The self-publishing cover process: Creating a cover for Threats of Sky and Sea

Posted July 25, 2014 by Jennifer Ellision in blog, Self-Publishing, Threats of Sky and Sea / 3 Comments

Hello, friends! Long time, no talk. I’m at a new job these days and it’s much busier than the last, leaving less time for authorly things throughout the day. But enough about that! I’m gearing up to begin working next month with my amazing cover artist Nathalia Suellen for the cover of Book 2 in the Threats of Sky and Sea series: Riot of Storm and Smoke, and this made me realize that I never shared the self-publishing cover process for Threats of Sky and Sea. I found Nathalia Suellen through some of her other work, so I knew that she was extremely capable of a beautiful cover– especially one with a person on the cover. And she was a dream to work with. I had only a vague idea of what I wanted for the cover of Threats of Sky and […]

Lady Kat’s Story: Sisters of Wind and Flame Release Day

Posted June 30, 2014 by Jennifer Ellision in Author business, blog, Books, Threats of Sky and Sea / 0 Comments

Happy Release Day, Lady Kat! While writing/revising Threats of Sky and Sea, I took a step back to try to get inside Lady Kat’s head. I imagined I’d sketch out a brief scene, but once I began writing it, it was clear that Lady Kat had more to say. (I should not have been surprised.) That quickly turned into a short story titled Sisters of Wind and Flame and I’m so excited that, as of today, you guys can see Kat develop into the antagonist we meet in TOSAS. I had so much fun writing Sisters of Wind and Flame and getting Kat, expanding on a couple of other characters that you’ve met before, adding a few others that you haven’t… and I’m very pleased to say that (for less that the price of… well, many things) Sisters of Wind and Flame can be yours […]

Happy book birthday to Elodie Nowodazkij’s ONE TWO THREE!

Posted June 26, 2014 by Jennifer Ellision in blog, Books / 0 Comments

I am so very, very excited that today is the book birthday for my friend, Elodie Nowodazkij’s ONE TWO THREE! ONE TWO THREE is about a ballet dancer who’s lost both her father and her ability to dance, a romance, and how Nata (said dancer) learns to cope. I first met Elodie in a YA writing class on LitReactor, where she was workshopping an earlier draft of ONE TWO THREE and I was workshopping an early draft of THREATS OF SKY AND SEA. We became Twitter buddies and then self-publishing buddies, exchanging e-mails swapping ideas about where we were in the process. It was something of a weight off of my shoulders, having someone else going through this process with me. So from those e-mails, and from her blog, I know how seriously Elodie takes her craft and I am […]

Threats of Sky and Sea blog tour!

Posted June 9, 2014 by Jennifer Ellision in blog, Threats of Sky and Sea / 2 Comments

The Threats of Sky and Sea blog tour, hosted by Xpresso Book Tours, kicks off today! I’ll update these links to the actual posts as they go live, but you can find the entire schedule below! Be sure to check the posts out! As part of the tour I’m giving away: -The Elemental Prize Pack: Season 1 of Avatar: The Last Airbender, a pair of “water tribe” stud earrings, a signed paperback of Threats of Sky and Sea by Jennifer Ellision, and Threats of Sky and Sea swag -The YA Fantasy Prize Pack: Paperback copies of Graceling by Kristin Cashore, The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson, and a signed copy of Threats of Sky and Sea by Jennifer Ellision, as well as Threats of Sky and Sea swag -2 Signed paperbacks of Threats of Sky and Sea […]

Cover reveal and publication date: Sisters of Wind and Flame (A Threats of Sky and Sea prequel short)

Posted June 5, 2014 by Jennifer Ellision in blog, Books, Threats of Sky and Sea / 5 Comments

Hello everyone! With BEA over (read my recaps over at The Bevy Bibliotheque: Part 1 | Part 2), I’m hard at work with Book 2 of the Threats of Sky and Sea series (Book 1 is available now). And I’m also hard at work with editing something else… Today, I also wanted to talk to you all about the e-short I’m releasing later this month– on June 30th, 2014 to be precise. Those of you who have already read Threats of Sky and Sea have also met Lady Katerine. Kat got in my head in a way that I didn’t expect during Threats of Sky and Sea. I stepped back from the ToSaS manuscript and wrote what was supposed to be a short scene in Kat’s teenage years in an effort to understand what made the character tick. It quickly became several scenes. And […]

