Moving On

I'm on the move right now.  If you have any constructive comments, thoughts, opinions or questions, please feel free to post them here.  I'll get back to you as soon as I possibly can.  

If you have any stories about publishing that you'd like to share, please feel free to post them here. 

If you can't get into my website, please let me know that too.  

To the 10 people who have purchased our e-book, I'd like to say: Thank You, very very much.

Lynn Hallbrooks

Co-author:  Call Sign: Wrecking Crew (Storm Warning)

Co-owner:  Call Sign Wrecking Crew, LLC

http://www.callsignwreckingcrew.com

A little bit about me

I guess, I should let my readers know a little more about me and why I'm at this point in my life.  No, I'm not going back to my childhood.  I'll just start with how this book came about.  


I was in the U.S. Air Force for almost 7 years.  This is where I learned how to work in the Health Information field...aka Medical Records...and eventually became a Coder.  After about 30 years of working in the field, I became extremely burned out.  I took a giant leap of faith and did something completely different.


I originally had a few ideas that really didn't pan out enough to make a book out of them.  Then my friend and now co-author, David McKoy, said that he has had a few ideas running around in his head.  When he starts writing them down, the ideas kept flowing out of him like a dam burst open.  After many drafts, re-writes, and yes a few disagreements, we finally settled on something to send to our editor.  


Our editor, does what all editors do, ripped it to shreds.  A few days later, after getting my bruised ego in check, I went through and reviewed the recommendations.  Once David and I agreed upon which things were or weren't being changed,  it went to the person who formatted the book layout.   We quickly discovered that we didn't have enough funds to have our book printed, so we decided to go with a less expensive route.   This is why we went with only Amazon Kindle.  


Hope this helps explain a few things.  I really would appreciate any constructive feedback that anyone has.


Have a great weekend!


Lynn Hallbrooks
Co-author of Call Sign: Wrecking Crew (Storm Warning)
Co-owner of Call Sign Wrecking Crew, LLC
Webmaster for www.callsignwreckingcrew.com 

Is anybody out there?

I've been told directly that I have been a bit unclear in my previous posts.  If anyone would like me to go back over something or expand on something please let me know. 

I have two missions here.  First, I’d like to share my experiences with others.  Secondly, I’d like to network with people.  I certainly don’t know everything and I learn new stuff from day to day.  Maybe we can help each other.

Lynn Hallbrooks

Co-author: Call Sign Wrecking Crew (Storm Warning)

Co-owner: Call Sign Wrecking Crew, LLC

www.callsignwreckingcrew.com

Location, location, location

It seems the other important thing that a self-publishing author needs to remember is that the location of where they write is not as important as the place it receives in the favorites' line-up.  Dead last is not anywhere that anyone wants to be. So it pays to advertise.

One way is to have a website (if you can manage it yourself all the better).  With the website, it is all about the design and the Meta-tags. Meta-tags contain key phrases and words that relate to your website and product.   It's your meta-tags that help you crawl up the Search Engine ladder.  I recently learned that the search engines themselves update at varying rates so do not expect it to climb up overnight or even over a week. 

Obviously, blogging is another way.  If you can find a like-minded community that shares your interests or at least the main theme of your book, then you can possibly network to learn more ways to get noticed.

Business cards are another way to get the message out...beware though of what you put on the cards.  For example, if you cold card someone (give cards out without explanation), they might think that Call Sign Wrecking Crew, LLC is an actual Wrecking Crew and not a company for Self-published authors.  Yes, you guessed it we had to do a reprint and boy does it look tons better than the original.

Well that's all for today.  Please stay tuned for more helpful insights!

Lynn Hallbrooks

Co-author: Call Sign: Wrecking Crew * Storm Warning

Co-owner: Call Sign Wrecking Crew, LLC

www.callsignwreckingcrew.com

Let's get started

I'm a co-author of Call Sign: Wrecking Crew (Storm Warning) and we've been on Amazon Kindle since 12 Jan 2011.  It took us over a year to write, edit and finally publish on Amazon Kindle. 

My advice to those that want to self-publish a book is number one have plenty of money.  If you want to make a business out of it then start a business account.  Once your business account has been started then place all business expenditures (i.e. copy paper, ink, new computer software related to writing) on that account.  This will help you when tax time comes around.

Okay, now you are ready to write.  Write at a steady pace for you.  Make sure you do your due diligence in research.  Check with your publishing company on how to lay out your book so editing and publishing will be simple for everyone.  Also, things always cost more than you think they will so read your contract closely.  Make sure you find a good lawyer to advise you on everything. 

As for the cover art, I was fortunate enough to have a talented son to help me with mine.  If you don't have anyone then check with your publishing company to see how much that is going to cost so you can budget for that as well.

Marketing, that is a tough one because if you don't have enough to print a book and you go to Amazon Kindle like we did then... Well let's just say you have people who don't want electronic books.   Instead, they want one they can hold in their hands.  We have a website and business cards to help us spread the word.

If you want to take a gander at our website then go to www.callsignwreckingcrew.com  courtesy of Intuit and me.

Have a great day!

Lynn Hallbrooks

Co-author: Call Sign: Wrecking Crew (Storm Warning)

Co-owner: Call Sign Wrecking Crew, LLC

www.callsignwreckingcrew.com