Tuesday, January 26, 2021

SELDOM TRAVELED ON SALE FOR .99 CENTS


 Yep, I'm doing it again, from February 3 - 7,  Seldom Traveled  will be on sale for Kindle for only .99 cents. (I had to change the dates because of a glitch on Amazon.)

This one has a missing fugitive, the murder of a wealthy visitor to Bear Creek, and a raging forest fire. 

I love this cover, the graphic is representing an eagle who plays an important part in the story.

Here's a great (and slightly condensed version) of a review that gives you a preview of the story:

5 Stars:

This is my first time reading Marilyn Meredith, but I've found that I've always enjoyed books with Native American characters. I love the spirituality normally displayed and this book was no exception. In fact, the climatic ending made this a true winner for me. If my time permitted, I'd be reading the entire series...

Initially, Tempe was assigned the responsibility of interviewing persons of interest; however, so many emergencies were happening at one time, that Tempe moved deeper and deeper into the investigation, finding clues that had been overlooked, including a potential threat note that had fallen and become hidden. And through it all, readers watch her intelligence and savvy shine through as she calmly evaluates each situation and then acts to get through the latest crisis, saving others from the danger...

Another wonderfully drawn character was Nick Two John who owned an Inn and with whom Crabtree often interacted in the course of her duties... Readers can almost believe he is a shaman as he prepared tea or something to eat, seeming to know in advance she will be coming and need sustenance. Then as she spent time sharing about what case she was dealing with, Two John would leave her with a message to ponder and hopefully remember and act upon.

Surely, with Two John and her husband constantly keeping Tempe in their thoughts, she was walking a spiritual walk... And her fellow officers were right there when needed to support her. While graphic violence is downplayed in the books, Tempe still finds herself in life-and-death situations and finds her way out again...Kudos to the author for bringing Tempe Crabtree to life for her readers!

The setting, the characters, and the mystery come together in a wonderful blend! Grab a cup of tea! I read the book in one sitting and could easily have kept on reading if all of the mysteries hadn't been solved... I was hooked and so hope I get the chance to read more of this fascinating series!

GABixlerReviews

 Only on sale from February 1- February 5. 

https://www.amazon.com/Seldom-Traveled-Tempe-Crabtree-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B07QM2QX7V/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Seldom+Traveled+by+Marilyn+Meredith&qid=1610491413&s=digital-text&sr=1-1

If you haven't read it already, this is a great time to start.


Wednesday, January 20, 2021

Publishing - A Basic Primer - Part Two


by Janis Patterson

 

Happy New Year! Hope your year is starting well and that all things are good with you.

As promised, this column is going to talk about the newest iterations of publishing - Self and Hybrid.

Self publishing has been around for centuries. Some of the very earliest novelists - such as Fielding and Richardson - Self published, but that was a very different time and a different business model. In the last century Self publishing was pretty much limited to Vanity publishing - see last month’s column - but thanks to the technological revolution Self publishing has become its own respectable and sometimes very profitable industry.

Ebooks have changed the face of publishing. No longer do writers need the heavy hand of a Trad publisher to shape and validate their work, nor do they have to put up with the Trad’s domination of the distribution system. Someone can write a book and put it up by themselves on several electronic vendor platforms. Easy-peasy! That is not to say, however, that they should.

A Self publisher is exactly that - a publisher, and he should take on the duties of a publisher - all the duties. Get a good editor and cover artist and, if putting books out to a lot of vendors, a formatter. And yes, you will have to pay them money, because professionalism and quality are not free. 

Ah, you say, didn’t I tell you that money should always flow TO the author, not FROM the author? It’s still true - but when you are publishing your book you are the Publisher You, not the Author You. Publisher You is responsible for everything, from getting a very good editor to make Author You’s book the best it can be (and no one should ever put out a book without having an editor look at it!) to getting a cover artist to getting a skilled formatter to uploading to the vendors to doing the publicity necessary to get the book in front of the public. Now there are those who are talented enough - or have friends/family who are - to do the covers and formatting and publicity themselves. Most of us are not. Don’t rely on a friend or relative to do your editing, though; get a professional.

Publisher You also has to take charge of the niggling but oh-so-important details of publishing - do you need an ISBN? Should you copyright through the government? Do you go exclusive with Amazon/KU or do you go wide? Should you put out a paper version as well as an ebook? And those are just the beginning of the decisions you need to make. Are you going to use your name or a pseudonym? Do you/should you have a website? What kind and how much publicity should you do? Do you hire a publicist? And the list goes on...

