A. Claire Everward's Blog

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Thirty-eight weeks after the first day of the second new year

The last two posts were A Word by Claire, but this one isn’t. I don’t expect there will be such a post every week. As you might have noticed, I choose to write A Word by Claire post for the same reason I choose at times to post a short saying on Wednesdays instead of an Author Terminology: because something has caught my attention. Usually it’s an issue somewhere in our small world that has bothered me, has angered or saddened me because of the injustice of it, and has made me contemplate how we can make things better. So I can’t say when A Word by Claire will appear. It just happened, the concept. If you’ve read the Oracle books, you’ve seen its roots there. A Word by Claire comes from the same place the Oracle series does, I think. As for where it will go, that’s a good question. Right now Kate and I are still contemplating where to go with it. We’ll see, won’t we?

It certainly seems that this blog is undergoing a transition of sorts, And it’s time for that. When I just started, or actually when Kate and I started this, our focus was on learning how to produce a real book—how to turn stories into published novels and how to make readers know about them. How to create and build us, Author & Sister. But it’s been a while, we’ve learned a lot and learning and improving has become part of the flow of the work. I’m writing our fourth book now, and Kate is busy working on our sales strategy, now that she actually has books to sell. We’re both ready for the next stage, of looking at what we do in a more extensive and experienced manner. And since we care deeply about what is happening to our world, to life, to you, that’s going to be a part of it.
And this blog is bound to reflect it. Although there’s still relevance to talking about writing and publishing and about lessons learned and the plans ahead, that, too, needs to evolve. Of course, evolving takes time, and the transition of this blog, whatever happens with it, won’t be pushed. Kate says that things happen when it’s time for them to. I’m thinking this is one time I’ll accept that.

And slow is the way to go here, because right now the book, my next book for you, is what’s taking up most of my time, and it will continue to do so in the near future. It mandates this attention because it’s in the advanced stages—I’ve now transferred the advanced draft into Indesign and am working on preparing the print format alongside an advanced review of the content, and a similar step with the ebook format will follow.

And that’s where I should be now, working on the book. So until the next post, whatever it is, what I would like to end with is this tip: don’t stay in one place. Allow yourself to evolve, dare to take a step further than you thought you would, or that you thought you’d dare to take. Mind you, it’s not easy. By evolving, you’re actually putting yourself in a limbo of sorts. You don’t know where you will end up, and if what you’re doing will succeed or not. But on the other hand, there’s no sense in limiting yourself just because you’re afraid to venture on. You’ll just end up wondering what if.

Thirty-five weeks after the first day of the second new year

Happy September to you all! The summer holidays are over, fall (or spring, if that’s where you live) is hopefully around the corner, so temperatures might temper down (or, well, up) a bit. Personally, I need the summer to take a vacation somewhere that’s not here. It’s hot here and it’s humid and the air isn’t moving, so you get where the sentiment comes from. On the positive side, my car has been repaired and I can actually steer it now, so that’s good (yeah, you’re not mistaken, that’s sarcasm there).

It’s been an extremely busy week, busy with so many things that Kate and I had to take care of that were not at all related to work. No, not bad things (excluding that thing with the car, of course), just things that piled up and needed to be taken care of. But no matter how busy we were, the work related to Author & Sister and to our books still needed to be done, and in this busy week, too, it didn’t stop. At this point in the work, with published books and an extensive author platform that needs Kate’s constant attention, and a new book on the way that needs mine, there’s no time to stop. This isn’t the beginning, this is work that is well into an established plan that needs to keep rolling.
The new book, my next book for you, is certainly demanding its due attention, I can tell you that. It’s in one of the more advanced steps now, a thorough review. The next step is the critical one, it’s the one where I’ll need to decide if I’ve reached that “Yes, that’s it” feeling I told you about that I look for with every book, the feeling that the story is exactly what I want it to be. Since this isn’t an Oracle series book, but an entirely different type of suspense novel—romantic suspense is what Kate says it is—and since it will potentially start a new series, getting to that “Yes, that’s it” feeling is as painstaking and as important as it was with Oracle’s Hunt, the first book in the Oracle series. I’ll let you know how that goes, of course, as promised, and I’ll also tell you when I begin to prepare this new book for publication.

Note that I’m not giving you a publication date here, not even an approximate one, just like I haven’t done with any of my previous books, simply because I can never know what will happen. No one can. You should always have an idea, a good one even, of when you intend to finish your book and to publish it, but obviously life happens on the way, and even plans that are based on extensive past experience can change. It never feels good when that happens, but it’s something you learn to accept and compensate for.

