collection

Falling Out of Orbit Poetry Collection coming soon!

My fourth collection, Falling Out of Orbit, will come out next month!

I held a poll on Instagram to have your help deciding on the book cover. I ended up doing a little more redesigning after hearing some feedback.

An exact release date will be announced shortly along with the back cover so for now enjoy the front cover reveal! 

I decided to not do chapters since I didn’t want to crowd all the same theme poems into one space. So betrayal is spread out as are desire and tender love.

This collection really came together easily as I was sorting poems at the same time I was putting together my last book, Even the Leaves. I’ll have more info coming your way over the next few weeks so keep an eye out!

6 Best Steps To Promote Your Book Online – Hayley Zelda

It’s not easy to promote your book online. It can be overwhelming, too! But no matter what kind of online book promotion you’re hoping to do, whether it’s Facebook ads or Instagram or Pinterest, the first step is to identify your goals and create a plan to achieve those goals. The best part is, you can get started right now, without any outside help, just by following the six steps below.

  1. Blogging

Blogging is the fastest, easiest and best way to learn about how to promote your book online. While still starting a new blog yourself on hosting sites like Tumblr, you can and should read as many other blogs by authors as you can, and see how they’re doing it. If you think of all blogging as writing, rather than just posting blog posts, you free yourself to write about a wide variety of topics, which will help you learn more about yourself and the process you’re using to tell your book’s story as the author.

Identify a number of specific blog concepts with which you’d like to engage, and then commit to posting to these at least two times per week. Think of these blogs as your day jobs, and of yourself as a full-time blogger. Make sure to keep your blog up-to-date, particularly if you are anxious about your next book. Even if you still mostly write books, reading blogs is a great alternative to watching TV for longer chunks of time.

  1. Social media

Even if you choose to ignore the kinds of online word of mouth promotions you can get by joining groups and groups of writers and doling out free copies of your book, social media is a necessary tool. It is very hard to find success in online word of mouth promotions without a solid social media presence. You want to immediately start socializing with friends and family and acquaintances when your book first comes out, so that you already have a base of people who will speak about you online as soon as you go live. But don’t focus all your efforts there. Moving forward, you’ll want to try to expand your reach with new followers whenever possible. Try tweeting regularly about interesting facts in your universe, or posting excerpts and samples for your readers on Wattpad. Sometimes, these promoted posts can get a huge amount of engagement because of their topical and timely nature, allowing you to build an audience beyond those who know you personally.

By the same token, do not fall into the temptation of building a social media presence by endorsing products you did not find useful. Many people make this mistake once they realize how many followers they can gain by saying nice things about products — they offer to do so, and then never use that product again. Even worse? That product might be inflating their reviews on Amazon. So if there’s a product that you’d like to promote related to your book, you need to decide if it’s actually something you’re going to use yourself, or if you’re just trying to pick up a few more followers.

  1. Top ten lists

You may not remember it, but there was a brief period where lists made a big comeback. What was once a sidebar in magazines was suddenly the most exciting thing you could potentially want to read. Buzzfeed and other sites began producing listicles, or top ten lists about everything under the sun. The popularity of these lists drew a lot of attention, but more importantly, it sparked the interest of advertisers and savvy tech folks. Those lists represented hits on a large share of a particular site’s traffic, and so the reader’s attention was valuable. Today, after a flurry of refinements, lists still remain a great way to get in front of many eyeballs at once, particularly on sites that have a strong target demographic that matches yours, like Wired For Youth. Lists can also play into the popularity of certain mobile apps, too. The list can be your book, in the middle of a list of a broader topic.

Start writing a listicle about your book to promote it, even in the early stages, so you can see the kind of action it generates. This will give you a gauge on how people might respond to a book purchase. To do that, research your target demographic first, just like you did when you wanted to know how to market a book. Once you think you’re targeting a listicle that those people would potentially like to stay updated on, try using it to promote your book. Take note of how many people click through to where you can buy the book. That’s the number you’ll want at the threshold, and you can open that promotion along with several other promotions at the same time. They may have similar demographics, simply because it’s hard to be as specific online. For example, your book might have readers who also like Kendall Jenner — all the followers and subscribers to her social media accounts could also find your book interesting. You just have to test to see if that’s the case, and if something similar comes up a lot, you’ve found your target market. This way, you can make the extremely scientific decisions that could mean good business for you.

  1. Offer special content

Social media can be your friend — but you need to be clear in your mission before you can be good at it. For example, if your goal is to use the content you post as an artful form of advertising, hanging pretty pictures on a bare blog is not going to cut it. If your goal is to build a relationship with your readers, neither will constant self-promotion. The key, above all else, is being intentional about how you use social media. It all starts with your plan. Decide what you want to accomplish and set a goal. Remember, it’s all about getting new readers, and possibly keeping them, so your first priority is to persistently and reliably deliver interesting content on your niche.

If your plan is organized, it becomes easy for you to see right away what you should be posting. For example, if you’re blogging, you can go ahead and tweet the direct link, so that readers can be reminded to check out your content. If you’re posting short stories on Commaful, engage with your following and make sure to update consistently. You could also post the link to your personal Facebook, Twitter, or even Pinterest account, so you can post new updates with ease. If you apply the universal stress reduction principle of making things easier and simpler, your social media posting will not be as challenging and intimidating, and it will be easier for you to be consistent in meeting your goals.

  1. Forums

Forums are, even today, a great place to find an audience for your book. And forums have made their way into the modern world in the shape of blogging and Tumblr and Goodreads’ forums. Unlike some specific sites, forums are community-oriented, which means the threads are often much longer and the tone of the conversation much more freewheeling. These are all great things. The majority of forum users visit sites like Reddit or Quora to learn about new things, so if you can create a great content piece for the site, it quickly picks up traffic and attention.

Reddit provides you with an especially prompt incentive to continue to create content. Their “karma” system pushes members to both create and vote on content that has already been produced in order to rank and grow, so that they can ascend to the higher ranks of the community, where they’ll have bigger direct influence and reach over time. On Reddit, you don’t just have to one-time-write a successful post and then leave. You will have to go back over and over consistently in order to keep your account active. Also, be prepared for some back-and-forth conversation with your fans — and be honest and transparent about the writing process when they ask you about it! Redditors can be very inquisitive and sometimes a bit challenging in the advice they offer. But if you can develop a relationship with them over time, you have a vast and responsive audience at your fingertips.

  1. Host an AMA on Reddit

The term “Ask Me Anything” has become social media clickbait shorthand. But behind the meme is the opportunity for an author to open up his or her book to the questions of an entire online community. No matter how successful your career has been, hosting an AMA will open you up to a whole new audience, while conferring authenticity and integrity. If you read through the questions on any one AMA, you can see how simple the questions are that fans ask and expect genuine, thoughtful responses. Just be sure not to treat a Reddit AMA like a press conference — give honest answers to the questions you’re asked. AMA threads often end up in the first few pages of Reddit, meaning you’ll still reach your intended audience after the buzz from the AMA dies down.

AMAs are also a great way to discover connections with other authors or with other people in your field. Potential connections are why you do social media in the first place, and there’s no reason not to capitalize on those connections when you have the opportunity — so don’t forget to follow up with other authors or people you’ve met on your AMA afterward, through Twitter, email, or Tumblr. You can cross-promote your new connections both through this medium, and practically — if you find another author in your genre you think might be a good fit for an event, suggest it to him, and see if they’ll dig up some kind of promo code for you.

Ultimately, it comes down to thinking critically about what your book is about, where the audience you want to attract with your book promotion will hang out, and what you want to do with whatever traffic or attention your book promotion brings in. Fortunately, there is no one right answer. What kind of promotion works for you depends on the type of book you’ve written, the method of promotion you’re doing, and even the phase that your book is in — pre publishing, publish and post, or seasoned. Give it a go and see what works for you!

Author Bio: Hayley Zelda is a writer and marketer at heart. She’s written on all the major writing platforms and worked with a number of self-published authors on marketing books to the YA audience.

Third Collection Release Date

I’ll be releasing my third poetry collection in a month on July 16th!!

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If I’m honest, I let this collection sit for a long time and I could have had it gone 6 months ago. But I’m very happy with the end result and I hope you will be too!

If you’re interested in an eARC, please reach out to me at ddateable@gmail !!

Let me tell you a little about the collection!!

