Blog Tour: Author Gust Post and Book Excerpt: 10 Perks of Being a Published Author by Chris Reynolds ( Author of Mind Secrets) Plus a $10 Amazon GC Giveaway!

Hi everyone! We have a very special guest today! We have Ms. Chris Reynolds, the author of Mind Secrets. Today, we'll know more about his book and his thoughts about the perks of being a published author. 

Note: Ms. Chris Reynolds is giving a $10 Amazon Gift Card to a very lucky randomly drawn commenter! So what are you guys waiting for, read on and leave a comment on the comment section below.

Author Guest Post:

10 Perks of Being a Published Author by Chris Reynolds

1.  The best thing about being a published author is reaching readers. It’s what it’s all about at the end of the day. Being published gets your work out there and without that conduit between the author and the reader, your stories and your ideas will never get an audience.

2.  It’s as if publication gives you permission to write. Like many people, I began by writing stories simply because I had the ideas and wanted to write them down. I spent a lot of my free time doing this when other people of my age were going to parties or going to the pub, and some people find this a little peculiar. But when you’re “published”, this is suddenly all quite normal, you’re allowed to spend hours alone in your room typing away to yourself because your are working on a book that is going to be published. It not only justifies what I do to other people, but it also justifies it to myself. Sometimes I think I should be going out to parties or getting on with a “proper job”, but being published helps diminish those doubts. Just a little.

3.  Being published is really useful when it comes to those awkward conversations with other people. You know, the ones which start “how’s your writing coming along?”. It’s so much easier to tell them about your new book coming out, as opposed to mumbling something about waiting to hear back from editors or wading through the second draft.

4.  The joy of holding a physical book in your hand. It is the manifestation of all your hard work and, there it is, in tangible form. At this point the book has ceased to be part of you, it has become part of the world at large. It is like all the other books that you have read or seen on the bookshelves of a shop or library, but this one was written by you. It’s a very special feeling.

5.  It makes the next book easier. The fact that you have done it before stands you in good stead for doing it again. Someone liked your book enough to publish it, readers were prepared to pay to read it, some of them even told you they liked it. That’s great motivation for going on and doing more.

6.  The actual writing, of course, is no easier at all. There’s the added pressure that publishers and readers are waiting for the next one. But at least you have some experience to fall back on.

7.  I consider working from home a perk, if you can avoid all the distractions around you. There’s no commuting for a start. Some people are good at commuting, but it just makes me tired, even for a short distance, so the less I have to do it the better. Then there’s all the comforts of home — access to a proper kitchen to make a proper pot of tea or to cook a healthy lunch; I can have the window open or closed without having to negotiate with anyone else and I can even write sitting up in bed if I want to. 

8.  Getting paid. This was actually the first one I thought of, but I shuffled it down the list a bit because talking about art and money in the same breath is not considered cool. But, actually, getting paid for your writing is pretty essential. Which brings me to two other financial points...

9.  Setting off writer expenses against tax. If you’re lucky and you keep selling books into your old age, the royalties add to your pension. Most writers don’t really retire anyway, so keeping that money coming in as you get on in life is something I hope to do.

10.  The final perk has to be fulfilling an ambition. Lots of people have ambitions to be astronauts or ballerinas or pop stars, but few people achieve it. I’m lucky to have fulfilled an ambition to be published. It’s been overtaken by new goals, of course, such has having a best seller and writing a better book every single time. But once you've achieved one ambition, the others seem a little more possible.

I want to thank Ms. Chris Reynolds for this wonderful guest post here on my blog. I envy published authors because they have these wonderful perks but I know that they deserve these things for working so hard to achieve their ambitions! And now, let's get to know what Mr. Chris Reynolds' book "Mind Secrets" is all about.

Title: Mind Secrets
Author: Chris Reynolds

Paperback: 332 pages

Publisher: Elly Books (July 19, 2012)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1908340053

ISBN-13: 978-1908340054

Book Blurb:

On the run and without his memories, Michael escapes from a man called Carter onto the unfamiliar streets of London. There, he meets a gang of teenagers with the power to sense the thoughts and feelings of others. They live in fear of ‘the cure’, a mysterious process which takes away their power and, some believe, destroys their personality. Suspecting the cure caused his memory loss, Michael goes undercover to investigate the truth behind the doctors of the cure clinic. What he discovers leads him to a conspiracy that runs to the heart of government and reveals the shocking reality of his own past.

Mind Secrets is a compelling thriller set in a contemporary world and will appeal to anyone who's ever wondered what it's like to have mind powers.

Book Excerpt:

Her stare was intense. She looked into his eyes. Deep. Penetrating. Probing. Through the cornea, past the iris and beyond the pupil. Until she was inside his mind. He couldn’t feel her, but he knew she had to be in there. The subtlety in her stare showed she was thinking about everything she perceived. Like a tiny flashing light on a computer, each bite of information sent a flicker across her eyes. Her breath shallow in concentration. Body absorbed in stillness. Her singular perception, sharp and focussed, stretching out the seconds into minutes.

Until her eyes softened and she withdrew. Back through the pupil, the iris, the cornea. Her breathing deepened. She blinked her mascaraed eyelids and their connection was severed. She leant back against the door and her body relaxed. 

A mixture of nerves and excitement trembled inside him. ‘Well?’ said Michael.

‘Strange,’ said Jennifer. She seemed distracted, not quite there. Like a person emerging from a dream. ‘There’s so little of you. Like ‘ceiving a baby.’

‘But did you see my memories? Do you know who I am? Where I live?’

‘No.’

Michael deflated. His legs hardly had the strength to keep him upright any more. He staggered backwards and felt his bum hit the rim of a sink. He perched on it. ‘God!’ he cursed. He turned and kicked at the wall. Plaster came away from the brickwork and scattered to the floor in pieces. He kicked them to the other side of the room. ‘God! God! God!’

His face was hot with frustration. He turned on the cold tap with such force that it sent water spraying onto his trousers. He cupped his hands and splashed it onto his face until his skin, his hair, sleeves and jumper were dripping wet.

‘I’m sorry,’ said Jennifer. ‘There’s a nothingness inside of you. Like someone sucked out your memories.’

Where to Buy:

Paperback:

Kindle:

Author Bio:

Chris Reynolds is a lover of adventure stories. Chris spent her time growing up avidly reading them, watching them on TV and writing them in her school exercise books. She was often frustrated that stories written by other people didn’t go the way she wanted them to, so she decided to write her own. In the interim, she has worked for the BBC and independent radio as a journalist, written for magazines and some published non-fiction books. Now her stories are available for all to read, following the release of her acclaimed debut novel “Mind Secrets”.

Chris lives among the Chiltern Hills, north of London.

LINKS
http://www.chrisreynolds-writer.co.uk
http://www.facebook.com/ChrisReynolds01
Twitter: @ChrisReynolds_1

Giveaway:

Chris Reynolds is giving $10 Amazon Gift Card to One(1) lucky commenter! To make this easier for you guys just answer either one of these questions:

• What do you think is the BEST perk of being a Published Author?
• What do you guys think about "Mind Secrets" based on the book excerpt? Yay or Nay?

Don't forget to leave your email address together with your comment/answer in the comment section to contact the winner.


You can also leave your blog url/link so I can follow you back if you've followed Journey with Books

Good Luck!