Writer’s Corner: Words of Wisdom – Writing advice through the ages
Posted: August 7, 2023 Filed under: Writer's Corner, Writing, writing advice, Writing Tips 4 Comments
Quoting the Experts
Jim Neighbors’ character, Gomer Pyle is always quoting the infamous Grandma Pyle, with words of wisdom for every occasion. As writers, we have many ‘Grandma Pyles’ to offer writing advice and advice on life, in general. Below you will find some of my favorites. Feel free to add your own favorites in the comments.
“Tales and adventures are the shadow truths that will endure, when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgotten.”
Neil Giaman
“Writing is like a whore. First, I did it for my own pleasure. Then, I did it for the pleasure of my friends. And now, I do it for money.”
Ferenc Molnar
This quote has been attributed to author Virginia Wolf, but acording to Quote Investigator, the original author was French playwright Ferenc Molnar.
“Our greatest weakness is in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”
Thomas Edison
Another way of expressing this particular idea:
“Stopping a piece of work just because it’s hard, either emotionally or imaginatively, is a bad idea. Sometimes you have to go on when you don’t feel like it & sometimes you’re doing good work when it feels like all you’re managing to do is shovel shit from the sitting position.”
Stephen King – On Writing
And my personal favorite, which I often use like a motto, was put quite succinctly by the character of Lone Wadi in the movie, The Outlaw Josey Wales:
“Endeavor to persevere.”
Chief Dan George as Lone Wadi in The Outlaw Josey Wales
“Not all those who wander are lost.”
J.R.R. Tolkien – “The Riddle of Strider”
This quote was taken from a poem in The Fellowship of the Ring, so it wasn’t offered up as advice per-se, but I think it is good advice, because isn’t that what we, as authors do? We wander down paths unexplored to see what happens, and how the story comes out. But just because we may not know where we’re going, it doesn’t mean we’re lost. In fact, we usually emerge enlightened, with a killer story to show for it.
“To write something, you have to risk making a fool of yourself.”
Anne Rice
I find this quote to be spot on. Any type of expression involves a certain amount of risk, and writing is no exception. It’s this open and honest type of writing that is received best. Readers know, they can feel when an author has written from their heart, but to do that, the author must open themselves up and allow themselves to reveal their own vulnerabilities.
“It is a happiness to wonder; it is a happiness to dream.”
Edgar Allen Poe
Every writer should be able to relate to this quote. It’s what we do. We wonder. We dream. And stories emerge.
“Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning to dance in the rain.”
Author Annonymous
This quote is my all time favorite. It is not the hardships which life throws at us, but how we handle them. I love it. I’ve had quite a bit thrown at me lately. I need to remind myself of what really matters.
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References
(Frances Molnar) Quote Investigator. https://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/01/17/for-pleasure-for-money/
(Thomas Edison & Neil Gaimon) Brainy Quotes. https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/neil_gaiman_403389
(Edgar Allen Poe) Goodreads Quotes: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/9927514-it-is-a-happiness-to-wonder-it-is-a-happiness-to
(Stephen King) Book Riot: https://bookriot.com/stephen-king-quotes-about-writing/
(Anne Rice) Brainy Quotes: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/anne_rice_383179
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For Kaye Lynne Booth, writing is a passion. Kaye Lynne is an author with published short fiction and poetry, both online and in print, including her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction; and her paranormal mystery novella, Hidden Secrets. Kaye holds a dual M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing with emphasis in genre fiction and screenwriting, and an M.A. in publishing. Kaye Lynne is the founder of WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services and WordCrafter Press. She also maintains an authors’ blog and website, Writing to be Read, where she publishes content of interest in the literary world.
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Want exclusive content? Join Kaye Lynne Booth & WordCrafter Press Readers’ Group for WordCrafter Press book & event news, including the awesome releases of author Kaye Lynne Booth. She won’t flood your inbox, she NEVER sells her list, and you might get a freebie occasionally. Get a free digital copy of her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction, just for joining.
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Writer’s Corner: It’s all in the cover
Posted: July 3, 2023 Filed under: Advertising, Book Covers, Book Promotion, Fiction, Kickstarter, Writer's Corner, Writing 5 Comments
The Shopping Experience
When I was a kid, my mom and my grandmother would pile into the car, and we’d drive to the mall, and we’d spend the afternoon going from one store to the next, carefully making our shopping selections. I remember how my mother would pick up items and carefully examine the packaging to be sure she had the correct item that she wanted or needed, before making the final purchase.
A lot has changed since then. The rise of the internet turned the whole shopping experience upside-down with the birth of online shopping. And then, COVID came along and even those resistant rebels, who enjoyed holding possible purchases in their hands and analyzing the packaging to determine whether or not to buy it were forced to shop online, or go without.
The Cover is the Packaging
As authors, we are faced with similar dilimmas. We write books, and the covers are the packaging. The cover is the first thing a potential reader sees, and if it doesn’t immediately grab their attention, there is a whole slew of other books out there to choose from, and they’re gone. Many readers still enjoy the feel of a physical book in their hands, that will never change, but digital readers judge books by their covers, too, because an image of the cover is the first thing any of us see, whether online or in a brick-and-mortar stores. And just like those in person, physical shoppers who hold and feel the product, read the label, and check out the packaging, readers look over the cover, read the blurb and back cover copy, maybe even take a quick peek inside, before deciding whether or not this book is for them.
When I was listening to the 6 Figure Author podcast with Lindsay Buroker, Joe Lollal, and Andrea Pearson, there was one piece of advice which I heard over and over consistently. If your book isn’t selling look at the cover and the back cover copy first. That is probably where you will find the problem. And they’re right.
We don’t have the space here to talk about the back cover copy. That subject is deserving of a post of its own. In fact, I did last year. If you want to start exploring back cover copy, see my “Review in Practice” here.
What Makes a Good Cover?
More advice given by the 6 Figure Author crew: Go onto Amazon and take a look at the top selling books in your genre. This will give you an idea of what kind of covers are expected in the genre. This is good advice, but what it means, is that a good cover for one genre will not be good for another. As a multi-genre author, this was important to know.
I think a cover should be representative of the story it represents, not only the genre on which the story falls. While a good cover needs to meet genre representation and follow the laws of good cover design, a good cover also contains elements of the story itself in its composition. I’ve developed this belief over time from my own experiences, as I’ve learned to design my own covers. Here is where I add my disclaimer that I am not a professional cover designer. (Of course, when you see my covers, you could probably guess that.) Everything I’ve learned about cover design, I’ve picked up on my own. I’ve had no formal training.
To show you what I mean, let’s take a look at the early covers for Delilah.
Cover 1
This is the cover my publisher wanted to give Delilah. The text is stiff and rigid, but my story is a western adventure with action and movement. I was hoping for something a little more fluid.
Anyone who has read the book would take one look and know that isn’t Delilah. This is a contemporary cowgirl. Note the modern jean jacket and hoop earings.
As covers go, the design isn’t bad, but it does not represent the story inside. As a first time author, I knew I didn’t want to publish my book with this cover, so I hustled to come up with a cover at the last minute.
Cover 2
A friend offered to come up with a cover for me on the fly. What did I want it to look like? I had no idea what I wanted. What should a western cover look like? I gave her some vague instructions. Unsure of what I needed myself. This is the cover she produced for me.
The title is much more fluid and I liked that. It offered a feminine touch that said female protagonist, yet was still bold and active, sort of like my character.
The cover image was vague, possibly due to the vague instructions my friend had been given, and I had several people see it and claim they couldn’t tell what it was. I thought it was obviously a horse, representative of the western genre, and perhaps of Delilah’s horse, which becomes sort of a supporting character in the story.
So, this cover was kind of representative of the story, I liked the text better, and it would do in a pinch. I felt the publisher’s cover to be very misleading, and as a reader I would have been surprised when I found that it didn’t match the story, or more likely, I would never even pick it up because the cover does not represent a historic western, and I don’t read a lot of contemporary.
Cover 3
Eventually, I tried my hand at creating my own cover. This was my first attempt. This cover was representative of the story and it had elements which were actually part of the story. It has both prison gates and a hangman’s noose in the background.
But the text isn’t large enough. Both the title and the author’s name should stand out more. Something I learned from Allyson Langueira of WMG Publishing was that you should be able to read the title and author name in a thumbnail. It’s got to look good small. So my text definitely needed to be bigger.
The sillohuette stood out too much in the black & white version, so I added that putrid yellow, thinking of sunlight, just to give it some color. And my sillohuette isn’t doing much of anything. Better, but not great.
I will say my publisher was pretty gracious about switching covers for me. This was the third cover switch for this book, but it wasn’t selling, and the cover was the only thing I had control over that might help. This cover was better than the covers Delilah had had so far, but I had to admit it was not the ideal cover for the book.
We were coming to the end of my five year contract with the publisher, and Delilah had not done well in the sales department. I decided not to renew my contract, as I felt I could do better with it myself. Although the publisher claimed to have done promos, I never saw them. If Delilah was going to do well, I was going to have to promote it myself.
Final Cover
Almost a year later, a revised Delilah, closer to the original I had intended, was released as a part of the Women in the West adventure series. This is the cover I designed for the re-released edition.
The fluidity of the text and the illusion of a moving horse indicate movement. This Delilah is not stagnant, but on the move. She busting out of those prison gates and moving away from that noose fast. In this way, the cover almost tells a summary of the story for me.
