Writers' Wednesday: Pitch Your Book at Savvy Authors!

Hey writers, just a quick mention today:

Savvy Authors is hosting a slew of agents and editors this week over at their website, all of whom are taking pitches for material!

Click here to find out more. 

Monday Mentionables: Learning to Take a Deep Breath from Hugh Howey

I read a terrific article over the weekend in Writers Digest, about self-published success story Hugh Howey. I hadn't heard of him, but apparently he writes sci-fi and had a breakout with his novella (series) Wool. Long story short, he ended up winning agent Kristin Nelson and signing a contract with Simon & Schuster for print rights only, while keeping his right to self-publish digitally. This is a huge deal because it's almost unheard of. Big New York publishers traditionally want all the rights they can get: digital, print, audio, movie, foreign...

But apparently Howey held out because he didn't feel a burning need to grant those rights (he was making upwards of $150K a month in royalties from his self-pubbed works, so I guess he could afford to be choosy). He wanted to secure a "hybrid" deal for himself in part to break ground for other authors to do the same - which I think is oh so cool.

That's not the part of the article I liked the most, though. This is the paragraph that stood out for me:

"...maybe you're earning $20 or $50 a month with the six or seven titles you have out there, and you're busy writing your next work. You're not thinking about landing an agent. You're not writing query letters, you're writing stories. And meanwhile, your ebook sales might be paying your cable bill...Instead of having your manuscripts in a drawer or in self-addressed, stamped envelopes, you have them out there where readers can find them, and maybe one of them will take off..."

Something clicked for me when I read that, a reminder that we should be writing because we love it, not because we need to pay bills with it or because a contract/editor/agent is breathing down our necks for the next manuscript or because a genre is bursting with new works and if we don't keep up then we'll somehow lose our chance to publish...well, ever.

His words reminded me that I need to take a deep breath and worry a little less about when my books are coming out, when I'm finishing the next one, whether anyone will want to sign it, how I'll promote the backlist along with the new release and...

Yeah. Deep breaths. And remembering why I love to write. Thanks, Hugh Howey. I needed that.

Friday Fun Facts: Covers, Covers Everywhere!

Got a "Favorite Cover Alert" for The Promise of Paradise (a nice review, too!) at my blog stop today, Flirting with Romance Reviews:

And my writing friend Liz Matis just released her new novella, Real Men Don't Drink Appletinis. It's a steal at $.99. Check it out!!

Happy weekend, all :)

Wrtier's Wednesday: A Little Scandal Here, a Little Rogue There...

Did you get a peek at yesterday's blog stop over at Crazy Four Books? We had a great discussion about whether or not you would stand by a loved one involved in a scandal. Would you lend support no matter what? Would you try to escape it all? Would it matter if the person was innocent or guilty? Check it out and share your thoughts!

Also wanted to give a shout-out to a brand new published author from my local RWA group, Elf Ahearn, whose Regency romance A Rogue in Sheep's Clothing, released this week. Check out this yummy blurb and cover:

In Lord Hugh Davenport’s opinion, women of the ton perpetually hide behind a mask of deception. That’s hard for Ellie Albright, the daughter of an earl, to swallow – especially since she’s disguised herself as a stable hand to get back the prized stallion her father sold to Hugh to pay a debt. If Hugh learns her true identity she’ll lose the horse and her family will go bankrupt. Somehow, though, losing Hugh’s affection is beginning to seem even worse.

Already only a step away from being snagged in her own web of lies, Ellie’s deceit threatens to spin out of control when Hugh’s mother invites Ellie and her sisters to a house party. Now Ellie has to scramble to keep Hugh from knowing she’s the stable girl he wants to marry, while simultaneously trying to win his trust as herself. Can she keep her costumes straight long enough to save her family? And even if she does, will it be worth losing his love?

Monday Mentionables: A Vacation and Blog Tour in Review...

I'm back from vacation! And yes, it was just what I needed: sun, sand, and time away from it all. Even better, in Key West I had a chance to see Robert Frost's cottage and Ernest Hemingway's house - all I needed for some new writing inspiration :) I didn't DO any writing, though, just some reading and relaxing. Here are 2 of my favorite pictures from the week:

Giving love to one of the 45 cats living in the Hemingway House (all 6-toed, all descended from Hemingway's original pets) 

My side of the family together for my husband's birthday - while on vacation!!

