Descent

The Unveiling…of…DESCENT

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 4 Comments

Holy Excitement Batman!

The cover for DESCENT is in. I’ve seen it and love it. Today I can share a little piece, just a sneak preview, so you can see what’s coming. This is the bottom quarter of the front cover.

Screen Shot 2015-06-22 at 7.00.09 AM

Later this week, I’ll have the pleasure of sharing the whole cover and the launch date. How cool is that? The good news just keeps arriving from Imajin books.

Now the scary part begins. I have to get my online platform ready. Just so you’d don’t think I’m loafing around this week, here’s what I’ll be doing.

  • post cover in all the relevant places
  • set up and invite people to a Facebook launch party
  • set up a blog hop
  • update author sites (such as Goodreads and Author’s Den)
  • confirm book signing events for later in the summer
  • contact our local paper about an article
  • and just to keep me on my toes, I’m polishing Avalanche, the third novel in the Stone Mountain Series.

I’ll keep a list of marketing activities to share with you and by the end of the process, we should have good to-do list for launching a book. You know me – I love to have a list. Of course, please let me know if you have ideas to add to the list.

If you haven’t read my blog before, I’ve signed on with Imajin Books and will blog about my publishing adventure. I’ll share what I learn and hope it helps someone out there get their novel published.

Thanks for reading…

Early Praise For Descent: A Stone Mountain Mystery #1

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 4 Comments

On the twisted and bumpy trail of getting published, I’ve sent out my advanced reader copy of DESCENT for review by other authors. The idea is to get a blurb for DESCENT that can be published with the novel and used for marketing in the early days of release.

As difficult as it was to ask others to read and create a one to two-line sentence about DESCENT, I’m glad I did. Three talented Canadian mystery authors took time out their busy schedules to help me out. I’ve read every book by each of the authors and have been a long time fan of all three. Imagine how great I felt have them not only read DESCENT  but then to write  such wonderful reviews for me.

Here is what I received (in alphabetical order)  from Brenda Chapman, Barbara Fradkin,  and Garry Ryan::

Brenda Chapman: Award winning author of the Stonechild and Rouleau Mysteries.

“Murder rocks the competitive ski world in Stanley’s layered tale with enough suspects to keep readers guessing until the last chilling chapter.”

Barbara Fradkin: Author of the Inspector Green Mysteries and two-time winner of the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel.

“In this impressive debut, Kristina Stanley weaves a vivid, chilling tale of jealousy, secrets, and betrayal in a close-knit mountain ski village. Like its likeable young heroine, Kalin Thompson, DESCENT is both tender and tough.”

Garry Ryan: Award-winning author of the Detective Lane mysteries and Blackbird trilogy.

“From the first line, you’re strapped into a Stanley novel. Just turn the page, hang on, and enjoy the ride.”

Brenda has authored:

  •  Cold Mourning,
  • My Sister’s Keeper,
  • Second Chances,
  • The Second Wife,
  • The Winter’s Grip,
  • Trail of Secrets,
  • Where the Trouble Leads,,
  • Hiding in Hawk’s Creeks,
  • Running Scared and
  • When Boomers Go Bad.  

For more about Brenda and her books click  here.

Barbara’s novels include:

The Inspector Green Series: 

 The Cedric O’Toole Series:
For more about Barbara and her books click  here.
.
Garry’s works include:
The Detective Lane Series:

Garry has written the first two of the Blackbirds Trilogy:

For more about Garry and his books click here.

If you haven’t read my blog before, I’ve signed on with Imajin Books and will blog about my publishing adventure. I’ll share what I learn and hope it helps someone out there get their novel published.

Thanks for reading…

How to Blog Hop

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 6 Comments

Imajin Books asked me to host a blog hop as part of publishing DESCENT.  Of course I said yes. So now I have to figure out how to do this.

First, I needed a goal for the blog hop. I’m currently blogging about my publishing experience, and every day I discover there is more to learn. A priority for me is learning more about marketing a book, and this is how I came up with my goal.

Blog Hop Goal

To  improve my knowledge of marketing a book.

To share that knowledge with other writers.

Blog Hop Theme:

Based on the goal, I’m going to ask other bloggers to answer one simple question.

What is the most important book-marketing  tip you can give other writers who are about to publish a novel or who have recently published a novel?

Who am you going to ask?

The importance of building a network rises to the top of the to-do pile once a again. Long before you publish, you need to have a network of people who can participate in your launch and people who you can help in return. As you can see, I’m using this blog to encourage participation. I will also contact other authors personally via LinkedIn, Facebook, and email.

Why would other bloggers join the blog hop?

As with most things, it’s best to give something to people who participate. The participating bloggers should answer the marketing question at the top of their blog.  The blogger can follow the answer with a promotion of their novel in whatever style they feel is appropriate. The blog hop is about marketing after all.. Not published yet? How about promoting your upcoming novel or your blog?

Now to the technology behind a blog hop or blog party.

Linky Things:

I use WordPress (obviously) so I’ll use a tool recommended for WP. You may need something else. LinkyTools and InLinkz are two options. InLinkz has a good blog post on How to Throw A Successful Blog Party, so I won’t go into details on that topic, but I do have to decide if I should do both a blog hop and a blog party. See HandMadeTechnology for a description of how blog hops and blog parties differ.

I’m not sure yet which one I’ll go with. Any advice?

Test blog: One tip on the InLinkz site is to create a test blog site. I plan to use this, so I can practice, make a mess and get it right before I post to this site. I understand Linky Things don’t go live until the post is published, hence the test site.

If you’re interested in joining this blog hop, I plan to run it sometime in July when DESCENT is published.  Just comment below and let me know. Or access my Contact Information  and send me a private message.

Let me stress, I am new to this blog hop experience, so please share any advice you have on how to host a successful blog hop.

If you haven’t read my blog before, I’ve signed on with Imajin Books and will blog about my publishing adventure. I’ll share what I learn and hope it helps someone out there get their novel published.

Thanks for reading…

The Editing Process: Getting Your Manuscript Ready For Proofreading.

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 13 Comments

Todd Barselow, senior editor at Imajin Books, has just sent me his first pass at editing DESCENT and had this to say:

“My life would be so much easier if all the manuscripts that crossed my desk were as clean as yours.”

Wasn’t I surprised to find such a great comment and to find I didn’t have too much work to do revising the manuscript. As you know, the ARC for DESCENT went out last week, so I was pleased not too much would change.

How did I get to this point?

Yesterday, before my first coffee,  I opened my email and found the edited version of DESCENT waiting in my inbox. I have to admit I was nervous, so I finished my coffee, ate breakfast, walked the dog and when I could procrastinate no further, I opened the attachment.

The editing process went like this:

  • Imajin Books gave us a deadline of early May to complete the edits and send DESCENT to the proofreader.
  • Todd and I must both read the manuscript three times (minimum).
  • Todd reads once and sends DESCENT back to me labelled V1.
  • I accept/reject any proposed changes – it’s a good idea to learn how to use the review section in MSWord as this seems to be the industry standard for editing right now.
  • I send the manuscript back to Todd as V2, and we repeat the process two more times.

This may seem like a lot work, but I think it’s worth the effort if it means a better manuscript.

I would have sworn my manuscript was error free. But alas, it was not so. What did Todd suggest? What errors did he find? I’ve summarized a few items below, so you’ll get an overview.

  • Be consistent with the Oxford comma. I don’t use them, and somehow a few slipped into the manuscript.
  • Replace a period with a question mark. This happened in two places even though I know how to use a question mark.
  • Add an exclamation mark. I didn’t use any, and Todd suggested two be added in the climax scene to increase tension.
  • Too, to, two: Jokes on me. I used ‘to’, instead of ‘two’ in chapter two.
  • Be consistent with hyphens and follow Chicago Manual Of Style.  These are hard errors to catch, but he found a few.
  • Tiny words… ‘as’ instead of ‘if’, missing ‘of’, and reach missing the ‘ed’
  • Dialogue.  When addressing people, use a comma after Hi. “Hi, Donny.” is the correct form in dialogue.

That should give you an idea of how detailed the edit is. For the sake of not boring you, I didn’t include everything.

To get the manuscript to a place where Todd praised it, I followed the process as outlined in the For Writers section of my webpage.

I think you’re getting my point…It’s a large, okay huge, shall we say ginormous amount of work to polish a completed manuscript.

Gotta say thanks to the talented Todd Barselow for his eagle eye and for making my novel better!

If you haven’t read my blog before, I’ve signed on with Imajin Books and will blog about my publishing adventure. I’ll share what I learn and hope it helps someone out there get their novel published.

Thanks for reading…

Advance Reader Copy (ARC)

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 17 Comments

I’m sure everyone knows all about the ARC, but being a newbie, I learned a few things this week.

I learned the ARC is used to garner endorsements that go on both the outside and inside cover of the novel and are used for marketing.

I learned that the ARC gets sent before the final editing and proofreading of the manuscript is complete. Does that make me nervous? You bet, but I guess it’s standard in the industry, so I’ll go with it.

I learned that networking long before you finish your first novel is critical to the publishing journey.

Imajin Books requested I get endorsements from 5 to 7 authors in my genre. Mystery, in case you’re wondering. So I set out to do just that.

How does one find established authors willing to spend their time reading an about-to-be-published-for-the-first-time author’s novel? That’s where networking comes in.

I’ve attended writing conferences, workshops and  awards dinners. Each of these gave me a way to meet other authors. I started a blog. Got active on twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn etc.

When I first joined the Crime Writers of Canada, I sent every CWC author a LinkedIn message asking them to connect with me. Hundreds did. I was amazed. I kept a spreadsheet of the authors I’d sent a message to, which ones accepted my invitation and included a check mark when I sent a thank you. Since then, I’ve kept up communication with authors, sending them a message when I’d read their book and posted a review.

