Thanks to the way I write and publish my books (no plotting or planning, and publishing each one as I write them) the sequence of the books and the way they fit together is quite interesting. To explain this, I created this graphic:
But to try to make things a little clearer, I have created the video below, explaining the sequence of the books in the series. Enjoy!
As part of my new plan for 2015, I have committed to reading a book a week on a subject that I am interested in, then on the Sunday, write my thoughts on it. I read a lot of non-fiction spiritual and self-help books, and usually have several on the go on my Kindle. Because I decided to do this halfway through the weeks, I decided to finish a book I was partway through – called The 7 Graces of Marketing by Lynn Serafinn. I re-read part of what I had read a while ago, then continued on until I finished it this afternoon.
Because I find marketing difficult, I was hoping that Lynn’s book would shine a light on how to market my books in an ethical, holistic way. And though I have not yet processed all of the information, I do think her book has been most helpful in pinpointing how marketing currently works, and why I feel so uneasy about doing it that way. And in fact, I am already following the majority of the seven graces in my own marketing, but I haven’t quite reached the final grace, which she says is Collaboration.
I have been feeling for some time now, that I need to collaborate with others, that there needs to be a collective energy that has the same purpose and is enthused and passionate, and that when that happens, everything will take off. When you’re an Indie Author, you are on your own. Yes, I collaborate with my editor and graphic designer to create my books, but when it comes to selling the end product, I have done the majority of it on my own.
The thing is, I know how the old form of marketing works – you basically make people feel worthless if they don’t have your product, you make them believe that there’s a limited amount, and so they better buy now or they’ll miss out (which in the age of eBooks and POD books, is a ridiculous notion), and you make them feel like your product is the solution to all their problems.
But though the above ways might work well – after all, we have been conditioned for years to respond to marketing in the way companies want us to – none of those techniques have ever felt right to me. And it is my number one priority to be authentic and real. That’s why, when I got a press release written for the release of The Other Side, I couldn’t use it. Because it was full of hype and screamed ‘buy it now or miss out’, which is really inauthentic.
So how do I stick to this new paradigm of marketing, and still sell enough to be able to live? I have no idea. Lynn’s book is the starting point of this exploration into a new world of how we buy and sell, and ultimately, I think it will come down to the consumers changing things by changing the way they consume. If we continue to be drawn in by the limited time offers and hyped up promises, then marketers and companies will continue to use those methods. But if we step back and take a moment to really think about whether what we’re about to purchase is actually the right thing for us, or will actually help us, or is essential to our survival, and will help us thrive; then we will begin to change things.
Like I said, the 7th Grace of Collaboration is one that I think should be my focus this year. To work with others to market my books, and to find people who want to work with me to create something amazing. I don’t see other authors as my competitors, I would love for them to be my collaborators and friends. I think that working together, we can make much bigger changes. I really enjoyed working with sponsors and fans to spread the free eBook cards around the world for the launch of I’m Here, and I would love to do more projects like that in the future.
If you would like to find out more about how marketing currently works, and how it might work better in the future, then I would definitely recommend that you read The 7 Graces of Marketing. And I will let you know when my efforts start to gather momentum. In the spirit of the new paradigm of marketing, I have decided to keep offering free PDF downloads of I’m Here, as part of the I’m Here Book Tour. There is no limited time offer on it. If things change in the future, I will let you know in plenty of time.
… 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?
Since putting out the call for questions for Aria, Amethyst or Velvet, I have noticed that the majority of the questions are related to Twin Flames. In fact, both of this week’s readings are for two Earth Angels who asked the same question – Will I be with my Twin Flame in this lifetime?
It seems to be a question on the minds of many Earth Angels, and I hope that these two readings not only answer the question for the two who asked, but also for anyone else watching and wondering if they too, will be with their Flame. To know who your Flame is, and not be with them, is a difficult place to be in, I know. Especially if your Flame has not Awakened and does not understand the depth and meaning of your connection.
I write about the reunion of the Flames in my novels – The Earth Angel Training Academy, The Earth Angel Awakening and The Other Side. Though the relationship can be the most harmonious you have ever experienced, the path to being together can be anything but smooth, and it’s important to remember to enjoy the journey, and remember that all is working out exactly as it should.
I hope you enjoy the readings, please feel free to leave a comment, and if you have a question, please email it to me at theamethystangel@hotmail.co.uk.
