4 Tips for Fantasy Authors at Fantasy or Sci Fi Conventions

I overheard a fantasy convention veteran say to another vendor, "if you think you're here for the sales, you're doing conventions wrong." As a few hundred sci fi and fantasy fans milled about the various rooms of the SeaTac Hilton, I wondered to myself, what then, are conventions for?

It's clear that unless you're selling high cost items you're unlikely to make much of a profit. Selling books to cover the cost of the three-day weekend is nearly hopeless. There's the hotel room, the gas for the some-odd hour journey, and the cost of the booth itself, which typically runs around $150 for a smaller convention.

Being a vendor at a convention isn't a luxury position. You have to actively engage with the group of convention goers and make them interested in what you have to sell. And if you're not going to cover your costs, why bother?

I had an insight as to what the convention vet was getting at.

You're there to build your potential sales.

You're developing the one key element to selling books and building an audience of raving fans.

Your email list.

This is the golden ticket.

Because it's a lot easier to nab 100 emails than sell 100 books to a group of about 300 strangers.

And selling to your email list is the proven strategy best-selling indie authors to shift thousands of books into the hands of their fans.

Of course, you have to run a cost/benefit analysis on the convention.

A few hundred dollars for 100 emails isn't a great deal.

But if you attend a massive convention where you can grab hundreds of emails, the higher cost may be worth it.

Staying close to home cuts costs, and though the convention may be smaller, you're pitching to a local audience, and that can offer great value if you also plan events that you can invite people to.

To get the most people to our booth we held a raffle for a free book and gorgeous poster. Here's an image for ya of that poster:

And heck, since I like ya, I'm offering a FREE high res pdf download for you! 

Then we coincided the giveaway with a storytelling. This way, we ensnared the listeners with the story, and when the rest of the attendees didn't win the raffle - they desperately wanted to buy the book!

Here are my key points for making a convention successful.

1 - Dress Up Your Booth

At our first convention, the booth wasn't all that decked out. But after seeing the amazing draperies and signs that most people had up around their booths, we got wise.

Create an inviting space for convention attendants to enter into. Entice them in whatever way works with your book. Nothing says stay away more than a blank table with your books on it.

Here's a shot of our booth after setting it up. None of us were in costume yet, but the booth sure looks pretty!

2 - Raffle an Item to get Emails

Again, building your email list is the #1 way to make book sales. Offering something of value for free entices people to stop by your booth and sign up. Make sure that what you're giving away suits your book's theme and the convention. We knew fantasy lovers were into art - so we offered not only the book but a stunning poster of original art from Ella Bandita and the Wanderer.

Coupling the raffle with a storytelling performance allowed the attendees to preview the story while listening to an engaging performance. Who could resist?

3 - Engage with the Attendees

For us, that meant getting decked out in Renaissance garb and connecting with other vendors.

Vendors make great customers too!

The more you talk to your potential fans, the more interested and engaged they become. You need to make yourself accessible at the booth.

Don't hunker down into the rabbit-hole of your phone.

Stay active and engaged with whoever is walking by. Smile. Offer a compliment. Not everyone will stop and talk to you, but don't lose out on those who will by closing yourself off. It's okay to feel bored sometimes!

4 - If You're Not Having Fun, You're Doing it Wrong

It may be hard to keep spirits up at a convention when you're not making sales. Focusing in on chatting it up with other vendors and attendees is a great way to stave off boredom. And even if you're not making direct sales, each email you get is a little victory.

Remember, you can take breaks! Just post up a little sign saying "back in 5" and take a stroll to check out other booths and events at the convention.

Bring a friend along to help you. It does wonders having another body in the booth to keep you alert and happy. Plus, they can rave about your book so you don't have to.

5 Essential Marketing Strategies for your Ebook

The landscape of the contemporary book market is chaos. You have a wonderful book you know readers would love, but how will they ever find it? There are a myriad of websites telling you you must do this, and you must do that, but if you did everything they were telling you you absolutely had to do, your time would be booked out six hundred years from now and you'd never find the time to write another book again. So what is absolutely essential to getting your book noticed? Do you have to be on six different social media platforms? Do you need to spend 80 hours a week marketing your book, leaving no time to write? Of course not!

Here is our essential list for marketing your book. Forget the rest. Focus on these and you'll have plenty of time to write your next best-seller.

5 Ways to Market your Book that Leave You Free to Write the Next One

1. Find your Niche

Fantasy, Romance, Thriller, Non-Fiction (what a broad swath!), Sci-Fi. Umbrella terms that will only lump you in a massive pile with millions of other authors. How is a reader ever to find your book? It's like casting about blind in a pile of stones for the one that has your name on it. So how do you start lifting rocks out of that pile, making it smaller and much easier to discover hidden gems? Finding your niche is the first step to making your book stand out. Readers know what they want. If they loved Harry Potter, they're not going to want to sift through a slag of books that include sub fantasy genres like horror or historical fiction if they want a book that's just like Harry Potter.

