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  I signed up for Smashwords' End of Year sale, going on for the rest of December. They let authors choose their discount they want to offer. I chose to make all my books free. My husband thinks this is crazy, and I get that. I work for months to write, edit, set up, and publish a book, and then I give it away. It does sound a little odd. But here's the thing. Independent authors have very little power in the book market. When I was traditionally published, they had full-time people who saw that every library in the US saw my book offered for sale. They arranged for my books to be reviewed at prestigious sites. They arranged for blurbs from fellow authors (in exchange for blurbs from me. That's how it's done). In other words, there was a big machine behind every book I published back then. People heard about it. People read the books and wrote about them. Booksellers got notified: "Hey, Peg Herring has a new book coming out!" Independent writers g...
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News Should Be New

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As you might have noticed, I don't post much when I have nothing to report. Just my philosophy, but I see no point in writing about nothing. 
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The Fun Books: A New Addition

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  Book #3 Have Cats -- Will Crime-Solve releases October 1, 2024. Here's the universal link to buy it from your favorite book site in paperback or e-book. The audio book is in progress. I'll keep you posted.      https://books2read.com/u/md2D5R Or you can ask for it at a book store.  Or you can ask your local librarian to get it for you. The Cats & Crimes books are fun to write for several reasons. First, Lorilee is my age, so we share some views on life. She spent her working years in public service with family services; I was a public school teacher. Like me, she's of the opinion that people can be irritating when they refuse to educate themselves, think things through, and consider the feelings of others. Second, I get to write about cats, which is always a plus for me. I love pulling stories of cats I've known into the books, and I also talk to cat lovers everywhere to get more anecdotes. Lorilee takes in strays and adopts cats with issues that make the...
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Ready, Set... Almost Go!

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  The third Cats & Crimes book is all GO on my end.  I've uploaded final e-book and print files. (Two separate entities, each with its own challenges.)  Checked the cover.  Edited the blurb on Amazon and Draft2Digital. Sent for postcards to mail to over 200 libraries within the next week.  It all happens October 1st. If you haven't ordered one yet, you can do so HERE The wildest thing is that Book #4 formed in my head as I was doing all this. It's a logical extension of the first three books, which I think readers will love, and I see one more book after that to complete the series. (I'm not a fan of writing a series after four or five books, though I will confess there are authors I love who keep it going and do a great job.) Anyway, I'll start work on that in a few weeks, when the promo for HAVE CATS - WILL CRIME-SOLVE is well under way.
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Books Don't Just Sell Themselves--Who Knew?

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  You wrote a book. Hooray! Now comes selling the book. Let's talk about that. If you go traditional, your publisher will do some of the work needed to sell your book. My (now former) publisher arranged reviews, announced the book’s release to libraries, and featured it on their website. I learned I was expected to help get the word out, which surprised me. I thought books sold themselves. It takes effort to get a book noticed, and whether you publish independently, traditionally, or somewhere in the middle, you're the one who cares most about your work. You can pay people to promote for you, but that’s expensive and often doesn’t result in the sales authors hope for. You can promote for yourself, choosing how much time and effort you want to put into it. Here are a few ways that can happen. Book tours : Authors do tours so they can talk about their books to audiences. These can be virtual or physical. The author sets up dates and places where readers go to hear about t...
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 If you're a newsletter subscriber, you already know that Once Upon a Trailer Park is the giveaway on Bookfunnel right now, but only until August 11. If you're not on my newsletter list, you can still get your free e-copy HERE It's Book #1 of the Trailer Park Tales series, followed by Twice the Crime This Time and Third Crime's the Charm. If you've ever lived in any type of closed community, you'll enjoy the characters who show up in these books. I'm at work on Book #3 of the Cats & Crimes series, Have Cats - Will Crime-Solve. Lorilee and Jess have new adventures when a stranger moves into the neighborhood with the help and interference of Ditzy Mitzi and her son Nasty Greg.   The book goes on sale October 1, 2024, and you can pre-order it HERE .
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Time Flies, and That's Not Fiction

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BEFORE I FORGET YET AGAIN: Now is your best chance to find my entire ebook collection for a promotional price at @Smashwords as part of their Annual Summer/Winter Sale! Find my books and many more at https://www.smashwords.com/shelves/promos/ all month! #SWSale2024 #Smashwords.  I tell myself I'll be better about blogging, but...I probably won't. I do try to keep readers up-to-date on where the next book is in the pipeline, so here it is. Have Cats - Will Crime-Solve, Book #3 of the Cats & Crimes series starring Lorilee Riley, is with the content editor (That's the person I pay to make me frustrated). Content editors tell authors what needs to be changed in a book. People often ask, "Do you have to do what she says?" No, I don't, but when an objective, well-read editor says, "Look at this again," a writer should do that. Editors point out where we repeat ourselves, where we don't explain enough, where the plot gets hinky, and where charac...
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