Fields of Elysium Playlist

35 amazing songs in this Fields of Elysium Playlist I put together on YouTube. I can't get enough of these songs, and I'm sure you'll like them too. :0)

Check it out. Click Here!

Goodreads Giveaway Success

WOW! Fields of Elysium is the 16th most requested book at Goodreads Giveaways. The popular novel, City of Bones (Mortal Instruments), is right beside my book. I'm so proud! :o)

Giveaway ends on August 29th. Enter Here

Fields of Elysium is the Indie Book of the Week by My Guilty Obsession

The best kind of reviews when the reader expects less and gets more.:)

"Fields of Elysium is one of those books that completely takes you by surprise with how involved and wrapped up in it you become. I never expected to love this as much as I did nor to become so engrossed in the story that I would have to sit down and read it all in one sitting simply because I had to know how it all played out." My Guilty Obsession REVIEW+GIVEAWAY

MY BOOKS IS THE INDIE BOOK OF THE WEEK AT @kindlemom1 MY GUILTY OBSESSION BOOK BLOG :) #review #giveaway http://t.co/Eb6PERlw6k
— A.B.Whelan (@AuthorABWhelan) July 8, 2013

World War Z - My Movie Review

World War Z

2013PG-13

A U.N. employee races against time and fate as he travels the world trying to stop the spread of a deadly zombie pandemic. As the undead hordes gain strength across the globe, governments topple and Earth stands on the brink of total social collapse.

My Review:

If you haven’t gone to see the movie World War Z yet, hesitate no longer. This summer blockbuster has everything a good movie needs: plenty of action that keeps your eyes glued to the screen; emotional scenes that make you root for the characters; believable acting along with a plot that actually makes sense.

The movie is rated PG-13, but in my opinion, too much suspense and too many scary parts make it unsuitable for younger kids. As a fiction writer and avid movie fan, I saw most of the scary scenes coming and warned my kids to cover their eyes, but two teen boys next to me jumped from fright quite a few times.

Some claim that Brad Pitt has lost his charm, but I don’t feel that way. I loved him in this role, playing a caring father and experienced UN field scientist. Actually, I can’t remember any other disaster movie where the leading scientist cared more about his/her family than the survival of mankind itself. When an epidemic breaks out, infecting everybody who gets bitten by zombies with a fast spreading virus, the Brad Pitt character’s number-one priority is getting his family to safety instead of satisfying his own curiosity by finding the cure. Yet when government officials corner him and force him to face the facts that only those people are going to be saved who serve a purpose, he steps up to lead the investigation into the origin of the breakout and, with that, ensure his own family’s survival.

The investigation takes the audience from the USA to North Korea to Israel. We meet interesting characters, and learn bits and pieces about the virus, all parts of a puzzle that won’t be solved by the end of the movie, leaving open the opportunity for a sequel or sequels. This story has the potential to grow and branch out.  If the studio comes out with the next installment, I’ll definitely go to see what happens next.  

Enter to Win Big

Do you like to read romance? Enter this great giveaway to win amazing young-adult and new-adult ebooks from these popular authors.
My YA romantic fantasy, Fields of Elysium is one of the prizes. :)

Organized by Mary Ting, author of the YA Crossroads saga and NA Something Great
Click here to Visit her blog 

Something Great Giveaway from Great Authors

6/20-7/31

A signed book of Something Great by M. Clarke and many ebook giveaways from fabulous authors: Pretty Little Lies by Jennifer Miller

Wide Awake by Shelly Crane

Acadian Waltz & The Satyr's Curse by Alexandrea Weis

Hidden Wings, Descent, or Broken Wings by Cameo Renae

I am Wolf and The Kiss by Joann Buchanan

Khan by Kathi Barton

Forbidden Embrace by Charlotte Blackwell

Witchwood 1&2 and Paradox by Patti Roberts

Caged by Sophie Davis

Grade A Stupid by AJ Lape

3 ebook copies of Deus by Nely Cab

The Ninth Taghairm by Pyxi Rose

Fields of Elysium by A.B. Whelan

Leticia by Lindsay Kendal

Hot & Forbidden by P.T. Macias

The Broken Destiny by Carlyle Labuschagne

any ebook from Nevermore Press

Click Here to Enter the Rafflecopter Giveaway

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/48cd2c38/" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway

What is an author platform and how can you get one?

If you are a new author, getting ready to publish or one who has been published already, and you don’t understand why your book doesn’t sell, you probably haven’t heard about author platforms, as was the case with me when I published my first book.

Since there are dozens of articles and posts explaining the definition of author platforms, I’ve decided to share the personal experiences of my publishing journey with you instead. Hopefully you can learn from my mistakes and launch a very successful writing career.

It was in 2011 when I finished my first novel American Charm.  I was so excited about it that I couldn’t wait to see it in print. While my test readers (only family members back then) read it and criticized it, I researched literary agents and my publishing options. I considered the story to be perfect because it came from my heart, and I believed as such it deserved to be on the shelves of bookstores. I decided to find an agent who would represent me at the major publishing houses. I bought guidebooks, did more research online, and finally ended up sending query letters to two prestigious agents in the business. Very soon I had to face the reality that instead of agents fighting each other to get hold of my manuscript, one of them rejected me politely, the other never responded. My pride suffered, but not my enthusiasm.

Next, I did more research and found out about Amazon KDP and Createspace self-publishing. Eager to hold and smell my first freshly printed book, I submitted my novel to an online editing company, paying them big bucks to bring the manuscript into shape, only to find out a year later that they did a sloppy job. I designed the cover, wrote a synopsis, and finally uploaded my book to Amazon but priced it way too high. I didn’t want to be compared to other self-published authors. I thought myself better. Stupid of me. Then I shared the link with my three hundred friends on Facebook, believing that they would promote it for me and the news about my newly published book would spread like wildfire. Oh boy, how wrong I was!

While I wanted the world to stop and for everybody to concentrate on my super-duper amazing story, and download, review and share it, I received a monthly report with only a dozen sales.  My husband encouraged me, saying that, considering that I’m Hungarian and English is my second language, the fact that I convinced a dozen people my book was worth their money is pretty incredible. But I wanted more. I just didn’t know how to get it. Soon I became torn between spending my limited time working on a sequel or promoting myself. I started to read articles about successful self-pub authors with great envy, hoping to learn a trick or two, but whatever I tried only boosted sales momentarily.

But I kept going. I reached out to local papers and review companies, and created a little buzz once more. The book started to sell, then the sales died down again. Finally I gave up on self-promotion and concentrated on writing, believing that either my story or my writing style was not good enough. I wanted to get better. 

Four months later I published a short novella, and by early next year the second volume of American Charm. I knew I was not going to break the bank with the new releases, but I believed I had to continue the story for those who enjoyed my first book.

However, as time went by I never stopped collecting information about self-publishing successes, so by the time I finished my fourth book, Fields of Elysium, I had a well-detailed marketing plan. Due to the fact that Fields of Elysium is a young-adult romantic fantasy, a different genre from my first series, I decided to change my author name and start afresh. I even un-published my previous novels because they are nowhere near to my new standards, but I’m planning to revise them.

Fields of Elysium was completed, proofread, and edited by a retired English professor, test-read, designed and had a cover and synopsis. I only had to start building my author platform, bring awareness to my book, and create a demand for it. I opened an account on Goodreads and started a two-month-long ARC book giveaway. By the time the novel was published, close to a thousand people marked it ‘to-read.’

I submitted it to professional review companies, like Kirkus Reviews, Readers Favorite, Reader Views Kids, Young Adult and Teen Readers, etc. to gain creditability through their respected opinions. Then I started to send queries to book bloggers and book clubs, humbly asking them to accept a free hardcopy of my book in exchange for an honest review. When I ran out of books (you have to watch your budget), I offered free e-books. Truth be told, hardcopies were more popular than e-books.

In the meantime, I bugged the life out of my already existing Facebook friends and fans with news of my upcoming hot release. Surprisingly I received positive feedback. The number of my fans started to increase, so I began to post giveaways, funny posts, romantic posts, etc., aware that I’m not really good at connecting with fans through social media sites.

With the growing awareness about my book on Goodreads and Facebook, I started to receive five-star reviews from professionals.

The big day came. Fields of Elysium was published. Knowing my former sales numbers, I was very pleased to see the first monthly report. But my job was not nearly done. I reached out to other authors in the same genre; we did author exchange reviews, along with promoting each other’s work and exchanging information.

I’m still new to the business and I learn something everyday, such as how effective book blast and blog tours can be; how important it is to join forces with similar authors and do joint promotions; and even how to price your book right.

I have learned over the past two years that building your author platform takes time and it’s necessary for traditionally published and indie authors equally. Visibility and proven reach (number of fans, comments on your posts, reviews, target-audience posts and interactions, etc.) are what agents and readers look at first before they invest in you. You have to be open to new approaches, reach out and help fellow authors, open Facebook, Twitter, Google+ accounts, set up a Goodreads page to increase your book’s visibility. Create a trailer, join book clubs as a reader not a writer, reach out to bloggers, reading communities, and above all never give up.

I still have a lot to learn, but I never stop browsing the web for new ideas. After every book I published I learned something new, and I do better with each book launch. Today I know that it’s not enough to start building awareness of your book two months in advance, because receiving reviews and organizing book blasts and blog tours take months.

I hope you will learn from my mistakes, and will be patient and won’t rush into publishing your book. If you plan to write a series, I highly recommend finishing the second and third books before you publish the first one. You will still have time to polish them, or rewrite parts between publications, but that’s still less work than trying to write an entire novel in a timely fashion while you spend six-teen hours a day on the computer to promote your first book.

And I leave the most important thing for last. It doesn’t matter how much money or how many hours you spend on building your author platform if your book doesn’t talk to the readers. All successful authors – fiction or non-fiction – have one thing in common: they were all able to strike an emotional chord in the readers; and their books were most likely well edited and proofread as well. It’s not an easy thing to do; otherwise every book would be a bestseller.

Why It's So Difficult to Sell a Self-published Book?

By A.B.Whelan

The answer is very simple: because it’s not popular. People tend to buy or even interact with products that are already popular. Of course there are other elements, such as being poorly written and edited, dotted with typos, meaningless plots, paper-thin characters, etc., however, if a book is popular people will buy it in spite of its flaws. 

Established publishing houses have entire teams of editors, designers, PR personnel, publicists, and a ton of money to make any book look desirable. They have working formulas that have been perfected over the years and tested on the market for decades. On the other hand, if you are a self-published author, you’re most likely a one-man team who write, edit, design, and promote your own work. The good news is that in today's technological revolution there are tons of easily accessible author-platform-building tools available for those who are willing to learn and listen.

What makes a book popular?

Trademark. When Harper Teens publishes a novel, you can be sure it’s a great book. And we believe it is a great book because we trust their editors’ taste and have already sampled their products. Now that's the trademark an upcoming self-pub author doesn't have. We have to gain the reader’s trust. And it’s not easy because readers know if an author publishes her own work, the book hasn’t gone through any kind of filter and most likely the final product is not as good as a well-edited, thoroughly proofread book which professionals worked on for months. Oh, we do try to get our books edited, but no matter how your sister, husband, friend, mother, etc. say that your book is the best book she has ever read, in reality people close to us will never tell you the complete truth.

What can you do to get your manuscript into a better state?

Hire a professional editor. Which is easier said than done, because just for a simple spelling check you have to cough up a thousand bucks. A thorough proofreading, editing and critical appraisal can cost you up to five grand. And your book might never sell more than a couple hundred copies for $2.99. I was lucky to meet a fantastic English professor who is willing to edit my work for the pure fun of it. But one proofreader is not enough. I know self-pub authors who hired multiple proofreaders and they still find phrases or words that should have been changed or parts that do nothing but drag out the story.

So if self-pub authors’ books are not quality enough, why do readers care about them at all?

Because they are cheap or even free, the risk is minimal, yet there is a chance of finding a gem.  Besides, Amazon even allows its customers to return e-books for seven days after purchase. And from time-to-time self-pub authors do emerge from the sea of e-book publishers. Amanda Hockings’ books are very popular despite reviewers’ complaints about the lack of editing. I guess her stories were satisfying enough. And without reader support authors such as Colleen Hoover, Jennifer L. Armentrout, Jessica Sorensen might never have been discovered either.

Most of us self-pub authors want to produce the best books with the limited tools we can afford. We try to get better, work harder, re-read our manuscript one more time. And after a few successful book launches we can afford to spend more money on polishing our new manuscripts. We always chase time because we don’t have the luxury of writing our books for a year. Readers demand sequels, new novels, otherwise they forget about us and move on to a new series. Some of us try to keep the attention on us with silly Facebook posts and images, or share bits of our life on Twitter, hoping that those readers who liked our first book will stay interested and buy the next one. And unfortunately in the rush to publish (sometimes every 2-3 months), quantity defeats quality.

But if you set the bar high for yourself and you dare to dream big, eventually you will achieve great things. Your book might never be the next Twilight or Hunger Games, but it could always be the first Fields of Elysium. :o)

Originally posted: Click Here!