New writing goals

Wow, can't believe I wrote on her last in October. Where did those months go? Where is this month going, too? Can't believe it's middle of Jan already. Anyway, I made a few writing goals this year. Here they:

1. Not give up submitting sci-fi and fantasy stories. I have found a couple of new markets and will submit to them.

2. Continue branding my ghost stories by new covers to my Geraldine's Gems series.

3. Promote my ghost stories more.

4.Finish my 'Singleton' magical realism series. I have just started writing the last ebook in the series.

5. Keep promoting my children's books in the library.

6.Start putting together a ghost story collection. Once I have finished the Singleton series/

Will report back as I go. How about you? What are your goals this year?

Discoverability - Publishing in different formats

Today is about getting discovered. One way is to publish your book in different formats. What do I mean? There are 3 that I know about: audiobook, paperbook and ebook.

For those of you who write for children, paperbook is probably the only version to do, esp if you write for younger readers eg under 9 year-olds. I currently write for 7-9s and will only publish in print for that age range, especially that I have discovered children of that age do like paper books more. When I come to write the next series, which will be for 9-12s, I might do an ebook version, too. Children of that age do have Kindles as I have been told by one mother who wanted a book for her daughter who was ten. My previous children's books are only available in ebooks for now, but I plan to start putting them back into print this year.

For those of you who write for adults, all three choices are good options, esp ebook and print. There is also audio. I won't be doing this as I don't make enough money on my adult ebooks to warrant this.

I believe the more formats you have out there, the more readers you can reach. I do like to have print copies of my books to hand, esp if I go to a meeting or a library where I can meet people and show them my book. I might sell a copy or two.

So, if you write for older children, think about publishing your book in print and digital. If you write for adults, think about publishing your book in all three formats.

Book launch for Billy and the Sparkling Socks

So, on Saturday I had my book launch for Billy, along with my writing coachee, John Caritas (his pen name) who I had helped write and publish his first picture book. How did it go? Quite well, I believe. I got there early so I could set up my table. I put my book, my hand-made leaflets about Asperger's and poster about its price on the table. John had a smaller table. It started at 11am. A few people came in, had a look then went on to the arts stall at the back of the library. There was a group of ladies knitting there too. The lady behind the café bought copies of John's book, then asked me to hold 2 of mine for her because she didn't have the money. I said I would and took the names of the children they were for. Short while later another lady came up to us. She gave us the name of an organisation who deal with children's books about equality and diversity and thought that mine would be ideal for them. I took the details down in my notepad (I have just emailed them via their website). Later on another lady came along and was v interested in what I was doing about raising awareness of Asperger's with my book. She said that she had just started running an organisation at the library helping young people with special needs and felt that I would be ideal for giving a talk. She took both of my leaflets and a postcard and my details, I took hers, and she took John's. We shall wait and see if anything happens about that one. My friend, Samantha Yagis (Hi, Sam) came in at the start. She bought a copy of each of our books and stayed all the time I was there, chatting to us. In the afternoon, just as the knitting ladies were about to leave, I thought, let's see who has grandchildren. One of the ladies came up to my table. She had older grandchildren, so I gave her postcards promoting my other books. One of the other ladies was interested and she bought a book which I duly signed.

Oh yes, how could I forget. One of the male volunteers there mentioned that he was setting up an internet radio from the library again in the new year. We became interested in having an interview for it. So, another promo opportunity. I think next time I see John at the end of the month we might have our interviews recorded. Exciting times.

So, all in all, even though I only sold a few copies of Billy, I felt it was quite a success, making contacts and leads for raising awareness of Asperger's.

So, my motto is for you authors: make the most of your library.

Me and reading

Reading has been one of my favourite hobbies since I was a child at primary school. I remember being part of a reading group at school. We sat round a table in a separate room, reading our books, usually Janet and John. I can picture it now. I think it must have been in the library because I can visualise books on movable shelves at the side of the room. We would read out loud, and much to my parents' shock this carried on into home. lol. I had to read in another room when I did read. Thankfully, it didn't last and I soon read books silently to myself. I read Mr Men, Noddy, to Secret Seven and Famous Five, to horsey adventure books. Later on I went to the library and remember reading Catherine Cookson and Lena Kennedy.

I still read a lot, but both adult and children's fiction because I now write mainly for children. I also read women's magazines because I want to write stories for them, too. Oh, and yes, I do read silently still. The only time I would read aloud is when I read my stories for consistency, and then I have to be on my own.

So, do you remember reading at school? What did you read?

Where I Write

So, where do I write? I have to have a solid surface to write on, and I can spread out any pens and notes I might also need, as well as my Ipad I now use for research purposes as I write.  At home, I write at the dining table, which we don't use that often. We have our meals in the kitchen.

When I am away, like I was two weeks ago, I had to write at tables and desks. Here are the two rooms I wrote in at Dunford House.

The main meeting room, where talks were held. That's my purple jacket you see.

And in the library, where I would go if there was a talk on.

I got a lot of writing done like this, esp as I was on my own in the rooms.

So, where do you write? Do you prefer to write on hard surfaces where you can spread all your writing gear? Let me know.

The goal posts have changed

Remember in the new year I said that one of my goals was to write Pocket Novels? Well, that goal has now changed. I am still writing the current one, which I plan to send to the New Writers' Scheme of the RNA, but after that...I have other plans to work on now.

