Last Stops and Newses

I wind up my blog tour today...

I had two reviews over the weekend (I've been extremely pleased with my reviews for Keeping Mum--all of them have been good)

So if you get a chance, go see my the review Dru Ann did at Cozy Chicks

And I had a guest post at Lori's Reading Corner

The actor in my head for Cam's Dad

And then TODAY is my last blog stop. At Dru's Book Musing, Annie is doing a feature article about Nelson Harris (Cam's Dad).  These two have some good chemistry--not sure if any of you had a best friend's parent you really hit it off with, but these two are great buddies. I like Dru's feature about characters, but thought Annie was the best voice to talk about Nelson with. Nelson would NEVER just talk about himself and Cam is too close, as his daughter. Besides, any of my readers knows I am having the most fun when I channel Annie.


And then finally... the NEWSES!

Yesterday was the first ABNA amputation and I am please to say I still have all my limbs.  The pitch stage is a rough one. Writing a pitch is a lot harder than writing a novel, in my opinion... at least sometimes. I've had a book or two that the pitch nearly wrote itself (though one of those pitches got cut, come to think of it.)

My ABNA record is as follows:

2010: Confluence (1st book) cut at pitch
2011: Kahlotus Disposal Site (6th book) semi-finalist
2012: Legacy (2nd book) quarter finalist
2013: Medium Wrong (10th book) cut at pitch

So let's hope what you see is a PATTERN, as that would lead to semi-final material, though honestly, I can't see passing past quarter-finalist, as this is really only the first third of the story (but SHHHHHHH--I can always hope the writing does it--Jade compared me to Stephen Freaking King, after all *shifty*)

Anyway, for anyone curious, here is my pitch:

A Shot in the Light (mystery/thriller)

A beach covered in dead seagulls brings Sidney Knight's quest for quiet to a halt. She's come to the Oregon coast to hammer out a few freelance deadlines but this breaks her concentration. According to her brother, a scientist at the Centers for Disease Control, the avian flu has reached epidemic classification. His warning not to get the flu shot, contrary to authority recommendations, scares her. 

Back in Portland she begins to dig and notices a disturbing trend: the shot, rather than reducing risk, is increasing deaths. Health departments, hospitals, and news sources are silent and care providers have been warned not to "scare people". Sidney, young and inexperienced, doubts she can handle a story this big, but what if she's the only one looking? When the CDC is locked down with her brother inside and one of her closest friends dies from the vaccine, Sidney's mind is made up. Green or not, she has to figure out how this happened, who is responsible, and who can set it right. 

A Shot in the Light is a new adult epidemic conspiracy thriller and will appeal to people who like a complex plot, powerful relationships and an emotional roller coaster.

Day 3: The Thrill and Fear of Reviews

There are two of them... They intimidate me. I know Mason and she's always fair (Thoughts in Progress) and LOVES books, so that one isn't quite as scary, but it is always intimidating to see what people think of our babies...

Will they measure up? I guess we will soon find out!

03/06/14 Thoughts in Progress- 
Review, Guest Post, Giveaway 

03/06/14 Gotta Write Network- 
Review, Guest Post 

Figuratively Naked (much more insecure than the literal sort)

Halo Fine Insecure Friends!!! We've arrived again at Insecure Writer's First Wednesday, all in need of some support, eh? First though, and not unrelated... I would be remiss if I didn't share my Book Tour Stops with you...


03/05/14 Mochas, Mysteries, and Meows- 
Guest Post, Giveaway 

03/05/14 Reader to Reader- 
Review 


Book Tour you say? YES! And that gets to the current insecurity!!!

Anyone who has ever been here before (or run into me on Facebook in all my silly wonder) knows I am a true advocate for nudity. Frankly, I just can't be bothered with all this itchy binding nonsense we call clothes. It is expensive. It perpetuates class differences. It enables us to act like something we aren't. It makes us focus on stuff that just doesn't matter. It strains those of us with no sense of style or an overdeveloped sense of whimsy. Naked people are NICE people. And I'm all for that.

But with a BOOK RELEASE I feel FIGURATIVELY naked!!! In a cumbersome BARREL naked! All open to scrutiny!  I do a blog post and nobody comments. There is a giveaway and only a few sign up. I can't seem to break below the 5 digit mark in Amazon rankings... I am feeling TOTALLY inadequate, which is far worse than LITERALLY naked... it is FIGURATIVELY naked... Like everyone is going to spot that I'm only a pretender... I fooled someone into publishing my books and now everyone is pointing out that I have no clothes on... Figuratively speaking. If this were literal, it would all be good... see what I mean?

Anyway... suffering a big batch of imposter syndrome today.

If you might be really kind and buck up my ego, I'd really appreciate it... simple as clicking LIKE in one of the following places...

Alyse Carlson Author Page
Alyse Carlson Amazon

Or visit me at one of the links above so I don't look like I have no friends!  Love you guys!!!

Keeping Mum Blog Tour: Alex and HEA

Hola fine friends! Tomorrow is my release for Keeping Mum and today are my first two stops on my Keeping Mum blog tour, so I invite you PLEASE to come along!!!

