Puppy? PUPPY!! Oh, and New Promo Services Explained

YAY!! We just took in the most handsome Siberian Husky I've ever seen. Meet Axel Loki Torbeck, our newest addition to our blended family. He's moody right now because he misses his brother and sisters at the farm, but he's coming around. He's 8 weeks old today, bigger than my fat cat Blizzard, and happiest when he's outside. Say hi to Axel!!

He's such a cuddlebug! And spoiled rotten after only a day. As I'm typing this, I'm sitting on the floor with his head on my leg, and I'm turned around with my laptop on the couch, just so he'll be happy. I'm such a pushover...







Now that you've met my newest lil' tyke, I'd like to introduce you all to my new services for independent authors.

First and foremost, author interviews are always going to be available. I love getting to know new authors, and I'm spicing up the interview questions to make it more personal. While there's plenty of focus on your book(s), I tend to think the main focus ought to be on you as a person. If the readers get to know an author as a person, including what makes you tick, it makes you relatable and intriguing. If they take interest in you, they are more likely to take an interest in his books.

Another service is blowing up Twitter with posts about you. Pretty helpful, I have a lot of bloggers and other authors as followers, so that helps. You pick two consecutive days, provide me with a few basic things like book title/genre, buy links, mini excerpts from reviews, things like this, and I blow up Twitter. I use a Tweet scheduling app that allows me to sit down and plan out what I'm going to say and the program posts the Tweets when I tell it to. So you can see how this would be helpful, especially since I have a very active following that frequently re-tweets many of my posts.

Something I will will be eternally grateful for is guest bloggers. Oh, how awesome you folks are with coming up with things to post! Which not only helps you, it helps me too. I don't always have enough time to post everyday (or even on a regular schedule), so when amazing authors wanna do a guest blog, far be it from me to turn you away. Unless you submit some horrific erotica scene. Much love to the erotic writers out there, but this blog must remain PG-13 or lower. I'm a young adult writer, I don't want a 15 year old reading about graphic sex scenes. Please check out the "For Authors" page on this blog and read the fine print at the bottom. It's not too small to read, so you'll be good.

Do you have a new cover coming out? Wanna reveal it to the public? I'll make a post letting folks know your reveal is coming, build some anticipation, and we'll reveal it here on the Drunken Space Penguin! Every author is different, and we'll set up your cover reveal to meet your needs the best we can. I did this on a few blogs for my most recent book, and it was super fun!

If you're willing to do a giveaway, you can add that to any of the other services offered, or you can just run a giveaway without anything else, though I will say the best luck has come from Twitter to get entries in giveaways. I've had giveaways when there were no winners because there were no entries. It was a total sad day, but sometimes the fish just don't bite. While all my blog posts automatically get a tweet, I recommend incorporating at least one other service. You want sales, right? That's kind of the idea. :)

Now, I am starting to do reviews. I'm a quick reader, but I'm a busy person outside of reading. Heck, I barely have time to write, let alone read! But I'm trying it. And for details on reviews, please see the "For Authors" tab up top, and please, please, PLEASE read it. For the love of all things that sparkle, read the section for reviews and the fine print. It is so vitally important, because if you submit me a non-fiction book, I'm immediately shelving it as "I am never ever ever gonna read your book. Like, Ever." If you don't follow my requests about reviews, you'll get shelved as the same. I'm not being mean or any other ridiculous name someone might decide to call me, I'm just being fair. In all honesty, would you really want a review on a book about the different types of artistic techniques of the 15th century from someone who thinks art is a waste of time and all artists are just too lazy to do any real work? No, that wouldn't be very good, would it? Similarly, I don't like to read graphic novels, because I really don't care for Japanese Anime or anything that can be traced back to it. Am I wrong? No, but I have a different opinion than the masses, it seems. Are they bad books? Probably not, but I'll never read one, so I'll never know. 

Okay, now that I got that out, there are a couple of paid services I'm going to be offering. I know, I know, you're sitting there thinking, "But Ashley, WHY? Why are you making us pay for your services now?" Well, the answer is quite simple. Everything else up to this point is fairly easy, and requires little effort. Anyone who pays someone to do these things is clearly gullible or a newb. Or both. But these services require a little more effort, real work, and if I'm going to take time away from writing and other promotions to put time into these things, a little donation to the Ashley is Broke Fund wouldn't kill you. Not like I'm asking for your firstborn child or anything. 

So, paid services will be available when they get posted to the "For Authors" tab and I'll post on here to let y'all know. But you can expect the option of creating a book trailer, mini-book tours, creating and maintaining social media profiles, and editing services. Others may be included, but this is just to give you an idea of what may be offered soon. 

If you're interested in any of the services we offer, feel free to click the "Contact Me" tab and fill out the form. If you want something not listed as an option, just explain what you're looking for in the message field, and I'll get back to you as quick as I can!

Thanks for reading this far, and for your patience, I give you...