The trilogy Something in the Blood series

Available on Amazon.com and Kindle 

 This trilogy is something I've worked on for well over two years and I'm very proud of it.  I finally finished the last episode of this book and I rather liked how it turned out.

Cheryl, a young woman who, until she met Duncan, lived a pretty dull life as a teenager in a small city in America.  She had a summer, nowhere, job, trying her best to save up money for a down payment on a car of her own.  While working the ice cream stand, and feeling bored because there were no customers that day, she just knew nothing ever happens in her small part of the world.  Seriously?  Well, well, little did she know all that boredom she had been experiencing most of her life, was about to change, and change drastically.

Cheryl has always felt over shadowed by her BFF, Karla.  Karla is beautiful and seems to have her act together.  Karla is all the things Cheryl would like to be.

Cheryl meets some new friends, one in particular, a guy named Duncan.  Cheryl cannot believe Duncan takes an interest in her instead of Karla, even with Karla standing right there.  Duncan and her new friends help Cheryl evolve into a person she never knew existed.

Together, Cheryl and her friends end up fighting off a powerful enemy, giving Cheryl more confidence than she ever knew she had inside of her.  With that enemy defeated, she and her friends can live in peace.  But, can they?  You should read the series to find out how it ends.

I hope you will explore this series and find it as much fun to read as I did writing it.  Thank you and Happy Reading. 

A rough life

I enter the club and scan the crowd.  "Hey there, hi."  I turn and see Daisy.  She's the barmaid here and we've been friends since I started working the club.  She took me under her wing right off the bat.

"Hi, Daisy.  Busy night so far?"

"Sure is, wow, I've been running drinks for hours."

As a kid, I grew up in NY City.  My Dad died when I was just 10.  We had a rough time until I turned 12.  Mom always found it hard to pay rent, utilities and buy food.  At age 12 I went to work for Sebastian Campos, he was a big time name in our neighborhood, the Latino neighborhood too.

One day, while hanging out by his store, some kid ran inside and grabbed a handful of cash from the open register.  Sebastian's clerk had stepped away for a moment and the thief saw his opportunity.  I saw it happen and chased that kid for five blocks, knocked him down, gave him a bloody nose and retrieved the cash.

Sebastian was so grateful he asked if I'd like a job.  I answered 'Hell, yes."  He said he needed something in a brown paper bag delivered to another neighborhood.  He told me not to look inside the bag and he said he'd give me $200 when I returned once it was delivered.  Sebastian is old school, so to speak.  Hell his hero is Scarface, so what does that tell you?



Mom didn't like it when she found out, but she didn't turn down the $150 I gave her.  She told me to be careful.  Everyone in our neighborhood knew Sebastian was into some dealings that my Mom didn't want to know. 

Even now, Sebastian fronted the money for this club I work in.  He set me up for this job, even though I'm not sure how much I like this job, but for now, it pays some money.  Since I quit running bags for Sebastian, I haven't made as much money as I used to, but I don't want to run bags anymore.  However, Matilda, Sebastian's 18 year old daughter and I have become good friends over the years.  She's like a sister to me and we grew up together.  We used to get into mischief together as kids too, but she's very nice.  She's petite with flashing dark eyes, jet black, wavy hair and the sweetest smile of anyone I know. 

Looking for heroes

Bonding is always a good thing.

I found this picture in my files and every time I look at it, I can't help but smile.  Snowflake, an abandoned kitten we found in our backyard almost a year ago.  We even wrote a children's book about him.  Sometimes I think: maybe he found us, but however it came about, here he is. 

My husband often told me how 'he's just not a cat person' and I believed him, that is until he went out in the dark night and rescued a kitten I heard crying for help.  Ever since he brought Snowflake in, they have been very close.  

