All posts by NewEngland_Muse

I'm a traditionally and self published author. I write in the genre of children and YA at the moment but working my way up to adults. I'm a sports loving, photo taking gal who loves to sing/dance to my own enjoyment. I love to laugh even at myself. I am also owned by 8 birds and 2 hamsters, and yes they know it. :)
Book Covers, Book Titles, Sharon C. Williams

Titles and Covers

4 Comments

5fed15e5308c6f13f23bd2bd8fe61847

I purchased a few books recently simply on the title or the book cover that was presented before me. I didn’t read the back, I just talked to the author and asked about it. I can’t believe that I was so easily parted with my money with books I had little knowledge of. It just goes to show how important one’s title and book cover are for our own books. Do we take the time and care that is needed for these two concepts? Or do we slap a title, a cover and move on to what we consider more important, writing?

My sequel to my children’s book has no title. I haven’t taken the time needed to come up with one. I’m not one to spend time on this. Majority of my titles have been offered to me: Jasper, Amazon Parrot: A Rainforest Adventure, Squirrel Mafia and Dragons in the Attic. Though in fairness I did come up with these. The manuscripts practically named themselves. These include Moe’s Cafe, A Woman of Color and Lost Faith.

I guess for me it is a crap shoot if I can come up with one and how much importance I place on it. Sometimes the MS names itself and sometimes it needs a little bit of help. It’s in the editor’s hands now as I am midway through volume three of this series. A few people have offered titles to volume two. The ones mentioned have been Jasper, Amazon Parrot: Rainforest Friends, Jasper, Amazon Parrot: Rainforest Friends and Family and Jasper:The Next Adventure.

I like them all to be honest. It sure beats me saying Jasper 2 which is all I had. A title in a way solidifies your work as you present it to publishers or literary agents. If nothing else, at least I have a working title until further notice.

The cover is another story. The one for my first volume I had a lot of input and final say in the final version. I sent endless pictures of Jasper, at the illustrator’s request, so she could get a feeling of who he was. It took a bit of work on both of our parts as we made suggestions to each other of what we liked and didn’t like. For while I feel a cover is important, I feel it is very important when it comes to children, one of our worse critics of all time. If we don’t make either pleasing to the eye, the books may soon gather dust as the ones around them get picked up.

So again I ask, how much time do you spend on your title and cover? And how important is it to you?

Author, Author website, Sharon C. Williams

My website: Sharon C. Williams

2 Comments

clouds-in-blue-sky-2

Coming up with content for a blog comes and goes. How often does one post? On what? How long should it be? How do you set up your site so it is pleasing to the reader? So many things to consider when creating and maintaining a website. I’ve been keeping a small notebook on topics I can write on during any given week. It is getting a little lengthy, but that’s okay. I probably won’t use all the ideas but it is nice to have backups.

What photos do you use? Are you sure they are not copyrighted? The videos can be also include in this. I try to use photos of my own, and I do recycle pictures. I try to be careful on what I place up here. When I use videos, the majority are created by me.

What do you decide to reveal? What is to much and what is to little? What sidebars do you use? What menus can you create that makes you shine? It all depends on what you are willing to share with the world. It took me a while to feel comfortable in having myself out there. But once my book was picked up, for it to do well, I had to make a big leap of faith.

I try to mix it up a bit between:

-My books and journey as a writer

-Talk about things that just interest me

-Cross promote with other writers

-And just recently, place book reviews on the site. I do have another website strictly for book reviews.

I been telling a few of my writer friends in town they need to get a blog and any other social media that they are comfortable with. They really aren’t listening. I been working on my social platform for a few years now, it took a lot of time. Oh my gosh it took a lot of time and energy to pull it up to where now it is just maintenance. Well until the next new big thing in social media comes out. I will decide then whether to learn it or not. But once you have it a working copy that you are happy with, the maintenance is minimal, at least for me it has been. It is worth the effort. It gives you a voice regardless of how many members you have.

This is my place and I welcome people in with a smile as they pull up a chair to chat.

Pitch, Resources, Writing conferences

Conference For Writers

9 Comments

Paper_with_pen

Saturday I went to a free writer’s conference. The authors were required to donate 40% of their profits for each book sold to the organization for children’s literacy. It’s a great cause. This year they were having authors, publishers, and literary agents.

The speakers were motivating, the workshops that I attended were educational. Granted there is only so much they can say in the time allotted. But I was fortunate enough to pick the workshops that gave me good gems of information. But again it was free. My philosophy still stands with if I learn just one nugget of information it’s worth the whole trip. And I did. In fact I learned quite a bit and I will have to decipher my notes into clear English soon.

I know a lot of people who won’t attend a free conference. Since it’s being free, how good can it possibly be? It can be amazingly good. The first one I attended a few years ago, gave me the information and contact to help me push forward and get my book picked up by a publisher. I mean, come on people. Seriously?

Knowing there would be literary agents I started working on my pitch. Something I’ve been meaning to do for a while. Googling and reading way to many articles on the topic I made time to scribble one that I’m happy with. This is what I came up with for volume two of my children’s series, “Jasper, Amazon Parrot: Rainforest Friends and Families.”

Set in the rainforest of South America, Jasper, an Amazon parrot, learns about life and family values. With his younger brother, Willie ,and their friend, Charlie, a spider monkey, the brothers encounter a Green Anaconda, food-throwing monkeys, and other challenges that help them grow along the way. This is volume two of a children’s chapter book aimed at grades 3 – 5.

I know it is not perfect and I’m sure I will be going back and forth over it. But I feel that I’m almost there. This conference helped me get started on another step of the ladder that I’m climbing in my journey as an author. There is so much to learn and everything is for the first time. That is not always fun. But my goal is to move forward, not backward with my work. Conferences. You can learn so much from them if you just have an open mind. It will make you do things you feel you are not able to do.

But if one never tries, the response will always be no.