Welcome to the first Monday Blog of February! I have plenty of good news for you. This month is Valentine Month, and not just because of the holiday. I’m celebrating the five books in the Valentine series. There’s a give-away going on this week: Kindle versions of Valentine and Valentine 2: The Patron Saint, are FREE!!! Between February 5 and February 9, you can get both eBooks for free, if you have a Kindle or the Kindle App. I’m using this promotion to introduce Valentine to a new audience. If you decide to download either book, and you like what you read, please take a moment to post a review!
Dee Seybrook: Rock N’ Roll Diva
Yes, I finally finished my twentieth book! Dee Seybrook is currently available on Amazon in the form of a paperback. I will release the eBook in a month or so. The story follows Dee’s rediscovery of punk rock while Aidan and the band are out on their first national tour. Consider this book to be a teaser until Righteous is ready.
A Rose Left Behind
My mother and fellow author, June E. Parris, has just completed her second book! A Rose LeftBehind is the story of a special paranormal secret one family discovers within the walls of their home. It should be available for sale by the end of February.
20 of the Woolaston Entertainment books, by June Parris and myself
Hello, everyone. Here we are: the final Monday Blog for January. This week’s topic: things I think every self-published author should have. No, I’m not naming random things, here. These are things that have been a great help to me, and I wanted to share them with my fellow writers.
A Website: Good Lord, if you don’t have a website, what are you doing? Sure, you may not know much about building a website, but you can always enlist the skills of others to do this for you. I created my site through Go Daddy, on my own. Plus, Go Daddy offers tech support, and has a range of templates to choose from. Like I always say, if I can do it, anyone Your website should contain info about your books, where they can be purchased, and how readers can get in contact with you. There are plenty of online sources with tips on how to set up your website, and you’re more than welcome to use mine as an example. If you decide to use Go Daddy, I suggest taking advantage of their SEO option (search engine optimization).
A Catalogue: The best way for you to get your name out there, is by giving your readers a list of books to choose from. Show your readers your true writing ability. This can be a single series of books, or several individual books. I have 4 series, and 1 individual book (which I will most likely write a sequel to). In all, I have published 19 books. Search for Nicole Woolaston on Amazon or Goodreads and take a look.
Facebook Page: Yes, many of us use Snap Chat, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, LinkedIn, etc. I’m on all of that crap, and yes, it’s tiring. But Facebook is where it’s at. Why? Two words: Ad Space. Facebook is a wonderful (and free) way to connect with a large audience. Friends can like your posts and share them, then other people will share them, and so on. As for ad space, while it may not be free, it is DIRT CHEAP. Example: I made Our Lady of Righteous Rage: Extended and Uncensored free for Kindle for 3 days. I ran an ad on Facebook (spending only $3; I could have spent a little more and reached more people). Six people downloaded my book. Over 100 saw the ad, 12 people clicked on it. Either way, I gained 6 new readers and exposure for my book.
PayPal: I’m recommending this for 3 reasons. 1) It’s a safe and effective way to collect payment from book sales, should you choose to sell them on your website. 2) You can use PayPal to pay for ad space on Facebook. 3) You can use PayPal to pay for extras for your website, if you happen to use Go Daddy.
Fiverr: I’ll give you a minute to let this last one marinate. Ready? Good. If you need someone to help you build your website, create an effective Facebook ad, edit your book, design a cover, etc, there are plenty of people on Fiverr who can do those things for you, starting at $5. Also, it’s a great way to earn funds to support your Facebook ads and pay for your website. I write book reviews via Fiverr, starting at $5 per review, and the money I’ve earned since August 2017 has paid for all of my Facebook ad space, and my website. Think about it.
Keep a few things in mind:
Everything will not be free. Many things will be, but not everything.
Sometimes, you will need to spend money in order to make money. I’m not suggesting you break the bank, but $3-$10 for some ad space, or $5 for a book review to boost readership and sales, isn’t asking a lot.
You have to be willing to try. Fear held me back for a long time, until I let go of my fear, and jumped. You have to be willing to take risks.
