Press pause: An IWSG Post

Welcome to my addition of this month's IWSG post. If you're not familiar with this meme,  click here to hop over to Alex Cavanaugh's blog to find out more. I'd like to thank Alex for hosting this wonderful meme. 

Before I get to my post, have you seen Embrace's the new cover? I think my publisher didn't an amazing job on it and I just can't help wanting to show it off. 

Okay, back to IWSG. July is the mid-year mark. Time to press pause and see how I'm doing on the one goal I set for myself back in January: in 2013 I vow to use my insecurities to help me work harder. 

I've been doing pretty good with that. When insecurities set in, I found ways to make them work to my advantage. They say practice makes perfect, and while I won't go as far as to say the key note speech I gave in April was perfect, by practicing it out loud beforehand I did manage to get through it without stumbling. I've bounced ideas of my critique partners, family and friends to help me tackle revisions on my different works-in-progress. And since marketing can be daunting I teamed up with other authors and we're working together to promote each other's books.

Okay, so I did okay the first half of the year, but this is a new month and the beginning of a whole new half. Hold Tight, book two in my Embrace Series, will be released on August 20th and, well, I'm hoping readers like it. I'm hoping readers find it. So how do I take those insecurities and turn them around. I should give the book to my mom. She'll read it and say she loves it. My dad might even read it. Oh, and then I could give it to my sister. Of course, she's swamped with school. Hmm.... 

I'll have to use the next several weeks to plan some fun events and promotion, instead. That will help readers find my book. As far as readers liking it, I'm going to have to trust that with my editor's keen eye for detail and deep understanding of my characters that I've told the best story I can. Oh, and I'll stock up on chocolate. 

Just having an action plan makes me feel a little better. Although, I might need a lot of chocolate, and wine. 

And I've created a street team--a group of readers who help spread the word about my upcoming release. If you're interested in finding out more, click here.

On a side note, I do love spreading the word about good books. If you're an author and your book is family friendly (as a YA author I try to keep the content on my blog PG13) I'd love to spotlight your book. If you're interested, shoot me an email at cheriecolyerwriter (at) gmail (dot) com.