I see them and often think about how we sometimes whine about things we don't have.  I often feel like that too, dwelling on what I think I need, then I look at this picture and understand.  I see a little kitten, lost, abandoned, alone, tired and hungry and realize what we need or want is often quite simple.  Once in a while all we need is someone to rescue us.  A hero?  Perhaps, but heroes come in all shapes and sizes.  The hero we need is a loved one, a close relative, or close friend, some one to listen to us, to our fears and help us put our whines into perspective.  

Growing up, we had Superman, The Lone Ranger and the like.  Those heroes don't exist, but they filled our heads, as kids, with the notion that heroes are good.  While watching The Hunger Games, I could see this same idea in action in our 21st Century notions too.  Heroes have not gone out of style.  When Katniss understands how fearful her sister is when chosen to play the Hunger Games, she steps forward to take her place.  She is a hero.  Then it is stated by the announcer that 'never before in the Hunger Game's history, has anyone ever volunteered' this is The Hero's Journey that author Joseph Campbell talks about.  You then come to realize that all good stories, all good journeys, real or fictional, have a hero.

Steve is the hero to Snowflake.  Snowflake's needs are small.  He needs food, shelter, and above all, someone when he wants comfort.  Don't we all just really need those same things?  So when you have a good friend, treat them well, treat loved ones well, for they, in various times of our lives, can be our heroes.  Hopefully we can all pay it forward and be a hero to someone else when they need us too.

Available on: Amazon and Barnes&Noble.com

A young soldier's journey

Walking home from school that day, my throat was dry, a sensation of strength washed over me.  I had really wanted to hurt that guy, to see blood.  Right now I figured my blood pressure was like 160 at least.  I was grateful for the eight miles between the school and my house.  I needed this long walk to help silence the blood pounding in my ears.  I knew my parents might be upset when they heard what I'd done but this showdown had been a long time coming.  Right now I didn't care about the possible consequences.  Besides, I felt like that guy had been just looking for a fight and he nearly got one from me.  

  Maybe my vision was clouded as I walked home from high school for the last time on that warm day in 1965, the year I turned 16 and knew I didn't have to take that mistreatment anymore.  Hell, it wasn’t like it was my first trip to the Principal’s office, I had gotten used to that, but on this day, I was determined it would be my last trip there.

I was sent to his office, this time, from shop class.  I had rigged a piece of lumber in the lathe so it would fling out at the shop teacher when he turned it on.  While that action had gotten a rousing laugh out of the class, the shop teacher was far from amused so it earned me a trip to the principal’s office, nothing new for me.  But this time it was different from the three days of detention I usually got. This time he told me he ‘would have to paddle me’ because it was such a ‘serious offense,’ and someone could have been hurt badly or even killed by the flying wood.  He then took a significantly sized paddle from behind his desk and came at me with it, a look of almost delight in his eyes, as if hitting students made his day.  I decided I wasn't going to make it easy for him either.   I had already decided that he wasn't going to lay a hand on me. 

As he approached me, I bit my lip, felt my hands clench and unclench as I moved slowly and deliberately towards him.  As soon as he entered my personal space, I planted my feet further apart to let him know I was standing my ground.  I defiantly said: “If you touch me with that damn paddle, I’ll break it over your f%*@king head.” 

Suddenly he stopped in his tracks, as his eyes widened he seemed to be doing a double take about the whole situation.  He was probably stunned by my language.  Back then, small town Indiana nice kids weren’t supposed to talk like that.   But I had always been a rebel in those days anyway, and I admit I had a definite problem with authority figures. 

Whatever the reason for his abrupt stop I will never fully know, but after lowering the paddle he looked at me through squinted eyes.  Finding his voice again, he asked: “What did you just say?”

 Infusing as much anger into my voice as I could, I answered: “You heard what I said."  Once I repeated myself he then pointed out I would have to be suspended for three days at the very least.  I lowered my head and mumbled something about how it was going to be the longest three days he would ever see.   With that having been said, I slammed out of his office, walked through the big glass doors, away from the building, never once looking back. 

