Author: Nicole E Woolaston

I'm a writer, artist and guitarist from NY. I love punk rock, anime and manga. I'm the author of the "Fortune's Wing" and "Valentine" series, & "Our Lady of Righteous Rage".Green Day and Jack White are my inspiration. Check out my blog and feel free to ask me questions about my books!

Free Ebook This Weekend!

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Hello! There’s a thing happening this weekend! My mother June Parris recently published her third book, A New England Serial Killer. It’s the story of a newlywed couple who settle into their new lives in Boston, in a house that has been in the family for generations. However, a series of bizarre murders take place, and with odd behavior from the staff, they’re not sure of exactly what is happening. 

The ebook is available for FREE this weekend on Amazon. If you have a Kindle or the Kindle App, please download a copy. If you like it, please leave a review!

A New England Serial Killer on Amazon

 

ANSK_Final Cover

My Review of “Year of the Monkey”

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Let me start by saying, if Punk Rock was a religion, Patti Smith would be it’s Pope.
Patti has a way with words. Her writing style is so descriptive its easy to visualize the places she’s describing as you read her work. Of all of her memoirs I’ve read (Just Kids, M Train), Year of the Monkey is my favorite. In this book she chronicles a year of traveling, dreaming in different hotels, close friends and random yet memorable encounters. And of course, there are still shots in black and white, to help illustrate the journey. I appreciate the simplicity of her journey: she travels light, only packing what she needs,(t-shirts, socks, and her camera),freeing her to enjoy the journey itself without being weighed down by unnecessary things. There are no meals at fancy high-end restaurants and flights in the first-class section of planes: she hitches rides and eats modestly at the little cafes she finds along the way. 

This was a nice transition from the Patti Smith of Just Kids. She has grown from artist to musician to a wise traveler. She handles the trials and triumphs of the year gracefully, including the election of Trump. It’s a fun and fantastic read, from beginning to end. 

That’s Gonna Be A Lot Of RED: Superbowl 54

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I’m a football fan, and during the 2019-2020 regular season for the NFL, I watched every game I possibly could. I have my short list of teams I love, and I was hoping to see at least one of them make it into the Superbowl. Alas, they did not. But that’s okay; there’s always next season. 

In the meantime, Superbowl 54’s match-up will be between the San Francisco 49er’s and the Kansas City Chiefs. As I watched both the AFC and NFC championship games, I wondered who would win, and who would advance to the Superbowl. I would have liked to see the Tennessee Titans beat the Chiefs, but the Chiefs won. And while I am a Green Bay Packers fan, I had a feeling before that game even started, the 49er’s were going to win (and they did). So, on February 2, in Miami, its 49er’s-Chiefs. They both wear red. As soon as the 49er’s won their championship game, I thought, “Man, that’s going to be a lot of RED on February 2”. 

I pity anyone who is colorblind, or will be forced to watch on a black and white TV. 

Help! My Content Needs Updating!: A KDP Tip

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As a self-published author, I don’t have the staff most publishing houses use. Traditional publishers have editors and graphic designers, and people who know how to handle marketing. I am a one woman show: I have to rely on my own editing skills, as well as act as my own graphic designer and do my own marketing. This means, I have to wear several hats. The upside of this, is I am constantly learning new ways to wear all three of those hats. 

Lately, I’ve had other writers ask me about publishing their books through Amazon, and how it compares to other self-publishing services I’ve encountered. I often compare Amazon’s service, KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) to Xlibris, another well-known Print-On-Demand (or POD) publisher. Aside from pricing and creative control, a major difference is the author’s ability to update the content of their book. What does this mean? Let me explain.

Let’s say you’ve written your manuscript, and checked it and rechecked it for errors. You’ve read it so many times you’re literally sick of your own book. You upload it to KDP’s site, follow all of the steps, approve everything, and KDP publishes your book. It becomes available for sale on Amazon. You’re proud, as you should be! You order an “author copy” and read it when it arrives. Then, it happens: you find a typo. After all of that reading and editing and checking, there’s still a bloody typo. You’re thinking to yourself: “Oh, just end me already!” But all is not lost.

YOU CAN STILL UPLOAD NEW CONTENT FOR YOUR BOOK! Yes, if you make corrections to your manuscript, even after your book is published and Amazon has made it “live” on their site, you can still upload a updated version of your book’s content. You’re probably thinking, there must be some sort of time frame in which this has to be done. No, there isn’t. As long as the book is available on Amazon, you can update the content at any time. How do I know? I spotted a mistake in Our Lady of Righteous Rage: Extended and Uncensored, nearly three years after I published it. I made the correction, uploaded the updated manuscript, and all is well. 

Now, you’re probably wondering: Publishing with Amazon is free, but will I have to pay a fee when I update my book’s content? No. It’s still free.

Xlibris, on the other hand…

I published the first edition of Valentine with Xlibris in 2010. They sent me an author’s proof copy, so I could check for any errors. The first few mistakes were corrected for free. I was told, if any other changes needed to be made, there would be a fee. And this is after I had spent about $350 on a publishing package. And that was a sale, by the way. 

I’m not trying to tell you what to do. You’re your own person, with your own mind; you can decided for yourself. But I hope my personal experiences have offered some insight.

Woolaston Entertainment

 

Reading Your Book Out Loud

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Remember kindergarten, when it was story time and your teacher would read a book out loud to your class? Or perhaps, for some of you, it was first grade. Maybe you had a parent read a book out loud to you. Either way, at some point, you were able to experience having a book read to you. If this never happened during your childhood, well, two things:

1) How sad.

2) Consider the audio book. It can be a wondrous thing.

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Reading something out loud can give the text itself a whole new meaning. It’s a combination of the material and the person reading. I mean, I couldn’t sit and just read Miriam Webster’s Dictionary, but I could listen to Tom Hiddleston read it out loud (there’s something about his voice, dude. It’s like ear-porn). Material sounds more interesting when its read out loud. If you’re writing a book, and you’re not sure how it will “sound” to your readers, try reading it out loud to yourself or to someone else.

I was on the fence about Our Lady of Righteous Rage, until I read it to myself, out loud. The material took on a different flow, and I actually came to appreciate it more. The same can be said for Novocaine. In fact, I have posted videos of myself on the Woolaston Entertainment Facebook page, reading samples from some of my books. 

Reading your material out loud can give you a better sense of how the words themselves flow. Maybe your main character’s speech about freedom isn’t as strong as it could be. Maybe that conversation that takes place between the husband and wife sounds a little too crude. Aside from learning how the material will “sound” to your readers, reading out loud is also a great editing tool.

Woolaston Entertainment

Snippet of “Our Lady of Righteous Rage: Extended and Uncensored”

What I’m Reading Now

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Every year I participate in the Reading Challenge on Goodreads. I’d like to read 100 new books each year, but that’s just too unrealistic! So I start out with a goal of 25. If I’ve read at least 22 or 23 by September-October, then I consider raising the goal to 30. I’ve been doing this since 2011, and so far I’ve managed to meet my challenge each year. This year I’m starting out a bit smaller: 20 books. I still have a lot of other projects I need to work on, and I may not have as much time for reading as I would like. So, 20 it is.

I’m currently reading 3 books right now (because I can’t seem to focus on only one thing at a time. Two of these books have been on my mind for a while, and the third literally fell into my lap. Literally. I was at my desk at work, putting stickers on new books, and it just slid off the desk and into my lap! It’s a Chuck Palahniuk book, so I couldn’t say no.

Year of the Monkey by Patti Smith

I must confess, I purchased a copy of this book last year when it came out, and I’m finally reading it. I’ve read some of Patti Smith’s other books, such as Just Kids, Auguries of Innocence, The Coral Sea and M Train. She’s one of the reasons I got into punk rock. Her writing style is a reflection of her musical style: visual and poetic, and profound. She’s very descriptive, even when it comes to the simplest of things, such as walking to a restaurant. I’m nearly finished reading it, and I will post a review here and on Goodreads.

The 50th Law by 50 Cent and Robert Greene

When I worked in a bookstore, I had a lot of people asking for Robert Greene’s books. My store was forced to keep copies of Mastery and The 48 Laws of Power behind the register, because they were high theft items. I came across The 50th Law and decided to give a try, since I am a fan of Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson. Plus, I wanted to see what was so special about Robert Greene’s writing. From what I’ve read so far, it takes fearlessness to get things done. This can be applied to so many different areas of our lives: succeeding in business, achieving higher grades in school, asking for a raise, etc. I’m about half-way through.

