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Conversations with a Self-Publishing Writer, Royalene Speaks, Uncategorized

Conversations : The Best of Royalene Doyle (part 6)

Celebrating the Best of Royalene Doyle

and her fantastic Conversations

farewell goodbye waving

The “March Into Spring” Series

If there’s a series we really need to revisit right now, it’s Royalene’s “March Into Spring” series from last year, in which our (very much missed) writer-in-digital-residence delivered some instrumental advice in how to prepare ourselves for the months ahead. And wow, just looking out the window right now? There’s a fresh foot of snow on the ground here, as there is in many places across the United States, and this after a week in which it felt as though the groundhog lied–that there’s be no more winter after all. Let’s just say we’re in transition, and we’re thinking hard about what it means to be an author in a changing world.

In this, the first post of her series, Royalene gives some tips especially useful to memoirists or those authors thinking of taking their first steps down the path to writing a memoir.

In this, the second post of her series, Royalene focuses in on the Fiction, Mystery, and Historical Fiction genres. How close to real modern life are these genres? How and why do we love them the way that we do? Royalene has some insights, and useful ones to an author looking for that one last reason to dive in to one of these genres. As always, Royalene has a fine understanding of why authors write, and where inspiration comes from.

Third time’s a charm, right? Well, with Royalene every post is charming, and this third installment of her series is no exception. Here, Royalene touches on a couple of genres and publishing categories particularly close to her own heart: Inspirational Nonfiction and Spiritual Fiction. She introduces a few of her latest favorite books from those categories (particularly the nonfiction) and explains just why they work so very well.

Circling back to true stories and memoir, Royalene touches on another important truth: “Deep within every writer’s heart I believe we all have this dream of leaving a legacy of written work behind us. It is not a pipe-dream. We can do it, too!” The power of true stories and memoir, writes Royalene, is that they give us something real as authors to strive for, and something for us to leave behind to inspire others. Writing is a perpetual cycle of being inspired and then working to inspire others. And we can’t think of a more beautiful truth!

Last but certainly not least, here is Royalene’s conclusion to her “March Into Spring” series, a post in which she taps into a lifetime of wisdom regarding the Children’s Book genre. Not only does she share some of her favorite new children’s books (linking back to the previous post about cyclical inspiration), but she also explains what brought them to her attention (unique and well-rounded character perspectives, a sound marketing process) before closing out with a final round of encouragement: “Don’t hold back! Write! Publish! Offer the world another chance to learn.” We couldn’t agree more.

***

That’s all for this week! We’ll be back next Friday as we detail more of Royelene’s greatest hits, as determined by our blog’s analytics. You can follow Royalene’s further adventures by checking out her Twitter feed (her handle is @RoyaleneD) or her website at www.DoyleWritingServices.com. We miss you, Royalene! ⚓︎

Royalene

ABOUT ROYALENE DOYLE: Royalene has been writing something since before kindergarten days and continues to love the process. Through her small business—DOYLE WRITING SERVICES—she brings more than 40 years of writing experience to authors who need “just a little assistance” with completing their projects. She developed these blogs for Outskirts Press (OP) a leading self-publisher, and occasionally accepts a ghostwriting project from one of their clients. Her recent book release (with OP) titled FIREPROOF PROVERBS, A Writer’s Study of Words, has received excellent reviews including several professional writer’s endorsements given on the book’s back cover.
Royalene’s writing experience grew through a wide variety of positions from Office Manager and Administrative Assistant to Teacher of Literature and Advanced Writing courses and editor/writer for an International Christian ministry. Her willingness to listen to struggling authors, learn their goals and expectations and discern their writing voice has brought many manuscripts into the published books arena. December 2017 marked the end of Royalene’s tenure at Self Publishing Advisor. and we will be spending the next few weeks celebrating some of her all-time hits, her most well-received articles for our blog, in thanks for years of generous service.
Alternative Marketing Methods, elizabeth speaks, in your corner, Marketing Your Self-Published Book, Uncategorized

In Your Corner: Should You Self Publish a Large Print Format?

seniors large print type

It’s no secret that writing a book is hard. That is why most authors publish multiple formats of each book they write. Why only publish one format when the same words can be used to publish many different formats?

As the average lifespan increases, the overall population is aging and that makes it a perfect time for LARGE PRINT editions. A large print edition of your book is exactly that — the same words, just formatted at a larger print size (usually 14-16 point font) to make it easier to read for seniors.

Imagine opening up a whole new marketing opportunity for your self-published book. If your current book is already successful, publishing a large print edition may add another great revenue stream. And if your book isn’t performing so great, a new edition may give it the shot in the arm it needs to find a new market, and re-attract interest in the original edition, as well.

Seniors are a huge market with a voracious need for books (plus disposable income). They are their own niche market, and yet, a niche market that is general enough to seek cookbooks as well as poetry as well as general non-fiction, and fiction. If you’ve been having trouble finding a niche for your book, seniors may be the place to look (and if you haven’t had any trouble, that’s even more reason to add seniors to the list!).

You are not alone. ♣︎

Elizabeth

ABOUT ELIZABETH JAVOR: With over 20 years of experience in sales and management, Elizabeth Javor works as the Director of Sales and Marketing for Outskirts Press. The Sales and Marketing departments are composed of knowledgeable publishing consultants, customer service reps and book marketing specialists; together, they all focus on educating authors on the self-publishing process to help them publish the book of their dreams. Whether you are a professional looking to take your career to the next level with platform-driven non-fiction or a novelist seeking fame, fortune, and/or personal fulfillment, Elizabeth Javor can put you on the right path.
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Tuesday Book Review: “Church Plays”

Book reviews are a great way for self-publishing authors to gain exposure. After all, how can someone buy your book if he or she doesn’t know it exists? Paired with other elements of your book promotion strategy, requesting reviews is a great way to get people talking about what you’ve written.
When we read good reviews, we definitely like to share them. It gives the author a few (permanent) moments of fame and allows us to let the community know about a great book. Here’s this week’s book review:

church plays fran shaw

 

Church Plays

by Fran Shaw

Publisher: Outskirts Press

ISBN: 9781478773702

Synopsis*:

Church Plays is a God given book which is comprised of 21 short plays and skits. Each play is ministering and entertaining while delivering a profound message. It will make you laugh and cry. This book will bless the readers, performers and the directors. You won’t be able to put it down and will never be the same. A few of the titles are ‘You Had Better Praise Him] (A young man with a drinking problem at the end of his rope is visited by the Devil), ]Pearls] (A single lady is beguiled by Mr. Casanova later finds out she is pregnant and HIV+), ‘God I Ain’t Mad At You’ (A mother loses her child to cancer), and ‘The Christmas Star’ (An old homeless bag lady brighten Christmas for a mother and her three children). Although this book is titled Church Plays, any audience will enjoy these delightful heart felt plays. These plays are a must see and the book is a must read.

 * courtesy of Amazon.com

Reviews

A favorite! Ms. Shaw’s plays were very inspiring and had a realistic perspective on matters that we are currently experiencing. There were a variety of plays that could easily be used not only in churches, but in various settings. A great read!!!

– Amazon reviewer April Moses

The book was written by a God-fearing woman ms Fran Shaw Who poured her heart into it you will be blessed by this book because the stories in it can be applied to every day life situations

– Amazon reviewer Linda Howell

OMG! This book is phenomenal! Glad I discovered, this hidden jewel! Look forward to seeing what else the author has.

– Amazon reviewer LadyShaw08

tuesday book review

Thanks for reading!  Keep up with the latest in the world of indie and self-published books by watching this space!

Self Publishing Advisor

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news from the self publishing world, self publishing news, Self-Publishing, Uncategorized

Self-Publishing News: 2.5.2018 – The Company Files!

february

And now for the news!

Some highlights from this month in the world of self-publishing, specifically news from or regarding self-publishing companies!

The title might be straightforward, but as Forbes contributor Adam Rowe wrote this week, the recent history of self-publishing is anything but, unless you’re looking at sales numbers … and if you are, those numbers tell a very simple story, one of rapid exponential growth in both production and publication as well as readership and market share. As Rowe puts it in the opening to his article, “In September 2014, there were “perhaps two million” titles in the Kindle Store, according to digital publishing expert David Gaughran. Today there are seven million.” Rowe interviewed Gaughran for his article, unspooling his origins in the self-publishing industry as well as his thoughts on where things have gone (and how they’ve gotten here). Says Gaughran, “It’s not just that the market has swelled; the tools we have for reaching readers have evolved at an incredible rate. It’s harder today, in some ways, and easier in others. But definitely more complex overall.” Complex is our forté! We highly recommend you check out the full article on the Forbes website.

Looking to take the next step in self-publishing your book this February by branching out in your marketing? The best deal around seems to be this one from Outskirts Press, which offers 15% off their Global Book Tour service package. For those unfamiliar with book tours, we can’t recommend them enough (no matter whom you choose to incorporate into your team) here on Self-Publishing Advisor. Interested in knowing more about book tours in general, and what they can do for your book? Check out Elizabeth’s brilliant blog post on the subject, and check out the Outskirts Press website for more information on their February deal.

Remember Medium? It’s been going through a lot of changes lately (some of which we’ve documented on our blog in various news posts), some of them significant. This one seems to be less dramatic than the usual, just a change in chief editor (as if that weren’t still an incredibly significant change!). But Siobhan O’Connor comes with an experience portfolio to rival the best, with experience at Time Inc. and a number of other important traditional print institutions, and many think she has a real chance of making the company finally turn a profit. Medium, a Twitter platform dedicated to longform self-published articles, has struggled to find a financial model which might do so. We’ll be watching closely!

spa-news

As a self-publishing author, you may find it helpful to stay up-to-date on the trends and news related to the self-publishing industry.This will help you make informed decisions before, during and after the self-publishing process, which will lead to a greater self-publishing experience. To help you stay current on self-publishing topics, simply visit our blog every Monday to find out the hottest news. If you have other big news to share, please comment below.

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Conversations with a Self-Publishing Writer, Royalene Speaks, Uncategorized

Conversations : The Best of Royalene Doyle (part 5)

Celebrating the Best of Royalene Doyle

and her fantastic Conversations

farewell goodbye waving

This week we’re celebrating more of Royalene Doyle’s fantastic Conversations posts; it’s hard to believe that it’s already been more than a month since her last new piece for our blog here on Self Publishing Advisor, and we miss her terribly. Do you know what we miss most of all? Royalene is such a force for encouragement and inspiration! Whenever we find ourselves discouraged and looking for ways forward, we delve into her old posts or dig into our email inboxes for her latest email.

Royalene understood the practical applications of encouragement for the self-publishing author, and our first post today really underscores that. Do you need some ideas to shake off Writer’s Block? Do you need a couple of ideas to shake loose those thoughts in your head which are so difficult to capture on paper? Take a look at this conversations post from 2014, in which Royalene talks about how to “plant the seed” and cultivate a work-in-progress. This is an invaluable post and one we return to frequently when stuck!

If you still find yourself stuck after that first post, it’s time to bring out one of Royalene’s more weird and hilarious anecdotes: the time she borrowed a skeleton. You heard us right … a skeleton! It turns out that Royalene was just as profound and out-of-the-box of a thinker as a high schooler as she is now, and her research unfolded into a lifelong conversation about generating motion (and momentum) in her writing by way of plot and characterization, dialogue and balance. It might be a bit unusual of an anecdote, but it really works! A life in motion can only ever be truly captured on the page when the writing evokes that same sense of motion, and as always Royalene provides concrete tips and tricks in order to help you make that happen.

So much of what we manage to get on the page as writers is dependent on how we treat our bodies and the brains which house our minds. It’s difficult to concentrate and write sentences that flow, for example, if we are tired or haven’t eaten decent food in a couple of days. Our ability to write characters who make sense in context is affected by the health and dynamics of our own personal relationships with the people around us, as authors. Here, in our final reflection for the week, we wanted to highlight Royalene’s 2016 post in which she encourages us to “feed mind, body, and spirit”! She describes her own ideal setting (quiet background noise, people around but not invading her space) as well as one of her go-to ways for feeding her mind (reading nonfiction) and then goes on to describe some ways in which her readers (her fellow authors) can go about creating their own ideal settings … including the ideal bodily and emotional settings necessary for peak performance. As always, Royalene finds a way to remind us that what we do, both on and off of the page, matters … all while striking an encouraging, insightful note!

***

That’s all for this week! We’ll be back next Friday as we detail more of Royelene’s greatest hits, as determined by our blog’s analytics. You can follow Royalene’s further adventures by checking out her Twitter feed (her handle is @RoyaleneD) or her website at www.DoyleWritingServices.com. We miss you, Royalene! ⚓︎

Royalene

ABOUT ROYALENE DOYLE: Royalene has been writing something since before kindergarten days and continues to love the process. Through her small business—DOYLE WRITING SERVICES—she brings more than 40 years of writing experience to authors who need “just a little assistance” with completing their projects. She developed these blogs for Outskirts Press (OP) a leading self-publisher, and occasionally accepts a ghostwriting project from one of their clients. Her recent book release (with OP) titled FIREPROOF PROVERBS, A Writer’s Study of Words, has received excellent reviews including several professional writer’s endorsements given on the book’s back cover.
Royalene’s writing experience grew through a wide variety of positions from Office Manager and Administrative Assistant to Teacher of Literature and Advanced Writing courses and editor/writer for an International Christian ministry. Her willingness to listen to struggling authors, learn their goals and expectations and discern their writing voice has brought many manuscripts into the published books arena. December 2017 marked the end of Royalene’s tenure at Self Publishing Advisor. and we will be spending the next few weeks celebrating some of her all-time hits, her most well-received articles for our blog, in thanks for years of generous service.