ACX Audiobook Adventures Part 1

ACX Audiobook Adventures Part 1

Hello everyone!  For the next several post we will be talking in great detail about my Audio Book Adventures with ACX, Audible, iTunes, and Amazon.  I hope that if any of you have specific questions post them in the comments.
Here is all four installments so far. 

Part 1
Part 2 
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5 

WHY AUDIOBOOKS 

The first thing we'll talk about is why should you add audiobooks to your list of things to do.  Well, there are several reasons for you to move into this fast growing business.

1. The Blind reading audience
2. Those that travel, truckers is a huge Audiobook audience.
3. It makes you look more genuine as an author. 
4. It brings your book to life to have a great Narrator read your novel. 
5. If you don't you're missing a huge audience of readers

FINE PRINT 

   The first thing I did was procrastinate six months. If you read the list of things you are signing up for it can be very daunting.  I suggest you do read them, and try to understand them, and if you can't call ACX, they are very helpful and have a great team waiting to answer questions.

My two main reservations, were signing away my book rights for 7 years, and going the royalty split and having to share my earnings. I looked and prayed for a long time and decided it was either jump in or just lose out.

Decisions  Decisions

I decided at this point in my life, I can't afford to do this on my own. I am not a great reader, and I knew if I was going to capture this audience I was going to need to find a great reader and quit worrying about splitting royalties and giving my book to Amazon, iTunes, and Audible for seven years.

This is a test. I chose a book in the Romance genre and started looking at the narrators that were out there. In a year or so I may learn that it was a mistake, or that it was a great investment, only time will answer those questions. For now I'm happy, I love the narrator I chose, and I think the audiobook will do well, the only problem is how in the world do you market an audio book.
 
That question we'll get to later when I know the answer, or at least some part of it.  For now we will focus on ACX. As in all sites you'll need to set up an account, get all of your information in there email and such and then chose which book you want to get out there into the hands and ears of audio listeners.

I went with Romance because it is the best selling genre out there, or one of the best and I thought Maid for Martin would do well. It has a great cover, and a great hook and it's a trilogy so if it does well folks will want to listen to all three books.


LOOK CLOSER

As I mentioned you will want to look over the fine print on ACX and I'll be honest there is a lot of reading to do, and it's not all easy to figure out. I myself called them several times.One thing that I have learned is that they do not do CD's. When all is said and done there will not be a hard copy of anything to place on your shelf at home. That so far is the only thing I'm disappointed in.

It will be up to you to decide which genre to go with, and while I'm thinking about it, ACX sets the price on how long your audio book will be. There is a chart for this. Maid for Martin was a tad over 10. hours so it is in the 25.00 range.

The hardest choice, after deciding if you going with ACX is choosing a narrator.  I'll talk about that in the next post.

Thanks for reading
Samantha

Samantha Fury is the author of  the Street Justice Series

She's written many articles on book covers, for Indie Authors.  

She operates several Indie Groups. Editing Services, Cover Artist, 

Helpful Indie Facebook Groups, and a wonderful Forum 

just for Indie Authors. 

Check out Samantha's premade covers here

Images by

Javier Brosch
Gemenacom
From Bigstock 


Part two of this article go here

NaNo Is over!!! Now what?

Now that the NaNo Dust has settled what do we do now?

We'll get this out of the way What is NaNo? Go Here

50K & Beyond 
Finally November is over and you have hit that mark so what do we do now. Do we put this book on the shelf and forget it or do we do something with it.  Well, this is a personal decision but normally I will take a month off, read my new masterpiece (LOL) and go back learning the book and getting the characters fresh in my head. Then I start writing and do my best to finish it.

THE ENDING 
My problem with Novels, is editing and endings, everything else comes easy. I don't have any trouble coming up with a new novel or even the first 30K, but wrapping things up, that is another story.   When wrapping up be sure & keep a calendar so your days and weather etc is correct. You will want to check each character to see that his or her part of the story has closure.

IT'S WRITTEN WHAT NOW?

If you did win Nano, then you might want to think about checking out those free coupons that Createspace is offering to all of this years Nano winners. They are giving away two free proofs of that wonderful novel you just finished. This is a great step in getting into self publishing. This is how it all started for me back in 2010.

A COVER

If this is your first proof there is a lot to learn, but Createspace makes it easy for the beginner to be able to upload a cover for your first novel. The first time I did this I made my own front image from an old image I took with a 35 MM Camera. I don't suggest you do that, but it will work.   This image to the right was my first cover. I took an image of Dallas, TX that I took and just placed it on the cover.  I've came a long way since those days, but it did the job it got me hooked and on the road to being an Indie Author.

WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS
If you want to be a Published Author, join some writing groups and you'll want to read over your novel about five to ten times to get everything right. If this is not your first novel it might not need this much attention

You'll want some Beta readers. These readers will look over your book and tell you general things, like they hated the ending, or they don't like that you have your female MC crying all the time. Maybe your lead Male is not believable. Beta readers can be very helpful.

After the beat readers you'll want to get a professional editor if you can, and if not then find someone in your family that is great with punctuation. Maybe you know a teacher that would check the book for you for mistakes.  Also in this day and age you can often barter for trade to get your book edited. Maybe you're good at marketing or cover design never hesitate to approach someone with an offer for exchange of services.  This is just some general suggestions to get you moving in the right direction.

FINAL SUGGESTIONS

If you are a first time author, please let another author look at your work. Don't take the advise of your mother- best friend, you want a professional to help you. There are many things that could be wrong that a reader would never notice.

There is POV (point of view), show don't tell, chapter length, paragraph length. You'll want to really work on that first chapter to make sure it really draws in the attention of your readers. There are the arguments of 'prologue or not to prologue.' There are a lot of things that another author will notice that no one else will.

You'll want a pro to look over your cover too, nothing is as bad as an Indie doing their own cover for the first time. You don't want your novel to scream I made this cover myself. There are many affordable premade covers out there. I make covers myself and I have great prices for those Christian's that join our Christian Indie Author groups on Facebook.   Here is a progression of my novels over the years. Learn from my mistakes and if you are not an artist don't spend years becoming one like I have just buy a great cover.

MY COVER PROGRESSION 
This is my first two covers. 

Here was my next version of my Street Justice Series 

Then here is where I'm at now, you can see these are much better and who knows I may re do them at some point but I don't think so. 

YOUR CHOICE 

Whatever you chose, do so wisely. I will say that there is nothing like holding your own book in your hand and looking down and saying I did this. I love just going by my own book shelf at home and breezing by my novels. There is normally a small window to get your novels finished so also check out those expatriation dates on those coupons.

If your book is not all the way done go ahead and use those coupons and get that cover ready so you can see how the book is coming along. It will spur you on to finish your own books. Thanks for reading and if you have any questions join one of our many groups that will be listed below.

Samantha Fury is the author of  the Street Justice Series

She's written many articles on book covers, for Indie Authors.  

She operates several Indie Groups. Editing Services, Cover Artist, 

Helpful Indie Facebook Groups, and a wonderful Forum 

just for Indie Authors. 

Check out Samantha's premade covers here

If you didn't win Nano don't forget this post HERE

You didn't win NaNo this year?

I DIDN'T WIN NANO!
This blog is for those that did not win NaNo.


I always cover this question, What is NaNo? Go here.

I DIDN'T WIN


So you didn't win. It's not the end of the world. It's not even really that bad. There are a few questions we should ask.  We'll go over some things that might help you figure out why you didn't win, and try and evaluate what you can do better next time, if you want there to be a next time.





Why didn't you win? 

There are many things that go wrong, and we'll cover a few. First, some people always get sick during Nano, something will happen that just totally stops them from having anytime to write. Family comes to visit, the phone won't stop ringing, or maybe you just got a new puppy or a baby. These are things that happen and life goes on. 

Nano is just not for me!  

Maybe you don't work well under pressure. You ended up sitting looking at a blank screen and you didn't have plot lines bounding into your mind.  We all don't work alike, so don't feel bad if you are not a Nanonite.  Some of us work at a slower pace, some of us don't work under pressure, and some of us just like to take our time and write at our own pace.
I tried I really did! 

