Tag: Publish and Thrive

Posted in event, News, promo, writing inspiration, Writing tips

Publish and Thrive

Posted on by Sherri

As an indie author it is sometimes difficult to take a leap of faith and spend money on ourselves and our careers, especially when we have a limited budget. We tell ourselves it’s a dream or hobby and it’s difficult to believe it’ll ever be anything more.

I put off taking Sarra’s class for a couple of years because I was afraid. I was afraid I wouldn’t be good enough, that spending the money would be a waste of time. That I would never be a success. But learning to believe in myself, is one of the greatest gifts I received from taking Sarra’s classes. Sarra’s Publish and Thrive gave me the tools I needed to build my career and I learned to trust myself with my publishing future.

A brand new round of Publish and Thrive is coming up, starting on July 30th. I know y’all have heard me talk about my adoration for Sarra Cannon and her program. Sarra is a “Feel Good” person. Even on her YouTube channel you see her shining spirit. She does her best to lift up her students and followers. Sometimes I listen to her videos on repeat just to lift my mood.

As a Publish and Thrive student alumni Sarra’s classes are available to me for a lifetime. I can re-take the program whenever she offers it, even when she makes changes like this year. There is so much to learn and do as an indie author, it’s not just about writing a great novel. Sarra helps her students navigate the immense challenges of planning, publishing and marketing our books. She is available for questions and we often learn from each other during the question and answer sessions, and the Facebook group.

Sarra is rerecording the lessons and adding some new features. I can hardly wait to see what she has planned for us. While I am more of a pantser than an outliner, but thanks to Sarra’s programs I’ve learned to plan both my stories and my jobs to be done.

PUBLISH AND THRIVE:

  • $399 Pay in Full
  • $75/ month for 6 months
  • $38/month for 12 months

THRIVING AUTHOR BUNDLE:

  • $499 Pay in Full
  • $90/month for 6 months
  • $45/month for 12 months

The course begins with a live kick off call on Saturday, July 30th at 2PM Eastern.

The course has been extended to 6 weeks, so our final live Q&A will take place September 10th.

HB90 will start that following Sunday on September 11th.

Publish and Thrive
Posted in event, News, Writing tips

Just one Author

Posted on by Sherri
https://heartbreathings.teachable.com/p/publish-and-thrive/?affcode=145068_lea8l-18

If you can touch one life, make a difference for one person then you have led a successful life. I am just one author who has benefited from following Sarra Cannon’s Heart Breathing YouTube channel. I fell in love with her honesty, her openness and her willingness to share the bad as well as the good parts of being a published author. As an indie author, we have to be our own boss, manage our own business, do everything from plan the stories to marketing our books and making sure all the bills get paid. It can be overwhelming. That’s why I am so glad Sarra offers her Publish and Thrive Course. As an alumni, I can take the course for free anytime she offers it. The next round begins Monday, February 7th and I’m going to be front and center. Sarra has some new things she wants to share and I am so excited.

https://heartbreathings.teachable.com/p/publish-and-thrive/?affcode=145068_lea8l-18

I understand that $399 is a huge investment. Sarra allows students to break the payments down in a couple of ways, $75 a month for 6 months or $38 a month for 12. If you can’t afford to take Publish and Thrive at this time, believe me, I understand. I’ve raised six sons and had to do some creative bookkeeping to make ends meet. Check out Sarra’s YouTube channel https://youtu.be/7vMuLBV-TIU

I have been following Sarra’s YouTube channel for several years. It wasn’t until I met her in person at a Heart of Carolina Writers’ Conference that I got brave enough to take a chance on myself. That is what this investment is, it’s about believing in yourself, your craft and doing whatever you can to be the best you can be. I am so thankful for this program and for the chance to take a refresher. There is so much I need to learn, re-learn, be reminded of, and I’ll be honest with working full time, sometimes I have to make a choice on what I’m focusing on this time. Each time I feel like I’ve gain another piece of the puzzle.

Check out her website https://sarracannon.com/

Sarra has touched so many lives, both readers who enjoy her books and authors who have learned from her courses and channel.

https://heartbreathings.teachable.com/p/publish-and-thrive/?affcode=145068_lea8l-18

Posted in writing inspiration, Writing tips

Following Other Authors into the Abyss

Posted on by Sherri

I am a HUGE advocate of studying writing craft books, listening to author interviews, and writing advice videos and podcasts. I take a lot of online classes in a variety of subjects to improve my writing. One of my pet peeves, the thing that will make me so angry, is when an author tells me their way, is the ONLY way to write! Now, I am hardly a genius or even a bestselling author but Neil Gaiman, who is a story telling god, said during an interview at the end of his ten-year anniversary edition of American Gods (paraphrased) that he told his friend and fellow author, he’d finally learned to write a novel, but his friend said, no, you’ve learned to write this novel.

