Ch...ch...ch...changes

"Change begins at the end of 

your comfort zone." 

~ Roy T. Bennett

There have been many changes this past year and a half. Life has been a whirlwind between relocating to Western Maine, starting a new job, and adjusting to my new life.

Now that I'm on summer break, the dust is settling and I can reflect on the past year and on all that I've managed to accomplish as well as plan what the next steps can be.

I began the year publishing my last book in the series called, Unintended Travelers: Pete.  It took longer than the first two books primarily because of the moving, but also because I wanted the book to end the series a certain way. 

Pete ties together the first two books, provides a continued story about the time portal, and gives some closure to what happens in the second book, Henry, and the series as a whole.

Book Signing

After I announced its release, I ended up doing my first book signing at the Fort Kent Public Library at the end of March. This was definitely stepping outside my comfort zone. I mean, I can stand in front of a class and present a lesson I've created with no problem, but to talk about books in which I've created the characters, the setting, and the plot, and developed the whole storyline, was awkward and uncomfortable for me. But I guess I have to get used to it if I want to get my books out there and sold.

The book signing ended up being recorded, which I wasn't expecting, and I won't lie, the idea horrified me. But in retrospect, I'm glad it was recorded, although I have to admit that I only watched it for the first time as I was writing this post. The video was well done, but as a whole, it was okay. I have to remind myself that I am my own worst critic, so I'm not focusing on what went well as much as how I looked and sounded on the video. 

You can watch it here. 

Change in Covers

In the fall of 2023, my sister and I went to a Maine Author's Book Fair at the Bangor Public Library to check it out. I learned a lot from just visiting the many different booths. I saw how they set up their tables and started designing my own business cards, series/author bookmarks, and a banner for my future display. 

Many of the authors there were just like me. They only had a few books published, and many had gone the independent way of using KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) through Amazon like I had.

I liked my covers but was never satisfied with their final look. There was always a border along the edges that I could never figure out. Talking with a few of the authors who used KDP helped me understand how to set the formatting of my covers to get the look I truly wanted.

Through the Facebook writing groups, I also heard something about how KDP was cracking down on the use of AI-generated content and art. Although my written content was completely created by me, my covers weren't. They had been designed by a friend through AI-generated art websites. Now, as long as I gave credit to the site for the covers, I was fine...today. But what if they decided a month from now that AI-generated content or artwork would not be accepted anymore? So, I decided to change my covers.

Since last summer, after I had moved to my new home, I would take Sadie for walks along the trail by our house. I loved the look of the way the trees and vegetation lined the trail. Plus, now that I was considering changing my covers, I started looking for inspiration while on my walks and would take photos of whatever caught my eye. Eventually, I had a collection of images to choose from. 

From those images, I created my 3 new book covers. I played around with features on Canva and was able to come up with covers I'm excited about. Here they are.

Getting Myself Out There

I've also created an Author's Facebook Page to connect with my readers and made a connection with someone in marketing who is currently coaching me about how to use social media to get more readers. She also scheduled an interview with WABI TV in Bangor for August to talk about my series. I'm pretty excited about that. I remember how anxious I felt about my book signing being recorded, but I think that only helped to get me ready for any future interviews that might happen. I've also applied to two Maine Author's book fairs, both happening this fall. Hopefully, I get accepted to participate in at least one of them.

What's to Come

There have been some good things going on so far this year, but nothing more will happen if I don't get myself out there.  I can hire someone to market my books, but I still need to put myself out there and not be so humble about what I'm writing.

I'm currently writing a new book, completely unrelated to the Unintended series, and also geared toward adults rather than teens. I'll have more in a future post about that book, that I'll for now refer to as Garnet.