Amazon Author Central and You - Take Two

Happy Fridayyyyy! Wow, it's the weekend, you guys! Two days of no work. Whatever will we do with ourselves? Well, you could spend the time snazzing up your Amazon Author Central page. Yesterday's post was all about how to create an account and add books. Today, we're going into some of the clicky things you can modify. So you can take the info you find here and get to work making everything fabulous. Ready? Grab those pens and notebooks and let's get going!

I'm just gonna jump right in here. Login to Author Central here so you can follow along. Be sure you're on this tab and have your bio all filled out:

After your biography, you need to set your author page URL. As you can see, mine's already done (amazon.com/author/jomichaels). Amazon lets you set this to whatever you choose, but you only get one shot, so choose wisely! It's here:

Next, you'll want to upload a photo of yourself. Click the add photo button here:

Browse through your pictures, choose an image, click the box saying you have permission to use the photo, and click Upload Photo:

You can do this more than one time so you can change your picture up now and then. When you click manage photos, you get a couple of options:

Delete or rearrange at will. First one in the row is your profile picture! The Add Video button works the exact same way as the Add Photo one. NOTE: You must have the video available on your computer to upload. You can't link or add one from YouTube. Twitter add is pretty self explanatory, too, so I won't bog you down with images for all that.

Now, you'll want to add your blog feed. If your blog isn't pushing to a feed, here's how to find it for Blogger, and how to find it for Wordpress. Write it down and keep it handy, you'll need it for Monday's post. *wink* Once you have your feed address, click here:

It'll open a popup where you can type in your feed URL. Do it and click Add.

Let's go add an event, shall we? Click here:

You'll get a popup window like this:

Yeah, that's a lot of information to fill out, but Amazon will do most of it for you. Add a description first, then click on the location and start typing the name of a venue. I've added Utopia Con. If you're going, too, start by typing Millennium Max, then choose the hotel name from the list that populates underneath. Boom! Amazon fills in all the cool details like this:

Then, choose a book (yeah, just one), and a start date and time. I chose the date fans will be allowed into the conference. Click Add. Your profile should look something like this:

You're all done for today. Monday, I'm going to show you something amazing you can do with Amazon if you have a blog. Tuesday, we'll go into the various sections on the book tabs (hopefully, your books will be listed by then if they aren't already).

Did you create one? Leave us a link so we can take a peek!

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

Jo

Author Central and You

Hello, and happy Thursday, good people of the blogosphere! Today, we're going to be talking about Amazon's Author Central, and how you can make the most of your profile there. If you're ready, grab a pen and notebook, and let's get going!

Everyone knows Amazon is the big pie in the sky every author wants to stand on top of, wiggle their feet into the a la mode, and be covered in the gooey goodness. Why? Because that's the pinnacle of awesome. Readers are reading your books, you're enriching lives with your words, and (hopefully) you're providing hours of entertainment and deep thought. But you have to be seen in order for people to find your work, right?

One of the tools you should be using to accomplish visibility is Author Central. It's not difficult to set up a profile there, and there are some cool features you may not know about available to you. Let's start by setting up an account if you don't already have one.

Go here to the Author Central login page. I'm going to pretend to create a dummy account for the purpose of this tutorial, so you can see what steps to take. Okay, you should be at a screen that looks like this:

If you have an account, log in. If not, click join now.

Now you'll be on a screen like this:

That's where you sign in with your current Amazon customer account (even if you don't have an Author Central page). Like I said, I'm pretending to create a dummy account, so I'll go to "I'm a new customer."

Enter your e-mail address and click continue. You'll go here:

Fill it out and proceed. This is where I back up and login to my own account so I can show you all the goodies there.

Here's your welcome page:

If you just signed up, you won't have any information here. You'll need to fill out your profile and upload an author photo. Click Author Page at the top, and you'll end up here:

You know what to do. Now, click on the books tab, and you'll go to a page that looks like this (yours may or may not have books on it yet):

How do you add books? By clicking this button:

And searching for your title in this box:

I did a search for Fractured Glass. As you can see, it says already added. Yours won't say that, so click the button "This is my book."

