Smashwords Author Interviews

Happy Friday, good people of the blogosphere! You all know I talk about your search rankings and Google returns a lot here on the blog. Well, today I'm talking about author interviews. Not only because Monday launches my great new series of interviews for authors attending UtopYAcon 2014, but also because I got an interesting e-mail last night from Smashwords. They're starting to allow an author to go complete an interview on the Smashwords website. Anyway, strap in and let's discuss.

Click this link to be taken to the interview page:
Smashwords Author Interviews

You'll notice you can answer up to ten questions (either pre-written or write your own) and give 5k character responses (~ 600 words) for each. I wonder if Smashwords considered that we're authors and 5k characters is a drop in the bucket for us? Did they consider that if we use 600 words for each answer, the resulting interview would be 6k words long?

I'm not too keen on asking myself interview questions, but I may try it out. I don't want to come off as cheesy, and that's one of the things keeping me from pressing the start button on the bottom of the page. The other is time. Those authors with agents or publishers kinda have a leg up on Indies here because those authors have someone to ask the questions for them. I'm not sure how I feel about that. Here are some of the prefabricated questions:

• What are you working on next?
• Who are your favorite authors?
• What inspires you to get out of bed each day?
• When you're not writing, how do you spend your time?
• How do you discover the ebooks you read?
• Do you remember the first story you ever wrote?
• What is your writing process?
• How has Smashwords contributed to your success?

After all, without Indie authors, Smashwords would never have taken off the way it did.

While they're great for getting my book in the hands of certain retailers (iBooks, for one), I haven't made as much there as I have on Amazon. It's starting to feel like a waste of my time (their meatgrinder requires special formatting). With all the new things Amazon keeps coming out with to support their digital and print media (have you heard of Kindle Matchbook?), I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place.

You all know I'm one for boosting your exposure any way you can. But I'm also very outspoken about wasting time. This one is leaving me scratching my head. After all, I already have a bio page on Smashwords.

It's never been about the profit for me, don't get me wrong. I'm talking about getting my books into the hands of readers that could possibly enjoy my stories. My royalties are a gauge of how well that's working.

As an aside, Smashwords also just released their Series Manager tool. I took the two seconds to put The Abigale Chronicles in, but if it had taken any longer than that, I'm not sure I would've bothered. Amazon has exclusive rights to the Mystic series so, unless I decide to drop them from Select in the future, I don't see it helping much.

Whatever you decide, there are the links for ya!

Don't forget to come on back Monday to meet M.R. Polish, the first author up for an interview in my UtopYAcon 2014 Unofficial Author Interview series! You'll also have a chance to grab a copy of one of her books. Check out the graphics!

If you're planning to help us out with promotion, feel free to grab the buttons above. These are the ones that must be used because they contain the correct verbiage.

What are your thoughts on all the changes Smashwords is making?

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

Jo

Rafflecopter Integrates Facebook Flash Giveaways - How to Use it

Happy Thursday, good people of the blogosphere! I got some amazing news in my e-mail yesterday. I'd like to talk you through it today. Either grab your pens and pencils, or your mouse and Facebook page, and follow along.

First, the news: Because of recent changes to Facebook's ToS, Rafflecopter now allows you to integrate your Facebook flash giveaways with their app. This means you can select people that perform a duty on your page as entries for your prize drawing. WOW! It negates the need for a third party list randomizer.

If any of you have done a flash giveaway, you know that entries can be missed and, if you get a ton of entries, it's time consuming as hell. Boo! This takes care of that problem and the issue of writing everything down and typing it again, or copy/pasting a zillion things into a form then screenshot, save, upload, announce, etc... I'm sure you get the idea.

Let's get going!

First, open your Facebook page and start a giveaway where folks have to either like the post or perform a task then comment on the post to win.

When it's over, click on this link and go to this page:

You'll be required to log in if you haven't already, give Rafflecopter permission to post (as with any app), and if you have more than one page, you'll be asked to choose the page the giveaway appears on. I'll select my Jo Michaels page and move on.

Next, you come to this screen:

Last, you choose the relevant post and scroll to the bottom of the page where you'll see this button:

CLICK IT!

Rafflecopter will return your results in a few moments.

Now how easy was that? Your time is important! Use the tools available to you so life is easier!

If you've never used Rafflecopter before, now's the time to start. I hope this helps you all with your Facebook giveaways in some small way.

Are you excited about this development? What was your biggest problem with giveaways before?

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

Jo

Meet 20 of the Authors of UtopYA Con 2014

Happy hump-day, good people of the blogosphere! Today, I'm excited to talk about something wonderful that you'll notice happening on the blog over the next nine months. I'll be playing host to twenty lovely ladies that are attending UtopYA in June of 2014. Each one of them is an author and will be doing an interview, then a guest post, and will be featured on the blog sidebar for two weeks. This will consume every Monday from now until the con begins on June 20th.

