200th Follower Giveaway Fest

Last day to enter!

200th Follower Giveaway Fest

Coraline Book Giveaway!

200th Follower Giveaway Fest

As promised in a previous post, I am going to start doing giveaways now! So here is the first giveaway prize that I will gift:

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

I chose this book because the current novel I’m working on, Stolentime, has a similar eerie, quirky, bizarre atmosphere, and so I figured Coraline would make an excellent first book giveaway.

Here is the description from Amazon:

The day after they moved in, Coraline went exploring….

In Coraline’s family’s new flat are twenty-one windows and fourteen doors. Thirteen of the doors open and close.

The fourteenth is locked, and on the other side is only a brick wall, until the day Coraline unlocks the door to find a passage to another flat in another house just like her own.

Only it’s different.

At first, things seem marvelous in the other flat. The food is better. The toy box is filled with wind-up angels that flutter around the bedroom, books whose pictures writhe and crawl and shimmer, little dinosaur skulls that chatter their teeth. But there’s another mother, and another father, and they want Coraline to stay with them and be their little girl. They want to change her and never let her go.

Other children are trapped there as well, lost souls behind the mirrors. Coraline is their only hope of rescue. She will have to fight with all her wits and all the tools she can find if she is to save the lost children, her ordinary life, and herself.

Some of the stipulations are that you must be following me, you must comment below to get entered, and on the 230th follower, I will draw, so if you want this to go ASAP, start reblogging and sharing this post in whatever way you can. Also, you must own either a Kindle or some reading device that has a Kindle app. It is the quickest way for me to give the giveaway prize to you through e-mail that doesn’t involve mailing it. How this will work is that on the 230th follower, I will enter all your names in a raffle and choose one winner. All others not chosen will get put into the next book drawing.

Why I Changed My Mind About Self-Publishing

When Stars Die

I didn’t necessarily change my mind because submitting to AEC Stellar was a on a whim. I just liked that I had this prepared blurb for them and I was just thinking, “What the heck. I should start taking changes in my life instead of just waiting around for stuff to fall into my lap.” I also liked that they stated they wanted at least a first draft done (When Stars Die is on its fifth)–but make no mistake, that first draft better be damn spiffy if you’re really going to submit one. A first draft doesn’t mean you’re allowed to submit crap. Go through and proofread, at least copy edit, if you don’t think it needs a total re-write.

I liked their model too because it meant I could still assume some control over my own book, but with a safety net. I still get to design my own cover. I already have one done, but I’m doing another–and I’m might do a third, depending on how this second one turns out. I love that the marketing plan doesn’t have to be my sole responsibility, but I get to be there for my book, just like a parent would go to a child’s soccer game or participate in PTO or something. My favorite part about this company too is that while it proposes tentative times to release a book, I don’t feel pressured to be a crazy book releasing fool. I chose self-publishing largely due to health issues, but now I don’t think that will be a hindering factor.

Actually, my most favorite part about AEC is that they almost seem to encourage a family-like atmosphere because we as writers on AEC are expected to support one another, and I think that’s great! We receive contract managers who specialize in our genre, and other authors in that genre can support one another. Writers need all the support we can get, right? Marketing is crazy. My job as a Marketing Trainee has actually taught me a lot about marketing: it can be both fun and messy.

I still have no qualms about self-publishing. It’s just nice to have a safety net–and ultimately I won’t have to worry about keeping track of sales and all that.