It takes Amazon about 24 hours to link your book with your profile. But, once they do, your page will look like mine above and be ready for editing. Because I'm using Fractured Glass as an example, I'll navigate to that book's edit page by clicking on the title:

As you can see, the wide array of choices is staggering. You can also see, by looking in the top right corner, I'm editing the Kindle version of the book (not the paperback).

This is important to know, because you have the freedom to edit each edition's sections separately. I'm going to add an award to the Kindle edition's page, because I'm a dork and only put it on the paperback. So, I click edit on the product description:

And I paste in what I copied from the paperback edition description in this popup:

Then, I click preview:

Of course, I have to remember to click Save Changes if it looks good:

Amazon gives me a pat on the head and tells me it'll take 3-5 days for my changes to show up (most of the time it's just 24 hours or so, but err on the side of caution).

There are six sections available to edit here:

• Review (this is for editorial reviews, because Amazon doesn't allow those guys to publish reviews)
• Product Description
• From the Author
• From the Inside Flap
• From the Back Cover
• About the Author

Go tinker with them all! It's fun!

Because this post is getting really long, I'll go into some of the fun things available to play with on your profile page tomorrow. Hopefully, you'll have it all filled out and ready to rock!

What do you think? Did you sign up? Already had? Learn something new?

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

Jo

Book Review - Cinder

It's Wednesday, and it's time for another book review! I got to meet Marissa Meyer at Utopia in June, and she signed my copy of Cinder. It was awesome. She's very sweet, and if you ever get the chance to meet her, do it. See my interview with her here. Today's review will go in the Time for Books 2015 Review Team pool. So far, the reviewers participating have read and reviewed 310 books! Wow. Check them out here.

Without dallying any more, I give you the book up for review today.

Title: Cinder (Lunar Chronicles #1)
Author: Marissa Meyer
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy/Sci-Fi
Length (print):
Buy Links: Amazon Kindle $2.99  ~  Paperback $5.88

Blurb:
Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl.

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

***Will not appear in review elsewhere. I love this cover. It screams cyborg and all things sci-fi. Color and imagery are spot on, and need I even talk about that gorgeous font? Hello, harmony! And all women love shoes; am I right? It just fits the genre and storyline perfectly. Well done, book cover designer! Also, if you haven't read Cinder, the interior is set in a sans-serif font (not something you see often) that ties the whole idea together even further. Simply beautiful.***

Let's get on to the review!

I had the great pleasure of interviewing Marissa Meyer on my blog a little while back, and my discussion with her prompted me to pick up a copy of Cinder. I snagged the paperback at a local bookstore, dove in, and was hooked from page one. When I got to meet Marissa at Utopia Con in Nashville in June, it was all I could do not to gush at her over the awesome world she wove. But, enough of that, let's get on to the review, shall we?

From a Reader's Perspective:
Okay, I have to admit, I'm usually a gal who can spoil a book by thinking about it too much while I'm reading. Endings never twist and turn on me, and I have a keen eye for hints dropped in the prose that tell about what's coming. This book wasn't one I could predict. I found myself making guesses, reading on, and being like: Dang, I thought I had it! I love books that captivate me this way. Keeps me turning the pages. Pacing in the book was bang on, and I breezed through it in about a week, never wanting to put it down.

I love the world Ms. Meyer built. I could picture New Beijing in my mind quite well, even though the author didn't bog me down with a ton of description. My imagination was beautifully engaged.

Cinder is a wonderfully complex character with flaws I could identify with. She never felt like she fit in, and she had few friends she really spoke to. Not believing herself worthy or deserving of anything, she reminded me of what I loved about Cinderella most: humbleness. I felt hate for her step-mother and the Lunar queen, and I wanted Cinder to win all the things by the end of the novel.

I so need book two now.

From an Editor's Perspective:
Tiny errors you'd find in any book. Nothing major.

Rating:
1 star for a beautifully complex main character
1 star for pacing
1 star for not bogging me down with fluff
1 star for keeping me guessing (still, even after the end)
1 star for editing
Overall: 5 out of 5 stars. Recommended for those who love a world built around a flawed, charming character. 

Have you read it? What did you think?

