Tag Archives: marketing

Video Introduction to My Novelette “Ice”

iceIf you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.

My first self-published novelette Ice was published December 2021, but like a lot of indie and self-published works, it needs all the help that it can get just to let people know it exists.

To that end, and to market my “brand” (as it were), I’ve taken to TikTok, creating little two and three minute videos. No I’m not some cute kid dancing around or making funny movies, but it beats the equipment I’d have to buy to record vids for YouTube.

Continue reading →

Interviewed by Superversive Livestream

iceIf you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.

As I’m sure my regular readers know, I’ve been actively promoting some of my latest work, which includes my first self-published novella Ice as well as Time’s Abyss, a novella published by Black Hare Press.

To that end, I reached out to some folks I know and Ben and Anthony at Sunday Superversive Livestream agreed to interview me last night.

Here’s the direct link to the interview on YouTube.

Frankly, I have no idea what the image is, but I did have a lot of fun chatting with Ben and Anthony for about an hour. Of course, I mentioned my novellas, but also the Cloaked Press published anthology Meteor Fall: An Anthology of The Collective. I have two stories in that one. Oh, “Cloaked” also accepted my short story “That Which Burns” in their upcoming anthology Winter of Wonder.

Continue reading →

How to Become “Famous” at your Day Job

promotional

Promotional image from my day job

If you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi

With more people getting vaccinated and COVID restrictions easing off, I’m back at the brick and mortar office part time. I could be back there full time, but it’s more convenient for me to have a hybrid schedule that I can control, and my employer is very gracious.

Anyway, I do tell anyone at work who has an interest that I’m a published textbook writer as well as an author of over thirty science fiction, fantasy, and horror short stories. A few people are actually impressed.

Continue reading →

Third Place Winner: Building Your Brand by James Pyles

james

James Pyles – photo taken by David Pyles

EDIT: All three winners will have their articles published in the May edition of Inner Circle Writer’s Magazine.

by Steven Lester Carr

The panel of judges for the Building Your Brand project selected the top three entries. Today I post the third place entry written by James Pyles. Friday I posted the first place winning entry written by Elaine Marie Carnegie. Yesterday I posted the second place entry written by Peter Astle.

Third Place Winner: Building Your Brand by James Pyles

As an author, building your brand might seem obvious. Create a website /blog, use it to advertise your works, such as novels published, anthologies contributed to, and so on. Then link the heck out of them on social media (Facebook, twitter, Pinterest, etc…).

But everyone does that.

Continue reading →

Second Place Winner in the “Build Your Brand” project

james

James Pyles – photo taken by David Pyles

As I mentioned yesterday, I participated in an online contest by writing an essay about how writers and other creative people can “build our brand”. In my previous blog post, I featured first place winner Elaine Marie Carnegie. Today, we see what second place winner Peter Astle has to say.

by Steven Lester Carr

The panel of judges for the Building Your Brand project selected the top three entries. Yesterday I posted the first place winning entry written by Elaine Marie Carnegie. Today I bring you the second place entry written by Peter Astle. Tomorrow I will post the third place winning entry written by James Pyles.

Second Place Winner: Building Your Brand by Peter Astle.

Continue reading →

Help “Cloaked Press” Publish Indie Authors!

cloaked press

Cloaked Press LLC logo

As my regular readers know, two of my short stories were published in Cloaked Press anthologies. “The Recall” was featured in Spring Into SciFi: 2019 Edition, and “The Demon in the Mask” appeared in Fall Into Fantasy, 2019 Edition.

I have another submission into them that I hope will make it into their 2020 science fiction edition, but something else is going on. I just got this email:

I’d just like to say thank you again for being part of the Cloaked Press Family, and if I could ask a small favor, that would be wonderful. I’d like to take Cloaked Press to the next level and begin taking on single author novels, novellas, and collections. To do this, I started a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for a large bath of ISBNs (100 to start is the goal), as well as purchase cover designs and some marketing ads with Amazon, Facebook, etc. If anyone would be willing to reach out to their followers to see about getting us a boost, that would be wonderful.

So here I am giving a boost.

Continue reading →

Spring Into SciFi 2019 is Here and Other News!

© James Pyles

I know I haven’t been around a lot lately. My wife injured her back (it’s slowly getting better) and I needed to take care of my two grandchildren during the day all this week including getting my granddaughter to and from swimming lessons. She also just turned four a few days ago, which kept things busy.

As you can see above, my author’s copy of the Cloaked Press anthology Spring Into SciFi 2019 Edition arrived. When I get a chance, I’ll start digging into it. Can’t wait to see what other terrific stories it contains besides my short story “The Recall.”

Speaking of which, last Wednesday, I was interviewed by Will Martinez for a podcast at Dark Fringe Radio. Will and I made a connection on twitter when I was doing research on the Wow! Signal while writing “The Recall.” He said if the story was published, he’d like to interview me. Well, it was, and he did.

Continue reading →

Signal Boost for “Magical Reality”

i can haz

Created at the imgflip meme generator

The fine folks at Superversive SF have honored me with a Signal Boost of the Pixie Forest Publishing anthology Magical Reality which features my short story “The Dragon’s Family.” According to Urban Dictionary, a Signal Boost is:

Posting to a community forum (mailing list, social networking site, discussion board) in hopes of getting more attention for an event or cause. This is not the primary or first announcement, but rather one of many auxiliary posts or cross-posts to communities with individuals who are likely to take interest.

This will hopefully be the first of many since no one can read your stories unless they know where to find them.

Click the LINK and please pass it along.

Oh and yes, L. Jagi Lamplight Wright, who wrote the signal boost, was the teacher of the online writing class I took last November.

Facebook Author’s Page

ff author page

James Pyles’ Facebook Author page

Yes, I’m engaging in more shameless self-promotion. However, a number of people have been encouraging me to create an author page on Facebook now that several of my stories are on the cusp of publication. I’ve already got an Amazon Authors page, but that promotes mainly my non-fiction work, at least until several days after the Zombie Pirate Publishing’s anthology World War Four publishes and I can add a link to that page from the eBook.

I only created the Facebook page less than an hour ago as I write this, so there’s not much content at the moment. Still, I hope you stop by and click “Follow” or “Like.” You could even add a comment or two. I could use the company. 😉