Am just dealing with the fact that in transferring photos from my phone to my computer, about four months worth (the last four months) have vanished. They are no longer on my phone and they are not on my computer. Somewhere along the way, there must have been an error and they are now irretrievable. Luckily, a few I had uploaded to facebook, but the rest, well, they’re just gone. Of course after talking to the helpful people at Samsung, I realise that I should have done a back up and transfer via Kies Air, rather than the old school transferring method. But it’s too late for that now.
As upsetting as it is, to lose the photos, (even though I cannot remember all of what I have taken in the last few months) it started me thinking about how reliant I am on my computer and my phone. Of which either could easily malfunction or be lost or stolen. You could say – save it all to the cloud, it’ll be safe there. But is it? Have you ever considered what you would do or how you would feel if Facebook of WordPress suddenly deleted your account? Or they had a massive blip and all the photos, conversations and posts were lost?
I would imagine that it would be similar to the loss of having all of your photographs destroyed in a fire or flood in your home. They’re damaged beyond repair, and there is nothing you can do except to accept they are gone, and to move on. In some ways, it is a kind of cleansing, a de-cluttering. How often do you look at your old photos? How often to you re-read old letters or diaries or old blog posts? Is it even healthy to hold onto all of these old memories? I used to create scrapbooks from my photos, and in more recent times, photobooks, and it’s fun to occasionally look back and remember good memories. But would my life be terrible if that was not possible? Would the world come to an end if I couldn’t look at my holiday photos from ten years ago? I doubt it. We are apparently exposed to more information in a single hour, than people in 1900 were exposed to in a single year. So it is probably actually impossible to keep up with the flow of information coming to you and also revisit previous information and remain a sane human being.
Though the photos may be irreplaceable, and I cannot re-create them, when lost, surely it is a better idea to just become focused on creating new memories? On having new experiences? That’s where my focus is right now. I have decided that mourning the loss of some digital files is not a good use of my time today. Instead I intend to learn my lesson about backing up, and plan for new and exciting events and experiences this year. And even, I may take less photos. Why? Because sometimes, in this new digital world, we spend more time capturing our lives on digital film than we do actually experiencing the moment. Have you noticed this? You go to a party, and instead of communicating properly with one another, the guests are taking photos of each other, then immediately uploading them to twitter and facebook, with captions about how great a time they’re having, then they spend the rest of the party on those social media platforms, responding to comments about the photo. They’re not actually present in the moment. They’re not fully at the party. I know I am guilty of this, I think anyone with a smartphone is probably guilty of having done this. So perhaps this is the year of spending more real-time with people, and less digital time. We’ll see if I manage to do that.
On another backing up note – if you are a writer, like myself. then you know how important it is to back up your works-in -progress. Last year, while writing The Other Side, my netbook crashed and shut down, and when I re-opened my file, 2000 words of my novel were missing. Not just the scenes I had just written, but some earlier scenes too. Because of the way I write (no plan or plot) I had absolutely no idea what I had lost exactly. There’s no way I could have re-written the scenes. After a minute of absolute panic (and screaming swear words, good thing I live in the middle of the woods), I vaguely remembered that when I downloaded Scrivener, there was some kind of automatic backup system. Using their help feature, I managed to find out where the auto-backups were stored, and there they were – all my lost words. So if you are a writer, and you sometimes get lazy about backing up your work – we all do at times – use Scrivener. It saved me then, and I have no doubt it will probably save me again in the future.
I hope you are having a better day than I have had so far, and now that I have made peace with losing my files, it’s time to get on with some work. Which of course, I will back up 😉
My stocking is out ready, is yours??
Well, it’s certainly been a very interesting year, and I don’t know if I am sad or relieved to see it end. I spent the first five months of the year living out of my suitcase, as I travelled to California, Hong Kong, around the UK, Oregon and then London! By May I was feeling a little worn out, but at the same time, I felt ready to make things happen. It was after attending Unleash the Power Within with Tony Robbins, and walking on fire, that I finally decided to go for it, and make a living doing what I enjoyed, not doing something that drained me.
Pretty much the day after making this decision, I got my first project, helping the awesome Adrian Incledon-Webber with publishing his first book – Heal Your Home. More projects soon came along, as my authors began recommending me to others, and word of mouth about my Amethyst Angel Indie Publishing servicesspread.
