ACX Update and a n audible.com Tutorial

The last known activity on both books - State of Successes and Finally Home - was that the books were submitted as finalized by me on June 4.  The note you get from ACX is that they have to validate the books.  I searched the site, al the FAQs and every place I could think of to search for the answer to the question, how long does it take to validate and go live with projects?, to no avail.  I finally emailed support and was given the answer of it takes 10 to 20 days to validate.  Suffice it to say, the process can be longer on their part than on the author's part once all the edits and revisions are made. 

Overall, if you are planning on going the audio book route with any or all of your books, expect the process from finding a narrator to approving and validation by ACX to take up to 3 months or longer, depending on the length of the book, the amount of editing/revisions needed, and of course the time you have to dedicate to get the book out there in another format. 

I did email my narrator for the state book to let her know that I had posted on my blog about the books, et cetera and she did get back to me stating that she has told all her friends and family, a good many of them who are teachers, and the responses so far has been that everyone is anxiously awaiting hearing/reading the books in the series.  I've also posted in several places about the books going live soon.  I hope this will generate some interest and that the series will start picking up.

I will start the process for another state book once the first one goes live, so hopefully before the end of June, State of Wilderness will be on its way to the narrator and by end  of August or the first part of September should go live barring any complications on my end. 

I know once the books go live they will be available on amazon.com, audible.com, and itunes.  Audible will set the retail price and the price will vary from all three depending on whether discounts are offered to members or if each site decides to price differently.  Remember that there is a good bit of work that goes into producing an audio book and that is why the price can be a lot more than print or ebooks.  The coolest thing about the audio books is that if you have a kindle (and this is true for all of them, not just the newer ones out) you can buy the ebook and the audio book and listen and read while the book is actually being narrated.  So for those of you who like both sensory stimuli, you can as long as the books are available in ebooks.  In the case of my state books, they are only available as print books and soon to be audio books for now.  Maybe when I get a sponsor or have more books out in the series, I will consider putting them up as ebooks.

How audible.com works:  Audible.com is a subscription service.  Basically, you sign up, start an account, pay the monthly fee (when I registered and started, my fee was $7.49 for the first 3 months and then will go up to $14.95 thereafter) and earn credits that are good towards the books available.  What I've seen so far in searching for various books in various genres is that no matter what the retail cost of the book you can get the books for 1 credit (which is basically your month's credit).  I picked up The Help which is an 18-hour+ recording for 1 credit while it retails for $26.60 and is available to members without credits for $18.62. As you can see, I got a $27 retail book for $7.49 or my 1 credit for the month of April.  Audible.com also runs specials like in April it was purchase qualifying books for $4.99 (I think you had to buy 4 during the 2-week period) and receive extra coupon monies (I don't remember what I purchased during that special deal but I have available to me 2 credits (May and June monthly member payments) as well as a $10.00 coupon.  I don't know if once my books go live that they will be automatically put in my library or if I have to "purchase" them or what, but once I know that, I will let you all know.

I hope my little bit of insight into the overall process of producing audio books has been helpful to all you authors out there who are thinking of going this route.  E :)

EARN TWO CHANCES FOR THE CROCHETED RED/WHITE/BLUE AFGHAN DRAWING:  For everyone who comments on this posting or any posting on either of my blogs (see below for links) between now and the end of June, you will receive 2 entries in the afghan drawing which will be done December 1, after all my events are completed for the year.  The chances normally sell for 2/$1 or buy a book and receive 5 chances, but I will put everyone's name who comments in the drawing.  Please make sure you provide me with an email address to be able to contact you for information on where to send your chances and/or afghan if you are the lucky winner.  Good luck to all.  E :)

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Elysabeth Eldering
Author of Finally Home, a middle grade/YA myster
Elysabeth's Blog
Elysabeth's website

Author of the Junior Geography Detective Squad (JGDS), 50-state, mystery, trivia series
Where will the adventure take you next?
JGDS blog
JGDS website

ACX Update

Last month I posted about the process of turning your print/ebook into an audio book using ACX.  I've now contracted a narrator or producer as they are actually called and she is perfect for the reading.  I've checked out her website and she looks exactly how I pictured Kelly looking so her voice and looks actually are a perfect fit for Finally Home.  I posted on my blog this past Sunday a bit about my narrator and links to her website and twitter as she has a podcast going and would like some followers. 

I will tell you  this, if you are considering putting your book(s) up as audios, the process is not a fast one because the narrators actually get offers during times they are working on projects.  If you plan on going this route, remember that the word of the day is PATIENCE.  If you don't get any auditions in the first couple of days, persevere and listen to more sample files and contact several narrators.  When contacting them asking them to audition for your book, mention what caught your attention on their sample files, tell them a little about your book and what you are looking for for the final book. 

Several folks have commented that the process has gone rather quickly for me, but in reality, I started looking for a narrator right after hearing Nina Bruhns from Entangled Publishing mention it at our local Sisters in Crime meeting, the 7th of February.  I listened to over 50 samples and contacted my top 3 choices (including the one I've actually contracted), and after getting their auditions, listened to a few more voice samples and contacted about 3 or 4 more before I actually got the audition from the producer I settled with.  By that time, I had already made a contract.  Before narrowing my choices down by genre, gender, payment type, the options were over 10,000 narrators.  When I narrowed it down by genre (teens), gender (female for obvious reasons - a male wouldn't be able to do Kelly and Emma Louise justice), and payment type (royalty split opposed to upfront payments),  I ended up with  79 voice files to listen to, but two of those were actually male (and how they slipped in there with me specifying female, I'll never know).  Of those 79, there were several samples by the same person or people, so I didn't really have 79 files to listen to.  Once I listened to the files and if something piqued my interest, I would then go to the narrator's page and check out  their other sample files and their credentials and all the other things in their profile.  Then I made contact if I liked what I saw and heard. 

I think this is a great route to go and if you  are not in the United States or probably  in North America (I think Canadians are included in the ACX process), I hope there are other platforms out there for you to get your books out as audios. 

For the release of the audiobook I've taken Finally Home off smashwords and Nook and put it in the KDP select program.  I will be offering the kindle version as a freebie on April 15 and 16 and again the end of May/first part of June (May 31-June 2).  I hope to have the audio released about the same time as my first freebie offering and hopefully more projects will be in the works by then.  I hope to get back to my state stories soon, trying to raise money via a funding campaign on IndieGoGo, to pay my illustrator so we can get the series completed in the near future, and maybe look into doing more of a series with my characters from Finally Home so there are a lot of pokers in the fire, I just need to get myself in gear and get to work.  I'm still looking for some story ideas to turn my character-driven story into a series, so if anyone would like to brainstorm some ideas for the characters, I'm open and can be reached at eeldering (@) gmail (dot) com. 

See you all in the postings - E :)

Elysabeth Eldering
Author of Finally Home,  a middle grade/YA mystery very much like a Nancy Drew mystery
Author of the Junior Geography Detective Squad (JGDS), 50-state, mystery, trivia series - Where will the adventure take you next?

http://elysabethsstories.blogspot.com
http://eeldering.weebly.com
http://jgdsseries.blogspot.com
http://jgdsseries.weebly.com

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Ms. Eldering is the award-winning author of the Junior Geography Detective Squad (JGDS), 50-state, mystery, trivia series.  Her stories "Train of Clues" (available in print and as an ebook on kindle), "The Proposal" (available as an ebook), "Tulip Kiss" (available as an ebook), and "Butterfly Halves", all placed first, second, or runner up in various contests to include two for Armchair Interviews and two for Echelon Press (Fast and ... themed type contests).  Her story "Bride-and-Seek" (available as an ebook) was selected for the South Carolina Writers' Workshop (SCWW) anthology, the Petigru Review.  She also has written several other short stories for contests including the second place winning story, "Zombies Amuck", and "La Cave".  Ms. Eldering makes her home in upper state South Carolina and loves to travel, read, cross stitch and crochet.  When she's not busy with grown children still at home, working her full-time job as a medical transcriptionist or participating in virtual classroom visits, she can be found at various homeschool or book events and festivals promoting her writing.