The bars have been faded back in this version, so the cover doesn’t look too busy. The woman looks a little bit like a contemporary cowgirl, but not as much as the publisher’s cover did.
Was it the Cover?
In January, I ran a Kickstarter campaign for Delilah and the Women in the West adventure series, which funded, so apparently, I do have a few die hard fans and/or friends out there. During that thirty-day campaign, I sold more copies of Delilah than my publisher managed to do over the period of my five year contract. That doesn’t count copies that sold after the release through distributors, as a result of the book blog tour and other promotinal efforts. It’s not like Delilah became an overnight bestseller, but I do find it curious that in only a few months, this edition of the book has outsold what all of the others did across a five year period. There are other things that could have been the cause of these results, like the new back cover copy, or my extended promotional efforts. So, was it the cover? What do you think?
Covers for the Series
At the time when the Kickstarter ran, I had been playing with the cover for Sarah a little bit, but I had to throw together a cover for the third book, Marta; a story for which I only had a vague concept for, so I only had a very rough draft of a cover to display for the Kickstarter campaign.
I said that part of the money raised in the Kickstarter, would go to redesign the covers for the series. I had two different cover designers, who both stepped down due to personal issues, but I found a cover designer friend who was willing to offer some pointers, so I ended up redesigning them myself. Here is the final result. I think you’ll agree that these covers are much better and I feel that they feel like they go together, and each seems to represent the series brand.
A Word of Thanks
The timing for this post is syncronistic, for as it posts Delilah has been nominated in the 2023 Connections eMagazine’s Reader’s Choice Awards! It looks like Delilah has finished in the top 10 with 85 votes. Considering the contest began on July 25th, and I didn’t find out Delilah had been nominated until the 29th to try and rally support, I think that’s pretty good. I want to thank all of you who did your part and voted for Delilah, some of you several times, since you clould cast your vote once a day. I also want to thank whoever it was that nominated my book. This was the first time I’d ever been involved in such a contest, and it was very exciting, so my thanks for this are huge. I don’t know who you are, but I love you.
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For Kaye Lynne Booth, writing is a passion. Kaye Lynne is an author with published short fiction and poetry, both online and in print, including her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction; and her paranormal mystery novella, Hidden Secrets; and book 1 of her Women in the West adventure series, Delilah. Kaye holds a dual M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing with emphasis in genre fiction and screenwriting, and an M.A. in publishing. Kaye Lynne is the founder of WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services and WordCrafter Press. She also maintains an authors’ blog and website, Writing to be Read, where she publishes content of interest in the literary world.
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Want exclusive content? Join Kaye Lynne Booth & WordCrafter Press Readers’ Group for WordCrafter Press book & event news, including the awesome releases of author Kaye Lynne Booth. She won’t flood your inbox, she NEVER sells her list, and you might get a freebie occasionally. Get a free digital copy of her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction, just for joining.
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Writer’s Corner: What’s an Author to Do?
Posted: June 5, 2023 Filed under: Book Sales, Books, Indie Publishing, Publishing, Self-Publishing, Writer's Corner, Writing | Tags: Book Sales, pricing strategies, Writer's Corner, Writing to be Read 8 CommentsI usually try to avoid letting loose here when something angers me, but I’ve encountered a situation which I feel deserves a good rant, and so I’m going to tell you what urks me, because I can. You don’t have to listen, or continue reading. If I get too caried away, you can just stop, click out of this blog, and go on to read or view something else, but I’m hoping that you will stick with me. If you are an author on Amazon, it concerns you, and maybe even if you are a reader who makes purchases from Amazon, so that’s just about everyone.
As most of you know, I released Delilah through distributors last month. Now, Amazon always drags their feet when I submit for publication, pre-order and distribution, and they are always the last distributor to accept books for pre-order and sale. The print book comes up early, but the Kindle edition is never accepted until the release day. The same happened with Poetry Treasures 3: Passions, and I had folks chomping at the bit to find the pre-order on Amazon, for their Kindle readers. I’m of the opinion that this is their way to express disapproval of my use of a third party aggregator, instead of publishing direct and exclusive to Amazon, and I expect it. This is obviously detrimental to my pre-orders, but what’s an author to do?
Delilah didn’t show up as available on Amazon until the day of release, but then I noticed that the price they had listed for print was listed as much higher than the price that I had set for the book, and down below, where they show third party vendors, it showed that there were at least four copies that were new or like new, at lower prices, with three supposedly used copies available at the price point I had set. I asked myself, how could there exist all these copies of my book, when it just released and hasn’t even sold that many copies yet? And how can they put a $21.81 price tag, (which is a ridiculous pricing strategy anyway), when the price I set, and the price with all the other distributors, is $16.99? What happened to price matching? I mean, seriously. I put a lot of time in to setting that price. Print books are always overpriced anyway, because of the cost of materials, but I was hoping to find a few readers out there willing to pay $17 for a book by a relatively unknown author, did they really think people would pay almost $23? No wonder I wasn’t selling any books. And if someone did buy a book at that price, I wouldn’t get additional royalties for it, it’s all pure profit for Amazon. How is that fair? Since it is my product, shouldn’t I have control of what price is set?
I directed my questions to Draft2Digital, whose support team is excellent at getting back to you and doing whatever they can to solve any issues their authors and publishers my have. The response I got, was the same reponse that they recieved when they inquired at Amazon – a copy of the Amazon ToS, with the section pertaining to third party vendors highlighted. I signed it, I have to abide by it. D2D support claims this is occuring even with traditionally published authors, whose books are still on pre-order, and third party venders claiming that they have used or like new copies before the first copy has been shipped, and Amazon claims, “We see this practice as a no harm, no foul, just some free (if odd) advertising for the book.”
As consumers, we’ve all seen those little third party vendor boxes, claiming to have copies available for cheaper. I’ve even taken advantage of the lower price for the used copy when I needed the book and my pockets were near empty. I didn’t realize that this might really be false advertising which undermines the authors and publishers of the book. What they are doing is not illegal. The customer does recieve a book for the advertised price. They are saying that these books are being offered by third party venders, but I have my doubts when I know those books aren’t even out there yet. The way I figure it, it has to be Amazon, because there is no way a third party vendor could order a book before it is even released, and get it out to the coustomer in a resonable amount of time, but Amazon can meet the demand and make it appear third party.
As authors, there is only so much much we can do, and the effects of what we can do are very limited. We either sign the Amazon ToC, or we don’t sell on Amazon. As a proponant of going wide, that doesn’t sound so bad, to eliminate Amazon distribution, which you have to jump through extra hoops to get anyway. But I think I need to really evaluate where my book sales are coming from, but I’m guessing that a majority of my book sales come from Amazon, because that’s where most readers go when looking for a book. I know I get some through Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, and Kobo, but I’ll bet the sales from all of those channels don’t equal the sales I get from Amazon, regardless of their slightly shady sales tactics.
So, it looks like Amazon has authors right where they want them. They don’t even have to price match anymore. They can set whatever price they want for your book, claim third party vendors, (who may or may not truly exist), have copies which they couldn’t possibly have, regardless that their shady marketing strategies may be sabotaging our book sales. What they are doing is no accident. No. It is purposeful. They are aware of what they are doing, and they covered their butts by writing it into their ToC. Basically, we are helpless to do anything about it. I really am going to take a close look at my numbers, but I doubt I will find that Amazon isn’t as big a part of my sales as I think they are. It would be nice if I could drop Amazon to show them I won’t put up with dishonesty surrounding my product, but the truth is, authors need them, bacause they have become this big conglomerate monster who is the biggest global book distributor, for better or for worse.
I can shout from my blog site, alerting my readers that they can purchase from other distributors and not pay the extorted Amazon price, and I feel I need to, because what Amazon is doing may be legal, but it still feels dishonest, and they are doing it with my product and misrepresenting my brand. I can encourage readers to purchase from other distributors, but I can’t change the reality that most of them will buy through Amazon. I can cancel my Prime subscription, which I did, but I doubt Amazon will loose much sleep over that.
But there may be some hope in sight. Angela, over at Writer’s Weekly, talks about this same problem for other authors, explaining what Amazon has been doing, but not why, and offers some hope that these practices may change soon. It seems backm in 2011, Amazon purchased Book Depository, and they’ve been making them the main buy button on some books, with a higher price and no free shipping. I think the higher prices would be detrimental to sales, and certainly having to pay for shipping would be, especially to Prime memebers who already payfor that benefit in their monthly subscriptions, but apparently Amazon felt they could make more monhey that way? What happened to their price matching strategy? They can’t even match the price the author set for the book, let alone match a discounted price for a book. The good news is it seems like this problem may be ending, as they are getting rid of Book Depository, but I brace myself to see what Amazon will do next to put the screws to authors.
We are not totally helpless. As a publisher, (and if you self-publish, you are a publisher, too), we can publish wide, and offer readers a choice of book distributors. Many may still choose to purchase through Amazon because of ease, because they pay for Prime, because they read digital books on a Kindle device, or just because that’s what they are used to, but at least this way, they have a choice. And to make it easier still for readers, we can use a linking service, such as Books2Read, which gathers all available distributors into one link and visually shows readers that they have a choice. It’s much easier than posting links for each distributor with each promotion, even if you copy/paste. You get Books2Read links automatically when you publish through D2D, but I think it’s free to create an independent account. I’m not sure on that last point, because I have mine through D2D, but I believe it to be true. Let me show you one of WordCrafter Press‘ Books2Read links. When they click on the purchase link for the book in your promo, this is what potential readers see. Then they can choose the distributor of their choice to make a purchase.
