A New Title - M

Happy Hump-Day, good people of the blogosphere! Today, I'm excited to announce a new book I'm working on! So strap in and take a gander.

Working title: M
Genre: YA urban fantasy
Length: TBD

Synopsis: It's the year 2042. A drug called M2, which alters the DNA of those who take it, is becoming widely used.

But at what cost?

For a young man named Griffin, the cost proves too high. Banding with other emfrees, he sets out to destroy the producers of M2 and find a cure. But time, a new breed of police officers called Phaedrons, and another young man named Phoenix, are working to stop the emfrees and assimilate them into the masses.

Well, that's the working synopsis for now. You'll have to read the book to find out more.

Yes, I know I'm evil with a capital E. I wrote a page or two while I was away this past weekend and I can't wait to dive in and bring you the first excerpt!

As it is, here's the cast of characters thus far:

Griffin (last name TBD) - Age seventeen, 6'1", 160lbs, brown hair, blue eyes, born August 12, 2025.
Brittany (last name TBD) - Age fifteen, 5'7", 120lbs, brown hair, green eyes, born March 30, 2027.
Phoenix (last name TBD) - Age eighteen, 6', 175lbs, blonde hair, blue eyes, born September 23, 2024.
Articus Bane - Age twenty-six, 5'10", 150lbs, black hair, brown eyes, born September 11, 2016.

I'm booting up my program right after I finish this post to get it all on a page!
Of course, I did a whole character bio on each of the people named above, but that's for me to keep to myself for now. I'll bring more when I know more!

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

Jo

INDIE Books Gone Wild

Happy Tuesday, good people of the blogosphere! I'm happy to see you've made it through Monday. Today, I'm officially announcing the start-up of INDIE Books Gone Wild. If you haven't noticed the addition of the logo over on the right side of my blog here, I have to ask if your head has been under a rock the last couple of weeks. Wake up and smell the wonderful!

A little bit about INDIE Books Gone Wild:
We're a team of editors dedicated to helping Indie authors shine. We work individually and as a group to bring you the best edit of your manuscript money can buy. That's right, we charge for our work. But what you get for your money is two sets of eyes; one doing your edit and the other doing your proofreading. That's right, your proofreading cost is built into the price of the editing.

Our goal is for you to seek out the IBGW logo when you consider hiring an editor. If you see that logo, you know you'll get one hell of an edit on your book.

We strive to, not only teach you how to become a better writer as we edit your manuscript, but to help you produce the best book possible. Browse our About Us page and read a few of our blurbs!

As a bonus, we market every book we work on. That's like having a team of people helping you push your book for free!

Services we offer:

• Proofreading
• Editing
• Beta-Reading
• Print Book Formatting
• Open Critique

Our last item is something special. In the open critique service, you get a four-week writing class, complete with materials, that will give your craft a kick in the ass toward awesomeness. This is great for new authors or established ones. The price? Only $400; and it includes all the books you'll need.

So, if you haven't taken the time to check us out or like our Facebook page, please take a moment and do so now. We're gonna have an awesome contest soon. Here's the link:
http://facebook.com/indiebooksgonewild

So pop over and give us some love!

Do you use an editor? Why/Why not?

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

Jo

A Checklist of Tools

Happy Monday, good people of the blogosphere! Wow, what a weekend, eh? Well, on to another week at the fantabulous Jo Michaels blog. You know you love me. If you didn't, you wouldn't be here, reading this post!

What's that? This is your first visit? Oh my... You should take a moment and give yourself a little tour. Check out the link list on the sidebar, grab your free branding PDF, and browse through some of the awesomeness that's found around here. Then, subscribe via e-mail so you don't miss anything new.

I know it's April Fool's Day, but you won't find shenanigans here. Sorry if I disappointed you.

Today's post is a compliment (call it a checklist, if you will) to my Social Networking Schedule. It's a handy little thing you can flash down to be sure you have all the things you need in your virtual tool belt.

