February 2017

Praise For Meet the Imaginative Joe Dreamer

February 28, 2017 Karlene Stewart Leave a comment Blog, featured

About Meet the Imaginative Joe Dreamer

In Meet the Imaginative Joe Dreamer, a young boy uses his creativity and imagination to solve his childhood problems. Joe Dreamer’s parents are entertained by his creativity and sense of humor, and similarly, the book serves to encourage young children to be creative and imaginative.

Positive and Happy

An Amazon customer has reviewed and described this book as happy. He says “the story’s overall message is therapeutic and happy.” He ends his review by saying “Power to the positive and to the imagination.” This pleases me and fulfills one of my intentions for the book. This cozy picture book is a great read for any family, as it brings together exciting ingredients of the Caribbean, imagination and viewing problem solving through a young child’s eyes.

Get a Preview of the Book

I would like to share a view of the book with you; just click on the preview tab in the image below. Feel free to share the message also.

First in a Series

Meet the Imaginative Joe Dreamer is the first in a series of children’s picture book. Later on, in just under two months, we will see the second book in this series, Joe Dreamer’s Easter Bunny. Watch this space for more on this in the coming weeks.

In this first edition, Joe faces the challenge of going to the beach on a day when it rains. How do you imagine a typical child would react to the outburst of rain just when he is enjoying his day on the beach? Well, the Amazon customer remembers “seeing a disgruntled child punching the rain by a beach. He was so unhappy because the weather had spoilt his day.” Our little Joe Dreamer takes a different approach, and I tell you all about it in this thrilling story. I look forward to hearing your feedback on this first series, while I get ready to share more with you about the next book in the series.

Best regards

Karlene

Journey of Miracles – Through a Young Girl’s Eyes

February 11, 2017 Karlene Stewart Leave a comment Blog

A few weeks ago I spoke of my reverse and reset process where I would revise and rebrand some of my books. This process has led to my new book title – Journey of Miracles, Through A Young Girl’s Eyes.

Journey of Miracles

Journey of Miracles, Through A Young Girl’s Eyes is the revised and rebranded version of Let My Soul Bare, A Young Girl’s Emotional Journey. Yes, it’s a different title, because the changes are quite significant. The Point of View has changed completely. As you can imagine from just the title and subtitle, Let My Soul Bare explored a young girl’s emotional journey; the kind of journey that one reader described as being an “emotional roller-coaster.” Journey of Miracles puts on a positive spin, and is from the point of view of miracles. What both book versions share in common is a story told through the eyes of a young girl. I won’t say too much at this stage, as we still have a few weeks to go before the launch. The manuscript is still in editing phase.

Lessons Learned

There is a famous quote that states “mistakes are meant for learning, not repeating!” I couldn’t agree more. As mentioned in my post about my writer journey, starting out I didn’t put enough effort into ensuring my book was properly edited and had the best design. But after the experience of having a poorly edited book be heavily marketed and earning royalties, this time I wanted to do things right. Journey of Miracles has already been through two rounds of editing and is now going through the process of developmental editing and proofreading.

Miracles

Why miracles? I like to look at the beauty in life, the tiny miracles. As I explain in the book, miracle is not limited to just turning water into wine or walking on water kind of events. In fact, some dictionaries use the words “extraordinary” and “unusual” to define the kind of events that make a miracle. These are the types of miracles that we see in Journey of Miracles, Through A Young Girl’s Eyes. I will share more with you in upcoming weeks.

Cheers to you on your own journey.

Best regards

Karlene

Outsourcing is Good, but Beware

February 5, 2017 Karlene Stewart Leave a comment Blog

Outsourcing for independent publishers or Indie Authors can be a good thing, because you can’t always do everything on your own. You also want to save time and costs.

Get Clear on Your Goals

You need to get clear on what you want to achieve, when you are looking to outsource aspects of your work, such as the editing, design and formatting. If, for example, you are aiming for a bestseller book, your goals should align accordingly. So, if you are on a tight budget, it doesn’t tie in with your goals if you choose to outsource the book editing to someone who may not give you high quality, even if he/she charges significantly less. Although you want to save on costs, remember your goal is to have a bestselling book, so don’t sacrifice on quality.

Five Star Reviews

Going further on the point of quality, beware of who you choose to do business with. There are freelance services available, where various skilled people are competing with each other to offer the same services. 5 stars Each person is keen on getting positive reviews in order to keep ahead of the competition. Naturally, you want a bestselling book, so you choose the person with 300 five star reviews, over the person with two five star reviews, and over the person with 300 four star reviews. But everyone wants five star reviews.

It’s All About the Money

Now this is where things get tricky, because five star reviews equals higher demand and more money for that five star rated individuall. Some persons can keep up with this higher demand and supply their customers with continued quality service and low costs. But what happens when they can’t or don’t.

A sample scenario is where you solicit a five star rated individual, who then delivers your work a day or two late, and communicated poorly throughout the process. You like the end product, but you take away points for the poor communication and late delivery. You give him a rating of 4.8 and you provide a nice written feedback. He writes you with surprise, expressing concern that you didn’t like his work and that he receives mostly five star reviews. From his point of view you have essentially put his income at risk.

Keep your goals in mind and do not compromise. If you are on a timeline to meet your goal, then he has now set you back by a day or two. Maybe you could forgive the timing, but due to the limited communication, you didn’t know what was happening. Independent publishers are usually keen on having control over the process, so good communication is important. Communication is also vital because if there are issues or questions, these can get addressed early. If you are dealing with tardiness in addition to poor communication, then you will be set back with your goals even further.

You do have good help available at affordable costs, but you want to be clear on your goals, and beware of what factors you are up against. Ensure that the service you receive matches with what you want.