Welcome to the world of independent publishing.

The great news is that virtually everyone has an inexpensive avenue to share their work with the world.

The awful news is that virtually everyone has an inexpensive avenue to share their work with the world.

While it’s now so much easier to present your novel, novella, short stories, or poems to a potentially huge audience, you’re now competing with every Henry, Wadsworth, and Longfellow who thinks they’ve penned the next best seller.

Collectively all of those books, online or otherwise, are noise. They’re the background from which you’re hoping your effort will stand apart. It’s not easy. Half of all self-published authors earn less than $500 per year. The top ten percent of earners account for seventy five percent of the income.

So how do you break through the noise? Here are five ideas:

The Crescent Chronicles is a college age paranormal romance series. Flight takes place the summer before Allie starts her Freshman year, and Focus picks up with her first semester. I love writing about college age characters and I also love to watch movies and TV shows about them.

Here are a few of my favorites.

1) Felicity- I absolutely loved this show when I was in high school. I was so excited about college, and it just hit the spot.

2) Greek- I was out of college already when this one came on, but it was a guilty pleasure. I especially loved the brother-sister dynamic.

This may sound terrible because every other writer seems to come up with all of these  interesting people or situations which inspired them to write. That’s not really the case where I’m concerned. I just enjoy writing, simple as that. Although some stories may be inspired by certain situations in my life there is no one specific thing or person to mention.

I never even thought I'd ever be a writer. I tripped into the business, literally. I fell off of a train on the way to visit my future in laws. I broke my knee and ended up needing surgery and quite a few months healing up. At the time I was a professional firefighter. A broken knee in the fire service isn't going cut it.

The original Dallas series was a big hit on TV when I was young. The show’s protagonist was also one of the show’s villains. J.R. Ewing, billed as the man we love to hate. It was that appellation that first got me thinking about creating characters readers would both love and hate. J.K. Rowling did a masterful turn at this in creating Severus Snape. Even his name told us to hate him, and yet there was something alternately charming and redeeming about the man that over time drew readers to him.

In creating the Hollyweird series I had this idea in mind. I wanted to create characters that we may not like in the beginning (ala Snape) and yet in time, would grow to love them, or at least understand them. In writing my first YA, Never Slow Dance With A Zombie, I created a selfish protagonist in Margot Jean Johnson. I thought it would be fun for readers to see how she justified her mean and selfish actions before I set out to redeem her in the end. My editor at Tor warned me that readers might have difficulty identifying with Margot. But I wanted to write a flawed protagonist and did. While that first book sold well, the reviews were mixed. A LOT of young women hated Margot. Lesson learned.

I always strive to create characters that ring true, that readers actually come across in real life. Characters we might not like at first glance, but we recognize as people we know. In writing The Zombie Always Knocks Twice I made sure the characters we will eventually love to hate were not my protagonists. Anne Marie, Kris’ hateful older sister, and Talia Multisanto, Kris’ adventuresome, boozing best friend who has a knack for starting trouble, are peripheral characters in this first book. Still, my very first review on Goodreads had this to say about Talia: I don't see how Kris and Talia could ever be best friends when they're so different. And Talia is also a great piece of work, if I may add. What with the drinking, venting on people, acts of revenge etc.. She's gotta drive Kris crazy one of these days. 

We sometimes think of sacred ground as a very grand or unusual place, marked by ornate gates and much symbolism. But sacred ground can be quite unassuming and ordinary.

Katie, the heroine of THE HALLOWED ONES, has always lived on sacred ground. She’s grown up in a peaceful Amish settlement, living with her parents and sister in the house where she was born. She knows every other person in the settlement. Crime is unheard-of. Though she has many responsibilities, Katie has always been free to wander about the rural settlement, to feel the cool grass under her fingers and the warm sun on her face. She feels safe here, though she yearns to test her boundaries and taste the world outside her fence.

The Amish church is the key to the sacredness of her community. Church services in her world take place at each house on a rotating basis – there is no physical church building. Pews are unloaded into each backyard every other Sunday, and worship is wound into everyday lives and places.

