by Gary Fearon, Creative Director, Southern Writers Magazine
Tuesday, March 7, 2017
It's every writer's dream: Escaping to a private sanctuary where there are no distractions, perfect conditions, and all the time in the world to write the Great American Novel. I'm often reminded of a classic Dick Van Dyke episode in which he attempted just that, retreating to a cabin in the woods with his typewriter, only to end up doing everything but write.
Most of us can identify with his failure to communicate. Even if we create the most ideal of circumstances, it's not a guarantee that inspiration will magically follow. But take heart, because there are many ways to connect with your muse so that wherever you sit down to write you won't be at a loss for words.
RETREATS
Each year there are numerous retreats in idyllic locations designed specifically for writers. Looking at some that will be available this fall, for example, a farmhouse in Tuscany or a hamlet in Denmark could be just the getaway that gets your literary juices flowing. With a price tag of a couple of thousand dollars, however, these retreats are clearly not in everyone's budget. But there's nothing to keep you from creating your own retreat in a favorite setting closer to home. Maybe a three-day weekend at a B&B would be just the right change of venue.
For a longer escape, you might consider the recent travel trend known as a silent retreat. Who wouldn't be able to write in a Waldenesque locale offering nothing but quietude? Well, besides Dick Van Dyke.
CONFERENCES
There's one coming to a city near you soon, guaranteed. Whether it's a day-long intensive or a multi-day event, leaving the world behind to focus on the voices of experience is a push toward productivity. Meeting other authors is a confidence-building bonus. Many conferences even include a writers bookstore with discounts for attendees. By the end of the conference you'll be dying to get back to your keyboard to write.
WRITERS GROUPS
Whether they meet once a month or more often, writers groups are an excellent way to stay committed to your craft as well as accountable. By design, no two groups are the same. Some focus on instruction and exercises, others resemble a support group or social club. Each has its own personality, which is a good thing, since you can try them all and find the one that makes you the most motivated to write.
STAYING IN TOUCH WITH OTHER WRITERS
The business side of publishing may be highly competitive, but it's always encouraging to see how non-competitive writers are with each other. We celebrate everyone's success and are inspired by each new book release instead of envious. Welcoming each other like family, we readily share tricks of the trade. So it's easy to make friends in the writing community. Whether we foster those relationships through email, social media, or face to face, there are few things more stimulating than an inspired back-and-forth with another creative mind.
Some of my most invigorating conversations have been over lunch with writer companions. This past Thursday, four of us enjoyed a spirited repast at McAlister's, and I came away with three really good new story ideas. I'm pretty sure it wasn't just the Kale Parmesan soup that triggered them.
HANGING OUT IN AN INSPIRING PLACE
Where do you think best? What setting clears your head and opens your imagination? For some, it will be outdoors in a park. Others relax at a coffee shop. The library is a favorite hangout of writers, surrounded by all the literary masters. A museum or art gallery offers a similar sense of communion with creative genius. Whether you plant yourself there with a laptop or stroll the halls contemplating something you'll write later, a brush with greatness never fails to inspire.
WANDERLUST
Performing a mindless task inherently causes your mind to wander, lusting for something more interesting to think about. You can use the thankless time spent mowing the lawn or doing the laundry to ponder a scene or a plot, unimpaired by the dull duty in front of you. Sort through story ideas while you're sorting socks and you could have the first paragraph of your next writing session ready to roll.
THE GREAT ESCAPE
When all is said and done, getting our words written is not a matter of escaping to a place of perfection. The most prolific authors say that where you write is not as important as getting in that chair and simply writing, period. Books get written through sheer will and the tenacity to see it through. So the real escape is sometimes from our own procrastination.
For your entertainment, here's a YouTube link to the classic cabin scene from that Dick Van Dyke episode mentioned earlier. May it serve as a reminder to avoid distractions wherever you choose to write, or if you can't, at least have fun.
By the way, you'll be glad to know that in the very last episode of the series, he finally did finish his book, just as you will.
Thank you all for visiting with us. It’s always a pleasure to meet readers and authors. Until next month, every one please stay safe. Smile. Be happy. Show compassion. Be nice to others. Put a little love into your heart. Please speak up for those without a voice, whether it be a dog, cat, elephant or monkey. One person, one voice can make a difference. Read a book and pass it on. Leave a review. Reviews are important for authors. Believe me. I know. Thank you! Regards, S. J. Francis, Writing is my passion, but animals are my world. Advocate for the underdog, and cat, and supporting writers, et al. In Shattered Lies: "It's All About Family." Available now from Black Opal Books and for sale at all on-line retailers and independent booksellers. Shattered Lies is a Finalist in the 2016 Writing Shelf Book Awards.
