You read that right! I published two book trailers last night. Please Check them out on YouTube! It may not be much of an accomplishment to most, but as an Indie Author, I have to do it all, so I feel I must take some pride in the accomplishment. I hope you will happily share in my success. Thanks for the support! 
The Ruiri Complete Book Trailer and Light And Dark Magic Book Trailer are both live on Pinterest and Amazon. 

I want to hint again at Filth and Death the novel that will publish in February as Book 11 in the main series and also another short read Smoke of the Fire. 
Be Careful! 
Happy Reading,
​Ophelia Kee

#LivinganIndieLife

Life gets in the way of writing. Sigh. I am still suffering from a bit of head cold. The sinus medication is making me feel a little bobble headed. Sorry if this is a bit disjointed. 

I'm working on the cover for Weaver's Tale still, but I intend for it to be live on Kindle by this weekend! 
Be Careful!
Happy Reading.
​Ophelia Kee

 I published a short read to Kindle. It is only $.99 It's about a 45 minute quick read. The Thread is essentially the prologue for A Pack Forms.  But the thing is that I don't want to sell it. Not really. I want to give it to my readers. If you want to read it for free, just subscribe and download your free pdf copy. 

As always enjoy the dream. 
Be Careful!,
Happy reading,
Ophelia Kee
​

 As an Indie Author, I must have written about not having any extra money to spend. But marketing and promotion costs money. There is no way around that. That means that I have to find inventive solutions to spend the least amount possible and still of course spread the word about Draoithe. That led to a lot of research and a little bit of luck. 

I found a site that would let me create a book trailer for free. First, I had to create the music. It had to my own sound track or there could be copyright infringement. Intellectual property rights are seriously important to me, so I did not want to borrow anything that was not mine. I don't know any music writers. So I decided to create my own. 

I'm not that great at writing music, but I can feel the rhythm. So I found an app (There are several different ones available. Try them out.) that let me write the music for a jingle like an old television commercial. Paranormal romance needed a bit less singsong though. It was a bit of trial and error, but I had something that I thought would work.

I went back and created the book trailer only to realize that I had no YouTube channel to upload it to. This took weeks by the way. I was still working the day job, and if you have been following along for awhile, then you know about the kids, dogs, the crazy urban homesteading, etc... Finally, I got to creating a  YouTube channel.  I uploaded the book trailer, it gave me a link. I had done it.

I had a way to tell the world about Draoithe, so I headed over to my Amazon Author Central page to upload my video. Imagine my surprise when I could not because it was not actually my video. What? You say. How could that be? You wonder. It turns out that the app I used to create the video retains the rights to them. YouTube will host them for you as your content, but as I did not have an mpeg file, I did not technically own the video. Even had I opted to subscribe to their service, the work I had done to create the video did not matter, because the program was not mine.

I have time. What I did not have was money t waste. Paying the subscription would not resolve my issue. I wanted the mpeg file. If I had it, I could post it to my website, Pinterest, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and you get the idea. That sent me to looking for a program that would allow me to essentially create commercials for my book. 

I found it at Corel. I downloaded the free trial version. I used my images and words from the first failed book trailer, built the moving slide show, added in the text, and then the soundtrack. Voila! (by that I mean like two weeks later, because I had to learn how it worked.) I had a book trailer that I owned the mpeg file. I uploaded it everywhere and even added it to Goodreads. 

That was exciting! I wanted more so I began combing my published books for image ideas. I adjusted my music, I copied my words, and I created more book trailers. Today, I can proudly say that we now have five available for viewing. The Book Trailer for Dragons Come got uploaded last night. I'm not sure if it is live on all the sites yet, but it should be live everywhere in a few days. It's linked on my website, just scroll down to the Dragons Come book on the Library page and click Watch The Book Trailer!​
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It has been a lot of work, but it was fun. Okay, now that the Book Trailer for Dragons Come is finished and published, I have to get to work on the Free Give away! I know. Who does not want free stuff right? 

The Thread is a short read. About forty-five minutes. It's nearly finished. I toyed with not publishing it. I might publish it, but not put it on Kindle Unlimited. Either way, it will still be free through the website. Still shooting for Jan 15 on that one. 