Also...I just finished up a blog tour with Reading Addiction Blog Tours, and if you followed along with me, you know I was talking all about "5 Things" in many of my guest posts. In case you missed some of them, though. here were a couple of my favorites:

5 Favorite Vacation Spots

5 Favorite Hero-Heroine Moments in my Books

I got some fabulous reviews along the way, so I want to give a shout-out to everyone who hosted me and read The Promise of Paradise and took the time to write kind words about it. Among my favorites:

"This book was an unexpected gem...I connected with the characters and even the minor ones were deep enough to be memorable." (T's Bookish Moments)

"Both characters come alive and leap off the pages with witty dialogue and interactions, you can feel the electricity in the air as the sparks of attraction for each other simmers below the surface...With drama, twists and turns, and quirky secondary characters, The Promise of Paradise is an enjoyable romance story that will leave you satisfied." (Jersey Girl Book Reviews)

Believe it or not, Goddess Fish is hosting another tour for me starting today, but this one's strictly reviews, no guest posts or wise or witty (or otherwise) words from Yours Truly. I'll  post the tour stops over on my sidebar later on today, so you can visit with me and see what others have to say. The grand prize for this one is a $25 iTunes gift card to one random commenter, so check in and chat with me!

Friday Fun Facts: Spring Break!!

Happy Friday! I only have one Fun Fact to share today, and that's the fact that today (well, tomorrow) officially begins my Spring Break! Ooh, it's been a rough winter, both with the weather and the workload at school, and I am soooooo ready to relax and escape!

P.S. - Don't forget that my blog tour continues through next week - follow, comment, and earn chances to win a $25 Amazon gift card!!

Writers' Wednesday: Links for Writers & A Lovely Review

Happy Wednesday, everyone! First off, just a reminder that my blog tour for The Promise of Paradise is going on right now, and yesterday featured 2 fun stops: the first, at Gimme the Scoop, was all about 5 quirky things about Yours Truly - and the other, at Readholic's Reviews, was a lovely review that called the book "a sweet wonderful romance."

Follow along with me - all my stops are linked on the sidebar, and every time you leave a comment, you're entered into a drawing for a $25 Amazon gift card. How can you go wrong?

Writers, here's a heads-up for you: first, there's a Free Webinar offered by author Gary Kawasaki titled "How To Become a Best-Selling Author" TONIGHT from 6-7 pm EST. (This info was sent to me from Women-on-Writing, a website I trust and visit regularly.) Might be worth checking out. Click here to register.

Second, BookBub is a marketing service that indie-published authors might want to take advantage of. A fellow author recently took out an ad with them and saw TREMENDOUS sales as a result. Worth a look, in my opinion.

Happy writing!

Monday Mentionables: Blog Tour Starts Today!

Happy Monday! I'm sooooo excited because my first blog tour for The Promise of Paradise starts TODAY! And this is a fun one for a couple of reasons: first, the theme is "5 Things..." which means every stop that isn't a review or an interview is a post where I'll talk about 5 Things About My Life. What things? You'll have to visit me to see! And second, I'm giving away a $25 Amazon gift card to one commenter from all the comments left on this tour. Visit me at each stop, leave a comment, and each one earns you another entry!

Come and join me, starting today, over at Reading Addiction Blog Tours for a Meet and Greet. The next 10 days of tour stops are listed over there on the right sidebar. See you on tour!

Writers' Wednesday: Talking All About Blog Tours!

Welcome writers! Today I want to chat (briefly) about blog tours. They are definitely one of the popular ways for writers to talk about and promote their books, especially new releases. They can consist of anywhere from 5 - 50 blog stops, over the course of a few days or a few weeks, where an author chats about her book, or provides excerpts, or answers interview questions, or provides her book for a review for said blog.

Lots of work, yes, but it can pay off with sales in the long run. Wondering where to start? One of my local RWA chapter members, Wendy S. Marcus, presented on this very topic last weekend, and rather than summarize her many helpful points, I'll give you her link to a blog post she wrote about it.

A couple of things to keep in mind, if you're thinking about a blog tour:

1. Organization is key! You'll need to keep track of the blogs you're visiting, the posts you're writing, when they'll be posted, and whether you'll be stopping in that day to respond to comments.

2. It's time-consuming. Blog posts are typically anywhere from 300 -1000 words or more. That's a lot of time to write an original, witty, reader-catching posts (and you don't want to reuse posts, because many readers will follow you from stop to stop).

3. Consider hiring a person or organization to help you. There are many virtual assistants who can help plan a blog tour for you, as well as blog tour companies who will take care of every last detail. They vary in cost, and I make no claims about any of these (except the first, as noted), but here are some places to start looking around:

Goddess Fish Promotions - This site is owned by the folks who also run The Long and the Short of It, and they are also personal friends of mine. Having given that disclaimer, I find them professional and very, very organized in their tour offerings. They work hard to target blogs that will appeal to your genre of reader, and they check their blog partners regularly to make sure posts are up and people are commenting.

