Just about every time I open my email of late, there is another ‘publicist’ raving about one of my books. They tell me my books are getting the short shrift and deserve a wider audience.
I couldn’t agree more.
These emails were flooding in at such a rate that clearly my TikTok has made me a star, Bradley Cooper has finally outed me as his secret crush, or something is afoot at the Circle K.
Continue reading “If It Seems to Good to Be True… (Navigating the New World of Author Marketing Emails)”Finally! After a three year drought, I have a new book coming out in 2025! And this one was sure worth waiting for.
Note: Maybe this is old news because you follow me on Facebook or subscribe to Another Good Dog. So if that’s the case, you have my permission to skip this blog post. Or you can read it again because, hey, this is good stuff and there’s dog pictures!
My newest book is a little different. It’s a passion project, for sure, and it’s been five years in the making. It’s also a nonprofit venture.
Continue reading “New Book Coming in 2025!”My most recent novel, Blind Turn, has had the longest and most winding road to publication of all my books. I looked back through my files to try to figure out when I started writing it – as best as I can tell, I began writing it in 2010.
I was inspired to think about this because it was chosen to be the Ereader News Book of the Day for this Friday, August 30. For one day it will be just 99 cents!
So, if your reason for not buying a copy has been that you don’t want to spend the money, here’s your chance to get an e-copy for less than a dollar. There’s not much you can buy for less than a buck these days, so I hope you’ll take a chance on me..]
Back to my long and winding story, which I’ll try to keep brief by sharing it in a timeline:
Continue reading “The Long and Winding Road to Publication”I’ve often said that as a writer, I wish I had a boss. Or maybe a coach. Someone to give me a little direction, listen to my dreams and guide me toward them, and offer accountability.
Because here’s the thing—accountability is an energy source. It can be the motivation you need to follow through on that big idea and move forward with your dreams. It’s pretty easy to let your goals languish if you’re the only person paying attention to those goals.
One of my superpowers is encouraging others. I thrive on the opportunity to teach, inspire, and help other writers. Between the pandemic and our move to a new state, I haven’t had many opportunities to work with others and I miss it.
My new program is called Write Together, and my goal is to help you move toward your goals with practical ideas and tools you can put into action, helpful (compassionate) critique, and the encouragement you need to believe in your writing and send it out into the world. I’ll offer practical, personalized advice and resources from my two decades of publishing experience in multiple formats.
So whether you’re working on a book, a blog, an essay, an article, or your own journal, I want to help. If you’re still sorting out what kind of writer you want to be when you grow up (no matter your age), you want to start a blog or a freelancing career or find a home for your essay, or you just need a fresh pair of eyes on something you’ve been working on for years, consider joining me for this inaugural Write Together session.
Write Together (beta) is a flexible 4-week coaching program that begins with an initial call to talk about what you want to accomplish over your four weeks. After that, for four (flexible) weeks, you’ll get:
You can choose any four weeks between 10/29 and 12/22, and they don’t have to be consecutive. If you’ve got a conflict, we can work around it. I’m all about flexibility.
Cost is just $100 for the entire program.
If you need a jump start, I’d love to be that for you. If you need help clarifying goals, finding a market for your writing, fine-tuning, or even ugly editing, I’m your girl. And if what you really need is some encouragement and inspiration, I’m all in – that’s my brand and I’m excited to apply it one-on-one.
If you have questions about any of this, please fire away in the comments. If you’re asking, so are others. You can also email me at carasueachterberg@gmail.com or message me on Facebook (@CaraSueAchterberg).
But please don’t wait. I’m only offering Write Together at this price for my beta launch. In 2024, I hope to expand on this and be able to help more people reach their writing goals.
Hey, thanks for reading. I know you’ve got lots of options, so thanks for sharing a few of your minutes with me.
Honored,
Cara
My latest novel, Blind Turn is a mother-daughter story of forgiveness in the aftermath of a fatal texting and driving accident. Learn more about it and find out how to get your copy here.
If you’re curious about what else I’m up to, check out my website, CaraWrites.com.
If you’d like to subscribe to my occasional e-newsletter, click here.
And If you’re a dog lover, check out my other blog, Another Good Dog. And if you want to know what is really happening in the animal shelters in this country, visit, Who Will Let the Dogs Out.
I’d love to connect with you on Facebook, twitter, or Instagram, and I’m thrilled to get email from readers (and writers), you can reach me at carasueachterberg@gmail.com.
My book, 100 Dogs & Counting: One Woman, Ten Thousand Miles, and a Journey Into the Heart of Shelters and Rescues is available anywhere books are sold, but if you’d like some help finding it (or want to read some lovely reviews), click here.
Lackluster.