I will admit that I am a great fan of Self publishing; it takes you out of the unholy circus of rewrites and endless edits to tailor your story to the (occasionally unreasonable) demands of traditional agents and publishers and all too often leaves you with a product that has only a passing resemblance to your original work. You also make a great deal more money per individual sale than with Trad publishing. The downside is that whatever is done has to be done by you - or at least, by someone you hire. All the responsibility for quality and opportunities for success and failure resides squarely on your shoulders. 

People beginning in the Self pub market now are so fortunate - there are books and groups and FB pages and eloops centered on the Self pub industry from which the novice can learn just about everything necessary. When I first Self pubbed in 2013 I couldn’t find any of them; there may have been some, but I couldn’t find them, so in my usual heedless fashion I jumped in feet first and forged on. Yes, I made a lot of mistakes, but I learned. And some of my ‘mistakes’ turned out to be blessings in disguise. Some turned out to be... not. Still, I am glad I went ahead.

Above I said ‘opportunities for success and failure’ because there is always what Mary Roberts Rinehart called the Blind Villain - chance. You can do everything just right - writing, editing, covers, publicity - yet still there is the possibility that your book will just lie there like a dead flounder while other books, not as good in any or all ways, will take off to the stratosphere. Just do the best you can and accept the chance of this outcome, because there are some things in this world that are uncontrollable. It’s sad but very true, and must be accepted. The only answer I know is to keep going on and write more good books. 

Most of Self pubbing is relatively simple - mechanical and very picky, but still basically simple once you understand and accept the principles. I believe that anyone who really wants to do it can master the production end. And probably the publicity end, too, though that is my personal bĂȘte noir.

You see, with every other aspect of Self pubbing, each task is finite - writing, editing, formatting, cover selection - but publicity is ongoing. Sometimes I wonder how some writers manage to do all the publicity they do and still have time to write, let alone have a life. Yes, some do employ Virtual Assistants or Public Relations companies, but the affordable ones are so booked they have waiting lists of potential clients and others are so expensive they are out of reach of anyone but the highest of best sellers.

Not long ago I looked into a PR company to boost the sales (embarrassingly small) of my favorite book, perhaps the best book I’ve ever written. Not only was the basic campaign eye-wateringly high, but it cost more for one month than that book had earned in the past year! Needless to say, it was beyond my means and I politely declined. That said, I am blessed that my newly-retired, science-oriented husband has stepped in and taken over my publicity, learning the job as he goes. It is an interesting journey!
So - if anyone is looking for a ready-made niche, a true bird’s-nest-on-the-ground, may I suggest starting an AFFORDABLE publicity firm for writers. They will have potential clients lined up out the metaphoric door.

Ooops! I have made a mistake - something you get used to when you Self pub. Last month and even above I said I would cover Self pubbing and Hybrid pubbing in this post. Well, this post has gone on much too long, so I will save Hybrid for next month. Hope your New Year is starting out well, and 2021 is the best year ever for all of us! 

Tuesday, January 12, 2021

I FEEL VINDICATED.

 


Yes, I heard what some of you said about not wanting to read a book with Covid 19 in it and others saying they would never write a book that had the pandemic in it. 

None of the remarks mattered, I knew I couldn't ignore what was going on in the world when I wrote the next Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery.The series is set in real time, and who knows how long this mess is going on? Not I. 

So despite the warnings that I might not have any readers, I plunged right in. And believe it or not, I had fun doing it.  I knew what was happening with my friends and all their different views about what was going on. When I visited my police officer grandson, he told me what was happening in his department, plus some other things that were happening.

Two of my-granddaughters-in-law are nurses and I asked them questions. So I really felt I had the information I needed to show how the virus was affecting the police officers of Rocky Bluff and their families. 

And the vindicated part, I just finished reading Law of Innocence by Michael Connelly and guess what, his character, Mickey Haller recognizes the threat of the illness coming from China. And not to spoil a great ending, he shelters in place with loved ones. (Someone complained this was a spoiler--but Haller has lots of loved ones--so I don't think it really is a spoiler.)

I hope some of you will try Not as We Knew It 

https://www.amazon.com/Not-As-Knew-F-M-Meredith/dp/B08NDT3FW5/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

So far those who've read it have liked it. 

And remember, I wrote this one as F. M. Meredith.

Marilyn