Reading Addiction Blog Tours

Black Lion Tours

Virtual Book Tour Cafe

Jar o' Marbles (this one's a virtual assistant rather than a blog tour company)

OK folks, happy writing and happy touring! And don't forget, I have not one but TWO tours coming up in the very near future...and I'll be giving away goodies on both of them. Hope to see you on tour!

Monday Mentionables: Check Out All These Links!

Happy Monday, everyone! Just a few things I'm mentioning today:

1. Tomorrow's a double-header day for blogging: I'll be at both The Romance Studio AND at fellow author Mae Clair's blog. Please drop by and visit with me if you can!

2. Interesting links & articles from this month's Romance Writers Report:
~If you're an author, are you making the most of your Author Central Page at Amazon? It's a free service and a great place and way to showcase not only your books, but your reviews, your Facebook or blog links, and more!
~A few up-and-coming websites that writers can use to promote themselves include Togather, Libboo, and Writer.ly (on a side note, I'm interested to hear from anyone who's used them - I have yet to check them out in detail)
~Using the in-house publicist at your publishing house is a great (free!) way to build buzz about your name and reach out to partner with someone to market yourself even more. Don't be afraid to ask for the publicist's name and contact info, if you don't already have it, and send an email to find out how the two of you can work together.

3. Interesting links & articles from this month's Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators issue:
~Animoto is a web application that can help you produce your very own book trailer!
~Smilebox is a fun way to create photo collages, release announcements, and more, that uses videos, photos, music, etc. to appeal to your computer-based crowd of readers.
~Swoon Reads is a brand new YA romance imprint from the Macmillan Publishing Group that will be soliciting manuscripts and then using a reader recommendation system to choose which get put through for actual publishing consideration (side note: I tried signing up yesterday and had trouble submitting the form. If you're successful, let me know).

I'll be talking about blog tours on Wednesday, sharing info from our local writers' group meeting over the weekend as well as some of my own experiences, so stop by if you're a blogger or a reader or a writer who's interested in hearing more. See you then!

Friday Fun Facts: March Came in Like a Lion...I Think

Well, this is the view outside my window this morning. Looks like March isn't giving up without a fight! And in our part of the county (lower Hudson Valley), we were spared the worst. Lots more east and south of us. I don't know...do we still say March "came in" like a lion? I mean, we're already one week into the month. And yet we haven't had particularly warm days...more like chilly, cloudy, flirting with snow (although my daffodils were trying valiantly to push their way through, a couple of weeks ago). Yeah, I'm going with the lion analogy.

Be safe, everyone! Dream of the "going out like a lamb" side of this month, of sun and warm weather...I know it's out there somewhere!

Writers' Wednesdays: Here's What's Happening...

Hi writers! Next week I'll post a summary to all the good stuff in this month's issue of Romance Writers Report - it just came in my mail, and I haven't had a chance to go through it.

But here's a link you might want to check out: Digital Book Today has some great promo opportunities for writers, including their Top Free Books, Guest Blog Posts, and New Releases sections. What I like about this site is that for almost all their promo spots, your book needs to have a minimum 4-star review rating on Amazon. Yes, I know reviews are subjective, but a minimum rating (and a minimum number of reviews, which they require too) can help sort out the really-avoidable-at-all-costs books from the good-ones-you-havent-heard-about-but-should-try ones. Check it out!

And this weekend, I'll be heading to my local RWA chapter for our monthly meeting AND a special lecture by Harlequin author Wendy S. Marcus about blog tours for your ebooks. Since I have a couple coming up in the spring, I can't wait to hear what she has to say. I'll share all the good tips with you next week - stop back and see me!

Monday Mentionables: Reading, Writing, Reviewing...

Happy Monday, everyone! What am I mentioning today?

First, a lovely 4-star Amazon review over the weekend: "Nice story, well written and kept my interest to the end. A story about discovering what you have in life."

Short and sweet, right? If you enjoyed The Promise of Paradise too and feel like leaving a review, I'll be eternally grateful!

Digital Book Today has some great features for both readers and writers. One fun one is their 100 Top Free Books - a listing of the best free books available each day on Amazon's Kindle Store. They rank by number of reviews and the average review, too, so you can see exactly what others have thought.

Don't forget that I'm the Featured Author over at The Romance Studio all month long. Lots of trivia about The Promise of Paradise - and a peek into the soon-releasing Beacon of Love!