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

Cook Your Novel Low and Slow

Happy Tuesday, good people of the blogosphere! If you remember my post from yesterday, where I gave you some tips and tricks on how to speed up the pace of your novel, you'll know what's coming today. If you missed that one, be sure and check it out here. We're talking about how to slow down the pace today. So, grab those pens and notebooks and let's get going!

Sometimes, a novel needs to slow down a bit to let the reader catch their breath. Unless you're Dean Koontz, or your idea is similar to Intensity, where the reader is on the edge of their seat the whole time. Ha! Readers need a break in the action or they get overwhelmed.

Here's how you can slow things up a bit:

• Have your character make a mistake. Success constantly moves a story forward, and it increases the pace. If you want to slow down a bit, introduce a misstep they have to reverse and correct before proceeding.

• Distract the character. This move can also distract the reader, so use with care. You can engage the reader's emotions rather than starting a mundane task though. Maybe John and Marsha are arguing, and the intensity of the scene is up there. She's getting ready to go on a date with him, so she stops yelling and turns to apply her makeup (which is difficult with the tears in her eyes). You get the point.

• Change the structure. Longer sentences take more time to read and digest. Be wordy, use description, and use words like flugelbinder (kidding - that's not a word). On a serious note, pay attention to the length of paragraphs or placement of soft sounding words.

• Insert inner-monologue or memories. These are an excellent device to halt the flow of the story by bringing the reader back in time or into the character's head. It stilts flow, and that's good when trying to slow things down.

• Insert action scene followup. Your character just committed his or her first murder. Give them a moment to reflect on what they've done and think about the consequences. Not all action scenes need this, but use it when you need to cook something to a tender state.

• Use more description. I'm terrible at this (just ask my editor), but it has it's place in a novel. Sometimes, talking about the scenery or what the little dog's fur color pattern looks like is just what a scene needs to add a little molasses.

I hope you found these tips helpful. Are there any I missed?

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

Jo

Pick Up the Pace

Happy Monday, everyone! Today, we're talking about ways to increase the pace in your novel. I assume you've used the tools in my previous post on measuring pace and scene writing, so now I'm going to give you ways to speed it all up. Tomorrow, I'll tell you how to slow things down. Grab those pens and notebooks and let's get going!

You hear folks talk about how a novel dragged on and on, right? To keep your readers interested, you have to have the right combo of a fast pace and a let's-look-at-each-and-every-flower-and-tree pace. Those novels that dragged had more of the second kind. *grin*

Let's fix that.

• Word usage. This is the most basic way to increase a novel's pace. Shorter words and sentences make reading and processing easier. Seek out places you can cut a sentence to six words or fewer. Oftentimes, you can remove introductory words: Then, However, Often, etc... Independent clauses can come out if they aren't helping the sentence. MS Word has a checker that will seek out wordy sentences for you. You can highlight the section and tell the program to look at it. Easy peasy.

• Dialogue with few to no action tags. If you refrain from giving description of the characters' movements or expressions during dialogue, it'll help. Stick with invisible tags (tags readers see but don't actually have to process): Said, Asked, Answered. Don't go down the rabbit hole, and keep the back and forth going.

• Action! This is where you can leave off the telling and show. You aren't trying to increase tension, just give the character some kind of goal and get him or her there. If it's a battle scene, you want to do a little telling and describe a few things, but don't go into paragraph after paragraph of description. Action happens quickly, and you, the writer, can just sit back and watch as the beauty unfolds.

• Suspense. Yeah, that's right, keep the reader turning the pages to find out what the heck is going on. You'd think dragging something out would slow things down, but it actually engages the reader's brain and makes them read faster so they can find a solution to their twanging nerves.

• Scene cut/breaks. This is where there's no transition to a new scene. You can end the previous scene on a cliffhanger or not, but your story makes a leap into something totally different. Keep in mind, you can also create a scene cut by cutting out some of the tale where the prose is dragging.

• Summary paragraphs. Your character just spent three months getting to know the people around them? Awesome. Readers will be fine with a summary now and then if nothing significant happens during those three months. Cut the scene and summarize.

You can use some or all of these techniques. Either way, you're guaranteed to pick up the pacing of your story if you follow the suggestions above.

Which one(s) did you know about, and which are new?

