Setting Expectations When Launching Your First Novel

Posted Sonlight Press Author Blog, Gabby Wells - Book 1, Gabby Wells Novel, Independent Publishing, Novel, Social Media, Writing

The dream of everyone that wants to be a writer is to draft the next great American novel, release it to public accolades and sit back while the money and notoriety roll in. There’s one word for that… fantasy. In today’s publishing climate, its never been easier to get your idea into novel form.  However, […]

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MNINS: Season 01, Episode 8 – Kneel & Prey Special

Posted Sonlight Press Gabby Wells - Book 1, MNINS

Welcome to the eighth episode of My Name Is Not Steve – The Podcast by Storytellers about Storytelling with People Not Named Steve. Mobile Users Listen Here or Subscribe on ITunes This episode we’re going to talk about the release Kneel & Prey, the first Gabby Wells Thriller.  It’s taken almost a decade to get […]

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Does Self-Publishing Diminish Quality Literature?

Posted Sonlight Press Gabby Wells - Book 1, Gabby Wells Novel, Independent Publishing, Marketing

There are many people who believe the glut of independently published works will diminish the quality of literature in the marketplace.  They argue that the traditional publishers are the ones who bring true literature to the world. Who cares? I don’t say that flippantly.  I say that practically. One could argue that television has never […]

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Faith is Dramatic

Posted Sonlight Press Author Blog, Faith, Gabby Wells Novel, Writing

There aren’t a lot of authentic characters of faith in modern entertainment.  And that’s a waste. I’ve often wondered why more writers don’t include faith as one of the key components of their main character.  It adds weight to everything they do.  The story no longer becomes just about what the protagonist is trying to […]

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MNINS: Season 01, Episode 3 – Origins

Posted Sonlight Press MNINS

Welcome to the third episode of My Name Is Not Steve – The Podcast by Storytellers about Storytelling with People Not Named Steve. This time we talk about the origins of creative inspiration. Mobile Users Listen Here or Subscribe on ITunes My Name Is Not Steve is a bi-weekly-ish podcast where we talk about our […]

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Making Your Characters Suffer is the Best Part

Posted Sonlight Press Author Blog, Gabby Wells - Book 1, Gabby Wells Novel, Writing

My job as the author of the Gabby Wells Thriller series is to make Gabby’s life a living hell.  And I do, relentlessly. That’s what every author is supposed to do.  To torture the protagonist so you can torture the reader. Do I like making Gabby’s life an insurmountable mess?  Yes and no.  I like […]

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MNINS: Season 01, Episode 2 – What If…

Posted Sonlight Press Gabby Wells - Book 1, Gabby Wells - Book 2, Gabby Wells Novel, MNINS

Welcome to the second episode of My Name Is Not Steve – The Podcast by Storytellers about Storytelling with People Not Named Steve.  This time we talk about the storytelling power of What If… Mobile Users Listen Here or Subscribe on ITunes My Name Is Not Steve is a bi-weekly-ish podcast where we talk about […]

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I Want it to Be Difficult

Posted Sonlight Press Author Blog, Blog, Gabby Wells Novel, Novel, Writing

Writing is hard.  Writing a series is harder.  Being successful as a writer is nearly impossible. And I love the challenge. I want it to be difficult, because then, only those most committed will make it.  And I’m committed. Sure, there are some things that also come into play… talent, luck, timing, communication skills, marketing […]

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Podcast – Endings, Christmas and New Beginnings

Posted Sonlight Press Faith, Gabby Wells, Gabby Wells - Book 1, Gabby Wells Novel, Marketing, Podcast

Author Pete Bauer and Dorothea Bauer talk about the top 3 things they did well in 2014, what they could improve upon and Christmas and share some exciting plans for 2015. Mobile Users: Click Here to Listen Topics Covered: Last Podcast New Podcast Top 3 Things We Did Well Top 3 Things We Need to […]

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Podcast – Generosity & Female Ninjas

Posted Sonlight Press Author Blog, Blog, Gabby Wells - Book 1, Gabby Wells - Book 2, Gabby Wells - Book 3, Gabby Wells - Book 4, Gabby Wells Novel, Marketing, Novel, Podcast, Screenplay, Writing

Author Pete Bauer and Dorothea Bauer talk about the generosity of the independent publishing community, female ninjas and audio books. Mobile Users: Click here to listen to the episode. Topics Covered: Independent Film Marketing Similar as Novels Competing with your Competitors Screenplays Collecting Dust Knowing your Audience Generosity of Independent Authors Hit and Miss Writing […]