Shattered Lies is a winner in the Fall 2016 NABE Pinnacle Book Achievement Book Awards for Women's Fiction. Shattered Lies is a runner-up in the 2016 Shelf Unbound Indie Best Book Award Competition. Shattered Lies is a 2016 Reader's Favorite Honorable Mention in the Fiction - Women’s category. Shattered Lies was a Finalist in the 10th Annual National Indie Excellence Awards. Shattered Lies was chosen as General Fiction Official Selection in the 2015 New Apple Book Awards. The 2nd, new book cover design for Shattered Lies was a Finalist in the 2016 Authors dB Best Cover Contest. The first, original book cover design for Shattered Lies was a semi-finalist in the 2015 Authors dB Best Cover Contest.
And now for some legal stuff: Copyright 2017 by S.J. Francis. Opinions expressed here are solely those of the author, S. J. Francis and the guest author and are meant to entertain, inform and enlighten, and intend to offend no one.
A Note from S.J. Francis: So you want to be a writer. Good for you! I stand behind you 150%. Writing allows you the freedom to explore your mind. Take the time to tell a story you can't find on the shelves but you want to read. At the same time, writing is not an easy field to succeed in. It may take a very long time, years even before you get a paycheck for what you wrote. Once published doesn't mean the path is paved ahead for you. You may find you receive more rejections than acceptances. That is very discouraging. Keep with it. If you want to write, just do it. Don't let anyone sway you away. If you are writing, whether published or not, you are a writer. Never forget that. You are going to want to quit. Don't.
From The Book Life by Publisher’s
Weekly
Don’t
Be Discouraged: Tips from an
Indie Author
November
21, 2016
By
Drucilla Shultz
When
it comes to self-publishing, indie author Ben Batchelder stresses the
three Ps: patience, persistence, and prayer.
Indie
author Ben Batchelder – who describes writing as his fourth (and
final) career – says that he didn’t write his second book.
Rather, To
Belém & Back “first
wrote me.”
His
self-published tale of traveling the backroads of Brazil with his
black lab, Atlas, received a starred review from Publishers
Weekly, with
our reviewer describing the book as “insightful and poignant” and
praising Batchedler for “seamlessly combin[ing] the personal, the
political, and the cultural.”
Despite
his success, Batchelder says he wishes he'd delayed publishing his
book until he'd created a pre-publishing marketing plan. “How to
order and receive proofs over many months, prior to publishing on
CreateSpace, is not self-evident. So my official publish date was
months prior to the actual launch, which detracts from the freshness
of the project.”
The
author describes self-publishing as an “expansive undertaking” –
but one that was made easier by publishing his first two books
closely together – adding that being an indie author opens “a
vast new world of learning: new or updated software, finding readers,
new blog sites, designing covers...and proofing, proofing, proofing.”
Perhaps
most surprising to Batchelder was the positive response and
overwhelming support he has received from friends, both old and new:
“[Publicity] events have flushed out old friends, made new ones,
built contacts lists, and provided fodder for blogs and various
social media platforms.”
We
asked Batchelder to give his fellow indie authors some
self-publishing tips:
PATIENCE
“I
strongly recommend resisting the urge to publish your first work as
quickly as possible. Rather, proof it, reread it, get comments, proof
it again, and devise a pre- and post-publishing marketing plan.”
PERSISTENCE
“Don’t
be discouraged by rejection or settle for good-enough. In
marketing-speak, make it the highest quality product you humanly can,
and -- with some doggedness and hard work on your part -- the product
will then sell itself.”
PRAYERS
“Self-explanatory.
You won’t succeed by yourself or necessarily on your own terms.”
Thank you all for visiting with us. It’s always a pleasure to meet readers and authors. Until next month, every one please stay safe. Smile. Be happy. Show compassion. Be nice to others. Put a little love into your heart. Please speak up for those without a voice, whether it be a dog, cat, elephant or monkey. One person, one voice can make a difference. Read a book and pass it on. Leave a review. Reviews are important for authors. Believe me. I know. Thank you! Regards, S. J. Francis, Writing is my passion, but animals are my world. Advocate for the underdog, and cat, and supporting writers, et al.