Ask yourself a few questions to define your demographic: who are my readers? What other books are like mine? What are THREE key words that differentiate my book from the mire?

Use the answers to hone in on your niche. Do a google search with your key terms and see what other books pop up. If they have a smaller category, consider tagging your book with that label, so readers can more easily find the book they're looking for: Your book.

2. Design a Website that can be easily updated. Then forget about it.

I love movie websites. They include the only information you'll need to know (if a movie's already been released.) One of the most minimal examples I've found is this one for Limitless. What I love about this site is that there are no moving parts. I mean, except for the trailer than plays on load. But there's nothing to be maintained, and your author website could be like this (this is one example). If you really hate working to promote yourself, why spend time developing a website that will require your constant engagement? If you don't like blogging, don't do it--no one will want to read a passionless post. If you do love blogging, then by all means, create one. You want essential information to be given to readers immediately. Your website should tell them these key things:

•   Who you are.
• What genre your book is, and who it's intended for.
• A cover, synopsis, trailer, excerpt, etc.
• An email sign-up form (offering a free ebook download or some other swag to entice the reader to sign up for your list)
• A where to buy link.

Those are the essentials. Cramming your site full of extraneous fluff isn't going to engage readers. They want to know who you and what your book is and that they're going to love it. That's it. Easy. Then, in all that free time you now have, you can add the next book in the series and leave it alone again until the next one. (You're welcome.)

3. Pick ONE social media site you ENJOY using and focus on that one.

Don't go crazy and spread yourself thin over Pinterest, Twitter, Goodreads, Facebook, and the million other social media sites out there. If you don't want to make regular, quality contributions to twitter, stay off it. If you're not used to Pinterest, don't spend hours trying to learn how to market yourself there. If you love facebook, have a ton of friends, and enjoy going on there for an hour a day, that's probably your best platform to use. Goodreads is a perfect spot to connect with authors and readers, but it takes effort to join groups and engage. Learn about different social media sites, what they have to offer, and which one would be best for you. Pinterest is all about visuals. If you have great art to go with your book and genre, slap a juicy quote from your book on an image and post it up. Twitter is all about the 140 character nugget of tantalizing information. Goodreads will make you friends that are readers/writers/lovers of the book. Explore, try things out, but keep your focus on one site and limit your time spent on others so you can write that next book!

Do you hate using social media?

Download my guide Social Media for Authors Who Hate Social Media and shortcut your way to success!

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4. Engage

Engage with your readers. Engage with other writers. Engage in conferences and events for your niche. Find blogs that offer author interviews or guest posts and do one. Spreading yourself out there in these ways will get you noticed and garner you a following.

To engage with your readers, get them on an email list and send them memorable, awesome content once a month. Include a free printable poster/book excerpt/discount in each email along with a tantalizing update about your book's progress, or whatever you want to share with them.

To engage with other writers, do what you wish they'd do for you. Review books. Comment on their website. Offer a guest post over at your blog. Tweet about their book.

Find conferences and events in your area. We've just started attending steampunk/fantasy conferences in the Pacific Northwest and I can tell this is a great place to find readers will pick up your book and buy it. Unlike book fairs, conferences that are specific to a genre allow you to present your work in front of your demographic. And it's not likely you'll be competing with 100+ other writers. There will be artists, makers, designers, and a whole slew of other producers who won't be in direct competition for your sales. Events are great places to network and find friends who share your goals and aspirations, and can help you get there.

Bloggers everywhere offer guest posts and author interviews. If they're in the blogging business, they want content. You can both benefit by sharing your email list, tweeting the post to your followers, and using other methods of promotion that reach twice as many people. Pitch the blogger with your great idea for a post that will be worthwhile to their readers. Offer your promotion up front, as in "I have an email list of sixty dedicated readers who would love to know more about your X blog!" This is another great way to make friends and help yourself while helping another.

5. Write the Next Book

There's nothing better for your book business than writing that next book. Having more books under your author name gets you noticed exponentially more. You can market more, offer more diverse content for your readers, and just have a heck of a lot more material to work with. If you implement the four steps listed above, you'll have plenty of time to write the next book while gathering buzz for its release.

As always, we'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences in the self publishing business! Comment below!

