You know you're a ghost hunter when...

I saw this on a Facebook page a few minutes ago and just had to share.  Is that cute or what?  And so appropriate for this blog since the main characters are - GHOST HUNTERS.  The book's concept is a group of ordinary women embark on a ghost hunt for a million dollars but what many people might not realize is that the very idea behind this book came from a group of women who met online to discuss the paranormal of which all of us - myself, Pam and Heide - actually did.  We can't really call ourselves ghost hunters but we find the paranormal so interesting - just what if there was proof that ghosts did indeed exist?

Just think - what if you could bring back family members even for just a fleeting moment?  What if you could ask them things you never got a chance to while they were still alive?  What if they were your key to finding out things you could never find out because they were the only ones who knew? 

Some people might think this is morbid but I think they've been watching too many movies.  It's like aliens.  Most of us believe in aliens, right?  Of course the thought of actual seeing one gives you the heebie jeebies just thinking about it, but what if we could get over that fear and learn to make friends with them?  My goodness what we could learn from them, eh?

Same with ghosties.

Anyway, in the book (which I'll give you the update of the book in just a minute), this group of women not only are doing something they enjoy (ghost busting) but they are to be rewarded as well.  That's if they can prove without a doubt that ghosts exist. Are they able to do it?  You'll have to read the book to find out.  I'm such a tease, aren't I?

Back to the book's progress, it's still in the editing stage but we need to move faster.  The cover reveal will start the first week of September and it feels like it's right around the corner.  We have about 60 bloggers lined up for that.

The tour itself starts on October 1 and we'll be having lots of prizes and giveaways along the way.  So far, we've got over 50 bloggers lined up and by the time it's finished, we'll probably have well over 100.  If you're interested in being a host, all you have to do is have an updated blog, love books and be willing to review our book, interview either one of us, have us write a guest post for you or spotlight us and you're in!  Email Dorothy at thewriterslife(at)gmail.com if you would like to participate - it's going to be fun!

Of course, there's the Facebook party with Release Day Diva on October 31 and maybe a radio show or two so we've got lots of fun plans ahead, but we better get busy and get this book out there!

Pre-marketing Romancing the Million $$$ Ghost: Setting up the cover reveal

First of all, it's Father's Day today so Happy Father's Day to all you guys out there that fathered babies and stepped up to the plate to raise them!

The book's publishing plan and marketing campaign is moving along swiftly I'm so happy to report.  I've already thought ahead to how I want to market this and of course the first thing that popped into my head was doing a virtual book tour and not only that but making it one of the longest virtual book tours in history.  Sure it's going to be a lot of work but I think I can do it.

Why so long?  Here's my theory and it's really easy to figure out.  In our case, it'll be ebook at first and of course we're going to be solely promoting online.  The best strategy to use when your book is solely online is to promote online, right? When your book first comes out, actually way before your book comes out, you need to come up with a game plan.  Most authors who have never embarked on a virtual book tour are still out there finding bloggers willing to interview them or review their book, etc.  With a virtual book tour, it's all organized.  You take out a sheet of paper, a document, a notebook, whatever you want, and note which months you want your book promoted.  At this point, we're doing a month long cover reveal in September and beginning the blog tour the first week of October and running it until the end of March unless we decide to go further.  That's the perks of being a book promoter, a self-publisher (woot!) and access to over 500 bloggers.

On that same piece of paper, I put the name of the event at the top and the month.  I have separate pieces of paper for each month.  Then a line gets drawn down the left side and across the page for as many dates there are in the month.  Then, I start filling in.  I used to do this on a doc but I found it too cumbersome to keep having to pull the doc up so I bought some hard paper at Walmart (what they use for photos) and I'm set.  It's only about $5 a bundle and lasts forever (I use them for my clients as well).  I opt for hard paper because they are easier to handle.

So I have a game plan going for the cover reveal and the blog tour right in front of me.  When I find a new host (blogger), I add them in the slot we have both agreed on.