Writing and Weather

Forget the April showers, May flowers and March coming in like a lion, because that's January's job.  Here in South Carolina, only 12 days in, we have had rain, freezing temperatures, warm balmy temperaturres and a few things in between.  I was watching the news the other night based out of Asheville, North Carolina, and they were mentioning the snow in California and the single digit temperatures in the Utah-Colorado-Wyoming-Montana areas. 

Our writing is somewhat like the weather - we have that perfect day where everything falls into place and the weather isn't too hot or too cold; we have those really cold days where we can't think of anything to write and then we have those really hot days where we are smokin' and accomplish a lot.

I've been a funk, like the weather, and haven't really been able to shake it and get back to writing anything, although I'm hoping that by the end of the month to have many new ideas for my middle grade/YA characters to make into a series.  I'd love for more of the balmy, perfect days of writing but for now, it's just not happening. 

Maybe I need a total getaway from everything and start over like my daughter did or maybe I just need to open a document and start writing again and forget about the perfect days, just do it.  Whatever it is I need to get back on track, I hope it shows up soon so that I can get more stories published. 

Hoping all your writing days are balmy and perfect and not the super cold or super hot days - see you all in the postings - E :)

Elysabeth Eldering
Elysabeth's blog
Elysabeth's website
JGDS series blog
JGDS series website

The Olympics and Writing

The Olympics and Writing
by Elysabeth Eldering

What do the Olympics and writing have to do with each other? I subscribe to a newsletter from Writer's Relief and this came in my email the other day, some inspiration on how the Olympics can help you in your writing career. The Olympics are about to wrap up for this year. The next Olympics will be the winter Olympics of 2014. Set your eye on the goal, focus and persevere and maybe by 2014 you will have reached gold (publication or the next chapter in your writing).

10 Things Olympians Can Teach Creative Writers

1. Focus is everything. (stay focused on the end goal and with all your hard work, you will achieve it)

2. When you hit a wall, push off it and get some new momentum. (this really says something about writer's block; find a different way to get whatever you are writing written)

3. The writing life is like the balance beam; you WILL fall off. Olympians get back up again (and again, and again, and again). (Writers don't fall off per se but we do have to keep reinventing the box or think outside the box)

4. You can’t get to the big leagues without putting in your time. Practice, train, get confident; then trust your talent and all your hard work to carry you through. (in other words, learn your craft, believe in yourself and work hard to get to the end goal)

5. When you’re competing at a high level, even the little things matter.

6. Listen to coaches you trust: Criticism isn’t personal when it’s productive.

7. Be so dedicated that dedication becomes habit, and the habit becomes who you are. Write regularly, read regularly, SUBMIT regularly.

8. Healthy competition will help you be the best you can be.

9. If you’re going to jump, jump as high as you can. If you’re going to swim, swim as hard as you can. If you’re going to write, write as hard and as intensely as you can.

10. Olympians don’t hesitate. They do not hoard their personal courage or save it for a rainy day. Every day, they give everything they have to give. Writers can too.

Whether you are writing for contests or for publication, remember that hard work, focus and perseverance will get you where you want to be with your writing. Don't give up on yourself. Hoping you all achieve your end goals and that you never give up. Keep reaching for the stars.

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Ms. Eldering is the award winning author of the Junior Geography Detective Squad (JGDS), 50-state, mystery, trivia series. Her stories "Train of Clues", "The Proposal" (available as an ebook), "Tulip Kiss" (available as an ebook), and "Butterfly Halves", all placed first, second, or runner up in various contests to include two for Armchair Interviews and two for Echelon Press (Fast and ... themed type contests). Her story "Bride-and-Seek" (available as an ebook) was selected for the South Carolina Writers' Workshop (SCWW) anthology, the Petigru Review. Ms. Eldering makes her home in upper state South Carolina and loves to travel, read, cross stitch and crochet. When she's not busy with teenaged children still at home, working her full-time job as a medical transcriptionist or participating in virtual classroom visits, she can be found at various homeschool or book events promoting her writing.