 

Titled: Even the Leaves

Synopsis: Even the Leaves fell for you, so how could you except me not to?

This collection explores how Mother Nature nurtures and shapes us through every part of our lives. This collection expresses relationships with family, partners, and yourself through aspects of nature such flowers and mountains, seasons and months, animals, and bodies of water. Nature is a medium that connects us all. 

 

Length: 67 pages

Release Date: July 22nd

Available on Amazon !

 

News on my Third Collection

I had been modeling my previous collection formats by very excellent, well known Poets published by big name companies. As a new, small time, self published poet, that’s really not the best idea! Big publishers want more material from their poets, that’s not necessarily what the readers want. The industry is focused on markets and money. That’s not where my focus should be.

I ran a poll on Twitter and changed things up!

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So my third collection started off about 170+ pages and I’m now working towards getting it under 100 if I can. The idea now is to really split the collection into 2 different books. I’ve done some crazy editing to cut the book down.

With this new concept, I’ll be reconfiguring my title and cover as well as sequence of the poems. In short, this third collection is getting a massive remodel, which right now is mainly tearing down the old walls till we’re down to the studs. I’m not worried about my third release date so this construction schedule suits me just fine.

We may have another collection this summer! More updates to come!

Where I Ache 6 months old!

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Where I Ache is 6 months old and I wanted to thank everyone on here, in the Poetry community, and the book blogger community for showing this project the love and support you all have!

At the end of the month, I’ll update everyone on my next project coming down the pipeline, until then check out these reviews and consider purchasing Where I Ache yourself on Amazon!

 

Some reviews from Goodreads, read them in full here

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Poetry Book Mini Reviews

 

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From My Years – Jamey Boelhower

 

This collection touches on reminiscing on past loves and past lives. A reader gets a melancholy feeling of childhood, school days, and relationships with parents. I really enjoyed the heartache and yearning of the past. This poet has great descriptions of the scenery in his poems. I really enjoy the writing style of repetition and line placement, I’d definitely read more collections from this poet. Some favorites in From My Years include Left at Home, Morning Memory, and Hate is a Loan Shark.

 

 

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Rose Petals Under a Reaper’s Robe: Unveiled – Vontress Ortega

 

You can absolutely feel all the anger, betrayal and determination coming off the pages in this collection. This collection is right up my alley with its writing style, I loved it! Vontress touched on so many topics that are personal for me involving relationships, self love, and current society. This collection felt very cathartic and I really enjoyed going through that emotional journey with the speaker. I would recommend this collection to just about every girl friend of mine.

 

Preliminary Interview with Auroras & Blossoms Poetry Journal – Installment 18

Auroras & Blossoms Poetry Journal may be new to the publication world but the co-founders, Cendrine Marrouat and Davis Ellis are not. Their bios are just a scroll down so make sure to take a look! I’ll be interviewing them each as well in the following days so I say we get right into this!

 

Where do you hope the future takes you, writing-wise? 

We anticipate collaborating on a variety of mediums and projects in the future. We have excellent synergy together and both have plenty of ideas that we would like to see out together to fruition. We are kindred spirits in our entrepreneurship and our inspirational mission to keep motivating others to succeed with their art and writing 🙂 

How did Auroras & Blossoms Poetry Journal come to be? 

About a year ago, we were discussing how frustrating the process of submitting to poetry journals can be. Many of those journals are elitist and very selective. They will not consider you if you aren’t already famous or don’t have publishing credits under your belt. And, very often, they do not accept already published material. 

As poets, our main focus has always been inspiration and upliftment. We believe that there is too much negativity in this world, that it is high time the status quo changed. And the best way to force that change is through art. 

Poetry is one of the most misunderstood artforms and yet, strangely enough, it is also the one that most people rely on when they need to feel better. So, we had the perfect combo. 

We believe that poetry can be used to make the world a better place. Auroras & Blossoms Poetry Journal was born shortly after that discussion. 

What makes our journal unique is that we accept poetry from everyone, even younger artists (ages 13-16). We do not care if you have never been published before or if you are new to poetry. If you have a positive message to share with the world, and you are between the ages of 13 and 100+, you are welcome to send us your pieces for consideration. 

Auroras & Blossoms Poetry Journal 

Website: https://abpoetryjournal.com

Latest issues: https://abpoetryjournal.com/issues/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/abpoetryjournal

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/abpoetryjournal 

Cendrine Marrouat 

Originally from Toulouse, France, Cendrine Marrouat has called Winnipeg, Canada, her home for 16 years. She is a photographer, poet, author, and the Head of marketing and communications at ConnexionFranco.Coop. She has also co-founded two projects, FPoint Collective and Auroras & Blossoms Poetry Journal. 

Cendrine specializes in nature, black-and-white and closeup images. Her photography seeks the mundane to capture the fleeting, but true beauty of life in its many forms. 

Cendrine is passionate about haiku. She has studied the Japanese poetry form extensively and written many pieces since 2006. 

In 2015, Cendrine was recognized as a Top 100 Business Blogger by BuzzHUMM. Social Media Slant, her former blog, also made Fit Small Business’ Best Small Business Blogs of 2015 & 2016 lists. 

Walks: A Collection of Haiku (Volumes 1 & 2) are Cendrine’s 12th and 13th books. Other releases include five collections of poetry, three photography books, a play, two social media ebooks, and a spoken word CD. 

Website: https://www.cendrinemedia.com

Books: https://www.cendrinemedia.com/Books

Blog: https://creativeramblings.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/cendrinemedia

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cendrinephotography/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cendrinemedia/ 

David Ellis 

David Ellis is a UK based author of poetry, fiction and music lyrics. He has been writing poetry and music lyrics for years. 

His debut poetry book Life, Sex & Death – A Poetry Collection Vol 1 is an International Award winning volume, having won an award in the Readers’ Favorite 2016 Book Award Contest for Inspirational Poetry Books. 

Think of him like the thriller genre in that he is fast paced, relentless and impossible to put down! His latest book See A Dream Within: Found “Poe”try Based On The Collected Poetry Works Of Edgar Allan Poe can now be purchased on Amazon Kindle, on Lulu and in print at major outlets. 

Connect with him on Facebook:- TooFullToWrite (FB) 

Like his Facebook Page:- Toofulltowrite – The Creative Palace For Artists & Author Resources 

Follow him on Twitter:- @TooFullToWrite 

For Creativity Resources, Writing Advice, Guides, Author Interviews and Poetry, visit his website/blog at:- www.toofulltowrite.com 

 

Whats different about my third poetry collection

When I first started compiling my poems for my first collection, Cracked Open, I also realized what my following 2 collections would be able. We’ve finally reached number 3! My third collection will have the theme of Nature connecting the pages.

 

No chapters

I enjoy chapbooks and collections that have chapters because it gives the reader more direction and more of a journey. A concern that I think my past collections have run into is that having related poems groups together makes them seem more repetitive and less unique. I don’t think chapters will enhance the reader’s journey for this third collection since nature is the only consistent theme.

 

No illustrations

I think illustrations add so much to a collection and they were a must have for my first. It turns out illustrations are expensive and can be a real hassle. I ran a poll on Twitter for my second collection and thought having illustrations again might lead to good sales. I’ve realized at this early in my career, illustrations aren’t going to make or break a sale, but they will break the bank. This collection is the longest one so far which would mean even more illustrations to pay for so this time around we’ll have to do without.

 

No author note

Interestingly enough, whenever I read a book, I never read the author’s note or foreword or anything if I can help it. So I have no idea why for the first two collections, I decided to write an author’s note! I mean Cracked Open was my first and it made sense to me since people are getting to know me as a poet. Where I Ache also made sense for me because it carried some really tough topics and I needed the readers to know that before they dove in. I also needed my friends and family to know that not everything I write is about me and there’s no need to worry haha. But from now on I don’t think my collections will need notes because I doubt anyone reads them anyway.

 

80+ exclusive poems

With my first collection, Cracked Open, I struggled to produce 20 exclusive poems so it absolutely amazes me to have over 80 exclusive poems for this third collection! Where I Ache had a bit over 55 exclusives so this collection alone will have more exclusives than the first two combined! I expected for nearly half of the third collection to be exclusive, never before seen work.

I’ll have more info coming out soon as this third collection progresses and when you can expect it to hit the shelves!