Then in July, after 6 months apart, my partner, (and Twin Flame) met up again, and decided to get back together. And I’ve been living with him in our little hideaway in the woods ever since, feeling like I am now finally home.
I finished the latest novel in the Earth Angel series, The Other Side, in September, and released in it November. It was a tough one to write, but I got there in the end. Seeing as I only managed to write one novel this year, I plan to publish two novels and a poetry anthology next year, so along with all the new publishing projects I have been taking on recently, it looks like it will be a very busy year indeed! At the moment I am very pleased to be working with the lovely Lori Lesko, on her book – Copyright – A Novel. Keep an eye out for it!
Also in the pipeline for next year, is to begin creating audio books, re-vamping and republishing The Doorway to PAM, and doing more regular oracle card readings and other videos. Oh, and I have a big birthday in January too… I am both excited and a little wary, but I know it will be an amazing year, no matter what my age is 🙂
But before all of that, I plan to have a wonderfully chilled-out Christmas, and I hope you do too! Thank you for following my blog, and for supporting me by buying and reading my books, it is all very much appreciated.
Love and light,
Michelle.xx
You might remember that back in March this year, I attended the Spiritual Renewal Retreat in Oregon – which is four and a half days with Neale Donald Walsch. During the session on the Friday, I had the chance to speak to Neale, to thank him for running the free retreat, which had enabled me to be able to attend. He asked me what I did, and I told him that I was a Spiritual Fiction Author. He asked for the title of a book I had written, and I replied ‘The Earth Angel Training Academy’.
He said he wanted to read the book, so the following day, I took in a copy I had with me (as I was about to begin writing The Other Side, and had taken it with me for research purposes). I gave it to Neale, who was very excited to be receiving gifts (at the same time, he was receiving a signed CD from the drummer of the Turtles, who was also on the retreat).
On the last day, the Sunday, we all gathered in the room, and I was sitting at the front. As Neale began the session, he pointed at me, and said ‘You!’ He then turned to the rest of the group, and told them that if he looked a bit bleary that day, it was because he had stayed up until 2am to read my book! He told everyone that they should all get a copy, but not to read it at night if they wanted to get any sleep!
Will Richardson, Neale’s friend and the President and Director of Programs at the CWG Foundation, also read The Earth Angel Training Academy, and The Elphite, both of which he reviewed on Amazon for me.
I didn’t want to bother Neale for a review, as I know he is a very busy man, but I was eager to know what he had thought after he had finished reading the book, so I e-mailed him yesterday and asked him for his thoughts.
I never expected to receive a reply so quickly, but I woke up this morning to find his e-mail, and needless to say, have been very happy since!
Here it is –
“The Earth Angel Training Academy packs wonderful and ancient truth into an imaginatively original tale that both delights and enlightens. The result: a read that is both fun and inspiring.” — Neale Donald Walsch
It was the best Christmas gift I could have asked for. If you would like to buy a copy of The Earth Angel Training Academy as a gift for someone this Christmas, there is still plenty of time! You can get one here.
Have a wonderful day!
You can now buy The Other Side on Amazon! Get in on Kindle or in paperback. (Please ignore the reviews, Amazon have somehow mixed by book up with another book by an author called Mary Gordon! I’m hoping they’ll sort it out soon!)
To celebrate, here is a book trailer for the series, which features the amazing song – ‘Ready When You Get Here’ by Bobby Andonov. I found the song by chance and realised that it described the idea of Twin Flames perfectly, and really fit the stories of the characters in the Earth Angel series. I listened to it on repeat while writing The Other Side. Please check out his other music, he is awesome.
The Launch Party is happening on Facebook, come and join us 🙂
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!)
Only 6 days to go! Yesterday, the proof copies arrived. I was incredibly excited to see the new covers on The Earth Angel Training Academy and The Earth Angel Awakening, and to see The Other Side for the first time. I think the three of them look amazing together as a series, and I’m very pleased with how they look, thanks to Liz and Jason.
I’m just giving the proof copy of The Other Side a check through for last minute errors, but as a sneaky tip to anyone reading this – the new editions of Academy and Awakening in paperback are already available on Amazon 🙂 The Kindle versions and Smashwords versions with new covers will be ready by the official launch next Wednesday.
Twin Flame Blog 