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

Jo

A Revolutionary Idea - Utopia 2016 T-shirts

Happy Thursday, everyone! Heads up, there won't be a post on this blog tomorrow. I'd explain, but it's summer, and summer things are happening. *grin* Just go with it. Today, I have some amazing news to share with you all. If you're ready, grab your seat and let's get going.

The always amazing Chelsea Starling and Victoria Faye have come up with an amazing idea. They're creating a series of t-shirts that will be sold in the months leading up to Utopia Con 2016. All proceeds will go to support the conference. Here's a picture of the first one:

There will be tank tops added later, but each shirt will have a unique design related to the theme of the conference: Revolution.

Get yours here! Right now. Go. Seriously, don't wait.

What do you think? Awesome idea? Did you get yours?

Look forward to my very first radio show next week! To get going, I'll be talking a few times. Then, we'll be bringing on the authors, readers, and industry pros you want to hear from. Our themes?

Revolution

Revelation

Resolution

Yeah, baby! It's going to be epic.

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

Jo

Book Review - Lex Talionis

Happy Wednesday, everyone! Today, I'm back with a book review. I also read Cinder over the last month, and I'll be writing a review for that one next week. This one and the other will go in the 2015 Review Team pool. Wow, those ladies and gentlemen are doing a ton of reading 292 reviews? Wow. Check out the reviews here. As always, I'll start with information about the book and go from there. Ready? Let's gooooo!

Title: Lex Talionis
Author: S. A. Huchton
Genre: New Adult Thriller/Suspense
Length (print): 308 pages
Buy Link: Amazon Kindle $2.99  ~  Paperback $11.99

Blurb:
Alexandria Ross was only sure about one thing: her best friend Miranda. So when the seemingly random act of violence that steals Randi's life is revealed as cold-blooded murder, Andria doesn't get mad...

She gets even.

Driven with purpose, she changes the course of her life to set the scales of justice back in balance. Psychological warfare is her specialty, and the secrets of her enemies are her weapons.

The players take their positions on the board…

But little do they know that the game is rigged.

Alexandria controls every move.

Lex Talionis: let the punishment fit the crime.

Now that you know all about it, let's move on to the review.

***Will not appear in review elsewhere. What really got me interested in this book from day one was the cover. Then, when I read the tag line, I was hooked. I didn't even need a blurb at that point. I was totally sold. Props to the author.***

Now, I snagged a copy of Lex Talionis on Amazon, but I also picked up a copy of the paperback when I happened to be at the same book conference as Ms. Huchton. It was the bound and glued version I consumed in a day. That's right, it captivated me so hard I just couldn't put it down. But you're probably reading this review to learn what was good, bad, and ugly. Let's get to that.

From a Reader's Perspective:

I'd love to have a totally amazing friend like Lexi. She's fierce but loyal, and believes a woman deserves more and can do anything she puts her mind to if she uses the resources bestowed by nature. I loved her resolve to right wrongs. There were no holds barred. Yes. This is the thing all women should embrace. I eagerly consumed words as I waited for her to exact the revenge due.

I found the first round a bit lacking in emotional punch. When the time came, she didn't feel quite as much as I thought she might. While she was a private, reserved person who didn't show her emotions outwardly to everyone, I did feel the first situation could've had a bit more electrical charge.

However, I moved past it and put it to the emotional control factor of Lexi.

Who had done whatever had been done kept me guessing, and at the reveal I was stunned. I totally punched the air. Yeah, lame or whatever, but I was happy at the ending, and my fistpump shows how invested in the outcome I was. There was also never a time when I felt the pace dragged on.

From an Editor's Perspective:

There were little things here and there, but nothing to write home about. As in most books, a nominal number of errors slip through the cracks.

 

Rating:

1 star for making me care about the outcome

.5 star for a smart, self-controlled MC

-.5 star for the lack of punch in that pivotal scene

1 star for pacing and plot awesomeness

1 star for the overall theme and keeping me guessing

1 star for editing

Overall: 4.5/5 stars. I round up when clicking stars, so you'll see a 5. Recommended if you love books with a sassy female MC.

 

What do you think? Did you read it? Plan to?

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

Jo