The thing is, once you’ve decided on becoming an author, or on any other dream of yours you wish to fulfill, and if you have the conviction that you can succeed, then you need to continue regardless of any difficulties you encounter. Think about it—many of these difficulties would still be there if you were doing something else instead of following your dream. At least this way you’re doing something you love and believe in, something for yourself, something, if you think about it, for the people you love, too.

No one promised you an easy path to fulfilling your dreams. What you can be sure of is that if you do what it takes and have what it takes you will have a fair chance at succeeding, and it is up to you to take that chance as far as it can possibly get. I have said it before and I will say it again: no matter how difficult things become, don’t stop and don’t give up. You will fall. Get up and press on. You will fail. Get over it and try again. Scream, cry, vent your anger and disappointment, indulge in something comforting. Do what you need to do, just so long as you take the next step toward the goals you’ve set for yourself, toward what for you is the coveted horizon.

Originally published on www.authorandsister.net/blog/how-to-s...

Thirty-four weeks after the first day of the second new year

The other day the steering in my car failed. It’s a good thing I was driving slowly, because I was able to retain control of the car. Of course, now it needs to be fixed. So that’s time that needs to be spent taking care of the repair instead of doing other things I’d planned to do in these so very busy days. It’s disrupting, it’s irritating, and it’s costly, of course. Still, it’s a problem that can be dealt with. The car will be fixed, and a couple of weeks from now I probably won’t remember it ever happened—the experience, the hassle of the repair, the cost in time and money.
But it did lead me to think about reactions. How would you react to such a thing? How do you react to anything? Do you react to the smallest mishap like it’s the end of the world? Do you find yourself getting angry easily, being irritated by things you would have brushed aside in the past? Do you move on or do the thoughts, the emotions, the reactions linger? Do you worry more? Do you think about what could have been if, what could be if, and what will be because frankly, it doesn’t look like anything is going to change?
You know what I think? I think we’re tired. All of us. I think life is hard and the challenges are never-ending. And they’ve been never-ending for too long now. I think that when even the smallest thing happens, when it’s added to the weight you already have on your shoulders it’s unbearable. There’s simply no place for more, no strength for more. You’re tired, and you want something good to happen. You want more good to happen, the place of struggle seems to be growing so fast that good has no chance to keep up with it. And when that small thing happens, even if it’s the smallest thing, you start thinking, why this? Why now? Why at all? The day could have gone on without this happening. Life could have gone on without this happening. You don’t want to deal with it. You just want to go on with your day, your routine, the few good things that give you a sense of stability, of comfort maybe. Comfort, that’s such a rarity.

It’s even more difficult if you’ve had some sort of trauma in your life, or some major change that wasn’t a good one. Not because the big things count more than the smaller ones. They don’t. A lot of small things can cause attrition. Yes, that’s the word I would use. Gradual cumulative attrition. But the big things, it’s like they fill an entire quota of bad things that can happen, all at once. If your fatigue accumulates gradually, there is always the possibility that the good on the way will help with some of the bad. But dealing with a lot all at once, that requires a lot of mental strength. And it’s exhausting.

If there’s a day something bad happens, and you feel you don’t simply want to continue, not now, not immediately, first you want to argue with God, the universe, whoever is out there that might be listening – do that. If you want to negotiate, negotiate. If you want to vent, vent. Just don’t feel no one is listening. Don’t feel helpless. Let it out, let the pain out, and don’t feel there’s only pain ahead, don’t think it’s futile. Because the thing is, good happens.

Always remember, people care. Draw strength from those who love you, and love them back because they need you as much as you need them. And never ever forget that you’re not the only one. Don’t isolate yourself because you think no one understands you, that no one has gone through what you’re going through. Try. This is a big world, and you can reach out to so many people. Good people like you, who’ve been through the same experience. Who understand.

You know what, there’re a couple of other things I want to say here. But not now. They can wait for another day, another week. This post, it should stay as it is. This is all it should say. That it’s okay to have a bad moment. That it’s okay to be tired. That you’re not alone. And you know what else? I hope something good happens to you this week.

Thirty-three weeks after the first day of the second new year

As promised, here is what it is. Or at least, here is what its beginning is.