Apps:

• Evernote (handy for syncing information across ALL devices)
• Flipboard
• Hootsuite (or Buffer)
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Goodreads
• Pinterest
• LinkedIn
• Google+
• Facebook Pages Manager
• Blogger (this got an update and works beautifully)
• StumbleUpon
• Tumblr

Social media you should be a part of:

• StumbleUpon
• Quora
• Squidoo
• YouTube
• Pinterest
• Facebook
• Twitter
• A blogging platform (Blogger, Tumblr, or WordPress)
• LinkedIn
• Google+
• Goodreads

Tools you should be using to streamline your workflow and up your visibility:

• Hootsuite (or Buffer)
• Flipboard
• Some kind of schedule, posted where you can see it every day

If you don't have a tablet, you might think about getting one. It will help you on your quest to becoming a force to be reckoned with online. I don't know what I'd do without my iPad. Seriously.

What's the point in taking the time to set up all these social networks?

The more places you are, the more places you can be found. Easy to explain.

How many of these networks are you on?

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

Jo

Completely Blown Away

Happy Friday, good people of the blogosphere! Today I'm feeling the love for sure! My Social Networking Schedule post has gone crazy. It seems you all want to know how to increase your Google rankings in just an hour a day. I don't blame you, it's something we all struggle with and I'm glad I could help out in some small way.

I've been sticking very tightly to the schedule myself. This week, I've done everything on the list from Monday through Friday. It's helping me, too! I'm managing things more easily and I'm not left wondering if I forgot to visit here or do that.

Because you've all been so awesome about sharing that post, I decided to do something for you, too! I reduced the price on six of my books yesterday.

Mystic ~ Bronya is now just $0.99
Mystic ~ Lily is now just $2.99
All three of The Abigale Chronicles books are $0.99 each.
Yassa is only $2.99

If you haven't picked up any of these titles yet, now's the time to do so. I'm only keeping them at this price for a month. Get on it! You can find a complete list of my books here:

Jo Michaels on Amazon

Thank you all for being awesome! I hope you enjoy the reads!

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

Jo

Books You Just Can't Finish

Happy Thursday, good people of the blogosphere. Yes, Thursday is upon us once again and, as always, it's the day before Friday and the start of an awesome weekend! You've made it through hump-day and are on your way to freedom. Rejoice! Today, I'm talking about those niggling little things called: Books You Just Can't Finish.

Until I got into reading Indie books, I rarely came across a book I just couldn't finish. Now, I run across them rather frequently. While I'm not going to be so crass as to list titles, I will say there have been a number from my Indie Fever reading challenge list I couldn't get through. I tried, I did. But, when someone uses the word as in place of when, and, because, and where (as well as many verbs), I can't even stomach the word as where it's supposed to be.

Or, the worst, dialogue is stilted and feels forced along with the book being improperly formatted. Sorry, but I'm thirty-five years old and have too many other things to do than force my way through a book I don't like.

Please, for the love of all that's good in the world, HIRE AN EDITOR!

I hear it all the time: Why aren't my books selling?

Well, I can give you one reason: When someone reads a book with five or more errors on every page, they don't want to read anything else written by you. It doesn't matter if your story is the greatest one since Harry Potter; if someone can't read it, it's not going to sell. Period. Ever. If it's your first book, people won't pick up anything else you ever write.

Isn't an editor the best investment you can make for yourself and your work? It makes you look like you know what you're doing when you publish a book that's been edited by someone who follows a style guide like The Chicago Manual of Style or The Elements of Style.

It also helps when that editor is a reader and has been educated in the craft of writing.

Sorry I went on a rant today. It's just frustrating to offer a great service at a decent price and not have people take advantage of it when it can make them money in the long run.

Have you come across a book lately you couldn't finish? Why? Please don't list titles. This isn't a bash-fest.