To those of you that really tried and you just couldn't make it, I say, try again next year. Have a Nano dry run another month and war against yourself or some other writing companions.  Study how those that win do win. Join a Word War group, there are many things you can do to improve your chances of winning.




What did I do wrong? 

I added this topic because to be honest I think any writer can write 50k or more in a given month. It
just takes a lot of determination and time with your rear in a chair. I don't have kids I have dogs, so it may take getting a baby sitter, or writing while the kids are at school, but it's only 1666.7 a day. It can be done. I myself  and many of our Nano Members have written over 12 thousand words in one 24 hour period. It can be done, people may not do it every day but the goal of 1667 a day is very attainable.

Why do I care about Nano?

To me it's a great learning experience with cool freebies as an incentive. I have learned many things from Nano and here are a few.  You don't have to edit when you write, you can write that scene and it will work, even if it seems crazy at the time. You can write 12k in a 24 hour period. You can write 50k in a month or more. You don't even have to outline to get a good story, you can just grab a character and put him on the street and once he's starts walking something will happen. I have gained so many great friends from this contest. Nano got me started in 2009 on the road to self publishing. It introduced me to Createspace and KDP. It has taught me that Word Wars are important to getting those deadlines met. I'm sure others would say many other things too that Nano has taught them.


Win or Lose 

It does not matter if you win or lose, it is all about learning, finding new friends, and trying to push yourself to those out there limits.  Each year those of us that battle with the Nano Beast, we learn something new, we gain new friends, and we learn that we can do things we never thought possible if we put our mind to it!!




Images from Samantha Fury
Jack and Max very willing models!!

Thanks for Reading Feel free to comment!!!

Fear Not Blog Hop Samantha Fury

THIS BLOG HOP HAS ENDED!!!

You Can Read The Post about Fear but the hop is over. 

Thanks

WELCOME!  We're so glad you could drop by our Fear Not Blog Hop. We hope to have more hops in the future so be sure and bookmark, follow, leave a trail of bread, whatever it takes to find your way back!




We have lots of great giveaways and even have a Face book Event HERE, check it out if you like good clean christian novels.

We have our Grand prize giveaway for $95.00 Amazon Gift Card at the main site, be sure and check it out HERE  

I've read that fear is mentioned over more than 500 times in the Bible so it sounds like God was trying to make a point. Even if it was only in the Bible one time that really should have been enough, but we are human, and we do fail, so at times we need a reminder. What better time of the year to remind someone than at Halloween.





 
In my novels I try to show that God is there for us every day, not just on the bad days, but the good days too.  Charlie Anderson, is always finding a new reason that she needs to trust God and not be afraid. She first has to leave home, because of her dads anger. I'm sure she was afraid to strike out on her own. Then she ends up being beaten by her sisters boyfriend, and I know she was afraid then.

Everywhere she turns she finds a new situation that causes her to doubt and be afraid, but every time she stands on her faith. She stands on what she has learned from the word of God to keep her strong, and that's what we have to do too. When we feel afraid or weak we need to go to the word. When we are afraid we need to quote the Bible.

Isaiah 41:10  So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Join in on my Giveaway below and check out our grand prize giveaway also. 



Each day there will be prizes at our Facebook Event, so check in daily to see what goodies we are handing out.  There will be books, books and more books, and maybe even a Pre-made Book Cover for those Authors in the audience.

Also if you're a Reader feel free to join our Christian Indie Authors Readers Group Here 

Be sure and enter one of my Giveaways below. I have one for Authors and one for Readers. Check them out. 

Author giveaway rules is you must be willing to accept a pre-made e-book cover from the list of covers here on this page.  Authors must have at least one published work behind their name or be ready to publish their first work within the next three months. Take a look at the covers before you enter to see if there is a cover you'd like to see your name on.  I also hope to have an extra drawing on the Event page sometime this week. See the covers here.

