Promised Stats On First Ebook

I'm overwhelmed with tax season. I hate leaving it to the last weeks before the deadline, but I had no choice this year.

Last week when I was celebrating the one year anniversary of publishing my first ebook, I promised to post stats for those who are curious. So here's a quick look at sales stats on my first ebook Just One Look.

Details

I haven't added sales at the other outlets, only Kindle, but I'm very pleased with what I found in looking back over the year.

The book went live March 27 and was available for sale on that day on Kindle only.

The lowest number of copies sold in any month was that first month of March with 54 sales logged in those 4 days.

The highest number of copies sold in any month was 13,835 in June.

All total, in 2011, I sold 41,554 copies through Kindle. This book was part of my 3 book contract with French publisher Bragelonne for World French Rights for Print and Ebook. The print edition of the French translation will be out this year.

To my relief, this book continues to sell well as do my other books. By the way, I'd love to sell movie rights to this book. Any producers out there? *G* Email me and I'll put you in touch with my rights agent. She'd be thrilled.

Now if I can get my tax finished, I can get my latest book published to bring my total books to 9--8 romantic comedies and 1 nonfiction. (Oh, and I have a book that's just begging to be written! Sometimes I'd like to clone me.)

Takeaway Truth

Sometimes a little step into the unknown can bring great rewards. Be encouraged to take that step.

Newsflash: Me + A Reader = Interview

At the risk of appearing egocentric, I wanted to direct you to an interview on RG2E I did that was published today.

This interview was conducted by the lovely and talented Alicia Street. Personally, I think she did a great job, but then I might be biased because I like Alicia. She has such a great personality and attitude.

I loved the format of the interview because I was asked to submit a reader's name to participate in the interview with me. I chose Kaye Bennett, one of my enthusiastic readers who has emailed me several times this last year.

Kaye and I fielded questions from Alicia then Kaye asked me some questions of her own, and I asked Kaye some questions from my inquiring mind. I hope you'll read the interview and enjoy it.

Takeaway Truth

Interviews can make a writer nervous, but sometimes they can also be great fun.

No Fool Like An April Fool

I like April Fools' Day. Oh, not because I love practical jokes. In fact, I deplore practical jokes. For the most part, I think they are a way people vent their secret resentment and ire on another. But I'm not talking about people with hidden agendas who play jokes.

I'm talking about the ones kids and the young at heart engage in on the first day of April.

I like this day because it's a neat, unauthorized holiday. Most of us are fools at least part of the time so why not have a day to celebrate foolishness?

According to a Wiki About April Fools Day, the first recorded association between April 1 and foolishness can be found in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales from the 14th century.

In countries like "Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Australia, Cyprus, and South Africa, the jokes only last until noon, and someone who plays a trick after noon is called an April Fool and taunted April Fool's Day's past and gone, You're the fool for making one."

In other countries from Europe to Asia, and in the U. S., the jokes last all day. So let's celebrate the day with a few good quotations about fools.

This is the day upon which we are reminded of what we are on the other three hundred and sixty-four. ~ Mark Twain, Pudd'nhead Wilson, 1894

Isn't it appropriate that the month of the tax begins with April Fool's Day and ends with cries of May Day? ~ Anonymous

Here cometh April again, and as far as I can see the world hath more fools in it than ever. ~ Charles Lamb

I'd rather be an optimist and a fool than a pessimist and right. ~ Albert Einstein

A fool and his money are soon elected. ~ Will Rogers

Every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day; wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit. ~ Elbert Hubbard

A fool and her money are soon courted. ~ Helen Rowland

No one ever found wisdom without also being a fool. Writers, alas, have to be fools in public, while the rest of the human race can cover its tracks. ~ Erica Jong

Takeaway Truth

Take a break and laugh a lot. Happy April Fools' Day.

Review: Parallax by Jon Merz

I've had Parallax by Jon Merz on my Kindle for several weeks. Finally, I found some reading time, and what a treat this mob hitman novel was.

I'll admit from the start that I'm not a big fan of hitman novels, but the character of hitman Frank Jolino was so finely drawn that I was hooked within the first few pages.

I'd love to see Jolino in other books because he was intelligent, articulate, droll, and at ease in his own skin. He also surprised me because he had a moral compass. Add all that to the fact that he was a vintage mystery reader, and you get a guy who is complex, appealing, and likable.

