everealm is now available on NetGalley! If you are a NetGalley member, feel free to send a request. Most requests will be granted. Wildfire is being added to NetGalley within the next 3 days (hopefully today!). So if you've read Everealm but haven't gotten around to Wildfire yet, now is your chance!

Book Tour: Wildfire is touring November 23-28 through Bewitching Book Tours! I will be doing a giveaway with this tour, similar to the YA Bound tour. It will include paperback copies of BOTH Everealm and Wildfire AND instead of a necklace, you can win a gorgeous pair of earrings from Rabbitwood and Reason. I just love that Etsy shop! Her jewelry creations are really magnificent.

Giveaways: In addition to the giveaway for the tour, I will be hosting another Goodreads giveaway for a signed paperback copy of Everealm. It starts on Friday the 13th (oooo spooky!) and ends on November 23rd. When the giveaway starts, I will put a widget at the top of the page, like before.

FREE: During the Wildfire book tour, Everealm ebook copy will be FREE on Amazon from November 23-27. Hopefully, anyone who sees the tour posts and is interested in starting the series will snag a free e-copy during the promotion.

Well, I think that is all of the happenings in November. If I think of any more, I will let you know. In the meantime, check out these amazing reviews of Everealm and Wildfire on Mikayla's Bookshelf!

P.S. Don't forget to take the poll. A new one just went up! -------->

~J.D.