Apr 30 2014

The Visionary Collection Cover Reveal!

I just can’t wait any longer to show off my shiny new covers for the Visionary Collection! Aren’t they beautiful? They were designed by the fabulous madappledesigns, and I really couldn’t be happier. I am working on the formatting at the moment, so the first three books in the collection (Heaven dot com, The Doorway to PAM and The Elphite) will be available with the new covers on Kindle and in paperback by the end of May, along with the release of my brand new novel – I’m Here.

The full covers for the print copies:

Apr 28 2014

eBook Workshop in West Wales

I will be holding a workshop in Lampeter, West Wales, on the 6th May, in which over the course of a day, I will take the participants through the process of publishing an eBook. It’s going to be a mad, jam-packed day, as there is quite a lot to cover!

For the course fee, each aspiring author will receive the day’s tuition, a comprehensive manual, and follow-up e-mail support. There are only 8 places left, so if you live in West Wales and would like to learn how to publish your own eBook, get in touch. You can e-mail me at theamethystangel@hotmail.co.uk or call me on 07910946573.

I will be holding more of these workshops in other areas of Wales and England, so if you are interested in attending one, please get in touch and let me know where you are.

Apr 18 2014

Sorting out the Editing!

The weather has been so beautiful in the UK this week, that I decided to spend the day editing my new novel, I’m Here, in the sunshine. Increasing the brightness of my screen solved the visibility issue, but the sun was getting a bit too bright for my eyes, and seeing as I don’t own any prescription sunglasses, a hat was needed.

Well, this was all I could find…

Sat in the sun, wrapped in a blanket and wearing a sorting hat. Can editing get any better than this?

Yes, it is a leather sorting hat. I created it for the Harry Potter parties that I did last year for friends, and my own in January. I thought it would get too heavy after a while, but I have worn it for the morning, and thanks to the amazing hat, I have finished the first edit of my novel. Because of writing the novel over such a long period of time, there were a few inconsistencies that needed clearing up, as well as a couple of threads that needed tying up at the end. I’m ready now to pass it over to my editor and my trusty beta readers, to get their feedback. As yet, no one else has read it, so the jury is still out on whether it is any good. Seeing as I plan to publish it by the end of May, I’m crossing my fingers that it is!

Joking aside, I cannot stress how important the editing stage is. It still amazes me when authors put their work out without having it edited or proofread by someone other than themselves. I do edit my books quite a lot, but I know that having another pair of eyes, (or two or three pairs) is invaluable. I’m not saying that my books will be completely error-free, but I do strive to get them as good as humanly possible before releasing them into the world.

Very, very soon, I will be revealing the new covers for the Visionary Collection, including the cover for I’m Here. I absolutely adore them, and I cannot wait for you to see them. But until then, have a giggle at my mad editing selfie 🙂

Apr 14 2014

A Fabulous Weekend!

This weekend I was in Cirencester, taking part in the Wellness Symposium. The British Dowsing Society had a shop there, and there were a few other stands, including Shelly Sishton and myself. In the morning there were various speakers, and in the afternoon there was a choice of workshops. On Saturday, I listened to a couple of the talks and then attended Adrian Incledon-Webber’s workshop in the afternoon. Then on Sunday, after listening to Shelly Sishton’s talk about essences in the morning, I then held my workshop/talk on how to publish independently. It’s the first time I have done a talk of that length (75 mins) but there was so much to pack into it, I could probably have talked for another couple of hours! It was also my first ever stab at doing a powerpoint presentation, which thanks to Scapple, was not only fun to create, but also fun to present! The attendees asked lots of great questions, and gave me a nice round of applause at the end, so all in all, I think it went quite well!

I had a great time chatting to people, and selling books, and made the interesting discovery that the majority of dowsers there were StarPeople! It was also the first time I had given out my shiny new brochure, which was designed by the awesome madappledesigns, to showcase the new structure of my business, The Amethyst Angel. There will be a PDF version of the brochure on my website very soon, but here’s a sneaky peak!

