Creating a website to promote ebook

Traditional methods of book promotion aren't cutting it anymore. I have tried grassroots and hiring a publicist, but both failed to convert. Without an author being tied to a publisher, bookstores are not interested in that author's books. This leaves two options: create a publishing house or disregard dead-tree versions of the book.

I actually tried the first option. Snowdrops Publishing was born in early 2014, but it was expensive to start up and will be hard to maintain. With domain expenses, ISBN purchases, buying inventory, etc., the money was leaving m pocket much more easily.

So how am I going to get Seefer Elliot to become one of the most popular books for 6th graders? I decided to concentrate solely on e-marketing for 2015. After all, the growing population of middle schoolers who own electronic reading devices has swelled dramatically in the last few years. If I am not going to be seeing my book in a Barnes and Noble or the public library, I need to reach the other big marketplace: e-readers.

I have created a hub page, Seefer Elliot, to help make my book more Google-friendly. It is my hope that others looking for information about books in the genre will find this page and receive the information presented on it.

In conjuction with having a crawlable site, having the the domain name makes it much easier to drive traffic. Instead of having the long amazon URL, I can simply say "hey check out my website at ..."

Once at the website, users can jump to the Amazon purchase page. Making book one 99 cents is also part of the strategy.

I will update this in the future to inform you how it goes and if it translates into additional sales. Maybe one day, you'll hear about my book being one of the best 6th, 7th or 8th grade books to read from another source other than me. :) Here's hoping at least.

Now Available: Seefer Elliot and the Darkness Within

I felt very accomplished when I published my first book, Seefer Elliot and the World Aside Ours. I had fun writing and promoting that first attempt to become a novelist. Soon after the dust settled, I realized I had to get back to the drawing board (computer) and start the follow-up.

After a year of outlining, editing, re-writing, editing again, marketing and promoting, I am happy to announce that Seefer Elliot and the Darkness Within is now available everywhere.

If you haven't seen it, please have a look at the book trailer (which, I must say, is pretty cool):

And if you are anxious to read it, you will be happy to know that for a limited time, both books will be listed for $0.99 on Amazon. Get them while you can:

    

Thank you to all of those who have supported me along the way!

High fives!

Pat

Giveaway for Seefer Elliot and the Darkness Within

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Seefer Elliot and the Darkness Within

by Pat Mallon

Giveaway ends May 06, 2014.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

There may be 6 more days to go until the release of Seefer Elliot and the Darkness Within, but you can enter to win a copy now on Goodreads. All you have to do is follow the link above and put the book on your bookshelf. Good luck!

BTW, here's a shot of the cover, since I haven't shared that yet...

High Fives,

Pat

Seefer Elliot and the Darkness Within

On May 6th, I will be releasing Seefer Elliot and the Darkness Within. The sequel to The World Aside Ours has been the labor of love over the last year. When I published my first book last January, I felt very satisfied with the effort. I wrote the book with little plans to expand on the small universe I built. As time went by, ideas kept popping into my head for further adventures of the boy that would save the world. Thus, my hunger to pick up the pen continued.

The Darkness Within follows Seefer Elliot during the months following the alien attack on his school. Investigators are suspicious of Seefer as reports of his powers and feats begin to build. Meanwhile, a new threat hunts the boy the Omegans call "Cepheus."

I am very excited to show off the book trailer for this second edition. Please check it out and consider picking up a copy of The Darkness Within on May 6th.

Thanks,

Pat

New Cover for Seefer Elliot #1

With the release of Seefer Elliot #2 fastly approaching, it was time to bring the first book’s cover in line with the new cover format. The digital painting illustration is more in line with many middle-grade novels. I liked the old look, but I can see how it would have come off as slightly young for readers who are trying to identify with older material.

Original:

New:

What do you think?

Frozen

If you have children, you may have heard of the movie, "Frozen." It is wildly popular, and for good reason. It's terrific. My girls are obsessed having seen the movie a bunch of times, listening to the soundtrack and playing with the toys. Frozen is a phenomenon.

Among the Frozen swag we have around the house are a few illustrated picture books. I have admired the technical ability of the artists that Disney employs. Since I am attempting to learn similar techniques, I thought I'd give replicating one of the images a go. What do you think?

Credit: Picture on left is from book, "Anna's Best Friends" by Christy Webster (illustrated by Disney Storyboard Artists).

I'm a far way away from making my own illustrations come to life, but trying to duplicate images from a book has helped me with the technique.

Comics are the testing ground

It's a new year, so I'm trying new things. One of the goals I have as an illustrator is to learn better coloring techniques. Since I've been doing Milk for Dead Hamsters, my coloring has been relatively unchanged. I take the paint bucket in Photoshop, fill areas with color and then add some shadows:

When I started illustrating books in 2012, I picked up some techniques to make for different results. But essentially, this was just a practice of applying some textures over the colored areas. This produced a water-color-like effect. But realistically, it was all the same.For example, the background here is dabbed with some water color PS brushes:

But I want to take some control over the matter. I want to learn how to digitally paint. I have been using a lot of the tutorials on Ctrl+Paint to help me. So far, I love the development. I am going to periodically use m4dh as my testing ground for my progression before I employ these techniques in books or freelance jobs. While digital painting takes more time, the end result is a warmer, more welcoming image. Here's my first go at it: