LUNADAR: HOMEWARD BOUND – Page 4 – Story Catcher Publishing

An Indie Author’s Journey: Book Trailer Time

July 24, 2018Donna L

I’m delving into the world of indie publishing. Some authors go the quicker route and use a source like CreateSpace or 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.

***********

I have been sitting on this video for months…waiting for the time when I could share this gorgeous book trailer for LUNADAR: Homeward Bound with the world.

I’m quite pleased with the finished product, but it was a constant battle to try to upload to YouTube. I never could do it and began to wonder if every step of this publishing process was going to be fraught with overwhelming struggles.

Then I realized I was looking at things wrong.

It takes a village to birth a book and I was trying to do it all by myself, so FATE decided to put a few obstacles in my way to help me appreciate all the effort and teamwork that goes into the artful making of a book.

Finally, with the help of an old Taekwondo student (thank you bunches Malik!) this lovely book trailer is now uploaded for the whole world to enjoy.

So….

What do you think? Do you like it? Will you help me get the word out and share this video with your friends?

LUNADAR cover jpg

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?

donna

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) from Story Catcher Publishing ebook edition is now available at Amazon and other online retailers, with the print edition coming out late fall 2018.

An Indie Author’s Journey: My eBook Is Here! Sort Of…

July 9, 2018July 9, 2018Donna L

I’m delving into the world of indie publishing. Some authors go the quicker route and use a source like CreateSpace or 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.

Despite the fact my book cover designer is still having file formatting issues with IngramSpark, she is working to get it resolved so I’m crossing my fingers things will be resolved soon.

In the meantime, my interior pages file was accepted by IngramSpark, which means as soon as the book cover file is fixed, ebook and print editions are back on schedule.

So, how is your ebook here then you might ask?

Well, I’ve decided to go ahead and share my ebook proof with my LUNADAR Street Team. They will get to read about Ariana’s adventures in the young adult fantasy world of Lunadar in advance of the official release, but will have to wait a little bit to be able to leave their reviews.

There will also be a drawing for some cool prizes for anyone who joins my street team and leaves an honest review on a social site like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Goodreads, personal blogs, etc. once the ebook goes on sale.

Wouldn’t you like to step through the portal and join the growing LUNADAR Street Team? Team members receive a copy of LUNADAR: Homeward Bound in exchange for an honest book review. They are also entered into a drawing for some cool prizes. To join the team, just leave your name in the comments below, send me a message on Facebook (www.facebook.com/donasdays), or drop me an email at [email protected].

“Ruler by day, reluctant pirate by night, 18-year-old Princess Ariana fights for her subjects in the waterfall city of Lunadar. In a kingdom surrounded by mermaids and fairies, 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 a 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?”

donna

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 scheduled to be released in ebook edition by the summer of 2018 from Story Catcher Publishing, with the print edition hopefully coming out late fall 2018.

CHILDREN’S FESTIVAL OF READING

May 21, 2018May 20, 2018Donna L

Children's Festival

Every year, right before school lets out and summer begins, my city celebrates the written word in a big, big way.

The Children’s Festival of Reading has been going on for more than fifteen years and every year 12,000 or more people crowd into World’s Fair Park to laugh, dance, sing, and weave their way through a number of booths honoring books of all genres.

tents

I arrived at Word’s Fair Park at around 8:30 to find my tent and start setting up. STORY CATCHER PUBLISHING and TAEKWONDO YOUTH ALLIANCE had teamed up to give away free self defense lessons and a bevy of books!

student

A number of my Taekwondo students had signed up to help at my booth today. This is one of my black belts doing a little “community service” work. If you look closely at the tablecloth, you will discover my little yard sale treasure when I came across someone selling a bolt of “book” designed cloth that was a perfect fit for my display table! My sister doesn’t like being photographed so don’t tell her I snuck this picture in when she wasn’t looking…;~)

booths two

It threatened to rain all day but never did, so many people braved the potential thunderstorms to come out and have a little fun.

panel

names

They even had a panel of authors from around the country speaking about their work and the art of writing well enough to become published.

As always, I LOVED all the excitement of this festival and I got a chance to share my two passions…writing and taekwondo…with the many children who stopped by my booth. Now, it’s time to recover from my day in the sun and get ready for my next adventure into the indie world of publishing.

Be sure to check back next week when I talk about the next step in setting up STORY CATCHER PUBLISHING and counting down the days until the ebook release of LUNADAR: Homeward Bound!

donna

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, My Journey, My Journal, is scheduled to be released by Expert Insights Publishing in the Fall 2018.

An Indie Author’s Journey: Ebook Eeny Meeny, Which Way To Go?

May 14, 2018May 14, 2018Donna L

I’m delving into the world of indie publishing. Some authors go the quicker route and use a source like CreateSpace or 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.

My book cover designer just turned in the final artwork but I still have three tiny tweaks I’d like her to be able to change if possible before I proudly show off LUNADAR:Homeward Bound’s beautiful cover. Kelly did such a fabulous job on it and I hope to get a chance to interview her soon for this blog.

