New Audible Release - Hook's Little Mermaid

Official Release! Hear the story of Captain Hook from his own lips in this Audible version of "Hook's Little Mermaid."

“Hook wasn't always a villain. Discover what leads him on the path of destruction and how the love of a mermaid can change his heart.” ~ Hook's Little Mermaid

 
Captain James Hook was once a good man trying to make a somewhat honest living. He is a pirate, after all. However, after getting word that a boy named Peter Pan played a part in the death of a dear loved one, Hook makes it his sole purpose to hunt down and destroy the fiend.

On his journey for vengeance, the captain encounters many new comrades, including a young girl named Red and a fairy called Tinker Bell, and both push him to reconsider his desire for justice.

The accidental rescue of a mermaid leads him on a whirlwind adventure in Neverland. The journey is not a simple one, considering Pan, the Lost Boys, mermaids, and magic all come into play. After several misadventures, Hook must choose between the possibility of a new life with love and his much-desired retaliation against Pan.

Once everything is said and done, will the captain be able to overcome his need for revenge? Will he let compassion steer him toward love? Or will Captain Hook live up to his villainous reputation?

Amazon (eBook on sale now!)

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The official teaser trailer for "Hook's Little Mermaid"

Exclusive Audible Audio sample for the audio version of "Hook's Little Mermaid"

  

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Cover and Trailer Reveal - Keeper of Crows

Title: Keeper of Crows

Author: Casey Bond

Genre: Paranormal Romance, Horror

Cover Designer & Photographer: Regina Wamba at Mae I Design & Photography

Editor: Stacy Sanford, The Girl with the Red Pen

Book Trailer by: Rebecca Ethington

Expected Release Date: March 2017

Hosted by: Lady Amber’s PR

Blurb: Carmen Kennedy is a spoiled brat from Beverly Hills with a chip on her shoulder and a cocaine addiction to match. Using drugs to suppress reality, her life is more than she can stomach most days. All she wants is to disappear, and on one fateful night, her wish is granted.

There is a world that exists just beyond the fabric of our own. When Carmen is dragged there against her will, her hopelessness seems to disappear, replaced by a determination to survive. The Keeper of Crows is charged with guarding Carmen, but is safety a possibility in a world so desolate? Can love blossom when danger lies in wait? Together, they fight like hell, seeming to lose more ground than they gain with each battle against the dark enemy threatening to tear them apart. Can love keep her safe? Can it give her the strength she needs?

When the lines between life and death, reality and dream become blurred, who will save the souls trapped in the spaces between Heaven and Hell? Who will save Carmen's only love, The Keeper of Crows?

Award-winning author Casey L. Bond resides in Milton, West Virginia with her husband and their two beautiful daughters. When she’s not busy being a domestic goddess and chasing her baby girls, she loves to write young adult and new adult fiction. You can find more information about Bond’s books via the following links: 

Website: www.authorcaseybond.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/authorcaseybond 

Newsletter: http://authorcaseybond.us10.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=e812bbce406a10776c6a28162&id=79850847f2

Twitter: https://twitter.com/authorcaseybond Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7212486.Casey_L_Bond Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/caseyb007 Amazon: http://amzn.to/1PmE0pg Bookbub Author Profile: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/casey-l-bond Fan Club: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1032678336804562/

Meta-Data for Books, Videos, and a Chance to Pick My Brain

Happy Wednesday, good people of the blogosphere! Today, I'm gonna talk to you a little about meta-data for your books, show you a couple of videos, and tell you about a chance you have to ask me a question about writing, editing, self-publishing, or marketing. So grab those pens and notebooks and let's get going!

Meta-Data for Your Books

What is meta-data? Namely, it's data that you can't see but has an impact on web search results. It's part of SEO (search engine optimization), and not something you should be skipping over when creating your novel. We're all familiar with tags and keywords on Amazon, Smashwords, Createspace, etc... But! Did you know you have keyword (description tags) available to you in MS Word? Best of all: There's no limit to how many you can use!