You can find out more from Elysabeth and her writing/JGDS series at the following places:
Elysabeth's Writing Emporium blog
Elysabeth's author website
JGDS series blog
JGDS series website

If It Ain't Broke

Whatever happened to the adage, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."? It seems these days everyone is trying to fix things or improve them only to the detriment of the users of said things.

Take for example Google and Gmail, earlier this year Google and Gmail (part of the Google family) revamped everything. The new look on Gmail was very stark and difficult to read; one had to change backgrounds or themes in order to tell where the email box started and ended. If that wasn't enough, blogger dashboards changed, again making it difficult to navigate and really read. Our eyes deteriorate over time and with all this starkness and inability to see where one line ends or begins it makes life a little more difficult. The idea behind any of these updates or improvements is to make life easier, or at least that is my understanding.

I've adapted to a couple of those changes but then Yahoo has to jump on board making changes and making things more difficult. If you belong to any of the Yahoo forums and have signed up for the daily digest as opposed to individual emails to be kept updated on what is happening in the group, you may be aware of the change in the look of the digest. Again, this change has not made things easier but more difficult. My generation has enough difficulties without adding more to the mix. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I wonder who will be the next on board to make changes that supposed to make things easier but only complicate or worsen things. If you don't like the changes Yahoo has made to their digest, let them know. Maybe they will go back to the old version. Not much can be done to change Google's blogger dashboard or email back to the old version but it never hurts to try. Let them know that everything was fine the old way and you want it kept that way.

In writing, it is the same. If you have ways that work for you and someone suggests a new and improved way that is supposed to make it easier for you but doesn't, then you don't have to fix what you are already doing to appease someone else. If whatever you are doing is working for you and it's not broken and doesn't need fixing, then don't fix it. If on the other hand, the suggested change really does make a difference, makes things easier on you or fixes the problem areas you are having, then by all means, definitely embrace the change and make the most of it. Only make changes that are really fixes to broken ways or that will really make things easier on you.

SPECIAL DEALS: I've got some specials running through the month of July, all of which can be found over on my blog - ebooks, afghans and crocheted kindle or nook sleeves and/or tablet sleeves, pluse I've decided to reduce the cost of the chances for the red, white and blue afghan drawing to $1 each. This will be a permanent change and will be posted on both my main website and the JGDS blog soon.

See you all in the postings - E :)

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Elysabeth Eldering
Author of FINALLY HOME, a middle grade/YA paranormal mystery (written like a Nancy Drew mystery)
http://elysabethsstories.blogspot.com
http://eeldering.weebly.com

Carpe Diem

Last Monday morning (June 4) when I was about to get out of bed and hit the day running, the words "carpe diem; seize the day" kept flashing in my mind or in my face. I was probably in that last bit of sleep state so can't really tell you if I was dreaming the phrases or why my mind kept repeating these phrases.

Monday was a pretty casual day, nothing to really seize. Tuesday was my birthday and I took full advantage of seizing the day by kind of rebelling against working, only to make up for it Wednesday.

I had been thinking of my story, Imogene and now wonder if this phrase "carpe diem" or "seize the day" was meant for my main character, Sarah Beth. She is definitely on a quest and every moment is crucial to finding her daughter, Imogene, so maybe she needs to seize a certain day in her quest and make the absolute most of it.

When you here the term 'carpe diem', what do you think of? Do you seize the moment or day and make the most of every minute? Do you kind of not think about it? Is this is a familiar phrase or had you not heard of it before today? Leave a comment and let me know how you tend to carpe diem.

As part of my 50-day birthday giveaway blitz, I will give one lucky person a signed copy of my first ever written story, "Train of Clues" (a mystery destination story). Just leave a comment and a valid emaiil or some way to for me to contact you if you are the winner. See you all in the postings. E :)

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Deadlines

When you are published through a publisher, you are given deadlines in order to get your book out in a reasonable time frame. You have initial submission deadlines, editing deadlines, revision deadlines and final copy proof deadlines. What if you are self-published? Do you have the same deadlines? Only if you impose them on yourself and probably the deadlines you put on yourself will be quicker than the publisher's deadlines. After all, you want to publish as many books as you can within the calendar year.

