All the new books!

I know I've been MIA since New Year's but I have been working like a house elf to get the latest Green Brothers books out to the great wide world. It's been a tad harrowing but, I can happily say that both The Art of Forgiving and This Crazy Life are now live in eBook and paperback. For reasons known only to the great Amazonian beast, This Crazy Life was suppressed in paperback for a bit but that has since been tended to.

These newest Green Brothers books are monsters! The Art of Forgiving is over 400 pages and This Crazy Life over 500. Because of their sheer size, they are more expensive on Amazon and any other place you buy paperbacks... sort of. As I love my readers, I am keeping The Art of Forgiving at the usual $15 while This Crazy Life is $18... these prices are from ME and me alone as signed paperbacks. If you order them anywhere else, expect to pay more.

There is a companion book for This Crazy Life. It is a diary that is referred to a whole lot in This Crazy Life. It will be available only in paperback and only from me - so don't look for it on Amazon, it won't be there. It's $5 to get this little addition and if you order it with This Crazy Life, there is no additional shipping for it.

Also, in the midst of all the Green Brothers crazy, both of my Peace novellas left KU and went live over Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and iTunes and were released as paperbacks. So, in the space of roughly four weeks, four brand new books were launched into the great wide world. That's some serious crazy right there. But, it means extra awesome stuff for you.

I am now working on DragonStar, my fantasy novel to be published as CK Brewer. There is much adjustment to be done and very little time to do so. I hope my fingers are up to the task and that my mother's health continues to hold steady.

I really hope you pick up one or more of the new books and leave me a review so that I know what you think of them. These most recent books run the gamut from sweet to semi-spicy; novella to full-length novel... but they are all quite intense in their own right. I shall look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you for reading.

#2018 #PeaceSeries #Books #Amazon #SHPrattRomanceAuthor #ContemporaryRomance #GreenBrothers #RomanceNovel

Tip your servers, please... An author's life.

I get asked a lot why I am an independently published author. Well, because I do what I want… LOL not really. I’m an indie author because when push comes to shove I am leery and mistrustful. Why? Well, let’s start with the definition of independently published…

Independent: not subject to control by others; self-governing.

Publish: to produce or release for distribution; specifically: print.

Author: the writer of a literary work (such as a book); one that originates or creates something. ~Merriam-Webster

Now that we’ve determined the individual definitions, I’ll put it simply, indie authors are people who creates a literary work and produces it for distribution without being subject to control by others.

At first I attempted to become “traditionally published” but wow, Harlequin is extremely picky. To my amazement, I was told that my books were “too dark”. Wait, what? Yes, my books deal with the loss of loved ones. Guess what, Harlequin, its called LIFE! And there is no way you’re getting out of this life without dying. And wow, Harlequin hasn’t seen anything “dark” by comparison to what I write these days! Now “life” has become about other real life events aside from death… PTSD; rape; child abduction; murder; drugs… well, you get the idea. I write fiction about non-fiction.

Next, I went through a “small independent publisher” which shall remain nameless because I was taught if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all. We’ll call this company SIP. Now I thought “Hey, they’ll help me and I’ll get published and all will be hunky-dorey.” This is me admitting to naiveté. SIP requested money up front for “publishing costs”. *should have been red flag #1* At every turn they had some new “offer” to entice me to believe that my books were off the chart special that all required that I give them more money up front. *should have been red flag #2* And while I think my books are off the charts, really, there are a lot of “off the charts” books out there. And to top it all off, they had difficulty getting my titles right. *oh, hello red flag #3*

Lessons learned, water under the bridge. By the time I wised up and fired SIP, I’d learned enough about independent publishing to know I just don’t trust other people to do what I can. Granted, I’m still learning, but hey, as long as I’m still learning then no one’s pushing me six feet under… right? So, because I have trust issues, I publish me and my books.

The next thing that I hear is almost always… “Oh, so can you make me a writer?” The short answer is no. I am not a teacher. I cannot force creativity out of you. Just because I publish my books does not make me your publisher. Can I mentor you? Yes. Can I give you advice? Yes. Can I show you the places to learn what you need to do? Yes. But I cannot do it for you.

First and foremost, I am an author, but I am also a business woman, therefore to ask me to do for you what I do for me and not expect payment is rude. Am I comfortable in that title? It’s growing on me but I still feel a bit like a liar. Why? Because I don’t have a degree in business. I don’t have a degree in accounting. I had to learn every single thing by trial and error and through the generosity of other indie authors mentoring me. Therefore, I constantly have to remind people that I am a business woman who just happens to do the bulk of my business on social media and I don’t work for free.

Wait… what? I don’t work for free? Nope. Neither does my eBook formatter, or the lady who does my editing, or even the beta readers who read through my stuff and critique it. What do the beta readers get in payment, you ask? Well, they read the books I write months, sometimes years before the public readers do. If that isn’t a sweet payment… nothing like having an in, right?

But what you may not realize is that “payment” for my books comes in more forms than monetary. Huh? But…? Yes, I make a percentage of every eBook and paperback sold on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and iTunes. Not a ton, but some. But the bigger payment is REVIEWS. Yep, you read that right. Reviews.

Why reviews? Because when a book has a high number of reviews and a positive average of said reviews, it is more visible and attractive to readers browsing through whichever platform they frequent, whether it’s Amazon or any of the others. Because with a higher number of reviews, those same platforms take notice of the book and are more likely to share that book with readers via the emails and other methods of marketing that they do. Because a reader is more likely to take a chance on new books or new authors if there are more reviews which in turn show the book is popular among other readers. Granted, positive reviews are better in the eyes of readers and the sales platforms but hey… any review is a great payment.

One other reason to pay in reviews… Amazon. That mysterious set of algorithms that they have. Everyone sort of knows about is and is kind of aware that there is a magic number in which prompts Amazon to help promote a book. Heaven only knows what that is or how the algorithm works… Amazon probably doesn’t even know… but there you go.

So, the next time you finish a book, think about what you liked and didn’t like about it. Then pay the author… not with money but with reviews… think of it as leaving a tip. Especially those authors who are independently published, because like all people in the service industry, we survive on the tips.

#Books #BookLovers #RomanceNovel #ContemporaryRomance #SHPrattRomanceAuthor