My Dream Office

Last night I had this really amazing dream that I was at a video game and comic book store with a friend of mine. For some reason I dream about video game stores and dvd rental places a lot. Anyway, in this dream the video games were all older games and they were displayed on the most beautiful set of shelves that I had ever seen. One of my dreams as an author has always been that I could get my own office with a beautiful bookshelf, where I could display not only my books but also the books that I love to read. I also would love one of those cool ink pens with a crown on the top, and some super nice work space for my desk. I would have a dry erase board in the office. I love dry erase boards, they help me when I am working on a novel. I would also have assorted artwork. I have never really owned any artwork, or had any artwork that I was in love with displayed in any of my homes. I guess that my dragons could count as artwork that I loved, but I also want artwork done by other people. It amazes me what other people can come up with and I have always been an art lover. I would also have some things in there which display my nerdy side. I love funko pop vinyls and had started to collect them. I had four of them Stitch from Lilo and Stitch was my first and Raphael from TMNT was my second and they would go in there for sure (the other two were the TMNT van with Mikey driving and Leo from TMNT, but I gave them back to my ex so I would have to rebuy them). I would want a few disney ones as well and some comic book related pop vinyls. I would get the ones from Supernatural and the Walking Dead as well. I would also make sure the office was very colorful. I love colorful things, they fuel my creativity. I would have at least one dog bed in my office because my dogs like to go wherever I am and I am sure they would want to be in the office with me. The dog bed would probably be pink because my dogs are girls and I also really like the color pink.

Picking an author picture

As a self-published author, there's a lot you have to do for yourself. The things you have to do go beyond just writing a book and releasing it to the world. You also have to market the book. Part of marketing is picking out your picture for your author bio. A traditional author has a team helping them pick this, but you don't. The picture above is not the picture I've picked for my author picture, but the only picture I actually had on this new computer. I have been using this picture to represent me on other mediums though. It's a more updated picture than the one I use on here. So why did I pick the picture I use as my author photo? The answer is a bit amusing: It got the most likes on facebook.

Do I need a website?

Right now I'm not getting a lot of views, but I think if I had a website I might get a few more. I don't really know how to build a website, but I'm sure if I found the right book I could. I read that having a website makes it easier for search engines to notice you. I'm not sure if the search engines are picking me up now, but I think it would be nice to have a bigger audience. I just don't know if having a website is better than having social media.

Pen Names

Yesterday someone asked me about pen names, so I decided to write this post. A pen name is a name that a author uses for many reasons. In the case of writer's like Stephan King it's because he's releasing so many books at once. In cases like the one with J.K. Rowling, it's because you want to distance yourself from the other work you've done, not because that work is bad, but because you're writing something different. Some writers are told to adopt a pen name if they decide to write a different genre. I can understand because many authors are known for writing within a certain genre like romance, horror, or mystery and anything they write will be assumed to fall into that genre. A lot of authors use pen names for privacy, and that's why I wanted to adopt a pen name. It's harder to pick a name for myself than I thought it would be, so I ended up not picking one. I hope readers will respect my privacy anyway. I plan to write urban fantasy and science fiction, so hopefully I won't have too much trouble marketing my books. Another reason a write could use a pen name is to appeal to a certain audience, which is why J.K. Rowling used her initials when writing Harry Potter. Her literary agent thought boys wouldn't read the Harry Potter books if they knew a woman wrote them, so she had to use her initials. A lot of female authors used male pen names before women were allowed to write, or if they were writing things like horror, which were usually written by men.

Book Quotes

Whenever I visit the library or Barnes and Noble I can't help but notice that there are author quotes on the covers of some books. Well, I guess some are from authors and some are from other reviewers. I never see any quotes on the covers of Indie books. Probably because as an indie book seller you're rely on yourself. I don't know if the books would sell any better if they had quotes on them. I've never personally bought a book because of a quote, but I usually do read the quotes if they are from authors I like. I usually just want to know what the author I like had to say about the book I'm reading. I do consider reading a book if my favorite author has blogged about it/reviewed it. I usually don't see this in indie, and maybe it's because I'm not looking in the right places, but I think indie authors should help each other. I'm not published yet (soon, I promise), but I know when I do publish there won't be as much of a support system for me. There's not a publisher/editor/person in marketing to do all the difficult stuff. I have to do it all myself. It would be nice if the indie authors joined together in the same way the traditionally published ones do. Would building personal relationships, providing a quote for another indie author, and re tweeting each other sell more copies of our books? I know I'm not published yet and don't know how the publishing/marketing part of this works, but I've always admired the relationship some of my favorite traditionally published authors share with each other.