That son of a bi&@h sure didn’t need to tell me twice.  I knew I was never going back to that school.   I really hated school anymore anyway.  For a long time now school seemed to hold little meaning for me.  I had grown restless and failed to see any reason for continuing high school.  

On any other day but today I would not have liked the eight mile walk home because it usually seemed so long.  But today I was grateful for the distance between the school and my house because it gave me a chance to think as I walked.  While walking the eight mile journey home, I mulled over in my head what I was going to say to my parents about my plans to never go back to high school.  I had been thinking of joining the Army for some time and I could think of no better time than now but I would need my parents to sign papers for me because I was only 16.  I would just need to convince them it was the right decision.  

Steve/Author

As a young soldier in Vietnam

Snowflake and the big move

Snowflake does not like change at all.

In just two weeks we are moving to our farmhouse.  We aren't really sure just how Snowflake will view all of this.  She had kind of a traumatic start in life and she has never been a big one for change.

Whenever we move a new piece of furniture into the home, she runs and hides in the bathroom until we are done.  So when it's time to move all of the furniture out, well, she may not just hide, she may have a heart attack, not literally but an emotional one.  We shall see.

She likes to observe from high up, on my chair.

Whenever she isn't sure what is going on, mildly anyway, she climbs on the back of my office chair because it has a high back.  When I got this chair at a yard sale and moved it in, she sniffed the darn thing for several days before she would even sit in it.  These days she not only sits in it, she loves to sleep in it and climb the back.

Lovin that office chair now.

Content now, but time will tell.

We just may be trying her patience with us to the max by moving.  We aren't sure what she will think of the new place either, but we are sure she will adjust, eventually, finding herself a new window and new horizons to look at.  We have little doubt we may, during the move of all the furniture, have to place her in her kitty carrier.  That way we know she is out of the way and safely not under our feet.  Stay tuned, we will update about the big move and the big adjustment.

Tranquilizers in our future?  For us, that is, not for Snowflake.

Meeting Snowflake

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh Total trust of us now.

We wrote a book about rescuing a sweet little kitten in our backyard.  To many people, this is as bad as sharing too many kids pictures.  But, to us, she is a bundle of love and it's been a while since we have owned any pet.  So bear with us.  I also have a very good friend who also owns a cat.  I love to listen to her cat stories when on the phone.  Her cat is like a little dog and he sounds very smart and very sweet.

First night in her box, the night we found her.

We did not set out to have a pet, after all, pets were contraband, according to our landlord.  A cat is a small animal with a litter box.  How much damage can a little kitty do, compared to a dog?  We brought her in anyway because she was tired, hungry, dirty, thirsty and prey to anything larger than she was.  She had no fight left in her.  We knew we couldn't just leave her to the wild, wild, backyard and hostile woods.  

Still not totally trusting us yer here.

 

As you can see, she went from dirty to clean.  Yes we gave her a bath in warm water and to this day, she now likes water.  Amazing.

 

Adopting Steve as her own

Steve was the one who brought her inside.  He carried her by the scruff of the neck just like 'Mom' would do.  We figure she associated Steve with mom now.  She still seeks him out the most.  Every morning she sits outside the bedroom door, waits for him to carry her to the kitchen and be cuddled and petted.

 

She has a new and bigger bed, but refuses to give up her original kitten, small bed.  She won't use the new one, even thought she has clearly outgrown the smaller one.  She does not care. 

She has been a source of a lot of love and she keeps our blood pressure low just by petting her.  Known fact, pets lower stress levels.

 

If you love cats, or just animals in general, we hope you will recommend the book about Snowflake.  A nice book especially for kids about not abandoning any animals.  About being kind and sharing our planet with all creatures.

 

Thanks for reading this.

