Gearing up: FOUR YEARS

I'm just over two weeks away from my (holy cow!) four year blogging anniversary. My very first post went up on July 21, 2006.

Whoa!

It doesn't feel that long. Granted, for those first two years, I didn't know much about blogging. Much of that time was spent floundering around, figuring out this new medium of technology and communication. In fact, it was an article in Writer's Digest discussing blogs that convinced me to give it a shot. (The biggest selling point: Even a techno-idiot like me could get one up and running in under 10 minutes.)

Four years later, I can hardly imagine my life without blogging.

I've made many dear friends, some of whom I'm met in real life and others I haven't met but still hold dear. I've learned a ton about myself. About blogging. I've learned how to find other blogs. I've laughed and cried reading others' posts. I feel like a better person in some ways. Wildest of all, I've spoken at a blogging conference. (I'm still basking in the glow of that one.)

According to Feedburner, my little corner of the blogosphere has over 300 subscribers. It has nearly 200 Google Followers. (I remember thinking it would be so cool to reach 100 and break the two-digit barrier!) I don't have a huge blog (I'm no CJane), but I love where mine has gone and is heading, and I appreciate everyone who drops by and takes time to read my ramblings.

Thanks to you all!

To celebrate, I plan to have some kind of fun giveaway/contesty thingy.

("Thingy." Yeah, that's about as specific as I have it so far. As the concept crystallizes, I'll give out more details.)

In the meantime, if you or someone you know would like to sponsor a prize for my 4-year bloggy-versary, please drop me a line! I'd love to have a bunch of fun goodies to give away and for the whole thing (whatever it ends up being) to be a boatload of fun.

I might even break out my knitting needles to make something for one winner. Hmmm . . .

Finally, I've mentioned this on Facebook and Twitter, but might as well do so here, too, because I'm kinda excited about it.

For literally years, I've thought about what it would take to be featured in Utah Valley Magazine, especially after seeing other (much bigger) writers like Brandon Mull get in there. Recently Jeanette Bennett, editor and owner of Utah Valley Magazine asked little 'ol me for an interview. I was kinda pleased. (Read: jumping up and down excited.) We had a great 45-minute chat at her office, and the interview came out in the July/Aug 2010 issue.

While I'm certainly not cover material like Brandon Mull, I did get a 2-page spread, which surprised and tickled me to no end. I'm tempted to frame it and hang on my office wall. ('Cause I'm a geek like that.)

My neighbor Heather Adams took the picture of me. We had a great photo shoot earlier this year for a new bio photo for Band of Sisters, and they used one of the pictures from that shoot. Heather's an awesome photographer, and I love how great she made me look!

You can see the issue online HERE. (I'm on pp 58-59, or on the lower left menu, click on "Ladies Gaga" and turn a page or two.) What's wild is that a friend of mine from my youth theater days is also in the very same issue: Mindy Young, on page 28. We met the summer before our senior years in Lehi's youth production of Joseph. (Mindy played one serious come-hither Potiphar's wife!)

Okay, back to the original point:

• In less than two weeks, on July 21: 4-YEAR BLOGGIVERSARY CELEBRATION!
• Ideas, sponsors, requests: Send 'em on in!

POD and Self-Publishing

I've had a ton of people ask me about self-publishing, and about CreateSpace in particular, since they're who I used for my grammar book.

First off, WHY self-publish? There are good reasons to and very bad reasons to. Thinking you'll be a sudden millionaire is right up there with why NOT to. (Ain't happening.)

A few generalizations about self-publishing:

-Non-fiction has a far better shot at having sales than fiction does

-Bookstores will almost never stock your book

-As a result, your chances of selling much are pretty darn slim

-You'll sell more if you have a strong platform (more on that later)

-With the current POD (print-on-demand) technology, writers no longer have to put thousands of dollars into printing a pallet of books that they then have to hand-sell from their garage.

-POD makes it possible for ONE copy to be printed at a time and then shipped to the reader.

-Self-publishing makes the most sense when you have a book that has a tiny niche and is unlikely to be picked up by a regular house.

-You get a higher percentage of the profits, but since you're selling far fewer copies, that may not mean much. (A big percentage of $100 is way lower than a small percentage of $100,000.)

Your Platform
This is your base for getting readers. It's how well people know you, what your expertise is, how big your media visibility is, and more.

