I have one book nearly finished. I recently pulled it back up to go over it once again, after leaving it alone for four weeks. Boy, were those weeks long! I also have other books in the works. Some I've put away for a short period of time - I've discovered that it is really good to look at your own work with fresh eyes, as it were.
Personally, this has been a challenge for me. I'm not terribly big on the whole 'me' campaign, which is probably why you won't be terribly surprised, when I tell you that Trixie Vardon is my nom de plume. I find myself rather boring if the truth be told. I love writing though, and have always been an avid reader of many genres. I have only been writing officially for the last six months, encouraged to do so by my family, and friends. Apparently, everyone else could see me doing this, but me. The whole writing thing still makes me smile, and shake my head in wonder - truly, it is an amazing world that we live in, where those that you love can dream large for you, larger than you would ever dream for yourself. Those of mine that were out of the initial loop, as it were, their only comment when told that I was finally going to try my hand at writing all said the same thing - well FINALLY! Which was fairly spooky I must say.
If you have a look at my portrait photo - yes, I am very aware, and rather pleased at the lack of focus, but thank you for letting me know - you will see me sitting at my desk, typing madly away on my iPad. I have my dragons sitting on my desk with me, I'm sure if you look hard enough you will spy at least one purball, and I'm completely surrounded by books of all shapes, sizes, and genres. This, my library, is my little piece of heaven on earth.
I love to garden, when the mood strikes me. I also take great pleasure in feeding those that I love, the food I have grown, with the knowledge that it is all 100% organic, and healthy for them. I also enjoy cooking, and baking - but I'm not terribly good at either. It's all a bit sad really. Grow lovely fresh herbs, and vegetables, bring them into the house, and destroy them on the stove, or in the oven!
I love chocolate, and Mocha is the only type of coffee that passes these lips!
My music collection is just about as eclectic as my books, and I love to dance about the house. To dry dishes in this home, music must be playing!
I mentioned a furball earlier. Happily, I foster furballs for a non-profit organisation in my home. This ensures that they are in a home environment, and not in a cage, until their adoptive parents come along to claim them.
I love my husband to bits, and he still smiles when I tell him each day that I love him. He gives the best cuddles in the world, and his kisses... well, lets just say that he still knows how to make me go weak at the knees!
Well, I think that's enough about me for now. Reading it back, truth be known, I find it all a bit blah. Let's hope you like my book/s better than my bio!
Ciao for now!
http://www.facebook.com/trixie.vardon?ref=tn_tnmn
My Blog
21st August, 2012
Cover change.
Well I've contacted the wonderful Erin Dameron-Hill about changing the cover on my book. Reason for the change? A combination of the emails that have been going back and forth between myself and the website that I purchased the models photograph from, and the model release form that I finally received from them. Requesting that I place a comment along the lines of 'the model portrayed on the cover on this book is in no way linked to any of the characters found within this book.' further added to the decision.
Seriously? Does anyone EVER believe that the people on the cover of a book is REALLY the person/people found within the book? Because if that's true then that's just sad. I would have thought that the comments of 'the characters/events portrayed within this book... are fictious, any resemblence to those living or deceased is coincidental... authors imagination.' Et cetera on the inside cover of nearly every book I have ever read would give the reader a 'heads up' - it did me.
I must admit to being rather pleased though in a way, as I can't wait to have Jimmy Thomas on the cover of my book. Squeee! When I was advised by an fb friend that I should check out this website a few months ago, I couldn't believe it when I first saw Jimmy Thomas. Why you ask? Two reasons, ONE: One of my lead characters in "The More He Wants..." is called... you guessed it Thomas! TWO: I describe my lead character as a cross between The Rock, and Johnny Depp. You can imagine my surprise when the hero in my book was sitting on my iPad in the flesh! It was such an OMGosh moment! I was not going to share that with anyone, figuring that Jimmy Thomas would be on my next book anyway. However, now that I have the chance to put him on the cover of this book, well I just had to share.
Seriously though, I feel it is just sensible to change the model that I have on my cover to Jimmy Thomas, I've felt this enormous sense of relief that I'm not going to be sued later on down the track for putting a model on my cover of an erotic romance, because that's exactly what I have been stressing out over - would it happen? Could it happen? Well, in the case of the later, yes it could. As I'm a broke out of work writer, I just could not afford to go down the path of possibility.
The 'please explains' that I got from the agency about 'what sort of erotic romance is it?' Was really starting to urk me no end too. Especially when I received more than one 'please explain' and then received emails from other people within that organisation. It was just making me more and more nervous.
Still, over now, decision made. Now all I have to do is (drool) find a suitable picture of Jimmy Thomas for this book. Oh decisions, decisions. *grin* I suppose I'll have to go through the lot, well as many as possible. Chuckle. What a dilemma to have.
Anyway, had to share. Besides, I want to be able to come back here at a later date and go, yepster! It really was a sensible thing to do.
Piracy.
Not sure if you're aware, but I've been trying to get my head around the whole 'piracy' issue that's going on lately.
Oh don't get me wrong, it's not that I condone piracy - I don't. Let's get that straight, and out of the way at once. In no way do I condone piracy, in any shape or form. I never have, and I can't see how I ever would.