I don’t know why it is that you write. I know where my writing comes from. I care about our world, about life—ours, all of us. I live in a small country, but it has seen more than most, you pass several lifetimes in one here, easily so. And I don’t confine myself to where I live, I never have. I read news from all across the world, and I constantly look to see what’s happening everywhere. In that sense, these are amazing times we live in: you can see anything, be anywhere, just by having a computer, a tablet, or a smartphone. And I started before I had any of these.

There’s a reason I write, and there’s a reason I started writing all those years ago, even before I ever considered publishing. Something happened that led me to do that. Something made me look at our world and at us in it, and who I am made me continue to look, continue to care. It made me think. If you’ve read my books, you’re beginning to see some of that, and will continue to. And if you follow A Word by Claire, you will see even more.

I will continue to write to you as Author, I will continue my Author Terminology, but I will also be writing A Word by Claire. Where it will go, I have no idea. Does anyone ever? All I know is why I started, and where I want to go. I do hope you will go there with me.
As for you, whether you write or not, consider this: you have a voice, and your voice matters. If you care, if there is something that is important to you, speak up. And when you do, be kind.

Thirty-two weeks after the first day of the second new year

Let’s go back to writing this week. As you know, Author is working on her next book for you, and other than that the only additional thing she’s been doing is write this blog, which is about writing, and post an Author Terminology tweet every week. But you’ve probably seen here that she has begun to write also another type of posts, under A Word by Claire, and that some of the Author Terminology tweets in her Twitter account have also been replaced to reflect that. Have, and will continue to.

Author is going to explain this, but not this week. This week she wants to talk about you. Here’s the thing: if your work has been organized from the start, and if you’ve taken care to learn on the way and recalibrate your work process as you learned, then by the time you’ve started your third or fourth, perhaps fifth book, you’ve found that you instinctively know how things need to be done. By now experience has kicked in, and it will play an increasing role with each book you write. Along the way you need to keep learning, and you need to keep improving—that’s true for your entire life as a writer—but the experience you’ve gained so far writing and publishing books allows you to do what you do more efficiently. Every step of the way, as you work on a story, review it, perfect it, and prepare it for publication, your mind knows what to do. It has embedded in it the blueprint created by your work on your previous books. You know where your weaknesses lie and automatically compensate for them. You know where your strengths are and take care to fine-tune them to become even better. Already in the initial stages of your work on your draft you recognize where there’s something you won’t want to keep at a later stage, a word or a description that don’t click, that won’t click no matter what you do, and you replace them. You see things earlier, you see more things at once, and you fix them better. You know what to do, you have that feel for your work and for how you do it, you within the work process.

This increased efficiency just might do to you something interesting: it will free some of your gray cells to do something new. To think up new ideas, not only for more stories but also for other things you might have interest in. That’s good, you need to evolve. Yes, you’re a writer, and writing is what you love to do. And if all you want to do is write books, do that. Enjoy that. But if on the way you find something else you want to talk to people about, don’t hesitate, use you words in that additional way. You can write about the genre you’re writing or about the niche your books fit in. About something specific in your books that you might want to turn attention to, elaborate about, say anything you want about. You can talk to your readers. You can join forums that speak about anything you’re interested in, anything at all. Provide your view on anything you want to in an article. Or start a blog. Think about it: our work tends to be isolated. We tend to be isolated when we write. It’s us and our words and the computer we write them on. By speaking, communicating, you open up your world to new ideas, new people, new opportunities. Life. And that’s a good thing. And who knows, maybe, just maybe, you’ll find yourself contributing to someone, something, to the life of others around you. You have the words, use them.

Author’s tip for this week: don’t stand in the way of your mind, don’t limit yourself. If there’s something you take interest in, go for it. Just take care not to run in too many directions at once, spreading yourself around too much so that you might end up doing nothing. Or doing nothing well. And remember, you’re an author first, so while you’re at it, at whatever ‘it’ is, get on with your next book and make sure it gets the attention it needs. As for those of you who are just starting, who have perhaps only written their first book or maybe not even that: keep going, you have a lot to look forward to. You will evolve, improve. Change. Who knows what you will discover about yourself on the way.

Thirty-one weeks after the first day of the second new year

Every single piece of information you’re exposed to, whether you hear, see or read it, is accompanied by an opinion. Either of the journalists providing the account of whatever event or situation you’re seeking information about, or of the anchors at the news desk or the analysts and contributors you see sitting beside them or read the op-eds of, or of people, people just like you who you encounter on social media or near you, in your daily life. Some of these opinions you probably don’t like. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have the right to exist, just like yours does.

