Monthly Archives: December 2014

The good, the bad and the amazing of 2014

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As the final hours of 2014 tick down, I take a few minutes to reflect on the good, the bad and the amazing of this year.

The good.
I published two books this year via my small press, Baskethound Books. The first, Bone Girl, is a middle-grade novel that tells the story of a young girl and a rescued stallion who together, save their world. The other, A Year with Geno, is a contemporary romance about two single parents who find romance amidst the chaos of single-parenthood.
Both books have sold tens of copies. I haven’t broken even financially, but I still have the delicious pleasure of going to my local library and seeing my books are available to be borrowed, but are checked out.
Also, much to my delight, both stories found their voice: they are available as audiobooks via Audible. Many thanks to Darryl Hughes Kurylo Darryl Hughes Kurylo Audible 2014for narrating Bone Girl and Julie KerrJulie Kerr for her tireless efforts on A Year with Geno. You are both amazing. Thank you.

The bad.
My relationship with the publisher of my debut novel, Celebration House, continued to deteriorate. My plan: buy back the rights to my novel, wish those folks well, and continue on my journey. Enough said.
As part of those plans, I launched a Kickstarter campaign. My goal was $2,500; pledges totaled $135. Wildly unsuccessful. But I learned how to make a promotional video, started a YouTube channel and began to brainstorm about promotional swag. Coffee, anyone?BHB mug

The amazing.
Rowan2Earlier this month, I spoke on e-publishing at my county library. During my talk, one of the attendees asked if I was comfortable making myself so public, so vulnerable to readers. I can’t remember my exact words, but I hope I conveyed this sentiment: “I LOVE hearing from readers.”
In May, a young girl reached out to me to ask a question about the setting of Bone Girl for a school book report. I wrote back and told her about Bennett Springs, Missouri. We made a deal. I would send her a Bone Girl T-shirt if she would send me a copy of her book report. Receiving this photo of her was the high point of my year.
A few days before Thanksgiving, A Year with Geno was spotlighted on Romancing the Book, a well-known blog for romance novels. I had all of my ducks in a row, sort of. I hadn’t made the time to promote the promotion. So, I turned to fellow authors who I had featured in my Author Spotlight on my blog and asked them to help me spread the word. Of the 20 or so authors I queried, nearly all said yes. They told their readers about my meager $25 Amazon gift card giveaway and about my book. Thanks, guys.
What’s next in 2015? I don’t know. My first novella, A Beautiful Day in Alaska, premiers on Feb. 1st. I’m working on the creation of a print and audiobook version of my picture-book manuscript, The Carwash Dragon. And I have aspirations of publishing the two sequels to Celebration House, but there’s a teensy problem: I’m spending most of my writing time on my cozy mystery, Death Comes to the Ogallala County Fair. I can’t help it. It’s so much fun.
Hands and arms inside the cart. Next: the mystery of writing a good mystery.

Is it too late to blog about Thanksgiving?

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The leftover dressing and gravy are thrown away. The cornucopia is boxed up to make room for the ceramic village on the holiday shelf. All of the brown and orange linen napkins are packed away. Thanksgiving is over.
thanksgiving-pilgrimI love Thanksgiving. For me, it is the calm before the crazy of Christmas. It’s the silence before the noise of shopping and school concerts and worrying about what to buy whom and how exactly do I pay for all of this stuff anyway?
And for me, there’s just something enthralling about the idea of taking a day, just one day, to be grateful. Look around and think, yes, I have enough.
This year, amazing things happened with my little business, Baskethound Books. In March, I published Bone Girl. I never thought I could self-publish a book. I dreamed of it. Actually doing it? That seemed crazy.
And then, three months later, I did it again when I self-published A Year with Geno. It’s like this publishing of books is starting to be a habit.
Of course, there’s the promotion of my books. It can be the greatest little novel on the planet but if nobody knows about it, nobody is going to read it. Ah, there’s the rub. How do I tell people about my book?
So this Thanksgiving, I hosted a Rafflecopter giveaway. My first. I asked entrants to share their favorite Thanksgiving memory with me in exchange for a $25 Amazon gift card. You can see these stories on my website under “Thanksgiving 2014 giveaway winners,” including my own.
There’s one Thanksgiving memory I didn’t share because the fellow to whom it belonged didn’t enter my contest. When I told him about my contest, he told me that when he was stationed in Vietnam and enjoying a diet of C-rations, the army surprised him and his fellow soldiers with a Thanksgiving dinner – turkey and all the trimmings. He still remembers that meal.
The experts tell me Thanksgiving is not the time to run a promotion. People are too busy shopping and cooking to read blogs. I’m sure they’re right. But I’ve never been easy to dissuade once I set my course. My mom used to say, “Don’t confuse Annette with the facts; her mind is made up.”
So…Thanksgiving of 2015, I plan an even bigger promotion for A Year with Geno, this one involving my YouTube channel. Here’s the idea: a dance contest. Whose husband is the worst dancer? I thought maybe I’d call it something along the lines of, “He dances like an idiot but I love him anyway…” That’s just a working title. Entrants send me a 20-second clip of their sweetheart dancing. I award the most entertaining dancer a $50 Amazon gift card.
Hands and arms inside the cart: Next: the good, the bad and the amazing of 2014