In Shattered Lies: "It's All About Family." Available now from Black Opal Books and for sale at all on-line retailers and independent booksellers. Shattered Lies is a winner in the Fall 2016 NABE Pinnacle Book Achievement Awards for Women's Fiction. Shattered Lies is a runner-up in the 2016 Shelf Unbound Indie Best Book Award Competition. Shattered Lies is a 2016 Reader's Favorite Honorable Mention in the Fiction - Women’s category.
Shattered Lies was a Finalist in the 10th Annual National Indie Excellence Awards. Shattered Lies was chosen as General Fiction Official Selection in the 2015 New Apple Book Awards. The first, original book cover design for Shattered Lies was a semi-finalist in the 2015 Authors dB Best Cover Contest. The 2nd new book cover design for Shattered Lies was a Finalist in the 2016 Authors dB Best Cover Contest.
And now for some legal stuff: Copyright 2017 by S.J. Francis. Opinions expressed here are solely those of the author, S. J. Francis and the guest author and are meant to entertain, inform and enlighten, and intend to offend no one.
Saturday, October 7, 2017
A note from SJ Francis:Ever wonder how the rankings on Amazon works? So have I. When I saw this post, I knew I had to share. Enjoy!
If your book is on Amazon, your primary goal will be to sell more books on Amazon. Selling books on Amazon is all about optimizing for the Amazon algorithm. Sound complicated? It is, but don’t worry we have 5 easy-to-follow steps with detailed instructions that will help you make the most of the Amazon Algorithm.
The Amazon Algorithm Explained
Before we get into the steps, let’s explain the algorithm a little bit. The job of the Amazon algorithm is to best serve Amazon customers (aka readers) who are searching for something, AND to make relevant recommendations to Amazon customers on products they may like.
In order to do it’s job, the Amazon algorithm needs lots of data (called data inputs) about each product (which in your case is a book). The more data about your book the algorithm has, the more it will surface or recommend a product to a customer. When it comes to books, the primary inputs the Amazon algorithm looks for are: Keywords, genres, reviews, sales, downloads, sales rank, and browse activity. To optimize your book on Amazon, you need to optimize all these inputs for the algorithm. In this article we will show you how to do that so you can sell more books on Amazon. Now let’s get started!
1. Write a Comprehensive Book Description
Your book description is an important component in educating the Amazon algorithm (and human readers ) on what your book is about, and who will enjoy reading it. Below are the elements we recommend that every good book description has:
Accolades – If you or your book have won any awards or distinguishing titles (like bestseller), be sure to mention that in your book description. Anything and everything is worth mentioning. Now is NOT the time to be bashful about your accomplishments.
Quotes – Readers like to know what other readers have thought of your work. Whether you’ve paid for an editorial review through a service like Kirkus, or have a lovely reader review on Amazon, highlight your best reviews in your book description to let new readers know what they’re going to find in your book. Don’t have any early reviews yet? Try reaching out to an author friend who can review the book for you. For example, M O’Keefe has a shining review from fellow author J. Kenner at the top of her Burn Down the Night book description.
Comparables – Language that compares your title to best-selling authors and titles will let fans of those popular authors know that they should check your book out next. The basic construct is “if you like [famous book] then you’ll like [your book], but you’re a writer, mix it up a bit. Here’s an example from Sleeping Giants, where they use “In the tradition of…” to drop a few well-known books and authors into the description.
Emotional, gripping language – Be sure to use language that is evocative. Make readers feel something by simply reading your description, and leave them yearning for more. One strategy is to use the first few sentences from a particularly gripping scene in your book which tends to work well. However, don’t limit yourself, you can write evocative questions “Will she make it to the volcano in time?” or statements “Find out if Mike is truly her soulmate or if he has an alternate motive”, But don’t limit yourself to cliches; now is a good time to be creative.
Keywords for your genre – Different genres have different tropes that readers learn to look for. For example, in romance, HEA (happily ever after) stories are popular. If there are key words that you know readers in your genre are going to be looking (and searching) for, be sure to include those in your description. Most parts of the description should be creative, but make sure to drop in some literal words to make sure the book shows up in Amazon’s search. If you have a werewolf character, don’t use ‘dashing canine’, use ‘werewolf’ so Amazon’s algorithm can pick it up.
One thing that you don’t want to do in your book description is to give away the plot. Don’t make it into a spoiler-filled trailer for your book. Instead, tease readers with just enough to make them curious.
2. Research your Categories and Keywords
Both categories and your keywords are important inputs to the algorithm and serve to help new readers discover your book when they are browsing Amazon. You set both your categories and your keywords in your Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) account.