Indie author Michael La Ronn whom I discovered via YouTube, tells of writing his novels using several different methods. He even rates the methods on one of his videos. Like Mr. La Ronn I have tried different techniques, some with more success than others. But the truth is, you have to find what works for you or what works for this book.

https://youtu.be/ttGB2uHnvw8

Every author has their own style, their own method of writing. Some writers have to plot out every minute detail before they can start, but others prefer to discover the story as they write. They have to do what works for them or they cannot create. When I hear an author say you have to do this or that in order to write, I cringe. As a new writer, I wanted to learn to outline and plot my stories and do character analysis and diagram my stories so I could give readers a better story. BUT that didn’t work for me. That is not to say I did not learn important information in those classes, books and programs. I learned what works for me and what didn’t. I learned to adapt things to fit my needs and that is the key point I’m trying to make. Do take the classes, do read and learn from other authors but do not feel that you have to do things exactly as they have done in order to write a great novel and be a success.

One of my favorite authors to follow and listen to is Sarra Cannon. She is the author of several young adult series and new adult books, her most famous ya series, Beautiful Demons has sold over a million copies and her Heart Breathings YouTube channel has over forty thousand followers. She teaches a course called Publish and Thrive which is an amazing program for any writer but especially if you are an indie or hybrid author. While her method of writing, which requires a lot of planning, outlining and then post writing discovery, which I admit I don’t always use, but it has taught me what to look for to be sure my story is complete. I have learned to adapt many of her ideas in a way that best works with my style of writing. I truly love Sarra’s way of teaching because she doesn’t say her way is the only way.

https://youtu.be/CWoaqnMdgrY

I’m on this soap box because of a recent book I purchased for a program, Lisa Cron’s Story Genius. Now, not to completely bash Ms. Cron, I loved her Wired for Story, and there was much in Story Genius I also thought was well, genius but when anyone deals in absolutes, I get a little antsy. I was angered by what the author had to say about pantsers and especially what we do not do our due diligence which results in our failure. As a pantser, or now I might admit to being more of a plantser, as I do plan some of the details of my stories prior to writing. And while I’m not a famous author with several best sellers under my belt, but Mr. Lee Child is, and he is also a pantser. Like me, Mr. Child likes to discover the details of the story along with the reader. To plot or outline it in advance would kill the joy.

While I disliked much of what this author had to say in her how to guide to be a better storyteller, it was her lack of respect for other methods that truly angered me. Do not get me wrong, the author has some valid points. I kept reading because I could glean some nuggets of genius from her book but at one point, I became angry enough to return the book and demand my money back. I don’t do that. I have even tried to go back through the book and to see if I was just being too sensitive or over critical but when I started reading the second time, I got mad much sooner. This is one of the caveats I believe we as writers need to be aware of, even well-meaning people can crush your spirit and derail your efforts if you allow them to. Had I read this book when I first started writing seriously, it would have kept me from publishing. My self-esteem was so fragile that I would have felt trapped and unable to write.

To those authors who wish to share their hard learned knowledge with other writers, I ask that you remember not everyone processes information the same way nor do we produce in the same manner. Be careful of stifling creativity in your desire to show authors a new and better way to write. I will leave both the newbie writer and the master with this, thank you for your inspiration, your words on the page for they fill my dreams with possibilities and hope.

Posted in quarterly goals, Thoughts

My Pep Talk to Myself

Posted on by Sherri

The emotional ups and downs of being an author don’t always follow the pattern of our books’ success and failure. Too often, it is the low that comes after a super high, only to plummet back to reality.

As I look back at the month of August and what I’ve accomplished and haven’t accomplished, I find myself fighting melancholy. Why? A two-star review on Goodreads for Janie’s Secrets, not making the finals in Kindle Book Review Awards for Red Steel, feeling like I don’t have the time to do everything I need to do or want to do. I worked very hard to write a novella for the Heart of Carolina’s upcoming anthology only to realize I didn’t have time to finish it. Failure is crushing even when it is self-inflicted failure.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084LX1D1P

But I should be doing somersaults after all I have accomplished this month. Chrome Pink made it into the Amazon Top 100 Kindle Free Books. It finished #34 on Sunday, August 30th after a Free Booksy Ad. It also reached #3 in Romantic Suspense and #4 in Suspense. Over 2000 books were down loaded on Sunday and that doesn’t even count the books I sold or the ones down loaded on other sites. I should be sailing in the clouds but I allowed a bad review, not even a really bad review but a 2-star rating, crush me. Why? Because I’m human. I can tell you I’m tired, I put my heart into my stories, they’re like my children, I want people to like me/them. The truth is not everyone is going to like my stories. Not everyone is going to like me.

