Posts Tagged With: ebooks

It’s my birthday! + The Next Big Thing Award

Posted on December 19, 2012 by Michelle Proulx

First and most importantly, today is my birthday! Woooo! I turn 24 today, which kind of makes me wince, because I assumed I would be doing great things by my near-mid-twenties. That being said, I have a decent job, good friends, and my first book is nearly published, so I guess that’s not too shabby, right? Plus, sushi tonight! Sushi makes everything better.

lolcatbirthday

Right. Now that the main event is over, let’s move on to the other reason for this post: The Next Big Thing Award.

the-next-big-thing

When it rains, it pours, and I have been nominated for this award three times in the past week. So thank you to Mike Akin, The Living Notebook, and Mari Wells for the nominations!

Without further ado, I shall now answer the 10 Next Big Thing questions. Read at your peril.

1)  What is the working title of your novel?

Imminent Danger And How to Fly Straight into It

2)  Where did the idea for the novel come from?

I was taking an Astronomy class in my first year of university, and as I sat listening to my professor regurgitate the contents of our textbook, I thought to myself, “Wouldn’t it be funny if someone who didn’t believe in aliens got abducted by aliens?” Originally the main character was going to be a college Astronomy professor, but then I realized that I would far rather write about someone more my age (plus I have no idea what goes on in college professors’ heads), and thus Imminent Danger was born.

3)  What genre does your novel fall under?

Imminent Danger is YA sci-fi/humour/romance.

4)  Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

I imagine my characters with different faces every day, but here are my current (slightly impossible) picks:

Young Keanu as Varrin

Emma Watson as Eris

5)  What is the one sentence synopsis of your novel?

Abducted by aliens and stranded light-years from home, a teenage girl is rescued by a handsome mercenary who puts her planet, her life, and her heart in the clutches of imminent danger.

6)  Will your novel be self-published or represented by an agency?

Self-published all the way, baby!

7)  How long did it take to write the first draft of your manuscript?

I finished the first half-ish of the book during the 2006 NaNoWriMo, and then wrote the rest of it over the next six months. I then proceeded to revamp and revise it for approximately six years. I’m sensing a “6” theme here …

8)  What other novels would you compare this book to within your genre?

The humour in my novel is similar to The Princess Bride, and the feel of the story is very Star Wars.

9)  Who or what inspired you to write this novel?

As I said, my Astronomy teacher. Because he basically re-hashed everything we’d already read in our textbooks, I had lots of time in his classes to dream up the plot for Imminent Danger.

10)  What else about your novel might pique the reader’s interest?

Other than the fact that it’s awesome? Well, it has dashing space pirates, six-armed lizard men with an obsession for the colour blue, fluffy-haired gurus, laser-repellent monsters, spiffy spaceships, evil laboratories, sentient balls of light, and much more. It’s got romance, action, comedy, tragedy, danger (of the imminent variety), and a multitude of abductions. Oh yes, and did I mention it’s awesome?

Right! Now I’m supposed to nominate people. I hate this part, because there are so many awesome writers out there on WordPress that I don’t want to snub anyone by not nominating them. Ahhh, the pressure! Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. Everyone who gave editing suggestions on my recent post about Imminent Danger’s back cover text get nominated. Ready?

If I missed you, then my eternal apologies. I officially nominate you in my capacity as birthday girl.

Unrelated link of the day:

Fun with words:

http://imgur.com/a/hBZjh

Categories: Blog-related, My Works | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | 47 Comments

Help me figure out my Back Cover Text!

Posted on December 14, 2012 by Michelle Proulx

So to get the big news out of the way, iUniverse sent me my book proofs yesterday. These would be electronic proofs — don’t do physical proofs for some bizarre reason.

Anyway, here are my initial thoughts on the cover/interior:

The Good:

  • title looks super cool
  • spine looks super cool
  • back cover looks professional
  • interior is freaking awesome

The Bad:

  • they randomly stretched my author photo sideways so I look oddly disproportionate
  • the back cover text they tweaked from the original version I gave them is poorly written
  • the silhouettes on the front cover are terrible – the girl is fine, but the guy looks like an overweight balding man – plus he randomly has a shiny silver pistol (this is a sci-fi story, people! they don’t have pistols!)

