House on Plunkett Street by Lorena Bathey (Guest Post)

Please give a warm welcome to author Lorena Bathey today! Afterwards, don't forget to check out Missie's review of House on Plunkett street found just below this post, enjoy! 

What is an Indie Author, anyway?

There is a lot of use of the word "Indie" these days. But what exactly does being an Indie Author mean? Of course, the word, Indie, brings up small bookstores and Sundance Film Festival, but is that the same thing?

With the arrival of the Kindle, Nook, and super-duper smart phones came the introduction of the self-published author. Well, not really the introduction since self-publishing had been around for a while. So let's say the explosion of self-publishing. 

Self-publishing is just what it says it is. You write something. You publish it. How you do that may be varied but the end result is the same.  The trendier word, that I prefer actually, is Indie author.

Now with a new avenue to bring books to the marketplace there came the authors that have never been published. The game of publishing has been a long sought after, but not often attained world. The big corporations that run most of the publishing houses are tough customers and most authors got more comfortable with rejection letters than positive words.

Now with sites like Lulu, CreateSpace, and others you can send in your manuscript and have a finished, bound book in a matter of days. This has unleashed the writers. The world is lucky to be able to see the words of many authors who may never have had the opportunity to share their work.

However, with this new gateway to publishing swung wide open comes a few problems. Just because you can write a book, doesn't mean it's ready to be published. Being an Indie author means you need to wear many hats.  Not only are you the author but you're the sales, marketing, public relations, designer, and accountant all wrapped up in one.

The reason why self-publishing had such a bad rap was because it was bad. Seriously, the work was bad. It was not edited professionally. The cover art and media surrounding it was cheap. And people were putting anything and everything out there. But with the advancement of eReaders and the huge amount of people now buying these books the bar has been raised.

As an Indie author myself, I pride myself on having two professional editors and one proofreader go over my work. I hire talented designers to design my cover art. And I make sure that anything relating to my work is of the highest caliber. I use the term "shelf-ready" which is industry lingo for "ready to go to the bookshelf." If I don't think it a merit being on a bookshelf anywhere else, then it's not ready for the public.

This is my responsibility as an Indie author. I must hold my work up to an even more intense microscope, because I'm where the buck starts and stops. If there are a lot of editing problems, that's on me. If the cover designs, font choice, or guts of the book are sub-par. That's on me.

So being and Indie author means you love your work enough to make sure that it arrives safely to the world of the readers looking dapper, clean, well formatted, edited, and ready for the enjoyment it is waiting to give.

All of you who love to read look for us Indie authors because you might just find that our books fast become your favorite reads.Phoebe Bertram is boring, bland, and unexciting. She works a job that is inadequate of her abilities. She has a boyfriend that is a dud. She is on the treadmill of her life and doesn’t know how to get off. 
With changes in her job and her apartment going condo, she must find a new place to live. Her friend Meghan brings her to the perfect apartment and the moment Phoebe steps in the door she knows there is something atypical about this perspective residence. 
What she never expects are the three ghosts that arrive on her couch to teach her how life is really meant to be lived. 

Bio for Lorena Bathey:

Growing up in the Bay Area of Northern California, Lorena Bathey attended St. Mary’s College in Moraga graduating with a degree in English. Then she traveled, learned about life, and developed great fodder for a book. Losing her mother to cancer and her own marriage’s demise brought her to find herself. She wrote Happy Beginnings: How I Became My Own Fairy Godmother (www.amazon.com) and found speaking and empowering others was her passion. 

Lorena Bathey found after writing her first book that characters were visiting her mind and wouldn't leave. She was introduced to Marissa, Andrea, Lily, Deidre and Beatrice and her first novel, Beatrice Munson, came to life. After finishing that book she was inspired to write more novels and she knew that pursuing her passion was the best way to live her life. So a writer she became.

After meeting the love of her life, they embarked on the thrilling life to follow their dreams bringing their families along for the ride. Today Lorena has nine novels in her writing queue all with screenplays in the works. 

But writing isn't the only muse that inspires Lorena. She has become a passionate photographer and likes to push the envelope taking shots while learning how to navigate Photoshop. Travel, walking, enjoying new restaurants, and Italy are other loves and things she makes sure she has time for.

Find her at Lorena@LorenaBBooks.com or at www.LorenaBBooks.com

www.facebook.com/pages/Lorena-B-Books/1138014032926011  and at www.twitter.com/lorenabbooks