Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘collaboration’ Category

Refocusing on middle grade fiction

Posted in author branding, Author platforms, collaboration, Education, indie publishing, marketing books, middle grade fiction, Online writing courses, platform, Podcasts, series writing, starting over, Time to write, tagged , , on June 13, 2016| Leave a Comment »

 

image

There’s a little bit of refocusing going on behind the scenes of our site. My three writing books will be available soon, the first which being our free gift to anyone subscribing to my podcast, Writer on the Road, where Cracker will be one of my first and ongoing (if he let’s me win) guests!!

This site will once again be about middle grade fiction as Cracker and I share our writing trials, tribulations and downright fun bits of collaborative writing and reliving our sibling squables, getting the better of each other, and me always winning writing journey.

You’ll all be excited to know Cracker and I have agreed to get cracking (sorry, couldn’t resist) on Book 4 of our Cracker & Gilly Mystery Series and it will be quickly followed by books 5, 6 & 7. Our aim is a baker’s dozen and Book 1, Forbidden, will be our gift for anyone signing up to our Growing Up Writing newsletter.

On the marketing front, I’ve been busy upskilling. My education has included the following courses:

  1.  Creative Freedom with Joanna Penn
  2. Your First 10,000 Customers with Nick Stephenson
  3. Facebook Advertising (new) with Mark Dawson
  4. ebook bestsellers audio course with Derek Doepker

So, to sum up, I can write, produce, market, sell foreign rights, record audio and write some more. Or I will be able to once my kids leave home😇😇

Wadaya reckon, Cracker, you ready?

Read Full Post »

Good News for Indie Authors…again!!

Posted in book publishing, collaboration, Goal setting, indie publishing, middle grade fiction, Series fiction, writing and money, writing fiction, tagged , , on June 4, 2016| Leave a Comment »

image

From the latest Author Earnings Report over at http://www.authorearnings.com:

‘When we look at just debut authors from the past five years, we find more indie authors now earning a $50K-or-better living wage than all of their Big Five and Small/Medium publisher peers put together… even after we throw in that overgenerous 2x multiple for traditionally-published non-Amazon revenue.’

Looks like it was a smart business model to keep our author rights, hey Cracker? Now, all we’ve gotta do is get our audio books and foreign rights happening and we can split the 50K profits, whaddaya reckon?

Read Full Post »

He thought he could swim: the hopes, dreams and ambitions of Diver Smurf

Posted in collaboration, Goal setting, indie publishing, middle grade fiction, series writing, writing life, tagged , , , , , , on February 17, 2016| 1 Comment »

image

This is a story about a book, well, three books really, and a boxed set, and dreams of riches and infamy, and it goes like this:

Once upon a time we had an idea, and another one, and another one, so we wrote ’em down and turned ’em into books, and people bought ’em, well, some people bought some of ’em, and I’m guessing they would have bought all of ’em if we had kept the dream alive.

But

Editing needed to be done

And time passed

And like all once upon a time stories, our dream disappeared into Netherland with Peter Pan and stayed a childhood fantasy forever

Until one day, reality hit. Dreams only become reality if you do the work.

Or, in Diver Smurf’s case, learn to swim.

Merinda’s Gold, Book 3 of our Cracker Mystery Series, is alive and swimming towards publication.

Anyone wanna buy a boxed set?

 

Read Full Post »

Cracker and Gilly Author Tour coming your way soon

Posted in Book launch, book tours, collaboration, Fiction, middle grade fiction, writing life, tagged , , , , on October 18, 2015| 1 Comment »

imageIt’s almost time to hit the road and celebrate the launch of our third Cracker & Gilly Mystery, Merinda’s Gold. Six weeks to go but who’s counting…

Call us intrepid or brave or downright foolish but we’re off to the place where Cracker and Gilly manage to get themselves into – and out of – so much trouble with the help of Cracker’s foot soldiers, Trann and Bone.

Two authors setting off on a grand adventure, meandering down the magical Southern New South Wales coastline – well, two authors, two kids, two dogs and a cat – to the the place it all began.

Did I mention the authors are related? That, in fact, all who know them are watching on in glee to see whether the brother and sister authors survive the caravan touring challenge at all. Will there even be a fourth Cracker & Gilly Mystery, they ask?

Bateman’s Bay may never be the same again but rest assured intrepid readers, Book 4 is not only started (well, Cracker’s written a chapter…somewhere…haven’t you Cracker?) but the coast is where we do our best – and only – planning.

Stay tuned for the details…and if you want to interview us, buy our books or set up and author signing just let us know. Otherwise, you’ll find us us the beach.

Bring on summer…

 

Read Full Post »

Why youtube drives visitors to your website

Posted in collaboration, middle grade fiction, Youtube, tagged , , on December 11, 2014| 1 Comment »

My bother and I wrote a middle grade novel, Dirt Busters, as part of a mystery series but it’s the youtube video I had made, How To Build A Billy-cart, that’s driving sales…why?

image

Read Full Post »

The benefits of publishing a book series

Posted in book publishing, Books, collaboration, ebooks, Fiction, indie publishing, marketing books, marketing fiction, middle grade fiction, print books, series writing, Writing, writing life, tagged , , , , on September 26, 2014| 1 Comment »

image The first book in our Cracker & Gilly Mystery series arrived yesterday (Book 2 has been out for awhile but that’s another story) and I suddenly realized the potential of  publishing and marketing a series.

image And, not in any particular order, here they are:

1. We already have a readership

2. We already have a marketing strategy

3. Two books look better than one

4. We can now discount one book in the hope of interesting new readers in our series

5. Writing a book is tough…writing two books shows we’re serious 5. There are more marketing angles with two books

6. There is increased anticipation for Book 3

7. With more books we can sell boxed sets 8. Our books look good between bookends (okay, this one is a gloat:))

Read Full Post »

WW1 Aboriginal Soldier Inspires Middle Grade Mystery Novel

Posted in collaboration, ebooks, indie publishing, Inspiration, marketing books, middle grade fiction, platform, Teen Fiction, voice, Writing, writingReading writing fiction, tagged , , , on August 2, 2014| 1 Comment »

soldier for web
 soldier for web

Ideas for stories are all around us. In my local newspaper today is a story about a little known role of Australian soldiers in WW1.

It made me think about our recently released middle grade novel, Dirt Busters, and where our inspiration came from – although my co-author and I disagree about whose idea it actually was – to save fights I’ll use the words ‘we’ and ‘ours’ – but the more I think about it the more I realise our idea grew – as ideas do – like topsy.

 

medal for web

We found an article and we liked the idea of an old medal and we already had the setting – a development site – and an old professor turned up and we found him a shack to live in and we started to ask questions like what was the professor doing down the coast in an old shack and – boys being boys – our characters, Cracker, Trann and Bone had to follow him to see what he was up to…and our girl character, Gilly, being Gilly, had to have plans of her own and so a billy cart race was born with the race taking place – yep, you guessed it – at the development site.

As ideas go, it’s turned out to be a good one as so far the response to our novel has been great and we keep getting asked when is our next book being released.

And here’s the article that inspired it:

Moruya Examiner, 23 August, 1919:

On Friday night last Pte, Frank Stewart was the recipient of the usual Shire address and a presentation from the Bay to honor him as a returned Australian soldier. The occasion was rather unique, in as much as the ceremony too place during the interval of a picture show. To this entertainment about 50 of Private Stewart’s friends and relatives from the Aboriginal Reserve had been invited. The presentation was made y Mr D F Mackay and was received by much acclamation and to the accompaniment of the indispensable leaf strains of music…

(Please note, the aborigine pictured in this blog post is not Frank Stewart…)

 

 

 

 

Read Full Post »

Dirt Busters – How to build a billy cart instructional animation

Posted in collaboration, Fiction, marketing books, middle grade fiction on July 30, 2014| 1 Comment »

Join Cracker, Tran, Bone and Gilly as they walk you through the steps to build your very own billy cart!

Read Full Post »

Virtual Book Tours

Posted in book tours, collaboration, Fiction, indie publishing, marketing books, middle grade fiction, platform, social media, Teen Fiction, virtual book tours, Writing, tagged , , , , , , on February 6, 2014| Leave a Comment »

on the road

Your book is finished and it’s time for the fun part, right? Time to hit the road and do the big tour. And, of course, if you’re anything like me, thinking big is the easy part. It’s what we writers do, isn’t it?

I was ready to hook up the Kimberly Kamper and head around Oz, stopping in at schools and libraries, selling books with gay abandon…I was a tad worried about being locked in a moving vehicle with my co-author for the several months this tour was going to take but, hey, I could always sit him in the back with the child locks on if he misbehaved.

But then I had to go and get this email from The Book Designer (www.thebookdesigner.com) with the title, 7 Top eBook Blog Tour Sites, written by Greg Strandberg at http://www.bigskywords.com.

Researching the marketing game has seen me write and discard several marketing plans in the last months as I’ve talked to editors, publishers, distributors, bookshops, school librarians and book fair co-ordinators. And I was ready to hit the road, even with my brother, actually he’d come in handy for flat tyres and such…

I mean, let’s face it, we writers spend all our lives cooped up in attics tapping away at our keyboards so can we be blamed for  dreaming of a few champagne celebratory drinks after the hard work is done, followed by a road trip to make us if not rich then at least famous…

celebration

But it’s not how it’s done anymore…well, at least not exclusively…marketing nowadays means more time at the keyboard, blogging, tweeting and…err…touring virtually. Strandberg lists his top seven virtual tour sites in his blog but he’s written a book that lists fifty sites, Tour Your Book, 50 eBook Blog Tour Sites That Increase Amazon Sales, and it’s those last couple of words that has me unpacking the trailer before I’ve even begun…because if there’s one thing I’ve learnt from my marketing research it’s that ebook sales are what drive sales nowadays and, according to the gurus who run sites like http://www.thebookdesigner.com and http://www.digitalbookworld.com there’s only one way forward for we wanna be marketers of our words…and it doesn’t involve sunsets on deserted beaches with fishing rods and celebratory drinks…

20140203_220953

Cheers…

Read Full Post »

Book apps…how much fun can a girl have before insanity takes hold?

Posted in collaboration, Fiction, middle grade fiction, platform, social media, Writing, tagged , , , on January 16, 2014| 4 Comments »

Research is such a wonderful thing…and knowing when to stop gathering information and start writing is a skill I mastered early on in my writing career. But marketing, well, that’s a different story. I’ve been working on my marketing plan for our middle grade reader novels for weeks and so far I’ve been happy with the results. Most of what we will be doing is within the realms of possibility, if not probability…

Old Bones Cover1

But then I had to go and blow it all with one tiny google search, http://www.digitalkidsauthor.com, by Sydney writer, Karen Robertson. If you have never thought about turning your story into an app then I suggest you don’t go there…but, alas, I was hooked. I downloaded the Author’s Guide to Book Apps and What is a Book App and Could YOU Create One? The capital letters are Robertson’s, not mine but already I’m screaming YES! YES! YES!

20140110_151704

And my co-author and illustrator are groaning into their hands. Looks like fun, sounds like fun, so it’s gunna be fun, right? Better yet, the guys at Demibooks, http://www.demibooks.com, promise it’s easy…stay tuned…

Read Full Post »

Older Posts »

%d bloggers like this: