Category: Musings

Some of Kristina Adams’s musings and observations that don’t fit anywhere else. Warning: may be excessively sweary.

What Happened in Barcelona: All in the Name of Literary Research

Posted on by Kristina Adams

Back in October, Boyfriend and I travelled to Barcelona in the name of literary research.

I’d planned to share the photos before then, but you know, priorities.

And also Boyfriend took better photos than me so I had to steal them from him before I could use them, but I was too lazy to filter through them all. First World problems, I know.

Anyway, the lighting is a bit hit and miss because I’m too lazy to edit things and the weather was all over the place while we were there. Some days it was amazing. Other days it poured with rain out of nowhere. Then it was amazing again. Honestly it was more unpredictable than it is in England. Our taxi driver even apologised to us on the way back to the airport for the bad weather!

But you don’t really care about that, do you? Here’s a look at some of the photos from our trip. We don’t take photos often—it’ll probably be another three years before more are taken of us together! (No, seriously. The last photos prior to this that were taken of us together were taken at the launch of What Happens in New York…)

  • Kristina Adams
    One of my favourite photos
  • Kristina Adams
    Our trip was also an opportunity for Boyfriend to experiment with Portrait Mode on his phone…
  • Posing while on the bus tour
  • Barcelona's Gothic Quarter
    In the Gothic Quarter
  • Barcelona Gothic Quarter
    I wonder what this guy’s story is?
  • Barcelona Cathedral
    I gave myself such a sore neck trying to get this shot…
  • Goose
    Left Boyfriend alone for a minute while I went to buy something and came back to find he’d made a friend
  • Boyfriend's new friend
  • The view from the cable cars up to Montjuïc Castle
  • Casa Mila
    Casa Mila, a Gaudi building
  • Casa Mila
  • La Sagrada Familia
    La Sagrada Familia, which we didn’t visit…
  • La Sagrada Famila
    …because LOOK AT ALL THOSE PEOPLE.
  • Selfie time
    A rare photo of the two of us together.
  • Liceu Theatre
    The Liceu Theatre, which plays a big part in What Happens in Barcelona
  • Liceu Theatre
    Pretty lighting in the Liceu
  • Barcelona at night
  • Kristina Adams
    Feeling pensive. Probably thinking about popcorn and mojitos
  • Boyfriend smouldering for the camera. Fairly sure I’d just told him to think of his favourite food (burgers) so that he looked more comfortable on camera
  • Kristina Adams
    My ‘are you done playing with portrait mode yet?’ face

Here’s to many more adventures in the name of literary research!

Haven’t got your copy of What Happens in Barcelona yet? You can grab your copy from your favourite ebook retailer now.

Join my advance team!

Posted on by Kristina Adams

There’s just over a week until What Happens in Barcelona is released! Eep!

I’m super excited to share it with you. The drama is seriously upped in Hollie and Fayth’s latest adventure.

Want to find what’s going down before anyone else?

Join my advance team!

You’ll get new books 2-4 weeks before anyone else!

What’s an advance team?
Cool people like you that get to be the first to read my books.

What’s the catch? How much does it cost?
Nothing. You get the book for free. New releases will be priced at 99p though, so if you do decide to buy it to get the verified review icon (which means Amazon views your review more highly, and it factors into rankings on search pages), it’ll cost less than your morning coffee.

Do you send print or digital copies?
Digital. Kindle or ePub, your choice whether the book is Amazon exclusive or not.

What’s in it for me?
All the books. I’m pivoting my focus over the next few months, meaning that there’ll be more books for you to read.

I’ve got three books coming out this year, which means you’ll have plenty to get your teeth into.

What if I only want fiction or nonfiction?
You can choose which books you download. If one isn’t your cup of tea, simply wait for the next one. (Or recommend it to a friend that will enjoy it.)

What if I want to pay for my copy?

Aww, shucks 😌 You still can—what a lot of advance readers do is read the book in advance, download it when it goes live, then share their review. This gives their review a ‘verified’ tag, which is proof that you’ve purchased the book. Verified reviews count towards rankings on Amazon searches, while unverified reviews don’t but will still show up when you view the product page. Buying it when it first goes out at the discounted price also means it’ll rank higher and more people will pay the full price the following week 😉

Where do I sign up?
Using the sign-up form below! You’ll get an email confirming your sign up and with a bit more detail on what to expect.

Thanks again <3

I couldn’t do this without your support.

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*N’aww, thank you! <3

Meet the cover for What Happens in Barcelona!

Posted on by Kristina Adams

I’ve been planning the events in this book since long before I started working on What Happens in New York.

