Arielle Eckstut

Good News!

I’ve mentioned David Sterry and Arielle Eckstut’s book, “The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published” before, so all I’ll say about that is, if you haven’t bought it or at least read it, what are you waiting for? Buying and reading that book was the beginning of my good fortune.

I bought their book when they came through Kansas City last winter during a “Pitchapalooza” event. (If you see one of these come up in your neighborhood and you have any writing aspirations, GO. You will not regret it. Even if you do nothing else for the entire evening but sit and listen, you will hear some of the best feedback you’ll ever get and you’ll receive it for free. What more could a starving artist ask for – well, beyond a six figure book deal. LOL) At the Kansas City tour, they offered every person who bought their book a twenty minute conference call to discuss their pitch. It’s not a six figure book deal, but when your query isn’t getting you anywhere, that twenty minutes is GOLD. If you’d like to read their testimonials, click on the link.

My pitch was not chosen for presentation at the Pitchapalooza, but buying their book and registering to receive their newsletters put me in a place where I did not expect to land. I am now a contributor on their Facebook page! I couldn’t be happier and David and Arielle have been the soul of generosity.

Doing a little jig… and off to find another quote. 🙂

Blogging Awards

Many, many thanks to Rachna Chhabria for giving me these awards:

I’m not sure what I’ve done to be blessed by these, but it’s so nice someone thinks enough of you to give them! You need to go to Rachna’s site if you haven’t been before. She has an amazing blog with wonderful writing suggestions and questions, and right now she’s got the most amazing list of other bloggers you might want to meet.

I’ve agonized over who to pass on these awards to. (Do you all take these awards this seriously?) It’s taken me FOUR DAYS to decide. Part of that is the ongoing sickness that will not go away combined with severe lack of sleep. Thanks, Springtime. I can always count on you.

However, I just read Roni Loren’s post on putting up a new website and I was so appreciative of this post’s information and also just her normal sunshine-y posts, I wanted to thank her. So Roni gets the Sunshine award from me.

And I’m giving the Sisterhood Award to Lynda Young because we’re both talking about platform today. We’re in SYNCH! Which is pretty amazing considering where she’s located.

Okay, so really, why did I choose these two lovely ladies for these awards? In reality, because we’re all three talking about platform/social connections today. In specific, I wanted to mention The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published. I’ve been reading it for the past few weeks (yes, I am slow, but I’m also reading review-fiction at the same time and doing critiques) and I have to say I was right to be concerned about my blog. It’s doomed. I’m not taking it down – in fact, I want to see if I can incorporate it into a website, but I haven’t done with my blog what I should have from the get go. I’ve made mistakes. If you haven’t started your web presence yet, or if you’re like me and not published yet, now is the time to perfect your platform. Don’t wait! Go out and get a copy of this book. The authors do a great job of breaking down into pieces exactly how and why you need a platform as well as the best ways to build it. Will I be able to recover from my mistakes? Yes. Do I regret making them? I can’t say I do, since I made wonderful friendships. That said, friends do not necessarily equate with readers. Some of you will not be “into” ya/adult warfare historical fantasy, which means I haven’t done as good a job as I could have at reaching my audience. That’s why things will be changing around here. I can’t say when. Knowing me, it will take awhile, but I’m on-route. I’ve entered the highway and am out of the entrance lane, let’s put it that way. 🙂 Meanwhile, check out what Lynda and Roni have to say and also what literary agent Arielle Eckstut and author David Henry Sterry have to say on the subject.
(My editorial honesty-sense tells me I should confess, I have spoken with Mr. Sterry; however, I’d planned on suggesting this book as a must-read before then, so there ya go. LOL)