February is celebrated as Black History Month. During my younger days as a student in elementary, middle and high school, each year I found myself learning about the same historical … Continue reading Octavia Butler
Category: Writing
20 Downloads in 1 Weekend!!!!!
This weekend, my mother’s third book, A New England Serial Killer, was available for free for Kindle and the Kindle App. I’m very proud to say, she received 20 downloads in three … Continue reading 20 Downloads in 1 Weekend!!!!!
It’s All in the Details: A Little Writing Tip
As a writer, I’m always looking for new ways to improve my writing skills and make my writing more interesting. It can be challenging at times, but it’s always worth it. One trick I’ve learned, is replacing basic boring nouns with more exciting nouns. For instance, take this sentence:
The car pulled into the parking lot.
Not much there. The reader may have the image of a car pulling into a parking lot, but let’s say ten different people read that sentence. Ten different people are going to imagine ten different cars. One person may envision a Ford Mustang. Another may see a Chevy Camaro. So, try replacing car with a make and model type:
The Chevy Camaro pulled into the parking lot.
Much more interesting, yes? It’s a minor detail, but it adds more weight to the sentence. We can spice it up even more with a color:
The yellow Chevy Camaro pulled into the parking lot.
Now let’s focus on the parking lot. Is it empty? Full? Is it dark? Let’s go with dark:
The yellow Chevy Camaro pulled into the dark parking lot.
I’m a visual person, so adding these small details make all the difference to me. Now we can compare the first sentence, with the revision:
The car pulled into the parking lot.
The yellow Chevy Camaro pulled into the dark parking lot.
It’s all in the details.
Beware of Scammers
There are a TON of untrustworthy people in the world. In every business, in every industry, there are always people who are out to take advantage of someone. The Publishing and Marketing industries are no different. Sometimes, it’s difficult to separate the reliable people, from the scammers. Fortunately, we live in a world supported by technology. By using a search engine, such as Google, you can easily do a little research and begin to weed through some of the good guys and the bad guys.
I was recently contacted by a representative from Match Literary (also known as Matchstick Literary). As soon as I read the email, I knew something was wrong. I have posted some of the email text below, so you can judge for yourself:
Hi Nicole Woolaston,
Good day!
I hope this email finds you well.
Thank you for responding my email. I am referring to your book title “Fortune’s Wing: Flies Again” which published CreateSpace last September 2017. I wanted to verify that this is your book because our book scouts came across to your book and do a research. Your book was being forwarded to me because your book has potential however your book barely getting any activities most especially in terms of book sales and promotions. I check the book online and the book price at $5.99 for the paperback format. The book has great potential that’s why I reached out to you, I wanted to know how was your book doing so far if do you still promoting and marketing your book aside marketing it in amazon.
The book has great content also that lots of people would love to read most especially to those book readers that types your book genre. I able to check your book thru Amazon and Barned and Noble and check the reviews on how it doing so far however I am just seeing less though I believe the book is great. I would like to know also on what type of marketing strategy you had done to your book because as I mentioned the book is great its just that the sales have a slow movement. I this case, I would love to help you to get your book known to a wider audience and see how beautiful the book is.
Did you notice the typos? The improper use of grammar? This person hasn’t read my book, but they’ve reached the conclusion it’s “great”. The rest of the email mentions the fact researchers went online to research my book. I was asked if I have a website. So, they did research, but didn’t come across WoolastonEntertainment.com? You can find me simply by entering my name in Google.
Here’s another thing: take a look at the picture I posted above. Notice the name of the company. Now look at the website’s address. They don’t match, do they? When you visit their site (and I’m not encouraging this, I’m just providing information that I found) there are pictures of book covers on their homepage. These are books they supposedly marketed and/or published. Many of these books were published by (wait for it) Xlibris, Author House, and iUniverse (which are all the same company). When I checked their sales stats on Amazon, I only found ONE title with any sales.
I’m sharing this, because as writers and authors, we have to be smart, otherwise, we will be grossly taken advantage of. There are no prices listed on Matchstick Literary’s site, for any of their services. That’s a serious red flag. Ask questions. Do some research. Check for reviews and complaints. And if something doesn’t feel right, don’t go through with it.
Valentine’s 10th Anniversary
March 27, 2010: it was a wonderful time. My second published book, Valentine, had just been released. It was a proud moment for me, because Valentine was a book I had written just a … Continue reading Valentine’s 10th Anniversary
Free Ebook This Weekend!
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
W.E. is going PINK for Valentine’s Month
No, your eyes aren’t deceiving you: this blog site is really PINK. February is Valentine’s Month for Woolaston Entertainment, so both the blog site and the website are going to be pink. I may switch it up between a solid color and an image. I hope you like it 🙂
UPDATE: I’ve already switched to an image. That pink was a little loud 😉
Help! My Content Needs Updating!: A KDP Tip
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.
Reading Your Book Out Loud
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.
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.
Snippet of “Our Lady of Righteous Rage: Extended and Uncensored”
PDF vs Word Doc: A Little KDP Tip
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.
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