Novelists and Freelancers a Partnership for Success

I give this topic a lot of thought. We create our sites and content to brand ourselves and our projects. Our goal as novelists is to achieve a following for our writing, creative and otherwise. As freelancers, we want to sell our services and support our families by creating content for websites, magazines, newspapers, and any other outlets. What few consider is how these two avenues can come together for mutual success. I’ve got a way and The Writing Network will be employing this package opportunity for anyone who would like to take advantage of our experienced team of writers and editors.

Before we get into the details, let’s talk about books. Novelists make money from the royalties. This doesn’t come from random conversation but from hours upon hours of planning, effort, hard work and execution of those plans. Marketing is not a passive income avenue and it’s not a sport, but without help, you may feel battered by the process none the less.  You have multiple tiers of promotion. There are many factors to providing your website with what it needs to promote your work. There are many factors that go into letting others know that you have books available for sale.  Everything starts before you launch a book.

We’re going to look at what goes into the first tier of launch day preparedness. It’s called a publicity package. You need one for every book. It’s a set of information compiled to promote your book, and for some it can be extensive.  Below is the bare minim needed in a novel publicity package.

  • A press release
  • Synopsis of the book (or books)
  • Author Biography (no less than 150 words by itself) This can be information people won’t find elsewhere, or something about the inspiration behind the book creation. Regardless of approach, make it unique to each package.
  • Links – you need no more than 3 links, one to an author page or the book, one to your website or blog, and one to a method of contact. This includes but is not limited to Twitter, Facebook Fanpage, G+ and other similar methods. You should create a different package for each set of 3 links you can create from what you update and use often.
  • A blog post about the book, or books, no less than 150 words.
  • An excerpt from the book or books
  • Images of the book cover, the author and if desired, any interior images as well.

Now, you need your information to be fresh, original and concise. If you want the search engines to track back to your websites, author pages and books, your content needs to be unique to your site and unique on the sites that are hosting your information. You need to spread this unique content across the internet with links to each of your locations.  Creation of the novel or short story anthology is already time consuming.  It’s clear how much work is going into your guest posts and your publicity package. Add to that all of your tweeting, status updates and the like and you’re looking at weeks prior to launch before you have the basics together.  Putting out one publicity package isn’t enough. Especially across multiple websites. Ideally it would be a new package for each host. Reality is, that’s a lot of additional work for any author already working on the next book.

This is where freelancers come in. As freelance writers we learn to spin content, rewrite and recreate information provided into original and unique content. We also learn to pull from many sources in a short time to create new articles and blog posts. This is very common for a freelance writer who creates for the web. Allowing a freelance writer to recreate a provided publicity package saves you time and allows you to have multiple options available to your kind blog hosts.

Yes, with any service there is a cost, but the benefits are always far more profitable.  An author’s time is freed up, options are provide and any package recreated is a fresh opportunity for your book to be talked about.

 

Novelists and Freelancers are cut from different sections of the same cloth. Working together is natural.

With Love Project Continues: New Release soon

The With Love Project is a charity anthology series, published by Ethics Trading in cooperation with The Writing Network. The Anthology series was inspired by the events of March 11, 2011 in Japan.

The earthquake and subsequent Tsunami took more lives than easily accounted for. It affected millions more around the world.

On March 25th we released the first anthology and selected the proceeds to go to Doctors without Borders – This charity operates in many countries around the world regularly and offers aide for emergency situations such as the disaster relief work that was needed in Haiti after the earthquake there or in Japan once it was safe to set up operations.

We have the next anthology installment coming out on Oct 31st. It is our 3rd and it still benefits the charity. The first anthology contained 17 short stories, however each of the subsequent books in the series contain 8. We found the first run to be both rushed and difficult to manage so many additional stories. To limit and give complete credit where credit is properly due, we’ve opted for a more manageable 8 stories and thus far it’s been very difficult to limit to that number.

One way to learn how you can get involved would be to like the facebook page. Another would be to follow @EthicsTrading @UKSarahBarnard and @TheLadyWrites on twitter. A third would be to follow the hashtag #WithLoveProject on twitter and  G+.

For every one of these anthologies, there have been an incredible and impressive array of short stories contributed. The next book, titled After Dark, has both unique art and fantastic stories. I’ll be talking more about each author on this blog, on twitter, on facebook and G+ as we get closer.

