<![CDATA[Stolen Voices By Bonnie Bley - Blog]]>Mon, 29 Apr 2024 15:21:49 -0500Weebly<![CDATA[April 27th, 2024]]>Sat, 27 Apr 2024 19:23:33 GMThttp://bonniebley.com/blog/april-27th-2024There is a lot that goes into being an author.  It's not just writing a book.  That is actually the easiest part!  Being an independent author involves so many things and the learning curve is expensive.  So what is the process?   Well, first you research before you even put pen to paper.  Research and development takes time.  It varies for the subject and ease of access to information.  Sometimes the R&D involves traveling and usually involves many hours in front of a computer.  Then your build and organize your book.  Then you write.  After your first draft, comes the edits, you edit your second draft, you edit your third draft, and by the fourth draft edits you are ready to stab your eyes out and you've got the whole thing memorized that you miss mistakes you've made.  You've read this book forwards and backwards so many times that you think you're losing your mind organizing sentence structure, synonyms, over use of a word.   
After you think you have a polished manuscript you query publishers and agents which is very daunting.   Each one has their own list of submission items, so now you are writing query letters, synopsis, beefing up your outline, market analysis, proposals, two paragraph descriptions.  Then come the rejections or you just don't hear back at all.  Or you catch their interest with your query letter and/or synopsis, and you get completely filled with excitement but get rejected once the manuscript gets to them.  The rejection can be for various reasons.  Some will leave you scratching your head.  It's definitely a dog eat dog world in the publishing world.  

So after a few years of rejections you give up and go with hybrid or self publishing.  This is an investment in yourself.   Depending on how much you want to bank roll yourself as to what services you receive.  There is a sea of self publishing companies and a sea of services offered.   There are also scam operations, so you must choose wisely. 

You've chosen your publishing house and package and you submit your manuscript.  Now comes the official editing process.  The back and forth hashing out of words.  This process takes a few months.  The book cover is designed.  The author bio and description of the book is created.  This process is all very exciting.  

The book is complete.  It's the best version of itself and now it goes out into the world.  It goes onto Amazon and other online retailers and depending on the package you purchased as to the platforms and the countries it reaches.  

So you got your book on Amazon and Ingram Spark.  Now what?  New books are released every minute.  There are millions of books on Amazon to compete with.  Your book isn't going to sell itself.  It doesn't get posted to Amazon and become an instant success.  Not unless you are Stephen King, Craig Johnson, James Patterson or a celebrity, but even they have to have a solid marketing plan to let people know they've written a new book.  

Here is where the real fun begins.  Here's where you jump outside your comfort zone and here is where the real work begins.  How do you get people to find your book and then buy your book.  You've come this far and want to see your book take off.  So, you become a social media creator, designer, and manager.  Facebook, Instagram, X, Tik Tok, you have to learn them all.   You need a website.  You now become a website designer, but how will people find you on Google?  Now, you must become an SEO expert.  What is SEO?  Search Engine Optimization, and it's a beast all in it's own.  There are people who's full time job is SEO.  That's what they do for a living, but in the indy author life, it's just a fraction of what you have to do to get seen on the interweb.   Keep in mind indy authors do not have the backing a major traditional publishing house, so everything is paid for by the author.   There are a lot of people and companies who are willing to help but all for a price.  How deep are your pockets and how much are you willing to invest.  It can quickly become a money pit.  

With the money you are spending and the royalities you earn, you have to keep this all straight, so now you put on your accounting hat.  How are you filing taxes?  Are you filing as and individual or did you set up a company to run all the finances through?  If you set up an LLC now you have a whole new can of worms.  Filing for an EIN with the state, getting business filings with the state, becoming your own CEO.  So now your book is a business.  Even the most famous authors, their books and their brand is their business.   So now that you have a business you have a long list of things to do to stay compliant with the IRS.  

Indy Authors and even traditionally published authors often hold down a full time job, so now we have 2 full time jobs.  We are working from when we wake up to when we go to bed.  We're working on weekends, we're working on vacation.   

But when all is said and done there is very little I would change except for how I spent my marketing budget, but those are lessons learned and hopefully tax write offs.  At the end of the day I take pride that I stepped outside of my comfort zone and got a book published because no matter what route you take it's no easy task.  

If you made it to the end of this post, thank you for reading.   I'm off do some more SEO, financial tracking, and social media marketing.  


