Torontonians really do rock!

Hey there

So its Monday morning and the weekend is finally over. I had my first big event yesterday at Word on the Street, Toronto. My husband and I prepared for this for a while. Okay he prepared for this on my behalf. He is my saviour!

I wasn't sure what to expect because this was actually my first time at Word on the Street, so just in case I bumped into an agent or publisher I had made ten query packages. As I believe I have mentioned in an earlier post (or should have) that query is going to give me and ulcer. There are so many contrasting beliefs on what at query should look like. At 1:30 am on Sunday I finally decided to go to bed and stop changing my query. It turned out I didn't need it anyway.

I sold approximately 25 books and handed out hundreds of book marks. I had some encouraging discussions with people who were not into my genre but they were so darn supportive all the same. I was starting to get a little worried when people would stop and pick up the book , read the back and then put it back down. Of course my first thought was that there's a problem with my blurb. So I started asking people, "Do you read romance?" It turned out many of them didn't but they were drawn to our display and the book's cover so they stopped. Through many of those conversations amazing things happened. When  people realized I was the author they would smile broadly and offer congratulations. Many people offered advice on marketing etc. Many of them took post cards, sell sheets, and book marks to distribute to people they know who do read my genre. This happened multiple times all day. I had some postcards printed to advertise my launch at Chapters on John street in Toronto on October 6th. At least a dozen or more people had said they will try to get people to come out to support me. I was blown away. These were complete strangers that wanted to help.

Following the book event we went down to college street for a "Magical evening with  local authors,"  Since I had never done anything like that before I had no idea what to expect. We were greeted at the door by two very welcoming gentlemen. Since we were almost the last to arrive, sitting a distance away and the speaker system wasn't optimal it was difficult at times to follow what was going on.

Four authors were scheduled to read excerpts from their books. I had assumed readings were reserved for those who wrote gorgeous pieces of literary fiction that would read like poetry. It was appearing that way at least until a lady stands up at the microphone and begins to read an excerpt from her romance novel. What? Romance authors are asked to speak at these things. That's amazing. When this lady spoke I quickly realized why. She had passion. She read the pages from her ms with heart. She took on the persona of each character as she spoke. I really didn't care what she was saying, it was the fact that she was passionately in love with her work that made me smile. I realized in that moment that we, the romance authors of the world, are a special breed and I need to start practicing my public speaking because I too want to share my passion the same way this lady did.

We shared our table with a lady that was on her own. A complete stranger. Two hours later it felt like she was a friend. That might have been the best part of the entire day! We talked about my fear of public speaking and she gave me some really great advice. She was just so genuine and supportive. She had a belief in me and my book although she hadn't read a word of it.  People like that don't come along often, so when they do the encounter is memorable and in this case worth mentioning. It turns out this woman has some media connections. When she finally told me where she worked the thought truly hadn't even crossed my mind that she may be able to help me get some exposure. In fact when I asked her where she worked and she told me I think she expected a light to go on in my head. (which maybe if I wasn't dog tired it would have)  Later I went to the bathroom and when I returned my husband informed me that she was going to do what she could to get my book in the hands of the right people. Immediately I felt awkward. I cant explain why and I know my response was something really strange because I didn't know what to say. I should have just said thank you. Which I did do after but I think my first response was something like" its okay if you can't I know its hard to do things like that." WTF is wrong with me. I think I liked this lady so much that I didn't want the basis of our new found friendship to be based on a "What can you do for me?" bottom line. I don't have a business head. I am all about emotions and relationships. Maybe that's why I'm a romance junkie.  And truth be told I think part of me knows what's coming next and it scares me. Success is something we dream about but when you know beyond a shadow of a doubt its around the corner it becomes very daunting. I can be my own worst enemy. Maybe I need to find a doctor with a couch. ;)

I could have written a half chapter in the time it took me to post this. I have a lot of wonderful fans that are anxiously awaiting book two so I better get back to work!

K.C.

The Jaxon Effect

I am thrilled. When I originally enrolled my book on KDP for Kindle I opted not to go into the borrowers pool. However with my sales on the other devices being dismal and my sales on kindle being not much better I thought what do I have to lose. Since my book is actually the first of a trilogy why not? I put a year into my book. It spent almost a thousand dollars on my print version and cover design that was why. But then again what did I have to lose?

I pulled my title off Smashwords (who distributes to all the other devices) and went KDP exclusive. Holy cow its only been like a week and I have had close to 4000 downloads and around fifty ebook sales. I don't really know what that will equate to in dollars because some of that was under  "Free e-book promotion days" where I will earn squat for those downloads. But I don't even care. What's amazing is that there are 4000+ people across the globe who have now heard of K.C. Michaels. Many of whom love The Jaxon Effect. I have amazingly enough gained like sixty twitter followers and at least twenty new fans on my Facebook  page in the past couple of days. I have gotten several messages through Facebook, twitter and my website from people who have read my book and are chomping at the bit to read the second installment. I am over the moon.

I now have 19 ratings on Goodreads and five on Amazon and counting. The Jaxon Effect has also been added to over 150 times as a to be read on Goodreads as well. I am still of course hoping to find agent representation so the distribution of my print books can be handled by someone else. For now I will box, ship and drop off copies to retail outlets as necessary. A girls gotta do what a girls gotta do.

I would also like to say I love every positive message I receive. I read them all and they inspire me to keep moving forward. I must get back to my writing now so until next time I will say goodnight!

PS: Dates to Remember

Sept 22nd Word on the Street Festival booth 197
October 6th Chapters John and Richmond in Toronto (Book launch and Signing)
October 20th Chapters St. Catharines,  (Book signing)

I have a shipment that I sent to Coles at 800 Grand Lake Road in Sydney, Nova Scotia. They should arrive the end of this week or beginning of next week.

follow me for updates regarding book 2 @jaxoneffect or @KC_michaels on twitter

Or find my fan page on facebook The Jaxon Effect

Thanks
K.C.

Its been a while

It's been another while since I blogged. Life just zips on by and before I know it I am down for the count. A couple of weeks ago I went to NYC and wrote 5 chapters in one weekend. It was amazing. I need to go back again. I was so focused it was scary.
Today I am officially on consignment at my local Chapters store. Its located in St. Catharines Ontario and I will be doing a book signing on October 20th from 1-5pm. October 6th I will be at the Toronto Chapters for a signing as well from 1-5pm at the John and Richmond location. September 22nd I will be at Word on the Street in Toronto. Lots of amazing thing happening and the reviews for my book have been wonderful!

This is so much work

I thought writing the book was work. Holy cow promoting it and publishing it and then republishing it is work too. So of course now that my husband has seen a finished product he has decided to help me. I love the help I really do but it would have made my life easier if he would have been the research guru that he his now months ago. There are a few more new things he has learned and shared with me. For instance that free isbn number that CreateSpace gave me. I should not have taken it. I should have just gotten my own because now I have to retire my CreateSpace isbn and upload a whole new file and cover image and start from scratch in order to change my isbn. There was an article that suggested I drop my CS isbn and replace it with my own isbn and then I can print on demand through Create Space for online retailers and I can use Lightening for bookstore orders. I am sharing this information because I'm hoping my mistakes and trials and success will help someone else at some point.

So in a nutshell if you want to offer print on demand books and your goal is to see in bookstores you need your own ISBN.You are better off at Lightening. If you want to focus on online sales then the best place to be is Create Space but I would suggest getting your own number so if you want to do both you can. More than one ISBN is not a good idea because best seller lists are based on isbn tracking. Clear as mud?

Marketing! Marketing! Marketing!

Exciting things are happening. I printed off a list of local bookstores under the Chapters/Indigo umbrella and made a couple of phone calls. It seems most managers have taken vacation this week so I do have to call a few back but I did have success with a chapters store who has agreed to carry my book on a 30 day consignment trial and another store requested I email my book's information as they do have space available. Only one loaction (a small coles store) said it was more bother than it was worth to set up an indi author so I wrote her a two page letter begging her to reconsider. Will see how that pans out. There are fifty stores within a two hour drive from me and my goal is to get in all of them over the next twelve months. I am not above begging.

I sold an ebook on Amazon.es which is Spain. Totally cool!

We managed to book a booth at Word on the street, which is a huge book festival in Toronto where there will be over 250,000 readers on site looking for their next great read. I am completely pumped and we contacted create space to speed up my re-edit which is scheduled for proofing on the 23rd but today they said they will prioritize and will have it ready by the 16th so we will have our order in on time for the festival. It takes around 11-14 days from ordering to actually receive the books. Expediting shipping is too pricey. Especially since I have already paid for 100 copies that I am selling at a discount due to editing errors. My fault not CreateSpace.

One other thing I wanted to mention that I noticed today was that although you may get a printing package a little cheaper than what CreateSpace will do it for The cost per book is a much better price at CreateSpace. Based on the printing costs being relatively reasonable I do not have to price gouge to make a buck. Sometimes once the vendors take a cut there isn't much left. I was on an indi site where the printing costs to do my book to exact specifications was literally double the price. Based on that the minimum list price was almost thirty dollars because they take a little bit on top of that printing cost as well. My online price(because I don't cover shipping costs) is $13.95 and I am pretty sure my vendor list price will be around $14.95.

So things are continuing to move forward. My average rating on Goodreads is 4.25 and I am thrilled!
I almost forgot there is a book trailer in the works too.
.
Till next time <3
KC

What to do?

So I am trying to decide if I should read or write this evening. Its been a few weeks since I have read anything. Most of my books are packed in boxes. (The ones I was able to salvage). We recently had a flood and I lost the bottom shelf of two book shelves and some boxes I had in my storage room. It was heart breaking to junk them.
On Dublin Street was recommended to me recently. The title sounded familiar... The next day I realized it was on my to be read shelf in my rec room. No wonder it sounded familiar I had purchased it my last trip to the book store. Problem is I literally have to dig through  several boxes to find it. I am a bit hesitant to write simply because I have been writing in circles lately. A bunch of fluff not much of anything. There are some really good key plot elements that I have to get to but I am having difficulty getting to them. I have learned through writing The Jaxon Effect that it's because the direction I am going is the wrong one because I forced it. Eventually it will click and I will be able to write for days without coming up for air. But until then I will be walking around with knots in my stomach until I can get something substantial on paper and dump the words that are stored far back in my subconscious.
The story belongs to the characters. I am like a fly on the wall watching and relaying what I see. I can't think about the story I have to see the story. I'm not sure if that's how it is for other people but that's how it is for me. So I know its recommended that you should write through a block but I don't like to. It gets me more frustrated. I just have to wait until Kate and Jaxon invite me into their world again so I can continue to tell the story. I hope it's soon! I think I'll make myself a latte!

Moving Right Along!

I am moving right along

Ordered promotional books
Have my book available on Amazon
Set up with Smashwords  who will be able to distribute my book in all formats to all major devices
I have my website   www.thejaxoneffect.com
I have found some ladies at Goodreads that are going to review my book
I have a Facebook page that is getting more fans every day
I have read tons of marketing articles
I formed my blog
I have a twitter account
I requested an isbn for my book registered to me the author so indie stores will consider shelving
Requested an author page on Goodreads so I may offer promotional material
I sent emails to people I know and asked them to spread the word

Still to do

Order business cards, bookmarks and sell sheets
Set up some public appearances
Continue to search for professional book reviews

 I am taking all of the textbook steps that have been recommended. I just need to figure out some of my own. :)



My motto is sell one book at a time!

Now if I could just figure out how to schedule myself properly so I can promote my book and write in the same day that would be great!

I think I need to find more reading  groups to crash! Maybe I will pop in on my old book club. Drop off some freebies!