This works for authors who choose to hybrid publish, too. Say you want to publish to most distributors through D2D, but you wish to publish direct to Amazon, because they get better service that way, and you want to publish your book in hard cover, which D2D doesn’t do. Books2Read allows you add those other distributor links, so everything is found in one place. WordCrafter doesn’t do this, but I’ll show you what Mark Leslie’s Books2Read landing page looks like for his latest release, Hex in the City, because I know that he is a hybrid publisher, meaning he has some books published traditionally, and others that he’s published himself. I don’t see anyway to purchase direct from his site. That may still be down the road a ways. Publishing wide and using Books2Read to give readers a choice of distributors is one small way that authors can encourage readers to use distributors other than Amazon, distributors that won’t deal with your book in a shady manor or try to screw authors just because they can and get away with it. It probably won’t bring about any drastic changes, but it’s something.
Again, according to Writere’s Weekly, I’m not the only one unhappy with Amazon. Even their own KDP authors appear to be grumbling about the way they treat their own authors by falsely marking books “In Stock”, a determination which apparently effects the costs for shipping authors pay. It’s not exactly the problem which I ran into, but similar. If you think I’m upset, you should check out this story. Some authors are having to fight for their royalties due, it seems, because they spoke out against the big A. Now this is scary. Just think about being an exclusive KDP author and having Amazon decide they don’t like you for whatever reason. If you are exclusive, that’s all of your book sales income. By going wide, you couls at least fall back on the income from other distributors. Even if it isn’t much, it would be better than just loosing everything. You can read more about that here:
It seems like, whether we publish direct through Amazon, or through a third party aggregator, authors are all in the same boat, and Amazon is going to do whatever they want. They aren’t going to change their pricing practices, or their shipping processes, for anyone. They have us over a barrel, because they are the biggest global book distributor. Most book sales come from Amazon, because most consumers chose the ease of shopping and satisfying customer experience which Amazon offers and the other book distributors cannot compete. We could all pull our books and only sell through the other book distributors, but that might be like cutting off our noses to spite opur faces. Let’s face it, for an author, not having your books available on Amazon would be like commiting writing career suicide. Publishing wide and offering readers a choice of distributors sounds like a much better option to me no matter how much Amazon peeves me.
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For Kaye Lynne Booth, writing is a passion. Kaye Lynne is an author with published short fiction and poetry, both online and in print, including her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction; and her paranormal mystery novella, Hidden Secrets. Kaye holds a dual M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing with emphasis in genre fiction and screenwriting, and an M.A. in publishing. Kaye Lynne is the founder of WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services and WordCrafter Press. She also maintains an authors’ blog and website, Writing to be Read, where she publishes content of interest in the literary world.
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Want exclusive content? Join Kaye Lynne Booth & WordCrafter Press Readers’ Group for WordCrafter Press book & event news, including the awesome releases of author Kaye Lynne Booth. She won’t flood your inbox, she NEVER sells her list, and you might get a freebie occasionally. Get a free digital copy of her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction, just for joining.
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Writer’s Corner: My First Kickstarter
Posted: March 6, 2023 Filed under: Book Promotion, Books, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Kickstarter, marketing, Women's Fiction, WordCrafter Press, Writer's Corner | Tags: Delilah, Kaye Lynne Booth, Kickstarter, Women in the West adventure series, Writer's Corner, Writing to be Read 5 CommentsA Kickstarter campaign allows authors to find supporters who believe in thier work and want to support them, and it is a method of direct sales for authors, which allows us to cut out the middle-man distributors and their percentage and make more money from our books. But it is also a platform where readers and fans can get some really cool stuff for their supporting dollars. It’s just a “Give me… Give me… Give me…” platform, but one where it is our job to make sure our fans and readers can get a good value for their buck, providing cool rewards in exchange for monetary support of the project. It is similar to the famous artists of the past, who found patrons to support them and their works, so they would have the time to create their art. A Kickstarter campaign is a similiar type of patronage available to authors. And what’s really cool is, we’re not begging, we’re selling books and other cool stuff without the middle man. No book distributors to take their cut. Of course, Kickstarter gets a cut, but the also provide the platformand tools to run a successful Kickstarter campaign, and the analytics to measure your succcess, which, I think, is well worth it. (More on direct selling with Kickstarter here.)
In Jaunuary, I ran my first Kickstarter for Delilah and the Women in the West adventure series. The goal I set was $500 and I decided on a thirty day campaign.
This series has three books planned so far, each featuring a strong female protagonist and appearances by historic female characters. Delilah is a western, but it is also historic women’s fiction and will appeal to all three audiences. Delilah was my first novel to be published, but the publisher really didn’t get what Delilah is all about, because they billed it as western romance. Although there is a romance thread running through this story, it’s not the main thread. Western romance is not a good way to categorize this book and it did not do well. When my contract ran out, I decided to revise it, making it read closer to my original story. I guess you could say this is the “unimproved” version, that goes back to before I veered from my original plot line. As I did the rewrite, I realized that there were other characters in this story who bear to have their stories told, and the idea for the Women in the West adventure series was born. But, this post is about the Kickstarter campaign experience rather than the books, and I’m veering from the topic.
So without further ado, let’s take a look at my Kickstarter campaign, what I might have done wrong, and what I might have done right.
How a Kickstarter campaign works
Kickstarter was designed with the creative economy in mind, before it was labeled the creative economy. You start with a project. In my case, it is Delilah, which is book one of my Women in the West adventure series. I chose this project because the book is finished, and already scheduled for release on March 21, so I knew for sure that I would be able to deliver the goods.
Once the campaign launches, your readers, fans, and others who would like to support your work can pledge their support at the different reward levels you’ve set up, or pledge for any amount, just because they believe in your project. I set up three levels: $5 with an early digital copy of the book, $25 with a signed print copy, and $50 with an opportunity to name a character in book two.
You can also offer add-ons for each level so they can get even more cool stuff if they choose, because you want to offer your fans as much value as possible, since this is a method for direct sales, not digital pan handling. I offered a PDF copy of my short story, “Don’t Eat the Pickled Eggs”; an audio reading of my flash fiction Western story, “I Had to Do It”; and an interview with Delilah.
You set a goal for the amount you need to raise. You don’t want to set it too high, because Kickstarter is an all or nothing deal. If you don’t reach your goal by the end of the campaign, your backers don’t have to pay anything and you don’t have to deliver anything. However, if you make it and are funded then you get anything over your goal amount, minus Kickstarter’s cut, of course.
I was fortunate to be able to follow Kevin J. Anderson’s Kickstarter campaign for his book, Double Booked and his Dan Shambles Zombie P.I. series, from start to finish and it was amazing. His Kickstarter funded within the first 36 minutes, which I thought was phenomenal. His campaign was one of the things that made me decide to give Kickstarter a try.
My Kickstarter Experience
I sent out media blasts in December announcing the pre-launch page, which received a total of five folks signing up to be notified when the campaign launched, which I did not take to be a good sign, but I figured that it could be because the pre-launch page did not reveal the rewards offered for supporting the campaign.
On launch day, I published a blog post about the campaign, asking for people’s supportand sending out social media blasts on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pintrest. I also sent out a newsletter dedicated to the Kickstarter on opening day to alert my readers to the campaign. And, I know of several individuals who sent out social media blasts on my behalf. I even went out on a limb with some paid advertising aimed at super backers, for a minimal amount, since it was my first time using Kickstarter. Now if my campaign didn’t fund, I’d be in the hole, but I wanted to do everything I could to make this a successful campaign.
That first day, the campaign only funded 13%, but I was thankful that I had even a few backers. I launched on January 3, which was News Year’s Day (observed), so technically, still a holiday, so people may not have been back on social media. It went up to 19% on the second day, and it stayed there through day 4, when it went up to 20%. I sent out more social media blasts to promote the campaign. Then I watched and waited… And waited… And waited… But it stayed at 20%. I really started to worry.
What if it didn’t fund? Then all my hard work would be for naught. And a Kickstarter campaign is work, make no mistake. I know I’m not Brandon Sanderson, or even Kevin J. Anderson. I didn’t expect my campaign to fund within 23 minutes. But this was ridiculous. I couldn’t even get a quarter of the way to my modest goal of $500. I tried to keep a positive outlook, but it was frustrating.
I was driving myself nuts, checking the status of the campaign several times a day, so I vowed to stop, and instead, watch for the morning and evening updates from Kickstarter in my email inbox. My constant checking couldn’t make people want to support this project. They would come on thier own, if they were going to. I had known that the possibility of not being funded existed going into this. All I could do was wait…, and see what would happen.
I sent out more media blasts. I checked my twice daily updates. There’s was still no change by Day 8. I emailed Kevin, because he’s the only author I know of who has actually done a Kickstarter, and even though he is no longer my professor, he is a really nice guy, so he sent out an additional blast and sent me suggestions of things to try.
Day 10, and still no growth. What was I doing wrong? Are the rewards I’ve chosen to offer not appealing? Am I missing the mark with my target audiences? Was I targeting the wrong audiences? Is there really only five people out there who believe in me and my work enough to support me? All these thoughts were going through my head.
Friday the 13th saw the project past the 20% mark, which made me feel a little better, even if it was only up to 23%. And on the 15th, the campaign bumped up to 34%, which was downright heartening. It was a single pledge, at the $50 level – the first pledge I’d had at that top level. That fact was exciting to me, in and of itself.