As you can guess, I am fairly concerned about “The Bad”. Most important to fix are the silhouettes, obviously, since they are on the front cover, but most annoying to me is that they stretched my author photo. What could possibly possess them to do that? If they needed it to fit a certain width, they could have just cropped the top and bottom. It makes no sense. Did they think no one would notice?

Anyway, this is just the first draft (I get one more), so I will make up a list of all my revisions and send it to them. And then the cover will be perfect! Or else!

Moving on to the real reason I called you here …

So as I mentioned above, the back cover text they “revised” is mediocre at best, so I had to re-write it. I’m going to share with you my version of the back cover text, so please let me know what you think! I haven’t sent it in yet, so changes can definitely be made if you find something you don’t like.

High school junior Eris Miller thinks she’s having a bad day when her roommate’s boyfriend  catches her stepping out of the shower wearing nothing but a towel. Then she gets abducted by aliens, and her day suddenly gets a whole lot worse.

After being forced to drink a vial of glowing blue liquid, Eris is knocked unconscious. When she awakens, she discovers that she is imprisoned on a spaceship. Her abductors are menacing six-armed reptiles with a strange fondness for the color blue, and their captain is straight out of Eris’s nightmares. Her only solace is in her fellow captive, a wise, fluffy-haired alien named Miguri. But just as Eris begins to fear she will never see her home again, fate lands her in the arms of Varrin, a handsome space pirate who promises to deliver her safely back to Earth. He claims to have her best interests at heart, but Eris soon discovers that her rescuer has a devious hidden agenda.

Join Eris on her thrilling journey across the galaxy as she struggles to save her planet, her life, and her heart from the clutches of imminent danger.

Thoughts? Opinions? Comments?

Unrelated image of the day:

Categories: Self Publishing | Tags: , , , , , , , | 48 Comments

Imminent Danger — Official Book Trailer #1

Posted on December 13, 2012 by Michelle Proulx

I was getting caught up on reading blogs today, and about halfway through reading a random post I had a ridiculous idea for a book trailer. At first I thought, “No, that’s just silly. You can’t make a book trailer like that.” And then I thought, “But there are so many bad book trailers out there — how can this idea possibly be worse?” And then I thought, “Screw it, I’m making it.”

Thus without further ado, I present to you the first (more to come) official book trailer for Imminent Danger And How to Fly Straight into It:

(here’s a link in case that didn’t work)

Hahahaha. Oh man. I crack up every time I watch that. What a ridiculous trailer, especially with the super cheesy music.

*wipes tears from eyes*

Anyway, let me know what you think! And if you want to steal my awesome trailer idea and make one of your own, make sure you credit meeeeeee! (Or not. Whatever floats your virtual boat.)

Categories: Self Publishing | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | 36 Comments

18 Marketing Ideas for the Self-Published Author

Posted on December 6, 2012 by Michelle Proulx

So yesterday afternoon I submitted my Rising Star Marketing Evaluation to iUniverse. Assuming they like my marketing plan, they’ll approve me for the Rising Star Award, which nets me a variety of benefits.

In the evaluation, they basically ask you how you plan to market your book. Easy enough, right? WRONG! I trawled the internet for hours, coming up with a list of marketing ideas that I’m now going to share with my awesome readers because that’s how much I love you guys.

Thus, my list of marketing ideas, in no particular order:

  1. Create a book trailer
  2. Hold a blog tour
  3. Press release for local newspapers
  4. Enter book into literary contests
  5. Include link to your website on every article you post, every email you send, etc.
  6. Connect with fellow self-published authors and ask for a book review exchange
  7. Donate books to the library, accompanied by a book reading and a press release
  8. Donate books to local middle and high schools, accompanied by a book reading or lecture on writing/self-publishing and a press release
  9. Free book giveaways hosted through blog/Facebook/Twitter
  10. Free bookplates (signed labels that you can paste into a book in lieu of an in-person author signature) for fans who’ve bought the book
  11. Sell themed merchandise (bags, mugs, t-shirts, etc.) on Zazzle.com
  12. Leave bookmarks and posters in key strategic locations – library, cafes, local stores, etc.
  13. Connect with other local self-published authors and set up an author’s panel/publicity event
  14. Set up an online newsletter to keep subscribers informed on upcoming events, special promotions, new releases, etc.
  15. Write guest posts on other blogs to build your following
  16. Create a “freebie” available exclusively on your website – e.g., a short story based on the book
  17. Release excerpts and snippets of upcoming works to build interest on blog/Facebook/Twitter
  18. Record an audio book version of the novel

Got more ideas? Tell me in the comments. We self-published types have to stick together!

