Dianna Gunn; Promotion Specialist

I've been very fortunate to have found a wonderful publisher to reissue my first epic fantasy series,

The Futhark Chronicles. Musa Publishing is a very professional business and I've had the pleasure of the last few months to work with Dianna Gunn, the promotion specialist assigned to help me. I've already learned so much from her and today she shares why she loves her job.

The Best Job in the World

Last year I was hired by Musa Publishing to work as a Book Promotions Specialist focused primarily on expanding the reach of our speculative fiction. I had done social media marketing for a variety of small businesses, but I always daydreamed about working with books.

I've known I wanted to be an author since I was eight years old, and working in the publishing industry seemed like a natural extension of that. So I jumped at the opportunity and started working with some great authors right away.

Five months later I'm pretty confident that was the best decision I've ever made. Here are some of the reasons why:

The people I work with are fantastic. Everyone I work with is passionate about the same thing I am: books. Some like different genres and authors than I do, but they still love books. This means we have plenty to talk about and that nerdy references can often be expected during our conversations.

Quite a few of the people I work with have also shown interest in my own writing and their support and encouragement has helped me make leaps and bounds towards achieving "published author" status myself.

I feel a deep sense of pride when one of my authors gets a good review. I know the books I work with are fantastic—I've never read a Musa book I didn't like, and I've been reading them since the company opened its doors—but it's even better when I see somebody we don't work with talking about how much they enjoyed one of our novels.

Getting reviews on big book blogs can be difficult, but every time I've managed to get a spot on a big blog, the blogger happened to love the book. Seeing a 4 or 5 star rating tells me all my hard work paid off—and that I'm not just supporting great people, I'm supporting great books.

We all learn from each other. Everybody I work with has a different skill set. Some of my authors have only published their first novel in the last month—and others have their first release date coming up soon. Some of the Promotions Specialists I work with have been working in the publishing industry for years. I've been studying social media marketing actively for the last five years and got my first social media job in 2012.

I've been in a pretty constant state of learning since Musa hired me, and it's incredible. I know so much more about book marketing than I did five months ago, and a huge part of what I do is simply pass that information along to authors as I learn it.

Musa is constantly growing. Individual book sales might show only increase slightly from month to month, but Musa is growing all the time. We are actively looking for new staff and new authors, and book sales are steadily increasing.

Being part of a company that's in a constant state of growth and change means two things: I can clearly see my influence on the company's growth, and there's endless opportunity for me to advance my career. There's room for me to grow with Musa, to build a solid career with a company I've truly come to love.

Book promotion isn't easy, but most of the time it's incredible fun. The week before a release might be insane and sometimes you really feel like you're shouting into the wind, but it's all worth it. I wouldn't trade my job for anything in the world.

Dianna Gunn is a freelance writer and Book Promotions Specialist who's working hard to add published author to that list of titles. She also happens to love cats, photography and Scotland.

You can find her at The Dabbler or on The Darkside Codex blog every Tuesday. Tuesday.

IWSG: February Version

Thanks to Alex J. Cavanaugh, this wonderful groups of supportive writers is still around. Join the blogging challenge to receive encouragement, offer advice and network with other writers. Visit the entire blogging group and add your name to the list on the IWSG website if you haven't already. And you can join in by visiting the IWSG Facebook Page.

There's a lot I don't like about this month besides the cold and snow. It's short. Less days to do all the things I want to do and need to do. Just looking at my Old Farmer's Almanac leaves me a little frazzled, and I'm not a frazzling kind of person. Generally I thrive on multi-tasking, over-scheduling and too many commitments with not enough time. Did I over do this month? Actually, did I over extend myself for the entire year? I worried about it a bit all through January.

Then two days ago, a family friend died unexpectedly. He'd had health issues he'd ignored and not followed his doctor's advice, but he was the same age as my husband. It stunned not only my husband, but my children who appreciated and enjoyed this kind man's jovial presence and support. The world lost a bit of brightness.

And now I'm not worried about all those obligations as much as I was. I know I can handle it all and I'm not going to ruin my time stressing about it. I have more things to worry about like the health and safety of my family and friends. Time with them is time well spent. Writing is my job and all the networking things I do to strive for success are part of it. But it's not the most important thing. My advice this month is that if you're going to stress, make sure it's over the right things.

Beside prioritizing, another way I've taken some of the workload off my shoulders is to host some very interesting guests on my blog. This Friday, Dianna Gunn, Promotions Specialist for Musa Publishing will have a guest post. More wonderful guests will follow during the rest of the month.

I still need some minion helpers for The A to Z Blogging Challenge. I hope you've signed up. If you have and you would like to improve your exposure even more, please think about being my helper. It's pretty easy. I give you a small number of blogs to visit each week and visit them at least once to make sure they're following the rules and participating.

The Warrior and The Governor is doing well since it hit Amazon. Today I should finish up reading through the galley for Keepers of Sulbreth. The book is being reissued later this month by Musa Publishing. My WIP is on the back burner for the last few days.

Do you like February? (This question not directed to my friends in Florida and California. Do not under any circumstances tell me in the comments how it was 80 in your neck of the woods today.) Do you want to be a minion helper? Are you stressing over things you shouldn't? Is there something good you're stressing over?

Wine Down

I spelled that right. Various friends and family members gifted me with numerous bottles of the vino for Christmas. A glass once in a while in the evenings will make me smile through the next few busy, busy months.

Just as exciting as the full cupboard of wine are the many things happening during the first seven months of this year. I knew I was busy but it wasn't until I started making notes in my brand new Old Farmer's Almanac Engagement Calendar that I realized just how busy I am.

The good news is a number of guests who will appear here with terrific posts during the next two months with more on the way for March. Not only does that help with the variety here, but it frees me up for the many things I have going on.

At this time of year, many of us start to think of goals for the upcoming year. I've heard lots of my friends say they're not setting any but that doesn't mean they don't have plans. Whether it's with writing, the day job, the family or other personal issues, most of us have an idea where they hope to be when 2015 winds down. I'm sure it will roll by faster than 2014 as the years tend to do.

This post is short as I have some final edits to read through for the reissue of Keepers of Sulbreth. I'm so very impressed with the publishing process at Musa Publishing. And I've mentioned before that I love deadlines. I set them for myself but they work even better when set by someone else.

Are you thinking about goals or making plans for the next year? Are you busy like me and worried about getting through the next few months? Any deadlines in the near future for you?

Leap of Faith

Almost five months ago, I spend many an hour thinking about my writing career. I had dabbled in self-publishing my epic fantasy series that I'd required the rights back from Medallion Press. My heart wasn't in the commitment needed to be successful as an independent publisher of my own books. A chance comment overheard at my local writers' meeting led me to Musa Publishing. After some investigation and contacting an author I knew personally who had a book reissued through them, I submitted the first book on The Futhark Chronicles. Shortly thereafter, an editor asked me to send her the complete series before they made a decision. A contract for each book in the series followed. The professionalism and organization of Musa impresses me every step of the way. The first book will be reissued in February of next year and the others shortly thereafter.

I also had one romance novel with an excellent publisher while all my other romance books, including two in that same series, were with New Concepts Publishing. That single book with the other publisher had earned very small royalties from the very start to my disappointment. Though NCP doesn't normally do reprints, I contacted them and asked them to take on this book and reissue it. To my great delight, they not only took it on, but also decided to reissue the other two books in the series with new covers.

New cover for reissue

In today's publishing landscape, it is important to take charge of your career. In my first example, I evaluated my strengths and comfort and realized I would be happier if my books were with a small publisher even if I didn't earn the high percentage royalties as I would if self-published. When my book wasn't doing well at one publisher, I made the decision to take back my rights and then trust the book to another small press. In the second example, I retrieved my work from a place where it languished with virtually no sales and put it with a publisher where my books have had moderate to bestselling success.

The amount of relief I felt after taking that leap of faith to pull my books from one venue and entrust it to another can't be described. My books were being given a second chance at life and success. There are so many options for writers right now, it is important to keep searching until we find the best place for our books' success. I could have allowed my books and all the work I put into them to wither and be forgotten while I continued to work on new novels, but the effort to find them new homes was more than worth it.

Have you ever had a book reissued? Do you work with more than one publisher? I only have three now and that's enough for me. Have you ever taken your rights back from a publisher and for what reason?

Don't forget to visit IWSG blog today.

This Too Shall Pass

In central Pennsylvania, we've seen the sun for about two hours this week. It didn't rain EVERY minute. Sometimes it was only a constant mist or dark gloom.. And the wind! The sun is supposed to make an appearance today. I might actually be happy to mow the grass as that will mean it has finally dried up a bit. Sorry, I'm complaining about the weather. You know you'll have to put up with my whining about the cold all winter. Anything but sunshine isn't my thing.

This quote seemed appropriate for the day though I usually pick something from JRR Tolkien that has to do with writing.
Darkness must pass,
A new day will come,
And when the sun shines,
It will shine out the clearer.

And from the Old Farmer's Almanac:
The best thing to hold onto in life is each other. Audrey Hepburn
He who goes to bed hungry, dreams of pancakes. Maltese proverb

Weekend plans are to catch up on some outside yard work and do some actual writing. I've had to many other things going on lately that limited my time on my WIP. And if time permits I'm writing an article for my local writers' group newsletter.

Musa Publishing is celebrating their 3 year anniversary tonight from 7 PM to 9 PM EST. Take a chance to win lots of eBooks and a Kindle Paper White. All you have to do is visit their Facebook page. Musa is the publisher who had contracted my epic fantasy series, The Futhark Chronicles. So far I've been very, very impressed with the professionalism and efficiency of Musa. I'm excited about working with them. Drop by their celebration tonight and meet some of their authors.

Did that massive storm system hit your abode this week? Ever dream of pancakes? What are you working on this weekend or are you just enjoying some sunshine?