My First Book Signing, Awesome Indies, and New Covers!!!

I have my first book signing in just a few days! It's a large event called Spring Into Books and authors, illustrators, and industry professionals from all over the state will be attending. It actually all feels a little surreal. I have boxes of books and handouts sitting in my living room ready to go, and I have been trying to prepare to present myself to the public for the first time. It's nerve-wracking, but also very exciting! Even though I feel a little intimidated being around so many others in the industry, I am proud to be there to represent Indie authors and also relieved not to have to carry a whole event on my own. :) Overall, I'm sure that the experience will be great and one that I will never forget.

One of the things I am the most grateful for right now is the relationships I have been able to build with other Independent authors. It all started when I used the Twitter hastag #IndieBooksBeSeen in the early promotions of my book. Little did I know that attaching that one little hashtag to my tweet would change everything. I was contacted by Mark Shaw, the creator of the hastag and also one of the big names in the Indie book movement. I was still two weeks away from releasing "How Maxwell Grover Stole My House" when he asked me to join the #IndieBooksBeSeen community. I was also offered an opportunity to have my title included in the first #IndieBooksBeSeen catalog. I was blown away at the chance to get my name out there, but the real gift has not been the publicity. While it's been cool to see my book included in a catalog and on a website with so many other great titles, the friendships that I have made with others just like me have been priceless.

Joining Mark's group helped me to connect authors of all backgrounds and experience levels. It also was a gateway to discovering the Awesome Awethor's group, another great support for Indie authors and readers. I was able to participate in a large online event they held that included Cover Wars, author/fan discussions, and even character take-overs. I'm thrilled to let you know that I will be contributing a short story to the Awethor's Anthology. The anthology will be a collection of short stories and poetry from some very talented Indie authors. It will be a great collaboration and all of the proceeds are going to be donated to charity! It should be released in October. I have connected with other groups as well, some local and some international. They have all helped me to see that self-published author's don't need to be competitors; we need to be fans of one another, a source of support and friendship, and most importantly, a collective voice for change in the publishing world. I believe whole-heartedly that readers should be the gatekeepers, not large companies. Traditional publishers have their place, but so do we! As a nod to all of these wonderful people, I will be adding a feature to this site in the next week or so that will showcase some of their work. Please check it out and support them. I will also have some of the #IndieBooksBeSeen catalogs to give away FREE at the signing event.

While this has already been quite the post, I have to add some words of appreciation for my cover artist, Sharon, with Fantasia Cover Design. We got into discussions a little over a week ago about the first sequel in the Maxwell Grover series. I gave her an idea of what I wanted for the cover, and in almost no time at all she presented me with her interpretation. I was absolutely blown away! She took characters I (literally) dreamed up and used my book description and abstract ideas to design a cover that is more perfect than I ever imagined it could be. The imagery is beautiful and the characters were spot-on. Seeing them for the first time outside of my head was incredibly surreal. Sharon achieved the difficult task of capturing the spirit of the characters while still leaving room for the readers to use their imagination.

As if that wasn't enough, she also made some changes to the cover of Book 1. The main image is the same, but changes have been made to the font as well as some other small tweaks. Additionally, instead of having just the front cover with the rest of the book being a flat purple, she did a custom wrap that includes the spine and back cover. I will upload the new cover for Book 1 as soon as I have it. The sequel cover will be revealed October 31st this year ... yep, on Halloween! I will try to have the book available for pre-order at the same time, and will officially release it on Friday, November the 13th. (Nope, I didn't learn my lesson the first time, lol).

With all of the ups and downs I have experienced on the road to becoming an author, I have to say that when I step back and look at the big picture, I really couldn't ask for more. I have lots of support, a great family, and I get to share my crazy imagination with others. All in all, life is good and I look forward to many more adventures.