I’m not alone in my emotional roller coaster, many authors, especially indie authors feel the same way I do. Author Sarra Cannon, whom I follow on YouTube with her Heart Breathing Channel and whose courses, Publish and Thrive and her HB90 changed my life, speaks of mental health and well-being in her videos. We often put too much on our plates and expect to be able to perform well, but like the juggler with his chainsaws that last addition can be catastrophic.

In Sarra’s HB90 course she talks of planning quarterly, 90-day increments and even breaking those down into monthly expectations. Sitting down with a planner, thinking of what I have to do, want to do and need to do. How much time things will take and how much time I will actually have to devote to the tasks amid life, work and family. Allowing time to sleep, eat and maybe even cuddle with my husband.

https://www.youtube.com/c/SarraCannon

I really have no reason to feel down. I know much of what I’m feeling stems from fear, exhaustion and coming off the high of other successes. For those of you who fear this might be a whining session and wish to tune out, it’s not, this is my pep talk to myself and to anyone else who is happy when they see one sale a day or are thrilled when their free book gets 100 downloads. I keep telling myself I’ve only been published three years. I have six books, seven if you count my trilogy of the first three books I just released, plus I have novellas in several anthologies. I’ve come a long way in a short time. Even though I’ve been writing for over forty years, I’ve only started writing to publish in the past fifteen years with a couple of years off after losing our house and my father. We had a couple of really rough years.

So, what do I have to whine about? Nothing. I should be celebrating. I have had over 300 new subscribers to my newsletter, that is both exciting and terrifying. I thought, how can I keep these people interested? What hoops will I have to jump through to keep them? But then I thought of the ones who have been with me all along the way. My steadfast friends who read everything I write good and bad, who offer opinions and assistance, and I realized, I just need to be real. I just need to be me. Yes, I’ll lose some people but that’s okay. Some will come for the free book, some will stay a while and go, others will be here for the duration. I just need to be the best me I can be for that is all I can be. That’s all any of us can be.

I know putting my books out into the world for other people to read means some won’t like it, but some will. Channeling Sarra Cannon again, I’m going to write from my place of joy. I’m going to write the books that I feel compelled to write and hope they will appeal to readers. It is time to get back to work on Roxy’s Secret.

For those of you who received my newsletter, I sent the first few pages of the novella I was writing for the Heart of Carolina anthology. I didn’t get to finish it and I’m starting to think it might be a full-length novel. I think I might try a stand-alone novel once Roxy is wrapped up. Maybe I can tie it into my other stories. I’ll have to think about it.

My goals for August: Promote Janie’s Secrets, I’m still working on it. Start Roxy’s Betrayal, I’ve started but I’ve not made the progress I’d hoped. Increase Newsletter subscriptions, okay this has tripled thanks to Bookfunnel. Janie is free in a Bookfunnel promo this month, https://books.bookfunnel.com/weloveromancegiveaway/ao2jdazxop.

Janie’s Secret is also in a Cover of the Month contest on All Author, https://allauthor.com/cover-of-the-month/9385/  I’d appreciate your vote.

Janie’s Secrets is also in a Book Tour on Instagram and Facebook, through September 6th. I’d appreciate your support.

https://www.instagram.com/bed.and.books/

I still need to learn more about Publisher’s Rocket but I’m tackling it in small bites.

One other thing I accomplished this month I’ve been wanting to do for a while was to combine the first three books of the Leeward Files into one book. It’s only on sale for a little while longer.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08FHGPKLL

I haven’t even planned what I’m going to try to accomplish in September but we’re going to do some great things: #1 write Roxy’s Betrayal. I’ll figure out the rest but that’s the most important.

I hope my whine, rant, pep talk has helped someone else. The truth is some days this is my dream job and other days it’s a nightmare. Sometimes it’s all on the same day.

Posted in Uncategorized

Sarra Cannon’s Publish and Thrive Course

Posted on by Sherri
https://heartbreathings.teachable.com/p/publish-and-thrive/?affcode=145068_lea8l-18

I’m an alumni of Sarra’s Publish and Thrive Course and a huge fan of her Heart Breathing YouTube Channel. If you are an unpublished author or one who has yet to reach their full potential, you will benefit from taking this program. I did!