Let’s start with categories. On Amazon your categories are basically your genres, and you can only pick two for each book. When picking a category, be sure to pick the ones that most closely align with the content of your book. In Amazon’s own words:
“A browse category is the section of the Amazon site where users can find your book. Think of the browse category like the sections of a physical bookstore (fiction, history, and so on). You can select up to two browse categories for your book. Precise browse categorization helps readers find your book, so be sure to select the most appropriate categories for your book.”
Why is this important? Well, these categories are the basis for Amazon’s charts. You want the category to match the type of reader you are looking for. If you are writing a spy thriller, don’t pick romance as a category (even if there is a romantic element to your book) because readers browsing the Romance charts are not looking for spy thrillers. In order to see where your book will best fit in, peruse through the top charts for your potential categories, and see where your book would be the best fit. In the example below, we logged into our KDP account (kdp.amazon.com), selected the book we are working on (in our case a Non-Fiction Thanksgiving Cookbook), and scrolled down to the categories section. We then navigated down the categories and checked Seasonal and General under Cooking. This means that our book ranks first in those categories.
Next up: keywords. Optimizing your keywords is a fancy term for picking words you think people are going to search for. Imagine you are a reader, and you go to Amazon to find a book, what will you type in the search box? Get inside the mind of the reader and think about what words to add that will make your book easy to find. You will want to do two sets of research for keywords for your title.
First, you will want to research the main keywords that are associated with your book’s subject matter. These are the words that you will want to use in your title and on your book description page. Keywords that you use in your title will show up in the URL for your book, making it easier for your title to show up in searches for those words. In the example below, when a reader searches for Thriller, the algorithm knows that Hit for Hire is a possible result it can show the reader as Hit for Hire contains “thriller” in the URL, the title and the description.
To do this research, you can use the free functionality of KWFinder, or, if you’re running AdWords, Google’s keyword planner.
For example: Let’s say you’re writing a book on How to Make Dog Treats. When you search for related keywords, “Homemade Dog Treats” has almost 10 times the number of searches (aka Search Volume) that “How to Make Dog Treats” does. This means that you will want your title and book description to use the phrase “Homemade Dog Treats”.
Second, you will want to research the Amazon specific keywords that you will enter for your book. You get to choose just seven keywords for your title, so you want to choose them wisely. Dave Chesson over at Kindlepreneur has a fantastic step by step guide on how to research and select keywords that will allow Amazon to sell your book for you.
Amazon also has a useful resource on how to set keywords for your title, and they recommend focusing on five types of terms:
Setting – for example, “1800’s France”.
Charactertypes – for example, “single dad” or “veteran”.
Characterroles – for example, “female sleuth”
Plotthemes – for example, “coming of age” or “family saga”
Storytone – for example, “dystopian”
When your book is categorized under the correct genres and supplemented by the correct keywords, Amazon will do a better job of getting it in front of the right readers.
3. Get Reviews
We spoke above about how adding a review to your book description can help make your description more engaging to readers. More broadly, having many book reviews gives readers confidence in the quality of your work which will result in more readers purchasing your book. Book reviews are an important input to the algorithm, so this is another area where it’s worthwhile to focus. In our research, we found that the number of reviews is more important than the overall average review rating (as long as your average rating is over 3.5 stars). This means having 25 reviews with an average rating of 4.0 is better than having 5 reviews with an average rating of 5.0 stars. There are two key strategies for getting reviews for your titles:
Ask Your Readers – Do you have a mailing list? You should. If you don’t read our article about email marketing for authors. When your book comes out, email your readers and ask them to help you build reviews. Additionally, always include a link in the back of your book that asks readers to leave a review.
Here’s an example of an author asking for a review at the end of the book. This is at the end of Nomad by Matthew Mather.
ARC (advance reader copy) Reviews – If you really want to make the most of reviews, try to get them before your book comes out on Amazon. How? Reach out to your most engaged readers and ask them to leave a review in return for an ARC. An ARC is a copy of the book you provide to readers BEFORE the book is actually published. This way, you are lining up reviews that can be posted to your Amazon book page on the day your book launches, and you don’t have to wait days, weeks, or even months, before gaining enough reviews to make a difference.