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

Jo

Flipboard

Happy Wednesday, good people of the blogosphere! Boy, do I have some amazing news for you today. Do you remember the Winter Author Blog Challenge and all that social media stuff we were talking about? If you have a mobile device, I'm about to make your millennium oh so much better! I've been holding off discussing it until now because I was waiting for their upgrade to be announced.

I got the e-mail this morning.

What is Flipboard? Well, it's a nifty little app that lets you keep all your social media accounts in one place and helps you find stuff you may be interested in. If you listened to my interview on Sandi Tuttle's radio show, you heard me talk about this awesome tool. If not, then you missed out. Sorry. Like I said, I was waiting to do a post on it until they updated to add this awesome feature I'm about to discuss. Let's get going!

Grab your mobile device, download the FREE Flipboard app, get all signed up with an account, and take a tour with me while I show you how to promote yourself!

Follow along carefully:

• Go subscribe to your own blog via RSS/Atom
• Add it to your Google Reader
• Open Flipboard and add your Google Reader as one of your tabs. Then follow the directions below:

See that little red bookmark looking thing on the top right? Click on it and choose your tabs from there. Right now, we're focused ONLY on Google Reader. So add that one.

Next, click on the green square that says Google Reader and you should get a page that looks like this but have all the blogs you subscribe to.







Click on the title at the top of the page and select feeds and folders.

Select your blog from the list.

You should now have a page that looks like this but with your blog posts showing.







Now we get to how this can help you. Flipboard just added the coolest feature ever: Magazines of your curated content. See those little + signs in the top right of each post? Click on one and create your first magazine with your blog posts. You should add a description and categorize it. Then, go add all your posts to it and make it public!

Others can now find your magazine and browse it with ease. Be sure your image is your logo or branding headshot. Boom! You just reached millions of potential new followers! Best of all, you can also add Facebook content, Twitter content, and many other things to your magazine that concern you and your brand! You may thank me now. Hehe!

Go curate for others, too. Remember, sharing is caring!

Did you use Flipboard before now? Did you know it existed?

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

Jo

Book Genres and Niche Writers

Happy Tuesday, good people of the blogosphere! Today I'm talking about writers who stick to one genre and why they might choose to do that. Open discussion, feel free to jump in and add your thoughts!

Have you ever thought about writing something way outside your usual genre? What prompted that desire? Why didn't you do it?

I see a lot of authors with no specific genre. Then I look around and see a lot of them who only write to one audience. What's the better avenue to take?

I have no idea. But, I've considered a few of the pros and cons of being genre specific.

Pros:

• Your fans will always be fans of the genre you write. They picked up your book for a reason, right?
• You can become a recognized authority of your genre.
• You'll always know someone, somewhere, will be looking for your name if they enjoyed your books.
• Eventually, your name could become synonymous with the genre. Think: Stephen King - Horror, Dean Koontz - Thriller, Fern Michaels - Chick/Hen Lit, Rick Riordan - YA Fiction/Mythology.
• You could gain a huge following if you write in a popular genre.

Cons:

• If you branched out from Romance to Fantasy or Horror, your current fans may leave you.
• Being a YA author with an Erotica title isn't usually a good idea.
• You're stuck writing that genre for the rest of your life unless you gamble fans will follow no matter what.
• You could become confused and screw up the story.
• If you use a different pen name for each genre, that's twice as much (or three times as much) marketing you have to do.
• If you have a publisher, they may not want you to write outside your genre.

I consider myself when I talk about this. I don't write in one genre; not sure what I'd do with myself if I had to. Which genre would I choose? I loved writing Yassa (Historical Fiction), but I also loved writing The Bird (fantasy) and I'm loving the Mystic series (New Adult/Paranormal). I just don't know how I would choose one over the other. A great story idea hits me when I least expect it, and the genres have a wide range.


Have you thought about this? Do you write in one genre or have many pen names? What are some of the drawbacks or hurdles you've had to overcome?

I'm interested. Let's discuss!!

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

Jo