Friday, December 13, 2013

Friday Fun Facts: Join Me for a Blog Tour!

Happy Friday! I'm excited today because IMG Tours is sponsoring a cover reveal tour for Inferno of Love, due out in mid-January ~ and you'll have a chance to win goodies if you visit the blogs who are kind enough to host me today.

I'll be posting the blog links all day long, over at my Facebook page, so if you haven't yet liked me over there, please join me today. And in addition to the IMG tour giveaway, I'm throwing an Amazon gift card into the mix for anyone who comments on my Facebook page today about the tour.

Hope to see you there!

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Writers' Wednesday: What's on Your Wish List?

'Tis the season to be wishing for gifts under the tree, which leads me to ask: what books are on your Wish List this year? What are you reading right now, and what would you like to be reading in the new year? I'd love some good recommendations, by the way.

And...in this world of technology, how many of you are wishing for old-fashioned books on Christmas morning? Or is an e-reader on your list? Maybe a few ebooks to load up your Kindle? Or a gift card to your favorite online bookstore?

Monday, December 09, 2013

Monday Mentionables: The Allure of Audio Books

In the most recent issue of Romance Writers Report, one of the articles discusses the audio book market - specifically for authors. I will echo the sentiments in that article and say that if you're not taking advantage of that market as a writer, you're missing out.

Audio books may not be huge sellers, compared to print or ebooks, but they have a steady audience, and with the ease of downloading files today, I think that audience will only grow. Today, if you're signing a contract with a publisher, consider trying to keep your audio rights for yourself. In my experience, most small presses will take those rights but probably won't use them. I was lucky; Samhain never took  my audio rights, so when the up-and-coming company Audio Lark was looking for new authors, I was able to sell my books to them. In the last year, Audio Lark has stopped producing audio books, but 4 of my books produced through them are up and available on Audible (the biggest seller of audio books, an affiliate of Amazon), and I still receive royalty payments from them every quarter.

Today, ACX provides indie authors with a super-easy way to produce their books in the audio market. All you have to do is sign up and post your project. You'll have to provide a script for potential narrators, and then you'll need to audition narrators and decide who sounds best. This is a crucial step! Make sure to take your time and choose someone whose voice matches the tone and content of your book. Also make sure the audition tape is professionally produced.

You have 2 choices when it comes to ACX: you can pay your narrator upfront (probably at least a few hundred dollars for a full-length novel), or you can opt for 50-50 royalty-sharing, which means you split all royalties but you pay nothing upfront.

Hearing your book spoken out loud is a crazy and wonderful experience. Being able to earn royalties on it is even better. If you haven't yet explored the possibility of turning your books into audio books, now's the time to do so! (And if you want to check out my audio books, here's my page at Audible. Please consider giving one a try - you can listen to free samples of each one!)