Yes, reporting can be inaccurate at times, and yes, it can also be unfair. And the voices of people everywhere you who talk about what they’ve seen or heard, they too can be wrong at times. Mistakes are made, and misperceptions happen. But the words of others inform you about occurrences you might otherwise not know about, and they can, and do, shine a light on wrongdoing. And the opinions of others increase your awareness, bring new aspects to your
attention, show you angles you haven’t thought of.

You hate those other opinions? Fine. Hate them, but know all about them and where they come from. Disagree with them but know why. Don’t just disagree because someone tells you to. Make up your own mind. Don’t just get stuck in an opinion because you don’t want to admit you might be wrong. Take a step back and look at it from all sides, and then do the same with the opinions of others. Make an informed decision.
At any given moment, different people with different agendas vie for your attention. People with agendas want two things: to convince you that their opinions are the only ones that are right, and to drown out all other opinions by making you mistrust them and the persons who hold them. The best way not to let that happen is to learn the truth yourself. Don’t immediately believe what you’re told. Learn to judge for yourself. Not through following others blindly just because you like what they say or the way they say it, but through that capacity that we all have, that you have, for learning. Judge through discussion, through knowledge.

Is your opinion truly yours, or are you following something that someone else said just because you don’t want to stand up to them, or because you like the sound of it, or maybe it feeds the need to deal with a fear you have, or a problem you need solved, and instead of looking at how things really are, finding solutions or requiring them of those who can to do so productively, you follow the opinions of blame and incitement that are designed to shift responsibility without actually solving anything? Does the truth matter to you? It should. Because you can go with blame and aggression, but it’s not going to solve your problems. Ultimately, it will just make your life and everyone else’s worse.
It might feel good to follow the opinions of others, the opinions of the majority. To be part of the discussion, to be looked at favorably, to belong. It might feel safe. You’re one of them, they won’t go against you. It might feel like the best place to be, even as you watch those you are with turn with vengeance on other opinions. Even when you see other opinions around you die down in the face of aggression from those who hold the same opinion as you. Our opinion is all that matters, you might think. We won. And me, I’m with them. I’m safe.

Guess what: a week, a month, a year from now you will have a thought that differs from that of those you think you belong with. And you will be afraid to voice it. You will hesitate to say what you think to those you consider your friends. Or to speak up outside. On your street or in the supermarket, or in your workplace or when you pick your kids up from school. Because you’ll know what happens when you don’t echo the opinions of the people around you. Once that opinion that won on the taking down of all others is all that’s left, it will be your turn. How long do you think it’s going to be before they turn on you if, in their opinion, you say something they disagree with? If you try to think for yourself? How long do you think it’s going to be before you’re afraid to speak? Before you put your head down in silence?

You don’t have to like the opinions of others, but you need to have them. It is the freedom that allows all opinions to exist, that allows you to hold yours. As for your own opinion, you need to be able to discuss it rationally, to support it with reality, with true facts, with sound reasoning. If the only way you have is to believe without question, to accept what you suspect is false, and then to shout louder, to turn to aggression in order to silence the other, then your opinion doesn’t stand, and you need to revisit it. See what’s true and stand up for it. Yes, you are one, but your opinion matters. All the ones together make many, and the many can change life for the better.

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Thirty weeks after the first day of the second new year

In my post twenty-five weeks after the first day of the second new year, I told you there are going to be more posts of that type. This is one of them.

In that last post, I said that you should be aware of what’s happening in the world, our world. That you must not look away, that you need to know about events near and far, because at some point, in some way, they will impact you. But to be aware, you need to know everything that is happening, all occurrences, reality as it truly is. And that means you need sources of information, and you need these to be numerous, to come from different origins, to be diverse. The more information you have, the more points of view you gain of whatever it is you want or need to know about that you’re not there to see or hear yourself, the more you’ll be able to judge for yourself despite missing information and biases of the beholders, and the better you can build a picture that will accurately reflect reality.

You need information in order to know the truth. Don’t let anyone take it from you. You know those movies where you have a barrier or boundary of sorts within which people live, where they’re told that they’re safe where they are, that outside there’s only danger, and they believe it and obediently do what they’re told, see only what they’re convinced to see, until someone finally goes out and realizes there’s life outside their limited existence, a whole world they know nothing about? Don’t let that happen to you. Don’t let anyone limit you, don’t let them take knowledge, the ability to decide for yourself, away from you.
We have around us an abundance of sources of information. But that doesn’t mean these can’t be limited by those who have an interest in limiting what you know. There are those who would tell you to listen only to them and not to anyone else, who would urge you to believe only them and no one else. They would discredit those who in their opinion ask too many questions or don’t speak of them favorably. They would tell you not to listen to anyone who tells you anything they don’t want you to know, and in the process do their best to incite you against them, telling you there’s “them” and there’s “us”. They would threaten and work to shut down news stations and newspapers, try to limit to what you can view on the internet, try to restrict what you see, hear and read. And they would do so while citing any reason they can think of, from politics through nationalism to religion and tradition and whatever else they think will work. Just to make sure you know only what they want you to know, to make sure you don’t ask questions, that you don’t even know what questions to ask. Now think about it: you have sources of information to trust and mistrust, to choose to listen to or not. Do you want your kids to live in a world where they don’t have that choice? Where everything they know is dictated by people who want to control what they know and think, to decide for them? How’s that working for people just like you in countries where that has already happened?

Trust or mistrust your sources of information, but do so because you yourself have checked them out against reality, not because someone told you how to perceive them. Choose real views of the reality of our world, not the carefully crafted words of someone who wants to convince you of an untrue reality they want you to believe. Know what the true state of the economy is in your city, your country, the countries it does or doesn’t trade with, in order to understand the impact on your job, on future jobs. And know why. Know where the risk to you from excessive rains or heat comes from and where it could lead, so that you can better assess its impact on you, on your home, on your food supply, on your safety. And know why. Know where the people around you, in your town, in your country, in other countries, come from. And know why. Look at the future of your children, at their prospects in the years ahead, in a time after you will be gone. And know why. Look at your life and that of your neighbor, see if it’s getting better or worse. And know why. Know why, and know how to change, and not just locally, but in a way that, through us all, will spread in waves through the entire world.

We are convinced to live within our borders, among those who look like us, who think like us, who do like us. But the reality is that we all live in one world, that we will all face the same consequences if it falls. This world, and we in it, need a whole lot of attention. There is much we need to do, many issues we need to resolve. But to do that, to begin that, we need to know the true reality we live in and to understand our place in it. So think twice before you listen to anyone who tries to limit your knowledge. Strive to know, strive to learn to judge for yourself what you can trust and what you can’t. Strive to ask questions, to doubt, to see if there is another way of seeing, of thinking, of acting. Don’t let anyone leave you in the dark.

Twenty-nine weeks after the first day of the second new year

In her post last week, Author talked about the practicalities of publishing a book. And in doing so, she made an assumption about the writers among you. She assumed that you are here to stay. That you will publish your first book, completing all the practical steps involved, and that you will then continue to your next book, and then to your next one and to the one after that. She assumed that you’re a writer, that you want to be an author, that you intend to publish books for the rest of your life.

But that’s not always the case. Author and Sister have encountered authors who have stopped. Who have published a book or two and then chose not to continue. Their books might even still be available on Amazon, but no one is there to care for them, and the number of days, months, years since their last publication date grows without a new book being added. No, there aren’t many of these writers, in fact it seems that they’re a rare few. But this phenomenon needs to be noted. After all, we are all at risk of stopping, and for the wrong reasons.

If you’ve stopped writing or are considering stopping, the question is why. If you decided to stop because you don’t enjoy what you do, and you really don’t want to continue, then that’s fine. It happens. People try something, they find that they don’t like it, and they move on to do something else. Maybe you love to read and thought you will love to write, and it turned out that you don’t. Or maybe you looked at successful writers and thought, how hard can it be, and it turned out that it’s more difficult than you thought, that success isn’t as immediate as you’ve hoped, and that anyway you don’t enjoy it at all. In that case, sure, find something else to do that you will enjoy.

But whatever you do, don’t stop because you don’t know how to complete a book to where it’s publishable, or how to publish it, or how to sell it once it’s published. If you don’t know how to do whatever step you’re stuck in on the way to completing a book, preparing it for publication and publishing it, then read, check, ask. We’ve all been there and have scaled the knowledge barrier, and so can you. If you don’t know what to do after you’ve published, how to publicize your book, then once again—read, check, ask, and if you’re still lost, find someone who can help you with that part of it. There’s no shame in that, we’re not meant to know everything, and publicizing and selling take a different set of skills than writing. And again, we’ve all been there.