Apr 5 2014

The Wellness Symposium

On the 12th and 13th April (next weekend!) The Earth Energies Group are holding the Wellness Symposium in Cirencester. I will be there on the Saturday, selling my books and then on the Sunday, I will be doing a workshop/talk on how to publish independently. I only have an hour or so in which to fit in the process of Indie publishing, so it will be an interesting challenge!

Adrian Incledon-Webber will be there, selling the awesome Heal Your Home and also doing talks and workshops. It should be great weekend, with some fab speakers, so if you are interested, check out the British Dowsing Society website for more info and for the booking forms.

I look forward to seeing you there!

Apr 1 2014

5 Years Ago Today…

… I was sat in JFK airport, waiting to board a flight back home. And it was while sat in the waiting area that I got a notebook out and started to write The Earth Angel Training Academy. I wrote the first 900 words in that notebook, then wrote the rest of the book in the two months following, on my old laptop that had no ‘L’ key.

The handwritten beginning of The Earth Angel Training Academy

I still have my original notes from before I began writing. Most of my ideas didn’t make it into the final book. Once I started writing, I really had no control over the story, or the characters. I was merely a bystander, writing down what they were doing and saying.

After those initial two months of writing, it took me a further two years to edit it and get it into print, after a brief attempt at entering the traditional publishing world. Originally, I called the book ‘The Angels Calling’ and even printed and hand-bound in leather a copy for my dad. After a handful of rejections, I decided to take the Indie route, having used print on demand services to publish Heaven Dot Com back in 2007.

The first edition of The Earth Angel Training Academy was published and launched in July 2011, at the Heart of the Dragon Festival in West Wales.

Original Cover

New Cover

Since writing the book, I have actually met several of the characters in real life, including Shelly, the mermaid, who I met in California last year.

In November 2010, I wrote The Earth Angel Awakening, which I then published in the summer of 2012. Then just last year, I wrote and published The Other Side.

In some ways, it feels like a lifetime since I wrote those first words in JFK, and in others, it feels like just yesterday. As you can see from my scribbles, Velvet was originally called Mulberry. Because the lady sat opposite me in the waiting lounge was wearing mulberry-coloured shoes. I can still see her shoes, and hear the noise of the airport, and see the planes taking off. Though I had been writing for many years by that point, and had self-published my novella, that moment in the airport was the very beginning of my journey as an independently published author, and a visionary fiction novelist. And in that moment in time, I had absolutely no idea what the next five years would bring. There have been awesome times, crappy times, frustrating times and absolutely ecstatic times. And I wouldn’t change a single moment, because it has all brought me to where I am right now.

Do you remember where you were five years ago today?

Mar 24 2014

On Taking Advice

I don’t know about you, but as a writer and a creative, I often find it difficult to take advice. Oh, I have no problems in giving advice, I could do that all day. Accepting and actioning advice from others? Hmmm, well, uhh, yeah, maybe.

As an avid advice-giver, I know how frustrating it is, when you offer something advice, or even when they ask you for advice, and then when you give it – they ignore it completely. *cue screaming into a pillow*

First of all, I would like to apologise to anyone who has given me advice in my life which I have ignored, I’m sorry for being stubborn, I’m sorry for thinking I knew best, I’m sorry if it upset you. Of course, I don’t regret a single choice I have ever made in my life, because it has brought me to where I am right now, and I wouldn’t change that for anything. But there is a chance that had I heeded some of the advice along the way, I could have got here without so many obstacles.

Conversely, I have been given advice over the last few years, that I HAVE followed, only to realise later that perhaps the person dispensing said advice did not have the best intentions for me. So, I have decided that there must be some kind of method, some sort of formula for which advice should be followed, and which should be ignored.

The criteria that should be met by someone whose advice I will give serious consideration to, is as follows:

1. They genuinely want me to succeed in whatever the advice is given for (whether it’s my business, relationship etc.)

2. They’re not profiting from the advice they’re giving (this is a tricky one, will address this further below.)

3. They are an expert in that field, and they have tested out their own advice.

4. I would trust them with my life. (or at least with my livelihood and happiness!)

(I believe that advice that comes from a source that does not meet the above criteria, should be treated with caution.)

