SO...YOU THINK YOU WANT TO SELF PUBLISH

This is great news!

Many authors take this route and I am not one of them. I don't have the patience nor do I want to do it.

A lot of people do this because they don't want to
1. Wait for their book to come out
2. They want to keep all of the money. After all you do make a lot more if you do it yourself.


Now, I've already said why I don't want to self-publish. Don't get me wrong, I've done it before and it was WAY too much of my time. I didn't know how to format, I didn't know how to create a nice cover and I didn't want to spend time doing it.

Some of you don't mind all of that.

Now, point number two is real tricky. Yep, you do get to keep all of the money but let's just see how much money you get to keep. Since I did self publish a long time ago; I know what I paid.


I would need to pay at least $400 for editing. Anything less and well let's be honest, it will look like you paid less.
I will then need to pay for a cover. As I said, I'm not a graphic designer and can't do it. So that's  at least $400.
I will then need to pay for proofing. PROOFING and EDITING are NOT the same thing. That's gonna cost me at least $200.
I will then need to pay for formatting. I would spend at least $200 but if I learned it would be FREE
I will then need to order some books for myself. Let's say I want reviews. I need at least 20 copies at $5.00 a piece. That's another $100
Oh, but I forgot about mailing them. So that's another $60-70 because it depends on the distance. (who knew that?)
Now I need books for that book release party. Let's buy 100 because I know I will be able to sell those quickly. That is $500

In total I have spent about $1,660 and this is not counting formatting. But if I didn't learn than I would need to spend an additional $200

Now, if I sell my books at $15 a piece, I'll make a whooping $1,500 yippee...oh wait, no I won't. I'm still negative $160 because you can't count profit until after all of the money you spent is accounted for. Now I need to sell at least 10 more books to break even but to do that, I need to buy more books.

And the cycle begins again.

So for those of you that say, you are self publishing, I applaud you but let's be clear you aren't going to start off making a lot of money initially but if you keep at it, you will.

NEVER TO EARLY

It's never to early to begin thinking about your New Year's resolutions.

This year I'm not promising to do anything except live life to the fullest. I plan on using all of the colors of the rainbow; or at the very least all of the colors in the crayon box!

With all of the terrorists acts being committed right now; you never know if walking out of your door will be the last time.

You never know if you will get to say "I'm sorry" to the person that you interrupted at work. You never know if you will get to say "I love you" to that special person in your life, whether it be your spouse/significant other, children or parents.

With everything going on in the world; its easy to give in to the fear and stay home. It would be easy to give in and not travel. It would be easy to give in and listen to whatever terror groups have to say.

Instead, this New Year; I plan to live life to the fullest. I plan to enjoy each day, each hour, each minute and each second.

I plan on laughing a lot and doing things that make me happy.

So, what do you plan on doing in the New Year?

IT'S CHRISTMAS TIME AND ALL I WANT...

Hmm, that's a really hard thing to put into words. 


I could say; peace on earth and good will towards man; but you will hear all of that on the +Hallmark Channel in the next month. 
 
I could say my two front teeth, but I think someone already sang that song. 

I could say, two turtle doves but; that's just a little far fetched, don't you think?

So what I want for Christmas is more sales and more reviews. Didn't expect that did you?

Well I'm an author, so of course I want those things. 

If you have read my novels, LET ME JUST SAY THIS or LET ME SAY THIS, AGAIN please go onto Amazon and leave a review. Even if you DIDN'T like it; I'd rather know why you didn't than not know.



So, in this time where I could ask for a lot of things; I'm asking for two simple things. 

Can you do that for me? or should I ask +Santa Claus ?

NO....I DON'T WANT TO SELL IT TO YOU!

Did you ever think you would hear those words come from these lips?

I surely didn't but that is what I wanted to yell on Saturday afternoon.

Every year I participate in the Dulles Expo event the Northern Christmas Market and every year I do very well with book sales.

This year was no exception. OK, well with one.

A young woman walked up and immediately began to look at the covers of my books. Normally I would be excited about this but this young woman was between the age of 10-12.

Before you start saying I should encourage her to read. She can read just fine. Before you say that I should encourage her to buy my books. Screech! Pump the brakes.

My books contain, in industry terms, "ADULT SITUATIONS" or "PG17" in movie terms.

There is sex, violence and language that is not appropriate for anyone younger than the age of 18. Yes, I know children nowadays have foul mouths and probably have more sex than me but that doesn't mean I agree with it.

So, with that said, I steered her to my publishers YA (Young Adult) line. She picked them up, read the back and promptly put them back down and went BACK to mine.

Her mom asked me if it was appropriate for someone her age. My answer

HELL NO! OK, I didn't curse but I said NO as strongly as I could without cursing. The mom turned to her mother (the child's grandmother) and said, "What do you think?" In which she said, "it's your decision."

So, I'm thinking its almost over.  Sure I lose a sale but it would be worth it. The mother then did something unexpected. She asked me to show her a passage. I turned to the most graphic part that I could remember at that time and she read it. Here is what I heard, "Oh my...wow...whoa"

Now I'm thinking. I'm free and clear and she hands me the book back, looks at her daughter and says, "Well if you want it, go on and get it."

WHAT! WHAT...WHAT THE HELL! and the girl says but there are two..can I have both of them! and her mother says, "YES...get both of them"

I nearly passed out right then and there! I was so flustered that I couldn't even take the money. I was in shock.

Then the mother asked, "Can you sign them for her?"

In shock, I signed them to JOCELYN and I have been bothered by this ever since. My question is:

Would you be shocked or would you look at it like a sale to a customer. I welcome your thoughts.

IT'S NOVEMBER ALREADY?

Where has the time gone?

Before you know it; it will be December and the Christmas rush will begin. So before it does here is what you need to be doing as an author to prepare for the upcoming year.

1. Look up conferences to attend.
Here are a few that I attend: Creatures, Crimes and Creativity   Malice Domestic   BoucherCon2016 LIM Con   

2. Get your tax papers ready. I hope you kept those receipts for conferences you paid for. Did you write down the mileage every time you did a book event? What about the hotel stay you had to pay for? All of those things are tax deductions that can be used.

You do remember that you are a small business, right?

3. Have you separated your personal bank accounts from your book/business accounts. Yes, this is something that you should have done the very first time you made a sale.

4. Have you inventoried your books? You need to keep an accurate record of what you have on hand. Have you filed away the receipts when you purchased books?

5. Have you created a spreadsheet with your royalties? What! Gasp! I think I'm about to faint if you say no.

6. Make a budget for the coming year and what you want to spend for the following: Attending conferences, purchasing books to have, marketing materials and travel expenses. This should be done BEFORE doing Item Number 1 on this list.

7. Make sure that if you have purchased clothing for your book appearances that you write that off to. Yes, they are business expenses.

8. Make a commercial for the Christmas holiday. Remember; the day after Thanksgiving is Black Friday, what better way than to be among the many commercials that people will see. Put it on YouTube, your website; your blog, your Facebook page and your Twitter account. You may need to do multiple ones but remember; short and sweet make = book sales

9. Post those pictures to your Pinterest page! If you attended conferences people want to see what you did! Remember people are visual; we have to see you in order to know you

10. Get ready because January will be here before you know it!

Now, remember, these are ONLY SUGGESTIONS!  You do not have to do them all but using this as a guide will help you navigate the upcoming holiday and New Year!

Until next time Keep Reading and Keep Writing.

OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW

Today begins a new chapter in the life of the #MDC3Con social media presence

In the world of FACEBOOK and TWITTER; it was decided that the Creatures, Crimes and Creativity Con needed a Facebook page.

At this year's con; attendees wanted a more interactive way to keep up with the information for the con held every year.

What the attendees want; they attendees get!

This is one Con that takes everything that the attendees want into the planning stages of the con.

They wanted more choices in panels for fans. Check.

They wanted more choices in food. Check.

They wanted more big name authors. Check.

They wanted to keep the panels on Sunday. Check.

They wanted something to do before noon on Friday. Check.

Can you see what happened here. The planners of the Con took everything that the survey's said and gave it to them; to the best of their ability.

So they want more interactive means to get information and feel like they are involved. CHECK

Go here and LIKE the Fanpage of the Creatures, Crimes and Creativity page and get all of the information first!

You will even get to see who will be our guests next year before everyone eles!

WHAT'S IN A NAME

Going to conferences is what I love to do!

Meeting someone who has the exact name is me is something that even I couldn't make up but that is what happened about two years ago.

I went to the #MDC3Con in Hunt Valley in September of 2014 and found out that my registration wasn't there. I had no bag, no name tag and no anthology (which you can ONLY get from the MDC3Con)

Now me and the other Sandra had tweeted to each other and been on FB chatting so when it came time for the conference I was ready to meet "Sandra Webster" (Honestly I didn't think it would happen but one can hope)

They said, "you already picked it up"

How could that happen? I hadn't been there.

When I checked my registration; I could see my name was there but they had my author name incorrect. No big deal since people always get it mixed up.

So I tried again, No; I registered under Sandra Webster and the confirmed that I registered and that I had already picked up all of the 'SWAG" earlier.

They wrote me out a badge because honestly, I think they thought I had been drinking a little to much.

I walked around for a bit and then saw my badge! On another person! OK, so we do writer mysteries and thrillers so it could be all in fun.

I walked up and said, "Oh, you are Sandra Webster too?" more as a joke and the response was, "YES"

TWO Sandra's are better than ONE!

Wait, what just happened! I wasn't ready! and I don't think she was ready for my response either.

How often do you find your Double! Well let me tell you this Sandra Webster is just as fun and sassy as I am!

We have become fast sisters and I can't wait to read her novels! Don't believe me, well we look just alike, don't we?