When you put deadlines on yourself, sometimes it is harder to stick to them. This is probably true in that you don't feel as pressured if you miss a deadline. You just re-evaluate and say something on the lines of "Okay, I'll just shoot to have that book published by such-and-such date or written or ..." whatever it is you are needing to accomplish at that time.

This writer has set several deadlines for herself and yet hasn't met a good many of them. I'm struggling to really stay on task and keep interest in my writing projects. I don't know if it is just life in general, I've written one novel and am basically satisfied with that, or what, but I need a serious kick in the pants. I need to get back on track as I have several state books in my JGDS series to write; I've got some short stories to put out and have this new novel I thought would be interesting, although after realizing how much research is needed the novel may not be a pressing matter. Four months ago when I stumbled upon the interactive creative writing prompt site, I was inspired by several of the pictures on the site that I wrote out three pages without a problem. Then I had to think about who my characters really are, what their ties to China were, and why they had originally gone to China for a vacation in a time when the US-Chinese relations were not at their best.

I thought when I first started that I could probably write the story and then go back and do all the research and what not but because my story is dated, I found it hard to really write much after the first three pages. I've written a couple of scenes and a prologue, which will probably disappear once the story is completed, but at the time, it was necessary to write it to hopefully lead me in the right direction.

I had set a deadline to have the story written and revised by November so that I could hopefully publish it the first part of 2013. Will I meet this deadline? Probably not. I've got a lot going on and haven't written anything on the story since March.

I also set a deadline to put three more state stories out this year, but again, I've not even written them so I'll have to take the bull by the horns and immerse myself in the writing of the stories. Not meeting deadlines only confirms that I am not disciplined enough to work for myself.

So what is the solution?
- Write everything down on a calendar or some place visible so you are reminded every day.
- Keep a daily to-do list. Cross things off once they are accomplished.
- Start small and don't try to do everything at once.
- Limit your bigger projects to one a week or every couple of weeks or whatever time it takes you to complete the task at hand.
- Break said bigger projects into smaller ones so you do feel like you are acomplishing something.
- Do everything you can to meet your deadlines. If you have a setback, try to regroup and work that much harder to make the next imposed deadline.
- Set your priorities.

What are you doing to keep your self-imposed deadlines?

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Ms. Eldering is the award winning author of the Junior Geography Detective Squad (JGDS), 50-state, mystery, trivia series. Her stories "Train of Clues", "The Proposal" (available as an ebook), "Tulip Kiss" (available as an ebook), and "Butterfly Halves", all placed first, second, or runner up in various contests to include two for Armchair Interviews and two for Echelon Press (Fast and ... themed type contests). Her story "Bride-and-Seek" (available as an ebook) was selected for the South Carolina Writers' Workshop (SCWW) anthology, the Petigru Review. Ms. Eldering makes her home in upper state South Carolina and loves to travel, read, cross stitch and crochet. When she's not busy with teenaged children still at home, working her full-time job as a medical transcriptionist or participating in virtual classroom visits, she can be found at various homeschool or book events promoting her writing.

For more information about the JGDS series, please visit the JGDS blog or the JGDS website

For more information about Elysabeth's other writings, please visit her general writing and family blog or her website

Earth Day 2012

We've been celebrating earth day for quite a while now. The motto has always been reduce, reuse, and recycle. All very good advice. In honor of earth day 2012, I kept thinking to myself, how could I reduce using trees in my book marketing endeavors, and the idea came to me. Instead of passing out paper bookmarks (which I still do, but my bookmarks are multi-factorial in that they serve as my business card as well as a bookmark) for giveaways on my blog or anywhere else I am a member, why not use yarn bookmarks (my bookworm bookmarks are perfect for this).

