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Looking for a few good reviewers!
If you want a sneak peak at The Color of the Wild, if you have time to seriously sit down and read over the next two weeks, and if you are willing and able to post a review on the sale’s page for the book on “Opening Day” or shortly thereafter (the launch date is scheduled for the 14th of February)… please e-mail me (gingetz@gmail.com). I’m looking for a few (actually, twenty-five of you) good readers.
This is a great opportunity for me to get some feedback (important stuff for my first book, and you, dear reader, are the perfect person to help!). And you get a free download of the book before it is available to the public.
If you are interested and would consider this, please e-mail me. I’d really appreciate your help – and hope you’ll enjoy. Think about it. Drop me a note if you have questions. I’ll be here.
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And so, yes, you read that right. The launch date is set. The 14th of February. Valentine’s Day! Isn’t that a nice choice! (Thank you Sammie, Dee & Nadene…)
Only two more weeks, and something I’ve been working on for years is really, finally happening. Wow.
My first book, The Color of the Wild will be released.
Like a wild beast let out of cage? At least, that’s what I’m kind of hoping. But maybe nothing happens on that day except you can buy the book on Amazon (please do!) and I can say I’m a published author. Nothing more? Well, the beer we bottled today will be ready to taste, and I’ll be busy baking heart shaped goodies for my sweetie. Yes, I am a sap.
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But the book… for me, it’s incredibly wonderful and exciting, the beginning of something new, the reward of so many years working towards this, a future unfolding in the pages of one little book…
So, if this is all so great and wonderful, why the heck am I so scared?
Seriously. I’m worked up, nervous, on edge. I’m running around trying to be Wonder Woman and get everything done, ready, in place, set up, perfectly. Do all I can, learn all I can thanks to the help of other author’s blogs and web sites and forums. And at the end of the day I feel I’m spitting in the wind.
Me? A published author? What if my efforts are futile and no one reads it? What if it’s a bomb? What if the reviews (if I’m even lucky enough to get them) are all terrible? What if my writing really stinks? It’s like a day of reckoning, I guess.
Any other authors out there willing and able to share a few first-time-publishing-blues stories? Please share. I’d love to hear. I sure could use a little encouragement right about now.
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Oh, and besides working on the marketing, which I knew nothing about before Friday, and now I’m suddenly a self-professed pro, we’ve got a new piece of heavy equipment into the ranch, we’re finishing up logging before the river opens in this heat, getting the house plans designed, bottling that new batch of beer… and my son is on his way home. Yes, here’s the most special news of all: Forrest is done with his job at the South Pole for this season, and is coming home!
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Gin Getz 
Hi Gin,
Don’t feel alone on this venture. I am a published author and the message is more important than sales. This is my latest post:
Memoirs that Help People – Notice of Reduced E-Book Price
Dear New Reader,
I’m told by my readers that my two memoirs “Hiking Out” and “Inside and Outside” sell themselves, that I take my audience to many places, to our inside and outside worlds, that my stories and essays are healing and unforgettable. If people enjoy my blogs, they will enjoy my books. They will also appreciate the excellent Kirkus Review of my second memoir.
Kirkus Review of Inside and Outside “—The writing, in fact, is consistently polished. His voice is that of the subtitle’s ‘life-long hiker’ whose trails have taken him down paths both well-worn and fresh. What’s more, he does this with good cheer and a willingness to learn from everything that he encounters. —Sederquist’s good-humor, optimism and varied subjects offer diverting reading.”
I’m trying to attract new readers, who will purchase and review my books, by dropping the price of my Kindle e-book versions from $7.99 to $2.99. You can post your comments and reviews by email, at the Amazon site, my blogs at http://www.dicksederquist.com and on posts on my Dick Sederquist Author Facebook page. I will respond to all your critiques. Given a positive response, I expect to reduce the purchase price of the paperback versions as well. Let me know your interest in this offer as well as anything you would like to see in my future blogs. There may be another book here.
I write with the same passion that I conduct my volunteer secular prison ministry. Publishing “Inside and Outside” was motivated by my prison program. As a depression survivor, having lost hope in my life, I can appreciate the plight of those who have lost their hope. My message of hope and inspiration is captured in the words on the back cover of my book.
Outside is the world we live in,
Free to seek our dreams.
Inside our world are prisons,
Both real and of the mind.
A lifelong hiker and depression survivor,
The author takes the reader to many places,
To our inside and outside worlds,
Some of them magic,
Stories you will never forget.
I invite you and your friends to read and critique my memoirs. As I write in my book inscriptions to the reader “I hope you enjoy this hike through life.”
Sincerely,
Dick Sederquist
Wonderful, Dick – thank you so much for sharing your experience and your life work!
Gin: I would love to review your book and will make the time to do so. Qualifications: – I am a technical writer and editor – I teach technical communications online to a global audience – I grew up on a farm in the San Luis Valley and experience awe every time I see the mountains (and the ocean) – I’ve traveled to and lived in many places around the world – I enjoy your writing, the way you capture the voice of the mountains, the water, the seasons, and the trees. Though I may disagree with some of your positions, your writing transcends that and brings joy to my heart, tears to my eyes, and life to something that is ancient.
Thanks for your consideration. Regarding your fears, concerns, nervousness. I admire your boldness and courage. You make yourself vulnerable in ways most people would shy away from and you have had the will and fortitude to accomplish a dream of many. You are a published author. Congratulations.
Sincerely,
Preston Hathaway
Preston, your words mean the world to me. Thank you. For your time of sharing them, and considering reviewing. I also really appreciate your point of how we don’t have to agree on all perspectives in order to share a breathtaking view. That’s been and continues to be a great lesson for me, and one that is teaching me to try to keep an open mind, and be willing to share beyond a closed tight circle of those that clone my beliefs. It is a big beautiful world out there, because of our diversity, I believe. Diversity of natural beauty as well as beautiful minds. Thanks for sharing yours. I’ll write you with more details soon over e-mail. Thank you again for this.