Images By 
Magdalena Kucova
Javier Brosch 
Samantha Fury 
Mary Campagna Findley 

 
READERS GIVEAWAY a Rafflecopter giveaway


Author's Giveaway 
If you're going to do the Blog post for Fury Cover Design to gain those points you can find the html at the bottom of the page. Here is the link
                                    Post link to blog for Entry on Fury Cover Design Facebook page
 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

NaNoWriMo 2016: What is NaNo?

I know we're starting a little early but I want all those new writers to learn about NaNo.

NaNoWriMo: The Contest

Coming this November will be one of the most exciting contests I've ever entered. I'll be fighting against someone that's hard-headed and hard to please. A person that thanks God for the opportunity to write. A person that loves to write, and a person that I know will fight to win when Nano pushes her to new heights and new way's of thinking. I'll be competing with this person every minute and that person is ME.

What is NaNo?

It's a contest where you try to write 50 thousand words in a month.  Yes you heard me right.  It can be done, thousands of people do it every year.  True, every word of it might not be worth keeping, but it teaches you to get out on that limb and write.  Never heard of Nano go here.




Win Prizes and Pride through NaNoWriMo

I've entered and won this contest in November many times. Each time in November, I have won a prize. Five years in a row, I won a free book for participating and winning the contest. Now, of course, there is no way for the good NaNoWriMo folks to know if you are cheating or not, but they hope that you won't.  They also offer discounts on various kinds of writing software. We'll all just have to sign up to see what great goodies they are offering this year.




Words, Words, Words
It's not easy to write 50,000 words in a month, but it can be done. For me now it comes down to a contest against my last year's record. I try to get in one really good day with about 11,000 words, so if I have a bad day, I don't get so far behind. Last year I hit 11 and change in a 24 hour period. I was stoked.

I don't think I had ever written that many words in one day. I also don't know if I will ever beat that record or not, but you can bet that I will do my best when November comes around.

Outline?
For those of you that have done Nano before you know that the only thing you can do towards getting ready for the contest writing wise, is to work on that outline.  You can plan and think and outline, but you can not write one word not even that first line to this great new novel until midnight of November the first. I don't have my outline started yet.  I'll once again be working on my Street Justice Series during this month so I'll need to do a little reading on the last novel and see where I left off.

Really 50,000 words in a month 

Writing 50,000 words in a months opened my mind to a new way of writing. It helped me learn to focus on the creation of the story, and to put editing to the back burner. It helped me to see that I can write under pressure. It taught me that some of my best work comes when I'm working and writing under a timeline. When I won and finished over 50,000 words in less than 30 days it gave me a boost, and give me a great feeling of accomplishment.

Please don't let the idea of failing stop you from trying to win Nano. Don't keep yourself from the lessons that are waiting there to be learned. It's fun, it's exciting, and at times it can be a little frustrating. I can't stress enough what a learning experience this is, so come on join in on the fun, and see if you can write 50k or more in a month.

Winning! 
Winning is fun that is for sure, but even if you don't win, you can learn so much from being in this contest.  You can meet some great people, learn that you can write a lot of words in one month, but most of all you learn to write write write.

I learned that I can write things that were not in my outline, that sometimes if do put myself out on that writing limb that the story line I created while out there will last and it is good.  I suggest that every writer tries Nano at least once.

Still looking for more to read on Nano check my older nano post from previous years, some of the information will be repetitive some not.

Nano Nano

50,000 words in a month?

Gearing up for Nano

Nano 2009

Dave King's Blog on Nano

Images thanks to 

Annette Shaff 

Javier Brosch

Edward Fielding

Ramona D'Viola

T.A. Byrne
Samantha Fury Images

Amazon Giveaway Interview with Cindy Ray Hale

Amazon Giveaway Interview with Cindy Ray Hale

Welcome Author Friends and Readers, today we're going to be interviewing Cindy Ray Hale and talking about Covers!

Be sure and hang around to the end and join in on the fun of a giveaway!

Welcome Cindy, and before we get into asking about your covers tell us a little about yourself, please.