I know I'm not recycling the yarn but they are reusable and do reduce the paper floating out around there.

So, in honor of earth day, I decided to do a drawing between now and 22nd, the actual date of earth day, both on this blog and my blog. The drawings will be an Earthworm (Woodsy) bookworm bookmark.

How to be entered in the drawings: (possibly between 17 and 20 bookworms to be given away)

1. Leave a comment on this blog from the 12th through the 22nd to be entered in the drawing. There are 11 scheduled blog postings between the 12th and 22nd, so that will be 11 drawings from comments on this blog. Each day's comments one winner will be randomly picked.
2. Leave a comment on my blog on any of the scheduled postings between the 122th and 22nd and you will be placed in the drawing. There are six scheduled posting plus a possible 2 or 3 unscheduled postings during that time frame. This means you need to stop by my blog every day to see if a new posting is up and leave a comment.
3. Leave you email addy in the comment in the format of eeldering (at) gmail (dot) com so if you are the winner you can be contacted so I can send out your bookworm.

Winners will be announced in the comment section after the winner has been contacted.


Simple to be entered, and remember if you don't win that day's drawing, there is always the next day or the day after that through the 22nd. If you are interested in the bookworms for gifts or if you don't win one, they are available on both my personal author website and my JGDS series website under the gifts tab. They are only $1.50 each plus shipping (anywhere in the United States). See you all in the postings - E :)

Square credit card reader

Do you do a lot of in-person events? If you do any events where you sell your own books (not like a book signing where you sell on consignment or the bookstore actually does the selling of the books) and you aren't taking credit cards at said events, why not?

Did you know you could get a free device that reads credit cards and is connected to your checking account? It's called Square. You can sign up for a free account and receive a free card reader here. What does it cost to use? Just 2.75% of the charge when you swipe a card, which basically comes out to 3 cents on the dollar being taken out before you receive your money. You can also manually key in a credit card number but the percentage is higher - 3.75% plus 25 cents for each transaction. The pay out is the next day. The other device you will need to use the card reader is an iphone, ipod touch, ipad, smartphone or any android based type device that the Square app can be downloaded to and need to be in an wifi area.

This was a big issue for me when I was at the Savannah Children's Book Festival in November; a lot of people asked if I took credit cards or stated they didn't have any cash on them. I've had my Square since last summer but haven't had a device to use the card reader on until last month. My daughter got a new Pantech Crossover phone through AT&T and it has an Android 2.3 OS and she was able to load the Square app and we tested my Square out and I now have the capability of taking credit cards at my events. So now, until I can afford a device of my own, when I have an event, I will have to borrow her phone for the purpose of taking credit cards (not into using her phone for phone purposes). Each Square is programmed to your account only. Do I feel safe using it? Yes. Am I worried someone might keep swiping cards and trying to take my money? Not really. I get notices when the card reader has been used and if there is a dispute on a charge from a customer and I can refund the charges, I don't feel fraud or identity theft is a problem. I can't wait to put my sign up for display at my first event of 2012, Geofest, February 18.

For more information, check out the Square here. May you have lots of sales at your in-person events. - See you all in the postings - E :)

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Elysabeth Eldering
Author of Finally Home, a YA paranormal mystery
"The Proposal" (an April Fools Day story), a humorous romance ebook
"The Tulip Kiss", a paranormal romance ebook
"Bride-and-Seek", a paranormal romance ebook
"Butterfly Halves", a YA fantasy ebook
http://elysabethsstories.blogspot.com
http://eeldering.weebly.com

Ma America, The Travelin' Maven
Author of the JGDS, 50-state, mystery, trivia series and "Train of Clues" (a mystery destination story and predecessor to the JGDS series)
Where will the adventure take you next?
http://jgdsseries.blogspot.com
http://jgdsseries.weebly.com

Kindlegraph

What is a kindlegraph?
by Elysabeth Eldering

According to the website, kindlegraphs are a way of making ebooks a little more personal. As an author, no matter what type of event we do, we usually sign our books and personalize them for the person buying the book. So what about those folks who don't have the opportunity to visit us in person at these events? How do they go about getting something e-autographed? Kindlegraph.