Today I am visiting the AMAZING Alex Cavanaugh, most generous of bloggers.  I know all of you know Alex--he is part of the sticky goodness that holds this blogging community together. I'm also at HEAs are Us, where there is a review and a book giveaway through my publisher.

This blog book tour was largely set up by my publisher, which was a huge relief--I tend to be bad at this particular piece--asking for stuff. The ones I set up are in blue and have original content from me--the other guest posts split content of two posts I wrote for the tour, just so you sort of know what's what... Reviews, of course, are from the bloggers.

The Full Blog Tour Schedule is Here

03/03/14 Alex Cavanaugh 
Guest Post: 3rd Time's the Charm

03/03/14 HEAs Are Us- 
Review, Giveaway

03/04/14 That Wee Bit Heap
Summer of Letting Go Entry

03/05/14 Mochas, Mysteries, and Meows- 
Guest Post, Giveaway 

03/05/14 Reader to Reader- 
Review 

03/06/14 Thoughts in Progress- 
Review, Guest Post, Giveaway 

03/06/14 Gotta Write Network- 
Review, Guest Post 

03/07/14 Open Book Society- 
Review 

03/10/14 Princess of Procrastination- 
Guest Post: Cozies and Cats 

03/10/14 Debbie’s Book Bag- 
Guest Post, Giveaway 

03/11/14 A Prairie Girl Reads- 
Guest Post, Giveaway 

03/12/14 Reviews by Molly- 
Review 

03/12/14 Socrates’ Book Reviews- 
Guest Post, Giveaway 

03/14/14 Book Dilettante- 
Review 

03/15/14 Lori’s Reading Corner- 
Guest Post, Giveaway 

03/19/14 Dru's Book Musing- 
Guest Post: A Day in the Life of Nelson Harris (Cam's dad) 

Watch and Learn (or, don't make my mistakes)

Halo, fine friends! And welcome to 2nd Wednesday's Indie Life
In which Indie authors share their support and wisdom.

Not feeling very wise at the moment, but I'll give it what I've got.

So I've been releasing a serial since September... 7 episodes are out... I started off promoting each time, but it was for not much, so I've sort of petered off... see... I've heard enough people say for things like that they wait until it's all there, and all will be 12 (pace to finish is about one a month)... nobody is beating down the door. I'm losing money because I am paying editing and cover costs... I made all of $39 last year or some such thing... less expenses... which puts me way in the hole.

Now I have faith. Once they are all out, I will push hard, but I sort of feel right now like it is a lot of effort for naught to do it every book.

So what would I do differently next time? 
I'm glad you asked.


1)  I would NOT have a serial be my first thing out the door. I would have a backlist of three or four books so if someone read the start of the serial and loved it, they could READ ME while WAITING FOR ME. The other advantage to this is you get the practice formatting and publishing without the time crunch of NEXT ONE NOW looming. And you can learn all the OTHER formatting venues, so you aren't stuck with just one—not that Amazon isn't great, but I'd like to be everywhere. I just haven't had time to learn all the other formats because I've been WRITING (and having a full time day job that has exploded since last summer—used to be able to do little things there—no more)

2)  I would write my WHOLE first draft (all the books) before I started publishing. (in fact I'd have the first reader beta job done, too) I think there is time between optimal book release to EDIT, but not to write and edit and polish... because a month apart is too long (which gets to my next)

3)  A month apart is too long. HA! See how I did that? I'd say 2 weeks is good. 3 maybe.


Did I do anything right? Why YES, as a matter of fact I think I did...

1)  I am pleased with the length. A penny a page seems like good value to me I think the sweet spot for these is 60-100 pages. It is long enough for a nice, meaty piece of story with some ups and downs...

2)  Giving away the first FREE is good.

3)  I also think my offer to give the NEXT to my first 10 reviewers is a good idea. Maybe it is 20 reviewers... Though I still only have more than 10 reviews on the first book.

But for a little perspective, I have a TRADITIONAL book (Keeping Mum) coming out March 4 and the work I have had to do for that (post writing) is SO microscopic by comparison. I mean I had my beta readers—always do. But They do all the art, formatting, prepping. I even have a publicist who has arranged a blog tour and giveaway—I wrote a couple posts but ALL that organizational stuff SHE is doing.

I really think for the part time author, traditional is a much EASIER route (not getting in—I know it's very HARD to get in). And I know it isn't the same money once you get going, but I will count those sales in the thousands, not the dozens. If I didn't have the day job, I could do a little of both, but since I DO, I really can't both write and promote at the same time. It just seems SO MUCH EASIER to be carried on the water and obey when they say jump. Now I KNOW that isn't for everybody. In fact it probably isn't for ME eventually... but in conjunction with the full time job? I will keep the traditional in my mix.

Naked World Dominatrix Issues Orders

I hereby order the following:

SUN: Show up EVERY DAY for the next 3 weeks. You've made a very poor showing and you really need to make up for it.

POLAR VORTEX: You are henceforth BANISHED! Nobody likes you. And while that may not be adequate for banishment, the pain and suffering you caused in January are. There IS a young man in the Netherlands willing to host you from time to time, but other than that, you would do well to stay above the 60th parallel.