My friend Lu Ann Staheli has ghost-written two memoirs that had built-in platforms: the first for the Herrin family (the story of their conjoined twins) and the second for Jim Karol, a popular mentalist known as the "Psychic Madman." In the latter case, Jim can sell the book at the back of the room after his performances. He can sell them on his website after appearing on Leno or other TV shows. He doesn't NEED to be in bookstores.

My POD Experience
As many know, I have one self-published book. Here's its history and my experience:
I was asked to write a grammar and punctuation guide by several friends (readers, writers, and other friends) who regularly shot me off e-mails asking if this or that was correct. More times than I can count, I got responses along the lines that, wow, you can explain kooky grammar and punctuation rules in a way that makes sense.

Finally several friends suggested that I put it all into a book. (And then they could just grab it off the shelf and not e-mail me.)

This was not a project Covenant, my regular publisher, would have had any interest in whatsoever. I knew that. I also knew that this wouldn't be something I'd want to go really big and push at the national market; they already have plenty of grammar guides out there. This was to be a labor of love for those who knew me as the Word Nerd. Fellow writers might want it. I could sell copies at conferences I spoke at. I wasn't hoping to sell thousands of copies.

Self-publishing made the most sense.

I went with CreateSpace. There are a ton of other POD companies out there, so you'll want to do your research before going with any of them. One thing that was attractive to me about CreateSpace (which is owned by Amazon) is that I kept the copyright. Some POD companies want to take it from you (as well as the one for your next work). Not something I wanted or had to give, since I'm already under contract for other things with Covenant.

Some POD companies typeset the book for you (make it LOOK like a book, with the right trim size, headers, and all that), while others make you upload typeset files. CreateSpace requires the latter.

You can design your own cover, but I didn't want mine to look totally lame (self-pubbed books are known for looking self-published), so I hired a graphic designer (and I love how my cover turned out).

With CreateSpace, after you upload your interior and cover PDFs, they take a couple of days to approve your files (basically to make sure you didn't mess something up). Once the files are approved, you order a proof copy. When that arrives, you look through it and make sure it's exactly what you want it to be.

The site is more accurate now with stating how long each step takes. More than a year ago when I was doing my book, I figured I could easily have copies in hand for the LDStorymakers conference. But approving the files took twice as long as they said. And then some silly techno-snafoo made the files get UNapproved. So I had to upload again and wait again.

I ended up with three different proofs as a result of different issues, all due to trying to get the thing done in time. (And there's still a typo, which KILLS me. It got through because I didn't take an extra day to have one more person proof it for me.)

Trying to get it all done in a short space was a nightmare, one I don't recommend. But, after it's set up, it runs itself.

As for pricing: They have a formula to help you figure that out. You pick the retail price, and you do that based on their cut per book, how long the book is (there's an additional cut they take per page) and so on. Once you figure out how much THEY will take from each book, then you decide what to charge. (You can go back and forth on the site several times putting in different numbers to figure it out.) It's a definite balancing act: how much can you safely charge so people will buy the thing but so that you'll still make some semblance of a profit?

They have options for direct deposit, which makes life really easy. They pay royalties after you get at least $20 earned, and the money is paid the month AFTER that $20 accrues, to account for any returns or whatever. (So at the end of June, I'll get any unpaid royalties for May.)

One great benefit is that CreateSpace lists you on Amazon. I get about half the royalty I would compared to if someone were to buy the book via my CreateSpace store front, but since NOT A SINGLE COPY has been purchased that way, I'm not going to complain. People know and trust the Amazon name and don't know that CreateSpace is the same company.

You can sell copies through your own website, provided, of course, that you order enough inventory and are willing to make shipments yourself. And yes, you can get your own books at a huge discount, so even with getting orders and shipping them, you can still make a small profit.

They also have what's called the Expanded Distribution Channel, where other entities (like schools, libraries, etc.) become aware of your book who otherwise wouldn't. If you opt into that channel, you'll get a few more sales, but the cut you get is even smaller.

Would I do it again? Totally.

In fact, I'm planning on having a second edition of my grammar book out by next year's conference, and I had another project I was considering it for.

A Video & A Graphic Novel

First, a reminder about my TWO book signings happening TODAY. See the sidebar for times and places.

My techno-genius teenage son figured out how to compress the file of his animation so Blogger could handle it. (Missed the still-shot? It's on this post here.)

For those who wanted to see the goblet turn into a sword:



Another gem: this week's Tuesday tour stop was too great to pass up. Rob Wells has a brilliant sense of humor, and what he created for his tour stop was so original that Mormon Times even picked it up and linked to it.

Click the picture to enlarge and laugh at a mini graphic novel called Bethany's Story, created entirely with my book covers. I tried to get it to post here so you could click on it to enlarge, but my techno-idiocy is shining through again.

To see the graphic novel (and laugh), click HERE.


Today's tour stop is one that touched my heart. Keith Fisher, who I met years ago at a writing conference, is one of the dearest men alive. He talks about reading Tower of Strength to his dying father in the hospital. I'm still misty over it:

Keith Fisher at LDS Writers Blogck

Watch out, Pixar

Okay, so how cool is this:

When my son was just a tiny baby in one of those baby swings, I began writing alone for the first time instead of with Sam, my collaborator on two previous projects. As I've mentioned before, it was darned scary.

The book was a Young Adult fantasy which I entitled The Golden Cup of Kardak. It's a fun story, if I say so myself.

Here's the relevant part: near the end of the book, the goblet turns into a sword.

A couple of years ago, my son, who was no longer that little baby but a big kid, decided to read it. He marked it up with his own editorial red pen and seemed to really enjoyed it. At the end of one chapter, he scrawled, "Cool!" and on another, "Fantastic!" High praise from a then-11-year-old.

Fast forward to 2009. He's really into computer animation and wants to do it as a career when he grows up. He's been doing tutorials with Blender software and making a bunch of cool things with it.

Recently he said, "Hey, Mom, remember the Golden Cup of Kardak? Check this out."


Unfortunately, the file of the actual animation is way too big to load onto Blogger, but here's a still-shot of the goblet-turned sword.

Isn't that fun? (And even cooler that he remembered the story two years later and wanted to animate something from it!)

Today's tour stop:

Rob Wells on Six LDS Writers and a Frog, wherein the girls on my book covers are part of a graphic novel.

A Week FULL of Giveaways!

As part of the celebration for the release of my book Tower of Strength, I'm doing a giveaway that will last through Saturday, with winners drawn every single day! (Can I hear a woot, woot!)

I have lots of sponsors providing oodles of prizes, and trust me; you'll want to win!

When you enter, you'll be automatically eligible for each day's drawing, so you don't have to come back every day to keep entering (just to see if you won!). You'll especially want to enter for a chance to win Saturday's grand prize. (See below. Oooh, yeah.)

First, the prizes:
See all the great stuff my sponsors are giving away and then read below for how to enter to win them (including how to get up to THIRTEEN entries!)

Here's what you're entering for:

TUESDAY
1) Remember my post about designing a perfume for Tabitha in Tower of Strength? Now you get a chance to win a 2. oz bottle of "Tabitha" (valued at $24.95). The rose scent is tempered with China musk and gets a slight kick from a drop of juniper. I don't usually like floral scents, but the rose is subtle, and the entire scent is totally awesome. It's a soft perfume, not at all overpowering.

I use the Tabitha perfume and hand lotion every single day. LOVE it!


To learn more about the Tabitha scent click HERE, and to find out more about Urban Botanics, visit THIS PAGE.

2) One of my oldest bloggy friends, Luisa, is known as the consummate cook, and she has finally put some of her recipes together into one place for the rest of us who love food and want a taste of her brilliance.

She's giving away a copy of her cookbook, Comfortably Yum: Food for Body and Spirit. Visit her blog, Novembrance.

3) If you've seen my book trailer, you've heard the work of Sherrie Shepherd, an extremely talented musician. (Hearing her stuff has gotten my teenager son excited about playing hymns on the piano. That's got to be a super power.)

Sherrie has a CD called Solitude coming out soon. I personally can't wait! You can pre-order the CD at her website HERE and listen to more of her music HERE. One of today's winners will receive an advance-release copy of Solitude.



WEDNESDAY
1) Today's first prize is handmade by Jenn, who sells darling necklaces and scented soaps at Handmade from the Heart.

She's giving away a necklace with her most popular pendant, the open circle:


The winner gets to choose a sentiment, names, or a special word to be stamped into the pendant. Then they'll choose a glass pearl in light pink, cream, or charcoal to hang from the center, or a sweet, stirling charm to finish it off. Value: $25.00.

2) You'll also be entering to win Brittany Mangus's book Prepare Now for the Temple, a great guide for those getting ready to go through the temple for the first time, written especially for women.



3) Then two lucky winners will receive copes of the new CD An Angel to Watch over Me, a musical tribute to mothers. It includes music from Joshua Creek, Jessie Clark Funk, Jenny Jordan Frogley, Dave Blasucci, Lyndsi Houskeeper, Lauri Carrigan, and more. The CDs are donated by my publisher, Covenant Communications.



THURSDAY
1) April of April Showers (and the designer of my cool bloggy giveaway button . . . let's give her some props!) is giving away a personal blog header, designed especially for your blog.


(I'm tempted to rig the drawing so I get it . . . I won't, of course, but I seriously do need a header on this thing, and I like April's work.)

Check her out HERE, where you can see some of her stuff. (She's awesome, isn't she?)

2) Sandra is offering an Urban Botanic Parfume gift collection using her new scent, "White Pearl," inspired by Tower of Strength, a $45 value.

The scent is a light, refreshing blend of coconut, rose, and white musk. It's very feminine.

The gift pack includes 3 Urban Botanic products scented with "White Pearl": Parfume spray, Nourishing Body Lotion (honestly, the UB lotion is my favorite, as if I haven't said that enough times lately) and a Refreshing Shower Gel.

Plus, a bit of fun news: If a man wins this prize, he'll get the gift pack in a scent Sandra designed for the hero of Tower of Strength, Samuel, called "Timeless." The UB shower gel doubles as a shaving gel, and the lotion is a great after shave. "Timeless" is masculine but not overpowering. I really like it.

(If a woman wins and wants the gift pack for the man in her life, I'm sure Sandra would be happy to oblige.)

Visit Sandra's site, Your Scent Your Way.

(A note on the two UB scents: "Tabitha" is more along the lines of a soothing Bath & Body smell that lingers, while "White Pearl" is more of a feminine, perfumy scent--if that makes any sense. They're both awesome, but quite different.)

3) Today you also get a chance to win Rebecca Irvine's new CD, Adventures with the Word of God. (If you have kids, you'll definitely want this to help with studying scriptures!)

More about the CD: Do your children's eyes gloss over as soon as family scripture study starts? Adventures with the Word of God is exactly what you need to get them excited about scripture study.

Interactive scripture reading makes family study fun for the whole family. Help your children learn and understand gospel principles directly from the scriptures with a year's worth of scripture study themes, such as:

• The family proclamation


• Pioneers


• President Hinckley's "Be's"


• Charity


• Testimony

Together, your family can study and learn from sets of verses on similar topics, which helps children to better understand the language of the scriptures. Helpful hints are included to provide additional ways to encourage children to pay closer attention during family study time. With this handy helper, children can gain the tools they need to begin personal scripture study and increase their individual testimonies.

4) UPDATE: This is a NEW prize just added to the giveaway:

A copy of The Worldwide Ward Cookbook, by Deanna Buxton!

If you don't win but live in Utah County, no worries: the author will be the center of, "Confessions of a Chocoholic Cook," an event at the Scera lobby in Orem, on March 18. It's FREE, but you must RSVP by the 16th to covenant promotions at gmail dot com.

FRIDAY
1) Covenant has again generously donated 2 copies (so there'll be 2 winners!) of another music CD, this time Grammy-nominated pianist Glenn Hatch's, "Love Notes: 24 Romantic Favorites." Songs include the love theme from Somewhere in Time, Clair de lune, "Think of Me" from The Phantom of the Opera, and many more. Gorgeous music.



2) SLC Baby Bandz is donating a great gift pack that includes a Scandinavian Ribbon Bow, a Rose Garden (Hot Pink) clip, White Daisy clip, and a white hair band, a total value of $15.00 (tax included). All three accessories attach to the baby band or can be worn separately as hair clips, so it's great for all ages.

Be sure to check out their other products HERE.





3) This darling bib from Sew Sara has a crew neck (like a T-shirt) and pulls easily over baby's head. It fits babies all the way up to toddlers! Sara's 2 & 3-year-old kids STILL wear them!




The best part is that kids can't easily take off the bib. She uses 100% cotton fabric on the front, and the funky bird and tree applique scream, "Spring!" (Something I think we're all dying for about now.) The back is plush cotton chenille and the edges are double-stitched with a zig zag edge. Very fun and hip! Measures approx. 11.5" wide x 16.5" long--generously sized for lots of coverage.



Visit the Sew Sara website to see more of her darling products.

SATURDAY
Grand Prize time, people!

The Gold Gift Basket from Colorado Kernels, my hands-down favorite gourmet popcorn company EVER.



Here's what you get:

• Tall 12oz. Chocolate Avalanche


• Tall 12oz. River Bottom Crunch


• Tall 3oz. Cheddar Cheese


• 6oz. Cherry Cordial


• 6oz. Caramel Corn


• 6oz. Seasonal Flavor

HO-LY YUM! (River Bottom Crunch is totally one of my favorites. And Cherry Cordial. Okay, and Chocolate Avalanche. Dang. Maybe I shouldn't be giving this one away . . . I want it!)

The whole shebang is valued at $40.

Thanks to all of my sponsors! Be sure to visit them. They all rock!

HOW TO ENTER:
Simply leave a comment on this post!

Be sure I can contact you if you win, whether it's through you own blog or through an e-mail address in your comment. If I don't get a response within a day of the winners being announced, I'll draw another name.

For TWO MORE entries, mention the giveaway on your blog and link back to this post (not just my blog; use this post's permalink).

For FIVE MORE entries, put this handy-dandy button on your sidebar and have it link back to this post.

(Right click on the image and save it to your computer. Then add it as a gadget in your sidebar. In blogger, when you do that, you have an option of telling it where to link to. Add this post's permalink there so the button clicks back here.)

And for FIVE MORE entries (for a possible THIRTEEN total entries!), post the book trailer for Tower of Strength on your blog.

Find the trailer on YouTube here. (I was going to give you the embedding code, but it didn't work for some reason. As always, I'm a techno-idiot.) From YouTube, copy and paste the embedding code into your blog post (under the "edit HTML" tab). Easy peasy.

To simplify things, feel free to post about (and link to) the giveaway AND post the trailer all on the same post (that's 7 extra entries for you in one fell swoop). I'm helpful like that.

For any extra entries you do, be sure to drop me a line either in the comments or via e-mail to let me know you've linked, posted the button, and/or posted the trailer so I can be sure to add all of your extra entries to my list before I do the random number generator thingy.

WINNERS will be drawn each morning and announced here.

Ready . . . set . . . go!

Today's tour stops:
Pulsipher Predilictions
Blok Thoughts
Tristi's Takes

Housekeeping Notice

Looks like one of my e-mail addresses is having a blip, so I can send from it but not receive messages at it.

I'm a compulsive e-mail checker, so if you've e-mailed me recently and I haven't responded, that's why: I haven't gotten your message.

(In case you're wondering.)

I have no idea where the gremlin is or what is causing the problem, but I hope it'll be fixed soon. If you need to reach me in the meantime, leave a comment or try annette at lyfe dot com

Carry on!

Help the Techno-Idiot

We got a cat a few months ago. That's another story in and of itself. (It's white with "flame tipped" markings, meaning it's got orange ears and a striped tail. Way cute. Sorta matches my redheads.)

Anyhoo, this morning as I was scrolling through my Google Reader (HOW did I read blogs before I got one of those things?!!!), she walked off my lap and onto the keyboard. Her feline paws pushed . . . something.

Then the highlighted post in my reader popped up, expanding to this really big font size. When I scrolled to the next one, I got this jump/pop where the old one went back to normal size, and the next one expanded to the giant font for someone seriously near-sighted. Happened every time I went to a new post. The jump/pop was blinding. (For someone prone to migraines, this kind of visual stimulus is unpleasant.)

And I couldn't figure out what the heck the cat did to make that happen or how to turn it off.

It was driving me crazy, people. Kitty couldn't have hit that many keys, but for the life of me, I still can't figure out what she did or how to undo it.

Several hours after the fact, I did what I should have done first: I killed my browser and started over. That reset the reader, so I'm okay now. (Phew!)

But what caused it? If it happens again, what can I do in the future to undo it, short of exiting my browser any time the cat's in the room or banning the cat from the area completely?

Ideas? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

(I swear I'll post something worth reading soon . . . this is just an itch I have to scratch! WHAT did the cat DO? Sounds like an Arthur episode or something . . .)