From the Desks of the Nerd Girl Official--Gladys:



I would first like to introduce myself. My name is Gladys #NerdGirlOfficial and I wanted to share our 6 free services and 1 paid service with you. As an independent/hybrid author, we realize your budget is tight and we at Nerd Girl Official want to help you get to your goals. We have a core staff of 8 people and 25 reviewers/street team members. 

Here are our links for you to pursue at your leisure:
www.NerdGirlOfficial.com
www.Facebook.com/NerdGirl.NG
www.twitter.com/Nerd_Girl_NG 
www.pinterest.com/theNerdGirl
http://nerdgirlofficial.tumblr.com/

Nerd Girl has a few ways we can help get your name and releases out to our 11,238 fans on FB and 4,699 followers on twitter. (We also have a separate twitter for the erotica and romantica fans @SeXXXyNerdGirl with 1,391 followers) We have expanded our social media reach to tumblr, pinterest and google + recently. We eventually would like to have a YouTube channel as well. NGO is constantly growing and improving and we would love for you to grow with us!

AGAIN, the following top 6 Nerd Girl Official's services are free (Advertising space is CHEAP)! Yes you heard me correctly. We are here for you the author and for our/your fans/future fans, the readers!!! Our current services go something like this...

1. #RANDOMSWAGGING
NGO does something a little different then most and we call it #RandomSwagging!!! Currently we have 3 street team members who are designated #RandomSwaggers and of course the Big 3, (Melanie, #NerdGirlVamp, Cianna #NerdGirlSunshine and myself Gladys #NerdGirlOfficial.) All of us blindly go to different NGO blog posts, NGO Twitter tweets or FB fanpage posts and find a fan who comments and surprises them with author provided swag. It's totally up to the author what they send to us, but they will be "Nerded" up a bunch! When they send the swag to one of the big 3, we post a picture on the weekends, tag you via Twitter and FB and then ask the #NerdGirlHerd to post on your wall. When one of the swaggers receive your swag, when we random swag your (well) swag and when we swag it... swag swag swag... If you swag what I mean?? We do this to create fan interaction with us as a fan page and with you as an author. Typically we drive a good amount of traffic to your page on the weekends. 

LATELY, I have been getting "what do you consider swag kinda questions?". Well we have had authors give us 10 ebooks to dispense, of course we do NOT hold on to your copy written property. We collect the fan's email address and then send them to you so you can give them to your new fan and interact with them as well. Others have sent signed or unsigned mini-posters, rack cards, bookmarks, jewelry and signed pictures. If you have any #RandomSwagging questions please feel free to respond to this message or email [email protected] Attention #RandomSwagging/Gladys

2. SPOTLIGHT GIVEAWAYS
We also have spotlight giveaways. I will leave the explanation and scheduling to Melanie as she is our giveaway guru but I am sure you get the gist of it from the name! :-) To schedule, please email [email protected] Subject: Giveaway! to coordinate the date for your spotlight. 

3. BOOK REVIEWS
If you would like a book review, here is the link to submit a review request. You can submit more than one book at a time, please just submit a separate form for each book. PLEASE NOTE: We do not do reviews in conjunction with blog tours. If you have a review in conjunction with your blog tour, please have your organizer/PA submit an online request. 

Http://nerdgirlofficial.com/blogs/nerd-girl-official-street-team-vv/book-review-request-form/

4. BLOG POSTS
To schedule a blog tour, cover reveal, book blitz or book release on our blog; you can email [email protected] and one of us will coordinate your event for you for our website. Due to time constraints we do require HTML ready postings. 

5. PERMA FREE TAB ON WEBSITE
IS YOUR BOOK *PERMA FREE* ??? Would you like it to be *PERMA PROMOTED* by Nerd Girl? IF SO ... send an EMAIL to[email protected] with the heading FREE BOOK .... with your BOOK COVER and BUY LINKS!! We will get your book up on a blog AND that means it will be shared every week on our FreebieFriday post

6. INDY AUTHOR TALKS
Please Note: We do not do Author page takeovers but have a bi-weekly guest post called "Indy Author Talk" on our website. IATs are basically guest spots on our blog. You can write anything they want regarding your release or writing process to our fans. Anything goes! The blog post will include an author provided bio, links and a Q&A session. :-) If you have any questions regarding Indy Author Talks please email [email protected] with the subject Indy Author Talk.

I do realize this is a lot to take in. So much information in a PM. If your not ready to jump right in and have any other questions please feel free me at [email protected] 

SIDE NOTE: We have added advertising to our list of services. For a small fee of $10 a month or $100 a year you can advertise on our website!! For more information please go to click on the link below :
http://nerdgirlofficial.com/advertise-on-ngo/

On Behalf of Nerd Girl Official Management
And the Big 3
Gladys, #NerdGirlOfficial
Melanie, #NerdGirlVamp
Cianna, #NerdGirlSunshine
Korie, #OurBosley
Thank you again for your time

By Dana Delamar at By Your Side Self-Publishing

Many writers decide to go the self-publishing route. It’s quick, it’s easy, and it’s cheap, right? Well, not exactly. The biggest shock for many folks is that you can’t just slap any old thing up on Amazon or Barnes & Noble and make a killing. Nope. You need to put out something that’s great, not just readable. Not even just plain good. But great—a book that readers can’t put down and can’t stop recommending to their friends. Word of mouth sells books more effectively than anything else.