Screenshot time! I bet you're all familiar with this:

Now, that's awesome, right? You put in the document title, click save, and off to the races you go! But look a little closer and pay attention to the arrows:

Each of those is a field you can put meta-data into. Just click on them and they'll open like this:

Best part? If you've used certain tags previously, it suggests them. All you have to do is tick the check-box. Once you're done with the author name (it will auto-populate your user name on your computer), add tags and a title. When you're done, it'll look like this:

Then you can click save and all that beautiful, digital information will be embedded in the book file. How cool is that?

See? You had a tool and most likely weren't using it.

Why does it matter? Well, we all know what tags are and how they function on Amazon, right? Think about how many more you'll get with this function. Roll that around in your mind for a moment.

Ahhhhh, I can see the lights upstairs come on from all the way over here! Now you know.

Moving on...

Videos!

I promised you a couple of videos, so here you go:





Those were fun, huh? Yeah, that's a book trailer for I, Zombie and one for Chasing Shadows.

Okay! On to the next topic!

Your Chance to Pick My Brain

Natasha Hanova is hosting a Q&A session with me on her blog. I've agreed to take five industry related questions from readers. This is your chance to get an answer to a question you have (that you can't find the answer to here).

If you'd like to put a question in the hat, either comment below or DM Natasha on Twitter. You can find her here:
Natasha's Twitter Page

How about that? Did you all have fun?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

The Art of Creating a Book Trailer - A Guest Post by Tania Penn

Happy Monday, good people of the blogosphere! I know you all remember Ms. Tania Penn. Today, she's here to give us a guest post about creating a book trailer. Keeping with my Monday posts from the authors attending UtopYA Con in June, 2014, I'm excited to bring you an inside look at what it takes to create something so central to marketing your book. Without further blabbering, I give you:

The Art of Creating a Book Trailer

by Tania Penn

I found out I had the knack by accident, to make book trailers last Halloween. I had been making short one minute films for my  (at the time) 6 year old son — he would set his Transformer toys up, put them in a graveyard made out of wiki sticks and play-doh, then I would set it to spooky music while he narrated. We filmed his two ciclids making a black and white silent film set to music for a first grade school project. After a few of those and seeing some book trailers on Facebook, I wondered if maybe I could do the same thing using my Adobe Premiere Elements program that I was using for my son. To my astonishment, it worked! I made my first practice one for The Morning Star, using photographs of actors who were my muse, added some titles and text, and set it to my song that I considered the theme song. Not bad! After showing it to a few author friends, the requests came in. With each one, I discovered I could churn them out pretty quick — about a video a day. All I needed was their idea(s) for their muses, theme song, any particular photos or video they wanted me to put in there, and most importantly, if their book hadn’t been released yet, a bit of what it was about and the synopsis.

My first week, I made about 3 films - I was on a roll! I thought it would be a great way to supplement my income by doing something I loved to do, was pretty good at doing and was getting better at, all whilst sitting on my arse sipping coffee (or a martini, depending on the time!). So now, I had a few videos under my belt (that I did for free, or for some e-book trades), I decided to build my website, create my pay pal account, and sit back and watch the requests for my services come flooding in, now that I had a nice portfolio of videos for authors to check out. On top of that, I started tinkering with book cover design and found that it was pretty easy as well. I was on a roll! I was especially excited because I was drowning in that proverbial pool known as writers block, blech! I needed that creative outlet, and this would give it to me.

Unfortunately, my martini wishes and caviar dreams didn’t exactly pan out…Yet, at least. Call it lack of marketing (I suck at self promotion!), disinterest, a flooded market, perhaps? I priced accordingly after doing some research. Still, I enjoy making them for myself, as well as for the occasional trade. Now that I’ve started writing again with a vengeance, it doesn’t give me as much time for video making (except my own teaser trailers, as well as those for good friends). Truth be told, having the right tools such as iMovie or Adobe, it’s a fun and easy thing to do. However, if any of you are interested, hit me up at www.pennpalproductions.com or e-mail me at twistedwritertanita [at] gmail [dot] com, and I can show you samples of my work on You Tube!



~ Tania Penn

Now that you all know where to get your book trailer done, get on over there and hire Tania! If you'd like to read an interview with Ms. Penn, go here.

Don't forget to add The Morning Star to your Goodreads shelf!