To learn more about Doctors without Borders you can follow this link to their site: www.doctorswithoutborders.org

New Release Announcement: Special Education Needs

Author Tania Tirraoro has created a non-fiction book, near to my heart. My son is a special needs kiddo and when we start our adventure as parents of special needs, we are often weeding through a sea of information without much direction. The process is trial and error all the time and it’s often a struggle to face it. The assistance programs don’t always make it easy for us either. Tania has taken the time to pull together her knowledge into a fabulous book that will help parents wander through the process.

From Tania:

When you’re publishing any book, it is a nerve-wracking process. Will it be well-received? Will anyone notice it? Will it sell well? are all questions you ask yourself.

When you have written a non-fiction book, aimed at helping people, the worry is double. Have I got all my facts right? Is there enough information to be truly useful? Will anyone be interested? are all questions to add to the usual worries.

My new book, published first in eformat, to be followed a paperback in a few weeks is aimed at helping parents, specifically parents in the UK, with getting the right SEN help for their children. Even though the system is the UK one, if you have to compile a case arguing for your special needs child’s requirements, it contains useful advice wherever you are based.

The book has been developed from my website, http://www.specialneedsjungle.co.uk  , which I started in 2008 after I successfully negotiated a legally-binding ‘statement’ of special educational needs for my younger son. This means that the local education authority is compelled to ensure that my son receives the level of care described within the statement.

 

Of course, to make sure that the correct provision is prescribed, you have to make sure that all your child’s special needs have been assessed and understood. This is a huge job for a parents and many hand the job over to expensive SEN lawyers from the start.

We couldn’t afford to do that and, with my background as a journalist, I was fairly confident I could manage most of the process myself. It involved making sure I had gathered together all my son’s IEPs, reports, doctors’ letters and assessments and then writing a long document including references to all the material I had gathered together.

I realised that there must be many parents out there who needed help with the process and so the website was born. It even came in handy for me when I was going through the same process with my older son.

Then one morning, I sat up in bed and knew I had to write a book with more details for parents than what was on the blog and within a month, it was complete. It takes you through the whole process and has input from expert SEN Advocate, Julie Maynard who describes the lows and lower stills of going to an SEN Tribunal when the local authority won’t give your child what you know they need.

I’m very proud of this book and hope it will help many parents get started with the process. You can find it on Amazon.co.ukAmazon.com  & Smashwords.com

Good bye Steve Jobs

 

Today Apple confirmed, Steve Jobs, it’s founder and visionary, passed away due to continued health problems. The creative and technological giant achieved many things in his life time. Without him, computing as we know it today would not exist. Without the feud that occurred between giants, he would not have pushed on further to reinvent his approach and develop many of the things our society knows and finds convenient today.

 

Ipods

Iphones

MacPCs

…. and so much more were inspired from the nature of this man and his goals. He taught us how to learn a new way and how to live life to the fullest. He showed us that pursuing what we love is more energizing than pursuing what we must. He proved that success can come, if you put your effort and energy into doing what you love to do. He left his mark on us all.

He was known as a polarizing personality. Either you loved him or you hated him. Either he loved or hated you… both were things to watch for. His personality and desire to reach for that which he loved, brought joy to his family and friends. Regardless of where you stood in all of that, you have to respect the man. Steve Jobs left his legacy.

You can leave your thoughts for the Jobs’ family at rememberingsteve@apple.com (c/o ABCNews)

It is my hope the mark left by this iconic figure will continue to push our world forward and into great thinking, and outstanding innovation.

May his family find comfort knowing, although he is not with the world any longer, his mark will live through the generations to come.

Interview with Author Mel Comley

This is a wonderful way to start the weekend! Another new release from a fabulous author! Today’s interview is with thriller author, Mel Comley. She’s released the third in her Lorne Simpkins series. This is absolutely a must read for anyone who loves a good thriller.

 

Hi Catrina,
Thanks for having me. I’m really excited by the release of my new thriller, the third book in the Lorne Simpkins series.

CRUEL JUSTICE is actually the prequel to my best-selling novel Impeding Justice. It’s about a serial killer who sets out to avenge something that happened in his/her childhood. Again DI Lorne Simpkins is on the case with her partner DS Pete Childs, readers will find out more about their relationship in this book too. You also get an insight into what makes Lorne tick, and what motivates her to remain in a force where women are still treated as second class citizens.
It’s exciting that it’s the first book in the series, but in reality Cruel Justice is the first book in the Lorne Simpkins trilogy, it’s just the way it worked out.