How to Revamp a Fairy Tale

We all love them: the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, the new re-tellings of fabulous fairy tales by contemporary authors such as Aimee Bender or Kevin Brockmeier. Fairy and folk tales have a lot of allure. They touch on universal topics, they're strange, they captivate, transport, and feel real all at once. Fables are the inspiration for Ella Bandita and the Wanderer. They're easy to contemporize because they have such universal themes. This post is going to give you a few quick, easy applications for transforming your favorite story into a new, contemporary piece. Want to be inspired?

Download your free story of Scheherazade - my retelling.

How to Make an Old Story New

There are, of course, many ways to re-tell a story. You do it all the time when you're telling your friend what happened on the latest episode of New Girl, or when you're describing the jerk at work whose sour attitude always spoils your day (I hope you've more experience with the former, not the latter!). So that's your story telling backbone. Now, take a fairy tale you know a little something about -- it doesn't have to be well -- and try some of these exercises on it to see how you like the story you've created.

I'll start with my favorite:

• Write the story from the point of view of the "evil stepmother/brother/witch/sorcerer" and make the reader sympathetic to them. OR, and this is maybe even better, make the sympathetic character the evil one (ie, Cinderella's really a nasty, scheming gold-digger).
• Replicate the story exactly, but change the setting to a contemporary landscape. For example, Francesca Lia Block updated Cupid and Psyche by turning them into a couple who met on an online dating site. (It's a GREAT story! Read it!)
• Combine two fables. See where the original stories intersect and create your own based on that comingling. (like the little Mermaid meets Leda's swan)

• Ms Litterati recommends this, and it sounds like loads of fun: take away the magic. "A fairytale without magic sounds completely ludicrous at first but it’s a way to put a fresh twist on your story. Think about the movie A Cinderella Story: it follows the storyline of Cinderella without having an actual fairy godmother to wave her wand and help transform Sam, the “Cinderella” character."
• Copy the plot of a fairy tale, then put in characters from another book. Everyone handles situations differently. Just imagine if Hermione were in Harry Potter's place...

What are you ideas on how to revamp a fairy tale? Link to your story in the comments if you want to share one!

Ours is a highly individualized culture, with a great faith in the work of art as a unique one-off, and the artist as an original, a godlike and inspired creator of unique one-offs. But fairy tales are not like that, nor are their makers. Who first invented meatballs? In what country? Is there a definitive recipe for potato soup? Think in terms of the domestic arts. "This is how I make potato soup." --Angela Carter

Remember to sign up on our mailing list for actionable advice about self-publishing and fantasy writing. Plus, I'll send you a copy of Scheherazade for free!

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Top 5 Websites for Author Marketing Resources

Over the first year of developing a press and author identity online, Free Flying Press has a few gems to offer other writers starting their journey to independent authorship. A few things are absolutely essential for the aspiring indie author: community (made up of readers and authors alike), social media (get out there and engage!), and a marketing platform. Of these, the latter always proves the most difficult. Here's a round up of the top 5 most useful advice and author marketing platforms that we've found:  

1. The Creative Penn

Joanna Penn is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling thriller author.  She shares her knowledge about self-publishing and marketing with monthly emails and great content on her website. If you want to know about how to start your marketing platform, build a social media strategy, and sell your first book, check her out!

2. Author Marketing Club

AMC has it all. Tutorials for beginning authors, marketing strategies, tons of great freebies, all in a centralized, easily navigable place. Great for each novel you put out. Our favorite feature is the 'review grabber' which lets you search a genre or title in amazon, and pulls all of the reviewers email's or websites from the reviews. Then you can set up your plan to email them for reviews of your own book! For every 20 reviewers I mail out to, I get about 5 responses, and of that about 2 reviews. Not bad! It's about $25/mo to join, or $129 for the year. Totally worth it.

Here's a rundown of their services:

• Book Widget Creation Tool
• AMC Buzz Team
• Amazon Enhanced Description Maker
• New Member Book Feature
• FREE Pre-made Book Cover
• Masterclasses
• Free 99c Book Promotions
• Author Marketing Academy (videos/webcasts)
• Author Success Interviews
• Author Marketing Checklist (they give this away for free)
• Book Discovery Sundays
• Author Secrets Mastermind (marketing and promotion strategies)
• Author Tales (you can upload text or video)
• AMC Bookalyzer
• Brag Board
• Help Me Choose a Cover

3. Goodreads

This is the best place for community. Goodreads offers groups, which let you build community and find like-minded readers. There are also groups for readers/reviewers, where you can get a fair number of reviews for your book. You may have to work a little to get them, but that's what this is all about--work and results! Plus, host a giveaway on goodreads and reach thousands of potential readers who will save your book in their 'to-read' file and boost your rankings.

4. Inkitt

Inkitt is a goldmine. Here you can post your own stories and get feedback from writerly readers. You can also find great stories to read and authors to connect to. They have near-constant competitions running so you can get your work noticed. It's rather new, so you have a smaller, targeted audience, and a lot of passionate writers to connect with.

5. Standout Books

With tons of cute infographics to go along with solid writing and marketing advice, Standoutbooks is a fun mailing list to sign up with. They offer a few promotional/marketing/editing services, but I go there mostly to peruse the advice blog.

Bonus: Your Guide to Social Media

If you're like me and you loathe social media, my guide for authors who hate social media will help make this necessary evil a lot less daunting and horrible.

Get your guide now !

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Cover Conundrum Query - Win a Prize!

Hey all, We've been struggling over here at Free Flying Press to determine what the cover of the ebook version of Ella Bandita and the Wanderer should be and we'd love input from our followers! We have some lovely images by the talented fantasy artist BANE and it's making it hard to choose! The blue cover is our original, it's on the luscious velvety paperback we've got for sale right now at Amazon.  But up against that, we have Challenge, our (haha) green challenger. It's provocative and gorgeous, and as there may be some confusion if this dark fantasy is for adults or teens, we know this cover will lead our readers to the right conclusion.

Here's the synopsis of the book. Let us know which cover you're drawn to! We'll give you a free ebook of your choice for entering an opinion as a prize.

They were fated to collide, Ella Bandita and the Wanderer. This complex fable about a predatory seductress and an adventurer frozen in grief explores the darkness of the human heart and the allure of erotic obsession over love. The story begins when an outcast young woman tries to kill herself. Yet a sorcerer intervenes with a last chance to change her destiny. But she must be his lover and give him her heart to transform into the immortal Ella Bandita. All his life, the Wanderer hears stories about Ella Bandita, the ruthless thief of hearts. But he never believes she lives and doesn't recognize her when they meet. Driven by lust, he follows Ella Bandita into a battle of wills that threatens to destroy him. The Wanderer wants nothing more than to avenge himself on a woman he loathes, the vagabond seductress who stole his heart.

The Ethical Author

"The Ethical Author" has not been a phrase or quandary I've come across during times of big publishing houses ruling the readersphere. But it comes into play more when independent authors are seeking ways to gain exposure.

Can you buy reviews?

Can you scour your friends and family for possible boosts in the amazon charts? How much do you charge for your book without the same overhead as a big box publisher?

There develops a bit of a question about the Ethical Author. A google search of this phrase will yield over 81,000 results. I found the discussion time and time again on blogs, in goodreads groups, and on amazon threads.

Most recently, digging through twitter feeds for something worthwhile, I stumbled upon a question: Are you an ethical author?

Immediately I said to myself, yes! I am fundamentally committed to keeping labor as local as possible, even if that means more expense for my product design, and I don't reflect that cost in the price of my book. I write the stories in my heart for the reader and no one else, and I've chosen the indie pub route because that allows me to be choosy, to craft my own ideal publishing house.

Want to know if you're an ethical author? Download the checklist and find out!

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The Alliance of Independent Authors offers a badge for the Ethical Author. They give you a list of responsibilities. Reading though this I felt a tug toward the importance of acknowledging the question.

Check it out:

Ethical Author Code

Guiding principle: Putting the reader first

When I market my books, I put my readers first. This means that I don’t engage in any practices that have the effect of misleading the readers/buyers of my books. I behave professionally online and offline when it comes to the following practices in my writing life:

Courtesy

I behave with courtesy and respect toward readers, other authors, reviewers and industry professionals such as agents and publishers. If I find myself in disagreement, I focus on issues rather than airing grievances or complaints in the press or online, or engaging in personal attacks of any kind.

Aliases

I do not hide behind an alias to boost my own sales or damage the sales or reputation of another person. If I adopt a pen name for legitimate reasons, I use it consistently and carefully.

Reviewing and Rating books

I do not review or rate my own or another author’s books in any way that misleads or deceives the reader. I am transparent about my relationships with other authors when reviewing their books.

I am transparent about any reciprocal reviewing arrangements, and avoid any practices that result in the reader being deceived.

Reacting to reviews

I do not react to any book review by harassing the reviewer, getting a third party to harass the reviewer, or making any form of intrusive contact with the reviewer. If I’ve been the subject of a personal attack in a review, I respond in a way that is consistent with professional behaviour.

Book Promotions

I do not promote my books by making false statements about, for example, their position on bestseller lists, or consent to anyone else promoting them for me in a misleading manner.

Plagiarism

I know that plagiarism is a serious matter, and I don’t intentionally try to pass off another writer’s words as my own.

Financial ethics

In my business dealings as an author, I make every effort to be accurate and prompt with payments and financial calculations. If I make a financial error, I remedy it as soon as it’s brought to my notice.

