Saturday, October 16, 2010

Kimber An Braces for the Launch of SUGAR RUSH

Good morning, Blog Buddies!  I've been working hard this week, final proofing Sugar Rush for release on Friday, October 22nd, and upgrading my web presence.  I guess it's having been in that evil, dreaded purgatory known as Queryland for four years, but I put off most of the preparations until the last couple of weeks out of fear, fear it would all blow up in my face.  I'm still not doing the Snoopy Dance because of that, and also because all I can see is a TON of work in front of me!  Okay, I'll schedule my New-Author-Freak-Out for Saturday, October 23rd at precisely 4:17 a.m., once my coffee is working and before I need to return emails.  Yeah, yeah, that should work with the Master Schedule.  Did I mention I have four children?
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Anyway...
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I now have a main site and I own my domain name.  The thing is I don't have the money for a professional job. (My four children need to eat.) So, I went searching and discovered that Blogger has upgraded a lot.  There are some new beautiful themes and I was able to set up a blog which looks like a website for only the cost of my domain name, $10 plus tax.  Here's the address-
http://www.kimberan.com/
I still need to finish a couple of pages.
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I noticed that my target readership, teens, enjoy an encyclopedia of sorts for their favorite stories, whether movies or novels, so I've established a blog which is all Sugar Rush stories all the time-
http://opheliadawsonchronicles.blogspot.com/.
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I'm also on Facebook (most active,) as well as MySpace and Twitter.  I'm not active much on either MySpace or Twitter, because I simply do not have time. (Did I mention I homeschool two of my children and the fourth's a toddler?)  There are several other places I need to work on, YouTube, CafePress (have a shop, but not complete,) Shelfari, and Goodreads, as well as Amazon.  The list just keeps getting longer!
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In addition to all this, you may have noticed I've re-organized this blog.  Starting the weekend after next (October 29th through 31st), I will be hosting guest bloggers from the publishing industry on Fridays, fellow ePublished Young Adult authors will be co-blogging with me on Saturdays, and established authors will guest blog on Sundays about the writing craft.  No one's turned down my invitations yet!  Everyone has been so generous!
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For publishing industry professionals, I have Dara England, who designed my cover art, awesome SFR blogger, Heather Massey, my own fabulous executive editor, Heather Bennett, and fellow blogging book reviewer and new author, Tia Nevitt.
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For guest authors, I have Walter Greatshell putting a Science Fiction spin on old monsters for the Halloween post, YA Fantasy Historical author Marissa Doyle, the legendary author and generous mentor, Jacqueline Lichtenberg, and Hawaiian author Patricia Wood who lives on a sailboat.
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My new co-blogging YA ePublished authors are Vanessa Barger, Rebecca Royce , and Leslie Soule.  You can find their blogging schedule on the sidebar. 
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I'm still trying to figure out what to do for promoting Sugar Rush over the next couple of weeks, especially next weekend and on the day.  If you have any ideas or want to invite me to guest blog or blog swap or whatever, please contact me!  You can comment here or here is my authorly email addy-
kimber.an@yahoo.com
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If you feel so generous, I would appreciate you all posting my cover art on your blogs and such.  Here is the link to my About Sugar Rush page-
http://www.kimberan.com/p/about-sugar-rush.html
I'll be posting a sample chapter on my main site soon too.
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Ohmigosh, there is so much to remember and to do.  You should see the size of my daily planner!  Okay, maybe not.  Too scary.  I'll post a showcase of Sugar Rush tomorrow.  My daughter is threatening to review Sugar Rush, but first, she says, she has to pretend I didn't write it, because there's kissing scenes and it's just too weird reading a kissing scene your mother wrote.
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Big thanks to everyone for all your advice and encouragement over the past four years!

2 comments:

Tia Nevitt said...

It's absolutely dazzling, how much you need to do. And yes, I used the right word. I'm not reading anything really urgent, so please send me a review copy of your novel if you think it would be a good fit on my blog. Oh! and the release date, please.

Kimber Li said...

Thanks, Tia! I'll send you an ARC as soon as I get the go-ahead from Decadent.