Kristen Tsetsi | Self-Publishing Review

Quitting gets a little easier every time.

I used to smoke regularly. It started when I was 13 with a Marlboro red 100 (if you’re going to do it, go big). My friend D and I sat at the top of a long set of stairs leading down to a narrow path that cut through my small Neckarsteinach neighborhood, and she pulled one from the soft pack. “Are you sure you want one?” she said.

“Yeah. Just give it to me.”

I was an automatic inhaler. I didn’t even know how to puff. I’d take a drag, and then I’d blow […]

Kristen Tsetsi2020-02-21T04:00:19+02:00January 26th, 2010|Categories: Features|Tags: Book Marketing, Writing|

Self-Published Books Leading at Smashwords

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The most downloaded books today, Jan. 8, at Smashwords.com are by (self-published) Backword Books authors.

Women’s fiction

#1 – Homefront by Kristen J. Tsetsi

#2 – Waiting for Spring by R.J. Keller (reviewed by me here)

Literary fiction

#1 – Homefront by Kristen J. Tsetsi

#4 – American Book of the Dead by Henry Baum

#6 – Waiting for Spring by R.J. Keller

#8 – Carol’s Aquarium by Kristen J. Tsetsi

Much gratitude goes to the readers using the e-readers I can’t say I’ll ever buy, myself, but which I completely support and appreciate as a technological tool. I

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Kristen Tsetsi2011-10-08T19:42:53+02:00January 8th, 2010|Categories: Member Blog|Tags: RJ Keller, Smashwords|

Frugal Book Promotion – An Interview with Carolyn Howard-Johnson

Although we self-pubs have all heard by now that traditional publishers are doing less promotion for their authors than they used to, compared to where we’re sitting, they still have it pretty good. They have a Real Publisher backing their work. They actually have a shot at being taken seriously before anyone even reads their book, and at being reviewed by the New York Times. Because we don’t have any of that, if we want people to know about our books, we’re going to have to do our own promotion and marketing.

No one seems to know more about […]

Kristen Tsetsi2011-10-08T19:43:40+02:00January 7th, 2010|Categories: Interviews|

West of Mars: An Interview with Susan Helene Gottfried

Susan Helene Gottfried runs the website West of Mars, where she will tell you she does very little talking about her writing. Instead, she writes. She engages readers addicted to her Demo Tapes, described on her website as “collections of short fiction that introduce you to Trevor, Mitchell, and the rest of the fictional band, ShapeShifter — as well as the world in which they inhabit.” But West of Mars, winner of twenty blog awards, isn’t all about Susan and her own writing. She also promotes other writers who want to reach readers. In the following interview, Susan discusses […]

Kristen Tsetsi2011-10-08T20:22:06+02:00October 30th, 2009|Categories: Interviews, Lead Story|

Page One Review – Eyeleash by Jess C. Scott

This first page of Jess C. Scott’s Eyeleash falls flat, and here’s why: the use of shortened language (“abt”), the suggestion that I’m about to read a series of random blog entries with no particular movement in any direction (“Rants raves and everything else”), and the immediate introduction to a narrator who believes her blog and herself are interesting enough to warrant warnings about sharing the material, which usually means the entries won’t actually be that interesting – or, not as interesting as the author suspects.

However, at the same time, what does lend some interest to the first page […]

Kristen Tsetsi2011-10-08T20:22:19+02:00October 29th, 2009|Categories: Book Reviews|

Page One Review: Drift by Sara San Angelo

I live in Tennessee, so there’s much in Sara San Angelo’s opening page of Drift that has me thinking, “Oh, yeah. Yep. It’s just like that.” The suffocating heat, the weeds and shrubs and dirt roads. The cow fields and the horses.

I even drive a battered green (-ish/blue) Toyota.

Because of this, the first page manages to hold me. However, if not for all of these familiar things, the first page would, I’m afraid, move too slowly.

Which is not to say I wasn’t interested enough to hop to page two looking for something to happen. That’s exactly what […]

Kristen Tsetsi2011-10-08T19:47:07+02:00October 8th, 2009|Categories: Book Reviews|

Page One Review: The List by Carmen Shirkey

The List by Carmen Shirkey identifies itself fairly quickly as chick-lit (light, upbeat fiction marketed toward young women). I point this out only because I don’t read much (any) chick lit, these days, so I was hesitant, at first, to critique the page. Someone who doesn’t read a particular genre may not necessarily be the best judge of that genre.

However.

Whatever the genre, the author should strive to grab the reader with her or his unique storytelling style, personal (creative) perspective, and grasp on writing.

I’m sorry to say this first page doesn’t really grab me in any of […]

Kristen Tsetsi2011-10-08T19:14:21+02:00April 28th, 2009|Categories: Book Reviews|

Self-Published Author Sets High Auction Goals

Although my husband, Ian (the soldier featured in the video writing a letter in his tent), is no longer in the Army and is therefore no longer in danger of being deployed, many, in all branches, are.

Soldiers’ Angels (.org) is a non-profit organization comprised of more than 30 teams who work to support wounded and deployed troops, as well as their families.

Since my novel Homefront is about a young woman whose love deploys to Iraq, it seems a fitting thing to offer as an auction item in an effort to raise money for Soldiers’ Angels.

I’m using eBay […]

Kristen Tsetsi2009-12-31T19:59:45+02:00April 20th, 2009|Categories: News|