Responsibility

I take responsibility for how my books are sold and marketed. If I realise anyone is acting against the spirit or letter of this Code on my behalf, I will refer them to this Code and ask them to modify their behaviour.

Especially at a time when finding reviews is difficult. When your book feels like one-in-a-million-in-a-mire, do you stick to your feelings about quality, readership, and responsibility? I'd love to hear your thoughts about this.

Are you an ethical author?

Download your very own ethical author checklist and find out!

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Keeping a journal is a specifically helpful art. They can help you grow, heal, and thrive. Journaling can help in the moment, when you want to flesh out and understand certain ideas or the way a moment unfolded. It's a place to explore action and reaction in a distanced fashion. And the best thing about keeping a journal is that you can revisit your old self, your old experiences. Sometimes, doing this can give you more insight about yourself, your life, your loves, etc. Your journal can continually give you things: new perspectives, new hope, new understandings. Let's take a step back in time and look at a journal entry from November 2005.

Healing has been on my mind a lot. We're heading into winter, the time of reflection and personal growth. In this account, Lili Rose, a healer by nature, said a very important thing:

"I choose to be happy," she said.  "It is all a choice, so why choose suffering?" 

The decision to be happy is not always an easy one to make. But we can do the work to pull ourselves out of suffering and move forward with positivity, openness, and kindness. I'd love to hear of your similar (or different) experiences with this idea, or journaling, or whatever you'd like to offer in the comments section.

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Your friends will know you better

in the first minute you meet

than

your acquaintances will in

a thousand years...

"Illusions, The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah"

by Richard Bach

Well, I've just had an experience like the one described above.  At the moment, I'm in Ketchikan for a few hours before the ferry carries me to B-ham.  The ferry is always an experience, especially the three to four day milk run between Juneau and Bellingham.  And of course, I'm sleeping on a lawn chair in the solarium with a toaster oven heater hanging six feet above me to stay warm. 

I met Lili Rose due to a reluctance she had to break a promise to her husband - we bacame hitching buddies on the Sitka stop.  Visiting from Santa Cruz, her cousin was on a diving trip, and she decided to do a four day roundtrip ferry ride from Ketchikan to Skagway and we crossed paths on the Skagway-Ketchikan run.

"I have a gift for healing," she said as we strolled around the church in Sitka.  "I'm known as the Rock Lady because I do so well with stones."

Like many people from California, she was very open in sharing her story, and at first I wrote her off as a New Ager.  She even looked the part of a mystic.  Petite, with long reddish brown hair, and large green eyes, Lili Rose has a vivid presence.

And then she told me she was only 74 pounds a few months ago, and that she had died and been brought back three times in the last year. 

Having four disks in her neck fused together, complications with her medication affecting her health, she had run the gamut of a modern-day medical nightmare.  She had a food tube forcing nutrients directly to her heart at one point before she figured out that it was the pain killers she was taking for her neck were affecting her system, and got a medical license for marijuana to stop so she could take in enough calories to not starve to death.  She gets high, so she feels okay enough to eat, and if she's not in too much pain, the food stays down.  Since she had stopped taking the painkillers, she had gained forty pounds and was healthy enough to take this trip to see her cousin and twin soul. 

"I choose to be happy," she said.  "It is all a choice, so why choose suffering?" 

A healer in pain all the time, a giver who can't receive, Lili Rose gave me a stone she had carried for almost twenty years.  A clear piece of quartz with copper filaments  threading through it like angel hairs, she described it as "rutile quartz."  She had it with her when she was holding people's hands as they passed from this life, or brought new life into the world.  She swore by it.

"This stone is very powerful," she said.  "It'll send your messages

directly to God."

Since the stone was important to her, the agreement at first was that I could carry it until I came to see her in Santa Cruz, and then we would trade out for a stone with gold filaments.  But by the next morning, she said that it was my birthday gift. 

"My dear, what is the point of giving a gift if one does not also treasure it oneself?"

This classic quote by Colette - the French writer, not our beloved slinger of hash and singer of songs - was the last sentence in a short story by Truman Capote.  I was so impressed by it I recorded it in my journal years ago and thus, have never forgotten it.  So the significance of this gesture by a woman I had known for three hours was not lost on me.

But the best gift from Lili Rose to me was the missing piece in the puzzle of forgiveness.  Without going into the details of the conversation that led to this - anybody who's done any living at all has been stumped on this issue at least once in their lives - we were treating ourselves to a less-than-mediocre dinner served in the swanky ferry dining room when Lili Rose dropped this pearl of wisdom on my plate.

"When you truly forgive, you give up your right to retribution."

Now that's some profound shit, but she went on.

