Sherry D. Shumard Author Guest Post

Today we welcome a Guest post By Sherry D. Shumard

Writing a novel is like a journey and you learn a lot about writing, editing, publishing and promoting processes. Give us five things that you have learned during your journey with your first two novels in the four different stages. 

Sherry D. Shumard

Author of: Heartbroken Promises 2

In the writing process I learned that I need to give more character development because readers really want to get to know the characters in my stories on a more intimate level. Also, I need to make my novels a little longer than I had originally. I thought that with everyone’s busy lives, it is better to make my stories short and sweet. That isn’t the case, though. From my reviews I’ve learned that I need to really give a lot more details and to make the story longer because they really want to read a lot more than what I had provided. I also learned that the drama and the passion was what the reviewers really liked a lot.

In the editing process I have done my own editing. I’ve read many, many books and I have the ability to naturally look at a sentence and know if it sounds right or not. Getting good grades in English and grammar in school also helped.  I would like to have a professional editor if I ever have a chance because that would save me a lot of time.

In the publishing processes I’ve learned that the publisher can only do so much for my books. They publish them and the rest of the work is up to me. With the first book Heartbroken Promises. I went with a self publisher named iUniverse.com because I was a first time author and didn’t really want to take the time to go through the tedious process of finding a publisher who wanted my book.  With my second novel Heartbroken Promises 2  I decided upon PublishAmerica who didn’t charge me anything to publish my book and even paid me a small fee. They don’t accept everyone’s work to publish so I was honored that they chose me so quickly after I submitted my work. They were definitely interested in my story and must have thought that it would be a bestseller. I wasn’t even close to finishing the novel and they did give me a deadline so I had to hurry up and finish it. It’s great to get paid for something.

In the promoting process I thought that the publisher would do more to promote my second novel Heartbroken Promises 2.  Since PublishAmerica invested their own money into publishing my book I thought that they would also market my book. I was wrong. I have to do my own promoting of my book. In my first novel Heartbroken Promises I knew already that I had to do my own promotions since iUniverse is a self publishing company.

In my third novel Heartbroken Promises 3 I will take my knowledge from the first 2 books in the series and apply it as I’m writing it. I’m currently on Chapter 2 and this next book will knock the reviewers’ socks off because it will be full of passion, romance, and drama and it will be a real page turner. I have to have the mystery of the kidnapping wrapped up and also the main character may find happiness with either handsome and hunky Jordan or the plain looking Noah who is the father of her baby.
 

About Sherry Shumard:

 I love to read and write books. I'm the published author of a series of books titled: Heartbroken Promises, Heartbroken Promises 2 and I'm currently working on Heartbroken Promises 3. The books are available on www. Amazon.com, www.booksamiilion.com, and www.bn.com just to name a few. I plan on writing many more books since I have a lot of ideas on what I want to write about. My dream is to someday soon see my books come to life as a movie or a televison series-That would be great if it did happen.  I'm married and have 3 children and 2 pets. 

Synopsis

 Heartbroken Promises2: Vicky Wainright decides to visit Jake’s Island so she can be close to her sister Miranda. She is offered a nanny job by Jordan a very handsome and eligible bachelor who is raising his son by himself. She meets her sister’s waiter Noah and is quickly torn between loving him and Jordan. She gets kidnapped while babysitting along with Jordan’s son Derrick and her sister believes that Noah was one of the kidnappers. How will she feel about Noah after she finds out the truth? Will Derrick and her be rescued or be killed?      

Thank You Sherry for taking the time to visit us today.