Going back in time

One of the chapters in my last non fiction book 'The Passion Path' is all about the special interest I had in the group Spandau Ballet. I was a big fan of them in the 80s to 90s. When they split up in 1990 I had started work so didn't think any more of them from then. Until this year. I saw on FB that three members of the group had done a signing and Q&A at a venue. It made me recall that singer Tony Hadley (who was my fave member) had left them. That started a rabbit hole. I went on YouTube and saw all these videos of his performances and interviews over the years. This week I have been watching old TOTP (recall that show?) performances of SB, from their first one in 1981 to later years. I have also been watching recent videos of Tony singing in Italy and Spain where he has been touring. Talk about going back in time. Tony still has that great voice of his.

That is one of the joys of having the internet now. Back in the 80s there was no internet, so you couldn't see their performances, only if you recorded it on VHS. Now there is YouTube and people record their favourite singers on there and upload it on there. 

Another way I have been going back in time is I did a podcast interview with ALLi about my writing and childhood. You can listen to it here

 https://selfpublishingadvice.org/podcast-inspirational-indie-author-interview-julie-day/

Let me know what you think. 

A biz goal accomplished

This year, again, I have Leonie Dawson's Life and Biz books to write my goals down for what I want to achieve. One of the pages in the Biz book is about promotion and asks where do you want to be mentioned. One of my answers was ALLi (Alliance of Independent Authors), and I have achieved this twice the last week.

A couple of months ago, I was asked to write a piece for their blog about writing about children with Asperger's by the blog's organiser, Debbie Young. She said that she would put it up when my book went live. The post went up last week and you can read it here http://selfpublishingadvice.org/children-asperger-syndrome-autism-books/

Then a couple of days ago Debbie asked on the FB group for ideas on out-of-the box marketing for our books. I posted about wanting do a library event during National Autism Awareness week. It was picked up and put on a blog post, which you can read here http://selfpublishingadvice.org/book-marketing-in-the-dark-wacky-ideas-that-really-work/

After this, I have realised that my biz is now going to be writing children's book about children with Asperger's, autism and other health issues, and raise awareness of them by doing events at libraries, if I can.

So, that is one of my Biz promo goals accomplished.

How are your biz goals going?

Now 'A Friend in Need' is published, I am back to tell you how to reach as many readers you can as an indie author of ebooks – this is the way I do. In my next library talk I will be mentioning ebook platforms, and this is the way to get to as many readers as you can – publish on as many digital platforms you can. I know that some indie authors have had great success with publishing exclusively on Amazon, esp with their Select programme, but for me, I want to reach as many readers as I can, to let them know what I like writing about: mainly hope and second chances. Ever since I became an indie author in 2011, I have published widely. Although, when I published ‘Snakeskin Boots’ I did put it in Select as an experiment to see what results I got – no sales. When the 90 days were up, I published it widely.  I will continue to publish on as many channels as I can. So, when ‘A Friend’ came out last week, I published it on Amazon, Kobo, Smashwords for its own store and the US libraries and subscription services eg Oyster, and Draft2Digital for Apple and their new channel, Tolino. Now that D2D have this new channel, I am going to put the rest of my ebooks that aren’t on there, on there. I started today by putting ‘More Fish in the Sea’ on there. I have now put all of my ebooks on there. I have also checked Goodreads, and they are all on there, too. My next task is to update my website so that they are all on there, too, plus reorganise the pages for my children's ebooks. I also need to put them all on ALLi's website for discoverability.

So, that’s how to reach as many readers you want to – publish your ebook on all platforms you can find. If D2D add more channels, I will add them there, too.

Are you an indie author? If so, do you believe in being exclusive to one etailer or do you publish widely? Let me know.

How my library talk went in April

On 26 April I gave a talk at Sydenham Community Library to a group of adults about 'The 5 Steps to Publishing an Ebook'.  I was going to do a report on here, but Debbie Young of The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) offered me a slot on their blog and I said yes. It went up last Saturday, and you can read it here http://www.selfpublishingadvice.org/reaching-readers-with-library-talks/#comment-236975.

As you can read, I considered it a great success. So much so, that I plan to do it again with another library whom I've yet to approach about it, and I intend doing a follow-up about what you need to know when publishing your ebook.

If you know of any library in the SE London area that might be interested in an author giving this talk, please let me know. Am keen to do this again, as I so enjoyed it.

So watch this space for more news on more talks.

If you would like to receive a newsletter from me about my ebooks, talks and more, please let me know either on here in the comments or through messaging me on Facebook.

The London Book Fair 2013 - What I Learned

On Monday this week I travelled by myself to the London Book Fair at Earl's Court. I was aiming to get there for a talk at 10am but the trains were so slow I ended up arriving a couple of mins late. Thankfully I didn't miss much and heard most of the talk. The talk was by the Alliance of Independent Authors about self-publishing and what you have to be to be one. Here is what I learnt.

It was by the owner, Orna Ross. The first thing she asked us to do (yes, we had to do some writing), was to write down what you have risked in your life. I wrote learning to drive. Then 3 things we have done that we felt were risky: I wrote, going to new places, meeting new people and volunteering. They are risky for me having Asperger's Syndrome. Then we had to write down a current project we were working on and list risks for that. Mine was for my current Geraldine ebook, and the risks I put were self-publishing it, putting it out into the world. I also wrote about writing about autism, and the risks for that were putting it out there for people to see who I am and what I am like. Going freelance and being rejected.

Then we had to list things we felt we had been proactive with and I wrote: joining organisations/societies, going to their talks etc, going on line with FB etc, going indie, having a website and blog. Then we had to write down 3 things that would move forward our project. I wrote to find a cover, write more, edit it.

Then it was about the stages of writing which are: first draft, final draft, edit, design, production, marketing and sales.

Then it was all about reaching readers for whom your book is written. You have to work hard and smart. Be entrepreneurial and share and cooperate.  There has to be a team. You can't do it all yourself as you don't have all the skills at that level. (I know I don't). Then you had to write what skills you do have and at what stage of the process of writing. Mine were writing at stage 1 and 2. Production and marketing. I hire a professional editor and a cover designer for all my ebooks as I know I can't do those two things properly.  Then it was about budgeting. You have to budget for what you are going to spend, got to spend and the cost. We had to work out the cost of all our current work.

I think I shall leave the post there and finish it tomorrow so it won't be too long to read here.