In the past few years, I have taken advice from people who have not met the above criteria, and it has not been good advice for me. I took relationship advice from someone who I found out later, did not want my relationship to succeed, and though I don’t regret what happened as a result, it made me realise that perhaps I was just a little too trusting, and didn’t listen to my intuition.

The part on profiting from the advice, well, that is tricky. Because someone might be advising me to do a course or buy a product, that will genuinely help me. Yes, they might be making money from the transaction, but it could be exactly what I need to change my life. But there are so many just trying to make money, who aren’t really interested in me or my success, and that’s why I need to look at all four of the points above before deciding.

I run a small Indie Publishing business, called The Amethyst Angel, and I get queries from authors who want me to work with them to independently publish their books. Often they say they just want formatting, or proofreading, as they don’t feel it needs any editing work, they’re happy with it they way it is. The first thing I will do (which I don’t charge for) is to read the manuscript. And I warn them that I will be completely and utterly honest about what I think. I have told some authors that I think they need to completely re-write the book before considering having it edited, and I have told some authors that it needs editing before it can be proofread and formatted. Sometimes, they listen, and we work together and produce awesome books, and also become very good friends, after all, I genuinely want them to succeed. And sometimes, they don’t like my advice, and they go and find someone who will just format it and publish it, as it is, with no further work done on it.

Being an Independent Author means that it’s entirely your choice. It’s their choice to ignore my advice, and that’s fine, after all, my opinion may not be the same as others, and I accept that. But what I want them to know, if that I’m not giving them that advice so I can make money from them. I am giving them that advice so that the standard of Indie books is raised up just a little more. At the end of the day, I am an Indie Author. I am on the author’s side. I would never tell an author that a book needs work when it doesn’t because it would be a waste of my time and their money. And I will not work on a book that isn’t even ready to be edited, because it would end up costing the author too much. I would always advise them to re-write, revise, and find willing beta readers who will help them first.

I apologise for my rant. But I do feel very strongly that this is an important issue. If Indie Authors want to be seen as professionals, if they want to be taken seriously in the publishing world, then it’s time they started producing professional pieces of work. Now, I’m not saying that as an Indie Author, I have it all figured out, because I don’t. In fact, I’m currently re-branding three of my books because my original covers and blurbs aren’t cutting it. I created the covers myself, and though I thought they were good, and others seemed to agree, I realise now that they do not do the books justice. Because whether we like it or not, a large percentage of people do still judge a book by its cover!

I will keep you updated on the new covers, they should be ready to be revealed very soon, and I hope that my advice on taking and ignoring advice was useful to you! Have a wonderful week 🙂

Jan 22 2014

Universal Book Links

Last year I was told about universal book links by an American reader who had clicked on my amazon.co.uk link. He’d had to then go to amazon.com and search for my book before buying it, so he suggested that I get myself a universal link from Booklinker.net. I did just that, and have done so for all of my books, and for my author page too. Having a universal link means that wherever someone is in the world, when they click on it, they are taken to the Amazon page that belongs to their country. Booklinker is free to use and their customer service is excellent. I have recommended doing this to all of the authors I have worked with.

My stats for The Other Side

Until I received an email from Booklinker today that mentioned stats, I didn’t realise that there was more to the site then meets the eye. When I logged in, I could see how many times each of my links have been clicked on, and from which countries these clicks have come from. Seeing as Amazon release no figures on how many views your book pages get, this has been quite interesting information to have.

Now to work out how to make more of these views convert to sales… If you have any ideas, please comment below!

Nov 21 2013

Calling all Angels…

…Faeries, Mermaids, Old Souls, Starpeople and Leprechauns!

I’ve written this blog post several times in my head, which is where I would rather it stay, but I know that I need to actually type it and put it out there. Because this blog post is about the truth. Which is that I need help.