 

 

 On: Amazon.com

Barnes&Noble.com

 

 

 

 

More love

Available on:

Amazon.com

Barnes&Noble.com

I had never thought I’d like any military lifer,
much less fall in love with one. I never
believed in soul mates before either. But I
hadn’t counted on meeting Steve. I just could
never imagine, before now, living the military
life as an adult ever. But since meeting Steve at
the barbecue my father held for a group of
Army guys, I began to think maybe it was
possible to live this way forever. Steve is the
kind of guy I could very well imagine living my
entire life with, even if it means moving around
a lot, like I did as a kid. I could envision
myself doing anything so we could be together.
Together, as man and wife, talking about his life
in the military, maybe even raising a couple of
kids together.

I have learned though, that life can sometimes get in
the way of a person’s happiness. Right now my
dad is lying in a hospital bed hooked up to a
dialysis machine that cleans his blood.

He collapsed and was rushed to the hospital
when Marie and I got the call. His kidneys are
both failing him and without a kidney donor he
might not survive for very long. Marie and I
aren’t able to donate one for him. We both have
diabetes so we can't help him with one of our
kidneys so we’re both feeling pretty helpless at
the moment. Dad has always been so strong so
to see him this sick is very shocking to me right
now.

To make matters worse, Steve, hasn’t written to
me in months. He is in Afghanistan, working
as an interpreter for the United States Army
there. I’m feeling pretty lonely and sad right at
this moment. But I guess this story should start
at the beginning.

FREE BOOK give away

     * * *Our Holiday Gift to our readers * * * 

We are always looking for fun ways to thank our fans.  We have decided that a free give away would be a great way to jazz things up a bit and help readers get to know us as authors.  The final installment of Something in the Blood series is around the corner, so to help acquaint readers with this story we want to offer a free gift to the first 10 people who contact us at:

weathers1949@hotmail.com  

We would like to send you the first book in the series of “Something in the Blood” absolutely free......................

  Please let us know in your email if you want it personalized or just signed.  If you want a personal message, please let us know what you would like on the inside cover.  Please put FREE BOOK in the Subject line of your email.. AND MAKE SURE YOU INCLUDE YOUR SHIPPING ADDRESS, THIS OFFER IS ONLY OPEN TO U.S.  AND CANADIAN RESIDENTS

We will list the names of the winners on our book blog.

Thank you and Happy Holidays

Steve & Roberta Weathers

What's in YOUR blood?

Cover of the final installment of Something in the Blood

Something in the Blood................

Just another vampire story you say?  Nope, this series is yes, about vampires, about a young girl who falls deeply in love with one, but there's much more to it than that.

Cheryl:  A young girl, living a somewhat sheltered and, what she would sum up, as a boring life.  She feels awkward, gawky and not popular.  To her, popularity is something to be admired, to strive for.  After all, her best friend, Karla, is beautiful, a bit spoiled and, oh yes, very popular.  

Karla:  Cheryl's bff, very pretty, self-assured, everything Cheryl wishes she was.  Karla knows how to get into odd predicaments and often brings Cheryl with her.

Duncan:  The mysterious young man, a new face in town.  Is he part of a cult?  Is he part of something bigger?  This is the man who will change Cheryl's outlook on life forever.  Cheryl has no clue why she is so attracted to Duncan, she just knows she is.

Jenkins: The detective who has been hired by the local police to help solve a series of mysterious murders taking place in the city.  He is an expert, he's pretty sure he knows who is doing the killings, he aims to bring the killer, or killers to justice.

Those are just a few of the interesting characters you will meet in the Something in the Blood series, plus many, many more.  There are plots, and just when you think you have figured it out, there's often a new twist.

I am finishing up the final installment of this three book series.  I hope you will seriously consider these as great gifts for young and old alike.  I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I have enjoyed creating them.  

So come with me, into a land of mystery, romance and intrigue.  I'm sure you won't regret taking this wonderful journey.

Something in the Blood, series, with the other two books I have written.  I hope one day soon, you will enjoy them all.

Books for the Holidays #2

                 Today's featured book  "Steve and Lacey"

Steve and Lacey takes place in Upstate New York.
"Lacey" - A young girl from small town New York
"Lacey's Dad" - An Army Drill Instructor
"Steve" - An Army Reservist




When Lacey met Steve she felt an
instant attraction to him and she couldn’t get his
boyish smile out of her head. His rugged good
looks and gentle nature made her heart melt. If
it wasn’t love at first sight it sure was as close
to it as anyone could ever come and the best
part was that Steve felt the same way.

