It's Monday Again! New Week...New Happenings!

It's Monday again. I haven't taken the time to chat about what's going lately, so here goes.

I've been busy planning some events for the next few months. It is looking like a very exciting Fall for my and my book. Before I share my up coming plans, I know there are some of you who are curious about my movie news. I am too. I haven't heard anything yet, but my fingers are crossed and my hopes are high. If I don't hear anything by October I will look into the progress through email. I will keep you posted. Some more potential movie related good news is I might have my book included in celebrity swag bags for events planned around the Oscar Awards in March.

Yup, you heard right, the OSCARS! A VP of a Media group that specializes in these events found my book and wanted to include it in Swag bags they were giving out at an event for the Primetime Emmy Awards this coming weekend. I had to decline. It was too soon to prepare for and honestly a little expensive, between the cost of books to send and the inclusion fee. I was honest in my response and was contacted again to be included in their events for the Oscar Awards. I am honored and seriously considering doing it. More on this later, now it's on to what's coming soon.

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This past weekend my book went to the Florida Heritage Book Festival with my publisher, BlueWater Press, LLC. (http://www.bluewaterpress.com/)

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More copies are going out this week to be included in the Orange County Children's Book Festival in California on October 4, 2009. They will be displayed on the Authors Den booth and featured on their website. The festival is for children but is open to adult books too, which makes sense because who brings the children? The parents, right? More information can be found here:

http://www.kidsbookfestival.com/about.html

* If you are a member of Authors Den and want to have your book included contact me and I will send you information and links about this. You need to act fast though. All books must be received by September 30, 2009.

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In November I have 2 events planned that I get to travel to with my books. YEAH!! I was starting to get jealous ;)

November 13th: I am participating in a Murder Mystery at Zorvino Vineyards in New Hampshire. I am still getting the details on this, since I just agreed to it this morning. But here's what I've got so far. It sounds like a lot of fun.

http://www.zorvino.com/scripts/eventPg.cfm?seq=416

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November 14th: I have a table and will be signing copies of my book at the Somerville Writer's Festival in Somerville, MA.

http://www.heatcityreview.com/somervillenews.htm

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That's what I've been up to, along with doing some on line interviews and guest posts at other author's blogs. Well that's the promotional stuff anyway. My writing schedule has been just as busy.

I have finished the bulk of my rewrite on my contemporary romance. Painstakingly cut 25 pages of writing. OUCH! It was needed but it hurt to see all those words disappear with one tap of the delete key. It was actually a lot of taps and very little was completely deleted, it was cut and pasted to a new document to be deleted when the story is finished. There was a lot of good stuff that just didn't fit into the rewrite for whatever reason, but some might find it's way back in to the final product. Now I am going back to the beginning to reread and polish.

I am also working on a short story that I am considering submitting to Writer's Digest 'Show Us Your Shorts' contest. It's an idea I've been thinking about for a while and it honors my grandmother, who passed away 5 years ago. She has influenced my life in countless ways, so writing this for her means a lot to me. Whatever the outcome, I will share it with everyone soon.

That about wraps up what I've been up to. Hopefully, I will have more news to share. In the mean time, thanks for stopping by.

Kristin : )

New Resource for Authors & Publishers

Today I have a new on line resource for authors and/or publishers. It's easy to use, gets word out about your books, and best of all... it's FREE! If you haven't heard of fReado.com you have to go check it out. fReado.com uses BookBuzzr to display and allow readers a look inside books.

Here's how it works:

Easy to Use:
It walks authors or publishers through a simple uploading process. You can offer a portion of your book for readers to sample, or your entire book if you want.

Gets Word Out:
This is a fairly new website and it's creators are doing a really good and extensive job of promoting itself and it's authors.

It's FREE!
Yeah, you heard right. It's free. All you have to do is put your time into setting up your BookBuzzr widget and then do your part in directing others to it.

This is my part :)

http://www.freado.com/users/books/3203/Kristin-Callender

Follow the link. Take a quick look at my information and then get started on your own.

Good Luck & Happy Sales to all!

~Kristin : )

A Couple of New Ideas...

I have been very busy since the call came from the producer, talking with literary agents and making plans for my trip to Book Expo America in New York at the end of the month. But I did want to let everyone know what else I am doing. As always I have a million things going on at once. Hopefully these things will be helpful to you new authors out there.