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]]><![CDATA[Spring 2024 bookfest award winner]]>Tue, 09 Apr 2024 23:23:19 GMThttp://bonniebley.com/blog/spring-2024-bookfest-award-winnerI'm proud and excited to announce that Stolen Voices: Missing and Murdered in Big Horn County is a recipient of the Spring 2024 BookFest Awards.   

From The Book Fest Awards:
We're thrilled to honor you with a BookFest Award, recognizing your exceptional literary achievement. Your submission was meticulously evaluated by The BookFest judging team, passing through multiple stages of review. Plus, many of the esteemed BookFest Bellwethers lent their expertise to ensure the integrity and thoroughness of the judging process.


The caliber of entries received this season was truly impressive, making your win all the more noteworthy. We're deeply appreciative of your contribution to the literary world. At The BookFest, we hold a strong belief in the transformative power of storytellers. Your award underscores your significant impact on readers across the globe.

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]]><![CDATA[Stolen voices has launched!]]>Tue, 13 Feb 2024 15:52:29 GMThttp://bonniebley.com/blog/stolen-voices-has-launchedI'm excited to announce that after 4 years of research, writing, editing, hard work, and persaverance that Stolen Voices: Missing and Murdered in Big Horn County is now available!  Go to the Merch tab to secure your copy.  It is currently available on Kindle, Hard Cover, and Paperback.  An Audio Book is currently in production.    

If you love the book, please make sure to leave your 5 star review on Amazon.  

The past couple months have been a whirlwind with everything coming together on this important project.  

A big HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who made this possible.  There were definitely times during the last few years that I felt totally defeated and wondering if this project was ever going to launch.  Here we are 4 years after it all started.  The sleepless nights, the emotional interviews, the daunting task of finding the right publisher (being excited one day that a publisher/agent wants your project, and the letdown when they tell you they can't take it on), the many rounds of edits.  Honestly, I wouldn't change a thing.  For reasons unknown to me this is the journey I was meant to take with it.  
]]><![CDATA[cOMING SOON]]>Wed, 27 Dec 2023 17:52:58 GMThttp://bonniebley.com/blog/coming-soonI'm pleased to announce that my book Stolen Voices; Missing and Murdered in Big Horn County has found a publishing home!  The last few months I have been working with NY Publishers on getting my manuscript fully edited and ready to hit the book market.  I'm thrilled to say the least.  It has been a very exciting past few months.  ]]><![CDATA[Time for submissions]]>Sat, 28 Jan 2023 01:56:45 GMThttp://bonniebley.com/blog/time-for-submissionsIt's hard to believe that two years have passed since my last blog. Wow, how time flies.  My book has taken on new life in 2022.  I met a couple of really incredible women.  One wrote a forward for my book and the other became a chapter in my book.  My book has taken on more editing, a forward, and a new chapter.  Today I completed all of the editing that I can do at this point.  Now it is time to find this book a home and have it come to life.  I am hopeful that this is the year for it.  It's become so much more than when I first started.  ]]><![CDATA[It's a new year]]>Sun, 10 Jan 2021 21:09:38 GMThttp://bonniebley.com/blog/its-a-new-yearIt's a new day and it's a new year.  Time stops for no one.  With the year we just had I'm hoping this new year is a brighter one for all.  I think this new year will also be a good year for reflection.  Reflect upon our pasts and reflect upon our futures.  Ask ourselves how we will choose to move forward and heal ourselves from the past.  2020 brought many of us loss of loved ones, isolation, depression, a battle with our own demons, and so much uncertainty.  It was not a healthy year even if you managed not getting COVID.   We must always remember that from darkness comes light and there is always calm and beauty after the storm.  We must push forward and not get stuck in the here and the now.  We must shut out the noise that is beyond our control and focus on our own inner peace and work on the things we can control.  We must make change within ourselves before we start trying to make change in others.   
Peace and Love to everyone as we begin the New Year.  
]]><![CDATA[Cheyenne Truth]]>Sun, 29 Nov 2020 04:10:41 GMThttp://bonniebley.com/blog/cheyenne-truthCheyenne Truth is a newly created facebook group created by a woman by the name of Jenny Pipe.  Jenny is a true warrior.  She's a person who has seen what's been going on on the reservation and has said enough is enough, it's time to act.  She wants to see a change and she's doing something about it.  She created the facebook group and does live feeds which she calls 'The Jenny Shitshow" to start the conversation in her community that needs to be started.  A conversation to get people engaged in stopping the corruption, the drug use, the abuse, and all things bad on the northern Cheyenne Reservation.  Jenny is speaking the truth and Jenny is making a call to action.  This has the bad guys on the defensive and Jenny has paid a price for speaking out. 

A couple weeks ago, Jenny was ambushed by a group of people that were taking some heat for their actions that Jenny helped shed some light upon.  They kicked her, gave her two black eyes, a very scratched up face, and one of the people beating her up tried to bite her thumb off and required stitches to mend.  The police were called to the altercation, and guess who was arrested?  Jenny... the victim.  The victim of a crime was the only one who was arrested.  

But Jenny came out smiling.  She doesn't label herself as a victim.  Jenny is tough.  Jenny is a true warrior.   So many people on the reservations are afraid to come forward and name the names of their predators or perpetrators because they are afraid what happened to Jenny for speaking out will happen to them.  Many are not willing to risk their lives or the lives of their loved ones for speaking out.  

This isn't something that's happening in the movies or back in the areas that John Gotti controlled.  This is happening in tiny little Lame Deer, Montana.  
]]><![CDATA[Completed Manuscript]]>Fri, 20 Nov 2020 01:52:25 GMThttp://bonniebley.com/blog/completed-manuscriptI am pleased to announced that my manuscript is complete.  The editing process is always interesting and challenging. It usually involves over thinking and reading the same sentence out loud in different ways at least six times. Thoughtful and careful sentence reframing is not for the faint of heart.  It's always fun to compare the first draft, to the second draft, to the third draft, and sometimes even more in order to have the best version for you, the reader. The manuscript evolution is fascinating. I always have to remind myself that I'm not writing a book for myself to read, but for others. To edit this book I turned to an expert in the writing field.  He gave me some great advice for writing for today's reader. He told me to channel my inner Hemmingway.  Hemmingway's writing is classic and has withstood the test of time.  My first round of edits were ones my high school literature teachers would have been proud of, but long gone are the days of long thought provoking complex compound sentences (well not completely, but for the most part).  I now have a completed manuscript that I think Hemmginway would approve of, and I certainly hope you do too. ]]><![CDATA[Manuscript]]>Mon, 31 Aug 2020 01:19:53 GMThttp://bonniebley.com/blog/manuscriptMy first round draft and second round draft of the manuscript is complete.  It's a great feeling.  I sent the second draft to a best selling author to get his feed back.  His response blew my mind.  I read his reply a few times, and the more I read it the more it made sense.  I'm working on my third round draft edits.  I'm crushing the soul of Mr. Auker, my freshman English teacher and Jr. Composition teacher.  He gave me the love of research and writing long complex sentences.  Long complex sentences are a thing of the past. 

I'm refocusing my brain and channeling my inner Ernest Hemmingway.  I'm on a mission to complete this round of edits and have a polished manuscript by Sept 3rd.  I want to partake in an online event where authors and publishers and agents get together.  The author puts out there query and if the agent or publisher likes it, you connect.  It's a big day.  I have my work cut out for me.  
]]><![CDATA[The Grieving Hour]]>Tue, 28 Jul 2020 14:11:53 GMThttp://bonniebley.com/blog/the-grieving-hourIt never fails that I seem to wake up at 4 am with thoughts and ideas for my new book.  4 am is known as the grieving hour so I guess it's only appropriate that this is the hour that I'm haunted by the subject matter of my new book.  Each time I really try to fight it and go back to sleep and swear to myself that when I get up just a couple hours later that those thoughts will remain with me.  But for those next couple hours those thoughts nag at me and keep me from finishing a good nights sleep. 
This morning was one of those mornings. So many thoughts surrounding me, nagging at me, keeping me from going back to sleep.  As soon as I'd think of one thing, another would come to mind.  Finally I get out of bed, grab my printed manuscript, my notebook full of notes, and my red pen and I flip through the pages and write down notes of things I don't want to leave out of the book.  Thoughts of did I include this already or did I leave it out.  Thoughts that I hadn't previously thought of.  One thing this book has done is bring back forgotten memories of times when I myself had been in a dangerous situation. Thoughts of what if things had gone awry? Thoughts of the times where I could have been a flash in the newspapers.  Whether it be in headlines on page 1 or tucked away somewhere in the middle pages that people tend to just briefly scan.  
As I get ready for work and scurry so that I'm not rushing out the door forgetting something and running late, I scribble my notes down in red pen and contemplate on whether or not to call in sick and just stay home and work on the project all day. But I know the weekend is coming and I'll have time then.  For now I just frantically get all the thoughts out on paper in red pen and scramble to put my make up on, take my vitamins, make my lunch, scurry out the door, and race to work with the expectation to fully function with out a full nights sleep and so many other things on my mind.  
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