But there was a catch, her father disliked
Steve, not personally, but what he stood for,
even though Lacey's dad and Steve were a lot
alike. Steve wanted the Army to be his career.
Her dad was a career Army man too, but her
dad wanted her to marry Jason, a boring
accountant, a nerd in Lacey’s eyes. Jason was
stable, not a career military man like Steve.
Lacey’s father wanted more for her than the rag
tag moving around and never knowing if Steve
would come home from a combat zone.

Meantime Lacey’s dad seems to be feeling not
well and Lacey cannot figure it out, until one 
day, her dad is rushed to the hospital and
diagnosed with kidney failure. On top of all
this, Steve hasn’t written to Lacey from
Afghanistan, where he was sent to be an
interpreter, so now she’s feeling sad over her
dad’s illness and sad over the idea that Steve
has fallen out of love with her.

Since her dad's illness she has been considering
the possibility that her father was right and
maybe Jason, also a good man, will make a
better husband. Lacey wants to go to college
and study music but she is not sure her dad will
live long enough to ever see her marry if she
finishes college first.

Will Lacey ever hear from Steve, or will she
marry Jason, whom she does not love, just to
please her dying father? If you enjoy love stories you will love this book.............................

Available from Amazon.com

Books for the Holiday's

The holiday season is here again and books make great stocking stuffers for adults and children alike. We have a great selection of books for you to choose from. Books of Love,Poetry,War, Vampires, Family and Nursing Homes and even a book for kids about a kitty. Here is today's featured book 

The night of the TET Offensive in Saigon, we were sent to watch the river.  Making sure we were not going to be attacked from the water.

It was a long night, to say the least.  Every time I heard a sound, I kept imagining it was from a VC  or a sapper sneaking in to either blow up our ships or, worse yet, slit our throats.  It was a long night, in the moonlight, trying to see solid figures from mere shadows.  Finally, after what seemed like a night that lasted a week, the daylight shown through and we were able to see the river much more clearly. 

(Excerpt from: A Boy in a Hurry for Manhood to Arrive)

This book is the memoirs of a young soldier who quit High School at the age of 17 to join the Army. It cover the time he was in Vietnam and the heartaches and death he saw, it also covers his return to civilian life and how he just did not seem to fit in as he tried to lead a normal life. A book highly recommended for those in the military or the ones thinking of joining the military.

           Perimeter wire at the edge of the Saigon river

This book is available from Amazon.com and also Barnes & Noble book stores. Author signed copies are available by emailing us direct at weathers1949@hotmail.com

The traveling billboard

We are always wracking our brains for ideas to advertise our books.  We know people have to know the books are out there in order to sell any.  

We have created bumper stickers for our car and now we have magnetic signs for each door.  We have observed many businesses who do this and have the name of their businesses on the sides of trucks, vans and even small cars.    So here we are, making our vehicle a rolling billboard.  But, hey, it's advertising everywhere we go.

Wish us luck!  

Resurrection of a blog

I hadn't been writing on this shared blog as much as I could have been.  We breathed new life back into it recently so I'm continuing to write here once again.

I have been steadily making progress on my third Something in the Blood book.  This is the last and final episode of what happens to the heroine, Cheryl.  There are some interesting twists and turns in the final installment and I hope my readers will enjoy them.  If I am lucky, it will keep readers on the edge of their seats.

I want to take a brief moment to thank my good friend, Suzanne, for giving me at least one interesting idea and I am  weaving it into the story line. I get ideas from news feeds, the Internet, on the street, at the mall, my wonderful husband, at the grocery store and from friends. So my followers on Facebook had better watch out, you never know when you might be giving me ideas for a story.   I love keeping alert to anything that will give me a glimmer of something interesting to place in a book.  