First, I have mentioned in the past that I joined a new writers/readers network called Indie Readers. If you haven't already, stop by and join. There are a lot of nice people there and many great tips and opportunities for authors to help each other. I have just started a new group within the network called Amazon Authors. This is very similar to Todd Fonseca's Tag My Book onAmazon blog, but on a much smaller scale. If you are interested in adding your Amazon titles to our group to be tagged, I would suggest that you also post it on Todd's. The more you get your work out there the more chances you have to get more readers. If your not sure what tagging is please stop by either of the following addresses for an explanation.

http://indiereaders.ning.com/group/amazonauthors

http://tagmybookonamazon.wordpress.com/

I have been fortunate to meet many writers and authors, both on line and off. I am very thankful to have all of the opportunities that writing and publishing has given me and love to help other writers when ever I can. That was the main reason for starting this blog; to share my experiences and pass along what I have and continue to learn about the whole publishing process. Lately I have been meeting some new author's of children's books. Having 4 children of my own, and being a substitute teacher in a large town with 9 elementary schools, I offered to ask how these 9 different librarians ordered their books. I was given the name and contact info for the man who orders the books for all of our schools. That brings the number of school libraries up to 12. This led me to my second idea.

I thought what a great idea if I take copies of these new children's books along with their purchase info to the man in charge of ordering. He would be able to sample them and then decide if he's interested in buying them for the libraries. I have contacted him about this and will let everyone know the outcome of that as soon as I hear anything. In the mean time, I will offer any children's author a review, which I will post here, on Goodreads, and on Amazon. Not bad exposure for the price of postage and 1 copy of your book. Most of us have a few copies hanging around the house anyway.

In the event that your book is chosen as one to be purchased for all of our town's libraries I will offer the copy you send me as a free bonus to them. If your book is not chosen I will offer it on my contest blog. We all love a giveaway and it helps get your book out there to more readers. Tell me what you think about this idea, and if you're interested in participating email me and I will give you the address of where to send a copy of your book.

dkcallender@sbcglobal.net

As always, keep writing and keep in touch. If you have any ideas on how we can help each other pass them along.

Thanks,
Kristin :)

I Got "The Call"

Hello. Hope everyone is doing well and you're still plugging away at your own goals in writing and life. If you are struggling and need a little inspiration I have just the story for you. As I posted shortly after my Virtual Book Tour, I was contacted by a producer. She asked me about my film rights and requested a copy of The Truth Lies in the Dark. Then last Friday she emailed me asking for my home phone number. Well, she called yesterday.

She wants to make my story into a movie!

This is great news and such an honor, but still in the early stages. She still has to pitch the idea to Lifetime and needs to compile a proposal package for the executives to consider. To help with this, I am digging up all of my reviews and my original synopsis to send to her. She has also directed me toward a larger publisher, who has published some of the books she has already made into movies. I will let everyone know how that is going when I know more. It's all a little overwhelming to think of it all at once.

I think the best part of this all, and the part I am so excited to share with everyone, is how this incredible opportunity could happen to anyone. I'm not going to say that writing, editing, publishing, marketing, and promoting are easy, or that everyone will get a film deal. I am still in shock and amazement that my book was even considered. I am saying it's possible; stay positive, try everything, and always, always believe in yourself and your work.


Your writing is the most important thing. If you are happy and can honestly stand behind it you are already doing better than someone who writes to please someone else, like an agent or an editor. Not to say you can't take criticism and make changes, just as long as you believe in the changes you have made. This belief is your backbone that will keep you steady when reviews and opinions start coming, and they are all not going to be as supportive and great as those from family and friends. Some are going to feel like personal attacks on you, like when someone wrote that my main character Amanda was too needy and annoying. At first it bothered me, then I realized that characters, for me anyway, should come alive in a story. For someone to become annoyed with Amanda, they are seeing her as a real life person also. So, that's not such a bad thing. It would be worse to have them say the book and characters did nothing for me at all. I am getting off point now, but you get the idea. Believe in yourself and your writing.

The next important thing is getting your work out there; the more you do the more opportunities you create to be seen. I recommend doing live book tours/signings if you feel comfortable with them and definitely do a Virtual Book Tour. If you're not sure how look in my past posts. I detailed how I did mine, and do I need to remind you of the outcome? :) My sales did not explode, but yours could. You never know who might notice your book. The fact that the producer found my book at all was a fluke.

I did interviews, was a guest, or was reviewed by 18 different book related blogs. Some had many followers and others just a few, but the one the producer noticed my book was all but missed by everyone. The host of the blog had an emergency and did not post my book on the day we had planned. Once she realized, she posted it late, and the producer just happened upon it. If that's not dumb luck or some kind of fate I don't know what it is. But nothing happens out of thin air, luck or fate can't find you if you're not out there. So do whatever you can (within limits of law and self respect of course) to get your writing out there, you never know when or where your big break could come from.