Unrelated media of the day:

Source: http://imgur.com/0AJpY

Categories: iUniverse, Self Publishing, Writing | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | 33 Comments

Book Review: Echoes From The Past (Grace Brannigan)

Posted on December 3, 2012 by Michelle Proulx

The Bookechoes from the past

Echoes From The Past

The Genre

Romance

The Author

Grace Brannigan

The Plot

On the verge of a nervous breakdown, Christie reacts by running away, emotionally and physically. Down to her last twenty dollars, she’s determined to fulfill her dead sister’s last wish — to locate their sister Judith, who left home twenty years before. Her quest brings her into the lives of Garrett, Judith’s husband, and the emotionally fragile Hannah, Judith’s daughter. Christie is devastated to learn Judith died two years before. When Christie insists on getting to know her niece, Garrett agrees on the condition she doesn’t reveal her identity. He hires her to work at his horse farm but what he doesn’t count on is the turmoil and hope Christie brings into their lives.

The Review

I love a good romance, and this was definitely a good romance! I wasn’t a huge fan of the setting — the whole Western, horse ranch, cowboy thing has just never intrigued me, for some reason — but I was able to ignore that in favour of the really adorable romance between Christie and Garrett. It was wonderful to watch two emotionally troubled people come together and help each other heal. And I just love that Garrett’s dog is named Bo Peep!

The plot was solid, with good amounts of backstory, intrigue, etc. I could have used a bit more danger, but there were still sufficient life-threatening moments to keep me interested. And I would have liked more twists as well, but then, this is a romance novel, not Game of Thrones! Speaking of the romance, it was very fun to watch unfold, and it progressed at an entirely believable pace. I also really enjoyed Garrett’s interactions with his adopted daughter Hannah, especially how he makes sure to factor her into his potential love life.

If you’re looking for a heartfelt cowboy romance, I’d definitely recommend checking this out!

The Rating

4 out of 5 stars

http://www.gracebrannigan.com/

Unrelated image of the day:

Source: https://i0.wp.com/i.imgur.com/nO9CJ.jpg

Source: http://i.imgur.com/nO9CJ.jpg

Categories: Book Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Enter Vlog the Fourth! + MAJOR UPDATES!

Posted on November 29, 2012 by Michelle Proulx

I just spent way more time than I should have making this vlog:

To give you the overview, in case you don’t want to watch the whole thing, here are the MAJOR UPDATES I referred to in the title:

  1. Copy-edit is finished and manuscript is submitted to Editorial Review Board!
  2. Editorial Review Board has finished looking over the manuscript!
  3. I’m officially in the Editor’s Choice Program!
  4. Which means I qualify for Rising Star! See this link for details!
  5. Current publication date = January 2013!

That was an excessive use of exclamation marks. I really need to calm down and do something useful, like finish my project due tomorrow.

Le sigh.

Categories: Blog-related, iUniverse, Self Publishing | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 16 Comments

Promoting your book on your blog — how much is too much?

Posted on November 27, 2012 by Michelle Proulx

I’m in a polling mood, so let’s discuss book promotion on blogs, and throw in a couple of polls for my intrepid readers to have fun clicking away at. Am I allowed to vote as well? Seems like a conflict of interests. Pah! Conflicts of interest are for the weak. Onwards!

Promotion Technique #1 — Posting book excerpts

To be honest, I rarely read book excerpts. I will look at the cover and the synopsis, and base my purchasing decision off of that. However, many people, I’m given to understand, like to actually see what’s inside the book, and not just fork over their hard earned money and pray. Hence, book excerpts.

