Tag: Author (Page 1 of 4)

How Readers and Authors Connect Poll Results

April 13, 2016 / Katie L. Carroll

I know a lot of you have been waiting for the results of the two polls I conducted on how readers and writers connect. To be clear, though I did take a statistics course in college, I ran no analytics on the statistical significance of the results. My intention was never statistical significance, but merely to see what writers and readers who check out my blog had to say. The poll was open to anyone who happened to stop by the post over the course of time the poll was active, so that means a (very!) limited pool of people.

And, drum roll please….the much-anticipated results:

The wording of the reader poll was “As a reader, I enjoy connecting to authors through…” followed by a list of options, and voters could check as many choices as they wanted. This poll got a total of 70 votes.

Voters could leave a comment and one actually did. “Often find myself Googling authors and going on their pages because [name redacted] likes to see a pic of the author. He also wants to know if they are alive or dead- his obsession currently.” So authors, make sure to have a picture of yourself on your website and your life/death status!

It’s no surprise that Author’s Blog took the top spot as a way readers connect to writers since this poll was conducted on an author’s blog. I also suspected Facebook would be a big one (and one of the reasons I finally created an author Facebook page, which I’d love for you all to check out here).

Wattpad had a poor showing, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a good place to connect, just that the audience for this particular poll doesn’t use it in that way. I’m actually dipping my toes into Wattpad with my collection of soccer shorts TALES FROM THE FIELD: 12 STORIES, 1 CHAMPIONSHIP. You may remember some of these stories from the Lightning Quick Reads blog, but the year ended before the final few stories did. I’ll be posting a story a week until all 12 are up (and they’re free!).

Okay, on to the other poll:

The wording of the writer poll was “As a writer, I’ve had success connecting to readers through…” again followed by a list of options, and voters could select as many they wanted. There were 30 total votes on this part.

Another strong showing by Facebook solidified my choice to create an author FB page. The Other option came out higher than I expected. I asked voters to provide specifics for this, and blog, website, and newsletter were included as answers. I didn’t provide blog and website specifically in this poll because I already have those and have definitely had success connecting to readers through these, so I didn’t feel like I needed proof of that.

I wanted to mention this because even though I wasn’t interested in that response for this poll, I do think it’s very important for authors to have a static website for readers to land on. A blog is nice for authors to have as well. It does require work, but I find it’s worth it for me. I have considered doing a monthly newsletter and am still considering it for the future, but at present I don’t have plans to start one. There simply aren’t enough hours of the day for that right now.

Wattpad is responsible for that pesky 0% at the top there, but again I’m taking all these results with a grain of salt. In both polls, On-line Author Events scored on the low side, and I’ll definitely be taking that into consideration when I plan any future online promotion and blog tours. Not that I won’t be doing online promotion, but I might work to optimize my exposure time vs. how much time I put into preparing them.

School visits was a category I considered including, but ultimately didn’t because I didn’t think it was the right audience for it. Also, I 100% know that school visits are an awesome ways for kidlit authors to connect directly to readers. The trick to school visits is booking them.

Those are my thoughts on the poll results. I hope you found them useful regardless of the statistical implications. I’d love to continue hearing your thoughts on how readers and authors connect. What’s worked for you? What hasn’t worked (which is sometimes more useful to share)? Do you care? (If you don’t why are you reading this?) 😉

Confessions of an Author: Dress Code

October 15, 2014 / Katie L. Carroll

Life is proving to be busy (hubby and I are celebrating our 9-year anniversary today…yikes, makes me feel old!), so this week I’m digging into the archives for this post. Enjoy!

Confession #3: I sometimes wear my pajamas to work.

You know that advice that you should dress for the job you want, not the job you have. Well, if you want to be an author, dress in your pajamas. Seriously, fess up you pajama-wearing writers…I know I’m not the only one out there.

So my typical outfit this time of year (winter in New England) is a t-shirt with a sweatshirt or sweater over it (sometimes both); pajama pants or sweatpants; thick, fuzzy socks; and slippers. I get cold pretty easily!

Now, when I’m out in public as a writer—say at a conference or school visit or accepting a prestigious award (okay, maybe this last one is only in a fictional world)—I dress professionally. I would call it business casual.

And I have a sort of personal rule about not wearing sweatpants in public. The only exceptions this are when if I’m working out or have just come from working out and make a stop on the way. I don’t even like to go grocery shopping in sweatpants…kind of makes me feel like I’ve given up on life.

But when I tapping away at my laptop keyboard…comfy clothes all the way! Okay, what’s the most embarrassing thing you’ve worn out in public?

PODs by Michelle Pickett Playlist

September 26, 2013 / Katie L. Carroll

Michelle Pickett, author of the YA dystopian PODs, and I are doing a blog swap today and talking our writing playlists. Check out my Elixir Bound playlist over on her blog. Welcome, Michelle!

First, thank you for hosting me today and allowing me to share a little about my creative process through music. I have a fairly long playlist for PODs. I’ve listed the songs for you, but I’ve picked a few of my favorite songs/scenes and included some explanation of how the song fit in the scene or the character’s feelings at that time in the story. I hope if you’ve read the book it gives you a little better insight into the workings of the mind of the character, and if you haven’t read the book it’ll make you curious enough to want to. 🙂

PODs Playlist

Theme Song: If Today Was You Last Day, Nickelback

David and Eva’s Song: End of The World, Blake Lewis

Burn it Down, Linkin Park
Can’t Let You Go, Adam Lambert (David: Chapters 18 & 19)
Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You, Muse
Catalyst, Linkin Park (Chapter 25)
Crawl Through the Fire, Adam Lambert (Chapter 26)
Daylight, Maroon5 (Chapters 3 and 14)
Dream a Little Dream of Me, Mama Cass (Chapters 17 and 18)
First Light, Adam Lambert
Get Here, Justin Guarini
Here with Me, Dido
If I Ain’t Got You, Alicia Keys
I Miss You (slipped away), Avril Lavigne (Chapter 4)
I’m Only Me When I’m with You, Taylor Swift
Kick In The Teeth, Papa Roach (Eva: Chapter 23)
Kiss Me, Sixpence None The Richer
No Matter What, Papa Roach (David: Chapter 24)
Savin’ Me, Nickleback (Eva: Chapter 22)
Tangled Up in You, Staind (Chapter 13)
The Kids From Yesterday, My Chemical Romance (Chapter 5)
The Only Hope for Me is You, My Chemical Romance (Chapter 19)
The Truth, David Cook (Chapter 19)
This Means War, Nickelback (Eva: Chapter 26)
To Make You Feel My Love, Kris Allen (Eva: Chapter 9)
Twilight Time, The Platters (Chapters 17 and 18)
Until I Find You Again, Richard Marx
Want, Adam Lambert
When You’re Gone, Avril Lavigne

Music inspires many people. I find that sometimes a certain song has lyrics that describe a scene, or maybe the song evokes a certain feeling that I find moves me as I write. Some songs in the PODs playlist have chapters listed next to them and some don’t. Some fit so well with a scene that every time I hear the song I immediately think of that scene in the book (even now when I hear the song I still think of the book!). Some songs just give me a general feeling of the book or chapter as a whole, or the relationship between David and Eva.

I think the theme song of the book and David and Eva’s song are pretty self-explanatory. So I’ll skip them and share a few of my favorite songs and the scenes they coincide with.

(If you haven’t read the book the following contains mild spoilers).

The first song that really resonates with me is Avril Lavigne’s “Slipped Away” or “I Miss You” (I’ve seen it referred to by both names). I listened to it over and over while I wrote the scenes, especially the flashback scene, when Eva is saying goodbye to her parents. There is also a scene in quarantine when she is lying in bed thinking of them and parts of her life with them—I listened to the song while writing that, too. I have to admit, I cried writing those scenes. I’ve had some readers write to me and say they cried while reading it, which makes me feel like I’ve done my job.

One of my favorite scenes in the book between David and Eva is the picnic scene. I won’t go into too much detail about what happens in case there are people reading this who haven’t read the book yet, but it was a scene I included to show what a sweet, good guy David is and how much he genuinely loved spending time with Eva. The song that goes along with that song is Staind’s “Tangled Up in You.” The song could easily have been their theme song.

A song that I thought conveyed how the fights between the survivors and the Infected might feel is Adam Lambert’s “Crawl Through the Fire.” I listed it as a song for chapter 26, but, actually, it could be applied to any fight scene. The same goes for “Catalyst” by Linkin Park.

Okay, there’s one thing that I keep hearing from readers: “David became so sexist after the PODs.” Okay, well, I can see how one might think so, but the song you need to listen to in order to understand a little about what was going through his head is Papa Roach’s “No Matter What.” Eva had just left the safety of the village to be with him. He felt responsible for putting her in danger, and, therefore, became a little (a lot) obsessive about keeping her safe. “No matter what, I got your back; I’ll take a bullet for you if it comes to that; I swear to God that in the bitter end; we’re gonna be the last ones standing”(Papa Roach, No Matter What). David felt those lyrics and would have died to keep Eva safe—without question.

The Second thing I hear from readers is that they are glad Eva didn’t put up with David’s sexist crap. Score one for Eva. And “This Means War” by Nickelback is her song and it shows in Chapter 26 when she screams to the other woman to fight with her and stop cowering behind the men. She started to feel empowered and realized she could take some control of her life back. And even though it freaked David out (because it scared him, not because he’s sexist), she started to bulldoze her way through the Infected.

Lastly, a song that really speaks to how a character was feeling during a time in the book is “Can’t Let You Go” by Adam Lambert. This song belongs to David during chapters 18 and 19. I’ve caught a lot of flak from readers about his “dumping” Eva and then watching her every night when she’d go to the meadow looking for him. What they’ve seemed to miss was WHY he went to the meadow. And WHY he dumped her. Does someone just break-up with someone and then for kicks tread through zombie filled forests to go sit and watch the person he broke up with? Not unless he has a good reason. And what was David’s reason? Well, listen to the song. I think it explains his pain. He wanted Eva to move on…have a normal life. And he knew he couldn’t give that to her. But, he couldn’t quite let go.

If you’ve read the book you know what happened after the break-up in the meadow…what stunt Eva pulled in chapter 22 (Savin’ Me by Nickelback goes with this scene). Which was exactly what David was afraid she’d do, and that brings everything back to David’s sexist, over protective behavior mentioned above.

Thank you so much for having me today. I appreciate you opening your blog to me. I’ve really enjoyed sharing how music helped shape the characters and story of PODs.

~Michelle

Buy Links for PODs:

Amazon ׀ Barnes&Noble ׀ Books-A-Million The Book Depository ׀

Buy Links for Milayna:

Amazon ׀ Barnes&Noble ׀ The Book Depository

Buy Links for The Concilium Series

Amazon ׀ Barnes&Noble ׀ MuseItUp

My work includes:

Young adult books in paperback and ebook format:

The Amazon Bestselling young adult novel “PODs”

Milayna, March 2014

Milayna’s Angel (Milayna #2), September 2014

The Infected, a PODs novel, November 2014

The Innocent (Milayna #3), April 2015.

Adult Urban Fantasy in ebook format

Concilium, available now

Concilium: The Departure, available now

I always love to hear from readers, bloggers and other authors!

Find me here:

Website: www.Michelle-Pickett.com

Email: Michelle@Michelle-Pickett.com

Blog: www.Michelle-Pickett.com/blog

Facebook: www.Facebook.com/michellepickettauthor

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/michelle_kp

Goodreads: http://goodreads.com/michelle-pickett

About the Author:

I’m a wife, mother, reader and writer, although not always in that order. Between helping my twin eight year-old daughters with their second grade homework and my twelve year-old son with his sixth grade homework (which I’ve recently learned I am NOT smarter than a fifth (or sixth) grader, thank you very much Jeff Foxworthy), and being a football mom (GO BULLDOGS!) I write young adult urban fantasies, science/fiction and paranormal romances and have recently started dabbling in young adult and new adult contemporary romance.

I was born and raised in Flint, Michigan. I’m now live in a sleepy suburb of Houston, Texas with my extremely supportive, not to mention gorgeous husband, three school-aged kids, a 125 pound labradoodle that thinks he’s a lap dog, and a very persnickety cat.

Story Behind the Story with K.L. Pickett Author of Maybe It’s Magic!

September 16, 2013 / Katie L. Carroll

The Elixir Bound in paperback blog tour is going strong, and today I’m at Mary Waibel’s blog with an unusual character interview. K.L. Pickett was gracious enough to stop by and talk about the inspiration behind her middle grade novel Maybe It’s Magic! (check out my Goodreads review here). Welcome, K.L.!

Why Did I Write Maybe It’s Magic! ?

By K.L. Pickett

If you could have anything in the world, what would it be?

When I was a kid, the only thing I wanted was a horse. Horses were my obsession: I read about horses, got to know horse owners, saved my money to rent horses, watched the horse races with my dad on TV, went to the race track with him, watched local horse shows, scooped poop for horse owners in exchange for horse rides, wrote reports about horses, drew pictures of horses – well, you get the picture.

When I was in kindergarten, I rode an invisible horse to school every day.

Our house was zoned as county, not city, so horses were allowed. But it was more like a suburb than a rural area. Our property was only a quarter of an acre. In the very back corner of the yard we had an old, wooden, rotten-to-the-point-of-falling-down stall where someone had kept a horse a long, long time ago – which only served as a daily, constant reminder that I didn’t have one.

Every birthday, every Christmas, I asked for the same thing: a horse.

Every birthday and Christmas morning, I’d walk into the living room, close my eyes, and yank open the drapes. Next I’d open my eyes and look outside, hoping and wishing with all my heart there’d be a horse out there.

There never was.

But I never gave up. I begged and pleaded with my parents. I prayed. I researched horses and horse training and riding. I rode whenever I had the chance.

And finally, when I was eleven years old, a miracle happened. The phone rang; I ran to answer it. It was my dad. “Karen,” he said, “I just bought you a horse.”

That was the happiest day of my eleven-year-old life.

That’s why I wrote Maybe It’s Magic! It’s written for all those kids who dream and wish and pray they have a horse someday.

My hope is that every kid who reads Maybe It’s Magic! will have his or her dream come true, too, just like mine did.

Maybe It’s Magic! blurb:

More than anything in the world, ten-year-old Pippy wants a horse. Plan One – begging her mom for one – doesn’t work. Plan Two – performing her own made-up magic spell – conjures up a tiny glass horse statue. Pippy’s disappointed; she wanted a real horse. But after studying it, Pippy thinks: Maybe it’s magic! If it is, she can use its powers to get a real one.

Soon her life changes. Because of the statue, she meets a grouchy, old ranch owner, who hasn’t had horses for years. The old woman buys one, stating it’s for her granddaughter. Pippy believes the horse is really for her. She learns to groom, saddle, and ride it. Now she’s even learning how to show it. The magic is working.

Then bad things start to happen. Why? Is the statue running out of magic?

When the ranch owner ends up in the hospital, Pippy knows the magic is almost gone. She needs more magic. But how? If she doesn’t get more soon, she could lose her horse. But even worse, the ranch owner could lose her life.

You can purchase Maybe It’s Magic! from MuseItUp Publishing at: http://museituppublishing.com/bookstore/index.php/museityoung/maybe-it-s-magic-detail

Palleo when Karen got her About the Author:

The author, K.L. Pickett, on her horse Palleo when she was eleven-years-old. She helped her dad build the barn you see behind her.

Visit her website this month and read a free, true short story about her and Palleo: www.klpickett.weebly.com

(You will also find a recipe for making “Sweet-Smelling Play-Dough”)

Please “like” K.L. Pickett on FaceBook: www.facebook.com/pickettbooks

Elixir Bound Blog Tour Schedule

September 1, 2013 / Katie L. Carroll

It’s here: the Elixir Bound in paperback blog tour! I still don’t have an exact date for when the paperback version will be available, but I’ve been assured by my publisher that it will be this month or possibly October. The blog tour goes all month long, so I’ll be sure to update you all when I know.

I have a fabulous line-up of guest posts scheduled and am being hosted by a group of awesome authors, book bloggers, and bookish people! There will be inside looks into my writing life, never before revealed info about the book, a giveaway, and the usual shenanigans you’ve come to expect from me! Here’s a list of stops:

August 31st – Krystal’s Enchanting Reads – A pre-blog tour post with a beautiful review of Elixir Bound and a post about world building from me

2nd – Where Writers and Authors Meet – Author spotlight and a chance to ask me questions (c’mon, you know you’ve been dying to ask me something!)

3rd – Observation Desk – (Yup, that’s my blog) Your chance to see the official map of the Great Peninsula

4th – Books for Company – My favorite spots to write with pictures

Author Eric Price’s blog – Find out how Katora, Kylene, and Bhar celebrate the Winter Solstice with an Elixir original short story

5th – Erin Albert Books – Twelve random things about yours truly (including one of my biggest fears!)

9th – Stuart R. West’s blog – The dos and don’ts of novel openings, plus my favorite openers

Where Writers and Authors Meet – The A’s to your Q’s from last week

Ladybug Lin’s Exceptional Reviews – A surprise post with a review of Elixir Bound from fellow Muser Lin Holmes

10th – Meradeth Houston’s blog Write Stuff – My favorite books in my top fantasy series

11th – Kai Strand’s blog Strands of Thought – Three Times a Charm feature in which I reveal my three favorite writing snacks, top three pieces of advice for kids, and three professions I wanted to be while growing up

You Gotta Read Reviews – An author interview where you find out who my favorite author is

12th – Girls Succeed! – My personal story on how I became a writer (fair warning, it’s a bit sad)

13th – Kelly Hashway’s blog – A deleted (and never before publicized) scene between Katora and Hirsten

14th – Literary Meanderings – Learn more about Zelenka and the demicks in this character interview

16th – Waibel’s World – A character interview of Kylene (really more of a scene…I got a bit creative–i.e. totally disregarded–with the traditional Q&A of an interview)

17th – Philip Coleman’s blog – Talking my favorite tipples in this author interview

18th – Susan A. Royal’s blog – An author interview where I reveal the movie I always watch when it’s on and I spill on my next book Elixir Saved

20th – Observation Desk – (My blog again…you didn’t think I was going to let everyone else have all the fun, did you?) A sneak peek look at the next Elixir book Elixir Saved

21st – Tina’s Book Reviews – Saturday spotlight on the making of the cover of Elixir Bound

23rd – The Story of a Writer – Find out what readers of Elixir Bound have to say with this book spotlight and snippets of reviews

25th – Behind a Million and One Pages – Katora may be a traditional “strong” female protagonist, but find out what other kind of strong female I admire

Observation Desk – (Yup, back to my blog again) Pics of the swag being offered in the giveaway

26th – These Words Tell a Story – A list of musical inspiration I turned to while writing Elixir Bound

27th – Nicole Zoltack’s blog Where Fantasy & Love Take Flight – A character interview of Katora, in which she reveals the one thing she would change about herself

30th – Suzanne’s Thoughts for the Day – I go crazy on other people’s books and suggest alternate endings

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