Over the last year I have been giving talks at a local library about ebook publishing and being an indie author. I have really enjoyed doing these, realising that I like helping and inspiring people to get writing and marketing and being discovered. Then earlier this year, I gave one talk to one woman who was very inspired by what I told her, and I hope that she got back to writing after I talked to her. This got me thinking. I already have a website to help new authors, esp indies, get writing and discovered, www.hopewithjulie.wordpress.com, I thought I'd like to take this further. I'd like to help authors personally, maybe with 1:1s. Last year I met a new author who wanted someone to help him get his story made into an ebook. At the time I wasn't keen and was busy with other things going on, and I said no. But this year, he is still wanting help as he is a novice and he is now my first client.

So, my new plan is building up a service of 1:1 mentoring for new authors, and helping other authors get back to writing, with a charge, of course. I have already chosen to use Wednesdays and Saturdays as my biz days, with the rest of the week writing ebooks and short stories.

So, if you are a new author, esp thinking of becoming an indie one, then check out my website link above. There is a contact page on there. You can also message me on Facebook if you are interested. I have 2 friends I am going to help on Saturday, and another two people possibly contacting me from people I have met at the library; my client and one of the librarians.

How to create a business plan - Step 1

I got this idea from the current issue of Writer's News magazine, and thought it was a good idea so am using it to create my plan for next year's writing. The first step is to write down what you have achieved this year. So here I am doing this here.

1. Ebooks - I published three ebooks (2 short books and one story). They were 'Life in the Old Dog', 'The Vanity Quest' and 'The Leaping Angels'.

2. I wrote a children's book, the second in the series about Asperkids finding confidence via a magical world at school.

3. I had published several letters in magazines this year, and got more rewards than I've done before doing this.

4. I started to give more talks at a local library, helping new authors get on the path to indie writing.

5. I created a new marketing website, to help other authors get discovered. This goes with a blog.

6. Finally, I wrote and sent off a story to Woman's Weekly magazine, after attending their workshops and realising what sort of stories they publish.

Despite all that I have achieved this year, there are things I haven't, and I will be mentioning those in the next post, and why I think this is.

So, what have you achieved this year that you are proud to have done? Let me know.

How my mermaid workshop went at Bexley

On Friday I went to Bexley Community Library to give a children's workshop based on my first mermaid ebook 'The Quest'. It didn't start off that well because whilst waiting for the train from Lewisham to Bexley I got nervous and had a stomach ache. Once I went I was OK. I got there early so I could help set up for the children to come. Whilst helping out, an older man came in and said he was looking for Julie Day. I said, 'That's me.'. He told me that he'd been looking for someone to talk to about publishing ebooks as he had written both a thriller and children's stories, and had read a magazine about epublishing and had got interested in doing that. Apparently he had already been in contact with a publisher who wanted to publish all his children's stories in one book but they would get so much royalties, the store would get more, and he would get the rest, which wasn't much. He said no to that. Thought that he could get much better money out of it if he did it himself. So, we got chatting about how to go about epublishing and writing in general. He was also a magician and showed me his disappearing 50p trick. I talked to him again a while later before the workshop started about Createspace being free. I had also mentioned to him about the ebook talk I was going to do at Sydenham in September, and gave him my card and wrote down the details of that for him, which he said he would attend. Yay. As my coach, Rebecca Woodhead, would say BOOM.

2.30pm arrived, which was when the session was due to start. One girl had come and was waiting for two others. Whilst she waited, her mum bought a copy of the book from me. At 2.45pm they were all that had come, all the others were either away or in the park. I introduced myself, told them what I had planned for the hour and started. First I read an excerpt of The Quest, which leads on to when Delta the mermaid sees a merman on the last day of the quest. I then got the children to write their own ending and read it out to us afterwards. Then they got to draw their own covers. The library provided all the arts and crafts materials for me. After that, they showed their drawings to me. I liked the one with the squid because it showed that Delta did indeed live under water. Then they asked me a couple of questions, and I sold another book, but no badges.

All in all I believe it was a success. I wouldn't mind going back there again as they were really nice people.

I got home later than I imagined because I had just missed one train, let another go because I forgot the next train stopping at Lewisham had been cancelled, and waited for the next train I could get. I got home eventually, quite happy with the way the event went.

My mermaid workshop

Yesterday I gave a children's workshop at my local library, based around my first mermaid ebook, 'The Quest'. The workshop was planned as a short reading from me, then getting the children to write their own ending and create their own cover.

It didn't work out quite as I planned. I only had two children come and join me, and both of them were younger than the ideal workshop age of 9-12. One little girl was 6, and the boy was 5. The boy was my friend, Heather's son. The little girl's mum drew a mermaid for her and then the girl coloured her in with pens that the library provided for me. Heather's boy drew squiggles and blobs with sticky glittery tubes. I managed to have a quick chat with Heather in between chatting with the girl.

I didn't sell any of the POD version of 'The Quest' or any of the badges I had with me. Heather did buy a copy of Creature Features Highlights 2 book, which we had arranged for the day.

Maybe another day will be better, I don't know. I didn't think it was that successful, although Heather did tell me on the phone later on that she thought I did a good job.

If you know of a library within London, or maybe even a school, that would be interested in having a mermaid workshop that involves reading, writing and arts and crafts, I'd like to know.