By the way, Tantalu will be going back up in price at the end of the week. If you did not get a free copy after Christmas it is only $.99 until Jan. 9. Then it goes up to $2.99. Don't miss your chance to check out the prequel at the reduced price!

Be Careful!
Happy Reading.
Ophelia Kee

Change is good! I have made some changes to the Library page! Check it out. The book cover images are now purchasable links. The pop up for opt in is a bit mangled at the moment. If you would like to leave your email, please do. It will still record so you can get on the mailing list. I just messed it up and I'm working on correcting the issue. 

That brings me to my next change. I want to give away a free short story. It's not ready yet. It tells the back story of how Luke finally decided to approach Eli on a snowy January morning and why she invited him in. I'm not publishing it on Amazon until the series is finished. Until then, I want to give it away free to my readers. So check back next week and add your email address, and it should give you a link to download the pdf file of Draoithe: The Thread.

I have not nailed this down all the way so don't get upset if it takes me a minute or two to get this done. It is a very short novelette at about 10,000 words so it is not too bulky, just a few scenes to gain interest or enlightenment.

It's tricky. You see, I am a paranormal romance author, not a computer geek. (No offense to all my tech wizard friends. I love you all.) I need to get a little bit of help on it. I mean the story is a rough draft in editing, and it still needs a cover and stuff like that, but I  get bogged down in the application of how to deliver it sans Kindle.

I thought you might like it. I like free stuff! So I try to give away what I can. When you see the pop up, opt in and get your free copy! I will nail down a permanent date for it in one of next week's blogs. Until then, please enjoy the dream! If you have not begun the journey,  A Pack Forms is available on Kindle Unlimited for free!

Be Careful!
Happy reading,
Ophelia Kee
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Don't you just love Pinterest? I do. So many ideas. I can get lost for hours just looking at all the neat pins on there. They have a bit of everything that you ever dreamed of. They even have a lot of stuff that you might not expect to find. Pinterest does not work like other social media sites. It is a bit more of an idea shopping center. You log into Pinterest to get new ideas or find some thing that works for what you have in mind to do. It's a hardware store for your brain!

 That hassSo, I started pinning the book covers and added the blog to Pinterest. That way you can 'see' the information in a visual format rather than type it out. My daughter and many others I know love to read, but spelling and writing are a bit more challenging due to dyslexia and other learning disabilities. Pinterest makes finding Draoithe easier.

The search engine that is Pinterest helps people navigate the site by offering them ideas that match what they are searching for by offering them more pins like the ones that they have added to their boards. It is like a giant cork board filled with images of stuff you like that you stole from others. But it's okay because they wanted you to take it. Like magic, you get an exact duplicate, but their pinned up sticky note stays right where it is on their board waiting for them to access it again or for someone else to see it and do exactly as you did. 

(For all the Millenials out there, when you get tired of Snapchat and Instagram, and you realize that you have no choice but to adult, you might want to check out Pinterest.)

I have to give props over to Nina Harrington. Her blog article helped me as an Indie Author. When I run across people and sites that are truly helpful like Dave Chesson at Kindlepreneur and Vinny O'Hare at Awesome Gang, I try to shout out to them. I think I am going to build pins for them on my inspiration board just to share the love. 

Where's the information on Draoithe? That's what you came here for, right? Well, I have not forgotten. I just got excited about my Pinterest finds. So I know you have the book cover for Dream Therapy. I filled you in on the upcoming release dates in yesterday's blog. (New Year's Resolutions)

So today, I have to fill you in on what's going on with the Book Trailers. I am still behind on that. Sorry! The 2020 updates on all the books took a massive amount of time. I actually still had to resubmit one of the paperbacks this morning. Cross your fingers that it was right and got approved. Sadly that has pushed forward the release of the Dragons Come Book Trailer. It should be completed before Jan. 10. I promise to post it here immediately!

All the updates should be ready shortly. The new and improved books are all available for digital download on Kindle Unlimited right now. New links, added sneak peeks, a few minor fixes with formatting, the basics. Except for Synner and Sainte which got a serious upgrade with added chapters, but it is still trapped awaiting March 12 to be added to Kindle Unlimited. 

If you are new to the dream, start with A Pack Forms. If you have any questions or just want to leave a comment, please do. You never know when what you have to say may wind up in a book.