What I am finding great is a new program (or at least new for me) called SignUpGenius.  You can find out all about it at www.signupgenius.com.  I have already set up a call for bloggers for the cover reveal at http://www.signupgenius.com/go/9040845ADA72EA20-romancing.  If you'd like to sign up, go right ahead we'd love to have you!  Not all bloggers are listed there as I started early finding stops for this which was before I found SignUpGenius.  You can see who I have lined up so far at http://www.pumpupyourbook.com/2013/06/15/cover-reveal-pump-up-your-book-presents-romancing-the-million-ghost-cover-reveal-win-ghostie-swag/.

So I have that all in place and I just wait for bloggers to email me (having a huge email list is priceless).

The next thing I did was make a countdown widget at http://www.widgetbox.com.  I can't remember how much this costs but we opted for the premium plan.

Why I want this is so that I can enlist bloggers to post this in their sidebar.  It looks like this:


Cool, eh?

Here's the code if you'd like to post it in your sidebar to help us spread the word about the cover reveal coming up:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://cdn.widgetserver.com/syndication/subscriber/InsertWidget.js"></script><script type="text/javascript">if (WIDGETBOX) WIDGETBOX.renderWidget('c12f9645-816f-489d-9b93-ff24e831d120');</script>

<noscript>Get the <a href="http://www.widgetbox.com/i/c12f9645-816f-489d-9b93-ff24e831d120">Countdown Creator Pro</a> widget and many other <a href="http://www.widgetbox.com/">great free widgets</a> at <a href="http://www.widgetbox.com">Widgetbox</a>! Not seeing a widget? (<a href="http://support.widgetbox.com/">More info</a>)</noscript>

Bloggers have already starting adding it to their blogs (THANK YOU).  When I get an email from SignUpGenius that a new blogger has requested to join the cover reveal campaign, I email them back thanking them profusely and giving them the option to post this in their sidebar.

The next step is to get the word out about the cover reveal.  No one really knows what it'll take to bring awareness of your book and then have it sell, but the secret is to get your book noticed on as many blogs and websites as you can and don't forget the social networks.

I'll be talking about setting up the blog tour in a future post, but this gives you an idea of how we're going to promote this book and we'll see if it makes a difference in the long run.

Cover Reveal: Romancing the Million $$$ Ghost!

It's here!  It's here!!!!

Know your characters: a control freak's opinion on editors

I have to admit it and give credit where credit is due but I am in love with our editor.  Being a control freak, this is a complete turnaround to my opinion when I got edits back for the first time.  How dare she say what I wrote wasn't right?  That's the mind of a control freak of course and not the way you should handle someone's professional opinion of your work especially when you are paying them.  Okay, okay, I'm learning to lessen up the reins and take constructive criticism to heart for the sake of making our book the best it can be.  Sure, not everything I could agree on, but I would say 98% I did and I made those changes and it got easier as I went along.

Being a control freak has its advantages and disadvantages but sometimes the disadvantages outweigh the advantages.  You can't put on blinders.  Sure after countless re-readings and proofings and all that, you are sure this is the best it can be, then...a full page of edits on each page comes into your email box.

Ack.

But I'm going over each line and I can see where the book is tightening up.  And I didn't realize how often I use exclamation points that were totally unnecessary.

But the one thing that I learned today is to really know your characters before you publish your book.  So today, my editor (her name is Cheryl Malandrinos look her up she is terrific) told me that I should add some kind of description to a flamboyant makeup artist named Renaldo that's in the first chapter. 

Rodger Hawthorne, one of the main characters in the book, is in his dressing room at the Unusual Propositions show in New York.  In walks his makeup artist and Cheryl made me realize that just "saying" he was flamboyant might not be enough.  When you picture someone "flamboyant," you automatically picture this gay dude with loads of makeup and hands flying as he is talking, right?  So now I've got to go in and add a description and wouldn't it have been helpful if I already knew what he looked like?  Holy Mary of Jesus, that's a big no no not to know your characters - all of them even the minor ones.

So...I thought I'd do a search in Google to see if an image would pop up that would give me an idea on how to put this.  Okay, here's a good one:

THAT'S IT!  Prince!!!  So he's a young black dude with loads of makeup and I Dream of Jeannie clothes, mainly purple. 

Okay back to the drawing board, or writing board, and create a description for Renaldo.