Friday Fun Facts: Is It Spring Yet?

What a winter it's been! Here on the East Coast, it's almost-warm one weekend, snowing the next. Flirting with freezing rain, icing up the driveway, then a balmy 40 degrees a few short hours later. My poor flowers are already starting to come up, though it's only March 1st and I have a sad suspicion that they'll be buried at least one more time before winter finally retreats for good:

Speaking of it being almost spring, though, I'm the March Featured Author over at The Romance Studio! Want a little insight to The Promise of Paradise? Have yourself a read...and dream of warm weather. You know, like sultry summer in a little town called Paradise, in a little state called New Hampshire, where anything is possible... ;)

Happy weekend!

Writers' Wednesday: Tracking Down E-Pirates

Today, a short rant on e-piracy. What is it? Basically, it's copyright infringement - offering electronic files (usually for free) that you do not own the rights to. You can find ebooks, audio, and video files all over the Internet that you can download without paying for them, thanks to "torrent" sites like

Why is it so bad? I mean, people share books/music with their friends all the time, right? If I want to read a book, and a friend has it, then why shouldn't I borrow it if I can, instead of buying it? I understand that, I really do. But think about: when you buy a book, how many people do you loan it to? 2? 5? On the Internet, piracy sites abound. Within a week of my new ebook, The Promise of Paradise, being available on Amazon, I found listed for free on at least 10 "torrent" sites.

To give an idea of how many freely downloaded books that potentially represents, and more important, how many lost sales, here's an excerpt from the article "E-Piracy: The High Cost of Stolen Books" by Karen Dionne:

"Lost book sales can't be quantified, making it impossible to calculate the full cost of e-piracy, but the sheer number of illegal copies available for download gives an idea of the scope of the problem. At one file-sharing website, users have uploaded 1,830 copies of three books by a popular young adult author. Just one of those copies has had 4,208 downloads. On the same site, 7,130 copies of the late Michael Crichton's novels have been uploaded, and the first 10 copies have been downloaded 15,174 times.

Even if only a fraction of the downloads from this and dozens of other file-sharing websites represent actual lost sales, they still translate into a staggering amount of royalties that have been stolen from authors."

Here's the thing: some people will say that hey, at least readers want my book. I should be glad it showed up on so many sites, right? And if people are reading it, maybe they'll buy the others because they like my work so much. Hmmmm.....how likely do you really think that is? Don't you think that, instead, they'll try to find the others for free as well? I'm not a best-selling author by any stretch of the imagination, but listen folks, every time someone buys my book from a piracy site, that's royalty $$ I'm not getting. I work hard on my books - writing them and marketing them. The few cents I get per sold title doesn't compensate me that time (yet!), but it's still payment for a job I've done.

Please, please don't download books from piracy sites. You are helping those sites rob artists of the rightful royalty money they have earned by doing a job - the same way you earn a paycheck by going to work each day.

And writers, if you're concerned about your own titles, do a search and see what you find. I subscribe to a service called Muso that, for $15.00/month, searches the Internet daily and sends takedown notices to all sites that are posting and offering my books illegally. An individual author can send takedown notices too (this is a legal first step in notifying someone/a site that they have violated copyright law and can be held legally responsible), but it's very time-consuming to find these sites and send the notices, especially if you have more than one title out there. For me, it's well worth the money to have a company do it for me.

OK, that's it for today! Go out into cyberworld smarter and savvier about e-pirates than you were before :)

Monday Mentionables: Flu Season and Spring Break

Happy Monday! I'm glad (and relieved) to report that our household made it through a bout with the flu last week. My husband has never gotten the flu shot, and this year it caught up with him :( He did say, midway through the illness "I don't think I've ever had the flu before." (This was also his reason for never getting the shot)

For those of you who have suffered from it, you know one of the worst things is that the flu knocks you out, hard, and for those with weaker immune systems, it can turn into pneumonia or worse. We heard a lot of reports this season about how the flu shot did protect many people (even those who came down with the flu anyway had a much milder case of it) - so please, please consider getting the shot next year! (Note: I get the shot each year, and though I was living in a house full of the virus I didn't come down with it).

Having survived THAT, we are looking forward to Spring Break in Key West, Florida next month. We've never been and are really excited about going (my husband is also celebrating a birthday while we're there, too - even more fun!). So....any suggestions from those who have gone? Good places to eat/drink/visit? Must-sees? Of course the Hemingway House is already on our list!

