Feeling Lucky
Fayetteville Fairies Book 1
by Kathy Bryson
What It Takes To Go Wide Without Getting Overwhelmed
Going wide is usually something I try to avoid. Tempting as it may be, the spreading consequences are usually enough to keep me from eating as much pizza and ice cream as I’d like! But the idea of my books having broader reach is pretty appealing so as the contract for my first book, Feeling Lucky, came to an end, I took a good look at just what going wide would entail.
Going wide means publishing through many channels instead of just through Amazon. While Amazon is still a big player, iBook, Nook, Kobo and many other e-book distributors including Overdrive and Scribd for libraries, also have audiences. There are also many overseas distributors and easy ways to access them through services like Smashwords and Draft2Digital. With new channels, you might reach new readers, bloggers, and reviewers!
It was also an opportunity to revisit and revised my work. Even though my editor and I both proofed the original several times, I still found typos and other errors! And after six years, you can see awkward spots and undeveloped places that you missed the first time around. You don’t want to fall into the trap of completely rewriting, but time is wonderful for editing, and it was just too tempting to do a little polishing now that I had more writing experience.
Then, there’s the chance to freshen your look. Even in e-books, the cover is the 1stdraw for the reader, the first impression on any sales channel. Some covers become classics, others just become commonplace. After six years of pitching Feeling Lucky, I’d gotten a really clear picture of where the premise needed clarifying to readers. So, I had the great good fortune of finding and working with Dina Arakcheeva through Upwork.com to draw that exact picture. And it came out gorgeous!
There was also the question of key words and categories. As it turns out, those need refreshing periodically too. For example, over time ‘paranormal’ became a hot trend, then settled into a genre with specific requirements, so is that a word that still fits your work and are readers still searching for it? To find out what words are being used, type some you think fit your work into Google and Amazon and see what auto-complete suggests. To find out the number of times those words are used, you can use an app like Publisher Rocket. You’ll have to test a number of synonyms to find what works for your book, but both Smashwords and Draft2Digital make it easy to change them.
Going wide is a challenge, but one I think gives new life to my leprechauns. After all, their legend has been around for 5,000 years. They’re not about to let me slack off now!
About Feeling Lucky:
Megan O'Malley was mortified when she got drunk and pinched the bandleader's ass at a cousin's wedding. But she was astonished when he turned out to be a leprechaun! Seems they're not the little, green men of fairytales after all. They just say that because they like a good joke and what better way to hide the gold? Oh, that bit's true - as is the part about not sharing.
Fergus O’Reilly cannot figure out what he did to upset the Queen of the Fairies. He was playing a wedding when a drunken lady pinched his ass and the Queen declared him caught. Now he’s broke, homeless, and hustling to stop the lovely lady with the wandering fingers from spending his money!
Fergus O’Reilly cannot figure out what he did to upset the Queen of the Fairies. He was playing a wedding when a drunken lady pinched his ass and the Queen declared him caught. Now he’s broke, homeless, and hustling to stop the lovely lady with the wandering fingers from spending his money!
A madcap fantasy of money and magic and making the most of your dreams in a perfectly ordinary, Midwestern town where the legends of fairytales and folklore live right next door!
About the Author:
Kathy Bryson is the award-winning author of tongue-in-cheek fantasy that ranges from leprechauns who play the stock market to zombies who hang out with and harangue med students. She’d like to say she’s climbed tall mountains, rappelled off cliffs, and saved small children, but actually she tends to curl up and read, is a life-long advocate of Ben & Jerry’s, and caters to 2 spoiled cats. She works regularly with student writing, so she can claim to have saved a few term papers. Follow her at:
Facebook - kathy.bryson.77
Twitter - kathybryson2
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