4. Update your Author Page
Once you have your book listing squared away with a good description, appropriate keywords, and favorable reviews, it’s time to take a look at your Author Page. Amazon gives authors the opportunity to set up a page that acts as a central location for all of their titles on Amazon. You can set up your author page through Author Central. The author page provides more valuable information to the algorithm: which readers follow your author page, which readers browse your author page, which other titles are in your catalog. On your author page you want to have:
A compelling biography – Tell your story in an engaging way. Why do you write? How long have you been at it? What is your inspiration? Do you have a pet, is it cute, and what is its name? These are all questions to which readers want to know the answer.
A professional author photo – It is worth getting professional headshots done so you can have a professional grade photo to feature around the web, It lets readers know that you take your writing, and the business of writing, seriously. Do a google search for local photographers in your area and plan on paying about $100 for a professional portrait. It may seem expensive, but it’s worth it.
All of Your Books – If you have all of your titles linked to your page, then it is much easier for readers who have found and enjoyed one of your titles, to find more!
Book Trailers or Other Promotional Videos – Amazon lets you link in all sorts of content. If you’ve paid to have a book trailer produced, be sure to feature it here.
Feed to Your Blog Posts – If you have a blog, be sure to sync it up with your author page. This way readers who discover you through Amazon can then discover your blog and all of its fun book news as they peruse your books on Amazon.
+Follow Button – If readers are “following” you on Amazon, then they get an automated alert every time you publish a new book. That’s nifty.
Social Media and Website Information – Be sure to link to your other presences around the web so that readers can follow you there as well and see what all you’re up to!
Customize your URL – Make sure that your URL has your author name in it, so that your Amazon page shows up when people search for you on the web.
5. Drive Sales and Downloads of Your Book
The final step to sell more books on Amazon is to generate the data inputs for sales, downloads, and sales rank. To achieve this you will need to market and promote your book. The goal of promoting your book is to:
Drive sales of your book – Good marketing will help drive sales / KU borrows of your book, or free downloads if your book is free. The algorithm is more likely to recommend books that are being downloaded or purchased by readers.
Make your book start showing up in also-boughts. – On every page on Amazon there is a section that says “customers who bought this also bought”. When you promote your title, your book will start showing up in this section on other book’s pages, increasing the numbers of readers who will discover your title. If you do not have enough readers browsing your page, then the algorithm won’t know which similar products to link with your book.
Make your book start showing up on the top charts – Amazon ranks the eBooks they sell according to popularity. When a title is downloaded by a large quantity of people, it will show up on the Amazon Best Seller chart. Many readers come to these charts to discover new books, so if you’re ranking here, you’ll be getting in front of plenty of new readers. Getting in front of new readers means that more people will buy your book, which means that ranking on the charts will help increase your sales rank, which is another input for the algorithm. You can wait for your book naturally to get on the Best Seller chart, but after working with thousands of authors, we’ve found concerted marketing is the best way to get on these charts.
At Written Word Media, we’re huge proponents of running price promotions. It’s one of the things we do best, and we know it works. We recommend running a price promotion and promoting your title to our large audiences of new readers. With over 600,000 readers across Freebooksy, Bargain Booksy,Red Feather Romance, and NewInBooks, running a promotion on one of our sites will be sure to get your title into the hands of readers.
Conclusion
It requires time and effort to optimize your Amazon presence. We understand that for authors, time not spent writing can be difficult to find. However, this is an investment worth making. Amazon is one of the most important places to sell your book, and if you follow these five steps you will have taken the first steps to sell more books on Amazon.
When my debut
novel, SHATTERED LIES came out, I looked for all avenues of promotion available
to me to bring awareness to it, and of course, make a few bucks. Within a few
months, I learned of a way to promote it abroad in different languages. I toyed
with the idea for a while until a few months ago when I actually decided to go
ahead and try it. On December 12, 2016, I signed up with Babel Cube. I uploaded my book and author information. I waited. I heard some good things
about this website. Posts by other authors having had success using it. They liked it. What is Babel cube you ask? It’s a website where writers sign up and post
their books. Translators looking for projects to translate sign up. They may
choose to translate your book. They may initiate contact with you to do so, or
you can initiate contact. The translator does a small sample of your book into
your chosen foreign language. Babel cube offers translators doing translations
in over a dozen different languages that they offer through their sales
channels.