This last one has taken me longer to write because between my computer dying to making sure it is the most interesting ending I can write, it has been a rather long journey.  But it is, as always, an interesting and fun journey.  I want this last one to be my best yet.  

Thanks to all my readers who remain loyal and I want you all to enjoy what happens to the band of vampires of Something in the Blood, the Turning. 



Excerpt: Something in the Blood, the Turning
 I stopped packing for a moment to look at the newspaper lying on the bed.

Visiting detective found dead, three area young women missing.

A detective, who had recently been called in to assist the local police, was found this morning, dead in his car. Police said that three area young women have been reported missing as well. Authorities think there may be a connection between the incidents. Police theory says that the visiting detective had been called in to assist with solving a series of strange murders and missing people in our area. They speculate the detective may have tried to rescue the three young women, confronted the killer and was shot for his heroic efforts. That was all the police report had to offer, we hope to keep you updated as the case unfolds.

Hero indeed, I couldn't help but be irritated by that line, but the part about 'three young women reported missing' did make me feel a twinge of sadness. Sadness for my mom and for Karla's mom too. Not ever knowing where your children went or what happened to them is something they'll have to live with the rest of their lives.

Yet, here we are, here I was, packing to take a trip to move to Transylvania. I figure the police will tire of looking for us, especially with few clues to help them and no bodies to ever confirm we were dead.

We are dead, at least by human standards, but not the lie down in your grave, staying dead, kind of dead. Not in the conventional sense as humans understand death anyway.

The rise of the Indie Authors

We are seeking published authors to interview and feature on our web site. If you have published a book and would like to be featured on our web site please contact us through our web site. This is a great opportunity to receive more exposure for your published books.  No one knows you are out there unless you tell them you exist, or more to the point, your book exists.  

"If I write it they will come,"  Not so!  We figure, indie authors need to help each other as much as we can.  We also hope to start a section, soon, where indie authors can share marketing tips.  What works and what hasn't.  We hope you tell your friends, they in turn tell theirs, we will create back links to reading and book sites as well as other blog sites and hopefully we will drive traffic to all of our books.  We hope as many of you will participate as you like.  So stop by today and check us out
Thank you all

Is publishing a book easy?

When I lost my job in 2008, not from cutbacks, not from budget cuts, but from refusing to advocate for the owner of the nursing home I was a Social Services Director at, I got angry about the situation.  I decided to write a book about how nursing homes in America suck.  They suck and they suck big time!  Disgruntled  employee you might say, well yes and no.  I was angry but I'm not sure if disgruntled was exactly it.  I just want to expose nursing homes for what they are, meat markets for the elderly a way to swindle Medicare and Medicaid and not give paying customers a good service in return.  Look, if a hotel gives me bad service, I have a bad night, a nursing home gives me bad service, I have a bad rest of my life.  So I know this is not the only book about this subject, but I've set out to hopefully, make it the last book because something needs to be done and done soon.

I write a book and send the first few chapters to some publishers, well not just some publishers, I spend days and weeks submitting query letters and the first few chapters to publishers, only to get turn down after turn down.  Did I have bad subject matter in the book, was the topic a bad one?  Nope.  I was told:

a)  'you say the same thing too many times'  Well, I did do that, but mostly to drive the point home.  Just like in marketing, people have to see the same thing at least three times before it sinks in.  Are people stupid?  No, but we are bombarded daily by so many things in our fast paced world, it is simply good to see something often, or read it, then it sticks in our heads.


b)  'it's a subject having social merit, but we just aren't taking new submissions from unknown authors right now'  Well, wasn't Steven King, Nicholas Sparks and even Margaret Mitchell all unknown authors once?  Yes they were. In fact, with Margaret Mitchell, she was turned down (Gone with the Wind)  13 times, being told her book was simply 'too long.'