Who to ask? I chose authors that I had some connection with. Either I’d met them in person, or I’d connected with them on the internet. I looked for authors where our writing had something in common.

I wrote a letter to each author as I would a query letter. I included my writing credentials and the reason I was asking a specific author.  I was nervous, but people are saying yes. I won’t tell you who yet. Part of asking is the condition that if they don’t like the book, I wouldn’t expect an endorsement. So now I have to wait… Writing seems to be a lot of waiting.

The following is included at the front of the ARC, and is followed by the novel. A PDF version goes to each author who has agreed to read Descent.

DESCENT

A Stone Mountain Mystery #1

ADVANCED READING COPY

Uncorrected Galley Proof

Kristina Stanley

DESCENT

A Stone Mountain Mystery #1

Copyright © 2015 by Kristina Stanley. All Rights Reserved.

IF YOU RECEIVED THIS BOOK FREE VIA A WEBSITE DOWNLOAD ON A SHARE OR TORRENT SITE, YOU HAVE AN ILLEGAL COPY AND CAN BE PROSECUTED FOR COPYRIGHT THEFT.

Copyright is a matter we take seriously. Our authors and our publishing team work hard to produce quality books for people who will appreciate them. We often have discounts and sales so that ANYONE CAN AFFORD OUR EBOOKS.

 No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission from the author.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. And any resemblance to actual persons, living, dead (or in any other form), business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

http://www.kristinastanley.com

FIRST EDITION Kindle eBook

Imajin Books – http://www.imajinbooks.com

If you haven’t read my blog before, I’ve signed on with Imajin Books and intend to blog about my publishing adventure. I’ll share what I learn and hope it helps someone out there get their novel published.

Thanks for reading.

P.S. I received the first version of the book cover. I’ll share as soon as it’s done 🙂

How to Write a Description For the Back Cover of Your Novel

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 5 Comments

Writing a Book Description?

Here are some ideas that might help. I’ve shared my book description (blurb) for DESCENT, the first novel in The Stone Mountain Mystery series, below and outlined how we arrived at the final description.

Step One: Decide what you want to tell the reader. You want to give away enough to intrigue the reader but not so much that you take away from the suspense. I was tempted to put too much information in the description and pulled back a bit.

The goal of DESCENT’s description is to give the potential reader the idea that:

  • Kalin Thompson is the protagonist
  • The story takes place in a remote mountain resort
  • The crime is a murder
  • The victim is a talented ski racer
  • Ongoing conflict between Kalin’s boyfriend and her boss will be a struggle for Kalin

Once you know what you want to say,  write, rewrite and rewrite again.

Step Two: Decide who your audience is. For me, I want an international audience. How does that affect the description? I’d used RCMP in the description? You’ll see below that RCMP is now cops. RCMP is a very Canadian acronym. My bad for assuming it was a world-wide term 🙂

Step Three: Get feedback from anyone you trust. Then write, rewrite and rewrite again.

Final Product: The idea behind the two paragraph description below is if we need a short version, we can use the first paragraph only. The first paragraph is designed to end with a hook just in case that’s all we use. I hadn’t thought of that in my first try at a description.

The back of the book description for DESCENT is:

When Kalin Thompson is promoted to Director of Security at Stone Mountain Resort, she soon becomes entangled in the high-profile murder investigation of an up-and-coming Olympic skier. There are more suspects with motives than there are gates on a super-G course, and danger mounts with every turn.

Kalin’s boss orders her to investigate the murder. Her boyfriend wants her to stay safe and let the cops do their job. Torn between loyalty to friends and professional duty, Kalin must look within her isolated community to unearth the killer’s identity.

Now as with other changes, I have to wade across the internet and change everywhere I’ve put a blurb out for DESCENT.

If you haven’t read my blog before, I’ve signed on with Imajin Books and intend to blog about my publishing adventure. I’ll share what I learn and hope it helps someone out there get their novel published.

Thanks for reading…

 

Bloody Words Conference

~ Kristina Stanley ~ Leave a comment

Danse Macabre: The Historical Dance of Death was the theme of the Bloody Words conference held in Toronto over the June 6th weekend.

The action packed conference started on Friday night and ended Sunday afternoon.

My favourite part: Meeting other authors. What a treat it was to meet with people who have been my “internet friends” for the last several years. I was pleased to see so many of the Crime Writers of Canada authors in attendance.

Learning in the sessions is a given, but learning in the hallway is fun too. Everyone spent time networking  – translate: experienced authors sharing trade secrets with the newbies. There was an opportunity to meet with agents and publishers.

Many thanks to the gang who ran the conference. The hard work put into the conference showed in the professional delivery. On a sad note, rumour has it this is the last Bloody Words conference. The year was my first and I’m glad I got to the event.

Thanks for reading  . . .