Okay, well I have to start out by saying I grew up in the 80s. So, I have a lot of favorites that kids today have no idea about. You know what I mean. Well, in a backlash to the terrible kids fiction series of today (no names mentioned *cough* Twilight *cough*) I give you my favorite book series as a child. I leaned towards the scary, the adventures, and the creative, as you can see. If your child wants to read a really great book, then why not start them out with one of these three?

1. Aliens Ate My Homework by Bruce Coville – When tiny aliens land in your room and start eating your homework, what do you do? Join them of course! This book series by well-known author Bruce Coville had me alternating between hysterical laughter and thoughtful repose. More than just a sci-fi fluff piece, this series delves into what it means to be alien, father-son relationships, and what true friendship is. Whether defeating alien bullies at school or traveling the universe with a four-legged karate master, Rod Albright learns a lot about how things work.

I’m tired of gray morals and anti-heroes.

It took me long enough. As a kid who grew up reading comic books, I would run away from do-gooders like Spider-Man and Captain America. Spider-Man was impossible for any artist to treat seriously, what with every available inch of negative space being filled word balloons of light-hearted stream-of-consciousness “jokes”, and Captain America’s square jaw and “do the right thing” philosophy just smacked of simpleton virtues and an unwavering devotion to the status quo. No, I wanted to see the Punisher hunt down criminals and gun them down in endless succession. The guy was basically a serial killer with a heart of gold, and I loved it.

It took a while for the anti-hero ideal to spread, but now, in some watered-down sense, it’s everywhere. A lot of writers these days are making their heroes more “human” by showing their weakness, their indecision, and their keen sense of their own failings. Sure, literature’s bygone heroes might have been cardboard cutouts of perfection, but when did we decide that humanity was the most limp-wristed animal on the block?

Are we really looking to blood-sucking vampires when we look for an ideal to live by? Moral shades of gray? What does that even mean?

This story did not start off as a western romance. The original idea I had was about a woman who was under the care of a psychiatrist because she murdered her husband.  What they didn’t know was her reason for the murder, which was self-defense. She had been in this abusive relationship for years and finally hit her breaking point, thus protecting herself and fatally injuring her husband.

I had plans to make this doctor-patient relationship, but I just couldn’t get into the story enough to make it work. For one, I know nothing of psychiatry and it would have been ridiculous for me to even try to write a character that specialized in that. They always tell you to write what you know and what I know is country living. So, I reverted back to my comfort zone and pulled ideas from the original story into “Zane: The McKades of Texas”.

The heroine of the novel, Kellan Anderson—later known as Andi Ford, is on the run from her abusive ex-boyfriend.  She keeps a journal (just like I had planned for the original story) that recounts the abusive attacks. That’s pretty much all I used from my original plot as the rest of the story involves ranch living and cowboys. The journal entries were what really started the whole story line. I just put myself in this character’s position and imagined how depressed and frightened she felt during these accounts.

What’s in a title?

Thinking of titles of romance novels can be so fun! The most fun? Hearing my 11 or 7 year old children ask me, “Mommy, is that Her Wicked Ways?” in reference to my first novel. I admit the first time I muttered, “Uh, yeah,” while suppressing a cringe at having my kids say that out loud. I’ve since learned to embrace them saying it. (But no, they don’t read them!)

 So if a romance title isn’t okay for a kid to say, why are they titled that way? Um, because they’re not for kids? In all seriousness, I love romance titles. I think they’re sexy and provocative, just like the novels they represent. A title with wicked, seduce, passion, or rogue is already halfway in my shopping cart. So how’d I come up with mine?

Believe it or not, Her Wicked Ways titled itself in about five seconds. As soon as I knew who the heroine was and how she was a self-indulgent Society girl banished to the country for misbehaving, Her Wicked Ways just popped straight into my head. I panicked at first because I thought for sure there had to be another romance novel with this title. Why else would it come so quickly to my brain? A quick Internet search told me the title was all mine. There were similar titles out there, but not precisely that one. Easy peasy! (I should note that titles are duplicated all the time—go search Fifty Shades of Grey/Gray and see what I mean! I try not to duplicate, however, especially if a book was released within the last three or so years.)

