My Books...

Monday, August 11, 2014

Help Me Design My Next Book Cover!














Hi All,

Okay so I have something fun in store for everyone...

I'm been picking up some good momentum as I move through the draft of my next book NEVER LET ME GO.  It's a steamy romance about cyber crime and takes place in Las Vegas and the Arizona desert.  I've been looking over some photos for the next book cover and I can't quite decide.  

That's where you all come in...

Below are the main pictures I've narrowed it down to.  All you need to do is select the image/option you like best - either 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 and hit submit at the bottom of the last photo.

It's that easy.

I can't wait to see which one you choose!

'Til Next Time...

Maggie









Thursday, August 7, 2014

My Thanks…My Apologies and…Boy Do I Need Some Help...



“We must find time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives.” JFK
"In some families, please is described as the magic word.  In our house, however, it was sorry."
~Margaret Laurence

Hi All,

I have to say it…the past eighteen months have been nothing short of amazing. 
I was thrilled to release my three, romantic suspense novels DEADLY SHADOWS, ONE STEP CLOSER and BE STILL MY BREATH.  And now my new book, NOW YOU SEE ME, just came out and I’m excited for you to read it!

I’m so grateful to all the readers who embraced each of the books and was wonderfully overwhelmed with the positive and encouraging reviews.  THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!
 
I’m excited to keep sharing with you stories that are filled with page turning suspense and sizzling romance.  Be sure to stay tuned because I’m already well into my next story…NEVER LET ME GO.

But now it’s time for me to mend some fences…

The past year and a half was a bit of a frenzy writing and finishing all three of my current titles.  Suffice to say, in the days and weeks leading up to each release I was a bit of a wreck about everything…

The development of the characters…
The pacing of the intro…
Marketing…marketing…marketing…Goodreads giveaways, Kindle count down deals...Setting up a Facebook page...Setting up a website…a blog…
I’m sure most self published authors  would agree…it’s all part of the amazing and absolutely chaotic process of e-publishing
But here’s the thing… in the rush and the chaos of it all I didn’t give enough time and care to one critical element…
Editing.
Don’t get me wrong…I got a lot great reviews from readers about how fun and romantic the stories were and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate that feedback.
But I also got review bombed on the editing piece.  And though it stung, I really do appreciate those readers who took the time to share their thoughts and critiques.
So please let me just say…I am sorry.  Very sorry.
And rest assured I heard you.
As I got ready for the release of my new book NOW YOU SEE ME, I worked much harder this turn around on the editing…including making sure words aren't dropped or misspelled, having was a stronger editing eye to catch missing commas and quotation marks…the works.

Is it be perfect? Close to perfect?  That’s my goal because because here’s the bottomline...Quality matters. 
Everytime.
So from this point on they’ll be more effort…more time…and more resources devoted to editing.
Which is why I finally realized I need help.
And yes I'll still do a number of revision and edit reviews on my own,  but now I’m also handing off those drafts to some great outside professional folks to help with the process.
The crazy thing about it all was that I actually did so many edits on DEADLY SHADOWS and ONE STEP CLOSER and BE STILL MY BREATH.
So here are the big questions…how did it all go so wrong? How could I miss so much?
I knew I didn't want to continue down this path – my readers deserve better - so I did a little research and apparently the problem in my whole editing equation started and ended with me, myself and I.
What I found out is that when it comes to editing, writers are their own worst enemy. 
It has to do with the fact that since we know what we want to say, and if the sentence seems clear enough, we actually can’t pick up the mistakes in the sentence or paragraph.
That’s because the brain skews what we perceive as wrong words inside sentences by doing an auto-correct as we’re reading through the lines.
Simply put, the brain actually makes it hard for us to see the mistake.
Here’s how John McIntyre of the Baltimore Sun explains it…
"...experienced readers, the very people you would imagine to be effective at editing, are not necessarily reliable. Experienced readers recognize patterns. They recognize patterns of letters arranged in words. They recognize syntactical patterns. They recognize stock phrases and standard figures of speech. And so the brain tells them that they see the patterns they expect to find. The brain auto-corrects, not worrying about, for example, transposed letters, because it recognizes the shape of the whole word…


This whole auto correct issue?  Well it got me thinking…what else has my brain been auto correcting?  Bad decorating choices?  Bad outfits, bad haircuts? (We’ll leave all that for another day and maybe another blog.)
Suffice to say the e-publishing world is a challenge.
We’re writers, editors, book cover designers, promoters – and it all gets a bit crazy.
But I also believe think e-publishing is perfect for any of us busy folks who has a great story to tell – folks who are used to lives filled with one big mash up of multi-tasking events. 
It’s like everything else you do…you want to get better and keep moving forward.
We all want to grow into a better place and become a better person…wife…mom…writer.

Sometimes we just need to ask for help along the way.

And stay tuned for my next blog. It's the first in my How To series.  First up?  You guessed it...How to Edit Your Novel.

‘Til next time…

Maggie
Writing...Marketing...E-Publishing...Ever thought of writing your own book? Interested in an inside look of a busy writer's life?  Check out my other blog 365 Days of Writing, Marketing & E-Publishing...today!
Want to know more about this auto-correct phenomenon?
Check out these link...


Saturday, August 2, 2014

May I Have Your Attention Please? We Have an Important Announcement...












Hi All,

So today's the day for an important announcement...

I decided to set up a separate blog for 365 Days of Writing, Marketing & E-Publishing

You see I still want to blog about romance and suspense novels...the writer's life...and how writer's can get things done in the upcoming "How to" series.  So I'll keep doing that on Synchronicity

Giving  365 Days it's own home just made sense.

So if you'd like a peek inside the busy writer's life and if your interested in writing, marketing your book or self publishing...don't miss a single day of 365 Days of Writing, Marketing & E- Publishing

'Til next time...

Maggie