Then, on the 16th, there was no growth once more, and I bagan to forsee another stall just below the $200.00 mark. I knew I wasn’t going to fund on the first day, like better known authors might, but I had thought that I would be funded by the halfway mark, so I could relax and have fun adding stretch goals and rewards. I wasn’t expecting to still be trying to reach the origianl goal at this point in the game, so I couldn’t help but to be feel a bit disappointed. I had a total of eight backers. Was there really so few people that believe in me and this project? So again, I waited… and waited… and waited some more.
I boosted a post on Facebook, in hopes of pulling in some more backers. Although it showed that people were engaging with the post, it didn’t seem to be bringing me any new backers. Was it because I chose a western for my project? I knew my covers for these books weren’t great, but if funded, some of that money was to go for improving the cover design. The boost ran out on the 26th, with a reach of 86, an engagement of 168, thru plays of the video 162 and one click through. The numbers didn’t seem to say the boost did all that great, even if the one clickthrough decided to back the project.
Heavy Competition
On the 18th, Kevin J. Anderson launched his Kickstarter for Dragon Business & Skeleton in the Closet, and his campaign funded almost immediately. By the time I checked in around noon, he already had double the goal that he’d set. I was definitely doing something wrong. I was still stalled at 34%, which might as well have been 0%, because if mine didn’t fund and reach my $500 goal, I wouldn’t recieve anything. Of course, it could still fund, but there was only 13 days left, and I wasn’t even close to halfway there.
I took a look at KJA’s successful Kickstarter campaign. His covers are very colorful, his story is humorous medievil fantasy, and one must keep in mind that his fan base is huge and he has worked to build it for many years. The campaign Dragon Business & Skeletons in the Closet gained 200 backers in two days. Mine was 20 days in and I had a total of 12 backers.
The one that I followed from behind the scenes for Double-Booked and the Dan Shamble P.I. series also featured colorful covers for humorous tales of fantasy or speculative fiction, and Delilah and the Women in the West covers are almost montone, with a minimal amount of color, and then they are westerns. Perhaps I picked the wrong project for my Kickstarter campaign. At the very least, I wasn’t getting it in front of the correct target audience.
Heading this section “Heavy Competition” is a bit misleading. It would be a joke to compare my Kickstarter campaign to Kevin J. Anderson’s. His has multiple support levels, with a variety of rewards such as personalized messages from the author, and mugs and tee-shirts featuring the very cool artwork connected to the cover art, with a numerous variety of add-ons available. Once his campaign funded on the first day, he began adding stretch goals, which means backers get even more more cool stuff as he reaches each one, if I understand them correctly. And his video attains a level of professionalism which I can’t hope to reach with my very limited skills in this area.
My three support levels and rewards couldn’t compare in any manner. My campaign goal was $500 and I couldn’t hope to launch a campaign the caliber of his, which was earning literally thousands of dollars, well exceeding his $2000 goal. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t learn from it.
Desperate Measures
On the 20th, I sent out an email blast manually to other authors I have worked with, asking for their support. I just came out and said that I was stuck at 34% funded and asked them to help me reach my goal. I had to do something to find backers for this project. It is a good project, (I think), but I needed a little over $300 still to reach my goal. And the next morning, I woke up to find I had 2 new backers from the email of the night before, so maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea. I still wasn’t fully funded, but it brought me over the $200 mark (41%), and got things moving in the right direction once more. Later that day, I gained another backer, pushing it up to 43%. It seems those $5 pledges add up. It wasn’t a lot, but I was quite happy to have made even this much progress. Yet, I also knew I still had a long way to go and the clock was ticking. There were only 10 days left in which to find enough backers.
The email blast brought out at least a few more backers. It was the best results I’d had from everything I had tried so far, so on the 22nd, I sent out another blast to folks on my other email contacts. This email was older, and had people in the contacts who I hadn’t contacted in a while and may not have made the switch to my new WordCrafter email. I knew each one of them, so even though it might be coming out of the blue, they weren’t cold calls. I got a couple of new backers out of that, bringing the project up over the half-way mark, (51%), but with only eight days left, I had my doubts that it would bring enough. It just didn’t look very promising.
I did have one recipient who recieved a message from the second blast, from my older email, who promptly notified me that I’d been hacked. Since I don’t usually send out form letters in email blasts, she was sure someone else must be behind it. She was looking out for my best interests, and I appreciated that. Even though I wasn’t asking something for nothing, and I was offering some appealing rewards, or at least I thought I was, this was beginning to feel like a I was just saying, “Hey, give me money.”
The 24th brought some excitement, with a second $50 pledge, bring the campaign to 63% funded. I was getting closer to my goal. I’d still need to find backers for another 37%, but I was closer. It was a brighter outlook than I’d had recently, as I was thinking I wouldn’t have a chance to make it. Now, it suddenly seemed more of a possibility again. This up and down Kickstarter rollercoaster was crazy. It seemed it might be easier to just send out posts and emails saying, “Buy my book!” Buy my book!”
Waiting for something to happen to raise the bar toward the goal was excruciating, and the days drug out as nothing significant happened. I knew I needed to make something happen, so I sent out one last blast on Facebook to see if I couldn’t muster some more support. I still saw no growth.
In the end, being stalled at 63% wasn’t that much better than being stalled at 34%, because neither of them can make a successful Kickstarter campaign. It’s 100% or nothing, and with only two days left, it was looking more and more like it would be nothing.
On the 30th, I put out a last ditch effort to fund this project by putting out a plea in my WordCrafter News post. And I sent out another small media blast with a ticking clock. There was only one day left in the campaign, but it could fund in that time. It’s not likely that a rush of backers would show up at the last minute and save the campaign, but it could happen, so I put it out there. At this point, things looked bleak.
At the 36 hour mark, I recieved another pledge at the top tier, which brought it up to 80% funded, leaving only $99 to go. With 36 hours left, it was possible, but not probable. But this was really close to the goal. Closer than I thought it would get as I watched of the past couple of weeks. I allowed my hopes to be raised a little, but deep down, I feared that it wasn’t enough.
Final Outcome
It came down to the final day of the campaign and the campaign was still stalled at 80%. It was close, but close doesn’t make a successful campaign. I intentionally did not check my Kickstarter pages again until we were down to the 3 hour mark. When
I finally did check in, I was pleasantly surprised to have moved up to the 90% mark. Now this was exciting.
The last needed $50 pledge came in with 2 hours left to go, and the campaign funded. I think I was in shock, at first. I’d been resigned to it not funding, and now here I was fully funded. I had an additional pledge come in My Kickstarter campaign was successful!
Acknowledgements
A successful Kickstarter doesn’t happen without the people who believe in it enough to back it. These are the external backers, which means they were not generated within the Kickstarter platform, but their support was the result from something I did to promote the campaign. I believe most of these backers were generated from the email campaigns which I sent out. In other words, I know these folks in some capacity, some in person, and others across vast distances over the internet, and that makes it more personal. These are the people which I’m lucky to have in my corner.
A big thank you to:
- Cheryl Boyd – my best friend from junior high
- Kevin J. Anderson – my friend and mentor
- Robbie Cheadle – blog teammate, WordCrafter Press author, and multiple anthology contributor
- Nancy Oswald – author friend
- Christy Burmingham-Reyes – blog follower
- Sara Wesley McBride – an anthology contributor and writing friend
- Kieth Hoskins – an contributor to multiple anthologies
- Ligia deWit – anthology contributor
- Amy Cecil – anthology contributor and author friend
- Mark Leslie Lefebvre – anthology contributor and author friend
- Marie Whitaker – WordFire Press contact and author friend
- James Richards – a WordCrafter Press author
- Avily Jerome – anthology contributor
- Tim & Wanda Ward – friends and neighbors
- Miriam Hurdle – blog tour host and anthology contributor
Also, a big thanks to those who supported the campaign in non-monetary ways, such as spreading the word to garner support for the campaign. In promoting the campaign, I said repeatedly that all support was appreciated, and I meant that, including social media blasts, retweets and sharing on social media. Although I don’t have names for all of you, since these things went on behind scenes and there are probably many who I don’t even know about, but I thank you all so much for your support. I could not have done it without you.
Lessons Learned
Kickstarters are a lot of work. I knew that going into this, after watching behind the scenes for KJA’s campaign, so that was no surprise. Most of the people I know who supported the campaign are not big western fans. But enough people believed in me, and believed in this project, that it was able to fully fund in the end.
There are many things which could have affected negatively on my campaign: choosing to run a Kickstarter at the beginning of January, on the heels of the holiday season; chosing a project in the western genre; not spending more on paid advertising, etc…
But my analysis leads me to believe that I failed to reach my target audience effectively for this cross-genre series, which should appeal to lovers of westerns, and women’s fiction and even those who enjoy historical ficton, but it seems I missed the mark in the promotions. I thought I would reach a wider audience, since this series has strong female protagonists, bringing it into both the women’s fiction and historical fiction realms. Maybe, I don’t know how to find my target audience, but I will keep searching for them. An author friend of mine thinks I may be using the wrong social media channels, and suggested that I launch myself on Tik-Tok to tap into my target audience. Maybe I’ll consider it in the future, but for now, I must continue on my planned path and give things time to work out.
Kickstarter can be a successful way of direct selling. Not all campaigns will be as successful as KJA’s campaigns, but this proves that even the little, unknown, independent authors like me can have a successful campaign. Maybe my audience wasn’t big enough? Maybe I wasn’t reaching the right audience? Perhaps a different project would have done better. Maybe I’ll try again in the future with a different book, different genre and see what happens. Maybe…
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The release date for Delilah is March 21, 2023. You can preorder a digital or print copy from your book distributor of choice here: https://books2read.com/DelilahWIW
Delilah is a woman haunted by her past.
Her homecoming from prison quickly turns into a quest for vengeance when she is brutally raped and left for dead, and her fourteen-year-old ward is abducted. Sheer will and determination take this tough and gritty heroine up against wild beasts of the forest, Indians and outlaws to Leadville.
Can the colorful inhabitants of the Colorado mining town work their way into Delilah’s heart, offering a chance for a future she thought she’d lost along with her innocence?
If you like strong and capable female protagonists, you’ll love Delilah.
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For Kaye Lynne Booth, writing is a passion. Kaye Lynne is an author with published short fiction and poetry, both online and in print, including her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction; and her paranormal mystery novella, Hidden Secrets. Kaye holds a dual M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing with emphasis in genre fiction and screenwriting, and an M.A. in publishing. Kaye Lynne is the founder of WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services and WordCrafter Press. She also maintains an authors’ blog and website, Writing to be Read, where she publishes content of interest in the literary world.
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Want exclusive content? Join Kaye Lynne Booth & WordCrafter Press Readers’ Group for WordCrafter Press book & event news, including the awesome releases of author Kaye Lynne Booth. She won’t flood your inbox, she NEVER will sells her list, and you might get a freebie occasionally. Get a free digital copy of her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction, just for joining.
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Writer’s Corner: What I learned from NaNoWriMo
Posted: February 6, 2023 Filed under: Books, Fiction, Writer's Corner, Writing, Writing Challenge | Tags: Kaye Lynne Booth, NaNoWriMo, The Rock Star & the Outlaw, Writer's Corner, Writing Challenge, Writing to be Read 3 CommentsNovember is National Novel Writing Month
The first time I tried my hand at NaNoWriMo was back in 2010. I had only recently discovered the opportunities for authors and writers offered on the internet, and had decided to try once more to make a go of writing, so I was exploring my options, but didn’t really know what I was doing as a writer at that point. And I had no idea how to go about writing a book, or how to go about writing a book very quickly, and I failed miserably.
Since then, I’ve put an M.F.A. and an M.A. under my belt in the creative writing arena, and so I gave it a second shot in November of 2022. I chose to write The Rock Star & the Outlaw, a western time-travel romance adventure. This time I was better prepared, with my project outlined and actually had a 21,000 word start before the writing challenge began. I also had recently read Booked to the Gills, by Aisley Oliphant, which offers strategies like time blocking and reserving out time for self-care in order to be easier to live with during the challenge, and prioritizing, and I was anxious to see if I could apply some of these strategies in my own writing. You can read my full “Review in Practice” here.
The challenge, for those who do not know, is to write 50,000 words in 30 days, which is no easy task. I figured if I succeeded, I would have a 71,000 word novel, but even if I didn’t complete it, I wouldn’t be far from a completed novel. What you’re about to read is a summary of my experience with the 2022 NaNoWriMo and what I learned from it.
Lessons learned
- Time blocking – this was a strategy suggested by Aisley Oliphant in Booked to the Gills. It involves planning out your schedule and making blocks of time specifically dedicated to the writing of your story. It’s good advice, which is helpful in getting the story written in the allotted amount of time. I found that with my busy and unpredictable life, it was better for me to block out shorter time frames, sometimes only 15 minutes, to squeeze writing in between everything else. It was nice when I could dedicate a few hours to a stretch, of course, but that wasn’t possible every day, espesially days I had to work my day job. I tried blocking out writing times during different times during the day, and I didn’t hesitate to create an unscheduled block at three a.m. when I couldn’t sleep.
- Prioritze self-care – also highly suggested by Ms. Oliphant in order to maintain friendships and family during and following the challenge. Self-care should be a priority and not allotting time for tending mental, physical and spiritual needs can make one cranky and unbearable to be around. I made sure I took time out for personal pleasures, such as going out to dinner, allowing myself to clear my mind and gather my thoughts, along with all the other activities I have going on in my life. This was another reason that shorter time blocks seemed to work better for me.
- Get adaquet sleep – This is a necessity. While I could write into the wee hours of the morning when I was younger, I find that these days, I can barely stay awake past 10 p.m. I now find myself falling asleep at the keyboard. Also, I find that when I’m tired, my thoughts become muddled and I have difficulty focusing. This was another reason that I wasn’t very productive on days when I worked the day job.
- Be prepared – This one wasn’t a strategy offered up by Ms. Oliphant. This was one I learned on my own. Going into a writing challenge like this, with a 21,000 word head start, I assumed I was ready to do this. But on November 1, I realized that I should have matched up what I had written with my working outline. When I did that on the first day I found a couple of places where it didn’t match up, creating plot holes which needed fixing before I could move forward, so my whole first week was spent smoothing those out and it wasn’t until Day 8 that I was able to exceed the daily goal of 1,667. To truly succeed with the NANoWriMo challenge, I think it is important to be ready to hit the ground running.
- Choose a project you are passionate about – This may be the most important lesson for me, because I don’t think I would have done as well as I did, had I not been so exciting about writing this story. Inspired by the music of my favorite rock band, The Pretty Reckless and other artists, I had began writing this story two years prior, and was writing on it full speed ahead when I ran into a road block concerning music copyrights. But I never forgot about it. In fact, over the past year I came up with a work-around to my roadblock, so it was never far from my mind. Even two years later, pulling it out still stirred the excitement within me, and that’s how I knew this was the project I wanted to use for this challenge. To write prolifically, such as the 1,667 words per day required for this challenge, I believe one must have this passion for the project to be properly motivated.
Final outcome
There were good days, when I was able to exceed the daily word count, and there were days when I didn’t even come remotely close. Although I tried to clear my November schedule as much as possible, scheduling blog posts a month ahead of time, etc…, I still had to struggle through life’s trials, and go through the motions of daily life, making the blocking of writing time tricky at times. At the end of November, when all was said and done, I had a manuscript of 52,000 words, but I did not truly meet the challenge, because of my original 21,000 words. The NaNoWriMo gang congratuated me when I hit the 50,000 mark and gave me a winner’s certificate. My real word count at that point was 29,000 words, and I knew that, but I claimed the winner’s certificate anyway, because in my mind, I was a winner in my own challenge. I was walking away from this challenge 29,000 words closer to having a completed story, and I managed to bang out another 2,000 words before the month came to a close.
I kept working on the story through the month of December. Although I couldn’t dedicate as much time to it, as I prepared for the Kickstarter for Delilah in January, I finished off the month with 59,000, but the story still wasn’t finished. I hope to have the first draft done by the end of February. Of course, even then, it won’t be publish-worthy. It will need to have a first edit by me, then go to beta readers,then another editing pass by me with revisions, then to another set of eyes for an edit, then back for a last pass by me. The idea for NaNoWriMo wasn’t to produce a polished manuscript, but just to get the words down on the page. The polishing comes later. I’m estimating a release date for The Rock Star & the Outlaw toward the end of 2023.
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For Kaye Lynne Booth, writing is a passion. Kaye Lynne is an author with published short fiction and poetry, both online and in print, including her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction; and her paranormal mystery novella, Hidden Secrets. Kaye holds a dual M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing with emphasis in genre fiction and screenwriting, and an M.A. in publishing. Kaye Lynne is the founder of WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services and WordCrafter Press. She also maintains an authors’ blog and website, Writing to be Read, where she publishes content of interest in the literary world.
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Want exclusive content? Join Kaye Lynne Booth & WordCrafter Press Readers’ Group for WordCrafter Press book & event news, including the awesome releases of author Kaye Lynne Booth. She won’t flood your inbox, she NEVER will sells her list, and you might get a freebie occasionally. Get a free digital copy of her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction, just for joining.
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Writer’s Corner: Great Beginnings
Posted: December 19, 2022 Filed under: Anthology, Beginnings, Books, Excerpt, Fiction, Short Fiction, Stories, WordCrafter Press, Writer's Corner, Writing | Tags: Excerpts, Julie Jones, Kaye Lynne Booth, Leah Cutter, Roberta Eaton Cheadle, Story beginnings, Visions, Writer's Corner, Writing to be Read 2 CommentsSome opening lines are so well known as that the story can be identified just by them and nothing more.
- “Call me Ishmeal.” – Herman Melville, Moby Dick, 1851
- “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” – Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, 1859
- “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” – George Orwell, 1984, 1949
Memorable opening lines like these are strokes of brilliance on the part of the authors, perhaps with a little luck and a bit of literary magic mixed in. But for the common author, the trick is to find the best opening possible, especially with the growing numbers of books and authors that are out there competing for readers. We need to find words that will make our work shine above the rest, words that will catch readers attention and draw them into the story, words that will be unique and memorable.
The beginning of a story can serve many purposes, only one of which is giving us a place to start. The opening sentences of paragraphs also need to draw readers’ interest, stirring questions that will make them want to read further, but they can also introduce the characters or offer a senseof place and time with vivid descriptions of setting. All my life I’ve heard about how important the opening lines of a story are, but it never really took root until I compiled five short fiction anthologies over the past two years.
My regular readers will remember that I sat on the editorial team for the Gilded Glass anthology and compiled a volume of Weird Tales to earn my M.A. in publishing. For new readers, who don’t know the story, we had over 600 submissions to comb through for Gilded Glass, and toward the end of the initial readings, if the beginning didn’t grab me right away, it was gone. There were just too many submissions to waste time on ones that I couldn’t engage with from the very beginning. This was rather painful for me, believe it or not, because I knew there were probably some good stories in there that just needed to be reworked a bit to become gems, and I didn’t have the time, or energy to find them.
On the other side of things, there were so many really good stories submitted that there was no way we could include them all, so many of the stories I truly loved didn’t make it into the anthology, and I felt it was a shame to have to turn them all away, so I kept a list of stories that I had fallen in love with, and after the final selection for Gilded Glass were made, I invited each author to have their stories included in a WordCrafter Press anthology. Not all of the authors accepted my offer, but enough did that I had material for three anthologies, and Once Upon an Ever After, Refracted Reflections, and the Visions anthologies were born.
Although I’ve strayed a bit in telling you all this, my point was that many of the stories included in those three anthologies got there because they had beginnings that were good enough to make me continue reading. Let me share with you three of my favorite story beginnings from the Visions anthology.
“I followed the two men down the beach for over an hour before I realized they were kidnapping me. I noticed howm far we’d strayed when the sun touched its reflection on the Carribean horizon, forming a perfect figure eight that shot rays of gold in all directions. The failing light and my primitive camera meant an end to the day’s photo shoot, so I decided to let them take me.
Julie Jones – “Tourist Trap”
“Tourist Trap” is one of my favorites because it not only does a great job of giving me a sense of place with its setting description, but also leaves me with several questions, which now must be answered because my curiosity has been picqued. The nonchallant delivery of the words gives the impression that our character is not concerned by what most people would consider to be unusual, and maybe even alarming, circumstances. Why? Come on. Be honest. Now that you’ve read the above paragraph, don’t you just need to read more?
“He came toward her. His body moved lithely and confidentely, muscles rippling under tight-fitting jeans and white T-shirt. Thick, black hair covered his well-shaped head with its tawny skin and lightly stubbled jaw.
She peeped at his eyes. Those mysterious eyes she’d heard about. Her stomach dropped, lips numbed, and a strange ringing started in her ears.His eyes shone amber in the late afternon sun, like a predator before the kill. Even if she hadn’t known who and what he was, those awful eyes with their many sides like a diamond, would have filled her with terror.”
Roberta Eaton Cheadle – “The Bite”
This visceral opening comes from the winning story from the 2022 WordCrafter Short Fiction Contest, “The Bite”, which is feaatured in the anthology. It sets the tone for the story, while offering hints about the characters, and stirring up just enough questions to make readers want to know more. Cheadle describes some very unusual eyes, and hints that this character is more than what he appears to be here. Who is this guy?
“I was staring out across the darkness of space, ignoring my hunger and isolation, when an alarm blared, startling me out of my meditations. I pulled my thoughts from where they’d wandered, sinking once again into my real-time brain, just as I pulled in my two-dozen tentacles in toward my body. Instead of presenting a sprawling mass, I was now a streamlined bullet.”
Leah Cutter – “The Survivor”
The opening for “The Survivor” offers up a lot of information about the setting and situation, and enough about the character to make readers curious, and make them want to read more. Who is this lone character in space? Obviously not a human. Why is the alarm blaring? Has Cutter picqued your curiosity as much as she did mine?
It wouldn’t be fair to use the openings of others without taking a look at one of my own, so let’s take a look at my contribution to the Visions anthology, as well. My story was “If You’re Happy and You Know It”, which was originally published in The Collapsar Directive anthology, by Zombie Pirates Publishing in 2017. Give it a look and see if you think I did my job well with this opening.
“The way everyone was acting, you’d think it was a crime to be happy. And looking back, maybe it was, or at least, it might as well have been.
I think it started on a Saturday, or maybe a Sunday, so no one really noticed at first, including me. Everyone had recieved their regular allotment of S-Dopa for the weekend, so if they noticed anything, they would have assumed I’d just recieved a double dose, which didn’t happen often, but it did happen. On Monday however, when I sang along with the radio which ws always playing in the background at the computer factory as we slaved away everyday, the others gave me sidelong glances, as if, perhaps, I’d lost my mind.”
Kaye Lynne Booth – “If You’re Happy and You Know It”
You can hear an audio excerpt from this story here: https://youtu.be/2X-7XiL3uHg or you can purchase a copy of Visions here: https://books2read.com/u/49Lk28
Which beginnings make YOU want to keep reading? I invite you to share your favorite beginning in the comments below. It will make it more of a conversation, (as Joanna Penn says).
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For Kaye Lynne Booth, writing is a passion. Kaye Lynne is an author with published short fiction and poetry, both online and in print, including her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction; and her paranormal mystery novella, Hidden Secrets. Kaye holds a dual M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing with emphasis in genre fiction and screenwriting, and an M.A. in publishing. Kaye Lynne is the founder of WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services and WordCrafter Press. She also maintains an authors’ blog and website, Writing to be Read, where she publishes content of interest in the literary world.
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Join Kaye Lynne Booth & WordCrafter Press Readers’ Group for WordCrafter Press book & event news, including the awesome releases of author Kaye Lynne Booth. Get a free digital copy of her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction, as a sampling of her works just for joining.
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Writer’s Corner: Writing Communities & Tribes and more…
Posted: September 12, 2022 Filed under: WordCrafter, WordCrafter Book Blog Tours, WordCrafter Press, Writer's Corner, Writing Communities | Tags: Kaye Lynne Booth, Writer's Corner, Writing Communities, Writing to be Read 2 CommentsI often say that I am a one woman show at WordCrafter Press, and for the most part, that is true. I write stories and books, edit, publish and promote. But if I’ve learned only one thing throughout all of my writing and educational endeavors, it’s that there is just too much for a single person to handle it all. Especially when you are as over-ambitious as I am, and try to produce three different anthologies simultaneously.
One thing that I’ve found to be great about the independent author community is that most everyone is willing to extend a helping hand to others who are on the same journey, if perhaps at different points along the way. I have admired this in other authors whom I’ve met along my own journey, and aspired to do the same in my own writing endeavors. I do it by offering reviews on my blog, by doing author interviews, by running a newsletter swap group where members promote other members work in their newsletters, and by offering affordable editing and social media book promotion services.
A lot of this is just a way to pay it forward, and I’m a firm believer that it all comes back to me, in one way or another. Kevin J. Anderson refers to his writing community, which is growing with every cohort he takes in at Western Colorado University, his tribe. I was a part of that tribe and I guess I still am, although at a distance.
As I and my cohort members hang up our student hats and go back to our own individual writing lives, that network that we built during our course studies relaxes and becomes much more loosely knit, but I know they are all still there. Heck, I’m still in contact with most of the members of my original cohort, from my M.F.A., and some of those from my second emphasis cohort, too. Some drift away in time, but others have been, or will be, incorporated into my own tribe, the tribe that I’ve created right here, on Writing to be Read and social media channels. You, my friends, are a part of the writing community that I’ve created over a decade.
And that’s not a bad thing. This is the writing community which I have worked to build and create, and it’s filled with some really great people, who always seem to be there when I need them. (And hopefully, they can say the same about me.) Let me tell you a little bit about my tribe and the great people that make up my own writing network. if you’ve followed me for a time, you may know or recognize many of them.
First on the list is Robbie Cheadle, who puts out three different blog series on Writing to be Read, and coedits the Poetry Treasures anthology each year, is always willing to host tour stops for WordCrafter Book Blog Tours, and participates in WordCrafter Press anthologies and the resulting blog tours, and occasionally finds time to edit some of my works.
Next, is Jeff Bowles, who was in my second emphasis cohort. Jeff currently runs one blog series, but he has produced several others on the past, and he’s always willing to throw up a fill in post in a pinch. He has also participated in WordCrafter Press anthologies and the resulting blog tours, and in WordCrafter writing events.
Arthur Rosch has been a member of my blog team for many years, has participated in WordCrafter anthologies. D.L. Mullan has provided cover design services and helps with WordCrafter book events, and currently hosts tour stops and provides reviews for WordCrafter Book Blog Tours and has a story featured in the up coming Visions anthology.
Just as I depend on my blog team, WordCrafter Book Blog Tours couldn’t exists without my wonderful hosts: Miriam Hurdle, Patty Fletcher, Annette Rochelle Aben, Victoria Zigler, Carla Hicks, Barbara Spencer, James Cudney, and Jessica Bakers, in addition to those mentioned above.
My tribe is growing. I’ve recently added new friends, including Mark Leslie Lefebvre, who graciously joined in as a contributor for Ask the Authors 2022, and Sara Wesley McBride, who has two stories featured in the upcoming Visions anthology, and got her husband, Wes McBride, to design the fabulous new cover for it. And I am blessed with the opportunity to work with some truly talented authors with every anthology WordCrafter Press publishes, and every writing or book event WordCrafter hosts. And if you are a follower of Writing to be Read, or someone who pops in occassionally to see what content is offered here… You, dear readers, are all a part of my tribe, too. Without you, there wouldn’t be a blog.
So, you see, while my claim of being a one woman show is true in one sense, I really couldn’t do any of this without the members of my writing tribe. The world of the writers and authors is filled with marvelous writing communities from which we can all build and grow our own tribes.
Who’s in your tribe?
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Join Kaye Lynne Booth & WordCrafter Press Readers’ Group for WordCrafter Press book & event news, including the awesome releases of author Kaye Lynne Booth. Get a free digital copy of her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction, as a sampling of her works just for joining.
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Writer’s Corner: Direct Selling on the Kickstarter Platform
Posted: August 15, 2022 Filed under: book marketing, Book Promotion, Kickstarter, Writer's Corner | Tags: book marketing, Direct Sales, Kaye Lynne Booth, Kickstarter, Writer's Corner, Writing to be Read 1 CommentKickstarter seems to be the latest platform for direct sales of your books. They aren’t new to the scene, but they have changed considerably since they first made their appearance. (Look here if you’d like to see a 2012 guest post about Kickstarter by author Tim Baker when they were first starting up.) Up until recently, Kickstarter has been looked upon like a platform where you would go ask for money from people, similar to Go Fund Me, but with , the spectacularly successful campaign that Bryan Sanderson did recently, which everyone seems to be talking about, it looks like that impression may be changing.
Platforms like Kickstarter and Patreon form what Joanna Penn refers to as the “creator economy”, which is similar to what artists did during the Renaissance to survive. (You can listen to Joanna’s interview with Bryan Cohen, author of the Sell More Books Show podcast, on the subjects of Kickstarter and multiple streams of income on The Creative Penn, here.) Renaissance patrons would fund artists and support them so that they could survive while creating their art. Likewise, authors today cannot be expected to survive on just their book income. Most of us would truly starve if we tried to do that. According to Joanna, there are readers out there who are not only willing, but eager, to support your work, you just have to find them.
No. Today’s creators must have multiple streams of income, and many have day jobs to support them, only indulging their craft on a part time basis. Kickstarter provides a platform designed for creatives, including authors, where we can sell our creations directly to our reading audience without the middlemen distributors, such as Amazon, and by selling direct, we receive more than our 70%, allowed by Amazon, or whatever percentage we get from other distributors, but there are a few things we need to prepare for a successful Kickstarter campaign.
Make no mistake. Kickstarter is not a platform where you beg for money, as some may believe. It’s method of direct selling, and when you run a Kickstarter campaign, you have to put in the work for your money. I learned this by following the Kickstarter campaign of Kevin J. Anderson from the operations side of things.
As his student, I was allowed an inside look into the workings of a Kickstarter campaign, and a quite successful one, at that. KJA ran a Kickstarter to fund his latest Dan Shamble Zombie Detective novel, Double Booked. He showed us how to set up the project overview, set your overall campaign goal, set up with Stripe and attach to your bank account so you can get paid, create a video to tell people about your project, set up incentives for the different tiers and stretch goals, etc… Let me tell you, there is a lot of work involved.
Kevin also gave the whole Dan Shamble series eye-catching new covers, which are absolutely fabulous. Then, once the Kickstarter campaign had run its course, the author must make good on their promises and provide the deliverables. For Kevin’s campaign, that involved doing print runs and signing each print copy of the book and mailing them out to his supporters at the appropriate level, (he actually ended up hiring someone to mail them all out, there were so many), as well as following up to be sure each supporter fills out and returns their Kickstarter survey.
KJA’s overall goal was $2,000, which he exceeded. He started at the $5 level, which provided a digital copy of Double Booked. This was the lowest tier of support, so anyone who subscribed to the campaign, at any level, received this. The tiers went all the way up to the $10,000 crazy super fan level, where Kevin promises to narrate an audio book, which he did anyway, then offered as a $25 add on during the campaign. I don’t know how likely it would be for him to actually get a $10,000 crazy super fan to jump on the campaign bandwagon, but either way he narrates his own audio book, and either way he makes money. (You can see just how well KJA did with this Kickstarter here.)
Advice from the hosts of the Six Figure Author podcast (https://6figureauthors.com/ Episode 048 – July 23, 2020) was to never do a Kickstarter for something which you can’t fund on your own, in case you don’t meet your goal. Kevin had Double Booked written before he began the Kickstarter. He knew he could deliver all the rewards promised at every tier. Doing this assures that none of your supporters go away disappointed. Satisfied readers are what is important here, because satisfied readers come back for more. They also suggest setting a lower goal at first, as low as $500, so you’ll be more likely to be able to meet the goal, then raising the bar for subsequent campaigns, building gradually.
Kevin’s campaign was not as crazy successful as Bryan Sanderson’s, which ran right around the same time, but both are examples of how an author can use Kickstarter to sell their work directly to their readers and make decent money. (You can see how crazy successful Bryan Sanderson’s Kickstarter really was here.) Granted, not all authors are Kevin J. Anderson or Bryan Sanderson. While some followers come from the Kickstarter community, it does help to have an existing following, people who already love and admire your work. I think it also helps if you are an established author with a decent backlist, otherwise you would have to make all the rewards new works, which would be even more work for the author.
U.S.A. Today bestselling authors Russell P. Nohelty and Monica Leonelle coauthored Get Your Book Selling on Kickstarter, which talks about reasons to sell direct through Kickstarter, how to sell books on Kickstarter, how to budget and market your Kickstarter project, and more. This book takes you step by step through setting up your Kickstarter campaign, and even though I watched KJA do it, I must admit I was intimidated by the sheer number of steps which must be taken and the things which should be included, and of course, it helps to illustrate everything visually, which adds even more to do. It is really a bit overwhelming. This book reinforces the idea that while Kickstarter does have a community of followers who are looking for campaigns of interest to support, your chances of success will be much improved if you already have a flowing to bring with you to to the platform.
From the author side, there’s a lot involved, but from the supporter side, it’s pretty cool because you get all kinds of goodies. For my support, I received a digital copy of Double Booked, plus a new short story in the series, “Bump in the Night”. As well as stretch goal rewards of digital copies of Kevin J. Anderson’s Selected Stories: Fantasy; from his most popular epic space opera series, Saga of the Seven Suns: Two Short Novels; and a government mystery thriller which he coauthored with Doug Beason, PhD, Virtual Destruction. I’ll be posting reviews for all of these down the road, but there were so many that it’s going to take me a while to get through them. (For now, you can read my review of his Selected Stories: Science Fiction here: https://writingtoberead.com/2019/03/01/kevin-j-andersons-selected-stories-science-fiction-volume-2-a-must-read-for-science-fiction-fans/)
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For Kaye Lynne Booth, writing is a passion. Kaye Lynne is an author with published short fiction and poetry, both online and in print, including her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction; and her paranormal mystery novella, Hidden Secrets. Kaye holds a dual M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing with emphasis in genre fiction and screenwriting, and an M.A. in publishing. Kaye Lynne is the founder of WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services and WordCrafter Press. She also maintains an authors’ blog and website, Writing to be Read, where she publishes content of interest in the literary world.
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Join Kaye Lynne Booth & WordCrafter Press Readers’ Group for WordCrafter Press book & event news, including the awesome releases of author Kaye Lynne Booth. Get a free digital copy of her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction, as a sampling of her works just for joining.
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Writer’s Corner: What? I’m a business?
Posted: July 25, 2022 Filed under: Book Promotion, Indie Publishing, Promotion, Publishing, Self-Publishing, Writer's Corner, Writing, Writing Business | Tags: Independent authors, independent publishing, Kaye Lynne Booth, Publishing, Writer's Corner, Writing Business, Writing to be Read 6 CommentsOften it seems like everybody wants to be an author, and with the rise of digital publishing and print-on-demand, everyone pretty much can. After all, all it takes to write a book is an idea for a story, a general idea of story structure, and a basic knowledge of grammar and punctuation, right? Well… yes and no, but that is a discussion for a different post. For our purposes, we’re talking about writers who have what it takes to become an author.
However, many authors don’t realize how many non-writing tasks are involved in being an author. Because we aren’t just writing books, we want to sell them, too. And as soon as we start doing that, we become a writing business. That’s right. And we have market and sell our books, pay for websites so fans can find us, find reviewers, engage with readers, as well as putting out a newsletter and other types of advertising to sell our books. And we must keep track of expenses and earnings so we can properly pay our taxes. Yep. Authors really are a business.
As soon as you write your first book, (or story, or poem), you’ve created what they call IP (Intellectual Property), and you are faced with deciding how you want to handle it. In the past, an author would pitch their book to an agent or editor in the hopes of landing a traditional publishing deal, and if they were fortunate enough to land one, then they would sign a contract giving some, or all, of their rights in exchange for royalties, possibly with an advance of reasonable size against future royalties.
Traditional publishing is a traditionally slow business, so then, the author would sit back and wait from two to five years for their book to be published and then, wait even longer until their royalties are enough to pay back their advance, before receiving royalty checks, generally about 15% of sales, twice a year. So you see, by traditional publishing methods, most authors really were starving artists. Add to this that many traditional publishers required you to sign away rights that they never had any intention of using, but they just wanted to cover all of their bases, and would only allow their authors to put out one book a year, and you can see why many authors assumed pen names in other genres just to try and make ends meet.
Fortunately, with the rise of independent publishing, all that changed. Now days, authors who are more prolific and can produce more than one book per year, can write and publish as many as they want. And they can also sell or maintain whichever rights they want to. Independent authors are now dealing directly with book distribution platforms, or they can choose to give an additional percentage to an aggregator, who then places their book on the various distribution platforms, but they still receive a bigger percentage of their royalties than traditionally published authors do.
As explained in Dean Wesley Smith’s Magic Bakery, the IP for your creations are your products, which you can give away or sell in any way you wish, as long as you maintain control of your rights and manage them smartly. That is how successful authors today manage to keep their backlists working for them.
The flip side of this, is that independent authors don’t have publishers to edit and hone their books to perfection (editing), provide a cover (cover design), or get reviews (business) and market their books (marketing and promotion) for them. (I wrote a post about the many hats an author must wear today back in October of 2016 here, but I really had no idea at that time.)
So, these are other skill sets today’s authors must have or learn, or hire out and pay someone else to do them. If they chose to hire them out, then these things become additional business expenses. (The bold emphasis is to reiterate that authors are indeed, a business.) While much of the paid advertising works with numbers and data, authors better brush up on their math skills or hire someone to keep their books and figure their taxes, too. And when you chose to become an author, there are no employers to provide health or dental or vision insurance. The author is responsible for providing these things for themselves as a self-employed entity, because they are a business.
I hate to keep driving on that point, but it’s one which keeps slapping me in the face. Just when I think I’ve done my homework well and gained all the necessary skills to be a successful author, there it is again. At first, I thought that all I’d need was English, grammar and storytelling abilities. One I’d earned an M.F.A. in Creative Writing, I found that I needed marketing skills to peddle my wares. With almost a B.A. in marketing, and a M.A. in publishing, it looks as if may need a degree in business, as well. ( Okay, maybe not a full degree, but general business knowledge and a good understanding of the publishing industry are needed, because… yep, you got it, you’re a business.)
As a business, authors need to act as professionals, and do what they can to keep up to date on industry news and changes on social media channels and digital platforms which you use on promotions and advertising.
Another thing that I have learned is that even bestselling authors with a large backlist, need multiple streams of income to make their writing business work. It is just good sense in the rapidly changing world of digital technology, where the owners of digital platforms you use for promotion and distribution can change the rules without notice, to not place all of your literary eggs in one basket. The rapid changes to digital industry also mean that there is an abundance of helpful digital tools out there to help you in your writing business. But then, that just means that I need to learn new skills (tech skills) so I can use them!
And to think, I just wanted to write stories.
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Kaye Lynne Booth lives, works, and plays in the mountains of Colorado. With a dual emphasis M.F.A. in Creative Writing and a M.A. in Publishing, writing is more than a passion. It’s a way of life. She’s a multi-genre author, who finds inspiration from the nature around her, and her love of the old west, and other odd and quirky things which might surprise you.
Kaye Lynne Booth lives, works, and plays in the mountains of Colorado. With a dual emphasis M.F.A. in Creative Writing and a M.A. in Publishing, writing is more than a passion. It’s a way of life. She’s a multi-genre author, who finds inspiration from the nature around her, and her love of the old west, and other odd and quirky things which might surprise you.
She has short stories featured in the following anthologies: The Collapsar Directive (“If You’re Happy and You Know It”); Relationship Add Vice (“The Devil Made Her Do It”); Nightmareland (“The Haunting in Carol’s Woods”); Whispers of the Past (“The Woman in the Water”); Spirits of the West (“Don’t Eat the Pickled Eggs”); and Where Spirits Linger (“The People Upstairs”). Her paranormal mystery novella, Hidden Secrets, and her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction, are both available in both digital and print editions at most of your favorite book distributors.
When not writing, she keeps up her author’s blog, Writing to be Read, where she posts reflections on her own writing, author interviews and book reviews, along with writing tips and inspirational posts from fellow writers. In addition to creating her own very small publishing house in WordCrafter Press, she offers quality author services, such as editing, social media & book promotion, and online writing courses through WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services. As well as serving as judge for the Western Writers of America and sitting on the editorial team for Western State Colorado University and WordFire Press for the Gilded Glass anthology and editing Weird Tales: The Best of the Early Years 1926-27, under Kevin J. Anderson & Jonathan Maberry.
In her spare time, she is bird watching, or gardening, or just soaking up some of that Colorado sunshine.
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Join Kaye Lynne Booth & WordCrafter Press Readers’ Group for WordCrafter Press book & event news, including the awesome releases of author Kaye Lynne Booth. Get a free digital copy of her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction, as a sampling of her works just for joining.
Writer’s Corner: Accessibility = More Readers
Posted: May 1, 2023 | Author: kayelynnebooth | Filed under: Accessibility, Adaptive Technology, Blog Content, Books, Commentary, Reader Platform, Writer's Corner, Writing | Tags: Accessibility, Adaptive Technology, Kaye Lynne Booth, Patty Fletcher, Print Disabilities, Visual Impairment, Writer's Corner, Writing to be Read | 89 CommentsDid you know that there is a large audience of readers, which many authors are overlooking with their books? It’s true. Visually impaired and those with other disabilities are limited in the availability of reading materials which they can access, and authors are limiting themselves if they exclude this vast potential audience.
As a publisher, I have worked with several print disabled authors, who have helped to educate me on the why making my content accessible is important and how to better reach the members of this very large community of potential readers. Patty Fletcher is a visually impaired author who works hard to make her blog content and books accessible to the visually impaired community of readers, and she advocates to educate her fellow authors on this important subject. She points out that the size of this potential audience is immense, “with millions of impaired or disabled readers, who would read if they could access the content.” (Patty Fletcher, email March 24, 2023).
As an author, I want to get my books in front of as many potential readers as possible. That’s why I publish wide and offer my works in as many different formats that I can. But here, right under my nose, is this huge group of potential readers that I was overlooking. And I know that many of my fellow authors do, too. As authors, it makes good sense to be concious of this large group of potential readers, and do what we can to make our own online content and books accessible to them. What a great way to extend your author reach and grow your reader platform.
In order to reach out to this audience of potential readers, we must have some understanding of what visual impairment and other types of print disabilities are like and how they affect the lives of those who must deal with these issues every day. Ann Chiapetta is visually impaired due to retinal disease, which she acquired later in life. In her article, “The Print Barrier“, she talks about how she has adapted to her visual impairment, and how it has changed the way others percieve her, and the frustration of trying to work with people who just don’t get it. Being visually impaired doesn’t mean no longer “doing”, but it does mean adapting so that “doing” is possible.
My grandmother was blind from diabetes, so her disability also came to her later in life. I’m told that when I was born, she could see me as a shadow, but whether she could see me or not, she helped to raise me. She took care of me during the day when I was little, while my mother, who was a single parent, was at work. When I started school, she was who got me off each day. I wore a side-ponytail long before it came into fashion because my grandmother was who fixed my hair. Some of the kids teased me about it, but I always thought it made me special and unique. I’ve never been one to do what everyone else is doing. My grandfather was a doctor, so my grandmother ran the household. She could move through the house alone, with the aide of a cane; she cooked by feel, and she got her entertainment from television, radio, and talking books. I often wonder what she would think of the internet and modern adaptive technology.
Patty Fletcher uses a screen reader, as do many visually impaired and print disabled individuals, as a means to access online content. Technology that wasn’t thought of or needed in my grandmother’s day. Patty recommends “The Importance of Alt Text for Screen Reader Users: A Guide to Best Practices and Accessibility by Virtual Tech Advisor and Research Assistant Casey Mathews” for a good place to go for understanding what the technology is and what it does, and how you can make your content more accessible for people using screen readers by adding alternative text to your images.
This is not a difficult thing to do, but it does take time. This is a work in progress for me here on Writing to be Read, because the site is very image heavy, but the recent release of Poetry Treasures 3: Passions had alternate text added to all of the images in that book. It was the first WordCrafter Press book to have alt text, and I was pleased to accomplish the feat. I feel strongly that it was worth the time it took, to not exclude those who access content differently from the way that I access it, visually.
While your book and your site should be accessible to all, including those with disabilities, it can’t stop there. We live in a world where much of our communications with the world, including advertising and promoting your brand and your book, is done through social media. If a potential reader can’t access the promotion to receive your message, they won’t be a potential reader for long. Patty Fletcher’s “Life of a Blind Girl: Your A-Z Guide to socail media accessibility“, touches all the important points on accessiblity. This article lays out ways to make content accesible that every author should be thinking about, and areas where we can do this that might be overlooked if you are not aware of readers or potential readers with disabilities. I’ve been focused on creating proper headings and adding alt text to my images. After reading Patty’s article, it seems my next step will be learning how to add captions to videos, so that I can reach hearing impared individuals.
It’s a lot to learn and can’t all be done overnight. My site is a work in progress on this front, but I’ll keep at it, because I believe it is important to make muy content accessible to all. I will also continue to work on making my books and social media content more accessible as I go. If you would like to learn more about making online content accessible to visually impaired and print disabled individuals, beyond the aboove articles, Content for Everyone, by Jeff Adams and Michele Lucchini, is a good book of reference. They discuss not only why accessible content is necessary, but ways that you can make your content more accessible for many types of visual disabilities. You can read my “Review in Practice” for this book here.
It’s a large potential audience, which could turn into readers of your work. How far will you go to make sure they can all access your content?
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About Kaye Lynne Booth
For Kaye Lynne Booth, writing is a passion. Kaye Lynne is an author with published short fiction and poetry, both online and in print, including her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction; and her paranormal mystery novella, Hidden Secrets. Kaye holds a dual M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing with emphasis in genre fiction and screenwriting, and an M.A. in publishing. Kaye Lynne is the founder of WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services and WordCrafter Press. She also maintains an authors’ blog and website, Writing to be Read, where she publishes content of interest in the literary world.
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