Consider This: Moments in My Writing Life after Which Everything Was Different by Chuck Palahniuk

I’m only on the first page, but I can already tell I’m going to like it. The first two books I read by Palahniuk were Fight Club and Haunted. I’ll let you know how this one goes. 

PDF vs Word Doc: A Little KDP Tip

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In all of the years that I have published books with Amazon’s KDP (formerly Create Space), I have learned many things through trial and error. When it comes to uploading a copy of your manuscript, two of your best choices for formats are PDF or a Word Document. However, I’ve learned this depends on if you’re publishing an ebook or a printed book. So, here’s my advice.

Use a PDF for Printed Books

As long as you have made all of your page breaks, it seems the best format to upload  a printed book, is a PDF. There’s a much better chance your book will retain all of its margins if you use a PDF. There’s nothing more annoying than looking at your print preview and seeing one heading on one page begin three or four lines lower than you intended, or seeing the beginning of a chapter start on the end of a page instead of the beginning. Also, when it comes to page numbers, you may want to have them start from a bottom  margin of at least 1.3. You can try 1.2, but that’s pushing it.

Use a Word Doc for Ebooks

It’s been my experience the good old fashioned Word Doc works just fine for ebooks. I’ve tried using PDF’s in the past, and even Amazon’s KDP advises against them. When it comes to ebooks and PDF’s, it seems the two just can’t get along. Your best bet is to upload your manuscript as a Word Doc. Even if you’re using Google Docs, download your manuscript as a Word Doc, then upload it.

My Brain Keeps Crossing Canva and Photoshop

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I’ve been using Adobe’s Photoshop for several years now. I haven’t completely mastered everything that can be done with the program, but I know enough to create the things I need, such as flyers and catalogs, and covers for my books. Lately, I’ve been using Canva, another platform for creating, even if you don’t have stellar graphic design skills.  

The trouble is, I have Photoshop on my old laptop at home, and Canva is on the computer I use at work. Lately, my brain has been confusing the two: when I’m at home, I tend to try and do things in Photoshop I can only do in Canva, and vice versa. The same thing used to happen to me when I first learned how to use Photoshop in art school. My class used Macs, and my laptop is a Dell. So, the shortcut keys are slightly different, depending on which device you’re using. I’d be at home on my Dell, trying to understand why CTRL + another key was’t achieving any results, only to remember I wasn’t using a Mac at the moment.

Oh well.

KDP Tutorial, Anyone?

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It’s a new year: 2020. 2019 has finally died. People around me are busy making resolutions, and I generally don’t make any. My usual goal is simply to finish whatever I start. But this year, I do have one resolution, and this is it: I’m going to do more of the things that scare me; I’m going to challenge myself more. 

Working in a public library has introduced me to many new people, some of whom are interested in writing and publishing (two of my favorite things!).  During NaNoWriMo, I was fortunate to lead a workshop for creative nonfiction. I had no idea how much people enjoyed it, and it’s slowly turning into something I’m going to run all year ’round. Lately, I’ve had a few library patrons ask about publishing books through Amazon, so I’d like to integrate self-publishing information into my 2020 workshops. There’s something else I’m planning, too.

I’m going to do more of the things that scare me; I’m going to challenge myself more. 

A few years ago, an offer was made to me to teach a class on Skillshare, but I never went through with it because I was too nervous. Several people have suggested that I post videos online to promote my writing. Again, I was too nervous and never went through with it. So this year, I’m going to get over my fear, and post a few videos. I’m planning to release a series of tutorials on how to navigate Amazon’s publishing service, KDP. Am I an expert on the subject? Maybe not an expert, but after working with an overpriced self-publisher, a publisher who closed for business, and publishing 32 books with KDP, I think I have a lot of knowledge to share. 

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Some of my books were published through Xlibris, others with Create Space

I’m currently nursing a cold (more like the flu), so I’ll have to wait until my voice sounds normal to make these videos. I’ll keep you posted.

PS: I’ve update the refund policy on the Online Store, to make things easier for my customers/readers 🙂

Woolaston Entertainment