Decide if you just want to write books, or if you actually want to sell them. If you just want to get your name in print, then kudos! But, if you want to sell some books, you’re going to have to put some work in, beyond typing a manuscript.
Some of my books were published through Xlibris, others with Create Space
Happy Monday, everyone! This week, I wanted to discuss the importance of failure. Yes, failure is important. When things don’t go the way you want them to, it isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I’ve had several failures in my life, and I’m grateful for each one, because I learned a valuable lesson from them.
I’ve worked at jobs I couldn’t stand. I’ve been to college, but didn’t graduate. I’ve worked with publishers who either ripped me off, or simply folded. Something wonderful has come out of each of these events. For example:
The Event Negatives Positives
Working at Walgreen’s long hours, crazy schedules $ for publishing,
limited free time learned to manage business
learned customer service
Working at B&N not much $ learned book releases discount on books
internet access
Going to Art Institute $$student loan intro’d to work of Patti Smith,
Rimbaud, Diane Arbus
learned Photo Shop
learned how to use color
learned to design website
Working with Xlibris $$$ for marketing learned about publishing
$$$ for publishing learned about marketing
my work in print
In every case, the positives far outweighed the negatives. Take all of the negative things in your life, whether it’s your job, or school, or even a relationship, and pull as many useful things as you can from them. I may not have finished at the Art Institute (they closed their TriBeCa location because the Government sued them, BTW), but I did learn to use Photo Shop, I learned how to use a variety of color schemes, and how to design a website. Working with Xlibris may have been costly, but I was able to get my work in print for the first time. So, I took a negative, and turned it into a positive. I hope you can do the same.
If you’ve ever self-published a book via Amazon’s Create Space, or KDP, chances are, you have an Amazon Author Page. I have one, and it’s pretty nice. However, if you have one, it doesn’t hurt to check it out once and a while. Make sure all of the information on your page is correct and up to date. I recently checked mine, and I received a bit of a shock. Some of my books had been incorrectly linked together, and the summary for one book was listed under another book. This can really hurt you as an author, in terms of sales. Readers may choose your book based on the wrong information, or not choose your book at all. I was about to run a promotion for one of my books when I noticed the errors. Thankfully, I made some corrections through KDP for the eBooks, and I notified Amazon about the other mistakes. Within 72 hours, everything was fixed.
This past weekend, if you followed me on Twitter, Instagram or checked the Woolaston Entertainment FB page, you may have seen Our Lady of Righteous Rage: Extended and Uncensored was available for free. This campaign ran for three days (Friday, Saturday and Sunday). My next promotion will take place in February, for Valentine and Valentine 2: The Patron Saint.
I’m still learning to navigate that tricky thing known as Amazon’s KDP. It took several tries to upload two of my titles in order to convert them into eBooks, but I finally managed to get it done. The original covers wouldn’t upload, but that’s okay too; I simply created new ones. So as of today, 18 of my 19 books are available in paperback AND eBook form. Here are some of the most recent editions:
Jo Fuentes: The Black Queen: https://www.amazon.com/Jo-Fuentes-Black-Queen-Valentine-ebook/dp/B078TNHBRF/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1515597565&sr=1-1&keywords=jo+fuentes+the+black+queen
Valentine 4: Past and Present: https://www.amazon.com/Valentine-4-Present-Nicole-Woolaston-ebook/dp/B078TQ7YG3/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1515597588&sr=1-1&keywords=valentine+4+past+and+present
Valentine 5: The Queen’s Fold: https://www.amazon.com/Valentine-5-Queens-Nicole-Woolaston-ebook/dp/B078TQZGYQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1515597620&sr=1-1&keywords=valentine+5+the+queens+fold
Another Shot of Novocaine: https://www.amazon.com/Another-Shot-Novocaine-Lady-Righteous-ebook/dp/B078WWRQKH/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1515597639&sr=1-2-fkmr0&keywords=novocaine+nicoe+woolaston
I’m going to release the eBook version of The Witch of Fulton Lane within the next month or so. You can also expect special promotions on my eBooks, which will happen throughout the year.
