2014 Kindle Book Promos FIRST PLACE WINNER: YA/Historic/Russian
FINALIST in the 2014 READERS’ FAVORITE INTERNATIONAL AWARDS
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #50,380 Paid in Kindle Store
- #15 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Historical Fiction > Russian
Scattered Links
By Michelle Weidenbenner
4.7 rating on 91 reviews
On Kindle $3.99
Meet the Author
Teaching and encouraging teen and adult writers how to get published. Author of CACHE a PREDATOR and SCATTERED LINKS. Tennis junky.
Her Blog: Random Writing Rants
Talking Shop: Publishing,
Marketing and Writing
Publishing:
Q. What has been the most challenging part of publishing for you?
A. The oops editing—making sure there are no typos or missed quotation marks. Even though I hire several different editors there are still little mistakes.
Q. Why did you decide to publish your work?
A. I’m an entrepreneur spirit with a degree in business. I’ve waited ten years to publish my first novel. I spent a few years learning the industry and decided to go it alone. I had a wonderful agent, but that didn’t help me find a publisher so I knew it was time to self-publish. I’ve never regretted my decision. My mother always taught us to go out and get what we want. After all, this is America.
Marketing:
Q. What has worked best for you?
A. I chose to go KDP Select from the get-go because it was simpler for this tech-tard (me) to learn, and Amazon has never let me down. I’ve done many things right, but it’s hit or miss. I did a Goodreads giveaway, a book promotional tour, and a sale every 90 days to keep my books in front of others. I also placed ads with BOOKBUB and wrote to bloggers who are also passionate about my topics, asking them to read and endorse my book. They have and it helps! It’s been fun and a great way to meet others who share the same passion.
Q. What type of online marketing have you tried with success?
A. It’s a combo of sorts and varies every time.
Q. What has been the biggest challenge for you?
A. Finding the time to organize the marketing is a challenge and a detour from my writing. I need a virtual assistant, but I can’t warrant the expense yet. So I pay my 18 year-old daughter to help me when I get really bogged down. My first novel is a geocaching mystery so I came up with a great marketing plan to plant my novel in cache sites and give it a goal—for each book to travel to all 50 states. It’s been a huge endeavor, a real time-suck, but with my daughter’s help I’ve been able to get the books out across the US and Canada. (Just this week!)
Writing:
Q. What inspired you to write your story?
A. I have two published novels, but SCATTERED LINKS was inspired by my trip to Russia to adopt my daughter. I’m very pro-adoption, but there are problems that can arise from adopting a post-institutionalized child, foster child, or any child, and I wanted to show this problem in my novel. It’s a disorder called Reactive Attachment Disorder, or RAD. It’s when a child has difficulty bonding with another person.
Q. Tell us about your writing process, do you write plot first and then add characters or do you develop your characters first? Do you have any quirks when writing like you have to have one cup of coffee first or you can’t write until the first paragraph is written … ect.?
A. I like to have an idea of where I’m going so I loosely outline the novel. I like to know my characters, the inciting incident, the goals, the quest, the black moment and how I want it to end. It sounds simple, but it’s not. At all! Sometimes it’s far easier to spend lots of time researching and building a Pinterest board of characters than it is to write the actual story. My hubby just got me a desk treadmill. Do you know what that is? It’s a desk above the treadmill. It helps with creativity and flushing the story out without stopping. Yes, it takes a little bit of skill, but I love a challenge and have seemed to overcome the “learning” curve of walking and typing at the same time.
Q. What do you want readers to get out of your story?
A. I’d like readers to be entertained and moved to an emotion, but I’d also like them to attain an awareness about RAD because it’s in our country. Some parents are rehoming their adopted children because the kids have RAD and are too difficult to raise. It’s sad.
Q. What has been the most rewarding part of your writing adventure?
A. The most rewarding part of all of this is meeting readers and other authors. I love what I do. I can’t wait to get up in the morning to write and connect with my writing friends. I’m blessed to be working in a profession I love. I don’t take that for granted. I thank God every day.