That being said, I’ve also finished all the final edits…just have to type them into the formatted file and my manuscript will be ready to be loaded for the ebook release. That might come as early as late next month, once I sort through the maze of who will help me get the ebook out in front of readers…

STEP SEVEN: EBOOK RETAILER, AGGREGATOR, OR LIBRARY DISTRIBUTOR?

Which route to take totally depends on what the author wants to do with their ebook. I COULD go with individual ebook retailers like Amazon, Apple iBook, Nook Press, or Kobo, but then I would have to individually load each file in either PDF, ePUB, or MOBI file (depending on each site’s requirements). Some are free but most come with servicing fees tied into the retail profits before I would get my cut. If you have the time and keep good records of all the many site you need to incorporate into your overall marketing plan, that might be the route to go. Here’s a list of the most common ebook retailers found in the US…

EBOOK RETAILERS:

Amazon (http://www.amazon.com)

CreateSpace (http://www.createspace.com/)
KDP (http://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/)
Smashwords (http://www.smashwords.com/)

Apple iBook (http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201183)

Google Play (http://play.google.com/books/publish/)

Kobo (http://www.kobo.com/us/en/p/writinglife)

Nook Press (http://press.barnesandnoble.com/how-it-works)

I’ve decided to go with an ebook aggregator for convenience more than anything else. An ebook aggregator is a company that will take my manuscript, convert it into several different formats if necessary and then forward those file to many distribution channels like online ebook retailers, libraries, and other sources. I like the fact I will only have to provide one file and THEY will do the work getting everything distributed for a small percentage of the overall profit from each ebook sold.

IngramSpark is by far the largest ebook and print distributor, so I will send my file to them and let them do the rest so I can concentrate on the upcoming marketing. Reports of ALL sales can be seen on a daily basis and my profits will be paid monthly.

Here is a list of the most common ebook aggregators in the US.

EBOOK AGGREGATORS:

Draft2Digital (http://www.draft2digital.com)

IngramSpark (http://www.ingramspark.com/)

PublishDrive (http://admin.publishdrive.com/home/)

I will also look into library ebook distributors to see if I need to focus on reaching out to any of them. Here are some of the most common library ebook distributors in the US.

LIBRARY EBOOK DISTRIBUTORS:

3M Cloud Library (http://www.bibliotheca.com/3/index.php/en-us/)
ProQuest Ebook Central (http://www.proquest.com/products-services/ebooks/ebooks-main.html#whatsnewSection)
Rakuten OverDrive (http://company.overdrive.com/?_ga=2.214516439.1543725505.1526268579-3c2898e6-197e-4aaf-84f6-f5ded66b6ce7)

Next week I will talk about the great deal I got on my ISBN numbers as well as a conversion special and even copyright formalities.

If you are an indie author, which publishing/distribution choices and challenges did you encounter? Share with my readers by leaving a comment below!

donna

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, My Journey, My Journal, is scheduled to be released by Expert Insights Publishing in the Fall 2018.

An Indie Author’s Journey: Judging A Book By Its Cover

April 29, 2018April 30, 2018Donna L

I’m delving into the world of indie publishing. Some authors go the quicker route and use a source like CreateSpace or 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.

My final edits are coming along so now it’s time for me to focus on:

STEP FIVE: A QUALITY BOOK COVER

There are many options available to indie authors for book covers…some as cheap in its quality as its price. Others have mid-range pricing, offering the indie author the opportunity to give their readers a better quality cover if their budget can afford it. Then there are the high end designers who charge a hefty price (some as high as $4.000 per book cover) who work for larger publishing houses if an indie author chose to pursue traditional publishing for some of their books.

When it came to my book cover for LUNADAR: Homeward Bound, I knew two things…

I wanted the best book cover I could possibly afford.
I couldn’t afford to pay much since I had to factor in other publishing expenses against my poor gal’s budget.

I knew I had to be creative.

I posted an ad on Fiverr and even received a few responses, but in the end, I didn’t quite connect with any of the designers who wanted to work on my book cover. There was even a time when I began to wonder if my vision for LUNADAR’s cover would ever become a reality.

Then I met Kelly.

I decided to reach out to the art department of my local university and the director graciously agreed to run an ad in the student newsletter advising I wanted to commission an artist for my cover.

A few students responded, but there was something about Kelly’s artwork that connected with me. It also helped she had previously worked with another local children’s book author, so she understood the basic process. Kelly was also the only artist who asked for a contract which showed me her level of professionalism.

I already knew what I wanted for my cover, having found a picture in the public domain arena back in 2015 which became my muse for the story line of my young adult fantasy novel.

Kelly quoted me a commission rate of $50 up front and $50 upon completion, and I quickly drew up an Artist/Illustrator contract.