Thanks for having me and sure, I live in Murfreesboro, Tennessee with my husband and four children. I’ve been writing since I was a kid scribbling stories in a spiral notebook. When I was seventeen, I wrote a short story called Instant Harmony, which was published in the April 2000 issue of New Era, the official magazine for the youth of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Destiny is my first novel and is Book One of the Destiny Trilogy. I’ve been querying agents a little bit this summer, but a few weeks ago I decided I wanted more control and a shorter wait to publication, so I will be self-publishing Destiny.


Welcome to the Self Publishing world, I love it here, and I think you will too. Since the topic is covers today can you tell us what made you decide you needed a new cover?

I’ve made several of my own covers on my phone and on picmonkey.com. I even took my own photo shoot with an adorable young teenager I’m close friends with. I wanted to use the pictures of the couple but the photos were taken with my phone and the definition wasn’t high enough. I knew all along I’d eventually have a cover designed by a professional. It was a matter of me deciding to finally self-publish.

Who did your first cover?  That our viewers can now see to the left.

I designed it myself on PicMonkey.com. I highly recommend PicMonkey if you’re looking to design a cover on your own, and you have zero budget because it’s easy to use, you don’t have to download anything or register, and it’s free.

My first cover photo was actually taken by, Virginia Hodges of Virginia Rose Hodges Photography, the same photographer that took the picture on my new cover. She’s a close friend of mine and considers herself Hannah in my book.

Who did this second cover?

Cover It Designs at coveritdesigns.net designed the cover and Virginia Rose Hodges Photography 

Do you think Authors should create their own covers? I do and I have my own line of pre-made covers that are available for purchase here.

It depends. I’ve had friends design their own covers, and for a simple e-book it can work out completely fine. But if they’re taking it to print, I don’t recommend it unless they’ve had a lot of experience. There are so many details to work out with the correct size and formatting. When my cover designer was explaining it all to me, I felt like it was way over my head.

Do you mind saying how much you paid for this cover?

I paid $135

What did you learn that you might think is helpful for our audience in this experience of changing covers?

Two things: Know your audience and what types of covers appeal to them the most. I write contemporary YA so I did a Google search for “The Best Contemporary YA Book Covers” and found a Goodreads page with the best covers all together.

I made a Pinterest board collecting the covers that appealed to me from similar books to mine, and when the cover designer asked me what I liked all I had to do was link that board to her. Shop around before you decide who to go with so you can know the person caters to your audience. Study the covers on their website and look them up on Amazon to see how well it’s sold. One of the designers I almost went with had designed the cover of an Amazon Bestselling Author.

Share with our audience a few places where they can learn more about you and your novels.

Facebook.

Wordpress

Blogger

When will this book be available?

It will be available for purchase November 2013.

What can folks expect out of you from this point on? More novels?

Yes! I have the rough draft of Synchrony (Destiny #2) two-thirds of the way finished. I’m hoping to publish it next Spring, but we’ll see how it goes. I have an outline written for Destiny #3, but it’s still pretty rough. I’ve also thought about writing a prequel from Hannah’s (Destiny’s best friend) point of view and a book that would take place after the Trilogy to show what happens to the guy that doesn’t end up with Destiny.

Thanks for joining us today and be sure and click on the raflicopter link below and join in on the fun of a giveaway for an Amazon Gift Card $25.00

Cindy Ray Hale Author website

Blurb From Destiny

Destiny Clark, a young Mormon girl living in Tennessee, is wildly infatuated with Isaac Robinson, the headmaster’s son at her Baptist high school. When they’re cast together in the school’s production of Les Misérables, Destiny is horrified to find that she has to be publicly humiliated by acting out her true feelings of rejection onstage.

As their rehearsals begin, Destiny realizes the unimaginable: Isaac has developed deep feelings for her despite their religious differences and the fact that he has a girlfriend. But will they be able to find their place amongst the backbiters of their ultra-conservative world?

Weaving around Destiny and Isaac's alternating viewpoints, Destiny is the first book in a series inspired by the characters of Les Misérables and explores heartbreak, self-discovery, intolerance, and love.

Visit Samantha's website for an excerpt of Destiny



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Unstoppable: Official Movie Trailer (Kirk Cameron, 2013)