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Podcast – Starting a Genre Mashup

Posted Sonlight Press Author, Author Blog, Gabby Wells - Book 1, Gabby Wells Novel, Novel, Podcast, Reviews, Social Media, Writing

Pete and Dorothea talk about participating in the recent Facebook Event: March to a Bestseller 2, genres, validation and the coming release of the first novel, Kneel & Prey. Mobile Users: Click here to listen to the episode. Topics Covered: Facebook Event Defining a New Genre First Novel Kneel & Prey Beta Reader Feedback Marketing […]

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Off to the Beta Readers

Posted Sonlight Press Author Blog, Gabby Wells - Book 1, Gabby Wells - Book 2, Gabby Wells - Book 3, Gabby Wells Novel, Novel, Novella, Writing

I’m relieved. The first novel, Kneel & Prey, has been sent out to our first group of Beta Readers.  These readers will read the book and let us know of any outstanding issues with the plot, character or grammar that we missed. Sending it off to Beta Readers is an important step.  It means you’re […]

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Introducing Character

Posted Sonlight Press Author Blog, Blog, Gabby Wells - Book 1, Gabby Wells Novel, Novel, Writing

As I mentioned in my last post, Kneel & Prey is the third time I’ve had to introduce the character of Gabby Wells in the series.  The first attempt was in Water & Blood, the second was The Homecoming Incident and the third is Kneel & Prey.  Each time I spent a lot of time […]

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Word Count & First Draft Finished

Posted Sonlight Press Author Blog, Faith, Gabby Wells - Book 1, Gabby Wells Novel, Marketing, Novel, Word Count, Writing

The first draft of Kneel & Prey has been completed. If you’ve been following along, this isn’t so much a first novel, as a reboot. 🙂  The first novel, Water & Blood, became the fifth novel.  The second first novel, The Homecoming Incident, was scrapped and will be offered later as a bonus.  So the […]

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Word Count and Under Writing

Posted Sonlight Press Author Blog, Gabby Wells - Book 1, Gabby Wells Novel

Even though the title of the first Gabby Wells novel was finally released (Kneel & Prey), I have been writing the first draft of the story since the beginning of August.  I originally set my word count goal at 50,000, but bumped it up to 65,000, because that’s the universally accepted length of an official […]

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Sonlight Press Announces Gabby Wells Thriller – Kneel & Prey

Posted Sonlight Press Author Blog, Gabby Wells - Book 1, Gabby Wells Novel, Marketing

Sonlight Press is happy to announce the first novel in the Gabby Wells thriller series will be titled Kneel & Prey. In this fast-paced thriller by author Pete Bauer, Gabby Wells, a high school freshman from a small Florida town, tries to stop a fellow student who lost his father in the war on terror […]

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Time Compression

Posted Sonlight Press Author, Author Blog, Gabby Wells, Gabby Wells - Book 1, Gabby Wells Novel, Novel, Writing

This happens to me a lot.  When I outline my book where the climax takes place at a certain place/time, I backtrack and plot when the things leading up to it should happen.  Invariably, as I write the actual story, things that I sketched out would take three weeks in the novel occur in a […]

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Writing is like Owning a Mall

Posted Pete Bauer Gabby Wells, Marketing, Novel, Writing

For a business owner, one of the hardest goals to achieve is to duplicate your income. For brick and mortar stores, like fast food restaurants or furniture stores, the only way to double your income is to duplicate your location somewhere else. Like franchising. The great thing about being a writer is every book you […]

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Podcast – Marketing and Finding Your Voice

Posted Sonlight Press Author Blog, Gabby Wells Novel, Marketing, Podcast

Pete Bauer and Dorothea Bauer talk about the various marketing research and strategies they plan to employ with the release of their first book.  They’ll also talk about the process of finding the correct voice for a novel and how that impacted the other work. Mobile Users: Click here to listen to the episode. Topics […]

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The Ampersand Dilemma

Posted Pete Bauer Author, Gabby Wells, Marketing, Novel, Novella

Now that we’re turning the novellas into novels, we’ll have to change some of the titles.  Here’s why. The original titles of the five books included an ampersand.  The first two are Water & Blood and Shadows & Lies.  For marketing purposes, we’d want to make all of the titles consistent, so we’re going to […]

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