"When you wait for an apology, an acknowledgement, or a punishment to forgive, you are still giving up your energy to a situation, which is what somebody wants who does things that hurt us.  When you give up that right to retribution, no matter how justified, you take back your power."

Wow.

Something tells me this leg of the trip is going to turn into some mystical avenues.

If I ever lose that rock she gave me, shoot me.

Montgomery

Get Ready to LAUNCH!

With the start of September I'm ready to announce the release of the final ebook in the Ella Bandita and the Wanderer story. For my loyal readers, I'm offering it FREE today and tomorrow only!  

Despite growing up with the Bard's warnings to always follow his heart, the Wanderer loses to Ella Bandita, who curses him to the unfamiliar life of the Wolf. Tormented by memories of his life as a man, the Wolf is overcome with grief and unspeakable loneliness. One day, the Wolf takes solace from the music of a fiddle well played. And thus, the Wolf finds some kind of salvation in the friendship of the Shepherd who spares his life. But the Shepherd has stories and a secret of his own. Together, the Shepherd and the Wolf form an unusual friendship. Each of them will be tested as their journey brings them back to the Sorcerer's Caverns, where the nameless daughter of the Patron sold her heart for a change of destiny and a chance at love.

There, they will meet again, Ella Bandita and the Wanderer.

Looking for an Original Dark Fantasy? *Giveaway*

How about a badass anti-shero who seduces the most licentious men? Enter to Win an AUTOGRAPHED copy!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

**ONLY 6 DAYS LEFT!**

Ella Bandita and the Wanderer:

"This book is beautiful, and it's a testament to the power of independent authors—there are still new stories to be told and new ways in which to tell them. It's been a while since I've read something truly original, but this did it for me."

"What a rare treat to find everything I look for in a story in one book: gorgeous writing, complex characters, a little magic, real emotion, and many surprises."

*Recipient of the Individual Artist Project Award from the Rasmuson Foundation.

Eternal Novicehood and the Saving Grace of Good Friends

Let's reach back to August 13, 2005, when I was on the first legs of my journey through Alaska, touring with my collection, Ella Bandita and Other Stories.

Hey y’all,

This road trip was shaping up to be an exercise in humiliation until Joe showed up.  For instance, in Homer, at my first open mike, I had right in front of my stage the Christian kiddie contingent.  They were there to play cards, talk loud, and make smart-ass speeches after different musicians played just to show how cute they were, while the folks that were actually listening attentively were behind them. 

I was lucky though, they got even more obnoxious when the guy after me went up to play his guitar and sing. 

At the Land's End in Homer, my first night was the exact same time and date as the post-Memorial service for Drew Scalzi, a former state Representative, so everyone there was going to that.  One couple tried to get me to go upstairs, have some food and drink and let people know I was there, but there's just something about going to somebody's funeral, especially someone that I'd never met, to hustle some business that is...distasteful to say the least.  The same couple came down and bought a book - probably out of sympathy because nobody showed up that day, and the wife suggested that I should come in the winter, people are looking for things to do during that time.

The next day, a couple of acquaintances and a couple of total strangers showed up.  I sold two books and all I could think was that it was a mighty fine thing that I did not pay a dime for that space and that my beginner's luck had run out, and I'm back in the time and space of being a novice...again.

I packed up the brown beast (that is burning oil, but other than that is running beautifully) and headed for Seward.

It seems like every year I decide to do something different that I know nothing about, just so I can be a novice all over again.  Perhaps Zen Buddhists would applaud my embrace of Zen mind by constantly being a beginner; but given that I learn by making many many mistakes, the novice/beginner period can be agony.   

In  Seward, at the Resurrect Art Coffee House, I had set up a tableside storytelling for the sake of promoting my book.  The owners are every artist's dream come true as they support the arts and would let me do whatever I wanted - so I set up for three days, hoping positive word of mouth would help.

Day one, told several stories and sold...nothing.

Granted, I'm sure it could have been worse, I could have been insulted on top of it.  But to be in a place for four hours and have people nod politely at my efforts is...awful, humiliating.

Why would any sane person put herself through all this?

It didn't help that I had a Homer friend tempting me to go back to Homer, go charter fishing and party.  It was so demoralizing, I almost went, but I made a commitment and as much as it hurt, that commitment must be kept.  I gritted my teeth to bear it on Thursday, where at least the day would be mercifully short.

Told two stories to four people...sold two books.  I perked up a bit.  I've survived painful learning curves before and it was always better.  I even sold two more books to a waitress and one of her followers at the bar where I refreshed myself with a beer after hiking. 

And then came deliverance...

