Click here to see all books by Tasha
Pseudonyms: Tasha D-Drake, Tasha Duncan
Bio
Natasha is a British author with Wittegen Press and has been publishing genre fiction since 2011. Her work includes everything from horror to young adult fantasy and she has never met a genre she didn’t like. A prolific producer of short stories and novels alike, Natasha currently has over twenty five titles in her back catalogue with further releases always imminent.
Natasha has been writing since she was a young girl ever since she read The Hobbit at Primary School. She is a big fan of science fiction, fantasy and horror in all their forms and is a big advocate of fanfiction as a great tool for writers to polish their skills in a welcoming and supportive community.
Before establishing Wittegen Press with her twin sister, Sophie Duncan, Natasha was a database and systems consultant. She combines these skills with her writing to create and manage her career in the bold new eBook market.
Press kit downloads: Bio and Contact Links| HiRes Photo | Details of All Tasha’s Books
Contact Information
twitter: @beren_writes | Facebook | G+ | Tumblr | Livejournal | Fanfic on AO3 | Goodreads | Amazon Author Profile | Wattpad
Scroll down to see the most recent posts from Tasha’s Personal Blog and she is also a contributor to the Wittegen Press Blog. Both have free fiction, information about books, reviews of books and films and lots more.
If you would like to email Tasha, please use this Contact Form
Tasha’s Latest Personal Blog Posts
(to visit the whole blog click here)
Tasha's Thinkings
Welcome to my blog! Here you will find tips on writing/publishing, recipes, reviews, fiction and more.
Slideshow Book Promotion on TikTok
Prerequisites: Windows 10 or 11, Android phone
So I am dipping my toe into TikTok these days (oh woe is me 😆) and I'm trying out a strategy from this successful young lady over here: Kate- Alyne Digital. It involves posting TikTok slideshows with significant scenes from a book to get readers hooked, and make them want to buy the book.
She has many YouTube vids about it, so if you want all the details check out her channel.
This post is simply a cheat sheet of everything I have learned through trial and error about posting slideshows on TikTok and what a pain in the proverbial it is! Please be aware there are many other ways to do it, but this is the easiest for what I have available.
Each slideshow should have between 25-35 slides for Kate's process - so it takes some work to get everything ready.
Choose the Backgrounds
N.B. Kate mentions to avoid having people in the pictures because sometimes the TikTok algo can misconstrue what it is seeing, especially with romance titles and shadow ban the slideshow.
Having all my background chosen before I begin putting the slides together makes it a much faster process.
Choose the Music
 |
| TikTok Unlimited Sounds Library |
Create the Slides
#1 Note: There is also a plugin for Gimp that can be used to get a similar output: Batcher. And I am sure there must be a way of doing it in Canva, but I'm afraid I do not know what it is.
Change Create and Modified Dates of Slides
This is optional, but it saves me a lot of time when creating the slideshows on TikTok, so I am sharing it. TikTok does not allow sorting by name, only but created/modified date when adding files to a slideshow, so I use this method to make sure I can do it inside TikTok if I need to for any reason (I don't often - you'll see why later, but I still do this on the off chance since it takes seconds).
What I have found when copying files from Windows to my phone to upload to TikTok is that getting them in the right order is a headache, and flipping around to add them in the correct order for a slideshow takes forever if they are out of sequence. Hence why I take this step.
This code sorts files by name and then edits the files' created and modified dates to be 1min apart from the starting time specified, so they will definitely appear in order when sorted by date.
Using Windows Powershell (right click on the windows icon and it's in the list), copy and paste in the following code:
# -------------------------- CONFIGURE --------------------------
$folder = 'C:\DIR-OF-SLIDES' # your directory of JPGs
$startDate = Get-Date '2025-05-25 12:00:00' # first file’s “Date Created”
# ? EDIT THIS to pick any starting moment you like
# ----------------------------------------------------------------
# 1. Collect and order the files once (static array keeps order stable)
$files = Get-ChildItem -Path $folder -Filter *.jpg -File | Sort-Object Name
# 2. Loop through the list, adding one second per iteration
for ($i = 0; $i -lt $files.Count; $i++) {
$newStamp = $startDate.AddMinutes($i) # +0 min, +1 min, +2 min, ...
$files[$i].CreationTime = $newStamp # write Date Created
# Optional: keep LastWriteTime in sync
$files[$i].LastWriteTime = $newStamp
Write-Host "[$($i+1)/$($files.Count)] $($files[$i].Name) ? $newStamp"
}
Make sure to edit the folder and startDate (bits in bold) at the top of the code so it can find your files and sets them to a sensible date. You can edit before you copy and paste the code, or in Powershell, if you paste then hit the up arrow and then left and right arrows you can navigate to the right place in the code to edit it in situ.
Upload the Files to the Phone
- First of all - use a USB and open your phone so you can see the file system. It is the safest and quickest way.
- Zip your slideshow into one file. If you do not do this, all the files will be copied over in a random order and the changing file times you did above will be worthless.
- Copy the zip file to your phone in a sensible place so you can find it again.
- Open "My Files" on the phone.
- Click on the zip file and choose the extract option.
- Now all your files are on the phone in the right order for addition to TikTok.
