I’m delving into the world of indie publishing. Some authors go the quicker route and use a source like Kindle Direct to immediately get their books out there.
There’s nothing wrong going that route but I’ve decided to take a different path.
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I was lucky enough on Saturday to participate in a ten author, costume themed book signing event at The Book Market in Sevierville, Tn. This writing life sometimes feels like going to the Oscars. You put your heart and soul into your story, and then one day you are invited to attend a group celebration of your book, along with other authors. And when you walk in the door of that bookstore and see a stack of your novel displayed for the world to see, it’s like someone just gave you that shiny gold statue for a job well done. And at that moment I could tell myself…
I’M A WINNER!
I’m a visual writer and love adding visuals to my book display when I go on author visits. I had a replica of the Cup of Notari holding skull pencils to give away, a small resin treasure chest with pirate coins, a limited edition whale tale statue, a replica of King Midar’s lost journal, as well as some STORY CATCHER PUBLISHING business cards, and some promotional postcards for my young adult fantasy novel, LUNADAR: Homeward Bound.
I also got to hang out with a couple of my critique partners. Here is Rick Starkey, fabulous author of BLUES BONES. His middle-grade novel is about voodoo and blues music. He jammed on that cool guitar when he wasn’t meeting people, and even showed me a magic trick which came pretty easy to him since he owns a magic shop in Gatlinburg.
This is the sparkly Debbie Dadey, another of my critique partners. I want to be like her when I grow up. IF I ever grow up. She writes lovely chapter books for children and has sold MILLIONS of copies of her BAILEY SCHOOL KIDS series and now her MERMAID TALES series. She looked regal in her lovely mermaid costume.
Here we are…Rick, Debbie, and myself…all dressed up and having a blast as a character from our books.
Here are some of the other authors who attended the book signing event. I met all of them earlier this year during the Rose Glen Literary Festival but now I was “one of them”.
Here I am chatting with Fayla Ott. She has written some Christian romance novels before but her latest book, AFFLICTED, is a historical fiction about the Salem Witch Trials. We discovered we had much in common…both ran a martial arts school, both were hybrid authors, both came from Louisiana. It was fun sharing our publishing journeys with each other.
But by the end of the day, I could look around and see we are ALL winners because we shared a common goal…sharing our stories and a love of books with others.
Just before it was time to pack up everything, this young lady stopped by my table and was so excited when she found out there were pirates and fairies and mermaids and evil creatures in LUNADAR that she ran to beg her dad to let her buy it. It made my day to see her eagerness to read my story and it helps validate that I am EXACTLY where I should be in my writing journey…
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***WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT!***
***WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT!***
I’m happy to announce the winner of week five of my TWELVE WEEKS OF LUNADAR free giveaway! Stuart Field has won a beautiful moon and stars necklace. Thanks for following this blog! Congratulations! Look for my email on how to get your prize…
***DON’T FORGET! It’s week six of THE TWELVE WEEKS OF LUNADAR giveaway and this week you get a chance to win another audio book shown above! Just click on the pile of presents to the right of this post and choose how you would like to enter the FREE giveaway. Winners will be announced every Monday in my INDIE AUTHOR’S JOURNEY post, so enter the FREE giveaway and check next Monday to see if you’ve won!
Ruler by day, a reluctant pirate by night, 18-year-old Princess Ariana fights for her subjects in the waterfall city of LUNADAR. In a kingdom surrounded by fairies and mermaids, and ravaged by deadly Drundles, only a chosen few are trusted to guard her daughter, Candra, as the secret heir to the throne.
But it only takes one ill-fated meeting for Ariana to suddenly be plunged into an escalating web of secrets found in her father’s journal, a deadly kidnapping, and an ever-weakening resolve to turn her back on the call of the merman’s song.
With Ariana’s world falling apart and the future of LUNADAR at stake, how will she bring her father’s murderer to justice and fulfill a deathbed promise to protect Lunadar’s legacy?
International best selling, award-winning author, Donna L Martin, has been writing since she was eight years old. She is a 4th Degree Black Belt in TaeKwonDo by day and a ‘ninja’ writer of children’s picture books, chapter books, young adult novels and inspirational essays by night. Donna is a BOOK NOOK REVIEWS host providing the latest book reviews on all genres of children’s books, and the host of WRITERLY WISDOM, a resource series for writers. Donna is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators and Children’s Book Insider. She is a lover of dark chocolate, going to the beach and adding to her growing book collection. Donna’s latest book, LUNADAR: Homeward Bound (a YA fantasy), is now available in ebook and print form from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books A Million, and other online retailers.
