Welcome to my stop on Liesel Hill's blog tour for her debut book, Persistence of Vision! Today I have a wonderful guest post from Liesel... but let's first start with a bit about the book. :)
Author: Liesel K. Hill
Published: January 29, 2013
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
In a world where collective hives are enslaving the population and individuals have been hunted to the verge of extinction, Maggie Harper, and independent 21st Century woman, must find the strength to preserve the freedom of the future, but without the aid of her memories.
After experiencing a traumatic time loss, Maggie is plagued by a barrage of images she can't explain. When she's attacked by a creep with a spider's web tattoo, she is saved by Marcus, a man she's never met, but somehow remembers. He tells her that both he and her creepy attacker are from a future in which individuals are being murdered by collectives, and Marcus is part of the rebellion. The collectives have acquired time travel and they plan to enslave the human race throughout all of history. The flashes Maggie has been seeing are echoes of lost memories, and the information buried deep within them is instrumental in defeating the collective hives.
In order to preserve the individuality of mankind, Maggie must try to re-discover stolen memories, re-kindle friendships she has no recollection of, and wade through her feelings for the mysterious Marcus, all while dodging the tattooed assassins the collectives keep sending her way.
If Maggie can't fill the holes in her memory and find the answers to stop the collectives, the world both in her time and in all ages past and future will be doomed to enslavement in the grey, mediocre collectives. As the danger swirls around her and the collectives close in, Maggie realizes she must make a choice: stand out or fade away...
And now that I've got you totally interested in this awesome book, here's a guest post from Liesel. I asked her about the process of writing her debut novel, and here's what she had to say about it. Enjoy! :)
Book Blogging and Publishing a Debut Novel
Hello Everyone! Thanks so much for having me here at Lost in Literature. Persistence of Vision is my debut novel. Your first novel is always the toughest to publish. Once you have one under your belt, things seem much easier.
Over the past year, the learning curve has been exponential for me. I could write volumes about how much I’ve learned about the industry. (Don’t worry. I won’t.) I’ll just go over a few basic steps.
1. Hone your writing. This may seem like common sense, but unless you have something great to read, no matter how great your marketing/promotional skills, people won’t want to read it. Make sure it’s polished, well-edited, and you know, somewhat interesting. ;D
2. Learn a few things about promotion/marketing. Now, these activities should NOT detract from your writing, but people in the industry, especially publishing companies, like to see that you have a platform.
This is where blogging came in for me. I only started blogging in May of 2012. By most people’s standards, I’m still a newbie. The best way to learn about blogging is simply to jump in and start. There’s no way to learn everything and feel like you know what you’re doing first. So just go for it. Your first posts will be timid, sparse, and have some mistakes in them, but you’ll figure it out as you go. I was amazed at how quickly I got a handle on it. Within a few short months, I had hundreds of followers, loyal friends in the blogging community, and had completely hit my blogging stride. Now I’m an avid, prolific blogger and love every minute of it!
Some knowledge of promotion on other platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, and any other site you prefer (i.e. Goodreads, Pinterest, Triber, Tumbler, Youtube, etc.) is also great. Just don’t let it overwhelm you. Just learn one site at a time until you feel comfortable, and don’t try to do them all. That will be too much saturation and people will start to see you as spam.
3. Find the right fit for your writing. Just because you get a lot of rejections doesn’t mean your writing isn’t good. I got more rejections than I could count, but when I sent my manuscript to Tate Publishing, they responded in a matter of days. The same was true of my other publisher, Jolly Fish Press. I could just feel the rightness of it, and everything fell perfectly into place. So, whether the place for your story is with a big publisher, a small publisher, or through self-publishing, just make sure you find the right fit so that you ensure yourself an amazing experience.
4. Be diligent. The only difference between an unpublished author and a published one is persistence.
Happy writing, publishing and reading, Everyone! If we all work together, we can make our universe of story-telling an amazing one! Cheers! ;D
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Writes across three genres: scif/fantasy, historical fiction, and crime drama. Graduate of Weber State University and lover of all things fantastical! :D
Thanks so much for this Lisa! The post looks awesome! I so much appreciate you participating in my blog tour! :D
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