The Carus Chronicles

Coming out of a year-long maternity leave gave me time and clarity to review my promotional and marketing tactics. One thing I never gave much thought to (besides setting up) was my website. I put it up relatively fast and without much effort, slapped my books on the page and included some reviews, awards and contact information. I read a lot of marketing and promotional blogs and articles all touting the importance of a good website. I figured I was good. I didn't need to do anything else to my website besides general maintenance and updating my books because it looked nice and contained the pertinent information. Right? WRONG! I needed to improve my website (and still do), because at the end of the day, although my website is ABOUT me and my books, it's FOR the readers. When I originally designed my website, I lost site...ha, ha, ha, get it? Get it?!?...of this one simple, yet crucial fact. I needed to turn my website  from PASSIVE to INTERACTIVE In no particular...

As I skip down the road to getting published, I keep getting ahead of myself and my proverbial feet tangle up while I think of all the little things I need to do. Who do I dedicate the book to? Who should I thank in my acknowledgements? And how do I want to fill out the cover request form? All three of these questions had me paralyzed in fear. What if I chose wrong? What if I forgot someone? What if I don't put in enough information and I hate the cover, or worse, what if I over explain and kill the artist's creative process? The cover is important, after all, and in my opinion (with no marketing background whatsoever) directly impacts sales. But the cover information aside, the acknowledgement and dedication questions got me thinking...and as it often happens, said thinking lead to Googling. What do other people do? I went on a search to find out. Here are some funny ones I found along my researching journey: 1. The Heart of a Goof (1926), P.G Wodehouse "To my dau...