Friday brought the arrival of Joe, who has absolutely no boundaries, and therefore, no inhibitions.  A born balls-to-the-wall salesman type.  For those who know Joe: after fishing in Bristol Bay, his dreads got inflected with fish bits and he said every morning when he woke up his head smelled like fish and he couldn't take it anymore, so he shaved them off, along with his beard - and damn! – now he looks like a respectable young man. 

He listened to a couple of stories, and even stopped being a smart-ass half way through the first one.  A Colorado woman who calls herself "Soozie Creamcheese," bought a book, and the two over-friendly studs I'd met at the youth hostel bought none. And Joe took it upon himself to take a few books and go to the bars.  He took four and within 45 minutes, came back with forty bucks and left with ten more books.  By the time people were only caring about getting drunk, he sold seven.  While I stayed put, told more stories, and sold two more.

I'm busting my butt telling stories and recommending myself to strangers and this is Joe's sales pitch:  "Dude, you should really buy this book...." usually to a female.

And it works.

I just might have to pack up Joe in my luggage...

Thank God for good friends.

Montgomery

How to get more out of Social Media

If you read my last post, you can tell this has been on my mind. Social media is a great way to build community, but it can be infuriatingly difficult at times. This article from StandoutBooks (LOVE their helpful posts) tells you more about how to use social media for maximum effect. It's clearly written and gives thoughtful, practical advice. Let me know if you have any other methods for negotiating the online social territory!  

Whether you’re a newly self-published author or someone who’s been around the block a few times, chances are you’ll wish that your social media following was a little more engaged.

Some writers struggle to gain a single ‘like’ online, while others who’ve patiently cultivated their following can become frustrated when even after months of building hype, many of their followers fail to buy their latest novel.

I find that there are four levels to any author’s fan community. I like to call them the Disinterested, the Interested But Lazy, the Engaged Who Don’t Follow Through, and finally, the Die Hards. The trick, as far as I’m concerned, to an effective social media campaign is to encourage followers to climb the ranks, slowly rising through the levels to become Die Hard fans.

Influencing fans isn’t always easy though, and as such, in this article I’ll talk a little about each of the three lower levels, and how you can encourage your fans to level up.

Read more on StandoutBooks

Twitter Campaign for Independent Authors

Hello all! I've got some exciting news. I've just launched a twitter campaign to help promote self published authors. I'm so glad to give to the indie community and offer a little bit of exposure to my fellow writers who are working to promote their own work (and find time to write the next novel!) Twitter has been a tough social media format for me. It's so loaded with garbage it's hard to sift through to find the gems. Instead of scrolling feeds, I decided to find a way to check out new authors as well as use twitter to promote them. With an open-invitation system (just email info@freeflyingpress) and author-designed tweets (send me 140 characters and an image of your book) I can quickly schedule in 4 tweets to help spread the word about new books.  

I hope this model will connect me with other authors & help strengthen the indie community while sharing news about hot new titles. I'd love to hear your comments and thoughts about how to use twitter to build community and help each other grow our author online presences!

& in the meantime, check out a preview my latest ebook release The Heart of the Lone Wolf  coming in September. For only .99 you can get your preorder copy today!

Get your FREE copy of Challenge today & Sunday only!

We're giving away a copy of Montgomery Mahaffey's steamiest novelette Challenge today and Sunday only on Amazon. Download now and read later!

The Wanderer should have known better. Growing up with the Bard's fireside stories about the predatory seductress Ella Bandita has done nothing to prepare him for meeting her. When he crosses paths with a mysterious vagabond girl in the woods, his loneliness pulls him toward her. But the strange woman spurns his friendship. It should be easy enough to leave her behind. But the Wanderer can't pull himself away, captive to his stubborn will and the haunting dreams that linger when he wakes up every morning. Drawn in by the legendary allure of Ella Bandita, the Wanderer is caught up in a game of cat and mouse fraught with desire that is only fueled by his neighbor's disdain. Soon, the words of his grandfather's warning becomes a fading echo in his ear...always remember, follow your heart. Will the Wanderer resist in time to hear those words, or will he lose the one thing that matters to him most?

http://www.amazon.com/Challenge-Ella-Bandita-Wanderer-Book-ebook/dp/B00Y9HOGBE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1437855367&sr=8-1&keywords=challenge+montgomery+mahaffey

Vote in the Fantasy Worlds Contest~!!

Inkitt, an amazing platform for authors to share stories and connect with other authors and reviewers, is hosting a Fantasy Worlds contest.

It's free to enter and runs until August 10. I've entered an excerpt from my Dark Fantasy novel Ella Bandita and the Wanderer and I'd love your opinion! Come read my story, write your own, and vote!