Welcome to the first Monday Blog for 2018, on a Wednesday! Monday was New Year’s Day, so I took time off to relax. But the holiday is over, so it’s time to get back to work.
Most people like to make New Year’s Resolutions. I stopped doing that a few years ago. However, this year, I have decided to set a few goals for myself, and for Woolaston Entertainment.
1. Publish 5 more books by the end of 2018.
2. Read 100 new books
3. Create new merchandise for W.E.
4. Put my books in the hands of new readers, both here in the states, and abroad.
I’m also planning to use my social media pages more often. This means, more posts on Tumblr, more tweets on Twitter, and more ads on Facebook. I’d also like to reach out to my readers: if you’ve ever read a Woolaston Entertainment book, please post a review online. Or, send me your thoughts via the contact page on this site! I would love to know what you think.
To all of my fellow writers, artists and creators: I hope you have a wonderful year. It’s January, so we’re just getting started. Best wishes to everyone and Happy New Year!
Happy Holidays, everyone! Welcome to the final blog post for 2017! I hope everyone enjoys their holiday. With 2017 coming to a close, it’s time to look ahead to 2018. But first, what happened to W.E. in 2017? I published more books this year than ever before. I’m having a comic published in my high school’s newspaper, The Bear Facts (from Bethel High in Virginia). I created a brand new story, The Witch of Fulton Lane. And, I’ve managed to use my writing to fund this website. All in all, I’d say 2017 was a great year for W.E.
Jon and Olivia comic
The year 2018 is right around the corner. When January hits, I’m going into “beast mode”. My goal is to place more W.E. books in the hands of more readers, and start picking up some online reviews. I have plans to start a book club, which would start out with W.E. books, but would eventually expand. Our Lady of Righteous Rage is coming back, along with a side story, Dee Seybrook: Rock n’ Roll Diva. I’d also like to dive deeper into the life of Valentine’s Jo Fuentes, by giving her another stand-alone book. Plus, merchandise! Next year, there will be some merchandise (other than the books) available on woolastonentertainment.com. Calendars, posters, etc.
OLORR album cover
2017 was great, but I know 2018 will be even better. I’ll see you on the other side!
Sorry about the late post, everyone! But, here we go: Monday Blog, on a Tuesday. This week, I wanted to take another trip into W.E.’s past, and share a little info about a book I wrote about fifteen years ago, which later turned into one of the best books I’ve published. That book is From Here to There. This is the story of Amy Edwards and her friends, and their final year in high school. It is a hand-written book, one I never expected to publish. Years later, in 2015, I took a look at the story, did some extensive editing, and wrote the manuscript for Our Lady of Righteous Rage, and published it.
While Our Lady turned out to be a pretty decent book, I decided there was more I could have done with the story. For example, this version, along with From Here, didn’t contain any profanity. I considered using profanity while writing the book, but changed my mind. After Our Lady became available to the public, I re-read it, and decided to add profanity after all. Personally, I think it works for this story, There have been several debates between writers about the use of profanity in writing. Some say, don’t use it. I say, if it works for your story or dialogue, go for it. I’m not saying, every other word in your book should be f-this and f-that, but sometimes, it does work. It depends on your audience. Our Lady of Righteous Rage: Extended and Uncensored, does contain some profanity, but its not excessive.
While the story may have changed between the original and the current versions, the theme has remained the same: kids coming of age in high school. I’d like to put together a book which would contain the original versions of all of my stories, giving readers a chance to contrast and compare, or just to see where my younger mind was , all those years ago. We’ll see.
L-R: Amy, David, Dee, Neon Angel (from “Enos”) and Degenerate R
From 1994 to around 2005, there was more to Woolaston Entertainment than just books. There are comics and artwork now, but back then, my focus was spread more evenly. Watching a ton of magic-girl anime created the comic/series Enos, which later created Degenerate R. Plus, I drew other comics and a produced a few calendars to compliment the books I was working on. I didn’t have the money to have posters printed, so everything was drawn by hand. In fact, I even created a few plush dolls. Of course, I continued to write. I hand-wrote a ton of books, and every other year or so, I wrote a compendium, or a detailed account of all things W.E..