Oh, yeah, he kills people for a living, but they're by no means innocents undeserving of being whacked, but Merz lets the reader draw that conclusion. He doesn't state the obvious and then hammer it home.

Less likable is Ernst Stahl, once an idealist radical and now a jaded assassin, despite constant reminders from Stahl's character that he was completing a job only to save his son. His moral compass is stuck on "anything goes in the name of paternal love."

Not Just Another Mafia Book

When the two end up in some odd paranormal mutual awareness of each other, it's interesting albeit rather unbelievable, but the compelling character of Frank Jolino keeps the reader turning the pages. You probably won't suspend disbelief, but you'll be compelled to keep reading. You'll also be rooting for Frank to figure a way out of the mess and to, somehow, end up with the babe who has some surprises of her own.

Warning

I downloaded the book in February, and there are numerous "glitches" in the book. I won't call them typos because, since I publish ebooks, I know that they are conversion errors that occur when punctuation marks in a Word manuscript get changed to weird symbols when the manuscript is converted to different file formats like HTML which Kindle uses for their digital publishing. Don't let this deter you from enjoying the book.

Takeaway Truth

Do not read the Product Description of Parallax because it's a spoiler of what are meant to be neat plot twists. Just buy the book. Ignore the glitches, and start reading. Frank Jolino will hook you just as he did me.

Design Personal Gravatar

Usually, in January of each new year, I reprint this post you're about to read for new readers. This describes how to design your own personal Gravatar.

I forgot to do this and last week, a civilian (non-writer) whom I had contacted via my phone asked how I got that "little JR picture" to appear next to my name.

The answer: It's easy! Here's how you brand your name with your own logo, like the one I created years ago that appears here, or your profile pic or whatever you choose. That little JR picture is called a Gravatar.

(This article previously appeared on Writing Hacks, my subscription newsletter for writers. Subscribe today if you'd like articles like this as soon as they are published.)

Gravatar Defined

A Gravatar is an acronym for Globally Recognized Avatar. It is the image that follows you all over the Internet.

You've seen it as the little picture that shows up next to your name if you make a comment on a blog site or forum. In too many cases, the image that appears next to your name when you hop around the Internet is some generic graphic. You can change that gray block or weird little pic to an image that personally identifies you, and only you.

Above you see the gravatar that I created. You also see it as my favicon in the address bar of my blog (Favicon is for another day.). You also see it any time I make a comment on a blog. It's always the graphic image you'll see next to my name in the online world. It's the image that is linked to my identity.

Follow me as I tell you how to create your own gravatar so you can use it to help you in your branding effort.

Get Your Own Gravatar

1. Visit Gravatar and sign up for a free account. All you need is your email address.

2. Read the image size requirements.

3. Create the image you want to use--either a logo as I have done or a picture of you or whatever--based on those parameters.

4. Upload the image.

In mere moments, you have your Globally Recognized Avatar or Gravatar--your personal avatar.

5. Register any email address you use so it will be linked to the Gravatar you created.

6. Click the email confirmations sent for each email account.

That's all there is to the process.

More Info

You can link any number of email accounts to your gravatar. If you want to set up your sites to display gravatars when someone comments on your site, it's easy because there are plugins available for the leading blog softwares and content management systems.

You can view the tutorials on Gravatar.com if you need some help along with more information about the subject.

By the way, all gravatars are rated with an MPAA style rating so you can restrict your site to show only the gravatars whose content you are comfortable with. That way you won't have any naked body parts or anything else popping up on your site that your other visitors might find offensive.

Takeaway Truth

Creating and displaying your own gravatar is just another way to brand your identity and Internet presence.

Publish Review On Amazon

Consider today's post like a PSA (Public Service Announcement) for readers and writers.

Since good reviews are considered to be a valuable component of an author's success, I like to post this article once a year on how to publish a review on Amazon. Also, Amazon is always tweaking their various processes so some things have changed since the last time I posted this.

Why Bother

Some of you may wonder why anyone would go to the bother of writing and posting reviews on Amazon or anywhere else. There are several reasons people do this. Sometimes someone may have a specific, individual reason for publishing a review, but, for the most part, the ones below usually comprise the main reasons.