But you see how this could have saved time if you already knew what your characters looked like? 

Do we need an ISBN at Kindle Direct Publishing?

This self-publishing thing is getting a little too interesting.  I was in one of my favorite groups at LinkedIn - the one that talks about nothing but publishing ebooks, that sort of thing, when someone asked a question that I found right up my alley.  He wanted to know if he needed an ISBN using Kindle Direct Publishing.  I didn't think you needed one but I did have a question about imprints.  You know - when you don't want KDP to be in the publisher's slot and you want to come up with your own publisher's name? 

So, I asked and here were two responses which really helped:

"ISBN ownership classically was a way of tracking who the publisher of a work was. That's no longer the case, and has never had any legal standing. Your publishing company gets listed regardless whether you have an ISBN or not, for ebooks at all major retailers. Just enter your company name under "publisher" when filling out the book form. For *Createspace* books, if you opt to use their free ISBN, Createspace gets listed as published. But that's print, and it's different; in general, I consider paying the $10 for a Createspace-assigned ISBN (which associates my publishing company with our books) to be the minimum solution. I don't recommend free ISBNs for print.

 

"Dorothy, electronic-only (eBook) Amazon Kindle does not use ISBNs. If you already have one they accept it when you upload the book to their site. Whatever name you enter into the "Publisher" field...is the publisher. This does not change. For print books, Kevin covered the ISBN question in his "Createspace" post."

 

I'm wondering if when you have an ebook, and then you go to  paperback, that's when the ISBN thing applies?

Update on Book Cover from Hell

So he finally gets in touch with me.  He said he had computer problems. Okay, I understand that; we all have been there at some point or another.  Here's the new cover:

Let's see if you can guess what's wrong?

Jiminy crickets.  He is such a talent but I think life is throwing him curve balls.

Introducing Henri de Montmorency, the Ghostest with the Mostest

Hello.

I am Henri de Montmorency, originally Grand Marshal of France and Governor of Languedoc, but now...I am...a ghost.

I was beheaded on the day before All Hallow's Eve in 1632 by the order of Richelieu, a man who I didn't quite see eye to eye with concerning my religious beliefs.

However, that's in the past. I do not regret standing up for my own beliefs and have accepted my untimely death, but truth be known, the afterlife is as they say in my native land of Paris, France, plus d'amusement.

If you have never been a ghost, I must tell you that we have certain charismatic qualities about us.

Before I was beheaded, I wasn't what you'd call easy to look at. For, you see, I was also a hump back. However, in the afterlife, I have become what I always knew was inside of me all along - verile, handsome and quite the lady's man, much to my surprise and delight.

I have roamed the earth for many centuries, but there was one home I finally attached myself to and it wasn't because I was ready to settle down because now that I was free of the torment of my disgusted appearance, I felt like a free bird ready to take flight at a moment's notice, but this one home was the home of Ezra Anne Thornberry.

And it wasn't because of anything romantic-related; it was because of a beverage she kept stocked in her ice box by the wonderful name of Coors Light.

I'd always loved fine wine in the past, but in a pinch, a case of Coors Light took the edge off mighty fine. Oooh la la! A ghost can't be too picky living in the 21st century, you know.

So, it was, I was kicking back, tossing back a can or two or six of this delightful beverage, when Ezra Anne finds out about a man looking for ghosts and, of course, my ears perked up.

It seems the man's name was Rodger Hawthorne III and he lived in a mansion in the mountains of North Carolina.

Rodger was on a ghost hunt for a woman with whom he was married and who also died an untimely death. Sarah was her name and by what we gathered at the time, her spirit was hard to reach. I could have told them she was there all along, but they had to go and find out for themselves.

Plus, if they did, they would each share the bounty of $1,000,000. Not chicken feed even in these times. Back in my time, it would have bought a whole continent.

Never one to turn down finding one of my own kind, I jumped at the chance to tag along. I couldn't remember a Sarah Hawthorne in the realm I had been in, but as the realms are all so divided and segregated according to what you were up there for, it would have been easy to miss her. But, still, the name rang a bell.

So, this is my story of how six women and one ghost go on a search to find a million dollar ghost.