Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Guest Post with author Lisa Regan



Today I'm handing things over to Lisa Regan.
Enjoy all!

10 Things You Didn’t Know About Being a Published Writer

Writers work tirelessly, often for years with little encouragement and little hope, dreaming of the day they’ll be published. Then one day it happens. Here are ten things that might surprise you about being on the other side of your dream:


  1. Selling books is hard. Really hard. Even a really great book can be hard to sell. You can have 5 authors who are equally talented all published in the same way (i.e. by a Big 5, a small press or indie) and even if they all did the same things, only one of them might sell enough books to buy a cup of coffee. It is a total crapshoot and you cannot be in this for the money.
  2. You’re going to get bad reviews and they are going to cut you.  That’s just the way it is. You can’t please everyone.  The good news is that after awhile, they don’t really bother you anymore.
  3. There will be mistakes in your book and readers will call you on them. Yes, even after a very exhaustive editing process, some mistakes can still sneak in and readers will definitely let you know.
  4. You’re going to need your writer friends more than ever after publication—to commiserate, to bounce scenarios off one another, for advice and for help with promotion.
  5. On occasion, you will get a very personal, very heartfelt letter/email from a reader that will make your entire struggle worth it.
  6. You need to have swag on you at all times! Invest in bookmarks and carry them with you all the time so you can give them out or leave them places when the opportunity arises. It really can help with sales.
  7. Nearly 80% of your time will be spent not on writing, but on social media. Invest some time in a Hootsuite account or another site similar to it to stay organized and pre-schedule important posts or tweets.
  8. Some genres just don’t sell as well as others. Period.
  9. Books don’t sell themselves. They need to be promoted. No promotion equals no sales.
  10.  Writing becomes a lot more work post-publication. Suddenly you’ve got deadlines and promotion to keep up with, a brand to build and maintain. But it is totally worth it!

About the author:

Lisa Regan is a crime fiction author. Her first novel, Finding Claire Fletcher won Best Heroine in the eFestival of Words Best of the Independent eBook Awards 2013. It was runner-up for Best Novel. It was also a Digital Book Today Best of 2013 ebook selection. In December 2013, Finding Claire Fletcher and her second novel, Aberration were #1 Amazon bestsellers in the Kidnapping and Serial Killers categories, respectively.

Lisa is a member of Sisters In Crime. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in English and Master of Education Degree from Bloomsburg University. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and daughter.

|  website  |  blog  |  Facebook  |  Twitter - @lisalregan  |  Goodreads  |

A bit about Hold Still:

Three men are viciously assaulting Philadelphia's prostitutes, and it's up to veteran detective Jocelyn Rush to stop them. She catches two, but they won't betray their partner, the most dangerous of all, and the attacks continue, striking closer to home. Jocelyn's only real clue comes when a monster from her past resurfaces--now she must race to connect the demons of her past with the villain of her present--before the sadistic attacker sets his sights on her.

|  Amazon  |  B&N  |  

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