Author: P.S. Bartlett

I took part in the NaNoWriMo event in 2012, and completing that crazy, epic sprint to the end taught me more than I expected about the job of writing. First and foremost is the daily word quota. The more you fall behind, the less chance you have of catching up, and writing just under 1 700 words a day seems daunting. The thing is, that most of us write more words than that every day without thinking about it. We blog, we interview, we write bits of our works in process. It’s absolutely doable though.

The beauty of the NaNo is that you get to leave chunks out. You just pop over anything you’re not sure of and write on, because editing during NaNo is death. The urge to go back and at least read over what I’d written so far nearly took me out, but I knew that if…

I know that this is a drum much beaten, but there really is no better way of showing your support for an author than by leaving a review.

As the indie writing culture continues to develop, and strengthen its place in the writing structure (and in the term Indie I include self published writers, for the sake of not having to write it individually every time), the importance of effective advertising is becoming even more evident.

A lot of writers, myself included, do not have a big budget to operate on. Personally speaking, I don’t even have the disposable income to run a $5 Facebook promotion without seriously having to rebudget the family groceries for the week ahead.

Using Facebook groups and blogs is good. Social Media is a growing beast and has a reach that offers more than enough potential readers to justify the free postings and link shouts…

Normally I would do a Thowback Thursday, but I think that series may be played out. Plus, today I’m flailing hard over the Avengers Age of Ultron trailer (JAMES SPADER’S VOICE YA’LL), which has inspired my topic today.

This will be short, as it’s not a topic I’m widely versed in. I’ve seen book trailers on occasion, usually put out for mass market and commercial fiction. I’ve seen a few of James Patterson’s and Stephen King’s book trailers grace my television screen, but most I’ve encountered have been online. Sherrilyn Kenyon’s book trailers are often ads shown before YouTube videos. Eoin Colfer used to upload book trailers for his Artemis Fowl series, which was especially strange as his target audience was 8-13 year olds.

I think they’re a cool concept. If I was an indie author, I would 100% do a book trailer, as I’d need all the marketing I can get. I’ve actually made…

Two and half years ago, I was walking on a treadmill at the gym and a memory came to me of how I’d always wanted to write a book.

I’ve been very busy for the past thirty or so years, so I suppose calling myself a late bloomer is appropriate. On this particular night, however, I felt something come over me as if I was possessed. I’m not sure what triggered it or whether the thought came from somewhere internally or I saw or heard something that brought it to the surface. All I knew was I had a story to tell. I didn’t know it then but apparently, I had many stories to tell. Here I am three published stories later with no end in sight—thank goodness.

Here’s how it all started.

In February of 2012, my life was a lot different than it is right now. My son…