author community – Rosepoint Publishing

Blog Challenge-Day 1

Blog Challenge-Day 1

Uh oh! It’s here already?! I thought I was preparing, but thank heaven we are being supplied with a daily prompt!

Easy blog challenge prompt for Day 1–intuitive–what are the goals for the Author Blog Challenge better known as the “ABC“?

(1) Is it to introduce new readers to the blog? (oh yes!)

(2) Is it to increase traffic to the blog? (oh yes!)

(3) Get in some extra writing practice? (of course!)

All of the above! I joined in an effort to force myself accountable in continuing to hone the craft my grandfather thought he’d passed on when he left me his steamer trunk full of his own manuscripts, poems, short stories, and paintings over 80 years ago. As the old wives tale goes–twins (especially identical) tend to skip a generation. Interesting if so. Does it also follow with artistic talents as neither my mother nor my aunt had any interest in their father’s work or in creating histories, stories, or fiction of their own; neither do my daughter or son–but my granddaughter?? Keeps a journal with her and is constantly writing!! Don’t I love that! So, is there a writing gene?

But inheriting the urge isn’t the same as the gift and though I began writing in childhood, winning a few little contests, it wasn’t until I began publishing magazine articles of my motorcycling adventures and later of Stanley McShane’s scripts that I realized this was going to be a LOT of work! To that end, I’ve joined groups (hence the Publishing and Book Promotion MeetUp group of Phoenix, as well as the Idaho Authors’ Community) and written my little heart out translating McShane’s works, practicing book descriptions, author pages, media promotions, book signings, and creating this blog that has, at times, floundered.

Therefore, in addition to the SEO class I’m signed up for in the Spring, I’ll stubby my fingers on the keyboard trying to meet this challenge. And in so doing, perhaps I’ll tap into that author gene of my own and in the process succeed in items 1 and 2 above!

Book Review – What Is So Hard About That?

I’m onto the next phase in the science of marketing, promoting, and publishing industry and that appears to be reading and reviewing books either in your own genre or that of the others in your group. As I’ve mentioned before, I joined the Idaho Author Community (IAC) this year as I’d hit the wall in my limited ability to find avenues to market and promote the sea-adventures I’d published posthumously for my grandfather.

Apparently not the only one lacking years of publishing industry and marketing knowledge, the exchange of thoughts and suggestions at our bi-monthly meetings have been an invaluable source of ideas. It’s okay that I’d exhausted my source; everyone there has another.

Reading voraciously has always come easy, so it was the suggestion of exchanging, reading, and evaluating each others books that came as a welcome solution to the one common problem many of us share–lack of reviews for our own works. The authors in the Community each have a genre of their own from (my own) historical fiction to fantasy to children’s books. Fiction and non-fiction, memoirs, and science fiction all take center stage from time to time depending on the IAC venue.

How can you have a downside to an unlimited free supply of books readily available on most any subject? Uh Oh…..now comes the hard part–the review! Yes, I know most of these authors. We’ve all struggled mightily bringing our books to the market. They are our babies. We powdered, fed, and carried our babies close to our hearts until they were delivered into the hands of the unbiased reading public.

So, to conscientiously deliver a dispassionate, neutral review of another’s book may not be all that simple. I’ve had to employ “tough love” with a consistent, impartial criteria.

What do I specifically look for when analyzing a book? Continue reading “Book Review – What Is So Hard About That?”

AUTHOR COMMUNITIES-Do They Really Promote YOUR Book?

Once again, venturing out into the community to put a spin on the marketing of my grandfather’s books, I’ve discovered a local author support group they call the Idaho Author Community.

It amazes me how apparently mystical guidance has led me from publishing several of his manuscripts to marketing and promotion in the public sector when the initial purpose of the first publication was merely to distribute the work to his heirs. That proverbial snowball has led to even more open portals which were there all along and available by simple participation. I think at one point the gentle nudge on my back was felt–propelling me through the first door, into the second, and now the third–an author community–which may be the most enlightening of all.

Comprised of all ages, both sexes (not unsurprisingly, women pen prose just as well as men), and across all genres, this support group is a happy, homogenous surprise to a life long realist–this [←..→] shy of being a pessimist. Does participation in an author community spark competition conflict? Or does the participation force an increase in those most needed exposures where a normally reticent introvert would never tread? Keep Reading!