Wednesday, 2 September 2015
Criminal Minds: No Editing: No Book
Criminal Minds: No Editing: No Book: By R.J. Harlick We're asked a lot about how we write, but less about how we edit. How do you know what to change and when to stop? ...
Wednesday, 19 August 2015
My Two Cents Worth (Before Inflation): Kristina Stanley - Guest Author
My Two Cents Worth (Before Inflation): Kristina Stanley - Guest Author: Please welcome Kristina Stanley, a Canadian author who has the screenshot to prove that her novel Descsent had the number one ranking on...
Friday, 31 July 2015
Tuesday, 23 June 2015
Book Names and Branding
Ready to Publish?
If you haven’t read my blog before, I’ve just signed on with Imajin Books and intend to blog about my publishing adventure. I’ll share what I learn and hope it helps someone out there get their novel published. At the end of my last blog, Ready to Publish?, I gave myself two action items:
Step one : Re-launch website and give it a cleaner look.
Done: Or sort of done. I’ll keep working on this as I get feedback. What changes did I make to the site?
- I changed my home page to a static page instead of my blog. I did this so when I have book covers designed, I’ll have a landing page to post the covers.
- I chose a new format that I found pleasing to the eye and what I think is a more professional image.
- I updated the image at the top of the page to mountains to start branding my novels.
- I used a free template by Wordpress. This comes with restrictions, but for now I can live with them. Until I start making some income with my books, I’ll be careful how I allocate funds.
Step two: Decide if working titles for DESCENT and BURNT are the final titles.
This is where branding comes in. That’s a big question when you’re about to publish one of your books. I write a mystery series, and so my branding has to consider the current and future books in the series. I want to engage and excite readers, and branding can help do this.
A Stone Mountain Mystery is the tag line for all the novels because the series takes place in a fictitious resort located in the depths of the Purcell Mountain range.
The first three working titles in the series are DESCENT, BURNT and AVALANCHE.
After collaborating with Imajin Books, we’ve decided to rename the second novel in the series.
BURNT will become BLAZE.
The thoughts behind the decision to change the name are:
- BLAZE has a sense of impending doom.
- All three titles are one-word action oriented nouns.
- BLAZE now links to the mountain theme of DESCENT and AVALANCHE as blaze is more reminiscent of a forest fire than BURNT.
- One can think of BLAZE as blazing the ski trail which again links the novels.
I’ve spend four years building my online platform and writing about my books. This one word change means I have to visit all of my sites and update the name accordingly. I’m pretty sure this is the first of many changes. But who said writing was easy?
Now I’m off to find all references to BURNT and change it to BLAZE..
Thanks for reading . . .
Monday, 22 June 2015
Book Names and Branding
Ready to Publish?
If you haven’t read my blog before, I’ve just signed on with Imajin Books and intend to blog about my publishing adventure. I’ll share what I learn and hope it helps someone out there get their novel published. At the end of my last blog, Ready to Publish?, I gave myself two action items:
Step one : Re-launch website and give it a cleaner look.
Done: Or sort of done. I’ll keep working on this as I get feedback. What changes did I make to the site?
- I changed my home page to a static page instead of my blog. I did this so when I have book covers designed, I’ll have a landing page to post the covers.
- I chose a new format that I found pleasing to the eye and what I think is a more professional image.
- I updated the image at the top of the page to mountains to start branding my novels.
- I used a free template by WordPress. This comes with restrictions, but for now I can live with them. Until I start making some income with my books, I’ll be careful how I allocate funds.
Step two: Decide if working titles for DESCENT and BURNT are the final titles.
This is where branding comes in. That’s a big question when you’re about to publish one of your books. I write a mystery series, and so my branding has to consider the current and future books in the series. I want to engage and excite readers, and branding can help do this.
A Stone Mountain Mystery is the tag line for all the novels because the series takes place in a fictitious resort located in the depths of the Purcell Mountain range.
The first three working titles in the series are DESCENT, BURNT and AVALANCHE.
After collaborating with Imajin Books, we’ve decided to rename the second novel in the series.
BURNT will become BLAZE.
The thoughts behind the decision to change the name are:
- BLAZE has a sense of impending doom.
- All three titles are one-word action oriented nouns.
- BLAZE now links to the mountain theme of DESCENT and AVALANCHE as blaze is more reminiscent of a forest fire than BURNT.
- One can think of BLAZE as blazing the ski trail which again links the novels.
I’ve spend four years building my online platform and writing about my books. This one word change means I have to visit all of my sites and update the name accordingly. I’m pretty sure this is the first of many changes. But who said writing was easy?
Now I’m off to find all references to BURNT and change it to BLAZE..
Thanks for reading . . .
Friday, 8 May 2015
Welcome Readers and Authors.
The life of a mystery writer is full of twists and turns. Some good. Some not. But here's a twist that lands in the good category. I've signed a two-book publishing contract with Imajin Books for DESCENT and BLAZE.
When I began writing my novels, I loved reading blogs about the writing process, about how to write, about how to publish, and about anything else to do with writing. And I still do. Now it's time to return the favour. Over the next few months (or years), I'll blog about the publishing experience. I'll do my best to share what I learn.
I'll occasionally update this page with something new.
The latest news: The book description for DESCENT (A Stone Mountain Mystery #1) is:
When Kalin Thompson is promoted to Director of Security at Stone Mountain Resort, she soon becomes entangled in the high-profile murder investigation of an up-and-coming Olympic skier. There are more suspects with motives than there are gates on the super-G course, and danger mounts with every turn.
Kalin’s boss orders her to investigate the murder. Her boyfriend wants her to stay safe and let the cops do their job. Torn between loyalty to friends and professional duty, Kalin must look within her isolated community to unearth the killer’s identity.
Stay tuned . . .
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)