No, what I can't get my head around, is how someone can say that they are 'doing the author a favor, by getting their book/music/film out there, as what they are doing is promoting it'. My opinion to that kind of statement? Is that's just a crock, as far as I am concerned, to make them feel better about the theft that they are committing.
Worse, they then go on to profit from that theft, and this is where it becomes piracy. Because, if they ask for money for their services - and by 'their services' I mean, copying your work (you, the author), uploading it to their website, and then asking for 'donations' for downloading that book free. That, my friends is profiteering. None of that money goes back to you, not one cent. They dress it up pretty, and make it 'look good' for those unsuspecting people that genuinely want to purchase your book. For example, they'll put a link at the bottom of the page, one that will download the book (stated quite clearly), then next to it, place another link to a legitimate website where your book can be legally purchased. Now in my society, you read from left to right, so we'll put the download button on the left, and the legit button on the right. So, you download the book - oh, yeah there was no request for payment. Going back to the page from where you downloaded the book, you see a 'donations' button, at the top - hmmm. OK, I got the book I wanted, I'll just leave a donation for it. Yeah, that person feels good, they did the right thing, at least, in their minds. The whole thing has been a set up from the get go.
Now there are many avenues for an author to promote their book, and get it read. Legit places.
Let's take a really well known one, Amazon for example. Now I have read their publishing spiel, and I've also read a few others. I've decided that when I finally publish my book, I'm going to do so with them. Now, what makes me want to publish with Amazon? Firstly, it's the one that I buy most of my eBooks from. Initially, this was because they were the cheapest place to buy the book I was after at the time, and most usually in every case. If I hunt for a good price, so will others. As a customer, I've never had any issues with them. I also like the way that they control the reviews, and the rules and regs. that they have in place for both author, and customer. But they will also place my first book (and any others that I publish with them) into their lenders library. Now this will hopefully generate interest in my book, perhaps a few reviews, and with any luck, word of mouth about my first public soiree into the world of writing.
Now, if I wish to promote it some more, I may be able to get my book placed on a few blogs. I could also hold an event, which would generate interest in the book. There are many ways to promote a book.
One thing I can tell you that I'm not going to do, is give my work to a pirate, for them to make money off. I'm the one that came up with the story, worked my behind off to research it. Wrote it, took it apart and put it back together again because I wasn't satisfied with it. Handed it over to a group of strangers to give me a critical analysis of it (my baby), listened to what they had to say, and made more adjustments. Don't even think about those nights where I snuck out of bed (hoping not to wake up anyone else in the house) to write more, or worse, rewrite more, because I'm not even going to go there. Let alone what I went through to find the right cover artist, to get the cover I wanted for my book...
I would ask you to do me a favor for a minute please. I want you to think about the job you currently have. Now, regardless of your like or dislike of the job, imagine for a minute that you've just finished work for the past month, and your pay day is tomorrow. What if you woke up tomorrow morning, and you received a call to state that your pay is now going to go to another person - and your not going to see a cent for any of the work that you have done. Nothing, nada, zip, zilch. Now, how would you feel? Further, to put it into context for you, most of us take months, if not a year to knock out one book. So, how would feel about losing six months pay, or a years worth?
Silly question really isn't it.
I'd just like to point out one final thing, if it looks too good to be true, then it jolly well is. Buy from legitimate stores online, and your money, and your purchases are safe, and you know that you've done the right thing by your favourite author who has made enough money, one would hope, to be able to go back to the drawing board as it were, to write yet another book in the series that you love so much, because otherwise, they may well have to go to work for someone else, and there will be no more books from him or her, and wouldn't that be a shame.
13th July, 2012
Well, I finally managed to complete my Facebook page! Woot! Hope to hook up with some of my fellow RNC peeps there.
8th July, 2012
OK, so today I discovered that as of the 15th July, there will be new cover requirements for all eBooks. Dag nabbit all, I've only just finished my cover. Did anyone else know about this, and that it was coming?
If not, you can get the same information that I did by going to...
---if you weren't aware, then apologies for bearing bad tidings.
27th June, 2012
First ISBN!
Wow, today really is a day of progression for me. I've just bought my first ISBN, for my first, soon to be published eBook.
Seriously, I am so excited. OK, have to away, I've given myself three days for finalising the book. I'm aiming for a publication date of July 1st, 2012.
Am also going to have to discuss the possibility of an application with Apple for those pesky iPad people, like myself, that are too addicted to use a normal pc for their works. As I just cannot upload from my iPad. Sigh.
27th June, 2012
First book cover done!
The devinely clever Ms. Erin Dameron-Hill has just completed it! I am so excited, that I just had to share it here with anyone that wanted to see it. So will upload it later for all to see, can't do it now, as I'm (as always) on my iPad - can only upload from my laptop - old clunker will take half the day to warm up!
Blessings to her and her family, and I am so looking forward to my next book, and working with Erin once again on the cover for that one too.
2012-07-13 Hi Trixie! I was trying to see whether you managed to get your book uploaded and how that's all going for you. Hopefully by this time you have all those initial steps behind you and are able to enjoy everything that comes with post-publishing. It's a crazy world, but those of us in it would not trade it for anything.
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