My editor, agent and all the beta readers I’ve sent it out to have given me the thumbs up and reckon it’s the best book out of the three. Let’s hope the fans agree.

You can buy my books at the following links.
Impeding Justice http://www.amazon.com/Impeding-Justice-Simpkins-thriller-ebook/dp/B0045UA6F0

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Impeding-Justice-Simpkins-thriller-ebook/dp/B0045UA6F0

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/28137

Final Justice. http://www.amazon.com/Final-Justice-Simpkins-thriller-ebook/dp/B004OEKFYO

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Final-Justice-Simpkins-thriller-ebook/dp/B004OEKFYO

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/43071

http://melcomley.blogspot.com/

and my romances can be found on the following blog site.
http://melcomleyromances.blogspot.com/

and my facebook fanpages are.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mel-Comley/264745836884860
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Impeding-Justice-fan-page/164424630236221

Launch Day: Children of the Plantation

Murder She Said ~ Diana Rivers, sexy, feisty sleuth.

After solving the truth concerning the bloody murders in, The Assassins’ Village, our sexy, feisty sleuth and heroine, Diana and her partner, Steve decide they deserve a holiday. On their arrival at their luxurious palm fringed plantation hotel in lush, tropical Malaysia; things don’t quite work out as they imagined.
Diana is asked by the hotel owner, the inscrutable Miss Chalcot, titled, imperious and secretive, to take a look through some old family documents. Miss Chalcot possesses a burning ambition to put right a dreadful wrong that occurred over forty years ago – and Diana is given free rein to pursue the mysterious past of the family and discover what lies behind the dark stories.
Diana enters into a dangerous world of the 1950’s and 1960’s, where lies, deceit, illicit love, jealousies and perhaps murder all feature.
What really happened all those years ago? Who was Paul, Hermione and the beautiful but selfish Eleanor? Who was responsible for events that shocked the whole family and plunged it into despair? And what is the real story behind all the façade?
Will Diana triumph against all odds yet again?

Children Of The Plantation
Prologue

 
Opening the kitchen door, she spotted a vixen standing near the refuse bin. Hermione clapped her hands, and it shot through the hedge at the bottom of the garden.
Hermione’s heart was thudding in her breast as she considered what next to do. Casting a look around, she gave thanks that the clouds scudding overhead made it a dark night. This had to be done in complete privacy.
Giving herself a mental shake, she crossed the damp grass to the shed and picked up a spade. A clod of earth still clung to the sharp blade from where she had been digging in her vegetable patch earlier that afternoon. It seemed such a long time ago now. She paused, still not completely certain she was doing the right thing. Making up her mind, she walked over to the newly turned earth.
The air smelt fresh after the rain shower, and a light breeze blew the mixed garden scents her way while she dug. The hole was to be small but deep, especially as she had just driven the fox off. Satisfied, she stood back and peered down into the soft loamy material, a sorry place for such a pathetic bundle.
Sick at heart, but knowing they had no choice, Hermione laid down her spade and walked back into the kitchen. She picked up the tightly wrapped package and carried it outside; it weighed no more than a couple of pounds as she gently laid it down into the hole.
Covering it with fresh earth, she scattered pebbles around and knelt on the grass. Had there been any other choice? Whatever were they going to tell him when the time came?

 


About the Book: Children of The Plantation will be first published as an eBook and later as a paperback by Topsails Charter. As a special lead-in price (eBook) and a Thank You to my friends and followers it will be offered to you first for $0.99c for the first month. All I ask is (when you’ve bought your copy) for you to please write me a fair review. Thanks!

 

 

 

 

 
About the Author: Faith Mortimer was born in England. Her father was in the Royal Air Force and from the tender age of five, Faith learned the meaning of travel and living in different parts of our beautiful world. Faith now spends her time between England and Cyprus where she lives with her husband. She’s filled her life with different careers, Registered nurse, entrepreneur and writer. She loves the outdoors, acting and writing. She has written two other bestselling novels and a short story collection.

Visit Faith Mortimer’s website http://www.faithmortimerauthor.com/  for more information.

You can find Children of the Plantation here:

Amazon US   http://amzn.to/n5pBHN

Amazon UK  http://amzn.to/rgbcGq