Then I had to title the next book, which wasn’t terribly difficult, but it didn’t stick. (At least at first. You’ll see how I came full circle.) See, Her Wicked Ways was originally the first in a three book series about siblings Miranda, Gideon, and Jasper. The books were Her Wicked Ways, Their Wicked Bargain, and His Wicked Heart. I ended up shelving Her Wicked Ways and focusing on His Wicked Heart as a stand-alone novel. Since it was no longer going to be part of a series following Her Wicked Ways (or so I thought), I retitled it The Earl’s Obsession. I didn’t love that so I went back to the drawing board. In the meantime I was plotting the book that came after Jasper and Olivia’s story and like Her Wicked Ways, the title came to me like a bolt of lightning. To Seduce a Scoundrel was perfect because the story was about a celibate scoundrel who was going to require seduction. Using that as inspiration, I eventually settled on Surrender of a Scoundrel for book two.

Meet Cressenda and Beckett, the heroine and hero from Frozen Heart. Truthfully, when I wrote these characters, I didn’t have any actual real people in mind, so it was difficult to find pictures of what I saw in my head as I was writing. But I think Minka and Jesse are pretty close to perfect. What do you think?

We had the incredible honor to sit down with Lillian Gale, the colorful and strange frontwoman of cult hit band Juicy Bed. On her mind was magic, oddities and the art world’s boy prince (her former lover!), Leonidas Bondi. Listen in as we talk with her… 

How did you first meet Leonidas Bondi? 
A: Oh, it’s all hazy sometimes. I think it was at a show or something. I remember he was wearing a ring with a black stone on it and his fingers looked so white and beautiful in contrast. And his eye makeup was awful then. The boy hadn’t learned how to apply it properly yet. It was all smudged under one eye and all winged out on the other side. *laughs* Such a mess, that boy. Still a mess, always a mess.

What are your thoughts on muses? 
 A: Muses! I’ve had loads of them. People, places, animals. They’re great. I like the really magical ones, though, like this bloke I met who calls himself the Golden Man. He’s always leading people in odd directions. I've followed him a few times.

Hi, I’m Tally Francis, the main female lead in No Remorse. I’d like to tell you a little about myself.

I’m probably more comfortable with computers than people, and in some areas I’m a little obsessive compulsive. My friends are mostly work buddies, because I’m employed in a secret organization known as ASTA––the Agency for Seizure of Terrorist Assets––which is part of the CIA but operates out of Montreal to reduce US Government oversight.

I’ve got an eidetic memory. I found when I was eight I could remember just about anything I read or was told. My dad gave me a book by Isaac Asimov, The Realm of Numbers. I used to read it every day. I realized one day I could recite it, word for word. I could visualize every number, equation, problem solution and pattern. Rubik’s Cube takes me less than a minute. It’s strange, ‘cause I don’t really understand why other people aren’t the same as me. When I was eleven, my high school math teacher, Mr. Eddie, got me into programming. By the time I was fifteen, I was maintaining the school’s website and doing jobs for local businesses—databases, online stores, websites, security... that sort of stuff.

I’m sitting here in my home office fifty years after my first published work, after a lifetime of writing for others and having ten books published, wondering just what was that spark? The answer’s lurking in the cobwebs of my mind, hard to focus on.

I think, though, the first glimmer came when I was in grade school, and the teacher asked us to write a story about Mother’s day. She liked my story so much she read it aloud to the class the next day, and a pretty little girl approached me afterwards and said “I loved your story, Donnie.” That launched both my writing career and my fear of pretty little girls.

In high school I was determined to be the world’s greatest cartoonist. I took a practical general business class in college, but continued my interest in creative things, becoming the school paper’s cartoonist. After college I joined a trade magazine’s editorial staff, started my forty-year career of writing for others: eleven years at the magazines, six as a public relations professional, and twenty-one as head of my own commercial editing and writing business, McNair Marketing Communications. Along the way I wrote three published “how-to” books on my own.

Looking back all these year (I’m 56 years young) I can easily tell you what inspired me to become an author.

I was born in the 1950’s and because my parents were both working at that time, I spent most of my time with my grandparents. Especially my granddad took care of me, because grandma had to do the cooking, cleaning, washing etc. He was a pensioner, who retired at the early age of 46 after having fought two world wars. He was well-educated and loved to read. I remember sitting on his lap while he was reading to me from Alexandre Dumas (in French, because he was raised in the French speaking part of Belgium). So not only was I drenched in literature, also in a foreign language!

Once I could walk and was some two years old, my grandmother began to take me along on her trips to the city library. It was a long way to go on short legs, but I did not complain. First of all, because I loved that stuffed old place with bookcases up to the ceiling, secondly because I was promised a big sack of Belgian frites when I went along. Oh yes, I was subject to bribes and for a bar of chocolate or some frites I’d do a lot!

In the second book of the Gallagher series, Gallagher's Hope, we’re back in Montana! Having spent many wonderful years in Montana, it seemed only natural to set my first series here. Montana is still considered by many who have never stepped foot on her soil, to be a wild land of cowboys and Indians. It is this 'ideal' that is the setting for the majority of each story.

Primarily set on the Hawk's Peak ranch, this story unfolds as the reader gets a glimpse of what I believe that area of Montana would have been like in the late 19th century. The train system had begun to make its way into Montana, though that had been Butte whereas the fictional town of Briarwood is set north of Bozeman, an area I preferred and therefore I took certain liberties in transportation, though I'm certain, or at least hopeful, readers won't object too harshly.

Montana is a land of rugged beauty and glorious landscapes. When I walk through the woods or hike up the mountains, I often imagine what life would have been like two hundred years ago (of course without the aid of sturdy hiking boots). I see those images in my mind and can easily transport my imagination back to that time. Readers will also notice an absence of native peoples in my stories. The omission was intentional as I preferred to focus solely on the family and their purposes, struggles and relationships.

Hi. My name is Nathan Rockledge. I’m ten and a half (well really I’m ten and three quarters, but who’s counting?) I’m going into fifth grade this fall. When I grow up, I really want to be a comic book artist. I think I’m pretty good at it, and I love making up stories. I’ve actually done a few already. Maybe one day I’ll show them to you.

 Sometimes I get in trouble because I’m supposed to be doing something else, but I just can’t help myself. Once I get started drawing, I just get lost in what I’m doing. I usually draw myself doing awesome stuff as Nate Rocks. He’s me, only cooler.

I especially have to be careful in school. There is this one girl named Lisa Crane, and she is so annoying. Her mom and my mom are best friends. One day I got in trouble for drawing in school when we were supposed to be taking a spelling test. Do you know what Lisa did? She went right home and told her mom, who of course called my mom. Seriously – who does that?

Abby says my drawings are dumb, but I think they are cool. Oh yeah – Abby’s my older sister. Sometimes she’s okay... I guess. Most of the time I just try to stay out of her way. She’s always in some kind of a mood – Mom says it’s just a phase, but so far this phase has been lasting as long as I can remember. Older sisters can definitely be a pain sometimes. I was hoping to be able to spend the summer without her around, but as it turns out Mom & Dad decided to send us both to the same overnight camp! I mean can you believe that? Of all the thousands - maybe millions – of camps, you’d think they could have sent her somewhere different.

North and South
By: Elizabeth Gaskell
Publisher: Dover Publications
ISBN: 9780486479521
Pub Date: June 13, 2012
Pages: 464
Buy Link: Barnes & Nobles

If you are looking for a good read and you enjoy the novels of Jane Austen, then look no further than Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South. Written around the same time as Austen’s works, this novel delves deeper into class conflicts, the unions, the hard work of laborers, and even the hero’s inner psyche. The supporting characters are stronger than most of Austen’s and you really grow to care about their struggles.

The main idea of the novel is that a pastor’s daughter, Margaret Hale, is transported along with her ailing mother and now jobless father from her quiet and comfortable home in the south of England to the crowded, dirty, and chaotic north. She must find her spot in this new society, and befriends a mill worker and his dying daughter. Her father starts tutoring a mill master, a man named Thornton, how quickly becomes smitten with the beautiful and headstrong Margaret. She rejects him, however, because she has seen the ordeal that the mill workers are put through.