Happy New Year!
As 2017 draws to a close, it’s natural that we all should be
looking at the upcoming year and all the promises it holds. Nearly everyone I
know has experienced more stress in 2016 and 2017, largely due to world events,
and I for one am looking forward to a more relaxing and positive 2018.
I am currently working on three books to be released in
2018:
The Essential
Marketing Plan for Authors is based on my popular 52-week
Marketing Plan Course through The
Novel Business. I’ve been mentoring authors for nearly 18 years and have
found the biggest challenge to be in the area of marketing; too many authors
give up too quickly or they don’t take the time or make the effort to correctly
identify their target market, so their efforts miss the mark. This book takes
the author through the entire process of identifying their ideal reader (even
when they don’t have a clue who they are) and walks them through digital
promotional efforts as well as traditional marketing. I am in the editing stage
now, and hope this book will be released before the summer of 2018.
The Adventures of
Blade and Rye is a venture into writing children’s books (preschool through
3rd grade). I actually wrote this book about three years ago and set
it aside, but was recently inspired by Sandra
Warren and her children’s book, Spivey’s Web to revive it.
Blade and Rye are two fairies and best friends that visit Earth just as life is
forming. Their teacher transforms them into two blades of grass so they have a
front-row, center seat beside a lake that will see everything from dinosaurs to
humans, and eventually (through the series) the formation of villages and then
high-rise cities. It is in the production stage now, and I also hope this will
be released before the summer of 2018.
And for those that love Vicki Boyd and Dylan Maguire, I am
in the writing stage (first draft) of the 7th book in the Black
Swamp Mysteries Series. Cloak and Mirrors
ended with Dylan and Vicki going dark to avoid enemy spies from abducting Vicki
and taking her to Moscow. They will find themselves on a sparsely-populated
island as a hurricane nears. Cut off from the mainland, they find refuge in an
ancient monastery along with half a dozen island residents, and as darkness
descends one after another are murdered. It is up to Vicki and Dylan to
discover the killer and his or her motives. It is due on the editor’s desk in
the spring so hopefully it will be released in the fall of 2018—just in time
for Book ‘Em North Carolina’s 7th
Annual Writers Conference and Book Fair.
Book ‘Em is now under the leadership of Robeson Community
College and I have returned this year to assist the organizing committee.
Please mark your calendar for Saturday, September 22, when we’ll bring together
dozens of authors that will be signing and selling their books, giving talks
and participating in panel discussions. Headliners are New York Times bestselling authors Jeff Mudgett, Jonas Saul and Elizabeth Massie.
What are you reading?