Summary: The Wanderer should have known better. Growing up with the Bard's fireside stories about the predatory seductress Ella Bandita has done nothing to prepare him for meeting her.

http://www.inkitt.com/stories/17271

Tapestry of Life on the Human Highway

Today I'd like to revisit one of my journeys while on the road for my first book tour. As I'm moving through the developments for the major release of my novel, Ella Bandita and the Wanderer, I find myself thinking back to those days on the road where I met well...keeping reading...you'll enjoy it. :) August 9, 2005

Every time I'm on the road, it never ceases to amaze me how quickly friendships are bonded and easily untied - especially as the need arises.  There's something about traveling - being suspended from the day to day life of jobs, rent, bills, social obligations, community service, and established groups - that suspends the usual rules of how people interact with each other.  Boundaries are lifted, discretion is almost an insult when making friends and forming temporary community from town to town.

I met Ann at the Amped Cafe in Homer, the day after I arrived in town.  She's torn between career and more school, and which way to turn.  There was an immediate bond that forged itself when she mentioned living in her truck, with a dog, and a Holly Golightly-style best friend that was halibut fishing with a new fling, who "wore his mullet well," and thus, was currently unavailable. 

What a coincidence!  I'm also living in my truck.  

Ann talked me into doing a reading at the open mike that night to get warmed up for the Concert on the Lawn that first weekend.  The next morning, she met me at 8:30 to help me set up my booth and was in and out every so often, as the need arose.

Hey, she got into the concert for free.  After the week-end, she felt comfortable enough to let me stay in a tent outside the mullet-fisherman's house and I had a place to reorganize my truck and make coffee in the morning.

At the Concert on the Lawn, a volunteer named Lia offered to let me park my truck and sleep in her van with a double bed if I needed a place to stay.  She was widowed from the love of her life two years before, and she had done her fair share of adventuring in her youth.  She was also letting a young man stay on her property that was on a spiritual path of Buddhism and daily meditation, so it was really no big deal.  But she felt the need to assure me that she wasn't coming on to me and that the young man was not her lover. 

When Ann moved on to Seward to look into a possible dream job, I gave Lia a call and after it took her a moment to remember me...

"Oh yes, the Scheherazade..." she said.  (I totally dug that compliment) before giving me directions to her house. 

She got a little reluctant about using her van, but I had a place to park, and a kitchen to make my coffee, and an outhouse to do my business, and my body was scrunched again into my truck's proportions. 

She told me her story, and it turns we have much in common.

"We are all interconnected," she said. 

If she ever comes to Juneau, of course she'll have a place to stay.

Ann's sweet dog was hit by a car on Saturday night and killed, so she left Seward by the time I got there and the Holly Golightly-style best friend met her in Anchorage.  I doubt I'll see her much from here on out, but I have a couple of pieces of mail and her PO box key.  I'm sure we'll keep in touch and all, but I suspect that Ann was my Homer friend.

So here I am in Seward to do table to table storytelling at the Resurrect Art Coffee House.  I'm staying at the hostel and it feels like high luxury accomodation to be able to stretch out in sleep and have a place to put food.

This morning I was looking forward to coffee in the communal kitchen and writing in my journal when a born-again Christian wrecked the peace of my morning today when she had to tell me her life story of giving her life to the Lord and how happy she was that she didn't have to be good enough to get into heaven, because God sent his Son to die on a cross for her.  It's incredible that Christians never stop to think how sadistic and cruel that is... 

I felt my energy being sucked dry...dammit, I knew I should have kept my distance.

When I couldn't take anymore of her being saved speeches, I got up and told her abruptly that I had gotten screwed by the same system that had done so much for her, and would she please stop.  She said, yes of course and we made banal chit chat and wished each other a good day.

I'm only one thread on the tapestry of life, and these intersections are only a moment and some are a part of beautiful patterns and others...are not.  

But then my thread runs on, as does theirs.

As Lia said, we are all connected.  

Standout Books

Standout books is an amazon resource for indie authors. From their marketing packages to their blog advice, they throw their best out there for all of us to benefit from. From this post, they tell us writers how to make your Anti-hero tantalizing and complex. For me and my main character Ella Bandita, the iciest anti-hero if you ever saw one, this post was especially helpful.

Readers love antiheroes. Complex, often morally questionable characters who make the choices heroes won’t or can’t, and open up exciting new ways of experiencing the world.

Choosing to write an antihero gives an author a lot of freedom for the plot to go anywhere they like, but it also presents unique challenges in characterization and structure.

So how do you write a great antihero, the kind that readers obsess over, even as they find themselves unable to root for the character’s success? It’s a little to do with presentation and a lot to do with author knowledge, but it’s also almost entirely dependent on your ability to understand that you’ll have to create from scratch some elements that heroic characters have automatically.

But, as ever, first things first…

Keep reading at StandOutBooks…