There are several components to creating a great book; your own storytelling and writing craft are two of them. The other is hiring a good freelance editor to make your story shine and engross the reader.

We’ve all experienced the sense of “flow” that a great book can produce—that seamless immersion in another world, where you forget you’re reading and the story unfolds like a movie in your mind. That sense of flow is what makes reading addictive. And a key component of achieving flow is a flawless reading experience that allows you to get lost in the story. Repeatedly tripping over errors (whether they’re story problems or typos) robs you of that feeling. *That's* why errors matter—and that’s why good editing can make the difference between a writer who sells thousands, even millions of copies, and a writer who sells only a handful.

A good editor helps you up your game, taking your writing from “okay” to great or from good to extraordinary. A book can be flawless mechanically, and yet dead on the page when it comes to story. How many books have you read that started with a bang, then fizzled out at the end? How many books have you read where you simply lost interest—or never developed it in the first place? These are failures of storytelling craft. And it’s the editor’s job to tell you when and where you’re hitting the mark—or not—and to help you figure out the fixes. And of course, an editor helps ensure that your book is mechanically sound in terms of spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

Well, you’re saying to yourself, that’s all great, but I can’t afford an editor. Or I can’t afford to pay more than X amount for editing.

If this is your first book or if you’re a writer who’s getting reader feedback that your books need improvement in terms of mechanics, style, or storytelling craft, I’d urge you to reconsider your thinking. You only get one chance to make a first impression, one chance to hook a reader for life. Would you pay good money for a shirt with mismatched or missing buttons, crooked seams, and tears in the fabric? Would you feel ripped off if your new shirt looked great in the store but disintegrated during the first wash? Would you tell all your friends to shop at the store that sold such clothing—or would you tell them to run the other way?

You can’t afford to put out anything less than a professional product. And if you can’t afford at least a proofreading pass* on your work, you aren’t ready to publish. Investing in editing for your books is an investment in yourself and your future. Making sure your books are edited and polished shows respect for your readers… and it shows that you’re worth them making an investment in you with their hard-earned cash and their precious time. Your stories are competing with videogames, movies, and TV—not to mention thousands of other books—for people’s attention, and to get it, you need to put out a polished product. That means investing in professional editing, covers, and formatting.

In other words, save your pennies until you can afford to put out a top-notch product. However, don’t despair—you can save a lot of those pennies by following the tips listed below.

* A note on editors versus proofreaders: Proofreaders cover the mechanical basics (spelling, grammar, and punctuation), typically after an editor has already done a pass or two on the book. Editors cover not only the basics, but also story issues, pacing, character development, style (wordsmithing), fact-checking, terminology, and errors of logic, timing, or consistency. A proofreader may notice these issues, but such issues fall outside the scope of the job (and the pay rate), so don’t expect a proofreader to provide the same level of service as an editor. For more information, see “What Type of Editing Do I Need?” at http://www.edsguild.org/node/17.

So, what should editing cost? For a 90,000 word book, the range (depending on your skill level and the skill level of the editor working with you) can be anywhere from $1100-$3600 (possibly more if you’re not writing in your first language). Skilled editors earn anywhere from $30-$60 an hour, and they’re worth every penny. (For freelance editing rates, see http://www.the-efa.org/res/rates.php.) By contrast, for a 90,000 word book, a skilled proofreader would charge anywhere from $500-$900.

How can you still get a great edit and keep your costs down?

• Polish your writing and storytelling craft as much as possible on your own. Take classes through your local community college, writers’ groups, or writers’ conferences in your area.
• Find a critique partner or critique group to help provide you with developmental feedback.
• Self-edit as much as possible before hiring an editor. Of the many books on the subject, my favorite is Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King.
• If you struggle with grammar and punctuation, pick up a copy of English Simplified by Blanche Ellsworth and John A. Higgins. It’s short (around 80 pages) and covers the basics in a concise, straightforward manner. There’s a reason this book is on its thirteenth edition.
• Do NOT hand your editor your first draft. Polish that baby up as much as you can yourself! At the least, set it aside for three to four weeks so you can read it with fresh eyes. Print it out single spaced to mimic the book reading experience. You’ll be shocked how many more errors you catch that way.
• If you can’t afford the editor you want, consider hiring that editor to do a partial edit (for example, the first 20-50 pages) so that you can apply what you learn to the rest of the book before you hire someone to finish the project. Every error you eliminate on your own not only saves you money, but also allows the editor to focus on deeper issues rather than surface ones.
• See if you can barter for part or all of the editor’s fee. For example, if you’re a web designer or a graphic artist, your editor may be willing to trade services.
• If you truly can’t afford an editor, at least hire a proofreader to clean up the basics. Your readers will thank you, and your story will have a fighting chance to shine and gain that good word of mouth so vital to success.

By following these tips, you have a much better chance of cutting your editing costs down to the lower part of the range, and saving yourself a bundle in the process!

If you have questions about finding a good editor, feel free to contact me at [email protected].

About the Author

Dana Delamar has over twenty-six years of editing experience in both fiction and nonfiction and has worked with everyone from newbie writers to experienced pros. She is also the author of the "Blood and Honor" romantic suspense series, which is set in Italy among the Calabrian Mafia. Her first book, REVENGE, received 4 stars from RT Book Reviews, was a Top Pick at The Romance Reviews, and was a double-finalist for Best First Book and Best Romantic Suspense in the 2013 Booksellers Best Awards. Dana is co-owner with Kristine Cayne of By Your Side Self-Publishing, a company that provides editing and other services to self-publishers. You can learn more about her at http://www.danadelamar.com and http://www.byyoursideselfpub.com.

 I’ve been formatting books since January of 2012. Two and a half years! When I first started out there weren’t many ways to format an ebook. I learned by following a fantastic tutorial by Guido Henkel, but he taught how to format your book into HTML and then convert it into a mobi (for Kindle) and epub using Calibre.

I then found Paul Salvette who has fantastic instructions on how to format in HTML and then convert your book use KindleGen to create an mobi file and I’m not sure what he uses to convert it to epub, but you can be sure it’s something very techy because he believes in doing things “the right way”.

Well, finally, after trying nearly a dozen programs to convert my HTML files, I’ve found one that really does the trick well—Jutoh. Yes, it costs money, but $40 isn’t a lot to pay considering that I charge $50 to do it for you. J (That includes cleaning your document, standardizing your punctuation, converting it into HTML and then finishing the formatting in Jutoh.) What I hate to admit is that now, with Jutoh, you don’t even need to convert your document into HTML if you don’t want to (I’m slowly shifting over to not doing so for more straight forward books).

The thing is, with Jutoh, you can create beautiful ebooks with a minimum of fuss and even have it create different versions for the different vendors just by jumping through two additional hoops (it’s not difficult, truly).  I’m going to be teaching my on-line self-publishing class (being offered at Savvy Authors March 2-15, 2015) the beauty of Jutoh and how to get it to do all the lovely things we’d like to see in our e-books. Yes, there are great tutorials out there on Youtube (this is a link to a very good one) and a book produced by the creator of Jutoh, Julian Smart (who is fantastic, by the way and will answer even the stupidest questions from users—I know, I’ve emailed him a number of times), but I think teaching Jutoh in a class where I can help people one-on-one will be helpful. 

Are you interested in purchasing a copy of Jutoh for yourself? You can do so by following this link.   And you can check out all of my books (many of which I formatted using Jutoh) here, or read more about my formatting services here. 

Meredith Bond is an award-winning author of a series of traditionally published Regency romances and indie-published historical paranormal romances. Known for her characters “who slip readily into one’s heart”, Meredith’s romance novels include her new Medieval Fantasy series, the Children of Avalon, her Regency-set paranormal romances in the Storm series and traditional Regencies (without magic) in The Merry Men Quartet--the last one will be coming out in 2015. Meredith also teaches writing and publishing at her local community college. If you want a taste of her class in book form, Chapter One is available at your favorite e-retailer.

Grand endeavor going on here but so worth it!

I am excited to announce a site where both published and non-published fiction writers have the opportunity to network and socialize with each other and industry specialists. 

Over the past few years of being involved with the profession of writing, I've met wonderful people all willing to share their love of the art and even the craft of putting a novel out there.

In today's rapidly changing world of writing/publishing, keeping up is an effort of keeping on social media and Internet. Unfortunately I can spend hours there, trying to find information and in sight into the business that I forget about my business of...writing the book. (Raise your hand if you know what I mean...)

So after months of waking up with my brain on fire, I thought about not just a site but a place to gather (without the cost of an actual building) where everyone might benefit by sharing their experiences and networking with specialists who help authors get where they need to be.

If you or someone you know is a fiction writer, web and graphic designer, cover artist, reviewer, book blogger, book promoter, formatter, on-line event planner, beta reader, etc. (hopefully you get the picture...if uncertain, contact me and we can discuss) then Spiridus House is for you or them.

All levels of budgets are offered since there are so many individuals looking at how to budget their craft, so those who need services can co-op together. A friend of mine posted a wonderful message on Facebook today and I had to share: "Collaboration NOT Competition--Reach the Top TOGETHER" #GoIndie

Wow, wouldn't it be great if everyone thought that way. The world would be so much better. 

If Spiridus House is something you would like to know more about or if you have a post for our blog, article for our group, link to your service, etc.  Please contact me over at our CONTACT page.