Knowing why you write before, during, and after self-publishing a book is important. The reasons why you write determine what story you tell and your chosen genre. It also tells you who your audience is, essential to marketing. I’m narrowing it down, and I published it in November. I merely fell into what I wrote and was lucky it is something I’m enjoying. My book series Sophia of the Bright Red Sneakers grew out of a short story I wrote as part of a group healing process. It

First-time self-publishing Author | What I Would Do Differently (a series). Part 1: The Business of Writing. Are you prepared?

Wahoo the Raven is a great inventor. Shown in the picture to the left are a few of his many inventions with descriptions from Mission 1: All in a Day's Work. Following are some quotes from my book with reference to each item. Should he return to typing his memoir on his BlackZip™ typewriter, which he had designed, assembled, and trademarked under his BlackRaven™ brand? The ledge outside held his string bag hammock and a side table repurposed from a spinning blue yo-yo top. Wa

Super Sleuths Pedro and Sophia hopped off the bus at the 50th Street stop and walked back to 51st. The buildings became increasingly run down as they walked toward the river. Sophia, as Lead Investigator, presented her plan. “We’ll hit the Mister Creamy truck on the corner, then eat our cones on that bench while we watch Vlad’s apartment.” “Excellent! Since ice cream is a key food group, if we add strawberries, we’ll get total nutrition!” She paid for the cones, and the two s

From Mission 1: All in a Day's Work, Chapter 1 Sophia and Pedro were outsiders at the fashionable James Samuel Calder Academy on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Each formed its own small minority. Pedro was a scholarship student and Hispanic. Sophia was outspokenly individual and feminist, whereas her classmates were devotees of Teen Vogue and the New York Times society pages. The fashionistas thought Sophia’s unruly, curly red hair and high-top red sneakers with striped laces a

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As many of you may know, the U.S. Department of Justice is suing to block a merger between Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster. If the merger goes through, it is likely that the “Big Five Publishers” will become “Primo Behemoth Publisher” with three small “Fight-for-Their-Lives” publishers. The two potentially merging companies control fifty percent of the top 100 selling books. Most of the remaining fifty percent will go to the three remaining publishers, leaving littl

In June, I began building a new website and updating social media sites from a composer/writer frame to an indie children’s book author heading toward two book launches. The ins and outs of using social media as a marketing tool have become a dreaded specter of my daily existence. Long before I began building my new Facebook (“FB”) and Instagram pages, I received notice that FB was taking down my old professional page since it had been unused for over three years. I wasn’t co