That’s how I’ve been feeling lately.
Maybe it’s my age. At fifty-six (fifty-six!), I’m feeling what everyone probably feels at this age—past my prime.
Everything is harder.
Continue reading “Getting My Sparkly Back”I’m jumping off this crazy merry-go-round of publishing and promoting. Enough is never enough, but, you know, I am enough. #amwriting but #amdonepromoting
I’m losing my gumption for writing.
Or at least for publishing.
I can’t imagine myself ever not writing. The publishing part, though, it drains my soul.
As much as I want my stories to land on the hearts that need them, I am tired of how ‘less than’ publishing makes me feel.
It’s an incredibly competitive industry and one that is skewed towards the people who
Continue reading “I’m Enough”[This week’s blog post, take two.]
My original post I spent the past forty minutes writing laid out all the ways the publishing world is lined up against me.
But then I simply got tired of my own drivel.
Enough whining, I told myself.
I knew the odds were steeply against me before I signed Blind Turn with an independent press.
Continue reading “So You Think YOU’RE Special?”BLIND TURN is officially out in the world today.
Thanks to the pandemic, though, it feels like any other day. There is no launch party, no celebratory signing, no champagne with friends even.
I’m planning a Facebook LIVE at lunchtime on my writer page, but I’m certain it will feel as lonely as every other LIVE I’ve done—talking into the abyss and wondering when I finish if I’ve connected with anyone.
Releasing a second book during this ‘unprecedented time’ feels like the final nail in the coffin of my dream to ever make-it-as-an-author. I had such high hopes for this year. I thought it was the year that I would ‘arrive.’ The less-than of every moment leading up to this book feels unfair and personal, as if God doesn’t think I can take a hint.
These are the thoughts spinning through my selfish mind. But then my heart says, “Get over yourself; this isn’t about you. It never was.”
On the mind vs heart equation, I usually operate at about a 40-60 ratio, but I think I’ve finally realized that if I want to be happy—really happy—in my life, I need to get to a 20-80 or even a 10-90 on the mind v heart battle.
So, shoving aside all the business and planning and success factors of my writing career, I’m overjoyed that Blind Turn is out in the world. It’s a book I have poured so much into and a book that has saved me again and again. Not only did it land me both of my agents, it has pulled me back into the fight again and again when I’ve all but given up and gone to work at Walmart.
Blind Turn is a story that sums up my own philosophies about life—everyone deserves a second chance and no one is irredeemable; we need to be present in all the moments of our life and conscious of the fact that any single moment can change everything; and more than anything, real love requires forgiveness on a daily, sometimes hourly, basis.
Those might be the three tenets of my life. And there they are in this story. I never set out to write a story about any of those things, though. I simply dreamed up a few characters, tossed them into a situation that scared the heck out of me, and wrote through what happened.
And as I wrote, my heart spoke its truth, sometimes surprising me on the page.
Blind Turn isn’t a classic or a parable or even literary fiction. It likely won’t find its way onto a bestseller list since it is coming out with an independent press few people have likely heard of, but it’s finally real. It’s loose in the world, my heart’s message to the masses.
Incredible thanks to the people who have always believed in this book, and in doing so believed in my heart, and in my mind’s ability to tell a story worth reading.
Hey, thanks for reading. I know you’ve got lots of options, so thanks for sharing a few of your minutes with me.
Honored,
Cara
Blind Turn is a mother-daughter story of forgiveness in the aftermath of a fatal texting and driving accident. Learn more about it and read a few early reviews here.
If you’re curious about what else I’m up to, check out my website, CaraWrites.com.
If you’d like to subscribe to my (sometimes) monthly e-newsletter, click here.
And If you’re a dog lover, check out my other blog, Another Good Dog. And if you want to know what is really happening in the animal shelters in this country, visit, Who Will Let the Dogs Out.
I’d love to connect with you on Facebook, twitter, or Instagram, and I’m thrilled to get email from readers (and writers), you can reach me at carasueachterberg@gmail.com.
My book, 100 Dogs & Counting: One Woman, Ten Thousand Miles, and a Journey Into the Heart of Shelters and Rescues was released this past July from Pegasus books and is available anywhere books are sold, but if you’d like some help finding it (or want to read some lovely reviews), click here.
And I’m off!
Where to, you ask?
Why, success and fame, of course.
(success and fame are relative terms.)
Continue reading “Can You Handle the S#*t Sandwich?”Let’s be honest—the publishing world is rigged.
After twenty years wrestling with words, agents, editors, publishers, and social media, I’m not saying this in a bitter way. Just as a matter of fact.
Continue reading “#Truth: The Publishing World is Rigged”
My Life in Paragraphs 