This is an easy-to-use site and is free to all authors and readers. All the instructions on how to set up your own author page are on the website. To explore the site, one does not need to sign in via their twitter account but to request a kindlegraph or to set up your own author page, you do need to sign in with your twitter account.

What does one need to list books on the site? A Twitter account, a valid email address and your books' AISNs or 10-digit ISBNs (AISNs are exclusively amazon's numbering system). Can one only list ebooks on kindlegraph? No. You only need your 10-digit ISBN to list any title you have available for sale.

Do readers need to have a kindle to receive kindlegraphs? No. As long as they have a twitter account and a valid email address, they can request and receive kindlegraphs from you. The kindlegraphs are PDFs sent to either a kindle email addy or a regular email addy as set up by the requester of the kindlegraph.

At the moment, Evan is working on making kindlegraphs available to other ereader systems but that is in the works. He has many changes and updates planned and is working on them as fast as he can. Evan used to work for amazon.com and felt something was needed to connect readers to authors when they are purchasing books other than directly from the author.

Why would an author want to promote kindlegraph? for this author, it is a way of trying to get in touch with readers and followers who purchase copies of my books from an online source and would like a personalized message and a signature of some sort. Technically they are electronic signatures and I haven't really signed anything, so I'm not concerned about others using these signatures to forge my name on any documents. I haven't had many online sales or requests for kindlegraphs but keep hoping that one of these days, I will have many requests. If you have purchased any of my state books from an online source or my YA paranormal mystery, Finally Home, or even my other ebooks available ("The Proposal" (an April Fools Day story), a humorous romance ebook; "Butterfly Halves", a YA fantasy ebook; "The Tulip Kiss", a paranormal romance ebook; or "Bride-and-Seek", a paranormal romance ebook) and would like a personalized e-signed message from me, please check out my kindlegraph page and request yours today.

Check out Elysabeth's blog for an upcoming Christmas special on three of her stories. The special is good only for the week of December 17th through December 24th. For any of the books available, please don't forget to stop by my kindlegraph page and request your free e-signature.

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Ms. Eldering is the award winning author of the Junior Geography Detective Squad (JGDS), 50-state, mystery, trivia series. Her stories "Train of Clues" (shared 2nd place story), "The Proposal" (third place winning story, now available as an ebook), "Tulip Kiss" (1st place winning story, now available as an ebook), and "Butterfly Halves" (runner up, now available as an ebook) all placed first, second, or runner up in various contests to include two for Armchair Interviews and two for Echelon Press (Fast and ... themed type contests). Her story "Bride-and-Seek" (now available as an ebook) was selected for the South Carolina Writers' Workshop (SCWW) anthology, the Petigru Review. Ms. Eldering makes her home in upper state South Carolina and loves to travel, read, cross stitch and crochet. When she's not busy with teenaged children still living at home, she can be found at various homeschool or book events promoting her state series and her YA paranormal mystery, Finally Home.

For more information about the JGDS series, please visit the JGDS blog or the JGDS website.

For more information about Elysabeth's other writings, please visit her general writing and family blog or her website.

BSP - Finally Home cover available

Thanks to Heather Paye, illustrator, book layouter and cover designer extraordinaire, I have a cover for my YA paranormal mystery (front cover at least), Finally Home. Check out my blog for the cover and leave a comment to let Heather know what you think of it.

BOOK DETAILS:

Back blurb: It isn't just history against progress - it's daughter against father, or is it? Find out what secrets Kelly learns as she works to preserve an historic house in a small town that will help her bring her father Finally Home.

Final book should be between 200 and 250 pages. It will be self-published using createspace as well as in all ebook formats (kindle, nook and smashwords). Release date is tentatively around the 25th or so of October.

