Wanted: Time Traveling DeLorean.

Where does time go? It's been far too long since I made a blog post and that just proves that I'm still the weakest link in this one woman show. It's not that I haven't been busy. I've been extremely busy, and I did finish a book, but I've also been moving and attempting some success at another venture.
What I've learned is that there really is no such thing as multitasking.

I need to be better at my business, and my business is writing and publishing.  I haven't been pushing myself. I'm still on the fringes of success with a small readership and that means there is no real demand for my work.

I have to cultivate that demand and it starts with me. I need this. My family needs this. I write for myself but also for the financial stability of my family. This is my job and I need to get better at treating it as such. That means more time, not just writing but promoting. I suck at promotion. That has to change. How will I reach readers if I make no effort to put my face and my books out there?

I've talked a lot about discipline and I'm still struggling with it. I've discovered that small achievable goals take me further than lofty ones.  So where do I begin? I need a small goal to achieve every morning. Once I manage that then I will set daily goals, then weekly, monthly etc. Goals like a daily word count, posting one promotional thing each day. Small steps that ultimately make a big impact.
At the end of the day when time has run out, I only have myself to blame for what I did and didn't do for my business.

-Ella

Be Grateful

 When I see pics/posts like this one to the left on Facebook I almost always roll my eyes and scroll by. Believe me, I am grateful for what I have. I worked hard for it. I've sacrificed, I've scrimped, and I've gone without. I've lived through my rock bottom and I came out on the other side humbled and determined. So, forgive me if I sneer at these sort of things. I haven't been seeing them in the right light.

Today I came across a pin on Pinterest that caught my eye. 101 Ways to Build the Writer Platform of Your Dreams. This pin leads to the site yourwriterplatform.com and a list of 39 Things to Remember While Building Your Writing Career. I love finding  bits of info like this through Pinterest. There is always room for improvement. #26 is what shook my tree today.

Change "I have to" to "I get to"

The above is credited to James Clear and his illuminating site, jamesclear.com/how-to-be-thankful.
I could go on and on about this, but the point of this post is to share the awesome things I get to do and remember often to be grateful because I get to do them.

You should do this, too. Try it. It feels really good.

• I get to write about falling in love.
• I get to stay home with my kids.
• I get to wake up to the sound of baby coo's and not an alarm.
• I get to take a sick day whenever I need it, regardless of whether or not I'm actually sick. 
• I get to see family whenever I want.

• I never have to say "I can't, I have to work" ever again. I shape my work around my family life.

These things mean everything to me. During this post alone I've stopped multiple times to snuggle my daughter and peeled a squished strawberry off a pillow. #momlife

The moral of the story is, change the way you see being grateful. Its isn't just about what you have, especially if what you have kinda sucks. It's ok to want more if you are willing to do the work. But don't skip over the little things. Appreciate them, feel the accomplishment they represent. They are the stepping stones to your dreams. 

I recommend reading through the list I linked above. Always make time to learn something new for your craft. Absorb what resonates with you and leave the rest.
 

Cheers,
Ella

This Is For All The Little Fish

Source: Jokeroo/Krasaveca

I just released my debut Contemporary Romance Flash Point. Yay! There was very little fan fare and as of now there has only been 4 units sold and 5 KU/KOLL units. Awesome right? Be grateful for every sale or borrow. Every reader counts.
 Financially it's a little less awesome. I jumped off a cliff into the self-publishing ocean two years ago and am still treading the vast waters.

So, what does this have to do with little fish? Well, as my current income and sales numbers prove, I am a little fish in a big ocean of self and traditionally published authors fighting for the spotlight and perhaps the person reading this is, too. How do we become big fish? If anybody has this answer please tell me.

With this new release I tried pre-orders. I discounted the pre-order price and advertised it on Facebook. I did not boost posts because I haven't heard good things about it and I can't risk wasting money I don't have. I shared on my page and profile. Results? A whopping four pre-orders. The lesson? When you are a little fish and your readership is small, pre-orders and Facebook promotion are not effective. I've come to the conclusion that what I need to focus on is writing. I can post promo's until I'm blue in the face, but only the same people will see them and those same people are not new readers.

Building a readership takes time. Time better spent writing and publishing books for readers to find, and very little of it spent on Facebook. Post occasionally about yourself, your writing, and being a genuine person for your readers to connect with, but don't expect to find new readers. I'm not saying it can't happen--its does, but your time is better spent on writing.  As for pre-orders? It doesn't hurt to do it, but it doesn't help the little fish. It was a bit stressful for me to meet that deadline. I haven't decided if I will do it again.

Flash Point pre-ordered for $ 0.99 and was set to increase to $2.99 after release, but given it's debut status and novella length I decided to keep it at $0.99. I want to find new readers and I want them to take a chance on me. $0.99 is a good price point for attracting new readers with  shorter works.

My other recent fails have been going all in with KDP Select. The numbers were pathetic. By August I will be distributing everywhere I can again. Also, doing a Kindle countdown deal was a waste. I was lucky and scored a Bookbub ad for Mine, All Mine which will feature next week and I'm praying to God that it will boost my sales back up to what they used to be. Bookbub has always been a great investment for me. It works best when you have a finished or mostly finished series and advertise the first book free. If readers like it they go on to buy the rest. If you only have one book published, try a *free promo to get readers and reviews. It's safe to say you won't get a Bookbub ad for a book with no reviews.

If you can't get an ad, and your free promo had dismal results this is what you should do.

Write. Keep writing. Publish a quality, properly edited, and formatted book with a professional cover. Try and try again. Self-publishing isn't just a marathon, it's a ultra-marathon. You could get a lightning strike and hit it big, get a book deal with the big 5, or you could gain a reader a day at a time, write to your hearts content, and build your career from the bottom like most of us are doing. The common denominator is writing. Don't stop writing.

Don't give up. Life is too short to give up on dreams and keep working a dead end job that barely pays the bills and sucks the life from you. There is no American dream, there is only YOUR dream. 

Cheers,
Ella 




*To do a free promo on Amazon without being in Kindle select you will have to have your book free on another site and the Amazon bots will find it and match it on Amazon. This can take a few days but is worth it. This is how it's done with perma free books. You can do this through Draft2Digital or Smashwords. I strongly recommend Draft2Digital over Smashwords. Smashwords is an unnecessary headache.

Going In With A Bang

As opposed to going out. Get it?

I'm releasing my debut Contemporary Romance novella 06/19/15 and I'm excited to announce this will be my first experience with pre-orders!
To add some gun powder to the mix, I'm having a pre-order sale. All pre-orders are $0.99 up until the official release of the book. Yay!
So what are you waiting for? Click me. You know you want to. ;)

It feels sooooo good to have a new release out. Finishing this novella really got my juices flowing, and I'm ready to get back in the saddle, albeit slowly. Writing in a different genre is exhilarating. Writing Cara brought out my naughty side. My heart still belongs to Historical Romance, but I'm finding my wild side with Contemporary. My heroines feel the same emotions, essentially, but express them differently. Its fun to see the differences in my writing.

More fun to come! Cheers,
Ella

Past and Present

So, after my post about not being able to write productively thanks to a new baby and some weird postpartum hormonal shifts that make romance just... meh. I've been reading to get the juices flowing and going through some of my unfinished work. I came across a story that was my attempt at Contemporary Romance. I started reading, which I can now do from my phone with the OneDrive and Microsoft Office apps. Yay! I can even edit a little.

I was pleasantly surprised. I really liked it, and thought hey, I could turn this into a short novella pretty easily. So that is what I'm doing. I'm jumping into Contemporary Romance! It's weird stepping out of the era I'm used to, but also easier. Dialogue is a breeze when I don't have to worry about what a 19th century young lady might say. I can curse, something I do frequently in my day to day, and I can pull from own experiences.

My next thought was, do I publish it under Ella J. Quince, or give myself a new pen name for any contemporary works I might publish? I'm still thinking about that. I can probably finish it today if I can just get through this sex scene, but sex scenes are the things that my tired baby focused brain just doesn't comprehend right now. I don't even enjoy reading them like I used to.

I'm a romance writer who can't write romance/sex.

This phase better pass quickly. I used to live for those moments. Either on T.V, or in a book, I loved that fluttery feeling I got every time someone fell in love. I relive those moments. It's my drug of choice. Now I'm numb to it. I skip through sex scenes in books. Let me repeat, I SKIP THROUGH SEX SCENES IN BOOKS! Who does that? Not me, that's who. But I'm not me right now, I'm someone else. I feel things differently than I did before. I cry over things I didn't use to, and I'm numb about things I used to love.

