We’re getting ready to launch the Writers’ Mastermind, and as part of connecting our writing community, we’ll be sharing the latest accomplishments of our members.
Today, we share groundbreaking book releases and stunning art from our cadre of creatives.
***Do you have a book coming out? A cover reveal? Has a magazine published your short story? Have you landed and agent? What’s new with your other creative pursuits? Send your news to christa@letsgetpublished.com.
Juniper, the debut novel by Ross Jeffery
After a 7-year writing hiatus, Ross Jeffery is claiming his place on the weird fiction scene with his first book, Juniper. Truly weird and wild, Juniper will keep you rapt in morbid curiosity, even through the moments you want to recoil.
Ross Jeffery
Ross Jeffery is a Bristol based writer and Executive Director of Books for STORGY Magazine.
Ross has been published in print with STORGY Books, Ellipsis Zine 6, The Bath Flash Fiction Festival 2019, Project 13 Dark and Shlock Magazine. His work has also appeared in various online journals such as STORGY Magazine, About Magazine TX, Elephants Never, 101 Fiction, Ellipsis Zine, Soft Cartel and Idle Ink.
Ross lives in Bristol with his wife (Anna) and two children (Eva and Sophie). You can follow him on Twitter here @Ross1982
Juniper
Juniper is the first book in Ross Jeffery’s proposed trilogy: a post-apocalyptic horror about an insane American town seemingly at the edge of reality. As Juniper suffers from scorching drought and medieval famine, the townsfolk are forced to rely on the ‘new cattle’ for food: monstrous interbred cats kept by the oppressed Janet Lehey.
But there’s a problem: Janet’s prized ginger tom, Bucky, has gone missing, flown the coop. As Janet and her deranged ex-con husband Klein intensify their search for the hulking mongrel, Betty Davis, an old woman clinging to survival on the outskirts of Juniper, discovers something large and ginger and lying half-dead by the side of the road.
She decides to take it home…
Juniper is surreal, dark, funny, and at times: excruciatingly grotesque. Buckle up for a wild ride through the dust-ridden roads of a tiny, half-forgotten American town…
Charlotta Amato is not only a talented aspiring writer, but she also paints mesmerizing artwork—one of a kind, layers of color, life and livity all combined onto a canvas.
Her exclusive works are for sale. Learn more on her Facebook Page.
Save Game by Joseph Sale
Save Game is the latest novel from brilliant author, Joseph Sale. This book is a fully immersive page-turner, just like it’s subject matter. Most writers will relate to wanting to escape into an exciting imaginary world, never to return.
Joseph Sale
Joseph Sale is an editor, novelist, writing coach and co-host of Monaghan & The Mindflayer. He currently writes and is published with The Writing Collective. He has authored more than ten novels, including his Black Gate trilogy, and his love-letter to fantasy: Save Game. He grew up in the Lovecraftian seaside town of Bournemouth. He edits non-fiction and fiction, helping fledgling authors to realise their potential.
Save Game
Levi Jensen is, by all accounts, a loser. He failed sixth-form, never got to university, and works at a no-future fast-food restaurant. The only thing he’s good at is gaming. When his father starts dying of a new type of cancer, only treatable privately and at impossible expense, Levi’s one hope of saving him becomes the million-dollar cash-prize for winning the dark-fantasy video-game Fate of Ellaria. But Levi isn’t the only one with motivations beyond money for winning. And the price of success in Fate of Ellaria might mean the destruction of what little he has left in the real world.
Save Game is a heart-breaking story of an underdog against all odds, as well as a love-letter to the beauty of video-games. Inspired by the amazing and eclectic everyday people who inhabit the gaming world, and the pain of their real-world lives, Save Game aims to show the courage of those who feel they’ve got no place in reality.
Sandra Hould is a stay at home mom, environmentalist, karateka, artist, book addict and future writer. She is always exploring new ways to express herself creatively, no matter how difficult the quest may be.
My art will be raw, imperfect, unapologetic and real, just like life.—Sandra Hould
***Do you have a book coming out? A cover reveal? Has a magazine published your short story? Have you landed and agent? What’s new with your other creative pursuits? Send your news to christa@letsgetpublished.com.
I hope your 2020 is going well and that you’re being productive and feeling inspired.
A big thank you for helping me with your suggestions
Thanks to those who participated in the survey I sent out last month. The results were enlightening and I’m using your feedback as I develop the site. You can see in the graph below what our writers’ biggest concerns are. I’ll be addressing these topics first as I line up the curriculum.
Psst… The first class is almost finished, but I will wait to announce the subject at a later date 😉
You can still leave your feedback in the survey by clicking here.
An apology for the delay
The start of the year has been hectic, and the launch of the Writers’ Mastermind group is behind schedule. I am building this platform on my own from scratch, and personal issues keep popping up.
I’m trying not to dwell on how frustrating the interruptions are and keep focused on how excited I am for the future when we go live. Life doesn’t work on our schedules, unfortunately, so we just have to do the best we can!
But we’re making progress
The good news is I have laid out the foundation of the membership area of the site! I’ve acquired a powerful combination of Divi from Elegant Themes and the Memberpress plugin to create a visually appealing and well-organized learning experience for you all.
So, what’s next?
I’ll be working on finishing and testing the site during the next month. I’ll be traveling and limited to what I can accomplish away from the office, but my goal is to have our new launch date in April 2020.
Get your hair did. We’re having a soirée, and you’re on the VIP list!
If you’re on the wait list, you’ll be invited to a virtual pre-launch mixer where members all over the world will get together in a live video conference, enjoy their beverage of choice, and talk about their writing.
This is going to be a massive event since it will be the first time I speak live with writers who’ve been my close email and social media pals for years. I’m freaking out a bit about that! 🤯 But that’s the purpose of the Writers’ Mastermind. No more isolated writers’ syndrome!
Are you on the wait list?
I’ll be closing the wait list this week. Those on the wait list will get the pre-launch price of $9 a month. This price is locked in for a lifetime.
Those who sign up after the wait list closes will pay regular price of $19 a month. So get in now! SIGN UP FOR THE WAIT LIST.
Animated book covers get more social media engagement than still covers, increasing your chances of making more sales and of getting word out about your book.
The reason? Simple. Elements in motion drive the eye to focus on it longer as there’s more to see. And because people have to linger longer, they’re more likely to retweet/share, like, reply and/or check out the book on Amazon and other sites.
Animated covers is a marketing trend that’s becoming more and more popular. And eye-catching covers deserve recognition because the reality is that most people do still judge a book by its cover. It’s the first thing readers see and the first thing that makes them decide whether to check out the book or not. And since animation jumps out, having an animated cover ensures that future readers will hover over your book instead of just scrolling past it in their social media timeline.
Morgan Wright is the upcoming fantasy author of “The Traitor’s Gambit”, the first book in an ongoing series, and editor/contributor of the “Calendar For Writers 2019-2020” which became a Top 10 Bestseller in the USA, Canada, Germany, Spain and the UK. Morgan has been writing stories since age 7, her earliest imaginations sparked by the fantastic tales of C.S. Lewis and Gothic oeuvres such as Dracula by Bram Stoker and The Sandman by E.T.A. Hoffman. Thus inspired, she mainly writes medieval fantasy with a dark (and possibly morally-dubious) edge.
In March 2017, at age 18, she joined Twitter in the hopes of hitting the 1000 follower-milestone within a year. 10 months later, through the help of Twitter’s loyal #WritingCommunity who have supported her in ways she never imagined possible, she became a Twitter influencer with a current following of over 80.000 people.
Morgan recently graduated with honours from her BA (Honours) English Literature and Creative Writing which she began at age 16, and her short story “Unchained” was Longlisted in the “Let’s Get Published – Spring Writing Contest” while another short story, “The Bad-Wisher’s Lament”, was chosen for publication in Fantasia Divinity’s “Wishes of Illusion” Anthology.
In August of 2019, Morgan launched her now-in-high-demand Book Cover Animations service which brings book covers to life through animation. VISIT MORGAN’S PORTFOLIO HERE.
I love to watch virtuosos on YouTube — pianists, violinists, dancers, and singers that seem to have supernatural abilities. They make their performances look effortless, but no one sees what it took for them to reach that level of mastery.
What about the hours of practice, the hundreds of times they got it wrong, and how they pushed forward despite the criticism? We don’t realize everything they sacrificed — family, friends, sleep, and fun — to become what they are. They remind me of the investment I need to make to become the best writer I can be.
Until recently, I’ve been a self-taught writer. I always thought that if I read enough books, followed enough writing blogs, and kept working hard, that I would get better. I did get better, a little bit at a time. Still, I sensed I was missing something.
I couldn’t put my finger on it, but the lackluster sales and rejection letters reaffirmed my suspicion. The feedback from family and friends said everything I did was great. So why was I stuck?
I figured what was needed was more effort. I wouldn’t become better just by wishing, right?
But working harder is not the answer.
As I browsed virtuoso videos, the algorithms directed me to a TEDx Talk, Become a Virtuoso by Mike Rayburn. I wasn’t planning to watch a Ted Talk, but of course I wanted to see if I could find out the secret not to becoming a good writer, but to becoming a writing virtuoso.
Mike Rayburn talked about how most of us coast, learning at a leisurely pace. We don’t actively seek out the most effective and efficient ways to develop our talent, so we hit a plateau and never discover what we’re truly capable of. It’s up to us to make the decision go beyond being competent to becoming the best.
Many of us pride ourselves on being self-taught. I always did. I thought I was making good progress, but what Mr. Rayburn says next was a bitter epiphany.
Here’s the problem about being self-taught: The teacher’s not that good.
Drop the mic right there. Would I presume to teach someone else how to become a virtuoso writer? What makes me think I’m qualified to teach myself how to become one?
The secret is, when you discover the stories of virtuosos, these geniuses didn’t do it alone. They had the best teachers and mentors to give them invaluable feedback and advice. This is what fast-tracked them to mastery, building a foundation on what’s already been done while cultivating the unique style that is each great artist’s signature.
It’s only after taking my first writing class that I’ve realized how much time I’ve wasted “teaching” myself. How would I know how to develop my strengths and work on my weaknesses when relying on feedback from everyday people who don’t even read in my genre? I’ve learned more in the past 2 months than in 7 years of struggling on my own.
My message to self-taught writers is this:
Invest in your dream. Seek out mentors. Budget for writing classes — online or in your local area. Find a tribe of knowledgeable writers in your genre.
You will be amazed at how quickly you improve, how confident you will feel, and how hopeful you’ll be about your future as a successful author.
Don’t waste another minute going it alone. You have no idea what a writing virtuoso you could be.
Anna David is a NY Times Bestselling and her new company, Launch Pad Publishing, is all about helping business owners position themselves as leaders in their industries by launching bestselling books.
Likewise, my goal for Let’s Get Published and the upcoming online Writer’s Mastermind is to help fiction writers position themselves for success in the fiction market.
But first, dear writers, you must get past everything that’s holding you back from realizing your best work.
I wrote this list for anyone who’s ever dreamed of creating something new but always talks themselves out of it.
(You’ll also get the scoop on how honestly scared I am about launching the Writer’s Mastermind!)