Once a translator and you agree to a translation your project, you both
negotiate payment, sign an agreement and proceed with the translation. Fifteen
percent automatically goes to babel cube. The rest is up to you and the
translator to agree to. Sounds pretty simple, right? Oh, and babel cube holds
your foreign rights on your book for five years once an agreement is signed
among all three parties. Oh, yes, I also forgot to mention that the translator is
required to market your book in their country. Makes sense. Once they translate
the book, they now have a monetary interest in it, right? Some have complained
that they’re translators not promoters and feel it isn’t fair. Many writers
feel the same way. I know I’d rather be writing than promoting my book, but I
have no choice.
I didn't expect anyone to jump on my novel, SHATTERED LIES, but I did expect a bit better than what I did receive: Nothing to date. Nothing to speak of.To date, I’ve had
one Spanish translator contact me about translating my book only to cancel the
request the same day. Since then, I reached out to two different German translators
to translate my book, SHATTERED LIES into German. I received no reply from
either. Not even a cordial rejection. I contacted one Italian translator who
informed me that she was interested, but “she had to think about it”. Mind you
these are people looking for work, which is why they are on babel cube. Same
reason that I placed my book there: To get someone to translate it to make money.
I have no idea why no one has inquired about translating my book into their
language, or even wrote back to decline. Perhaps, my book is a bit too
old. Perhaps, the subject matter is too intense for them. Perhaps, they’re
looking for an easy way to make money. Perhaps, no one is looking for work at all. I can't say anything good or bad about Babel Cube except for the one time I had to contact customer service, no one replied. Made me wonder if the site even worked.....
Then, I heard the reply from the Italian translator above. Should you put
your book out there in a foreign language? Why not? Just because my experience
wasn’t a positive one doesn’t mean yours won’t be. You may find an entire new
market out there waiting for you. Reading is an universal activity. Everyone does it. I know one writer that had great success with
Babel Cube. At least with an Italian translator. Not so well with a Spanish
one. Thanks to the Italian translator, his book was one of the top 100 books on
amazon because she promoted his book. The Spanish translator did no promotion. Be
aware going in that you may or may not get someone interested in actually
translating it and/or marketing your book. I may or may not go with Babel Cube if the right translator comes along and we can make a deal. We'll see....
Of course, I could always pay someone
outright to translate my book and do everything myself. There are lots of sites offering to do that. I inquired on
several sites about doing just that, which offered quotes. To translate my book
would be more than I care to spend. Off the charts. Perhaps, my next book may pique someone’s
interest enough to translate it. Perhaps, one day pigs will fly. That’s my take
on it. Do you have an experience with translating your book? Was it a positive
or negative one? Are you interested in having your book translated and sold
into other markets? Why or why not? Did I mention that when you choose to translate, you must also decide whether the language you chose is native to the translator or not? There are some German translators that can translate into Italian, and vice versa, but is that what you want?
Thank you all for visiting with us. It’s always a pleasure to meet readers and authors. Until next time, every one please stay safe. Smile. Be happy. Show compassion. Be nice to others. Put a little love into your heart. Please speak up for those without a voice, whether it be a dog, cat, elephant or monkey. One person, one voice can make a difference. Read a book and pass it on. Leave a review. Reviews are important for authors. Believe me. I know. Thank you! Regards, S. J. Francis, Writing is my passion, but animals are my world. Advocate for the underdog, and cat, and supporting writers, et al. In Shattered Lies: "It's All About Family." Available now from Black Opal Books and for sale at all on-line retailers and independent booksellers. "Some secrets should remain that way." Shattered Lies is a Finalist in the 2016 Wishing Shelf Independer Book Awards.
Shattered Lies is a winner in the Fall 2016 NABE Pinnacle Book Achievement Book Awards for Women's Fiction. Shattered Lies is a runner-up in the 2016 Shelf Unbound Indie Best Book Award Competition.
Shattered Lies is a 2016 Reader's Favorite Honorable Mention in the Fiction - Women’s category. Shattered Lies was a Finalist in the 10th Annual National Indie Excellence Awards. Shattered Lies was chosen as General Fiction Official Selection in the 2015 New Apple Book Awards. The 2nd, new book cover design for Shattered Lies was a Finalist in the 2016 Authors dB Best Cover Contest. The first, original book cover design for Shattered Lies was a semi-finalist in the 2015 Authors dB Best Cover Contest.
And now for some legal stuff: Copyright 2017 by S.J. Francis. Opinions expressed here are solely those of the author, S. J. Francis and the guest author and are meant to entertain, inform and enlighten, and intend to offend no one.
Shattered Lies is a Finalist in the 2016 Writing Shelf Book Awards.
) on what your book is about, and who will enjoy reading it. Below are the elements we recommend that every good book description has:
