So I have been busy working on publishing tasks yesterday, Well that for me included dealing with the dreaded Goodreads Now admittedly I don’t do everything I need to with it, because every time I go there it is the same thing. I can’t claim all of my books on there. Not even the ones all written as me. The reason – My name is too common. I should be able to give the information about the book and claim it…but no. It is based on the name of the author. I am debating doing a rebranding. Adding my grandmother’s maiden name in as my middle name (I tried my middle name to start with…it is even more common.) Still I wonder how much I should rebrand? Should I just start from here? or go back and rebrand from the beginning? There is a lot involved. I just don’t know if Goodreads is worth the effort. I have my amazon author page. I have my books2read reading list. Does anyone other than authors even really use Goodreads?
Though I have to say that I am annoyed by how common my name is. Names have always been a fun thing for me. I wanted to write as Susan Ann Andrews when I was a girl. I really thought it was the prettiest name out there. I chose to write my poetry and my kid’s books under my name because I wanted to love my name again. I wanted it to be mine again. It was part of healing the abuse I had been through. I chose to do the pen name of Serena Mossgraves for my horror and darker stuff so that my kid’s books would not be tainted by those writings. So I am struggling now. Do I really want to rebrand simply because of how common my name is? Or do I stick with who I am? This really feels like I am facing an existential crisis. Do I change my persona for the idea that I am not fitting in? Or am I fitting in too well? Oh crud. I really don’t know what to do here.
Yesterday I was sure that I needed to change the branding. Today, I wake up and find in my email in response to my help request…OK we merged this and this….I look on goodreads…now one of Serena’s books is listed as Patricia. And still not even half of my books are listed as me. I still can’t claim them. Changing my brand will mean I have to go and fight them for the right to the listing all over again. In order to change it I need to go into KDP and D2D and Google Play and Barnes and Noble. Change The Details on each. I need to upload a changed cover for each. Then I need to hope that I have not screwed something up. For one or two books it is not that difficult…but I have a catalogue of around 30+ It is a hugely daunting task. OK… I can change my branding from here on out…but the whole reason I wanted to do it was because of Goodreads not letting me accept my books…if I change my brand it will throw them into a worse fit.
I think I need to think on this. I am going to do nothing about it until after the first of the year at the least. That way I can be sure I am still needing to adjust and I don’t feel like I rushed in for stupid reasons.
Hello Lovelies! Long time since we had tea. My current favorite is Lipton’s Peach Passion Green Tea.
2020 is nearly over, and I know that I am not the only one who is grateful. 2021 is already shaping up to be busy. Fae Corps has several authors lined up that we are going to be publishing. We have 2 anthologies planned (Fae Playgrounds and Fae Shivers). Serena is going to be in Circle City’s Absurd Apocalypse Anthology. And I submitted to two of Indie Blu(e)’s upcoming Anthologies. (I hope I get accepted, their books are always so pretty. )
Song of Shadow released this week. I am still working on Half Mad Meanderings and Heart Drops. I hope to release both in 2021. I am also planning on pulling each of my Poetry Volumes, one at a time, and Revamping and re-releasing them. I don’t know how long it will take to do each volume. I do know I will be releasing Large Print versions of each as well. I have learned so much this year that I can put into practice on my books. I hope it will give you, my readers a fun thing to look at.
This will be as far as I am concerned the final version of each book. Serena’s not going to do that with her books, and I am going to go through the poetry volumes first then deal with the children’s books after. I may try to talk Serena into large print at least.
I am also working on Grandmothers wisdom. Coffee house writers anthology will release next week. Like I said 2021 is shaping up to be a busy year.
The kid is asleep, So I thought I would take the time to do an update here. 2020, for all that it has sucked, has taught me a lot. I updated most of the covers on my poetry volumes this year, but I really have not looked at the interior of any of them since I published them…until recently.
Now don’t get me wrong…I did not publish anything badly, I just can clean it up and make it look a little nicer. So I have decided that is what 2021 will be. I have a full schedule with Fae Corps…We have multiple authors who have entrusted their books in our care. And there will be 3 anthologies for fae corps. I have one I am hoping to release (Wisdom: Grandmother’s Words). So instead of trying to release any new poetry volumes in 2021, I think that I am going to update and re-release my older volumes.
Changes in staff at Fae Corps is making this year coming exciting…and scary. Fae Corps is growing. We have up till now just had Cyndi and I doing whatever needed to be done. That left both of us stuck with marketing, something that neither of us are normally that good at. Now we have KT. Due to a difference in opinion we lost our consulting editor. We decided on official roles. Cyndi is our Developmental editor, I am the Copy editor. I do the Cover designs, KT does the marketing, and the scheduling. We also take projects for authors who do not choose to publish with us. Cyndi took an editing job that ended up choosing to publish with us after.
So with Fae Corps being so busy, I feel like I should plan my own writing projects to be lighter.. Not nonexistent, just lighter. Song of Shadow releases December 1st, 2020. I also am in the Coffee House Writer’s Anthology Volume 1 which is available for preorder. Serena is working hard to get stories ready for Fae Corps 2021 anthologies, and has one coming out in Circle City’s An Absurd Apocalypse. (It’s only a flash fiction, but I read it and it is cute and funny). 2020 was a busy year writing and publishing wise. I submitted to a project for Indie Blu(e) publishing which I hope to hear whether it is accepted after the first of the year. (Another small press with big talent that I want to support) So even though I am planning to do clean up on older volumes in the upcoming year…as you can see it will be a busy year.
Of Course I will still be working with Coffee House Writers, and I am still working on the two new volumes…I am just not rushing to put them out over the next year. Maybe I can do a re-release a month and see what else I can squeeze in from there.
Hello there. Today is a green tea sort of day for me. This year has been a strange one, time passes either on fast forward or in slow motion. I am looking forward to the release of both preorder books (Through the Sunshine, and Poetic Reminders.)
There is a deadline coming up for two of Fae Corps calls for submissions in June. Nightmare Whispers and Fae Dreams. There is going to be a call for submissions put out in August for a new anthology as well.
I have been updating keywords on my books… And it was brought to my attention that a few of my covers needed work. It feels like I do this yearly… But I have been updating covers again as well.
The original The updated coverOriginal coverUpdated cover
The person who made the suggestion is a poet of considerable talents. I had approached her for marketing advice, and what she said was basically that some of my covers lacked the personality of my poems… I immediately understood. There was some of the covers I liked better than others. I started with the covers that I liked least.
Please don’t get me wrong… That does not mean the covers are bad… Or even in need of replacement. It just means that I could see her point. I was not happy with those covers because they did not suit me. I had something similar happen with a logo I had been using… Someone stopped me and said that it did not suit me. When I asked why she simply replied that it was just not colorful enough… It seems that I have a lot of personality and it shows up in my work.
For me these books are my art. Yes I could pay for the “perfect ” cover… I would likely sell more… But it would not be mine… Does that make any sense? I don’t write for the money. I write because it is part of who I am, who I always have been.
As an artist and book cover designer or as a poet. If you want me to create something for you email me to get a price. (Mine are really reasonable.) Patti.Mouse@gmail.com
Okay… I know that I usually do Tunes on Tuesday… But something came up yesterday, and I want to discuss it.
A friend in the indie writing community discovered a pirate site… With almost all of my books and all of Serena’s listed. Talk about mixed feelings… Part of me feels betrayed. The other part is like… Well, at least they are good enough for piracy. I am not going to lie, and say it is about my books being shared. I see piracy in two different ways. Things like peer2peer are different. I see that the same as me sharing the book with a friend. It is not going to make me money… But it is not offensive. At least not to me. The site last night is not p2p.
That site charges for my books. I get nothing from it. It is not certain whether the site delivers the book to the buyer. I don’t know if they are even using the buyer information properly.
So, I wanted to tell you that Serena and I both only publish to the above markets. If you find my books anywhere else then I did not give permission for it to be there. Let me know and I will proceed to attempt to get the cease and desist word to them.
Just an Fyi, it’s illegal to print ebooks. Any site telling you different is questionable anyway. I have arc files for those who are interested in leaving honest reviews, but can’t afford the book. It is not a hard thing to get a copy to read.
Pattimouse 