comic from “The 8th Dimension”, 1995scene from original “Enos” comic, 1996
Comics
The comics eventually fell by the wayside, when the books took over. In the beginning, there was The 8th Dimension, my tribute to Gary Larson’s The Far Side. These were single-scene, black and white sketches (poorly drawn, I might add), which I created in 1995. Next, came my sci-fi series, Enos, which features some of the characters you may know from Our Lady of Righteous Rage. Enos concerned two races of aliens in a battle for a power known as the Neon White Flame: the power that was used to create the universe and the planets and was given to one race of aliens by Heaven itself. I completed the first comic book in 1995, and drew a few single comics over the following years, but ultimately wrote a series of books instead. There were also three other comics: Mike &Vanessa, Sarconi and Seybrook, which were featured in a 1999 calendar.
50 of my hand-written books
Hand Written Books
If you ever need proof, that the time you spent creating and drawing and being a bit of a nerd, can be useful, here it is! I started writing books for myself when I was in first grade, and I continued all the way until 2010. The only reason I stopped, is because I had finally published something (Fortune’s Wing). But all of that creative energy was not wasted. Nineteen published books and counting, with sales, positive reviews and a book signing, are proof of that. Fortune’s Wing, Valentine and Our Lady, all began as books I wrote within the pages of composition notebooks and journals. Like all of my handwritten books, they had covers, spine labels, and summaries on the back.
Writing Goals
I’d like to go back to all of those old books and polish them, and publish them, one at a time. Some will need more work than others, but I believe it’s going to be a fun challenge. Someday, maybe I’ll publish a few comics, too!
At long last, December has arrived. December is one of my favorite months, because of several reasons: Christmas, snow, time off from work, my birthday…and most importantly, Woolaston Entertainment’s birthday! This year, Woolent is turning 23. Yes…23. There are a few milestones that took place this year, but, before I get to them, let’s go back to the beginning…
Vanessa Vance, W/E/’s first character
Summer, 1994
I started watching Sailor Moon on UPN, in Hampton, Va. I made sketches of the characters I had been visualizing for months. The first one to come to life on paper, was a black cat named Vanessa. From there, I began writing furiously and drawing during every spare moment I could find. I started drawing comics and writing my own books. Little did I know, 23 years later, all of that creativity would pay off. Watching anime and reading mangas, writing books and drawing comics, would lead to a series of paintings, learning to play the guitar, and publishing 19 books. No matter how far Woolaston Entertainment goes or how old it gets, I always attribute everything to Summer 1994, when everything got started.
Milestones
W.E. may have been born in 1994, but things REALLY kicked off in 2009, with Fortune’s Wing. But let’s go through the years, as I can remember them:
1994: W.E. is born!
1997: Enos, W.E.’s first series/comic is created
1999: first short story publication in Polaris Literary Art Magazine
2000: my artwork is published in Polaris Literary Art Magazine
2002: Fortune’s Wing is written
2005: my first attempt at teaching myself to play guitar (a failure which later inspires creation of Our Lady)
2009: Fortune’s Wing is published
2010: Valentine is published
2011: Fortune’s Wing: Second Flight is published; first 2 W.E. books featured at A.L.A. convention in Washington, DC
2016: First book signing at Barnes and Noble, 2 W.E. books available via Hampton and Norfolk public libraries (this may have occurred in 2015, but this is when I can remember discovering this for myself!)
2017: Jon and Olivia comic featured in Bear Facts newspaper, published 19th book, The Witch of Fulton Lane, 2 W.E. books available via Queens Public Library, W.E.’s website becomes self-sustaining
The Witch of Fulton Lane
The Witch of Fulton Lane
My first paranormal book is finally available for sale! You can purchase a copy from Create Space’s website, or Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1979849943/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1511630272&sr=8-1&keywords=witch+of+fulton+lane It’s currently in the form of a paperback. I will release the ebook within a month or so. This is the first W.E. book outside of the current four series I previously published, so I hope you enjoy it!
The Monday Blog entries for this month will all be related to W.E.’s 23rd birthday. So, here’s to 23 years of writing and creating!
woolastonentertainment.com 