Do you have a book trailer? Have you ever considered getting one made? What's stopping you?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Quora is Questioned - Day Eight WABC

Happy FRIDAY, good people of the blogosphere! Sorry I was late with yesterday's post. My daughter has been very ill this week and yesterday we ended up in the ER - twice. But she's all good now and bouncing around like a regular seven-year-old ought to be. With the weekend starting today, I'm glad to see her on the mend. Today, I'll be discussing something I'm not familiar with (but intend to be here shortly) called Quora. Here's the prompt from the challenge:

Are you using Quora? If you aren’t familiar with it, Quora enables users to ask questions and receive answers from those who allegedly know something about the topic. This is a phenomenal way to demonstrate your expertise – and even if you’re a novelist, you have an area of expertise – perhaps it’s simply “publishing your novel.” Unfortunately, it seems you’re required to have an account before you can dig around – UNLESS you know a person’s profile link. Here are two you can check out:

http://www.quora.com/Seth-Godin

http://www.quora.com/Laura-Orsini

Yes – I just put myself on par with Seth Godin! Here’s your challenge: What’s the one question you would like to find an expert to answer? And conversely, what’s the one question you would feel most comfortable/confident answering? If you’re on Quora, please be sure to give us your link!

I looked around, created an account, and invited a couple of people over to join me. My profile is here: http://www.quora.com/Jo-Michaels

At first glance, it seems you can become an authority in your field on Quora rather quickly by answering questions others post. I'll need some more time to explore it, but I can see the potential of being involved in such a website. Both professionally and business-wise, it seems like a good investment of time to pop over and answer a question once or twice a week.

As a bonus, it let me link all my social networks right up with the click of a button. Perhaps I'll gain new followers and new readers that way. What an awesome tool!

Just in case you missed yesterday's post (that I wrote this morning), I'm giving you all the video once again. Enjoy! I better see your toes tapping!



Whatcha think?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

GooglePlus is Purdy! - Day Seven WABC

Happy Thursday, good people of the blogosphere! Today's post is all about Google+. Without further ado, the prompt for today:

Have you jumped into Google+ yet? If you are a regular user, you are still considered an early adopter, and that’s a great place to be in order to make a name for yourself – especially if men are among your target market, as most users right now are male. As marketing pro Linda Sherman puts it, “GooglePlus can give you access to influencers (i.e., other early adopters) who might not notice you elsewhere.” This is a CHALLENGE, so here’s my challenge with this prompt: If you’re USING Google+, tell us about your experience. If you’re NOT using Google+, don’t just write, “Blah, blah, blah I’m not using it …” and call it a post. Do a little research. Learn one thing about Google+ that you find interesting, that might make it worth your time and effort to explore. No – I’m not suggesting you be on every social media platform, but the goal of this Challenge is to explore the various social networks, so let’s do that! And if you are on Google+, be sure to give us your link.

Using blogger (a Google based blogging service) I get some really cool features with Google+. When I'm typing up my blog, if I want to mention someone in my circles, I just type + along with their name and poof they show up and are tagged on my blog. How frikkin' cool is that?

+Jo Michaels

Now, if you click on my name above, you'll be taken to my Google+ page.

My experience has been excellent! I'm a member of a couple of groups over there with oodles of bookish folk in them. I haven't tried hangouts yet, but I intend to for Indie Books Gone Wild. We already have a freakishly awesome calendar to help us stay organized via Google+. Check it out. The link is on the top left-hand side of the IBGW page. Best of all, it was totally free.

Speaking of calendars and Google+, if you have a calendar on there, folks can invite you to events (or you can invite others) and it shows up automatically when you accept. Best of all, the event is added to your agenda and syncs beautifully with your wireless devices if you have a gmail account. I also get a daily e-mail with my agenda on it; so I can see my day at a glance.

With all the wonderful tools gmail and Google+ have to offer, if you're not on there, you're missing out on a lot.

Because of a prompt earlier in the week about YouTube, I made a short video. Check it out and tell me what you think!



It's only about 61 seconds, but it packs a fun punch!

Have you begun to use any of the tools mentioned in the challenge?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo