I attended my first book signing event in December 2023. It was a very small event with maybe ten authors and very few readers who came through. Still, it helped me figure out what I needed, how I wanted to market my attendance, and whether or not live events would be for me.
In 2024, I participated in nine large and small author events. Some were local NC events, and others were out of state, the furthest in Kentucky. Some had various activities for authors and readers to do together outside of signings, and others had multiple signing days. I’ve learned so much and changed up the way I prepare myself and my materials with every event.
In 2025, I’m scheduled for ten large events and looking to schedule a few smaller, local events as well. Below is my current schedule. I’ll be adding a page to my website for events eventually. I’ll also probably send out an updated schedule once a month if/when I add more events.
If you’re an author thinking about attending events, and would like me to share what I’ve learned and what I do, please let me know, and I’ll be glad to do a series here in my blog.
When I first started this authoring journey, I had no idea what I was doing. And by authoring, I mean publishing. I started writing a couple years earlier. I decided to publish my first poetry collection on a whim in April of 2023. There were nearly 800 poems sitting in my Google drive, so I decided to do something with them. Then, while revising my fantasy novel, I had a dream for a spicy reimagining of A Christmas Carol. Within a month, I had written Carol’s Christmas Awakening and planned to publish it for the holiday season 2024. Still, I had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t know anything about marketing. I learned how to create my own book covers. Somehow, I managed to record the audiobook version of the poetry collection, When Can We Be Soft?: Poems of Female Resilience, and I had started an LLC. Why? I couldn’t have told you.
This past year, however, was far more intentional, a true year of authoring with a purpose. I not only wanted to publish the words my brain kept putting together, but I wanted people to read them. So I started putting more effort into the packaging and the marketing. There was still no real plan, though, just a total crapshoot. In 2025, my goal is to be even more intentional, and that includes a marketing plan.
The graphic above has some of my realistic and stretch goals for this year at B. Isabel Writes LLC. I’ve also created a marketing plan for January to make sure equal billing is given to all of my books and both pen names. I’m working for consistency and follow-through. I have a 5-year plan to see if authoring is a viable career choice for me, but I have to be working all parts of the plan NOW, in year 2, if I want that to happen.
As soon as I read this prompt, I knew my answer would be the same in my personal life as my author life. Time. Now, what someone’s time may look like for me in personal relationships/friendship and as an author are slightly different.
As a person with ADHD, which includes all the trappings of Rejection Sensitivity Disorder (RSD), I really struggle with wanting to spend time with the people I care about and enjoy, and being afraid to impose on them. So, when someone reaches out and asks to spend time with me, I rarely say no unless there are already other plans. It might sound crazy, but this compulsion to say yes does not extend to phone calls. I have auditory processing issues, so phone calls are the bane of my existence. I’d rather drive nine hours to see someone than talk to them on the phone. Sorry, long distance family and friends. Anyway, invite me to hang out. Let’s go to the bookstore. I love a board game. Time is precious, and I’d love to spend it with my favorite people.
As an author, knowing that someone took the time to read my writing and then made time to write a review is truly an amazing gift. I know how quickly I can go through books, and how little free time I have for reading, let alone putting words down to explain how what I’ve read made me feel. So, that time a reader takes to share their thoughts about my books, or to send me a message directly about how much they enjoyed my books, means more than anything because, simply put, they don’t have to.
This is the last weekend that every book on our website is on sale for a discounted price. Every book comes signed with a matching bookmark. You’re sure to find something for the book lovers in your life, or pick yourself up your next favorite read. Don’t delay. Anything ordered after Sunday may not arrive in time for the holiday.
If you need international shipping, please email me your choices, and I can send you an invoice with accurate shipping rates. Sorry, Canadian friends, I cannot promise a delivery option until your postal strike is over.
All of the books published by B. Isabel Writes LLC are on sale now through December 15 (while supplies last) in our shop. I also have coupon codes in my newsletters for subscribers and a special discount code for my Discord friends. So if you’ve wanted to get a signed copy of any Bobbie Isabel or Leya Layne books, now is the time to grab one for the book lover(s) on your list, even if that list only includes a treat for yourself.
Leya here with another random update. Sometimes things just pop in my head, and they have to come out. So, while I’ve been churning out books already this year–You’ve Got Bookmail released in February and Shar’s Story in May–I started thinking about my first Hot Hallmark novel that came out last November. It was my first full-length novel, and only the second books released. Needless to say, I had little idea what I was doing. There were some editing and formatting issues, and a couple of plot holes that didn’t get filled before the book went live. Again, I didn’t know what I was doing, or how fast things happen when you press that publish button.
I love Carol and Jackson’s story. It actually came to me in a dream, and if you know me, I rarely dream or remember them. That morning, though, I woke with an entire plot in my head for a spicy retelling of A Christmas Carol, complete with the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future. Not everything worked out according to that original plan, as characters tend to do what they want, but the relationship is everything I wanted it to be. I also loved Carol’s chosen sister, Clarissa. She’s spunky and snarky, and I love her.
So, in May, as I was gearing up for the release of Shar’s Story, I decided to go back and clean up all of those issues with Carol’s Christmas Awakening. I even added a couple of bonus scenes at the end to show a little of what happens in Ardor Point with these characters. These scenes will be included in Clarissa’s story, which I’m hoping to have out for Valentine’s Day. I like the idea of hanging out in Ardor Point for a while, so don’t be surprised if you see a few more books set in this small town at the foot of the Appalachian Mountains.
Do you remember your favorite book from childhood?
I was a voracious reader as a kid, and when I say voracious, I don’t mean that I just ran through picture books or chapter books from the school library. I mean, I read everything all the time. If it had words, I was reading it! Hence, the title of this post. I mean, I figured out the sudsing agent in shampoo long before I took chemistry in middle school simply because I’d read so many bottles and found the patterns. That’s probably why I can’t stick to writing a single genre now.
Though I’ve read thousands of books already, I rarely reread books anymore. I’ve become more discerning, learning the art of DNF (Did Not Finish) when a book doesn’t float my boat and branching out to try new authors and subgenres often. Did I mention my inability to write in just one genre?
When I was a kid, though, there was one book that I kept on loop. I read it multiple times, and then I wrote my first book report on it in third grade. The only reason I remember that milestone is because I only completed half of third grade, having been bumped up from second halfway through.
Anyway, Charlotte’s Web was the book for me for two big reasons. The emphasis on words—“Some Pig”, for example, and Templeton. I loved that snarky and indulgent rat. If you’ve read any of my writing, I imagine you’ve noticed I’m a bit of a smart ass myself, so I felt drawn to that side character.
Sure, Wilbur was cute and Charlotte was sweet, but neither compared to the larger-than-life Templeton. I could probably write an entire article on the bad wrap rats get with Templeton as the focus. The cartoon version of the book captured him perfectly in my mind.
A Rat’s Paradise scene from Charlotte’s Web (1973)
After that first time, I wrote a different book report on Charlotte’s Web every year into early middle school. I’ve not reread it in decades, but I can’t deny it was my favorite for the longest time.
I came across this prompt for today’s blog and thought, this is hard enough for books I’ve created, let alone for myself who is still a work in progress. I struggle with condensing my novels, or even my characters, to a single sentence. Now I’m supposed to summarize myself as a 49-year-old woman, mom, educator, author, and partner into one sentence?
There’s got to be an easier task, and easier prompt, an easier…wait, I’m already getting too wordy! Taglines are short.
For my first poetry collection, I didn’t even bother with a tagline. You’ve Got Bookmail’s tagline came after the book was finished and the blurb was written. So, maybe I’ll write my final tagline as an epitaph. In the meantime, here’s a lame attempt at my author tagline:
I’m working hard to get my poetry collection together for publication. Untethered Love is a response, of sorts, to my first collection, When Can We Be Soft?: Poems of Female Resilience. In that collection, I explored the social behaviors and expectations that force women to be “strong,” never able to let our guard down and just be. In this new collection, I imagine a world where we are free to express our feelings of love in various contexts, including the act of loving ourselves. Ironically, or maybe not, self love has been the most difficult set for me to write. My hope is that if we can imagine it, we can one day make it real.
This poem is the newest in the collection. I took this photo while visiting Salt Lake City, and it’s been sitting, waiting for the right inspiration. What better expression of self love than to acknowledge the difficult environment you grew from and embrace all the unique parts of you that flourished despite that rocky start.
Fertile ground produces Brilliant blooms But even the desert Sprouts spectacles Your roots go deep Grounded in purpose Your stalks grow tall Stable and strong Your leaves spread wide Steeped in wisdom And like the Black-Eyed Susan Drowning in a sea of brown Your petals solicit attention Matured and miraculous Your very existence The verity of your thriving Is the promise of perseverance Others only hope for
Hi all. Leya here. I don’t remember what day we’re supposed to be on, and we’re surely not keeping up with the blog posts. I just have something to talk about.
In February, B. Isabel Writes LLC published my second novel, You’ve Got Bookmail, which is by all accounts a love story between a reclusive author and her mailman, as we tried to show with the cover:
The thing is, there’s more to the book than just what’s happening between the two main characters, Kassandra and Asher. Kassandra is also writing a spicy contemporary romance with a FMC she created as her own foil in order to live out a life she doesn’t feel worthy of. As Kassandra changes, thanks to the relationship she develops with Asher, so does her main character, Shar.
Well, when the reviews and DMs from ARC readers started rolling in, there was an overwhelming request for Shar’s fulls story. Truthfully, there is another couple in the book I had considered giving a story to, but I never once thought of expanding Shar’s story…until readers asked for it.
Now, you might say to yourself that writing Shar’s story should be fairly easy because I already have an outline of sorts from the original snippets. There are two errors with this thought.
1) It assumes that I, a pantser, will find writing from an outline easy. When I started You’ve Got Bookmail, I had nothing more than careers and a vibe in mind. I had no idea where the story was heading, and it actually opens with a snippet of Shar’s story because I couldn’t think of anything else for Kassandra to be doing when she meets Asher than to be writing. The two storylines flowed smoothly because they developed together organically, not because I planned them that way.
2) It assumes the already written snippets will fit seamlessly into the new book. When I wrote the original snippets, which are mainly, let’s be honest, sex scenes, the only perspective I cared about was Shar’s. In this new book, though, Mack becomes far more important. His point of view matters also, and some of those scenes must be split to show both of them. Not only that, but I’m trying to weave his life, personality, and backstory in between these snippets while also expanding the readers’ view into Shar’s psyche.
Shifting the POV in some of the original scenes while weaving together a full love story with two characters who were happily single and mingling when they met has been a challenge.
It’s also a struggle to get the timeline to work. The majority of You’ve Got Bookmail happens over about a month to a month and a half. Then we see the characters much later. That means, the snippets of Shar’s story appeared to show a relationship developing much more quickly. That rushed feeling doesn’t work in the full novel.
All that to say, though I am enjoying the development of this story, it has been much harder to write than my previous books (published and unpublished). I also want to say that I am grateful to my readers who saw something in this story they loved enough to want to see it play out. That is the encouragement I needed to know that I must be doing something right.
Shar’s Story (Yes, that is the title!) is projected to release on May 25. As of today, April 13, I am nearly 33k words into what I project will be a novel between 45-55k words. Newsletter subscribers already got to see the cover, but everyone else will only get teasers until it is revealed on April 25. Keep your eyes on my social media and my shop. Preorders will be live as soon as the cover is revealed.