Here is an early proof Kelly sent me. I think she has captured the spirit of what I want in this book cover. I made a few changes (along with providing her the book blurb she will include in the top box on the back cover) and now I am impatiently waiting to see the final artwork…;-)

What do you think? Would you change anything?

Lunadar Book Cover Proof.png

Next week I will talk about making a marketing timeline for promoting my book…

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, My Journey, My Journal, is scheduled to be released by Expert Insights Publishing in the Fall 2018.

An Indie Author’s Journey: Converting Files

April 16, 2018April 15, 2018Donna L

I’m delving into the world of indie publishing. Some authors go the quicker route and use a source like CreateSpace or 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.

If you missed the first two installments of this new series you can go here for step one, and here for step two in my process. Now onto…

STEP THREE: Choosing The Right Publishing Software

When I decided to self publish my novel, LUNADAR: Homeward Bound, I started researching how I needed to convert my Word document into the proper files for publishing. I knew I wanted to offer both an eBook and Print On Demand paper back, so I would need something to convert my manuscript into both an EPub and Mobi files to be able to work with the most distribution channels.

Sites like CreateSpace will convert your manuscript for you free of charge. but it basically restricts you to the Kindle world only, and I wanted more for my first venture into self publishing.

With so many to choose from, I finally decided on Book Design Templates (http://www.bookdesigntemplates.com). Their state of the art software allows me to copy & paste chapters of my novel into any one of their many book templates with ease and with just a few tweaks, I have a file ready to upload to either eBook or POD format. I purchased two different programs (one for novels and one for chapter books) and the entire package, including a multiple use license allowing Story Catcher Publishing to produce unlimited files only cost me $120. Now, instead of paying someone else each time I need to convert a manuscript, I will be able to use the Book Design Template to convert ALL my books to reduce my overall publishing costs.

I also received my LUNADAR postcards in the mail last week. I am working a booth at the Children’s Festival of Reading next month and with over 12,000 people attending, it’s the perfect opportunity to spread a little writerly love…

Next week I’ll talk about editing and accounting as I continue to set up STORY CATCHER PUBLISHING into the best little press on a poor gal’s budget that I can make it!

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. Donna’s latest book, My Journey, My Journal, is schedule to be released in the fall of 2018.

An Indie Author’s Journal: The Roadmap

April 2, 2018April 1, 2018Donna L

road map.jpg

Eight years ago I crossed the line from amateur writer to professional author with the publication of my first story. At the time, I thought the only viable route to publication was the traditional one. I spent the next eight years in search of traditional agents, editors, and publishers. Many lessons were learned and somewhere along the way my feelings about the indie world changed.

I’m a perfectionist at heart (what serious writer isn’t?) and I began to wonder if I could produce as good a product…if not better…than some of the books I’ve seen published over the years.

So I began to do some research.

And I took the time to really think about what I wanted from this experience.

Did I want to simply throw my name on some slapped together ebook so I could tell the world I added another published book to my writing resume?

No.

So, I decided I needed a roadmap to take me on my journey into the world of indie publishing. A checklist or step by step guide to take my young adult fantasy novel LUNADAR: HOMEWARD BOUND from completed manuscript to published ebook and paperback version via print on demand (POD).

STEP ONE:

Create a strong website to support my blog, any future book releases, and my overall author platform.

I’ve been a Blogger fan for many years under www.donnalmartin.com, but it didn’t offer me all the plugins and technology support I felt I needed going forward as an indie author. I’ve since switched to a WordPress format. I paid the $100 per year to have access to the upgraded site and really like how my new website looks. Check it out at www.storycatcherpublishing.com

Next week I’ll share the next step I took on the road to indie publishing, including giving you a sneak peak of the book trailer I will use for LUNADAR. My target release date is the Spring of next year and my goal is to prove to myself, more than anyone else, that my new company, Story Catcher Publishing, can produce a great quality book on a poor gal’s budget. I’ll list my costs along the way and you’ll be the judge of how well I did once you see the finished book.

With a little luck and a lot of hard work, my hope is to continue “catching” and sharing great stories…together!

The Journey Begins

March 16, 2018March 18, 2018Donna L

I’ve spent the past eight years journaling my thoughts on everything writerly through my blog at www.donnalmartin.com. Every author should evolve and grow through their writing, but 2018 has been the year when my own evolution has taken a dramatic turn.

With three published books to my credit…one of them hitting the international best seller list in the fall of 2017… I’ve decided to explore the self-publishing route with some of my books.

With this in mind, I have created Story Catcher Publishing and will strive to make this new website a great source for all things writerly. I will also journal my adventure into the world of self-publishing and will roll out a new series of blog posts beginning in April where I will talk about the good , the bad, and the sometimes ugly truth about what it takes to publish my young adult novel, LUNADAR: HOMEWARD BOUND.

Hopefully, you will join me on this journey of evolution and the grand adventure to yet another form of publication…

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this new venture of mine. Am I crazy like a loon to try this? Or maybe crazy like a fox? Only time will tell.

Let the journey begin!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton