Throwback Thursday Post...

I am revisiting an old post from almost 2 years ago. Wow, it's hard to believe I've been blogging this long. Anyhow, this was one of my more popular posts from my blog over at CreateSpace. If you're a fan, try to figure out which book I was working on. It was one of my favs. Also, do you notice something missing from this post that is always on my posts? Third Cup of Coffee! Posted by SHurt on Sep 13, 2012 1:29:57 PM Well, it's Thursday morning. My son is at school and my hubby has gone to work. My mind in swirling with words to put into my current book. I am so excited about this new one. I just can't seem to type fast enough to get the words out of my head. I can see the whole ending and I am chomping at the bit or keys as it would be. I worked last night in between watching "The Voice". My son kept looking at me like I was crazy. I was actually smiling and chewing my lip as I typed. Have you ever been so into a manuscript that your every thought was focused on it? I had a new thought yesterday for a new spin that has totally rocked my manuscript. One of my characters is going totally on another direction from the original thought. It is funny how your mind works when you are into a manuscript. You think you have the right answers, but as you type your mind goes ahead of your fingers and totally changes everything. It is so cool how the process just develops on the scope of the work. I can't tell you where the idea is going, because that would be a "spoiler". I can tell you that my editor/assistant read up to what I had finished yesterday and she is now not speaking to me. She said she could not believe that I let her read it to that point and left her hanging over a cliff with no reprieve. I just smiled and knew I had accomplished what I wanted. I know I have said other books were my favorite, but I can honestly say this one has taken 1st prize in my heart. I have honed my writing skills and took into account different reviews of my other books. I have changed techniques and ways of describing characters and places. Just can't wait to type the end, but then again it has been such a big part of my life for the past month or so that I will probably have withdrawals. LOL!!!?

Monday Morning Wake Up Post

If you haven't realized it yet, yep it's Monday folks. School started back today after a very long break due to the ice storm and then Winter Break. The alarm clock went off at 6:00 this morning and it was rough. I'm working on my second cup of coffee and contemplating my third. Of course with Tax season in full swing my day is full of appointments for drop offs and pick ups. But for another hour I get to sit and enjoy my coffee, work on my upcoming book release and relax. This is my time when I can quietly work on things in the house. I already have a load of laundry and a load of dishes going. But more importantly I have a book to finish. Since I'm working on my first time travel romance, I'm excited about the upcoming release. I'm doing this one a little differently than my other books. It's going to have a pre-order available through Smashwords. The pre-order will be on Barnes & Noble, Apple iTunes and Kobo. I will be running several giveaways and some free books to select people that win the drawings. The contest will be announced this week so keep watching. Several of my books will be up for grabs to those that pre-order my book and send me a picture of their pre-order confirmation, but I'll announce the rules soon. As for the book that's coming out, I think my fans will be surprised. I'm hoping it will be a pleasant surprise. This is a little step away from my normal writing, but of course there is still a handsome cowboy and horses, I have to keep that going. But I've never delved into the time travel genre. It's been a great experience and I think it's a story that will make you think and wonder all the way to the end, which is an interesting ending. So, how are you spending your Monday morning? How many cups of coffee does it take to get you going? Let me know I'm not the only coffee addict... As always, good writing and May God Bless You...

3 Ways Indie Authors Can Improve Self Publishing

As you know I'm a self published author. When I decided to publish my manuscripts I studied the market. I'm an Accountant and I have a strong analytical background so that pushed me to make a study into this. I looked into both the traditional market and the self publishing market. One thing I realized was that more and more traditionally published authors are going to the self publishing market. But let me tell you this, in order to do it right you've got to keep up the traditional publishing standards strictly enforced. Here are 3 of the ways Authors can improve Self Publishing: 1: Editing: This is a very important part of publishing and this is where several self published authors fail at. It's also part of why some people will not pick up a self published book because they've been burned before. You've got to read your manuscript and read it again. Also you need to either get Beta Readers or someone that will be critical and unbiased to read your work. When you read your manuscript pull yourself away. Read it as though you're a reader and are you inspired to read it again. If it falls flat, then how can you expect anyone else to get into. Have you corrected all the spelling errors, grammatical errors, and just plain out story line disasters? 2: Covers: I can't stress this enough. Covers can sell even a badly written book. This is the first thing that a reader sees. This is the first line of selling rank. If you don't spend money on anything else, please spend a little on this. There are so many talented cover designers out there. I've been so fortunate to have a awesome cover designer. I've seen some really cool covers and then some really horrible attempts. Your cover needs to tell something about what's inside. It need to pull the reader in. I've purchased so many books just from the cover. 3: Book Blurbs: I stress about this with all my books. This is the hardest part of writing to me, no kidding. Make sure you don't give away too much in the blurb. Too many authors tell the story on the back of the book. This is not good. Be very descriptive and use complimentary words that will draw in the reader. I've done a study on this with my very own books. I put out a blurb on a couple of my books that I was somewhat happy with, but I noticed a lag in sales. Then I sat down and poured over the blurbs changing some of the key words and adding some small elements. This helped the sales dramatically. Try it and see if your sales go up. It's hard to be an author, period! When I say I'm an author, people come back with yeah, I could write a book. Well, yeah, anyone can write a book, but can they write a book that will go anywhere? Do they have the drive to publish that book and do all the marketing? Being an author is not as easy as it looks and being self published is brutal at times. But let me tell you the rewards far outweigh the difficulties. The first time a fan comes up to you at the grocery store and says, "Oh my goodness you're that author." The first time this happened to me I was so embarassed and excited at the same time. When you get emails from fans excited about your work it makes you smile all day. I've gained so many new friends from all over the world that some days I'm just amazed. Yes it's a lot of work, but it's so worth it. Have I thought about traditionally publishing? Yes. I sent Ghost Lover to a traditional publisher and never heard a word. Then I decided to self publish it and it was all uphill from there. It was my introduction into the publishing world and the response to that book has been really great. I've had a couple of big publishers call me about coming on board with them, but they couldn't offer my anything different from what I do now, so not now. I do have a work in progress at the moment that it's been in my heart to send to a publisher that I contribute to as a blogger. We'll see how that goes. So, my advice to you is to go for it, but be prepared to do it right. This is your name you're putting out there, so make it shine. If you need any help with it, I'm in partnership with my editor/cover designer in a publishing service, Horseshoe Publishing. We'll help you iron out those wrinkles and make your work shine like a new penny. As always, good writing and May God Bless You...

Check out my blog on Southern Writers Magazine blog site

http://southernwritersmagazine.blogspot.com/2013/11/how-do-you-balance-full-time-job-and.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SouthernWritersSuiteT+%28Southern+Writers%3A+Suite+T%29

The Fear Of Failure

Who's ever had a fear? Come on, you know you've had some kind of fear in your lifetime. We all do, but how do you handle that fear. When I started writing many, many years ago, the biggest problem was I had a fear of publishing. Why? Well, think about it, it's putting yourself out there. You're putting your name out there, your reputation and sometimes your creativity. Ok, so I have fears. I've had so many writers message me about this. They've written one or more manuscripts, but they fear publishing it. I always tell them to go with their heart. If they get some people to read their work and they like it, then go for it. Here's a list of reasons I feared publishing and sometimes still have a couple: 1. I feared what others would think. (I've gotten over that. Now I just don't worry about it as much. I've learned to just write what I love and put it out there.) 2. I feared putting my name on something that would go all over the world. Actually it's been a blast. Have only had a couple of weird encounters, but mostly have gotten over this one. 3. Crazily enough, a fear I still have every time I hit publish is that I've accidently downloaded the wrong file and it will be the character list or outline and not the manuscript. I did actually put the wrong cover on CreateSpace one time, but when I did the file check I discovered it and made the correction. That was a close one. 4. Reviews. You may think this is the same as #1, but it's not. This is the fear of the dreaded bad review that just makes you feel so deflated. But I've learned to deal with those also. I've only had a couple of bad reviews and fortunately if anyone reads the review they'll realize that in some instances the person didn't read the book to begin with. One bad review was because the characters names were the same as one of my older books. Really! One fan said a negative review of one of my books actually caused her to get the book and she loved it. Funny how things work out. 5. The fear of complete failure. It's so real in every author's mind when they publish their work. What if nobody buys my book? I had that fear at first, but as the sales went up I realized that maybe that wasn't a fear worth having. I'm not a bestselling author, but I'm pleased with the sales I've had. Since I've only been publishing for a little over a year, I can't complain. Well, what's your fear when publishing, writing or even blogging? As always, good writing and May God Bless You...

Amazon Associate - Yep I'm on board now.

I've looked into the Amazon Associate program for a while, but hadn't decided to jump until this week.Well, I'm now an Amazon Associate member and have a Amazon Store. I like having the actual buy links to my books. Of course, since I'm not the most computer literate person, I've been unable to attach the buy links to my WordPress Website, but I do have them on my Blogger website over at http://stephaniehurt-author.blogspot.com/. I know I'll figure this out for my WP website, but after a couple of hours of reading help pages and trying everything, I had to step back. As for thee program itself, it's fairly easy to set up. If I can do it, then most everyone can do it. So if you get a chance click over to my new Amazon Store and let me know what you think. http://astore.amazon.com/stehuraut-20. Now I'm just going to sit here by the crackling fire and sip my coffee as I finish my Christmas book. I'm so excited about this one. Can't wait to give you a little snippet, but that will have to wait until tomorrow. As always, good writing and May God Bless You...

2nd Cup of Coffee and Cool Fall Morning

I just love this time of the year. It’s so cozy curled up in the corner of the couch with my throw and coffee. I feel invigorated. The leaves are on the verge of change and the air is so clean. It’s amazing what God has given us.

I am nursing my second cup of coffee as I type this post. Yes, I’m still on vacation, so no hurry to shower and get dressed. I actually typed 4000 words yesterday. It was a very productive day. I have my outline beside me now and am pumped about today’s word count. If you’re a writer you know what I mean. It’s fun when the story is just spilling from your mind to your fingertips. The only problem I have is I want to get to the happenings of chapters ahead of where I am. Funny thing about a story is it unfolds sometimes in a crazy order. I can see the last act so clearly and it guides me through the middle story which leads you up to the final words. 

I’ve taken some advice from a fellow blogger and writer that has helped so much with this manuscript. I am so guilty of editing and proofing as I go. It’s a slow process when you do it that way. I’m bad about going back and rewriting parts or correcting spelling or grammer. As she said in her post, don’t do that until the first draft is complete. It does hinder your rhythm as you work. If you stop and go several times your brain gets in a fog. I typed yesterday continuously and refused to go back and edit even though at times I wanted to sooooooo bad.

How do you write? What’s the pet peeve of your writing? If you have a finished piece of work and need some help with the polishing, go to the Horseshoe Publishing tab at the top of my page and check out our polishing services. Your hard work needs to be out there, so get it polished and shiny and ready for the public to ooh and awe over it.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

If your cover could talk…

As a writer sometimes the cover comes before the writing. Odd, but true. Does your cover truly express the heart of the book inside? Does it totally blow the plot? Does it give away too much?

Have you ever picked up a book and wanted it just for the cover. Guilty as charged. I’ve seen a cover and just fell in love with the concept. It just inspired me to want to hear the story. I did that just recently and here’s what happened.

I was scanning through some of the books on Amazon. I do that from time to time to get ideas on cover design changes, fonts, etc. I come upon this book and the cover totally blew me away. I immediately purchased the book. I couldn’t wait until I had time that night to dig into it.

It was one of those moments when I put the book I’ve been reading aside and pick this one up. Well, I shuffled it around on my Kindle. The cover have a handsome cowboy and his trusty horse, but the background around it was just inspiring. The problem started when I read the first couple of pages. 

It wasn’t that the writing was bad, but it wasn’t following what I thought would be a cowboy romance. No ranch, no horses, no cowboy, nothing about this at all. I thought, well maybe it takes getting into the story to get to that part. Most of the book was about a businessman and woman. It was based in the city and not the country. Ok, well, maybe they are going there soon. Kept reading and nope. Close to the last couple of chapters they visited a ranch and then went back to the city. What??? That was it. 

The point to me telling you this is make sure that your cover tells the story. If it has a cowboy and his horse on it, then that’s what the reader is expecting. You know me, I love a good cowboy romance and I was left unsteady and very confused. I knew then that I’d been duped into this with my eyes. I should have read the blurb on the back. 

Make sure your cover gives a little mystery. If your character is going to go through a love triangle, maybe include all three involved, but don’t give away which the character will pick.  Leave a bone for the reader. Don’t leave a dinosaur though. If it’s such a mystery that you get to the end and say “WHAT?”

So, think about your cover long and hard. Maybe even design two slightly different and put them on your blog. Let your friends and readers vote. That’s always a fun concept.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Saturday and deep in history!

August 10, 2013 by stephaniehurt | Leave a comment

Good afternoon friends. It’s been a crazy couple of days. Last week I told you about my assistant (Niece) leaving for college. Well, she left this morning  We went to lunch together yesterday and it was sad, but I’m so proud of her. THis week in the office has been so lonely. I’m starting to get used to her not being there, but it’s hard.

Then Rosie Amber and I have started this blog tour for September. I’ve written a post on it also, but I’m going to remind you. If you’re a romance author then come on over and email me or Rosie to get in line. We are posting a new author every day of September. It’s called Romancing September Across the World. Rosie will post a interview with the author during her time zone and then I’ll follow when it’s daylight here with a blog post also. Rosie’s blog address is 

http://rosieamber.wordpress.com/ and her email is rosieamber7@gmail.com. So get with us and get in line before it’s too late.

Also, yep, I’m still going. My newsletter is going along smoothly. If you’d like to receive it via email, just send me a message at hurtsbusiness@att.net. 

On top of all of this I’m finishing up “Victoria” the first book in the Women of Magnolia Hill Saga. I’m really excited about this. It’s my first historical romance and I’m up to my elbows in outlines and historical timelines. I’ve learned more during the process of writing this one than with any of my other books.

So, how’s your Saturday going?

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…