I am excited (and a little nervous) to have this opportunity, but I have to remind myself that whether or not my book actually becomes a movie I am thankful and honored that it is being considered. I hope that sharing this inspires you to keep writing and go after your goals and dreams. Life is too short to think you can't do something. What's the worse they can say?

As always, you're welcome to share your successes or frustrations about writing or life. We all have them. I think the only reason I haven't really freaked out over the movie news is the continued real life drama I live every day. My 11 year old crashed his bike and might have a hairline fracture on his wrist, but is now quickly learning that ouch means his teacher lets him get out of everything he doesn't want to do. Then he miraculously finds the strength to come home and play video games with both hands and try to play dodge ball with his sister. Next, my oldest came home telling us how he had to wrestle a cow to give it medicine (yeah I think that's funny too; he's no farmer). He also came home with a tick burrowed into his back. So we spent the night in surgery, well in the bathroom... three of us, hovering over my son with needles, tweezers, peroxide, etc. I swear, we could go a year without talking to the doctor and then in less than one week they know me by voice on the phone.

I would love to hear from you. Take care and keep in touch.

Kristin : )

You planned a Virtual Book Tour. What's Next?

Now that you have decided to do your own Virtual Book Tour you have to let people know about it. The reason for doing the tour in the first place is to benefit both you and the blog you are a guest on. You want to generate attention for your book that will hopefully increase sales. The host of the blog is hoping that having an author as a guest will bring more readers to their site. So you don't want to rely on the host to do all of the advertising, just as the host should not rely solely on the author to bring more fans. If both parties do their own promoting the odds that the blog and your book get more attention will improve. But how do you generate attention?

There are so many ways to reach people online. You can announce the tour to any online community that you belong to, write articles, and post it in every public site that allows announcements. Just like the planning and writing for the tour, this will take some effort. But, also like the tour, all of the effort and time is worth it if you can help your book succeed. The following are some of the resources I used to announce my virtual book tour. They are all free and fairly easy to use.

As a writer, you probably are already a member of one or more groups. If you are not start joining some. Not only are they are great places to announce your successes and events, but they are also great for exchanging ideas and supporting each other. These are some of the groups that I am a member of. There are many more great group out there. If you know of some tell me about them and I will post them for others to check out.

http://bookmarket.ning.com A network set up by marketing expert John Kremer

http://www.mywriterscircle.com Writing advice and support

http://bookblogs.ning.com A place for writers, readers, reviewers to talk about books


When I first started researching marketing and promoting I had no idea where to begin when it came to articles. Websites and other authors said to write and publish articles about my book and any events I was planning. I remembering thinking, 'How much more can I write in a day and how much is this going to cost?' Be careful of where you look for publishing an article; some sites charge you for distribution. I found some that did not charge anything as long as you kept your membership at the basic level. Don't feel cheap about looking for free options. There are many things you will have and want to pay for in advertising, and others that you can and should use for free. Here are some of the sites I found that allow you to submit articles and some offer much more. Again if you know of more, let me know so we can share the information.

http://www.biblioscribe.com Offers many services to authors like; distributes articles and press releases, and includes your book in their book store w/a link to purchase.

http://pr.com Allows you to write and distribute articles. All submissions are professionally edited before they are are accepted for distribution. (Basic level is free. Any other level, adding links, or advanced distribution will cost more)

http://published.com Offers authors their own book directory, articles, and advice on marketing


Posting your announcement on public spaces online is the easiest form of advertisement. It is pretty much like word of mouth. You don't have to prepare a professional looking article or promo, just a quick note to let everyone know when and where your tour will take place, and if they allow it put a link to your own website or main page that shows your tour schedule.

The most obvious public space is your own website. There are many free and low cost website sponsors to choose from. If you are like me, and lost when it came to starting my own, you're going to want to start with a free one. You may even like it and choose to stay with it. I found that google offers free websites and even walks you through setting it up.

Other great public places to announce your book and events include CraigsList, FaceBook, AuthorsDen, joining your favorite television or radio show networks, and of course Twitter. I love Twitter! It is a great professional and fun social network. It is easy to start an account and many different interesting people to follow. The best thing about Twitter is you can announce each stop of your tour and connect with people in the publishing field in real time.

My twitter account is: http://www.twitter.com/KCBOOKS

I hope that you have found something here to help you in the marketing and promoting of your book. Leave me a comment if you have something that has worked for you and would like to share with other authors.

As always, I wish everyone all of the luck and success in your book tours, sales, and future projects.

Keep in Touch,

Kristin Callender :)