I do hope you'll be joining us at UtopYA Con 2014! After all, you'll know twenty of the authors after this rush (twenty-one if you count me). *wink*

Without further ado, I give you the list!

M.R. Polish – September 16 through September 29
Felicia Tatum – September 30 through October 13
Allyson Gottlieb – October 14 through October 27
Tania Penn – October 28 through November 10
N.L. Greene – November 11 through November 24
Megan Curd – November 25 through December 8
Bethany Lopez – December 9 through December 22
Kristina Circelli – December 23 through January 5
Michelle Nicole – January 6 through January 19
Casey Bond – January 20 through February 2
Ripley Patton – February 3 through February 16
Carlyle Labuschagne – February 17 through March 2
Alison Pensy – March 3 through March 16
Rachel Harris – March 17 through March 30
C.A. Kunz – March 31 through April 13
S.G. Daniels – April 14 through April 27
Amy Evans – April 28 through May 11
Eva Pohler – May 12 through May 25
Elizabeth Kirke – May 26 through June 8
Tia Silverthorne Bach – June 9 through June 20

Anyone you know up there? Be sure you come back and check out the interviews (ya'll know I ask the hard questions!), guest posts, and books these lovelies have to offer. After all, you never know what'll happen next when you get a group of authors together; much less Young Adult and New Adult writers.

Come on back tomorrow for more of our regularly scheduled program. I may get deep and philosophical with you all. I may bring you a book review. Again, anything could happen!

Who are you excited to know more about?

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

Jo

Setting Up a File for Your Book Cover Design

Happy Tuesday, good people of the blogosphere! Today, we're talking about setting up your file in Adobe Photoshop CS5 so you can design an awesome book cover that will translate well to print and not cut off anything important. Now, the instructions here can translate to ANY design program you're using. The measurements are the same. I have PS, so that's what I'm walking you through. You can also get this information in my book, The Indie Author's Guide to: Building a Great Book. That link will take you to the Kindle version (just $2.99). My guide takes you through more than cover setup though! It goes through how to format everything so your book comes out the other side looking amazing in both digital and print formats.

Enough about that. Let's get going! I have fun screenshots for each step, so you won't get lost.

First, open Photoshop (or your program of choice):

As you can see, I've tailored it to my specific preferences. So, your screen may look a wee bit different.
Now, click on file>new:

Set the document up as follows, replacing the words "My Book" with the title of your book. I'm showing you here how to set up a cover for a 5.5"x8.5" book. If designing a different size, add 1/4" (.25") to the height and width.

Notice I changed pixels to inches, the resolution to 330, and the color space to CMYK. Wait! Why did I change it to CMYK? Because printers don't print in RGB. CreateSpace uses a four color process printer and it'll do funky things to your cover colors if you design in RGB. CMYK changes to RGB (web colors) easily but not the other way around. Here's a little example of the difference:

See how the CMYK colors are a little bit duller? You do NOT want that to happen with your book cover. Okay, moving on...

You should now have something that looks like this:

Next, drag guides to cut off 1/8" (.125") all the way around the book cover. Like so:

I filled the background with white so you can see the guides. Outside the guides is your bleed area (the area that WILL be cut off when the printer prints your book). Now, not all cutting machines are super accurate (the shame!) so you'll need to identify a safety area as well. This is the place you don't want text or anything you want to keep on the cover. If you stay inside these lines, you're guaranteed to be okay. Drag guides to mark your bleed area at 1/4" (.25") inside the bleed line. Some places only make you carry a safety of 1/8" (.125"), but it's better to be safe than sorry. Your document should look like this:

Now I'll show you in colors what you're looking at:

Bleed is the area that WILL be removed. Safety is the area that MAY be removed. Live is the area where your book cover design should be. Nothing should move outside the LIVE area.

As you can see by the ruler on the edge of the screen, when cut at the bleed line, your final product is 5.5"x8.5":

If you take the time to design your cover this way, all you'll have to do when you're ready to set up your cover document with CreateSpace is flatten the image, drag it into the new wrap, and drop it. Once you're all designed and ready to go for digital, save it as a PSD (in case you want to change something later), then flatten it, change the color space to RGB, and save it as a .jpeg. I guarantee it'll be the correct aspect ratio for all platforms.

I hope this saves you all from wearing huge red spots around on your foreheads.

Did you know all of this? Has it helped you in some small way?

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

Jo

Two Amazing Giveaways

Happy Monday, blogospherians! I hope you're all looking forward to an amazing work week! Five days to get some words written or some book covers designed. Today, I'm bringing you some amazing giveaways from some awesome authors. Get out there and enter!

First up, the 4,000 Like Giveaway from Rebecca Ethington:

a Rafflecopter giveaway


And now, the Dauntless Indies EPIC Fall Giveaway:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck to you all!!

Come 'round tomorrow when I'll be giving a lesson (with screenshots) on setting up a book cover for designing!

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

Jo

Writing Prompts and Exercises PLUS a Kindle Fire Giveaway

Happy Friday, good people of the blogosphere! Using the information we went over this week, I'm giving you some writing prompts to help you flex your muscles. These may seem a little weird, but go with it, okay? Grab those pens and notebooks and let's get going!

Today, I'm encouraging you to be a:

That's right; don't plan anything out with these prompts. Just write. Make your goal at least one page of words for each prompt.

• Betty and Mark are having an argument which you're involved in. If you're a male, you've slept with Betty behind Mark's back. If you're a female, use it the other way around. Keep it in first person, present tense. By the end of the scene, I want to know how it happened and why your friendship is (was) so deep with the other person. **RESTRICTION** Don't describe their specific appearance. No details on what they're wearing or what they look like.

• Angela is speaking to you, the writer. Let her tell you what you're going to do tomorrow. Set the scene in first person, future tense. You decide on the setting. **RESTRICTION** She can't be a fortune teller or a psychic.

• A burglar is breaking into a house. Your reader is the thief. Write this in second person, past tense. By the end of the scene, I want to know why your thief decided to become a criminal and what their worries were as they did it. Describe the house and the things they're stealing. I want to know why they chose the items they did. **RESTRICTION** They aren't allowed to rob anyone who's wealthy.

• Steve stepped into a time machine. He's going back in the past to right a wrong. You decide on the relationship between Steve and the person he's protecting/saving with his actions. Write this in third person limited, past tense. By the end of the scene, I want to know everything he experienced/thought as he rode in that machine. **RESTRICTION** You can't use someone Steve knows and I don't want to know anything that happened after he arrives at the location. This is about why he's doing it and for whom.

• You're watching a group of kids on the playground, fighting. You're an observer and have no dog in the fight. Let's see third person omniscient in present tense. By the end of the scene, I should know what the fight was about, what every character is thinking/feeling, and everything they see/do for at least ten minutes. **RESTRICTION** One of the characters must be disabled in some major way. This character must end up as the hero/winner, and I must feel something for him/her.

I hope this gives you all something to do over the weekend. Remember, have fun with it.

As an aside, if you would like a shot at winning a Kindle Fire and a ton of books to go along with it, click this link and head on over to the rafflecopter form: https://www.facebook.com/rebeccaethington.author/app_228910107186452

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

Jo

Your Supporting Cast of Characters

Happy Thursday, good people of the blogosphere! Just two more work days until the weekend! I hope you all have something awesome to look forward to. Today, I'm talking about your supporting cast of characters. These are the folks that make your world seem real, the ones your character will interact with on a limited bases, and/or minor characters we aren't supposed to give two shakes about. If any of you have downloaded my free PDF, A Novel Checklist, you'll know there's a whole section, printable on its own, to assist you in creating dynamic characters. But you can, and should, also use it for minor characters. Before I digress too far, grab your pens and notebooks and let's get going!

There are three basic character types:

Major Characters are the ones your story is about. I'm sure, if you've been around the blog a while, you have a good idea of how to create awesome characters that your reader can connect with. So, I'm not going to spend any more of your time on those. If you haven't been around a while, you can catch up on all the posts on characterization HERE.

Moving on...

Minor Characters are the ones that support the major characters, but people your reader isn't supposed to care too much about. These folks may help move the plot along or be assistants to the big action, but they're always disposable. Now, I've had minor characters assert themselves and become major characters, but they didn't start out "life" that way. These entities show up, perform one or two things in the plot, then disappear. We don't expect them to come back later and take over the spotlight.

Just in case they do, you should have a character bio on them.

Now, these characters can jump out of the story and yell, "Ta-da!" to announce themselves; but they should do what they came to do and get out. Make them eccentric, bigger than life, or obsessive. Readers will notice the person, expect action, and be glad when they leave.

Walk-Ons and Placeholder Characters are exactly what their name implies: temporary. They're background noise that allow you to create a realistic world. If you want them to be forgotten, don't give them a name and don't make them anything other than a stereotype. These will be clerks in stores, delivery drivers, mailmen/women, doctors, nurses, etc... Every person you'd find in the real world, that lives in the background and goes unnoticed, are your walk-ons and placeholders. Don't give them traits that make them stand out.

If one of your placeholders starts to make themselves a nuisance, cut them from your text altogether or change what it is about them that's making them like glue. Perhaps it's wardrobe choices, maybe it's a larger-than-life personality. No matter what it is, find it and eradicate the character. Don't give your reader unnecessary distractions.

I hope this gives you all something to work with. I'll be back tomorrow with some prompts to help your brain along.

What story have you read lately where a walk-on was overdone or a minor character stole the spotlight?

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

Jo