1. The desire to tell others how great something is. You praise a book, movie, album, product, etc. that deserves it just because you like it so much that you want to tell others about it.

2. If you're an avid reader, posting reviews helps you belong to the community of people who love reading.

3. If you're an author, doing something like this is a means of self-promotion, if done correctly, and not obnoxiously. You publish in order to get your name out on the Internet for the purpose of growing "name recognition."

4. It's fun to tell other people about good products, whether that's a print or digital book.

How To Post An Amazon Review

Posting or publishing a review on Amazon is really quite simple. Anyone can do it.

1. Locate The Item

On Amazon, find the item you want to review by using the Search function for the specific category. Click on the item when you see it.

2. Button: Create Your Own Review

Scroll down that book's page until you find those words and click them. A new page opens.

3. New Page: Create Your Review

On this page, 3 items are listed: 1. How do you rate this item?" (Click on the number of stars you wish to give it.). 2. Enter a title for your review. 3. Select a review type. (Either video or written.) Select the review type of your choice and start creating it. Written reviews need to be at least 20 words. ew type, either Video or Written. Select one and start creating it.

4. Label Review

Here you'll find a box that can be checked: "Label this review so customers know you purchased this item at Amazon."

When you finish creating your review, click preview.

5. Preview/Publish

Look your review over. If you want to make changes, click Edit. If you're satisfied with it, click Publish.

After you click publish, there are options that allow you to check to share on Facebook or Twitter.

If you decide to write reviews, don't hide behind anonymity and use the review procedure as a way to insult or slam someone. If you have a personal agenda against the author, take it up with the author. A review isn't a forum to air personal grievances or attack someone. Insults and personal attacks are not reviews.

Takeaway Truth

When writing reviews, be honest, but try to be kind if you have critical comments. No one sets out to create a bad product so give the creator the benefit of the doubt.

Add Power To Your Writing

Please welcome Caroline Clemmons, author of Brazos Bride.(Isn't that a beautiful cover?)

Caroline writes mystery, romance, and adventure. She's been a stay-at-home mom (which she claims as her favorite job), a newspaper reporter and featured columnist, assistant to the managing editor of a psychology journal, and bookkeeper. Caroline and her husband live in rural North Central Texas with a menagerie of rescued pets.

You can catch Caroline on her blog on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays where she offers book reviews, giveaways, interviews, and miscellany. Also, find Caroline on Facebook
or Caroline on Twitter just about any day (No E in Caroline on her Twitter handle).

Add Power To Your Writing
by Caroline Clemmons

Are there authors you read simply for the beautifully expressive way they write? There are numerous authors I turn to for inspiration. One of the reasons for their impact is they use active verbs, unique metaphors, and nouns that paint word pictures. They never tell, never use clichés; instead, they show so well we drink in their pages.

Each of us knows to avoid weak words: felt, just, simply, etc. But avoiding those words is not enough, we have to come up with dynamic ways to express our character’s thoughts and feelings so people will read and reread our books.

For instance, I might write: “The Gothic Revival house had been opulent at one time, but now displayed its age.” Nothing really wrong with that, is there?

Sarah Addison Allen in The Girl Who Chased The Moon:

The house looked nothing like the rest of the houses in the neighborhood. It had probably been an opulent white at one time, but now it was gray, and its Gothic Revival pointed-arch windows were dusty and opaque. It was outrageously flaunting its age, spitting paint chips and old roofing shingles into the yard.

I might write: “Dust motes danced in the dwindling sunlight.” Picturesque, right?

Sarah Addison Allen wrote: No lights were on, but the last sunlight of the day was coughing through the dining room windows, directly to her left.

Can’t you picture the sunlight streaming in through a window like someone’s mouth coughing little particles of dust motes into the room? Not a pretty picture perhaps, but the allusion is terrific in the book.

Has stress ever left you disoriented or frozen? Here is Lori Wilde’s description of her heroine’s reaction in All of Me:

"Yes," Jillian said, but she could barely hear herself. She was a bright kite who’d broken loose from its tether, flying high into a cloudless blue sky. Up, up, and away, higher and higher, smaller and smaller. Soon she would disappear, a speck in the sky. What was happening to her?

Go through your favorite books and pick out choice phrases you wish you’d written. Go through your work in progress and see if there are places you can reword to increase the vivid idea you wish to convey. Editing for vivid verbs, unique phrases, and picturesque nouns will result in greater readership.

In my latest work, Brazos Bride: Men of Stone Mountain, Book One, I struggled with making the three Stone brothers’ dialogue distinctive. They are similar in appearance and share a close bond. Naturally, their speech is similar. But each needed a distinctive speech pattern so the reader could recognize the speaker without action or dialogue tags. Oh, I usually include the tags, but the point is to make the dialogue so specific that a tag is not necessary. I hope you will read Brazos Bride and will find the dialogue (and the entire book) satisfies you.

Quick Synopsis: Brazos Bride

Hope Montoya knows someone is poisoning her, but who? She suspects her mother was also poisoned and knows her father was murdered. Who wants her family eliminated? She vows to fight! She realizes she won’t last the eight months until she turns twenty-five and her uncle no longer controls her or her estate. Never will she be dominated by a man as she was by her father, as she has seen her mother and grandmothers dominated. If she marries, she gains control now, but only if she weds a man she can trust. Only one man meets her requirements. Can she trust him to protect her and capture the killer...but then to leave?

Micah Stone has been in love with Hope since the first time he saw her. But he was accused of her father’s murder and surely would have hung if not for his two brothers’ aid. Most in the community still believe him guilty. But the drought has him too worried about water for his dying cattle to care about his neighbors’ opinions. When Hope proposes a paper marriage in exchange for land on the Brazos River and much needed cash, her offer rubs his pride raw. His name may be Stone, but he’s not made of it. He can’t refuse her for long, and so their adventure begins.

Except: Brazos Bride, The Wedding Night

She looked at her hands. Perhaps she was unreasonable. Or maybe insane for sympathizing with a man who'd had to work harder because of her family.

"I know it is an odd situation. If—if you wear your shirt and britches, I guess it would be all right if you slept on top of the cover here." She patted the bed beside her.

He froze. Not a muscle moved, and he only stared at her. Had she misunderstood? Did he think her offer too forward?

She babbled, "That is, if you want to. You said I should trust you. Well, maybe you would be more comfortable where you are." Why didn't he say something? Would he prefer sleeping in a chair to sharing the bed?

From the street below, she heard raucous laughter and someone called to a man named Ben. Music from a piano, she supposed in the saloon, drifted in through the open windows. A gust of breeze moved the curtains and slid across her skin. In this room, though, there was no sound.
Slowly, he rose and extinguished the lamp as he moved across the room. She slid one of the pillows beside hers then scooted down. What had possessed her to offer him half her bed? Would he think she invited more?

Too late to take it back now, for the mattress dipped as he stretched out. Quaking inside at the thought of him so near, she turned her back to him. She heard his weary sigh, as if he relaxed for the first time in a long while.

"Good night," she offered, and hoped he understood the finality of the phrase.

"Yep. Good night, Mrs. Stone." The mattress shook as he turned his back to her. She felt the soles of his feet press against her ankles. He must be several inches too long for the bed and she guessed he had to bend his legs to fit. She didn't dare turn to see firsthand.

She lay perfectly still, afraid to take a deep breath. Soon his breathing changed and she knew he slept. Outside the open window the town quieted and the distant tinkling of the piano was the only sound. Light from the full moon illuminated the room and slanted across the bed. A soft breeze drifted across her, lulling her in its caress.

With a sigh, she fought to relax, but abdominal pain kept her awake no matter how her body cried for rest. Perhaps if she planned, she’d forget the pain and chills that racked her frame.
Plan, yes. She needed a plan for food preparation when she returned to her home. No, Micah said he had a plan. Oh, dear, once more he took charge when it was her life, her home. Maybe Aunt Sofia and Uncle Jorge would have left by then and things would be fine. Already she felt more secure. She sensed her eyelids drifting closed and the sleep’s blessed relief approaching.

A gunshot ripped apart the night.

The blast startled her and she screamed as something thudded near her head, showering her hair and face with splinters. Panic immobilized her. What had happened?

Micah dragged her onto the floor as a bullet ripped into the mattress.

Takeaway Truth

Readers, Caroline's latest book Brazos Bride is bargain-priced at only 99 cents at Amazon. Check it out today.

Language Resource

I've used online language translators like Google Translator quite a bit. The easy-to-use translator helps me understand some of the email from international readers and also to create profile biographies on some of the foreign websites that sell my books.

I have a pretty good grasp of some of the romance languages in that I can understand what I read rather well--just don't aske me to speak the language!

Beyond French, Italian, and Spanish--and Japanese which I still understand the spoken language a bit even though it's been more than 30 years since I lived in Japan--I'm just a mono-lingual girl--with a southern accent at that.

Characters Speak Foreign Languages

Languages fascinate me. My dad, a farm boy from Louisiana who ended up in Europe on D-Day, had a knack for languages. He easily spoke German and French, having picked them up during the war. He never lost the languages from disuse either.

I've been playing with a piece of writing and wanted two of the characters to be Cherokee and to have a bit of conversation in which they relate something, thinking other people in the room wouldn't understand them. I finally found a distant relative who can help me with the quest, but not before I spent a lot of time trying to find a resource online.

In my research, I stumbled across a great language resource called Omniglot described as an "encyclopedia of writing systems and languages." Omniglot was created in 1998 by Simon Ager who continues to maintain and develop the website. In 2008, he incorporated Omniglot as a company, Omniglot Ltd. Mr. Ager does translation and interpreting work also.

With serendipity at work, I noticed Kim Komando also had a mention of it in a recent newsletter.

What Is Omniglot

Omniglot is amazing. I've taken the following from the website because it gives a succinct description of what you will find on Omniglot.

Details of more than 180 writing systems, including Abjads, Alphabets, Abugidas, Syllabaries and Semanto-phonetic scripts

Information about over 500 languages

More than 300 con-scripts - writings systems invented by visitors to this site

Tips on learning languages

Language-related articles

Useful foreign phrases in more than 150 languages with quite a few audio recordings

Texts, language names, country names, colours and songs in many languages

A language book store

Links to language-related resources

Check out the Omniglot sitemap to help you find what you want. There is also a list of all the featured writing systems and languages in an A-Z index. By the way, if you find the site helpful, they can use your support via a donation through PayPal.

Although it didn't help me with the characters I was molding, I did have fun perusing the site. I found a phrase in Cheyenne that I loved!

Mónésó'táhoenôtse kosa?

This means: "Are you still riding the goat?" And that phrase means, "Are you still separated from your spouse."

Great phrase in any language! I'll use that somewhere, somehow.

Takeaway Truth

What a great resource for writers or for anyone who needs some language help--or if you're just curious about what your name is in other languages.

Happy Birthday, Just One Look

I'm preoccupied with final proofs of my next romantic comedy Kiss On My List. I hope to have it uploaded by the end of this month.

However, I wanted to take a moment to comment on concluding my first year as an indie author. One year ago yesterday, I uploaded first ebook file to Amazon's Kindle publishing program. Two days later, it was live and started selling.

I had planned to add up all the sales of this book so I could post that stat as a way to show how empowering being an indie author can be. Trying to catch up on everything that fell through the cracks during the weeks leading up to the wedding didn't allow for that yet.

When I get this next book uploaded and get my income tax filed, I will post about those sales for Just One Look. I think they're in the neighborhood of 100,000 for that book, but that's just a guess. So check back next week when I'll report back on the book that started my indie revolution.

For the first time ever, an author has a convenient and affordable way to get her work in front of readers.

Takeaway Truth

Nothing ventured; nothing gained. Sometimes by venturing a little into the unknown, one may gain rewards that are stunning.

Wallow In Spring

Ah, the vernal equinox occurred a few days ago on the 20th. I love spring for the same reasons everyone loves this season of renewal.

Robin Williams said, "Spring is nature's way of saying, Let's party!"

I must concur. Spring brings renewed energy and a feeling of well-being. It also brings an optimism to most that makes us believe we can do just about anything--get healthier, plant a garden, lose weight, write a book, or achieve that which our heart desires.

Wallow in that feeling. Celebrate it by setting a goal. Take action to achieve what you want. Envision accomplishment. Think better thoughts.

Takeaway Truth

You become what you think about so design a system of thoughts that helps you be what you want to be.