Be Careful!
Happy reading,
Ophelia Kee
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Everyone makes New Year's Resolutions. But I make goals. I would like to have at least eighteen books out by the end of the year. Dream Therapy is coming out Jan. 30. Filth and Death is looking at the end of February. likely the 27th. Synner and Sainte will be available on Kindle Unlimited March, 12.

I have made a lot of mistakes in my Indie writing career so far, but being my own boss is great. In this line of work, there is no one to tell me what to do but me. That is both a good thing and a bad thing. (What am I supposed to be doing? That is the real question.)

But the mistakes were good too, because I learned a lot from them. I'm not in the business of reviewing book publishing formats. But several readers have asked me why most of the books are on Amazon and nowhere else. So I thought it might help some people if I explained my current line of reasoning for my choices in publishing and marketing. (Keep in mind that there is no budget for these things.) The answer is really simple. Half of all my royalties come from my Kindle Unlimited readers.

When I first began publishing in May of 2018, I did not exactly understand what I was doing. I mean I knew I wanted to self publish because that was an easier learning curve than trying to learn how to pitch my book to a lot of different traditional publishers. (I still have no idea how to write a synopsis of the plot arc? Not totally sure what the plot arc is as I write in scenes not chapters, but whatever!)

Also no budget to pay anyone like Lulu or Dorrance to publish for me really left only one option. I don't know if any of these companies are legitimate or not. You be your own judge. But if I could learn how to do it myself, then I could save a lot of up front money. I had time but not money. So from the beginning, it was Indie All The Way! 

I learned how to navigate four of the larger platforms. (Google Books, Kobo, and Barnes and Noble) Synner and Sainte is actually for sale on those sites as I type this. I honestly believe that it helped me gain a broader reach on google to have the books posted on multiple sites. But that did not help me sell more books. So I have been slowly migrating my titles to Kindle.

Having only one sales platform cuts down the amount of time and money I have to spend on advertising as well. I learn one platform better and become faster at publishing and even updating my titles. For my readers this means that I write more, and you get the stories faster. Which of course is what we all want. 

Will I keep it this way? I don't know, but for now, focusing on Kindle is the right move for me. Since enrolling most of my books in Kindle Select so my readers could read for free on Kindle unlimited, my sales have improved. (That's good because I really need more computer equipment in order to make better book trailers and get the YouTube page optimized.) 

If you have read a book or bought a book, I want to say Thank You again for supporting my endeavor to tell the story of Draoithe. As always, I am a real person, and I would love to hear your questions or comments.  Leave me a message, and I will try to get back to you.

To my reader Frank Grimes, I read your review of Synner and Sainte. Thank you for the review. They are hard to get. (Please leave reviews! Pretty Please with sugar on the top! I will mention you here if you do! I can not afford to pay for them.)

I agreed with your assessment of the book, so I have altered the book and added about ten thousand words to it. For anyone who bought the book in December, Please download it again and read the new material. It will not cost you anything. If you have not read the book, the updated version is only available on Kindle. For my Kindle Unlimited readers, I realize that I have slighted you. I will correct this March 12. (It is as fast as I can commit to Kindles' terms of exclusivity. If they would stop that requirement, far more books would be there I am sure.)

If you love to read, please leave reviews. You might not know if the book belongs to an Indie Author or not, but if it does, you will be helping them out. I know of no rich Indie Authors. We all just love to write the stories that you want to read. Paying for reviews is in my opinion unethical. So I will simply beg all my readers to write honest positive reviews.

2020 is going to be an awesome year for Draoithe. Kindle is going to be your one stop shop for the dream! If you are just now finding Draoithe, you might want to start with A Pack Forms. The new and improved updated ebook is available now! All of the paperbacks have been updated as well. Check back here for updates about audio books, book trailers, and free stuff that is coming in the future!

Be Careful!
Happy reading,
Ophelia Kee

It's time. I promised the cover of Dream Therapy today. For everyone who waited, I could not help but start 2020 off with a brand new read! My New Year's Resolution is to publish five more books. Dream Therapy will publish Jan. 30. It will be available for preorder by Jan. 4.

Speaking of promises and resolutions, I have to remark this. More people will vow to lose weight today, buy a gym membership, purchase weight loss pills, ask google for information on diet plans etc... over the next few days than at any other time of the year. We over-indulge in the rich food at parties and family gatherings. There is candy lying around from stockings and some on the tree. I know. I made tamales for Christmas and also cooked the ham for Christmas dinner.

But have you given thought to the idea that you might meet that resolution this year if you could just take a good book with you when you mounted your recumbent bicycle? We all love to read. (You found yourself here, right?) We have all heard the doctor say that there is no substitute for proper exercise. Yes, you must eat right, but diet alone won't keep bodies that require motion healthy. As we age, the need for daily exercise becomes more important. It grants us the extra energy we need to manage our busy lives and offers stress relief. I'm no doctor, just a mom who has seen a few years. But if your doctor nags you, then maybe a good read could be the solution to your commitment for a healthier life.

Seriously, think about it. New Year, New You. Make two resolutions. Live Healthier. Read More. Then just combine the two things. If workout time became escape time, you would probably do it more often and look forward to it rather than dread it.

My daughter's high school library has a ride while you read program to help the students study more efficiently. Exercise bikes with reading tables attached for books or notebooks are now being used. Students who learn better with movement improve their grades. So why can't adults do the same thing only with a slightly different goal? While you read about the Keto diet craze and debate trying a vegan lifestyle, step onto your elliptical machine. 

Don't forget to set the timer on your phone so you don't over do it. I know how lost in a good read all the bookworms out there can be. When you finish your research and come right back to your doctor's advice, and you have convinced yourself that you must exercise, you might need to start a series just to make sure you keep up the treadmill time into the rest of the year and not just give up by February.

If that's the case, Draoithe will publish its twelfth book in the series when Dream therapy drops on Jan 30. Think about it. You could read a new book every month. It might get you on the stairclimber more often. Read and climb. Read and climb. (I recommend audiobooks or podcasts with headphones or earbuds for those of you who feel like trying out the weight machines. It is a bit difficult to do curl ups and turn pages at the same time. I am working on the audio books, but that takes time and money. It will happen.)

Even if you don't need an incentive to workout, a good book is still an awesome escape. Start at the beginning. A Pack Forms is Luke and Eli's story, and the beginning of the formation of the Druid pack. Join the dream and get lost in a great book!

Happy New Year!
Be Careful!
Happy reading,
​Ophelia Kee

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2019 is almost over. It was a good year! I hope all my readers can say the same thing. 

It's almost time to ring in the New Year! The black eyed peas are in the slow cooker. I have begun the laborious task of putting away the Christmas decorations. That is sad because Christmas is the very best holiday.
I am looking forward to 2020 a​nd the changes that will bring for the book series. Draoithe will see Dream Therapy published at the end of January. It should be ready for preorder by the fourth.

The big cover reveal is tomorrow! Dream Therapy is going to be really good. You will finally see the rest of Leon Vadim's story. Spoiler alert, it's a happy ending for the misfit red dragon! Ah but that is the thing with romance, isn't it? We want the angst, but we need the happy ending. If we can have that, then the suffering was worth it. 
Jace's introversion will find a remedy as well, but she will torture him a bit first. Mostly because she has no idea what he is. So it is a bit of a hell of his own making situation. 
While I was writing Elementals, I had thought to end the series. One of my friends who had read the rough draft as a bit of a beta reader very bluntly told me to rewrite the ending. She said, "You can't end it there. Not like that. What happens to Blue and Torch? The sister! You never tell about the sister. You can not introduce characters like that and then just leave everyone hanging!" 
Needless to say, I rewrote the ending and agreed to at least tell Spark's story only to wind up having to tell March's story and explain Leon Vadim which led to three more books. Couldn't I have side characters who did not really have a story? I asked my circle of friends who have been my crazy cheerleading beta readers from the beginning. I had killed off a few characters. I had turned some others as dragonsworn. Everyone liked what happened to Jingles. Justice was served.
"I introduced Eli and Javier's kids in book one. We met the slimy contractor, Frank Grimes. They don't all need a story." I was whining. I was probably tired. 
"Frank Grimes is coming back. He is way too slimy not to show up in another book." What!? Wait, who was writing this story? Me or my friends? 
"He's a bad guy, but he is helping them. The magic will use him." It clicked. I knew Frank Grimes's story. It would provide the lead in for the ending I wanted to write. Technically had already written sort of. 

It was back to the drawing board. Dream Therapy and Filth and Death had to be written. In order for Frank Grimes to meet justice properly, I had to tell a few other stories. And after the deleted scenes had been released in Synner and Sainte, no way was the guy getting off light. He needed to suffer, a lot. I mean he was technically responsible for Eli's near demise, he ratted out all of Luke's friends to Elliot's minions, and when you find out what he does in Dream Therapy, I think you will agree that suffering would be a really good idea.

So now that I have totally messed up another blog with too much information, mark your calendars. Cover reveal for Dream Therapy is tomorrow! I hope you like it. It was a hard one! Dream Therapy will be on Pre-order by the fourth of January and will be published on the 30th. I just have to be sure it has everything right. 
Filth and Death should publish late February. 
For all of you who are celebrating tonight, enjoy your party wisely, please. 
Be Careful!
Happy reading,
​Ophelia Kee

"Wow! It must be nice to just sit back and collect royalty checks!" I hear this, shake my head and grin. It does not work like that even if it seems like it. It takes a lot of work. I don't get to write nearly as much as I would like. (That is the artistic passion) I spend hours reading about how to publish, promote, market, and sell my work. I spent days just trying to get my first book published on Kindle. I also likely did everything wrong, and am still doing everything wrong. 

There are a few things I learned along the way that if I could share with you, might help you understand the misconception. Today I will talk about just social media. 

First, set up all your social media accounts. It sounds easy. I know. But it takes a lot of time. Especially if you are not big on using one or more or any of it. It is not the same as your basic sit at home and play on the internet to waste time. You need to link your blog and other social media accounts together and set them up as business pages so you can use them to not only stay in contact with your readers, but advertise to gain new readers.

Now you will ask, do I really need all of them? I don't know anything about this one or that one? Is it really important? My answer is, no. You don't really need all of them. I have five. (https://www.opheliakee.com/ophelia-kee-author-contact.html) That was where I decided enough was enough, and I had to write. But they are all interlinked with one another, and my blog auto feeds to them. I cross post information from one social media platform to the others in order to reach the largest audience I can.

​The next question is always, "Which ones are better to have?" Here is where what I have to say is a personal truth for Ophelia Kee, and you may need to feel around a bit before you decide. I prefer facebook ( https://www.facebook.com/Draoithe/), but I feel as if I need youtube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2YG0meqbI_dfhxcLiX3CMg) 

Why those two? I am simply better at navigating facebook. I understand it better. I post pictures to instagram, and make pins for pinterest. I tweet on twitter. But facebook just makes sense to me so I use it more. Youtube is a bit more of a necessity tool. I need a place to stage my book trailers. From there I can link my pins on pinterest and tweet about them. So by now you likely guessed that if I deleted any social media, it would be instagram. But I won't because it is linked to my facebook, and although I am not a great photographer, sometimes the pictures are cool.

The truth is that Indie authors have to sell themselves. I must show the world what Ophelia Kee has to offer. The internet is an exceptional tool to be able to do that. Social media offers opportunities for visibility that simply did not exist twenty years ago. But I do have to work in order to make it work for me. Remember my lack of budget? I spend two hours everyday promoting my books on social media to groups for free. I write this blog, I post it to facebook and twitter. It auto posts to my author pages and pinterest. I spend time with my social media accounts to check and reply to my messages from readers too. 

Ophelia Kee has to be a real person, with a real life, and be accessible to readers. Honestly, it is really good to get questions because that has led to whole book ideas. Social media is the best way to do that and still get to be Ophelia Kee.

I also have to actually live too. Food, tea, family, the house, and my elliptical machine, all gotta happen everyday. Then I have to craft the book trailers. (I know I am behind, but I had to learn how to make them first so give me a bit of a break. I will catch up. No budget equals time and hard work, right?) I also have to edit, rewrite, format, etc... But I love to write, so I will put up with those things.

I have not touched on author pages or paid advertising and promotion. This blog is all about social media. But if you wanted to write (work from home) or just needed to be enlightened about how your favorite Indie author likely really spends all that free time you mistakenly believe they have, I hope this helps. 

As always this blog was supposed to be about Draoithe, so I will shamelessly plug my facebook page again and ask you to like and follow. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2YG0meqbI_dfhxcLiX3CMg

Be Careful!
Happy Reading,
​Ophelia Kee
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