You would think that by the time I’d written and published my 7th book, (not to mention helped to publish several books for other authors) that I would know how to market them. That I would have an established way of launching my books so that they made an impact, that I would be selling hundreds, if not thousands of copies.

But the truth is, I’m just as bad at marketing now, as I was when I began. Why? Because traditional marketing does not feel authentic to me. I am a great believer that people find a book at the right time for them to read it, and if they’re constantly blasted with messages of – you must buy this book right now – then it will just irritate them if it’s not the right time.

I figured it might be a good idea to get some help with the marketing, so I found a PR company who would write a press release and send it out to journalists for me. They wrote the piece, and though it sounded good, in all honesty, I couldn’t read it without giggling, because it bigged me up so much, that it seemed a little ridiculous. At the time, I was still in – ‘this is how you market stuff, you make it look like the next big thing’ mode, and so I approved it for them to send. Didn’t receive a single email, call or query about it, and to be perfectly honest, I don’t expect to. Why? Because it was not authentic. If you would like a good giggle yourself, please check it out on the only place I’ve seen it online. (Click here) (Just to add, the company were great to work with, very professional, and very good at what they do. I have no complaints about the service I received)

I’ve been doing the Brene Brown eCourse, and one of the main threads (because that has been her main focus for her research) is vulnerability. We build armor around ourselves, making up stories about things, so that others perceive us in a certain way. I know that there are a few people out there who assume that I am selling loads of books and make a ton of money. And though it’s nice that they think highly of me and my books, it’s just not the truth.

So back to what I said before. I need help. I know there are readers out there who have read and loved my books, who have not written reviews or recommended them to friends. If you are one of those people and you are able to, could you please do that for me? Reviews on Amazon really do make a difference, and you can write one there even if you bought the book directly from me or from a shop I sell them in. If you don’t have an Amazon account, then you can post a review in the comments below or on Facebook. If you are on Facebook, you can like my page and share it with others who might like my books.

If you haven’t bought your Christmas presents yet, you could buy a copy of one of my books as a gift. With the new covers, the Earth Angel books now look really awesome. You can also still buy the Oracle Cards that accompany the books, directly through me on my website, or from Peace of Stone in Monmouth.

All of these things help to just make my books a little more visible and accessible, and word of mouth recommendations are far better than this false marketing that I have been attempting to do. After all, I know that my books will not appeal to everyone, I don’t want to sell millions of books only for them to be read by just a few. I write books for them to be read, for them to help people. But I can only do that with the help of my readers. To make it easier to share the links to my books on amazon, I have universal links to them all, which make it easier when tweeting or posting on Facebook. I’ve listed the links below. Even a tweet every now and then helps 🙂

Thank you for reading, and for letting me share this with you. I don’t find it easy to ask for help, and to admit that I don’t know how to do something, but I can’t keep on pretending like it’s all easy and taken care of. And as much as I wish I could sometimes, I really cannot do it all on my own.

viewbook.at/earthangeltrainingacademy

viewbook.at/earthangelawakening

viewbook.at/otherside

viewbook.at/theelphite

viewbook.at/doorwaytopam

viewauthor.at/michellegordon

Nov 12 2013

Twas the Night Before the Launch…

And Michelle was ridiculously excited!

In just a few hours, The Other Side will be officially launched into the world and I am very excited, though a little nervous at the same time! Having only finished writing this book 7 weeks ago, it feels like it’s been a crazy sprint to bring it to publication.

Today I recorded a couple of videos to post on the page of the Online Launch Party on facebook tomorrow (please join us!) and I will also be posting the Book Trailer I created for my books and there will be some interactive stuff, so check it out and join in 🙂

There’s still time to enter the Rafflecopter draw – you could win a signed set of the Earth Angel Books!

I will be having a second Launch at Peace of Stone in Monmouth on Tuesday the 26th November at 7pm. It’s a join launch with Adrian Incledon-Webber. His book – Heal your Home – is a must-have for every home. There will be drinks and nibbles and everyone is welcome to join us.

In case you’ve managed to miss it so far, here is the beautiful cover for my new book – (yes, I really am over-excited!)