#2 Note - If you have Windows and Android, using "Phone Link" is so much easier for the next parts. Just remember to activate "Cross device copy and paste" in the Settings>Features, for ease of use.
Creating the Slideshow
- Open "My Files"
- Navigate to the right folder.
- If you did the step with Powershell they should already be in the right order, otherwise select "name" from the sort option.
- Select all the files in order starting from the top and going down (I think it works if you choose select all, by I am paranoid of technology my nature, so I take the few seconds to click each file in order to make sure that is the order they are added).
- Click "share" and choose "TikTok"
- TikTok will open will all your files in a slideshow.
- It will already be playing music, but you can change this by clicking on the button at the top of the screen with the musical note:
- Go the favourites tab to find the music you selected previously.
- If the music is not audible when returning to the main screen after selecting a track there is a volume option under the settings at the side, it's just hidden. Click the little down arrow and you should see it.
- Click the "Next" button and go to the details screen where there are spaces for the Title and description. Add these in - I find it easiest to write out all my titles and descriptions in a word processor first, then copy and paste them in. If using "Phone Link" I can do this right from the doc straight into TikTok.
#3 Note - we cannot type on a proper keyboard when filling in these fields, even when using "Phone Link" - TikTok just keeps losing focus and only takes one letter at a time before you have to reclick into the box. I tried it in "Phone Link" and via a dedicated Bluetooth keyboard with the same result.
- Now we can post immediately by choosing the "post" option, but I like to upload all my slideshows at the same time and post on different days, so I save to "drafts".
#4 Note - while TikTok allows us to schedule vid posts via TikTok studio, it does not allow us to schedule slideshow posts. Hence we have to come back and post our drafts when the time comes. This is annoying, but only takes one click. HOWEVER - do not delete any files from your phone until your draft is posted - TikTok does not upload anything until you post it it is only saved on your phone.
And that is it - slideshows uploaded to TikTok. I am sure there are other, probably more efficient ways to do it, especially if you have specialist software to upload, but this is the way I do it and it now takes me a minute or two to upload rather than forever. Hope this is of some help, if anyone is running into the same roadblocks I did.
Check Out My Fiction YouTube Channel
Each week we have a theme and so there will be something for all tastes.
- 🎤Micro stories/ jokes as YouTube Shorts Monday - Sunday- for fun quick viewing
- 🕮A longer story every now and then for story time, over coffee or before going to bed
Tasha's Social Media
@tashaddrake.bsky.social
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
Amazon
TikTok📚Join My Newsletter📚
How to Batch Save Layers in Photoshop
There is an option to save each layer as its own image in Photoshop, which is very useful if each layer is its own complete image.
File > Export > Layers to File
However, if, for example, we have lots of text layers we wish to save, all with the same background/foreground (see below), or we have lots of different icons we want to save all with the same background, this is not sufficient.
 |
| Example of text layers with the same BG |
- Go to the above link and download the zip file.
- Extract the zip file into its own directory.
- Copy the following 2 files from the directory:
Export Layers To Files (Fast).jsx
Export Layers To Files (Fast)-progress_bar.json - Navigate to the Photoshop Scripts directory, probably something like this:
\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop 2025\Presets\Scripts
- Paste the files into the scripts directory.
- Start Photoshop
- The script can be found in the following menu:
Files > Scripts
When we run the script we get this screen:
As you can see there are lots of options.
- We can have a background and/or a foreground
- We can export all layers (except the background and/or foreground if we have selected them)
- or a Group of layers
- or just the visible layers
- and we can pick what format to export to
- plus much more.
- turning on the right foreground layer,
- exporting the layer with the background
- rinse and repeat
Check Out My Fiction YouTube Channel
Each week we have a theme and so there will be something for all tastes.
- 🎤Micro stories/ jokes as YouTube Shorts Monday - Sunday- for fun quick viewing
- 🕮A longer story every now and then for story time, over coffee or before going to bed
Tasha's Social Media
📚Join My Newsletter📚
eBook How-To Updates for 2025
So my pages on where to upload eBooks and how to format an eBook have needed updating for a while and I have finally gotten around to it. One has completely changed, since my methods for creating eBooks is now totally different, and the other has more information and some other changes. I hope someone might find the information useful, since when we're first starting out this can all be a bit of a mystery.
Updates include:
- the addition of what every site requires to upload an eBook
- swapping out Smashwords for Draft2Digital as an aggregate site to publish to all the eBook sellers after their merger
How to Format Your eBook for Kindle, Draft2Digital & Google Books (2025)
Whole new page with all the steps I now take to create eBooks for distribution to all major eBook publishers.
This includes:
- a link to the Kindle Create plugin for Word that Amazon KDP no longer support, but that still works a treat.
- example Word files using the default 4 KDP templates for eBooks for those not interested in the plugin
- and step by step instructions on how I have found it most efficient to go about the whole process.
Check Out My Fiction YouTube Channel
Each week we have a theme and so there will be something for all tastes.
- 🎤Micro stories/ jokes as YouTube Shorts Monday - Sunday- for fun quick viewing
- 🕮A longer story every now and then for story time, over coffee or before going to bed
Tasha's Social Media
📚Join My Newsletter📚