Some might say this sounds like PPD, and maybe it is, but I don't find myself sad all the time, or unable to go about my daily life. I think of it more as a mental shift in priorities. My kids are my sun  and I orbit around them. It doesn't help that after having a second baby I don't feel good about my body at all. Don't even get me started on how Dad Bod is a hot thing right now but Mom Bod isn't. I made two people in my body, but God forbid I have the rolls and stretch marks to show for it.

Rant over.

My novella is about a reclusive veterinary technician (sound like anybody you know? wink wink) who has three hunky firemen move in next door. Her saucy red head friend/ coworker convinces her to bust out of her shell and admit she likes the guy she claims she can't stand.

Without further adieu I introduce you to Cara and Dean in Flash Point
Coming soon!

I'm not ready to say this will be a series, but I am already thinking of giving the saucy red head friend her own book. Her name is Brianne, or Bri, as Cara calls her. She is afraid to give her heart away, but she is also really flirty and fun. The title of her book is Where There's Smoke. I just came up with that today, so that means I'm pretty much set on the novella, but don't ask me exactly when it's coming.

I have a soft yummy spot for firefighters. My husband is one, so that makes me a very proud firefighter wife. It's a tough job for both of us. My son is also obsessed with anything firefighter/fire engine. It was the theme of his baby bedding, so there may be some brainwashing going on. I can only hope (and fear a little) that he will follow in his daddy's foot steps.

That's all for now, folks. Cheers!

Ella

Done and Done.

Phew! Four brand new spanking covers for my Fated for Love Series. I need a vacation. Ha! Like that will happen anytime soon. This year is our 10 yr wedding anniversary and with a 3month old baby who refuses anything but boob, I told dear husband next year we will do something cool like one of those weekend Carnival cruises. They're cheap and I like cheap.

Speaking of money and the lack of it, I've decided to gamble. I've gone all in with KDP Select. It isn't for everybody, but some have found success and I hope I will too. My sales have really tanked since the introduction of Kindle Unlimited. Things have slowed so much at other retailer's that I thought to give it a shot. It's only for three months, so if it doesn't help me then I can always go back to what I was doing before.

It's scary being in business for yourself. I can't count on the same money every month and that is difficult when my husband and I want to plan on purchasing our own home. It also makes it difficult to publish. Family comes first, which means when my royalties are less, my budget to publish is less, or for this month, nothing.

This, too, shall pass.

Check out my new covers!

DIY Cover Design

The phrase never judge a book by its cover is bullshit. We all do it. A quality cover is a must in publishing, especially self publishing. I'm very proud of my covers. They may not be the best, but they sure as hell are not the worst. I do them myself because of lack of funds, and because I like it. Its fun! When I design a new cover, I first check out Amazon for the cover trends of my genre. Some I like, some I don't. My goal is to fit in but stand out. I need my cover to look professional and eye catching. I start with a background image based on a general theme for the series. Its good for books in a series to go together. Not matchy matchy, but similar and complementary.

For my Desperate and Daring Series I am featuring  men and each book is a different color with a background that connects to something about the heroine or the book. These are the first three of the series so far. (Just One Kiss is not yet released).

 

Once my background is chosen, I pick my stock model for the front, play with brightness and contrast, color changes, different fun effects, and fonts until everything comes together the way I want it to. There was a learning curve. The program I use is a Freeware called Gimp. When I come across something I don't know how to do I Google it. There is a Youtube video for everything these days. My stock model images are purchased through Periodimages.com, and my backgrounds from Dreamstime.com. Both sites are very affordable.

Gimp can seem confusing at first, especially if you are like me and have zero experience with photo editing. With the tutorial I was able to use it right away. Here is an image of my screen while working on the new cover for Sweet Torture.

I started designing my own covers out of necessity, but I find I really enjoy it and I like having full control over what the outcome is. I can also change it when ever I want. I have no training in cover design or anything like it. I had a need and the drive to do it, so I applied myself, read and researched, and spent hours learning and tweaking until I came away with my own knowledge. It's just another part of my journey as a self published author.

Here is a sneak peek at the new covers of my Fated for Love Series. Two down, two to go.

Resource recap:

Dreamstime.com for stock images of backgrounds.

Periodimages.com for stock images of models.

Gimp.org to download freeware to do your own photo editing.

Dafont.com for downloading free fonts.

*Disclaimer

Always give credit where credit is due. Don't steal images and be sure your use of the images falls within its license.