Friday Fun Facts: A New Contract!

Well, since I signed the contract yesterday, I can officially announce it here: my full-length contemporary romance novel, Beacon of Love (my "lighthouse story" as I've been calling it) will be published with Lyrical Press in 2013!! This contract was actually the result of an online pitch session last month over at Savvy Authors - so a big thank-you to them, as well as the acquiring editor!

Lyrical is a small press but they've been around for a few years and appear to have solid sales in their romance genres - and so far I'm pleased with the correspondence from the publisher especially regarding contract language and some changes/adjustments that I requested. Covers are pretty, too - check out their website. Of course, I'm always a little nervous signing with a new publisher, but I did some research on them & talked to a couple of their current authors, and bottom line: I think this will be a good place for Beacon of Love.

I just wish I didn't have to wait so long!!

Writers' Wednesday: April Showers!!

Heads up everyone! It's almost time for another contest :) I won't start this one up until mid-April, but here's a sneak peek at the details and what you can win:

We all know April showers bring May flowers, but sometimes those rainstorms can bring a little (or a lot!) of romance too. From April 8 - 16, I’ll be posting an excerpt each day on my Facebook Fan Page(you'll have to "Like" it first, here) from my published novels (and a couple of WIPs too) that features a “shower scene." Vote for your favorite by email, and the winner will be chosen randomly from all emails to receive a super-cute umbrella (for those REAL spring showers) and your choice of any ebook from my backlist!

And just because you can never have too much romance in the rain, here's a brief "shower scene" that's super-tingly:

Monday Mentionables: Considering Digital-Only Publishers

Did you have a jolly St. Patrick's Day Weekend? I'll admit, I'm not Irish and I'm not one of those people who takes advantage of the holiday to go out and get rip-roaring drunk - though I did take advantage of the weekend without schoolwork to get some writing done. I'm about 18K words through my current novella, Sex on the Beach, with a goal of 30K and to be finished by the end of the month.

I've also been mulling over the pros and cons of submitting to publishers that are "digital only" - meaning no matter how long your book is, they will only format it to be sold in ebook (some publishers still put full-length novels, those over 60K or so, into print). I have mixed feelings about this, to be honest. Certainly, the ebook market is growing hugely, and almost everywhere you go, you see people with e-readers and iPads. Authors make more royalties on ebooks than they do on print books, and the number of brick-and-mortar bookstores seems to be dwindling on a daily basis. My digital sales have been higher than my print sales for every title I have.

At the same time, I know I have some readers who still want to read and buy print books. hey probably won't ever read a title if it's only available as a digital file. So will I lose those readers if I publish with a company who will never put my books into print? And , is that a big enough piece of my audience to affect my decision? It's tough to say....

Any thoughts?