Friday Fun Facts: Some Reflections on Indie Publishing

OK, The Promise of Paradise has been indie published (that's the new term for "self-publishing," since self-pubbing was getting a negative rap) for all of a week now, and I've discovered a couple of things:

~I'm very glad I had experience with the whole publishing process, through a couple different publishers, before I did it on my own. I know people who go straight to indie publishing, for a variety of reasons, but I think the learning curve must be so huge, everything from editing to designing a cover, to marketing, that I'm glad I saw the process happen through publishers and editors before I tackled it myself.

~Going along with the first observation, if you choose the route of indie publishing, make sure you do your research and know how to produce a good product. I've seen way too many covers that look unprofessional, as well as typographical errors from authors who edited their own work (tip: you'll never catch all your own mistakes), to know that the smallest error can make your book stand out as NOT something consumers will choose to buy.

~AND on that same topic, make sure you have a great cover. Really. They make such a difference when people are shopping. I love, love, love mine, but it was done by a professional cover artist who's familiar not only with the romance genre and e-publishing, but also with my own writing, since she had designed my cover for Beacon of Love. So we were a good match.

~It's really, really nice to be able to track my sales (through Amazon, anyway) and connect them to my marketing efforts. When you have a book out through a traditional publisher, you don't see your sales numbers until months after sales occur, so it's hard to know what advertising or promo really works. Over the last week, I've watched my sales bump after certain things I've done (sending out my newsletter, posting an announcement on The Romance Studio, [a website well known and frequented by romance readers] and participating in an online release party), so I have an idea about what to spend time on and what to avoid in the future. Very, very helpful!

~It can be a lot of work - but then again, so is all writing and publishing. Still, it can become very easy to be consumed with what marketing to do next, checking those sales numbers every hour, and getting off track from writing in general.

Will I do it again? Maybe. In the meantime, if you'd like to read my posts from yesterday's release party, click here, and then look for my name on the left sidebar. Click my name, and it will take you straight to my posts. Also, here's a great mini-course on the pros and cons of indie publishing, if you'd like to read more from an author who's done it multiple times.

Happy Friday!

Writers' Wednesday: Join the (Release) Party!!

Happy Wednesday, everyone! Just a very quick note today: tomorrow, all day (midnight to midnight!), I'll be one of the participating authors at The Romance Studio's Release Party! What does that mean for you? Lots of chatting with authors, sneak peeks at excerpts from a whole slew of new books, and best of all, tons of prizes! Click here (tomorrow) to join the party!

Monday Mentionables: Battling the Flu and Chatting about Paradise

Happy Monday, everyone! We've been battling the flu here at our house all weekend long (poor husband, not feeling very well), so here's a head's-up: it's a really good idea to get the flu shot each year. I got the flu once, the first year I started teaching (oh yes, those germy germs are everywhere in schools!), and ever since, I've gotten the shot. I never want to feel that miserable again :( It's a tough illness, too, since there's not much you can do except wait it out and try to rest and ease your symptoms.

Suffice to say that I am armed with Lysol wipes, rubber gloves, bleach, and matches (yes, some things will be burned) so I can rid the house of this virus once hubby is back in the land of the living.

While I wasn't washing my hands 100x a day and bringing chicken broth, gingerale, and tissues to Mr. Sick this weekend, I was sharing the news that my new release, The Promise of Paradise, is on sale over at Amazon's Kindle store for the super-low price of $.99 - today as well! And I'll grovel a little here and ask any of you who have read it (or bought it), to leave a review on Amazon too...since those stars definitely affect people's buying decisions AND since I don't have any yet :(

Finally, I do want to mention that I'll be blogging and guest-posting and doing giveaways around the Web for the next few months, and I'll keep track of them over there, on the right sidebar of this blog, so you can find me and enter for some of those giveaways as well! Hope to see you in cyberspace :)

Friday Fun Facts: The Promise of Paradise is Now Available!!!

Happy Friday, everyone! Hope you enjoyed a lovely Valentine's Day. And speaking of love and romance (we were, weren't we??), I'm thrilled to share the news that my re-released contemporary romance, The Promise of Paradise, is now available in the Kindle store!!!!

Even better, I'm offering it for the super-low launch price of $.99 - what else can you get for under a dollar these days? Maybe a small cup of coffee....to go with that full-length novel you just bought ! I'm running this price through the long weekend, so please hop over and download yourself a copy....and spread the words to your friends as well.

Finally, if you're a blogger and are interested in participating in a blog review tour of this book, Goddess Fish Promotions is handling all the details for that, which will happen in April. Click on the banner below for more information. And happy reading!