And if you’re stopping just because you’re afraid, then, well, we’ve certainly all been there, we’ve all been afraid. But fear is no reason to stop. What you’re afraid of is failure, yet how many times in your life have you been afraid of failure and still persevered in your efforts? And as Author has pointed out again and again: what if you succeed? Yes, fear is a power full factor. But everyone is afraid. Those who still dare to try, those who dare to try again and again, they are the ones who succeed. And if you do receive bad feedback to a book, then, yes, that hurts. But think about it: as a writer, you will create a line of books that are provided to your readers one after the other. With each one, you can improve, write better, write more interesting, learn from your own lessons and from the feedback on your previous books. With each book you can strive to become a better writer and succeed better in doing so. So if you love to write, stick with it.

The first book is difficult to get to publication because you’re new at it and are learning as you go all the necessary steps involved in taking a story from thought to publication. The second is easier in that sense, and in the third or fourth experience kicks in. What doesn’t change, at least until you succeed as a writer, is the way you feel with every book that you publish. You’re on edge. And you won’t be less on edge when your second, or third book comes out, especially if you still aren’t selling, if you’ve got all those titles up on Amazon but are still only an anonymous writer with less readers than you’d hoped. And yes, it’s far more acute with time, that feeling, the fear, because you’re all too aware of the fact that every day that your book is out there it’s exposed to millions of people worldwide, and so at some point doubt creeps in that maybe you were wrong, maybe you’re not good enough.

While at some stage you will have scaled the initial hurdles of writing and will then be able to take a book all the way to publication, until you’ve succeeded in achieving sales, a name for yourself, a noticeable presence as an author, you won’t be less afraid. You’ll just be more experienced at it. Which means that you’ll know ahead of the publication of each of your books how you’re going to feel, but that awareness won’t prevent you feeling it. Experience here means that you’ll be able to deal with it. You’ll be able to do things other than just pacing around trying not to think about it. You’ll be able to continue to do other things, and effectively so, while you think about it.

And what you should do is write your next book. Not just because you love to write, and writing just might make you feel better, but also because you’ll know that you’re on your way to another book that you can give your readers. After all, after you’ve published once, readers will expect to see more of your works, and ultimately you can’t just sit and wait while doing nothing, you need to publish a number of works in order to make a name for yourself, become a name that is known. But no less important, it keeps you busy. It keeps you immersed in the story, the next plot, the next world you’re building, instead of thinking about your fear, instead of constantly thinking about the book you’ve just published, the one that’s already out there for everyone to see, the book you want so badly to be the one marking the beginning of success.

Author’s tip for this week: Don’t bail out for the wrong reasons. If you love what you do, fight to continue doing it, to succeed. And if you’ve come all this way, if you’ve already published books, this isn’t the place to stop.

But you know what, it certainly is a good place to look forward, plan ahead. You know the steps involved in writing a book and making it available to your readers, and your mind is free to focus on plots for the books ahead. And by now you should know what you like most to write and what you’re better at writing, and you should have clear view of the book you’ll write next, perhaps even the two or three books you’ll proceed to. It’s good to have the next book to look forward to. It gives you a sense of continuity, a sense of purpose, a clearer sense of the road ahead. So take a breath, find the way to take the next step, and press on.

Twenty-eight weeks after the first day of the second new year

With Oracle’s Diplomacy released four days ago, things are very busy here. But then, that’s how the days after a new book launch, or actually the days surrounding a new launch, should be. The publication of a book is a practical process that requires the completion of a number of tasks, and if you’re a self-published author, you—and whoever is working with you, as you know for Author it’s Sister who takes over once the book reaches publication—are responsible for every part of the publication process.

Publishing a book doesn’t mean that you simply click the publish button in whatever online bookstore you intend to offer it on. You need to make sure the online book page will show the book cover and its description properly, and you need to complete certain details that will direct potential readers to your book. As you know, Author and sister publish on Amazon, and to publish an ebook on Amazon you go through a three-stage process in which you upload the ebook with its cover and complete a range of details, from the book’s title and the Author’s name, to the publisher (if you have established a logo you publish under), the ISBN, and your choice of keywords and browse categories, through prices in the countries where Amazon will sell your books and royalty-related details.

If you are publishing a paperback, you will need to enter similar details on the website of the printing company you’re using—Author and Sister use Ingram as their book printer, as you know—and you need to make sure not only that the paperback’s page also appears properly on your online store of choice, but that the two formats, ebook and paperback, are connected, so that readers who search for your book will see both formats. As for the availability of the paperback, you can elect to have print-on-demand availability of your paperback, or some other choice, according to what your online bookstore of choice enables.
The important thing here is to choose both an online bookstore and a book printer that are experienced, reputable entities, as both Amazon and Ingram are, thus ensuring that making your paperback available to potential readers will be an orderly process. Amazon has a very organized upload process, with every step explained and additional instructions you can find on their website, and you can easily contact them from your author page for any questions you have. And the same goes for Ingram: they have clear instructions on what files you need to send them, they allow you to proof these after they are prepared for print, they contact you if they see something (non-content related) that needs correcting, and, like on Amazon, you have a bookshelf of sorts where you can provide all the details that are relevant for your book.

One more thing you should take the time to do is create for yourself an author page on the online bookstore you’re using—Amazon has Author Central, a continuously developing platform that allows you to create (at least in some countries) an author page that has on it information about you, shows the books that you’re selling on Amazon, and allows you to link additional information to it, such as your blog, if you have one. And if you’re promoting your book on other websites, such as Goodreads, some of these also allow you to create an author page. Do that, let your readers know who you are, and present your books to them in an organized manner.

One thing, though: you would do well to begin your book publication process a few days before the official launch. It takes several hours to three days for an uploaded ebook to be approved for publication on the Amazon website, and once it does, if you want to make changes in the book description, or in the price, browse categories, etc., or if any detail does not appear as you want it to, a revised upload will again take time (less, though, unless you’re republishing the book because of a change in its content), and if you want to contact Amazon author support, the back and forth of making changes and clarifying issues could also take a few days.

Author and sister uploaded the book four days before Sister began its launch, and there are still some non-content details they are sorting out vis-à-vis Amazon even today. It also takes some time for your book printer to connect the book to Amazon, and for you to ensure that the ebook and paperback formats are shown on the same page and on your author page. Uploading a few days before announcing your new book gives you some time to take care of loose bits and ends and unexpected issues, when any corrections you make still have time to take effect.

This week’s tip is in fact a word of encouragement: don’t worry if you don’t know what to do and if what this post says sounds complicated. All authors begin knowing nothing and learn with every step they take forward. Your first book upload will be the most confusing one, in the second you will know what to do, and in the third you won’t even think about it, experience will guide you. And as Author said, you might be new at this, but your online bookstore and your book printer aren’t. You have them, you have authors who have already published and who are only a few keyboard clicks away, and you can do it.

As for after your book is available online? This too you can deal with. Amazon allows you to market your book using ads and promos. You can promote your books through websites such as Goodreads or through social media . You can speak to other authors, see what they do, and read articles and books by those who have done and succeeded. A word here, though: note that Author doesn’t immediately assume you can do this part of the work. The fact that you can write doesn’t mean you know how to publicize and sell your book, you might be at a loss on how to do it. Author is, let’s get that straight: she has no idea what to do to make her book visible. She’s lucky that Sister knows, that Sister has the ability to learn what needs to be done and the creativity needed to make the right decisions, or any decision in this realm, for that matter. If you’re like that, at a loss as to how to even begin marketing your book, find someone knowledgeable who can help you with the publicity and marketing side of publishing. After all, if you want to be able to continue writing books in the coming years, both your name and your books need to sell.

Twenty-seven weeks after the first day of the second new year

Author has been waiting for this! Author & Sister’s third novel and the second one in the Oracle suspense series will be published on Amazon in three days, on Thursday this week. It’s been waiting for its publication day patiently, and it’s time for it to take its place alongside the first book in the series, Oracle’s Hunt.

Oracle’s Diplomacy is now in Sister’s capable hands, and she is the one who will take it through its next steps. But Author will continue to watch over it. As you know, each one of her books remains a part of her, and she never truly let's go. And Author can tell you that the feeling of publishing a book doesn’t change with time and with each book published, publishing the third book is as emotional as publishing the second and the first.

As for what’s next, you already know that Author is working on her next book for you, not one in the Oracle series but an entirely different suspense novel. Once that’s done, Author is planning to go back to the Oracle series, work on its third book. After all, that series still has a lot more to say.

And just one more word, before Author returns to work on this busy week. A word to you, readers, from both her and Sister: once again, thank you for being with us on this road we’ve taken.