The key scene that happens in What Happens in Barcelona has always been inevitable. It wasn’t a question of what, it was a question of how.

Continue reading “Meet the cover for What Happens in Barcelona!” →

Introducing the Productivity for Writers Paperback

Posted on by Kristina Adams

Ever since Productivity for Writers was published, I’ve toyed with whether or not to create a print version.

Initially I chose not to because doing so is time-consuming and reaps little rewards.

However, after I downloaded Scrivener 3, I felt Productivity for Writers would be the perfect opportunity for me to practise with its new formatting options.

And it was.

Continue reading “Introducing the Productivity for Writers Paperback” →

More Marketing Changes (This Time, on Social Media)

Posted on by Kristina Adams

A few months ago now, I wrote about how I’m changing my marketing tactics.

I’m pleased to say that since I did so, book sales have gone up.

Not only that, but hits to The Writer’s Cookbook have tripled.

Now it’s time for more changes to my marketing strategy…

New social media usernames

When you’re trying to build a brand, it’s important that it’s easy for your audience to find you.

One of the ways to do this is to have the same username on all social media platforms.

I’d attempted this a few times, but every time I came up with a username I liked, it was either taken or too long for Twitter.

Recently, I settled on using the same name as this blog for my social media. But that was also too long for Twitter 🙄

So I decided rather than sacrificing the username I wanted, I’d use that everywhere else (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest), and pick a shorter version for Twitter.

And that’s what I’ve done!

Here’s where you can now find me:

Where to find Kristina Adams on social media.

You can still find me on Google+ as well, but since that won’t let me add a custom URL (I’ve no idea why), I haven’t included it in the list.

I’ve also created a completely new Instagram that focuses on my books and blog. Unlike my other account, it’s a business account, so I can schedule posts in advance. I currently use Planoly for this, but if you use a different tool to schedule posts to Instagram I’d love to hear about it!

Next step

My next step is to set up SmarterQueue. I gave their trial a go earlier in the month and was really impressed. It’s super easy to use and my followers and engagement rates skyrocketed. Since the trial ended, they’ve plummeted 😱

Once that’s ready to go, my evergreen content will share to my social media accounts automatically. This will give me more time to create content, write books, and get more done.

How do you manage your social media accounts? Do you have the same username across all platforms? Why/why not?

Why I’m Focusing on Reading Quality, Not Quantity, in 2018

Posted on by Kristina Adams

Aiming to read a certain number of books in a year helps to keep you focused.

Sharing that number online adds a further level of accountability.

It’s thanks to tracking my reading on Goodreads that I read more books in 2017 than in any other year of my life.

I’m super proud of this achievement, but, as I got further into my goal for the year, cracks started to appear.

There were some books that needed to be read more slowly so that I could fully understand and process their wisdom.

Other books—particularly fiction—didn’t require this quite so much. I read more nonfiction last year, though, and I intend to continue this trend in 2018.

That’s why, in 2018, my new goal is to focus on reading quality, not quantity.

Continue reading “Why I’m Focusing on Reading Quality, Not Quantity, in 2018” →

From Productive to Painful: Reflections on 2017

Posted on by Kristina Adams

I’ve been trying to write a post about everything that happened in 2017 all month.

Truth is, I don’t really know where to start.

It’s been a tumultuous year. Not just politically, but for me personally, too. (I’m not going down the rabbit hole of this year’s politics. That’s a whole book right there.)

If I’d known just how things were going to pan out in the latter half of the year, I never would’ve scheduled Productivity for Writers to be published in September.

Why I’m Changing my Marketing Tactics

Posted on by Kristina Adams

I've decided to change my marketing tactics to focus less on social media and more on content creation. Here's why.

Like there are countless ways to write a poem, there are countless ways to approach your marketing strategy.

What I love about writing and marketing is that things are always changing. There’s always more to learn, and there are millions of people out there who have more knowledge and experience than I could ever dream of.

For a long time I put my main focus on writing my books, with my blog as my secondary focus. My tertiary focus was social media management. I scheduled posts into Buffer so that even when I was busy my content would still be shared.

I love Buffer, both as a company and a software. Their product is easy-to-use, and I adore how they operate as a company.

However, recent events have got me thinking.

Continue reading “Why I’m Changing my Marketing Tactics” →

In a Moment, Everything Can Change

Posted on by Kristina Adams

In a moment, everything can change.

It wasn’t until recently that I started to realise just how quickly things can change.

When we have our monthly all-hands at work, we spend a few minutes updating each other on what’s going on in our work and personal lives.

In the eight months I’ve been working for Cronofy, a lot has changed.

Continue reading “In a Moment, Everything Can Change” →