The Author Guy Blog

29th March 2024 Hello out there, Welcome back. Mother Nature is slowly pulling back the curtain on springtime here in the Bluegrass State, and all is well in my world. I hope it is in yours, as well. A well-planned and highly-anticipated cruise from Ft. Lauderdale around the Caribbean is on our (my wife and me) late-April calendar. With things progressing so wonderfully at Indigo River Publishing, and with my Oregon marketing guru, RJ McHatton, working his magic, I decided against including Wi-Fi in our pre-paid menu of amenities to be selected when the cruise was booked. Gonna leave the computer behind. I have found at every stage of my life, but especially now that I’m midway into my 70s, that friendships are everything. So I’m delighted we’ll be accompanied on the cruise by a wonderful couple and dear friends from our hometown who will be flying to meet us in Florida. For our part, we’ll be driving down to have the opportunity to spend a few days going and coming with another couple...

22th March 2024 Hello out there, Welcome back. My previously self-published and award-winning novel Blue by You is moving quickly through the editorial process with my new hybrid publisher Indigo River . I have final say regarding any changes their folks suggest, and mine will be a quick turnaround so that we can move ahead to the publishing phase (new cover design, formatting, etc.). My incredible marketing resource, RJ McHatton of Bend, OR, is in direct contact with Indigo’s marketing team to craft a launch ahead of the book’s availability for pre-ordering. Over the past couple of years, RJ and I have fine-tuned a marketing plan, one focused on the elimination of marginal opportunities, driven by the belief success will come more from what we choose not to do rather than what we actually pursue. Trying not to fall down rabbit holes, if you will. I’m doubly excited that my Indigo relationship (and I can’t say enough great things about them) brings with it the distribution prowess of ...

15th March 2024 Hello out there, Welcome back. It’s been said (by whom the first time I don’t know) that the only thing permanent is change. That certainly happens to me seemingly all the time, and one example occurred a few weeks ago and reversed something I said in my very first blog posting back in December. Backing up a bit. For years, one of my writing goals has been to become a syndicated columnist, both for the writing pleasure it would bring, and as a means to promote my author brand and my books. I thought I was on my way when our local paper began publishing what turned out to be seventeen feature columns I wrote for their 6X/year, four-color lifestyle magazine. Then in 2023, cost-cutting measures changed (in my opinion) the quality of the magazine’s physical product, and they wanted my position (the inside back cover) for ad placements. I respectfully said “no,” so they asked if I would write a monthly column for the newspaper itself. I jumped at the chance.  I committed...

8th March 2024 Hello out there, Welcome back. The middle of February, I learned of the death of a high school classmate. Only a few days earlier, she’d been at church on Sunday morning, so her passing was unexpected. With very rare exceptions, no one will know when the last grains of sand in their hourglass of life will find their way to the bottom. But when I was asked to read a scripture passage (the Beatitudes) her family had selected, and to say a few words of remembrance at her service, I was drawn to a two-sentence verse in the fourth chapter of the book of John:  “How do you know what will happen tomorrow? For your life is like the morning fog; it’s here for a little while, then it’s gone.” We’ve all likely heard the expression “Live each day as if it were our last.” Nice homily, but in my view, impossible. No one would live their life that way – completely devoid of optimism for tomorrow. I prefer my own version: Live each day such that if it turns out to be my last, it wou...

March 1 2024 Hello out there, Welcome back. This week’s contribution speaks to something I learned early-on in my author journey and was reinforced by something I read last week in a magazine.  In preparing my first book for publication about ten years ago, my research revealed the two most important things reader’s consider when selecting a book from an author previously unknown to them are the title and the cover. Modesty aside, I think all four of my titles are interesting, perhaps even compelling:  Dancing Alone Without Music, Follow Your Dreams,   The Girl on the Bench  and  Blue by You. When I changed indie publishers a few years ago, I didn’t have the rights to, or couldn’t find the original artwork for, the first three books. Admittedly, I was in a hurry to make the change, so I worked with a graphics person to designed similar covers for all three. Because of the parchment background, I’ve labeled them The Parchment Series. But I am especially proud of ...