No, it’s not a kiteboarding forum. Maybe that’s why it took me until now to join – even though I’ve seen references to it throughout my 2.5 years of blogging. Or maybe because it looks so huge and intimidating on the first glance…see for yourself.
Whatever the reason, I decided to join last Monday, during my procrastination/self-torture phase, when I was trying to decide on an editor for Indiot. True to myself, I went overboard, reading just about every post, creating a profile complete with my books in the signature, and creating book pages for Shizzle, Inc and Indiot. It’s been a week, and so far I keep wondering why I have not done that sooner. You may be on KBoards already, but if not – here are a few reasons why you should join me:
- More visits to your blog – after a week and 45 comments so far (told you, I went overboard), stats show 72 referrals from KBoards alone during the same time.
- There have been new followers as a result.
- I feel incredibly motivated after coming across a post which asked full-time writers about the consistency of their income. Before, I was only aware of a few multi-millionaires that “made it” and a huge army of “shrimp” like me that are swimming around, picking up a few sales here and there. Turns out there’s also a “middle class” of writers that have substantial portfolios. Those writers, with 12-16 books to their name are making 100-500 THOUSAND a year. So what if it takes me five years to get there – the main point is that it seems possible with a goal, focus, and hard work.
- I have found a second editor, a young woman with incredible feedback by the members. I contacted her about editing Shizzle, Inc (yes, a fourth round, by a fourth editor!) and she offered me a crazy deal of $376 for the whole thing, because it’s already clean, and because I was willing to work with her schedule. This means a second edition of Shizzle, Inc will come out at the same time as Indiot goes live. It will be the same story, but with tighter and cleaner prose, and hopefully not a single Australianism.
- I have found a very cheap and seemingly good designer. Yes, I am going to try a third designer, hopefully in a collaborative fashion this time. I really like my designs and I have good feedback on them, but I don’t like my topography and even worse – I don’t know what to do about it. Plus, I have now accepted that my current cover for Indiot does not let people know it’s a sequel to Shizzle, Inc and that needs to change. I am now thinking of taking the paper rip concept across all the books in Isa Maxwell series, since in each installment her life is turned upside down by the antagonist – so on the cover, the rip will be between her and the antagonist. More on this in a couple of weeks.
- I’ve downloaded Scrivner! Then I cried, because at the first glance it (and the user guide) seems so complicated. But now I’m excited again! I feel like I’ve graduated into the class of professional writers, and the third book’s skeleton is already underway. I will definitely post my impressions after a few weeks, but so far I’m very hopeful – Scrivner will replace the first phase of the project, where I ruin walls with sticky notes.
- I’ve given other people advice, and they’ve thanked me, and what can I say – it’s like a fix for a junkie…
- I’ve learned a lot about book launches. Decided to lower the pre-order price for Indiot (Isabella Maxwell’s Escapades Book 2)
to $0.99, because that’s what everyone on KBoards seems to be doing. It will stay that way throughout the first week of launch, going back to $2.99 (or $3.99, not sure yet) around 23 July. I got just one preorder during the last three weeks, so let’s see what happens with this low offer.
- It’s fun! New topics get posted every few minutes, and you just never know what new bit you will learn next.
That’s a lot in just one week, isn’t it? To tell you the truth, I’ve felt intimidated at times, because there are so many pros on there, but you get used to the signatures containing a string of covers after a while. Everyone is really nice, and a few people are even funny, which is a huge bonus in my book.
So go check it out – but do come back! This here blog ain’t no KBoards, but it is a place where you can watch a dark horse race for gold in real time.
Ana Spoke, author 
Wow! Hopefully KBoards continues to work well for you. It sounds like you uncovered a great resource! 🙂 . Sci-Fi & Scary Reviews
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Thank you, Lilyn – I hope so too. Just had a look on there, and people are asking others for critique of their blurbs and covers. What a great idea!
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Ooh, that is great! Sounds like the perfect tool to help you succeed. 🙂
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Your intelligence, enthusiasm and sense of humor are an inspiration to all of us writers, Ana. You are a gem!
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Thank you so much, James 🙂
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Reblogged this on WordDancer in the Sky and commented:
I have had Scrivener for a year, but only in the past month have I been able to use it to sort out a long experimental prose poem – shifting sections around to have a greater impact
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Thank you for sharing!
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I didn’t even know that site existed. I’ll definitely be checking it out.
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Great, see you there!
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Your no dark horse, your a shining knight who is going to win the race! Glad to hear all the great and new things your doing to Shizzle and Indiot. Love the idea of the tear for every cover. I think the KBoards sound terrific. I will have to give them a try in the future. You have accomplished so much in your time off, keep up the good work! You will make it into that LARGE income bracket. I was happy to hear that, it makes me want to sit down and start writing now. Do these middle income writers sell on just on Amazon or other platforms as well? I’m curious as to where they sell their books to make this income of 100- 500 thousand a year. I’d like to follow suit. I was a little discouraged about writing because of the low income but maybe not so low after all… I do want to write just because I have stories to tell but who doesn’t want to make money at it, too. Hope all goes well with the new editor, she sounds like a good one. Smart to do another clean up of Shizzle. Did you find the new designer on the KBoards? Hope that goes well, too. Well, get back to work you little energizer bunny, if you keep up this pace you’ll reach your goals in no time! Good luck!!!
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Haha, thank you, Olivia 🙂 Here’s the thread that I was referring to: http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,233088.msg3284452.html#msg3284452
– take note of the monthly figures quoted, and also at some thinly veiled annual figures. I’m not ashamed to say that I want to be paid for what I do – doctors and architects don’t seem to have shame charging for their talent and expertise. It’s a matter of would I be able to quit my office job and write even more stories, or will I lose steam and produce nothing more than quarterly reports ? Gotta give it all I got, cause I don’t get much joy out of those reports, to be honest…
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Great tip, I just joined, thank you.
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Thank you 🙂 I’ll see you there, no doubt.
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I did the same thing with Scrivener! I finally bought a Scrivener for Dummies book and took it slowly. Learned enough to write my book, compile it, and send it to my publisher! Looking forward to learning a bit more on this next one. Hang in there – I can’t imagine NOT using it now!
And, thanks for your persistence and persistently upbeat posts! You rock!!
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Thank you so much 🙂 I can’t wait to get past plotting and to start laying down chapters. Congrats on finishing you’re – so you didn’t export it to Word first?
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Thanks for the recommend. The KBoards looks really daunting at first glance, but your results so far seem promising. I shall pull up my socks and give it a go!
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Haha, thank you! Hopefully I’ll see you on there 🙂
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Thank you for the detailed justification for creating an account on Kboards. Since epublishing is an option I may pursue as I seek new readers for my work, I’ve decided to create an account of my own. Let’s see where this leads.
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I’ll see you on there 🙂
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Never heard of Kboards before. Thanks again for doing the footwork for those of us that are not in the know about all the “stuff” out there for writers.
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Thank you so much, Patricia 🙂
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cool. I’ve never heard of kboards. I’ll have to check it out. Is that something i should set up before or after I launch my first book? My book launch is coming up in a couple months (July 15th), and I’m still trying to figure out all the things i should do to prepare for it.
Also, congrats on taking the Scrivener step. I got it for my second novel and at first I was also overwhelmed. But I took a few days to go through the interactive tutorial scrivener document when I downloaded it and that gave me the knowledge I needed, and after that I was less overwhelmed and more excited to start writing! I’ve gotten about 7,000 words into my manuscript and so far I am loving scrivener, and I don’t even *know* half of what it can do.
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I think you should join before, so that you could learn even more about launches, etc. I look back to how I launched my first book, it’s remarkable how much I’ve learned since. So much of it was by trial and error – I wish I’d read about it in KBoards first.
Thank you for the encouragement – I’m very excited about Scrivner now. Still only a skeleton, but it’s helping to clarify the plot.
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great, I’ll check it out!
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*also, on the income note, I am also wondering how I will do with sales, going to try as hard as I can and keep writing and publishing books, but I’d be happy if i never made more than 50,000 a year lol, even that seems like a lofty goal to me
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It is a lofty goal – don’t get me wrong, but with a dozen well-executed and marketed books, I can almost guarantee you’ll get it.
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That’s encouraging to hear! I hope we both see great results, and be nice to see them soon too lol
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all right, i have to get off the internet and get back to writing!
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Interesting post; I joined KBoards ages ago but have never had time to really get involved especially as I’m on other things. That’s great news about your editor; I’m going to be looking for an editor who doesn’t charge the earth soon. There are groups in Goodreads where people post blurbs and covers for critiques by the way.
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I will let you know how I go with this new editor – I was really happy with the sample. A bit upset, too – how could she find so many things to improve after I’ve dumped so much cash on three editors? Live and learn, I guess.
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I joined KBoards a long time ago and did not figure out how to communicate there. Do you have to go in frequently during the day?
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No, you can always come back and look only at replies to your posts. I think it’s like anything else – use it for what you need. You can also search for posts based on a keyword, say if you’re only interested in covers or marketing.
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Thanks so much. 🙂
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Ahh good luck! publishing a book is very difficult!
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Thank you! Publishing a second one is much, much easier 🙂
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That sounds awesome! I hope KBoards continue to work wonders for you 🙂 I’m definitely going to check it out!
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Thank you – already something new today: people are paying covers and blurbs for critique…
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Awesome!
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Thanks Ana, will check out Kboards. Check out LearnScrivenerFast : which reminds me that I should return to it…
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Thank you very much for the tip!
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Wow! You are so helpful 🙂 I’m still at the ‘maybe I’ll write a book, one day’ stage – your posts make it actually seem possible…
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Thank you 🙂 Yes it is possible – every now and then I go back and read the very first post on this blog, and then marvel at how much has changed, especially in the last year or so.
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Reblogged this on Don Massenzio's Blog and commented:
If you’re looking to grow your blog, you might want to check out this platform.
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Thank you for sharing!
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You’re welcome
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I’ll sign up at some stage. Seems way more worthwhile than Facebook/Tumblr/Pinterest as means to get noticed as it’s focused on writing. Good post.
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I don’t know about Facebook, so can’t compare – I’d say KBoards is mainly good for free advice. But then again, you never know when someone may notice you – the book covers in the signature are a great marketing tool.
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I’ve not gone near the KBoards yet for a very silly reason. It’s that my user name would be Mrs Sarah Potter rather than Sarah Potter. This seems impossible to change, as I’ve already tried, which means I would look very silly and lose all credibility if I were to post anything D:
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What about abandoning that account and creating a completely new one? Fresh start and all that…
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Sounds like an idea. I guess if I use another email address it will work.
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Reblogged this on theowlladyblog.
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Thank you for sharing!
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If you looking for book cover inspiration, you’ll want to check out this video from one of the greats – Chip Kidd – https://youtu.be/cC0KxNeLp1E
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Thank you, Drew!
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Thanks for the heads up on KBoards. And yeah, I’ll go completely overboard (currently in that procrastination/self-torture phase myself) but I only have the one book so far.
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Thank you, Sara! One word of warning – as an emerging writer, be careful what kind of advice you ask for. Some of the people on that board can be brutal with their “advice” and super opinionated. Just remember that that’s all it is – opinions. Rock on! I’m about to release the second, and gotta tell you – even more excited than I was with the first, of that’s even possible 🙂
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I’ve been doing some serious hand wringing over the past 3 months with editing, but I imagine the second will feel old hat. I was very lucky that the Fates put people in my sphere that could help point me in the right direction!
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Oh, editing is a pain still. I’ve learned so much, though, that I was proud to give the editor a very clean manuscript, especially compared to my first one. Lucky you with the right people – learn on mistakes of others when you can 🙂
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