#tamara mousner

[trmousner]

State of Being

Hello.  Thank you for visiting the Imagination Factory.  It's been awhile since I've posted news about my novel, Being, a paranormal romance for young adults about EBN (rhymes with Eden) a female extraterrestrial marooned in Lancaster, California, after her ship collides with space trash orbiting Earth.  

Some of you may have noticed I've all but disappeared from Facebook and Twitter, but it's because I'm locked away writing Being's sequel.  In addition, I'm developing two other projects for young adults not connected with the Being series.  

Over the past few months, Being has earned even more 5/5 star reviews, one of which appeared on the Midwest Book Review website, (once you click the link, scroll down the page a bit to see it) courtesy of reviewer Tracy Riva.  My debut novel was also selected as a Global eBook Award Finalist.  

Being has also earned spots on six Goodreads' lists, the Best Break Out Author Novels List, the 2011 YA Debut Authors List, the First in Series List, the Best Book Covers 2011 List, the 2011 Books to Read List and the What To Read Next List.  Please consider casting votes if you haven't already.

For those of you waiting for the paperback edition of Being to be released, I promise it's still in the works.  The minute I get my sticky little paws on that high resolution artwork, the books will be available, as I know many readers are as anxious as I am for those babies to hit the marketplace.  

In the meantime, please consider popping over and liking Being on Amazon, Facebook and Barnes and Noble.  We Indie authors need all the help we can get!  

Thanks again for coming through my little corner of the interwebs.  Until next time, wishing you only the best!

[trmousner]

Woven Strands is generously hosting Author Week on her blog and invited me to participate.  The schedule of authors and topics we'll be discussing is as follows: 

Monday June 6th – Allie Burke: Inspiration of the paranormal

Tuesday June 7th – Tamara Mousner: Craft Matters

Wednesday June 8th – Kristina Caden: Why I YA

Thursday June 9th – Mia Castile: Why I love YA

Friday June 10th – Leah P Lozano: For The Love of Writing

Saturday June 11th – Pattie Larsen: Call Me Indie Girl

Sunday June 12th – Surprise Author Interview

Be sure to hop over, check out the interviews and articles and don't miss your chance to enter the giveaways!!

Until next time, wishing you only the best!! 

[trmousner]

Grateful for Being's Great Reviews:

I'm thrilled to announce Being earned more high marks from bloggers Yara Santos from Once Upon A Twilight and Barbara from Babs World of Reviews.  Thank you ladies for taking on the project and your very kind praise!  I am indebted to you both <3.

If you write paranormal romance for young adults, click on the above links, read their blogs and if your project seems like a good match, send them a review request! 

[trmousner]

Bloggers Help Authors Sell Books!

Hi there and thanks for visiting the Self-Publishing Realm.  For those of you thinking about going the self-published route, I cannot place enough emphasis on the importance of recruiting bloggers to review your book.  A blogger's recommendation is worth its weight in platinum because BLOGGERS HELP AUTHORS SELL BOOKS!!! 

A little nervous about emailing total strangers?  Don't be! Just follow these simple tips for success:  

1) Make a List: Keep track of whom you're emailing.  This will help keep you organized, ahead of the time management curve and is a great safety net so you don't inadvertently spam anyone (ick). 

1) Be Professional: The best practice is to place the same amount of attention and care in blogger review request emails as you would query letters to literary agents.  Regardless of where you find them, be sure to read their blogs and verify that they enjoy reading what you've written.  Do not waste their time!

2) Be Patient:  The more followers a blogger has, the more in demand their services will be, so you may not receive a response right away.  Do not be discouraged and don't spam them either!  Some folks don't send responses at all and that's okay.  Don't take it personally and move on to the next blogger on your list.  

3) Be Courteous: Technically, this falls under item 1 above, but remember, every interaction you have whether you're sending an email or leaving a comment on someone's blog, you're building your personal brand.  

Believe me, I know how time intensive and discouraging it can be some days, but hang in there.  There's so many wonderful bloggers out there and they're waiting for you to email them. 

Wishing you only the best : D

[trmousner]

Dr. Geek (seen on YouTube & TMZ) performing outside Canali Cafe in Venice, California, Freestyling about me, my husband, our friend Kat and my book, Being.  

[trmousner]

Being scores another five-star review, courtesy of book blogger Albert Robbins for a total of ELEVEN 5/5 star reviews on Amazon.  

[trmousner]

NINE 5 out of 5 star reviews!!!!

I'm thrilled the ninth 5-star review for my novel, Being, has appeared on Amazon.  More reviews coming soon ... 

[trmousner]

Welcome

Hi there and thanks for visiting T. R. Mousner’s Self-Publishing Realm. 

My purpose in documenting my experiences in the self-publishing realm is to share my journey as I navigate and discover this strange new world and hopefully, help a fellow writer or two along the way.  So let’s get started, shall we? 

I self-published my debut novel, Being, as a Kindle e-book in the second week of March.  Although my book had yet to be listed on Amazon, I went right to work and began searching for book bloggers to review it.  To my delight, one of the first bloggers I queried accepted my offer.  Yes! 

The day after Being appeared on Amazon (naked, without even a placeholder cover) the earthquake and tsunami devastated parts of Japan.  Since I’ve had a taste of living through natural disasters (the Northridge earthquake in 1994 left my roommate, Andrea, and I homeless for three weeks and in September 2008, Hurricane Ike caused significant damage to our home, but at least my husband and I still had a home, unlike countless others) I kept Being’s release to myself because I felt announcing it would be inappropriate in light of others’ suffering.   

For the next week, I focused on recruiting reviewers, often working between fourteen and sixteen hours a day.  Once I’d distributed a few electronic advance review copies, I expanded my scope and began increasing my social media presence.  At this point I had only two followers on Twitter, but at least Being had a two-tone preliminary cover. Progress!

By the end of my first week as a self-published author, Being had earned a few 5-star reviews (that’s 5 out of 5 stars, to avoid any confusion.)  I was also slowly gaining Twitter followers.  In addition (and probably because of those wonderful reviews, although I'm not certain, just guessing) Being somehow landed on Amazon's Just Good Books list.  To say I was relieved is a major understatement, because those first weeks were wrought with torture.  I constantly questioned, had I made the worst mistake of my career?  Was I deluded?  Or worse, was I a deluded hack? 

 Thankfully, the work involved in recruiting reviewers proved an effective distraction from my insecurities, as did learning about the wonderful world of Twitter and other social media sites.  I also spent a sliver of each day stalking myself on-line and reveling in how many links I was accruing when searching ‘Being T R Mousner.’  I almost had one whole page to myself!  SCORE! 

 I have to sign off for now, but please return for another episode / chapter in my journey.

Wishing you only the best!