New York, New York! A.K.A. Book Expo America

Posted May 28, 2014 by Jennifer Ellision in Author business, blog, Books, Uncategorized / 1 Comment

Today, I’m on my way to New York City, for my third time attending Book Expo America. It’s sure to be a B-E-A-utiful time! I’m going more with my blogger hat on (for The Bevy Bibliotheque) than my author hat, but if you see me wandering around the Javits Center (or, hey, the city) please say hi! This is my face: And these are the places I’m planning to be: Events outside the conference: -The Teen Author Carnival -Macmillan Happy Hour -Book Blogger Picnic In the Javits: -Adult Book & Author Breakfast (with Neil Patrick Harris as emcee) -Children’s Book & Author Breakfast -Sarah J. Maas signing -Morgan Matson signing -Heather Demetrios signing Attempting to obtain ARCs of: Mortal Heart Salt & Storm The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet I really hope to see you there! And I’ll even have a […]

Looking back on release week

Posted May 26, 2014 by Jennifer Ellision in blog, Books, Self-Publishing, Threats of Sky and Sea / 1 Comment

Threats of Sky and Sea release week was kiiiind of the bomb. I was ecstatic to be releasing Threats of Sky and Sea in general and release day would have been great regardless. But a few things made it stand-out fantastic. Like all of the tweets and Facebook posts supporting me and linking to buy Threats of Sky and Sea. Like an awesome release day Twitter chat, with fun questions from great participants. Like the paperback breaking the top 5K of books on Amazon. Like ranking in THREE categories on Amazon. Like breaking the top 7K of all Kindle books. We also threw a book launch celebration! There was cake, I signed a few books, and we set up a table with swag to grab. There were friends, family, food and drink. MOST excellent. Basically, I couldn’t have asked for much more […]

A love letter to Threats of Sky and Sea on its release day

Posted May 20, 2014 by Jennifer Ellision in blog, Books, Threats of Sky and Sea / 5 Comments

Dear Threats of Sky and Sea, TOSAS (may I call you TOSAS?), you and I have been through a lot together. Way back from the time when I was consistently getting your name wrong and calling you “Apparent.” (What, oh what, was I thinking?) We’ve been together for years now, ever since that first scene jumped into my head way back in 2011. But I was only flirting with you then, TOSAS. It wouldn’t be until about a year later, in 2012, that I was finally ready to commit to you and only you. To take you seriously. We had our struggles. Sometimes, I just couldn’t understand you. You wanted to go everywhere– you wanted to go nowhere. You were overly dramatic or you fell totally flat. You made no sense! Sometimes, I wanted to break up with you. But […]

You’re invited: #TOSAS Twitter Chat Plans

Posted May 12, 2014 by Jennifer Ellision in Author business, blog, Books, Threats of Sky and Sea / 2 Comments

Hello my lovelies! Eek! Can you believe Threats of Sky and Sea comes out in about ONE WEEK now? Didn’t I just announce my publication plans? Let’s talk release day! When: May 20, 2014 at 8 P.M. Eastern Time Where: On Twitter! Use the hashtag #tosas to follow along! What: This will be a celebration of Threats of Sky and Sea’s publication day! I’ll answer questions about everything from writing to publishing to TOSAS to what I ate for breakfast that morning, give some TOSAS teasers, and there will be PRIZES! Random giveaways of not only TOSAS, but also some ARCs from my shelf! You can also feel free to submit questions ahead of time by leaving me a comment on this post! I hope to see you there!

Newsletter sign-ups and giveaway

Posted May 8, 2014 by Jennifer Ellision in Author business, blog, Threats of Sky and Sea / 0 Comments

Hey, hey, hey! So, you may not be aware of this, but I have a newsletter! You can sign up for it here. I set it up a while ago, but have been hemming and hawwing over WHAT to do with it! I didn’t want it to be a bunch of redundant content from my blog, plus I know that many of you already subscribe to the blog via e-mail. I think I’ve finally decided on a system! 1. Timing- New releases I definitely don’t want to spam people’s inboxes, so my newsletter will be sent out whenever I have a new release. 2. Extra content- Spotlight read I’ll highlight a self-published book or author that I’ve read recently. This will be an author of my own choosing, one whose work I chose to spend my own money on. I might […]