So what are your thoughts on book excerpts? What part of a book do you most want to read before you choose to buy? Is it the first chapter, or perhaps a scene further into the novel? Or do you prefer just reading a selection of random words taken from the book and artfully arranged by the graphic design site Wordle?

Wordle of “Imminent Danger and How to Fly Straight into It”
Source: Wordle.net

Poll time!

 

Promotion Technique #2 — Include a link to the book at the bottom of each post

I’m talking about something like this:

I’ve seen other authors do this, and I don’t have any particular problem with it. They’re always located at the end of blog posts, and they’re usually kept small and tasteful, so you only really notice it if you’re specifically looking for it.

Poll time!

Somewhat related link of the day:

Check out this funny post about editors — Editors Hate Everything. Yes They Do.

Unrelated meme of the day:

(Note: this will not make sense unless you’ve seen/read Fullmetal Alchemist)

http://i.imgur.com/lxEuV.jpg

Unrelated video of the day:

I love Sam Tsui. He’s a youtube singer who’s gotten pretty famous over the years. Check out one of his most recent covers:

Categories: Blog-related, Self Publishing | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 46 Comments

9 Things I Learned From My Copy-Edit

Posted on November 25, 2012 by Michelle Proulx

I finished going over my copy-edit this evening. All the changes are made, the manuscript has been sent back to iUniverse so they can do God knows what with it (hopefully publish it, lol), and I officially have nothing more to do with the book until they send me cover proofs and final print proofs. Woo! Talk about a weight off your chest. Now I can focus on other things, like my job, and not living in a forest of cardboard boxes.

But you don’t care about that. You came here for the list!

9 Things I Learned From My Copy-Edit

1. The first paragraph at the start of a chapter is not indented. The same goes for the first paragraph after a scene break.

2. According to American publishing standard, when indicating possession, this — Chris’ — is not correct. This — Chris’s — is correct.

3. A list of adjectives do not require as many commas as you might think. This — fluffy, white hair — is not correct. This — fluffy white hair — is correct.

4. Once you’ve defined a foreign word in italics, you don’t have to italicize it any more. I’m given to understand that you can still italicize it if you want to, but it’s not necessary.

5. Instead of using italics to put emphasis on a certain word, try to let the sentence structure emphasize for you.

6. Ship names are italicized, but a class/type of ship is not italicized. E.g. The Enterprise v.s. Boeing 747.

7. The following dialogue tags — “she panicked”, “she laughed”, “she sighed”, “she smiled” — are not actually dialogue tags. They are verbs that should not be applied to dialogue.

8. Percentage should be written as XX percent — e.g., 97 percent.

9. The correct phrasing is “Far be it from me to say”, not “Far be it for me to say”.

Also, having finished reviewing the copy-edit, I can now officially pass judgement on my copy-editor. Ready?

Was the copy-edit worth $1900?

No. I definitely did not get $1900 worth of editing done to that manuscript. Not by a long shot. On the plus side, I did learn several things (see the above list), so it certainly wasn’t a complete waste of money.

How was the quality of the copy-editor?

He seemed fairly competent. I caught five mistakes overall — four typos, and one word that was randomly bolded. He had a weird obsession with semicolons that I didn’t agree with, and he also seemed to have a vendetta against commas, so I had to add a handful back in. He also failed to notice that some of the chapter titles were misaligned. To be fair, I didn’t notice that either, but still!

Overall judgement?

Not worth the money, but I did learn many new things, so we’ll call it a draw and move on.

 

Unrelated media of the day:

Categories: iUniverse, Self Publishing, Writing | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 68 Comments

Yes, I’m still alive (more or less) + Copy-Edit news!

Posted on November 24, 2012 by Michelle Proulx

You may have noticed that I’ve been suspiciously absent from WordPress for the last fortnight. You may not have noticed. Either way, I’m back, and I’m psyched to be here. Specifically, I’m psyched not to be sitting in a freezing cold office highlighting endless paperwork. Anyhoo …

I spent the last three hours trying to catch up on all the blog posts I’ve missed over the last two weeks. Do you people have any idea how much you write? Good grief. I had to restrict myself to reading 1 out of every 6 posts, or I would still be scrolling through my Blogs I Follow list tomorrow morning. So if I missed a major update in anyone’s life due to my extreme skippery, I apologize.

My temp job is officially over, and I have about $1600 and no life to show for it. Still, an interesting experience was had, and I extracted several promises from my co-workers that they would buy my book when it comes out. So … call it a win?

Speaking of my book … nah, just messing with you. The Michelle Proulx Official Life Update isn’t over yet. Patience, my young padawans.

This month I also moved apartments, which I think I may have mentioned, and we’re officially settled into our new place. It’s smaller and cheaper than the last place, but the location is way better (right beside the mall), plus the heating is centrally controlled, so my mother can’t turn down the heat whenever she gets too hot. Muahahahahahaha.

Okay, now we’re actually going to speak about my book. The major news is that I got my Copy-Edit back! As I expected, the edits are all minor things — commas moved around, dashes added, etc. The editor seems to have some sort of weird addiction to semicolons, because he’s added about a dozen. Interesting. Right now I’m going through the edited manuscript — basically re-reading the book – to make sure the editor didn’t do anything crazy. He seems fairly sane thus far (Chapter 18, baby!), so I have high hopes.

Once I finish my review, the manuscript goes back to the editorial folks at iUniverse, and the design process begins. Woo! I’m really excited. I sent them cover design ideas a few weeks ago, but I haven’t heard anything back yet, so I have no idea what the design team has done with them. Hopefully something epic.

I really need to get dressed and unpack/review my book, so I think that’s all for now. I have great plans to make another vlog episode, which may or may not succeed depending on how my showering/unpacking/book reviewing goes.

Hope you’ve all had a great two weeks, and I look forward to reading about your lives/accomplishments on a more regular basis.

Oh yeah, and before I forget — I gave up on NaNo. No time + no energy + packing/moving/job/other job/copy-edit review = no NaNo. Le sigh.

Unrelated media of the day:

What if Aladdin always looked like that?

Hehehe. And here’s another ridiculous K-Pop video to brighten your day:

Categories: iUniverse, Random, Self Publishing, Writing | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 23 Comments

Writing in the Bathroom

Posted on October 22, 2012 by Michelle Proulx

I’ve discovered the ultimate cure for writer’s block. And it’s the simplest thing in the world. Ready?

The Ultimate Cure for Writer’s Block

Keep a notebook and pen in your bathroom.

The Writer’s Block

I’ve been working on the sequel to Imminent Danger for awhile now, and it’s been going … not so well. My problem is that, according to my beta reader, there isn’t enough plot in the second half of the book. Fair enough. What I essentially have right now is tons of plot up to the middle of the story, tons of plot at the end … but for the second half, the characters mostly just traipse around and do irrelevant stuff.

So, obviously I need to change that. And I’ve been making extremely slow progress, but it’s been tough going because I just don’t have any inspiration for it, and I can’t bring myself to sit down and write if I don’t have inspiration. Thus, nothing gets done.

And then I brought a notebook into the bathroom.

The Solution

The first step is to get that notebook and pen into the bathroom. The second step is to take out everything else that could possibly interest you. That includes books, magazines, sudoku puzzles, tablets, etc.

This means that, when you sit down for your daily … let’s call it “relief”, you have absolutely nothing to occupy yourself with other than the notebook. And when a writer has nothing but a notebook and a pen, what else can we do but write?

It’s worked amazingly well. My characters are getting out and doing things, meeting cyborgs, dancing to the alien version of dubstep, etc. Will all of my scribbling make it into the final version of the book? Probably not. But at least I’m writing again! What else can a writer ask for?

Unrelated post of the day

I can’t remember which WordPress blogger directed me to this post, but it was really interesting, and I thought I’d share it here. It’s written by Cassandra Clare, a popular YA author, and she talks about dealing with hate blogs. I didn’t even know there were hate blogs. Clearly I live in a fairyland of butterflies and ice cream mountains. Anyway, here’s the link. 

Unrelated video of the day

For those of you who’ve never experienced the genius of College Humor, here’s a link. And here is one of my favourite comedy sketches/songs by them:

Categories: Writing | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | 34 Comments

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