Elysabeth's bio: Ms. Eldering is the award winning author of the Junior Geography Detective Squad (JGDS), 50-state, mystery, trivia series. Her stories "Train of Clues" (to be re-released in the near future), "The Proposal" (no longer available in print), "Tulip Kiss" (no longer available in print), and "Butterfly Halves" (no longer available in print) all placed first, second, or runner up in various contests to include two for Armchair Interviews and two for Echelon Press (Fast and .... themed type contests). Her story "Bride-and-Seek" (also no longer available in print) was selected for the South Carolina Writers' Workshop (SCWW) anthology, the Petigru Review. Ms. Eldering makes her home in upper state South Carolina and loves to travel, cross stitch and crochet. When she's not busy with teenaged children still at home, she can be found at various homeschool or book events promoting her state series and soon to be YA paranormal mystery. For more information about the JGDS series, please visit the JGDS blog or the JGDS website. For more information about Elysabeth's other writings, please visit her general writing and family blog or her website.

Preparing to Present

Curriculum fairs, teachers' conferences, librarians' conferences and other similar events are great ways to get yourself known by offering workshops and being an exhibitor. Who better to show what you know and get your books in the right hands than this group of folks.

I've been working on my children's workshops for about three years now. What happens when a conference geared for teachers and school librarians asks you to do a presentation? You rack your brain and try like crazy to come up with a workshop that works.

Recently I made contact with the SC Independent Schools Association (SCISA) inquiring about being an exhibitor at the upcoming teachers' conference. After explaining what my books were about and how they would be perfect in schools and/or classes, the lady on the other end of the phone stated, "We would love to have you as a presenter in addition to being an exhibitor." My reply? It was something on the lines of "Well, I usually do workshops for kids and don't really feel I have anythng to offer teachers." No, it doesn't end there. She assured me that teachers love having authors do presentations since they are always looking for creative ways to teach the students writing. So I thought about it a few minutes (or maybe it was an hour or two) and then went on one of my social networks and posted a comment something like this Elysabeth42 wonders what she has to offer teachers when she is but a writer herself?. The replies I received from the teachers in my network were amazing. That one plurk (like twitter but to me much more enjoyable and easier to follow the postings) went on my FB page as well as my twitter page. I received a direct comment from a twitter follower @SCASL about doing presentations for librarians as well. So, now I'm in the process of coming up with workshops or presentations geared for librarians and teachers.

The process will take a little time for me since I have to switch my mindset. I know what I have to offer but it's a matter of putting it into action.

I also may be doing a short presentation to a group of teachers at a curriculum fair but right now that isn't definite.

My question to all those writers who do workshops for groups of adults is what is your process? What kind of workshops have worked for you in the past? Do you do the same workshops at every opportunity you are asked to present or do you switch them out every so often? How do you go about getting the opportunities to be a presenter? I think I will come up with several different workshops geared for different groups - one or two for teachers and one or two for librarians - but on similar lines. This way, if I present to groups in the same area and there are some repeat people, they won't be bored.

Remember, it is all about making the right connections - the ones who will benefit from your books, and the ones who have the buying power to make sure your books get in the right places. - E :)

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Ma America, The Travelin' Maven (Elysabeth Eldering)
Author of the JGDS, 50-state, mystery, trivia series
Where will the adventure take you next?
http://jgdsseries.blogspot.com
http://jgdsseries.weebly.com

Author of "Finally Home", a YA paranormal mystery coming soon
http://elysabethsstories.blogspot.com
http://eeldering.weebly.com

About Elysabeth:
Elysabeth Eldering is a traveler from birth. She has traveled with her family due to her father being in the military. She has lived in several states and overseas during her childhood. Ms. Eldering calls South Carolina home these days with a mindset of "Southern by choice, not by birth." She entered her first writing contest at the age of 41 and took second place for a children's mystery story, which has inspired her to take that story and write a series for children, the premise being that each state would be the mystery. Her series has a Jeopardy!® like style to it but for guessing the state in the form of a question. Each book concentrates on one state and there are supplemental study guides available, which take the series cross curriculum. For more information on the series, please visit the JGDS website. Elysabeth may be reached at eeldering@gmail.com with any questions or to place an order.