The price of the course for this round is $399 if you pay in full. Sarra is also offering a 6-month payment plan of $75/month. It’s worth it! I have learned so much from this program and from following Sarra on YouTube.

I have become an affiliate of Sarra’s Publish and Thrive. If you sign up using my link I’ll be rewarded but if you have been following me on social media you know how much I love Sarra and her methods. I would promote this course with or without the reward.

Sarra Cannon has such an uplifting spirit. She teaches the course in such a way that you will be inspired and I guarantee you will learn something! I wish I’d taken her classes before publishing my first book but even if you have already published and made mistakes, she can help you fix them. Thank goodness!

Since taking Sarra’s course I have increased my sales. I will be auditing the course in August to refresh my thoughts and because I can. Some of the great things about taking this course: Sarra, the Publish and Thrive Facebook group, and the alumni group. Once you take Sarra’s programs, you have the freedom to view the videos at anytime or you will be invited to sit in on the newest version of the course at no extra cost. You get a lifetime of Sarra and Publish and Thrive! Ne do the math!

The course begins with Module 1 on Monday, August 10th, and will run until Friday, September 11th.

The HB90 will start that following Sunday on September 13th. I also took that program and for someone as unorganized as me, that was a major eye-opener!

My Affiliate Link: https://heartbreathings.teachable.com/p/publish-and-thrive/?affcode=145068_lea8l-18

Students also have the option to bundle Publish And Thrive with HB90 in September for a rate of $499 or a payment plan of $90/month for 6 months.

Posted in inspiration, Thoughts

Celebrating Small Accomplishments

Posted on by Sherri

My First Quarter Goals

January 2020 started with a lot of promise and hope. I am still trying to hang onto that feeling. It is not easy during this time of Covid-19 to keep up that optimistic spirit. Like many of you, I am still working and though there are safety measures in place, I don’t have a lot of faith in them. It is nearly impossible to protect ourselves 100% from the virus if we are out in the public, but are we, or am I making myself crazy worrying about something that may never be a problem for me or won’t be that bad if it is. I am trying to be cautious and smart but I’m also just trying to live each day. I have allowed myself to get overwhelmed and overwrought, it is time to take back control. Today, I’m celebrating each new milestone I have made in my writerly journey. So, join with me and celebrate your journey too. Tell me what this quarter has brought you. What did you do? Big or small, it is important to celebrate each day and each accomplishment.

Ad came out just as everything was closing for quarantine!

One of the greatest things I did this quarter was take Sarra Cannon’s Publish and Thrive Course. I wish I had taken it sooner. This was an awesome program for indie authors. Even after publishing five books, there is still so much I needed to learn. After her Publish and Thrive Course, I decided to take her HB90 Bootcamp. Now this program isn’t just for authors, it is for anyone trying to get organized, but it does have a strong focus on authors because Sarra is an author too. She only offers these programs a couple of times a year but once you sign up for the program you can sit in whenever she is giving the course. She sends updates to her previous students and she gives free video lessons on YouTube or you can check out her website http://www.sarracannon.com. I know, I sound like an ad for Sarra Cannon and perhaps I am. Sarra is such an uplifting person, listening to her YouTube videos has been a great help to me during this pandemic scare. If you are looking for a great YA story, check out her The Witch’s Key videos, she has been doing live all month.

My notebook for Publish & Thrive

In Sarra’s Publish and Thrive Course she suggested authors have a newsletter to stay connected to their readers. As we have recently seen Facebook and Amazon do little to help us reach our readers and keep them informed. I started out with three people receiving my newsletter. My first official newsletter for April had 15 (two of those myself), and I have now increased it to 22 real followers. Nine of those in the last month. Thank you for supporting my efforts and I hope you like the new short story I wrote just for you.

While I have been struggling to write the new story (not because I don’t know what happens but because I am exhausted and just have no energy to write), I am happy to share some of Mike and Janie’s back story. It was fun to go back in time and write about how their romance started and tanked. I plan to use some of this in the novel but for those of you who signed up for the newsletter, you have all of the details.

writing Mike and Janie’s romance both past and present

Another part of the struggle is I have three stories planned and as a pantser I’m having to plan or plot my stories because it is too much to do in my head. I want to weave these three together and it feels like I am trying to unknot a necklace chain with low light. I know how to untangle it if I could just get a hold of it. I do have about 20K of this new novel written, that is probably a third of it. So, I am hopeful I can finish it this month. I just need to focus.

My HB90 Board

There is so much to learn when you are an indie author. After five books I still feel I do not know how to market or promote myself and my books well. I am constantly searching for ideas that will work and not cost a fortune. Those of you who repost my book promos and post reviews on my Facebook page, Amazon, Bookbubs or Goodreads, thank you. Your efforts do more to help me than anything I can pay for. I still believe that word-of-mouth advertising is the best advertising there is. Thank you for supporting my dream.

home for lunch, I can’t believe I won

Many of you saw where I won The Heart of Carolina RWA’s Christine Hyatt Service Award. When I opened my box and read the letter, I cried. The award is for my work as moderator or as I call it, host of the Book in a Week challenge. This is a monthly writing challenge where participants set their own writing goals and we try to encourage each other to achieve it. We are mostly a group of women, with an occasional brave man joining us. We share our triumphs and our challenges. While I try to be cheerful and encouraging, I know there are times I drop the ball. When I do, there is someone else who takes up the slack. I couldn’t do this every month without the rest of the group. Some months there are only a few of us and others we fill the board, but many who aren’t even participating still take the time to cheer the rest onward. Being a part of this group has allowed me to reach my own writing goals.

Before I end this celebration, I want to thank the handsome firefighters and EMTs who recently bought my book, Red Steel. The book was a love story to the men and women who volunteer. I admire our local fire and rescue station. They were there for my family when we lost our home to fire and when my father died. They are true heroes. When one of the young firefighters sent me back a message that he loved the book and wanted to read the rest of the series, I felt I had accomplished my goals. I’m celebrating today, not a million sales. I may only have a hundred or so, but that’s okay, because I love writing the books and you like reading them, so I’m calling it a win.

I appreciate your support!

Thank you all for celebrating with me as we close this quarter. I may not have reached all my goals but that’s okay, I still have plenty to be happy about. I hope you do too.

If you haven’t signed up for my newsletter please do, you do not want to miss Mike and Janie’s teen romance. If you have read my stories and you like them, please don’t forget to write a review, it makes a HUGE difference.

Newsletter button below!

https://mailchi.mp/25b327a3db97/httpssherrilhollistercom?fbclid=IwAR2hPuEhZq–scBNEXJjNgB2BNgqMjLa64yqq43LU2_yx-GO9nKPUo9Shpk

Posted in inspiration, my books, Thoughts

I am a dreamer…

Posted on by Sherri

I am a dreamer but I also believe in working for those dreams. Nothing happens without a little work-equity. I have been taking an online class to help me reach my goals of becoming a better author and entrepreneur. If you are a writer or a small business owner I suggest following Sarra Canon’s YouTube videos Heart Breathings or better yet, take her online author course, Publish and Thrive or her HB90 organization course designed to de-clutter your thoughts and help you focus on what is important. What do you truly desire? How can you make it real?

One of the first things Sarra tells us to do is to envision the life we want to have. She instructs us to build a vision board. Above is my dream for the future. Thought in truth, I already have the life I dreamed of. No, I haven’t got a movie deal and I still have to work my “paying” job, but I’m writing and I’m publishing my books.

There was a time not too long ago when I did not believe I would ever be a published author. I was terrified of self-publishing. With good reason, it is a lot of work, and truthfully, the burden of success or failure falls solely on your own shoulders. It is daunting at times. Once I became a published author, I’m no longer just a writer. I’m now a business owner. I am a book designer, book-formatter, cover designer, promoter, marketer, seller, and advertiser. Sometimes I have so many balls in the air I cannot even count them all.

Even after five books there is still so much I do not know. Oh my goodness, five books, really. Wow…I have to just stop and absorb this a minute. Five books. Before I published the first book, I’d written several books but I’d hidden them in spiral notebooks under my bed or in the bottom of my closet. In December of 2017, I published Chrome Pink. Less than two and half years ago I published my first book. Sometimes I feel like I’m moving at a snails pace. I want it all and I want it yesterday. In my haste I have made so many mistakes, some of them costly. Like many other indie writers, I juggle a real job, family and home along with everything that goes along with being a published author. Sometimes the learning curve is a little slower for my foggy old brain but I’m happy I’m still learning. I’m still moving forward. It maybe at the speed of a turtle but I’m still moving.

I appreciate all of you who have been with me since before the first book launched. You saw the seed and have watched it grow. Thanks to you guys, I still believe in the possibilities. I still believe that someday that vision board might come true. But whether I get the dreamed-for movie deal or sell a thousand books, no matter what happens, I’m thankful for the journey and for each of you who have been a part of this dream.

Thank you for your reviews.