Monthly Archives: August 2014

Havasu in August, without air conditioning

Date: August 16, 2014

Author: Bobbi Holmes

Yesterday morning we woke up to no air conditioning. That may not seem like a big deal to some people –but if you’ve ever been to Lake Havasu City in August, you know it gets a tad warm here. The high yesterday was 106°, which is actually cool for this time of year. Today it’s been around 109°.

The good news—we have a home warranty—the bad news, the repairman couldn’t get here until this morning, more than 24 hours after we called.

Fortunately there is more good news; it seems our house has good insulation, because while it got to the upper 80s in the house, it really wasn’t bad with the fans going—and we do have a pool to jump into. Mom’s side of the house has its own air, so the furry kids camped out over there for most of the time. I ended up sleeping in Mom’s room last night, and Don dealt with our warm bedroom.

I didn’t get much writing done. Seems excessive heat kills the creative juices. Didn’t get any house cleaning done either. Seems excessive heat makes me lazy.

But the air is back on, and I am a happy camper again.

One reason I’m happy—beside the cooler air—is the fact we have a home warranty. Do you have one? I know some people don’t like them, and you have to read the fine print, but when I was in real estate we always encouraged our buyers to get one.

We signed up for a new policy this year. Instead of paying one lump sum, we pay a monthly fee. We’ve already used it three times so far—dishwasher, backed up plumbing and now the air conditioner. We have to pay a service fee each time they come out, which is $60 for our policy. That is still much cheaper than having to pay for the total repair bill. Today they waved the $60 fee for the air conditioning repair, because it took them over 24 hours to get here.

Personally, I think home warranties are a great idea. I look at the price of the policy as a way we can manage and budget repairs on our home. When our water heater went out a few years back I kicked myself for not having a home warranty. But like I mentioned, you do have to read the fine print, and understand what you are purchasing. You might have to pay for additional coverage on certain items, such as swimming pool equipment or refrigerators.

Some people think home warranties are a waste. I’m not one of them.

(Photo: Fortunately Lady went to the groomers this week, so she didn’t have to wear that heavy coat!)

Did you know it costs tens of thousands of dollars to self-publish a quality book?

Date: August 15, 2014

Author: Bobbi Holmes

Categories: Bobbi Ann Johnson Holmes

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Get out your bags of money if you want to make it in this crazy world of self-publishing. At least, that is what some folks seem to think.

Yesterday I watched a CBS news show clip (from Dallas/Forth Worth) tell its viewers that to get out a quality self-published book expect to spend tens of thousands of dollars. I had to replay that segment several times to make sure I heard him right—yep, tens of thousands of dollars. Wow, where do these guys get their misinformation?

They started out by saying you can self-publish for free on Amazon’s Kindle platform, and go print-on-demand, which is also free. There the person who orders the book pays for the printing costs. They capped off the segment by reminding viewers of the other costs necessary for a quality book, which they listed as: Editor, Cover and Reviews.

When I shared this information with a private writers group I belong to—a group where a significant number of the members make serious bucks as self-published authors, some of which are names you would recognize but I will resist the temptation to drop—one suggested media outfits were doing the bidding of the big six, out to inject fear and uncertainty into the process to steer writers toward traditional publishing. I suggested maybe instead it was some Indies putting out this bogus information—to scare off the competition.

While I don’t know where this guy got his facts, I strongly disagree with his inflated numbers.

The news segment mentioned a quality self-published book needed an editor, cover and reviews. Let’s see what those things actually cost in the real world.

Editing
Earlier this month I shopped for a new editor on Elance, a site where freelancers pick up jobs. I received 50 bids for my 80,000 word manuscript. Some of the applicants were qualified—some were not. The range of bids was all over the place, from a little under $200 to $3,600. Editing costs can vary, depending on what you expect from your editor. This price range seems pretty typical from my past experience with shopping editors and from what I hear from other authors. Many self-publishers also hire proofreaders.

Covers
For the super frugal, an author can use the cover generator over on Amazon or pick up one of those pre-made covers offered online, for sometimes as little as twenty bucks. But, a quality cover can be had for under $500. Prices will increase if you want original art, instead of purchasing stock images.

Reviews
Paying for reviews is a controversial practice—and I’m surprised CBS listed this as a must have. Indies I know—successful Indies—don’t pay for reviews. If they do—and get caught—expect the wrath of the Goodreads crowd and bloggers to come down hard.

One expense they failed to mention was formatting. The manuscript document needs to be formatted one way for an eBook and another for a print copy. If you publish at more than one eBook vendor, such as Barnes and Noble or Kobo—how you format the book may be slightly different from what you upload at Amazon for Kindle. Many of us—those who are computer savvy and comfortable with Word—do this ourselves. Other authors farm this out.

In my opinion it does not take tens of thousands of dollars to self-publish a quality book. It takes talent, hard work and determination. Self-publishing is by no means a get rich scheme—yet neither does it require you be rich in order to self-publish a quality book.

When life interferes…

Date: August 14, 2014

Author: Bobbi Holmes

Categories: Bobbi Ann Johnson Holmes

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At the end of May I received two comments on my blog in response to my post “Instead of a treadmill desk – a jogging trampoline!” I intended to respond but life got in the way. My husband came down with a mystery infection and then had emergency surgery the first week in June. He came home after almost a week in the hospital and had to undergo six weeks of in-home IV treatment, with me playing nurse.

Things are sort of getting back to normal around here. Sort of.

Don hasn’t been back to his office, but he’s off the IV and now going to physical therapy about three times a week. In spite of his pain and fatigue he’s getting some work done (he is a real estate broker), but that means he’s moved into my home office and we are sharing a desk. I bought one of those little devices that hook up two computers to the same monitor and keyboard, so both of our desktop computers are on my roll top desk.

I don’t use my desktop computer much these days—and prior to Don getting sick, I used to put my laptop on the desk’s keyboard drawer when I wasn’t standing on the trampoline typing.

When Don came home from the hospital the trampoline got shoved aside. I’ve just recently set it up again, yet I’m not using it at the level I was before, for one thing Don and I are still sharing the office, and when I write I can’t do it with anyone in the room. This means I often retreat to the living room couch with my laptop, to find solitude necessary for me to write. Fortunately it is swimming weather, so the pool gives me a daily work out.

As for my writing, yesterday I sent my latest book off to the editor—Haunting Danielle. I normally write fiction under my pen name, Anna J. McIntyre and non-fiction under my real name. But Haunting Danielle is a little different from my other McIntyre books, so I was trying to decide if I wanted to publish under my real name—or the pen name I normally use for fiction.

I decided to publish the book under both names. Why? you ask. It will let my McIntyre readers know the book has a slightly different flavor from my other titles under that name, yet like the McIntyre books it is character driven.

One of my greatest marketing failings as an independent author is creating a series that doesn’t neatly fall under a specific genre. I did this with my McIntyre’s Coulson Series—and now I’ve done it again with Haunting Danielle. I’m trying to pin it down–a ghost story, paranormal mystery, with a splash of romance and maybe a bit on the cozy side. There’s no graphic sex in this one—and while many of my readers insist McIntyre romances are on the clean and sweet side, some reviewers claim there is too much graphic sex in my books. Go figure.

Haunting Danielle is the first book in a new series by the same name. Look for its eBook release on September 1, 2014.