Fair enough.  I found Createspace and read the rules and the criteria and published it anyway.  Do you slap up a book and it sells immediately?  I wish!  My book has been out about a year and a half now and contrary to the publisher nay sayers, it has been my best selling book to date,


NY Times best seller list yet?  Not yet, but I'm aiming and I may as well aim big time.


Since that first book, I've created The Reason Why Nursing Homes Suck, Second Edition and improved it a lot.  But I must say, the original book is still popular and it continues to do pretty well.


Marketing:  You have to market your own books.  If I could afford a big picture of my book in Times Square, I'd probably sell many more.  I don't have that kind of money.  But you can get creative and come up with ideas on a shoestring and on a budget.  Tell yourself, 'I will do something every week, to market my book.'  


I hope this blog is encouraging and if you have questions, feel free to ask.  For without fans, nothing is any fun to create.  I love you all!


Bobbi W.

 

What we've learned about Createspace publishing

We, as authors, decided to look for a good place to publish our books.  We inquired about several places offering, on the Internet, to publish your manuscript but when we really looked into it, they all wanted anywhere from $2,000 to$5,000.  Hell, I could or would, publish anyone's manuscript for $5,000 a pop too.

We finally decided to check out Createspace and have never regretted that choice.  We discovered you can pay $39.00 (far cry from $5,000) but you are not required to do that.  If you pay the $39.00 though you do get to buy your own books much cheaper and your book gets picked up by many distributors,which can help tremendously in sales.

We found Createspace very easy to use, my wife loves the OpenOffice program for writing her booksbecause it is as easy to use as Word and very easy to set up the correct dimensions and to convert to a PDF file for submission to Createspace.  She used InDesign before,but it is quite difficult to use and has no spell or grammar checks built into it.  If you are new to creating manuscripts, OpenOffice is probably the best program to use.  OpenOffice also makes it easier to submit your books to Kindle edition too.

Createspace is very self-explanatory and it is quite easy to use your own photos for your book creation too.  Createspace is designing and making it easier all the time for indie authors to create their own books.

We used to write on HubPages and would have normally shared this information there,but we have not been happy with that writing site for quite some time now.  Now we are offering our experiences here and also will share our experiences and tips for promoting your book sales as well.

We hope you enjoyed this blog post and if you have questions or would like us to cover a topic concerning creating your own indie books, please ask, post it here in comments and we will get back to you quickly.  Hey, no question is too small, and maybe other people might be burning to know the answer to your questions too.  We love comments, we love interacting with people and we love helping drive traffic here as well as maybe your web site too.  Rest assured, we are always glad when you stop by.

Something I have learned

I want readers to know that I do editing on manuscripts for books. Am I a 'professional editor?' Well, I guess that depends on Your definition of professional. Do I write my own books? Do I edit my own books? Do I self-publish? A resounding YES to all of the questions. I do okay in the selling department and I'm learning about promoting and advertising my books.

Are my books good? Yes they are and if I'm not on the 'best seller' list right now it is because of lack of knowledge about advertising, but I absolutely am learning that part too. So if people have not discovered my books,it is simply because I cannot afford a huge ad in Times Square. That's fine, I WILL get there.

If you self-publish because you have been turned down by publishing companies, does that mean your stuff is no good? THAT would be a resounding NO! Why? You have to understand that editors and those publishers are taking an educated guess. There is NO magic bullet for success. Have Enough money and You Too can sell anything. Marketers will tell you this too. Publishers go with celebrities because celebrities are already known, so a Big chance publishers are Not taking by banking on a celebrity. The rest of us are unknown, at least for now because we don't have Big Advertising buckaroos! So what? It just means people like you and I have to be more creative with less bucks.

I have read blogs written by people who had popular subjects, got book deals and one blogger became an editor. Do I think making ONE book deal makes anyone a professional editor? Nope!

So hang in there, keep writing and publishing,come up with creative ways to market and contact me,if you like, about my editing fees.

Thanks for reading and if by chance, you want to offer me tips on shoestring marketing ideas, well, I'm Always open to suggestions.