SNOW: Give it a rest already, will you, you attention hog? We get it. You are pretty and can keep us at home in our jammies all day long. But you know what? Some of us have LIVES to get to, and frankly, it's getting a little old. Especially this collusion with your buddy vortex that has kept us from just throwing you out when we got tired of you. I don't want to see you fall from the sky again for 3 weeks, at which time you may fall on a Friday and Saturday and then say your good-byes for the year. Got it?

FEBRUARY: You are ordered to move along at a normal pace. None of this wibbly wobbly taking three months in spite of having twenty-eight days stuff you normally get up to. And while we're at it, you've posed a very poor role model for March, so by the end you need to clean up your act.


So, erm... Guess you've noticed by now I'm back... I'd like to say I'm all rejuvenated, but that isn't true. Work just keeps getting larger and larger. It is AMAZING, FABULOUS work we have ahead of us. A real difference we can make. But MAN, my brain is frequently fried at the end of the day.

29 Days to Keeping Mum!!! (Seeking Blogs for a Tour)

Since I have a book promotion coming up, I need to get back to it, whatever it takes. Speaking of... I only have a couple blogs on my blog tour scheduled (Alex and Dru Ann at Dru's Book Musings) but if anyone is willing to host me, here is what I propose... CHALLENGE ME! Give me an oddball topic of your choosing and I will do my best to tie it back to my series, characters, mysteries in general... Ought to lead to at least some bendy laughter, eh? You can either leave it in the comments and I will come find you to schedule, or you can email me (so we can surprise people) (hartjohnson23@gmail.com)

I ALSO am releasing Book 7 from my serial this week (Thursday or Friday, I think) and ideally book 8 before the end of the month so I can concentrate on the Cozies in March.

Publishing and Money

Second Wednesday is for Indie Author stuffs...

I ran across an article last week that was a fabulous dose of reality about which kind of authors made how much money. Not that money is the be all and end all, but it is nice to know what we are in for...

http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2013/self-publishing-debate-part3/

See here is my thing...

I have a day job. I will HAVE TO have a day job until I make enough writing to make up for NOT having said day job... because my retirement and insurance are really good, this is quite a LOT of writing income I have to make, or I really CAN'T quit... And not just once, but a good guess it will continue in the foreseeable future. That means I really need to be in that LAST, six-figure group to quit the day job. (not my income, but my income plus insurance for my family plus retirement put me very close—close enough that when I start TAXING the money that buys insurance, it would push the need over)

[now I LOVE my dayjob in a lot of ways, I'd just really prefer to do it maybe half time—the content is great, the people are great, the cause is great... but it just ISN'T writing fiction to my heart...]


So I need to keep the income in mind... do I write a little and not worry about it, or do I try to write enough to cross over and be a WRITER?

That's why I'm talking about the money.


See, the OTHER thing about the money (and time and jobs)... When I have so little writing time, I REALLY only have WRITING time... and I have some projects I'd like to commit to as an INDIE publisher... An Indie person needs to be a jack of all trades, but with a JOB, I just don't have time for that—not even to DO it, but REALLY not to LEARN IT. Does that make sense?

I didn't really get it until I started publishing my serial, which I can only do Indie, there being no formal serial mechanism annallat... but there is a LOT of time involved (and money)--covers and editing—I am paying for these, but it means thus far I've lost money. I KNOW this will be worth it—to not have a sub-par product out there, but time and money... time and money... time and money... neither of which I have.


So back to the graph... did you know I am a number nerd by day?

These are all percentages, so it gets a little hard to know what is what in real numbers... I assume there are MANY more aspiring writers than published writers, though self-publishing makes crossing that bridge a lot easier... so N for aspiring is biggest, followed by self... but I have NO CLUE how traditional and hybrid categories compare.

Comes out March 4--my 3rd Cozy

What I KNOW is I fell into the $1-$4,999 category this year... and last year... and the year before that. In 2010 I was the next category up because a three book contract with an advance meant I got a portion (40% of the advance for all three books) at signing. But in 2011 and 2012, I would have fallen in that 'traditional' $1-$4,999 category... this year I became purple... me and my $30 of Indie income *rolls eyes * Actually I've lost money on that so far, because I am paying for covers and editing, but I have hopes now that I am bundling it will get better, and once it is DONE, it will improve even more.

What gives me HOPE though, is that distribution of purple... hybids. That's me.

I sent a book that would be first in a second cozy series to my agent this week. I think it will sell. I'd frankly like to ALWAYS have a traditional series going. It gets me invited places. (is that shallow?) I think breaking out is easier with an icebreaker... and my personality just is NOT charming enough to break out otherwise. I am awkward.

And while hybrids have about 26% of us sitting here where I am ($1-$4,999) the next bump is at the $20K-$40K slot and 14% of us are making over $100K... I can be top 14%!


I will believe forever that publishing route should be a match of goals, genre and personality, but I am SO RELIEVED to see I am not dooming myself going about this sort of willy-nilly as I am... I'd felt very uncommitted...but I'm NOT uncommitted! I am a THING! A HYBRID!