Writer's Wednesday: Who Wants to Read an ARC?

I'm super-excited that the first novella in my Cocktail Cruse series will be releasing in 2 short weeks!! I posted about this on my Facebook page, but if you didn't see it, you can have the chance to read Tequila Sunrise before the general public, if you'd like to post a review on its release day, July 21! Now, it's shorter than a full-length novel, about 1/3 of the length, in case you don't have a lot of time (and who does, right??)

Here to whet your appetite are the blurb and an excerpt. If you're interested in getting your hands on an Advance Reader Copy (ARC), leave me a comment or email me at allieb@allieboniface.com!

BLURB:

Recently dumped by her long-time boyfriend because she wasn’t thin enough, Louise Jamison wants to let loose and find love (or at least great sex) on board a romantic singles’ cruise. When she meets the man of her dreams at a speed dating event, Lou believes she’s struck gold.

Toby DeMarco is too busy building his new construction business to get involved in a serious relationship. He only goes on the four-day cruise because his best friend’s family owns the line and his sister works on it, so he got a great deal. He plans to relax, rejuvenate and maybe find a woman to pass the time with. But when he meets the luscious Louise, his heart's a goner and all bets are off.

A few days of romance are jeopardized when Louise learns that the cruise line’s matchmaking service assigns partners based on looks and weight. Mortified by this unethical business practice, she takes to social media and makes national headlines. But the publicity is hurting Toby’s family and friends – and family means everything to Toby.

Will Toby be able to convince Lou that true love exists beyond numbers, before it’s too late?

EXCERPT:

Lou turned away from the speed dating crowd and stared outside, where the sun was just beginning to slip toward the ocean. For a moment she wished she were one of the birds on the horizon, soaring and dipping far above the water. Carefree. Removed.

“Gorgeous, isn’t it?”

She froze. That voice. A tanned elbow touched hers. Spicy cologne sent her hormones rocketing. In slow motion, she turned. And bit her bottom lip. And tried to remember how to breathe. Well, there you are. Chocolate brown eyes caught and held hers. A smile, framed on one side by that deep dimple, sent something sinfully wonderful squiggling straight down to the pit of her stomach. Lower, actually, to a spot below her stomach that hadn’t felt anything in months.

“Hi. I’m Toby.”

Lou’s entire world splintered, and it was all she could do not to drop her drink and dive into his arms. Maybe Charming Hearts hadn’t been a bad idea after all. 

Monday Mentionables: Happy Anniversary!

Today is a shout-out to my husband of 13 years as of yesterday :) Happy Anniversary! We always try to buy each other gifts that match the Themes By Year, but some years it's harder than others. 13 = either lace or fur. Hmm. Okay, that was fairly easy for him to buy, but how on earth was I supposed to find something appropriate for HIM? Let's just say that I ended up getting something that would make us both happy (here's a great recipe for lacy oatmeal cookies, by the way)

What about you, my married friends? Do you buy each other gifts for your wedding anniversary? Do you follow the "themes" or do what you want? Have you ever forgotten your anniversary?

Friday Fun Facts: Two Blog Appearances!

Happy Fourth of July to all my U.S. friends, family, and readers!

Oh and hey! I was featured on 2 blogs this week, so if you didn't get a chance, take a peek!

Fabulous Firsts

You Gotta Read Reviews

Monday Mentionables: A Review of Shameless by Rebecca J. Clark

Happy Monday, everyone! Over the next few weeks I'm going to be posting my reviews of the other 9 books in the Passionate Kisses Boxed Set...because don't you love sneak peeks at stories! And I'm reading them in no particular order. Today's review is of Shameless by Rebecca J. Clark:

Haunted by a tragic accident 20 years ago, John Everest knows he doesn't deserve a family of his own, so he spends his days building the most successful fitness franchise in Seattle...and his nights alone. But that all changes when Samantha Rossi storms back into his life. 

Happily single, Samantha feels there are only two types of men in this world: those who are good for nothing and those who are good for one thing. Now she needs that one thing desperately, because she wants a baby. John, a man from her past, is the perfect donor. He doesn't want children. He doesn't want a wife. He just wants her body. She can deal with that. 

John agrees to Samantha's no-strings-attached proposal, never expecting to fall for the fiery beauty he'd wronged so many years ago. It'll take more than a shameless proposal to overcome their tragic past, but with a little luck and forgiveness, anything is possible.

I absolutely loved this book! The story is beautifully written and comes together, for both the major and minor characters, in the best and most complex ways. Sam is a beautiful but complicated heroine and John is the hero who's successfully put some, but not all, of his past behind him. I loved that these characters were flawed and had a messy history, because they were real and relatable. Minor characters Alex and Brian were equally real and riveting. I truly could not put this book down and cannot wait to read more by Clark. This story has real emotion, believable conflict, and a wonderfully happy ending. Her focus on family and forgiveness made for some wonderful themes from beginning to end. 5 stars!

Don't forget, this book is part of the 10-book set that is on sale for only $0.99 for a limited time! Enjoy :)

Friday Fun Facts: We're Still Celebrating our Boxed Set Release!

Hey gang, don't forget it's release week for Passionate Kisses! We're super-excited to be featured on the USA Today Happy Ever After Blog today. And tomorrow will be a day-long Release Party at The Romance Studio. $60 worth of gift cards given away just by our authors! And thank you to all who have already bought and/or reviewed the set - we appreciate your support SOOO much!

Monday Mentionables: It's Release Day!

Happy Monday, everyone! Today's the big day: the Passionate Kisses Boxed Set officially releases! Please share the news with your friends and family and PLEASE buy this awesome set of 10 sizzling romance novels....it's only $1.00!! I'll keep you posted throughout the week with how our sales are going. In the meantime, thank you as always for your wonderful friendship and support :)

Friday Fun Facts: YOU Can Help Us Make a Best-Seller List!

Happy Friday, everyone! Now, if you're one of my regular blog readers, you probably know that I am part of a boxed set of contemporary romance novels that is coming out NEXT MONDAY, June 23, called Passionate Kisses. We are totally excited about this project and hope that all of you would like to help us make it "big." We are calling on all friends and family, and here’s the plan:

Beacon of Love is now part of the Passionate Kisses Box Set boxed set along with 9 other full length romances by 9 other authors.  Starting Monday, June 23rd the set will be available for a whopping $0.99.  Yes, a true bargain for romance lovers, and a great opportunity for friends of  Yours Truly.

The Passionate Kisses authors are doing a big advertising push and marking the price so low (retail for all ten e-books would be $28.90) in hopes of not only promoting our books but to also have the boxed set sell like crazy and hit a list, like Amazon Top 100, or even better USA Today, or The NY Times.

I’d so appreciate your help. Next Monday, if you’d please purchase the Passionate Kisses Boxed Set at Amazon Kindle Store  Barnes & Noble  or iTune  it would be greatly appreciated. (And if you are flush with cash, buy it at all three.)  Please spread the word to your friends and family.

Important: Even though it is available now, do not buy the boxed set until Monday! (And if you forget on Monday you can buy it Tuesday - no problem. We need big totals for the week.)

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your support! We truly appreciate it - and we'll keep you posted! 

Monday Mentionables: A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words

Happy Monday, everyone! Please hop on over to Victoria Barbour's blog today to see my post. Victoria is one of the fabulous authors involved with our Passionate Kisses Boxed Set, and she's featuring interviews with all 9 authors in these days leading up to our release (June 23!). Best of all, the posts are mostly pictures, and just a few words. Enjoy!

Writer's Wednesday: Promotion with Digital Book Spot

Hello writers! As I am always looking for new and effective methods of promotion, here's one that came across my email the other day: Digital Book Spot, which makes all their arrangements through Fiverr. Has anyone used DBS? Some authors are saying they have a pretty good bump in sales, so it might be worth trying, especially for the low price of $5-20.

Haven't heard of Fivvr? It is this very interesting website where anyone (truly, I think almost anyone) can post a service they will do for $5. Often you can add on other services for an additional $5, but that's the bare-bones start. Just for kicks, I looked at the home page today to see a sample of services up there:

I will translate English into Chinese or Chinese into English 
I will write contracts or any agreement 
I will professionally design a Facebook banner or cover 
I will make your logo or message appear out of clay as a video greeting...

So there you go! Promo food for thought today :)

Monday Mentionables: A Writer's Retreat that Turned into Something Else

Happy Monday! This past weekend, I treated myself to a solo getaway in Charles Town, West Virginia. The goal was to see hubby at a car show in Pennsylvania Friday night, then spend some solid time writing in a town I'd never been to before, snuggled away in a bed and breakfast with my laptop and nothing else.

You know that saying about "The best laid plans..."??

I arrived at the Carriage Inn late Friday evening (gorgeous place, by the way, and the owners are lovely hosts and great breakfast cooks) and plugged in my laptop - only to discover it didn't work. There is a very long and boring story behind why it didn't work, but suffice to say that after about 30 minutes of fretting and swearing and trying everything I could think of, I realized that my writer's retreat was going to be minus the writing.

For a few minutes, I actually considered going out early Saturday morning and buying a new laptop.

Then I said to myself, hang on. Thousands of people wrote before laptops ever came into existence. I can write without one. 

So instead, I went to the local grocery store, bought a $1 notebook (and some bulk candy and wine for sustenance), and spent the rest of the day thinking and brainstorming and drafting ideas. I didn't end up getting the massive amount of writing done that I originally planned, but you know what? There was something very relaxing about walking around town, sitting at an outside restaurant for lunch, napping on the day bed back in my room, and jotting down thoughts as they came to me. I even had time to go to the historic village of Harper's Ferry and watch the train pass by as I lounged on the grass after wandering around the recreated village buildings. Relaxing. Rejuvenating.

While it wasn't the writing-intensive weekend I originally envisioned, in many ways it was better. Just a reminder that when our plans fail, the best thing to do is look for another way, search for that open window and carry on :)

Friday Fun Facts: Boxed Set Coming Soon!

Hey everyone, look what's coming June 23rd!

(The books, not the guy, unless you bring your active imagination). Counting the days!

Writers' Wednesday: A Taste of Tequila Sunrise

OK, I know this is a very belated Wednesday post...BUT would you like a little taste of Tequila Sunrise? (the novella, I mean, not the drink). This is the first in the Cocktail Cruise Novella series coming out this summer (P.S. it will also be part of a different boxed set releasing in August). It just went out for its final edits today, so hooray!

Here is the scene where our hero and heroine meet for the very first time:

Louise turned away from the speed dating crowd and stared outside, where the sun was just beginning to slip toward the ocean. For a moment she wished she were one of the birds on the horizon, soaring and dipping far above the water. Carefree. Removed.

“Gorgeous, isn’t it?”

Lou froze. That voice. A tanned elbow touched hers. Spicy cologne sent her hormones rocketing. In slow motion, she turned. And bit her bottom lip. And tried to remember how to breathe. Well there you are. Chocolate brown eyes caught and held hers. A smile, framed on one side by that deep dimple, sent something sinfully wonderful squiggling straight down to the pit of her stomach. Lower, actually, to a spot below her stomach that hadn’t felt anything in months.

“Hi. I’m Toby.”

Lou’s entire world splintered, and it was all she could do not to drop her drink and dive into his arms. Maybe Charming Hearts hadn’t been a bad idea after all. 

Friday Fun Facts: More Teasers from our Boxed Set!

Hang onto your hats, readers, because the lovely ladies at Passionate Kisses have some steamy reads for you coming up June 23rd. Here are some teasers to whet your appetite...

Don't forget to Like our Facebook page. Lots of info there about our upcoming launch party and all the goodies you can win!

Writers' Wednesday: A Tease from Beacon of Love

How about a little tease from Beacon of Love to start your day? This is one of the 10 sizzling novels that will be included in the Passionate Kisses Boxed Set, releasing June 23rd. Have you liked our Facebook page yet??

In Honor of Those Who have Served

Friday Fun Facts: It's Cover Reveal Day!

Friends and readers, I'm so excited that I'll be joining 9 other romance authors in releasing the boxed set Passionate Kisses: Ten Sizzling Contemporary Romances next month! Today it's time to reveal our gorgeous cover:

Also, please "Like" our Facebook page, because we'll all be posting teasers, excerpts, bio information and more, over the next month. And THEN, on June 24, we'll be holding an awesome Facebook Launch Party with chats and giveaways all day long! 

This boxed set will be available on all online retailers for $0.99 for a limited time. Can't wait until June 23rd? If you'd like to review an Advanced Reader Copy, sign up right here. But hurry - there are only 100 ARCs available!

Finally, one more peek to whet your appetite:

Passionate Kisses Boxed Set!

Monday Mentionables: New Books Coming Soon!!

Happy Monday, everyone! I'm excited to share the news that JUNE 23rd will be the release date of a boxed set of contemporary romances that I'm part of. 9 other authors and I will be featured in Passionate Kisses: Ten Sizzling Contemporary Romances, and it will be on super-sale for only $0.99 when it releases at the end of next month! The cover reveal will be this Friday, May 23rd, so make sure to stop back so you can see it!

In other news, I'll be featured on The Hummingbird Place online radio show on May 26th at 7:30 pm, and the featured topic is Small Town Romances. I'll be chatting all about my Hometown Heroes series, so mark your calendars and I'll post my information here and on my social media sites that day.

And finally, speaking of small town romances, I was so happy to read this 5-star review on Amazon of The Promise of Paradise:  

"The characters were very vivid for me. I was glad to see somebody discuss what home towns, small towns have to offer. Those are pretty stereotypical characters but still each one has their worth. I appreciate the romance and the beautiful story, thank you."

Have a wonderful day!

Writers' Wednesday: Results of my BookBub Ad

Hello writers! Today I thought I'd share my experience with running my very first BookBub ad. If you're not familiar with BookBub, you should be. As a reader, you can sign up for free, and each day you'll receive an email listing 5-10 discounted or free books in the genres you pick. It's tailored to your reading preferences, which is nice. As a writer, it's become one of the hot places to advertise your book. Their email lists number in the hundred-thousands, which is remarkable. They're also very selective about whose books they take, which makes it tough to get an ad. They also aren't cheap, though many writers claim they make their money back in anywhere from a few hours to a few days.

I applied for an ad with them last year and was turned down. Last month, I tried again, with my novel The Promise of Paradise which has been free since the beginning of March (note: I had 33 reviews the 2nd time I applied, which I think helped them say yes). Because the ad to run a contemporary romance novel for free costs $290.00, I was nervous - even more so because I wouldn't be getting any sales money from this novel, since it's free, so any sales where I could recoup the ad $ would have to come from my other books.

It's now been just under 1 week since my ad ran, so I thought I'd share some early numbers:

On the morning of May 8, my ad day, these were my sales/downloads for the 3 books tied together in the Hometown Heroes series:

The Promise of Paradise (prequel) = 681 free downloads since May 1
The Promise of Paradise = 103 audio books total sales since June 2013
Beacon of Love (1st book in the series) = 2 sales since May 1
Inferno of Love (2nd book in the series) = 2 sales since May 1

BookBub gives a range of 11,400 - 34,300 downloads for free contemporary romance novels. Here are my numbers as of last night. (This is for Amazon only, not Barnes & Noble)

The Promise of Paradise = 55,089 downloads (and 4 paid sales)
The Promise of Paradise = 213 audio books total
Beacon of Love = 56 total sales this month
Inferno of Love = 34 total sales this month

I think I broke even on Sunday night, about 3 days after the ad ran. The Promise of Paradise also went to #1 on the entire Free Kindle List, for about 12 hours, and to #1 on Women's Fiction, Contemporary Romance, and New Adult & College. It's still in the Top 10 on all the genre lists, as well.

I would say that BookBub definitely delivered for me on this one! Now, I know many people say that 55K free downloads is a lot of lost royalty $$, and I certainly respect those authors who don't want to give away anything for free. For me, this is about getting name exposure and getting my book into the hands of people who hadn't read it or heard of me before. I have 8 new reviews and 3 new reviews on Barnes & Noble, all of them 4 or 5 stars. My books in the Hometown Heroes series continue to sell, stronger than before, so I'm happy with this outcome. I'll definitely apply for another ad with them, though I may run a $0.99 special next time and see what happens.

I'll keep you posted!

Monday Mentionables: A Sizzling Box Set Coming Soon!

Happy Monday, everyone! Hope you enjoyed your Mother's Day :)

What's worth mentioning today? Well, I'm super-excited to share the news that I'll be joining 9 other contemporary romance authors in a box set due to release within the next 2 months, called Passionate Kisses: Ten Sizzling Contemporary Romances (don't you love the title? Ooh...I do...)!

The other authors are Wendy Ely, Nikki Lynn Barrett, Liz Kelly, Kylie Gilmore, Rebecca J. Clark, Magda Alexander, Jessi Gage, Victoria Barbour, and Sydney Holmes, and we're all including full-length novels with awesome heroes and heroines and steamy scenes that will be the perfect beach read. Stay tuned for more release info!

Writers' Wednesday: Length Matters

LOL..turns out, according to this article anyway, that length DOES matter...when it comes to grabbing attention and getting hits and click-throughs online. The Ideal Length of Everything Online, Backed by Research, is a pretty interesting read that breaks down the number of characters that get the most attention or engagement from readers who are surfing the Web. Read the whole thing to get the full explanation, but here's a handy highlight of the parts I found most interesting:

Ideal Length of Tweets = 100 characters (Twitter gives you 140, which sometimes doesn't feel like enough! but apparently even shorter is better)

Ideal Length of a Facebook Post = less than 40 characters (really??!? have you seen the way some people rant online?) Follow-up best practice with this one is to keep it under 80 characters.

Ideal Length of a Blog Post = 7 minutes or 1600 words (mine are usually NEVER that long!)

Ideal Length of an Email Subject Line = 28-39 characters

Ideal Length of a Presentation = 18 minutes (sounds about right)

Ideal Length of a Domain Name = 8 character (whoa - I'm over by 9 on this one)

Interesting, right? Though I'm not sure these are make-or-break guidelines, I'm definitely going to keep them in mind as I move forward on social media. What about you? Is this something you've been conscious of in the past? Do you think length really does matter?

Monday Mentionables: Win an Amazon GC or Fire TV!

Who wants to win a $200 Amazon gift card OR an Amazon Fire TV? A Girl and her Kindle is giving away both through the totally awesome Mega Summer Giveaway - and there are a lot of ways to enter! Click right here to find out more: a Rafflecopter giveaway!

Writers' Wednesday: Have You Ever Tried PickFu?

Hey writers, have you heard of PickFu? It's a marketing website where you can ask a question and get a quick response from targeted consumers. A couple of authors on one of my writers' loops have used it to test book covers and book titles and see which was more appealing.

For $20, you get 50 responses. I copied this from the general info page:

Complete the form below to start collecting crowd-sourced insight about your question.

Once you complete your order, PickFu will immediately poll 50 responders to answer your question and explain their choices.

Looks potentially interesting, especially if you're torn between covers (or anything, actually - characters' names or taglines or series' locations or...)

Has anyone out there used PickFu? I'd be interested in your thoughts, if so. And for you writers, it's one more potential site to check out on your writing and marketing journey!

Monday Mentionables: How About Those Series?

Happy Monday! What's worth mentioning today? Well, I just got back some of my edits on my Cocktail Cruise novella series, and here are some questions for you:

When you read a series, do you prefer books that go in chronological order, one after the other?

Or do you like series that read concurrently; that is, it's the same time frame/experience told from different characters' points of view?

Does it matter to you how much story time elapses between books in a series?

And does it matter to you how much real time elapses between books released in a series? (I read an article recently by a woman who won't buy any book in a series until at least the first 3 are out. She wants to have them all available the minute she finishes reading the first, to go on to the next).

OK, chime in please! I'd love to know your thoughts!

Writers' Wednesday: A New, Fast, Free Way to Make Book Trailers!

Hey writers! You know those book trailers that some people say are cool, others say don't sell books, and still others spend a lot of time and money to make? Well, if you haven't heard of the website Animoto, stop right now and go check it out. I just became familiar with it about a month ago, though it's been around for longer than that. It's basically this oh-so-cool way of creating videos that takes literally minutes.

All you do is upload your pictures, text, and video clips if you want, and Animoto arranges them into a short video for you. That's it! You can play with the organization of your items and change the music too. Best of all, the basic version is FREE and allows you to create 30-second videos that you can download or share on the web or through email.

Awesome, right? Now, the downsides are that you don't have a lot of control over the background/slides/transitions (although you do have some; play around with how you order your items, and the background and transitions will change), and if you want a video that's longer than 30 seconds, it will cost you $. But the next version up is only $5/month. Still a great deal! And in my opinion, 30 seconds is enough time to give readers a taste of your book and leave them wanting more.

Want to see the one I made for my upcoming Cocktail Cruise novella series? This one took me probably an hour total to make, because I didn't know anything about the website and because I wanted to change the music, so I took some time to go through their library of music options, which is pretty extensive. Other than that, it was painless.


Copy of Cocktail Cruise Trailer

Have you used Animoto? Give it a try if you haven't - and share your video if you end up making one! I'd love to see it :)

Monday Mentionables: A Trip to Iceland!

Every once in a while, a girl has to take a break from the usual and the familiar and just get away from it all. So last week, during our spring break, Hubby and I took a trip to Iceland.

Yes, that's right, Iceland, the land of fire and ice, wayyyy up there near the Arctic Circle, where about 320,000 people live on a landscape that is constantly shifting and erupting and cracking. And you know what? It was beautiful. We took probably 100 photos, at least, but I'll only post a few here, to give you the highlights :) My advice: GO, if you ever have the chance. It's about a 5-hour flight from the Northeast United States, the flights and tours are very reasonable (check out TravelZoo for ongoing deals) and it's a beautiful place, peaceful and quiet with super-nice people and hot springs/baths to die for. If it wasn't so darn expensive to live there, I might actually consider moving to Iceland one day...

It's called "the land of fire and ice" for a reason - there are geysers, hot springs, and glaciers everywhere! 

Downtown Reykjavik

One of the many massive waterfalls  

Iceland sits on 2 opposing tectonic plates, which means it's actually separating at a rate of 2 cm/year. Crazy!

We got to spend an afternoon hiking on a glacier - one of the high points of the trip

Guilfoss Waterfall, one of the most beautiful sites there!

Friday Fun Facts: New Reviews for Inferno of Love!

TGIF! This is also the beginning of spring break here, so hallelujah! Finally!

Two new reviews for Inferno of Love this week:

Roxy's Reviews said "This was an interesting read with plenty of twists and turns. Lost love was rekindled, old secrets resurfaced, and guilt over a haunting past was shed. This story was different while adopting all the makings of a great romance."

Lindsey Grey said "The combination of suspense and romance kept me turning the pages as fast as possible. This is one book you want to read in one sitting because you can't bear to wait a moment to know what happens next. In all honesty, I wish I could give it more than five stars. I just love how the story enraptured me and I hope to read more of Allie Boniface and the people of Lindsey Point."

And if you haven't been following me on Facebook or Twitter, The Promise of Paradise has also enjoyed a nice surge in free downloads this week! By mid-day yesterday, its highest ranking in the Top Free Kindle store was #32 overall, and for a few hours it was #1 in Romance, Women's Fiction, and New Adult. Super cool! It's since slowed a bit but still in the Top 100 overall and still #1 in New Adult as of this morning.

What the heck is New Adult? I think I'm going to devote a future blog post to this (and how it helped boost me on the Free Lists) but basically it's a newish genre that's growing in popularity and features a main character somewhere in the college-age range to early after. Figure 18-24 or so. New adult meaning older than Young Adult but not yet completely "grown up" and living on their own with careers and homes. More like muddling through the college years and trying to find oneself.

Anyway, I'll be away next week, so no blog from me until April 21st. See you then!

Monday Mentionables: It Was a Cover Reveal Weekend!

Hey gang, in case you didn't see my shiny new covers on my Facebook page this weekend, here they are! These are the official 3 covers for my upcoming Cocktail Cruise novella series, due out this June. Do you love them??

Three stories...one ship...lose yourself on the waves...

Writers' Wednesday: Inferno of Love Blog Tour Starts Today!

Hey gang, my blog tour through Black Lion Tours starts today! And along with reading reviews and interviews with Yours Truly and a few fun blog posts, you can win prizes: a $20 Amazon gift card OR a copy of Beacon of Love! Here's the main tour page, and I'll try to post the links from each day so you can tour along with me.

Enjoy!

Monday Mentionables: How Much Do You Make, Anyway?

Ah, it's a bit of a taboo question, isn't it? Asking anyone how much money they make equates to treading into murky waters. When it comes to authors, some are forthcoming with their earnings, while others prefer to keep mum about it. Someone asked me the other day, "If your book is 99 cents on Kindle, how much of that do you get?" And I thought other non-authors might wonder the same thing, so here are some numbers for you. **I am NOT going to get into specifics here. What follows is general info only:

For books self-published on Amazon that are under $2.99, the author will get 35% of that price for a royalty.

For books self-published on Amazon that are $2.99 and up, the author will get 70% of that price for a royalty.

Example: When Beacon of Love was on sale for 99 cents, I earned 35 cents for every book sold. When that price went up to $2.99, I now earn $2.09 for every book sold.

Note: most small presses offer somewhere from 35-40% royalties on the price of their books. When Beacon of Love was published previously, on a list price of $4.99, I received approximately $2.00 for every book sold. You can start to see why authors who feel comfortable going through the publishing process themselves prefer to put the $$ out up front for a possible 70% royalty for the rest of that book's life.

Now, although I currently have 7 books in print, 4 with Samhain  and 3 as self-published titles, I don't sell particularly well. I will chalk this up to many things, including the fact that I don't spend enough time marketing, there was a period of almost 3 years when I didn't release a title at all, and my books fall somewhere in the PG-13 to R rated range, which is less popular among romance readers than the really hot stuff. I do, however, have all but 2 of these books also available as audio books as well.

I will say this: before I self-published any title, AND before most of my books were available in audio, my monthly royalty income fell anywhere from $10 to $50. Since releasing my 3 additional books as self-published titles, adding in the audio book royalties, my monthly royalty income falls somewhere between $75 and $200.

(I will also add that last month I made one of my titles free, The Promise of Paradise. I've had about 11,000 downloads of that title in the first month, and while its downloads have slowed to around 20-40 a day, that still means people are putting it on their Kindles. Also, I sold 50 copies of Beacon of Love in that same month (up from 20 copies the month before), which I will partly attribute to readers being introduced to the characters AND my putting the buy link for Beacon of Love into the back of The Promise of Paradise)

My sales are not stellar, by any stretch of the imagination. However, I put those numbers out there today for a few reasons: to show that the more titles you have, the more you will likely make; having multiple streams of income helps (go for audio books if you can); making a title free can drive readers to purchase your other titles; and if you're willing to put forth the effort and the money on your own, before the return, self-publishing CAN bring in more money than publishing with a traditional press.

And now...I'm off to write and add to that monthly check!

Friday Fun Facts: An Awesome Review of Inferno of Love

Happy Friday, everyone! I'm so thrilled that the folks over at For the Passion of Romance review site loved Inferno of Love and gave it a heart-warming review. Here's just a snippet - follow the link to read the entire review. Big thanks to the reviewers! Readers, remember that reviews sell books - so many buyers read those reviews over at Amazon and other sites when they are deciding whether or not to spend $$ on a book. So if you're read a book you really enjoyed, take those few minutes to leave a review. The author will be sooooo grateful!


Boniface will make readers fall in love with novels all over again with her latest release Inferno of Love!

This novel was such a huge surprise for me because it contains everything that made me fall in love with reading in the first place! Mystery, suspense and wow is it hot!

It is always so refreshing to myself as a reader to discover an author who can impress me by taking traits that are considered classic to novels especially that of romance and grasp my attention from start to finish and Boniface does this for me as a reader!

Writers' Wednesday: The Best "Mistake" I Ever Made

Hi readers! In case you didn't see me post on Facebook or Twitter about this yesterday, I was a guest blogger over at Jar O' Marbles "Tell Me a Story" feature. My story is all about how living in Cleveland, Ohio, as a 20-something shaped my writing. Yes, it's still sometimes called the "mistake on the lake," but Cleveland is an awesome city, and I loved living there. Stop by and take a peek! 

Monday Mentionables: Inferno of Love Excerpts!

Happy Monday, everyone! If you didn't have a chance to visit me on Saturday at The Romance Studio's Release Party, click here for the link. I posted a whole bunch of excerpts from Inferno of Love, so if you haven't read it yet, now's your chance to get a little taste of the story. And if you don't want to search through ALL the posts for mine, just search by my author name, and that should narrow down the results for you. Enjoy!

Friday Fun Facts: An A+ Note from a Reviewer

It's always awesome to read reviews of our books, right? But it's also cool to hear the words *behind* a review, and I was lucky enough to have my assistant forward me an email the other day that had just that. This review won't post until next week, but the reviewer wrote to say this, about Inferno of Love:

   This novel is by far one of the best reads that we have had the pleasure of reading! Sometimes as reviewers and as readers we forget why we began reading books in the first place as often modern day novels are often repeats of prior plots or common characters and that alone can sometimes go tiring. This was not the case with Boniface's novel. She remind us of what we truly love about a great book, the plot and the romance!

  On behalf of our team we want to personally say thank you for giving us the opportunity to review Inferno of Love and we hope that you will continue to pass along to us new reviews to share with our readers.

  The rating that we have given Inferno of Love is 4/5 hearts which means it was close to being named a perfected read. 

Heart-warming, to be sure :) Have you picked up your discounted copy of this book? 

Writer's Wednesday: Inferno of Love is Now Available!!

What happens when your soul mate returns after twelve long years...and has no idea who you are?

Now available in both Kindle and print! Limited-time sale price of $0.99

Twelve years ago, Finn and Aubrey fell in love in Lindsey Point. But that was before a local fire turned him into a hero and a horrific accident stole her memory. When they finally reunite, sparks fly and memories return -- but so do long-lost secrets and locals who want them to stay buried. Now they must come to terms with the past if they have any chance of building a future together... 

And it already has its first review, 4 stars!

Red Cheeks Reads says, I started “Inferno of Love” right after reading the first book in the series “Beacon of Love” so I was excited to hear Finn’s story... I had high hopes after reading the first book and I was not disappointed at all! This was definitely a page turner! The dual POV lets you see both Finn and Aubrey’s perspective and the author does a great job once again at writing an excellent mystery that kept me guessing!

Buy your copy today!

Monday's Mentionables: It's a Hometown Heroes Week!

Happy Monday, everyone! I'm thrilled that it's release week for Inferno of Love - TOMORROW is the big day! And just in time, you can see a sneak peek in the trailer:



If you didn't have a chance to read Beacon of Love, the first book in the Hometown Heroes series, it's not too late to pick it up. Just yesterday the book received a beautiful 5-star review on Amazon that took my breath away:

"Such an addictive read. I was drawn into the story immediately and couldn't put it down. Those that love mysteries, set in small towns, are going to love this book. Beacon of Love is filled with loveable characters, romance, mystery and all the right elements to make it a great read. This was the perfect read for the miserable weather we're currently experiencing in my area. Nothing like curling up with a great book on a rainy day."

Thank you so much! I love my readers!

Writers' Wednesday: My Experiment with Perma-Free

"A beautifully original story. Loved the characters. I picked it up as a free book. But it would be worth the money. I would love to find a place like Paradise. So well written you can feel yourself standing among the story unfolding. Wonderfully heartwarming love story. Highly recommended."

For indie authors, making a book "perma-free" is one of many marketing options. Basically this means offering a book for free, indefinitely. Ideally it's one in a series, so if readers like the story, they will go out and spend money on the others in the series.

For a while, I wasn't sure what I thought about this concept – I mean, we work hard on our books! I didn't know if I wanted to just give a title away. But The Promise of Paradise has been out for a year now, and done relatively well sales-wise, so I thought I'd give it a try. First off, though, you can't just set a book's price to $0.00 on Amazon (if you participate in the Amazon KDP program, you can offer your book for free for 5 days every 3 months, but I wanted to see what would happen for a longer period of time). So you have to "price match," which basically means making it free in other sales channels (like Smashwords, the popular website for indie authors) and then hope once sites like Barnes and Noble or Sony make it free, Amazon will follow suit.

It took about a week, but Amazon did finally make The Promise of Paradise free. This happened one week ago Tuesday. Within a day, it was climbing some of Amazon's "Top Free" lists, and by Thursday it was #1 in Women's Fiction and Romance. I think it got as high as #45 on the Top Free overall list. Not bad, especially since I didn't do a whole lot of marketing besides tweeting and posting on Facebook about it.

BookBub, a popular email subscription service authors can pay to have their titles listed with, gives a range of 21,000 for Contemporary Romance downloads and 14,000 for Women's Fiction downloads if you advertise with them. In the week it's been free, I've had just over 8000 downloads of The Promise of Paradise, so I'm pretty happy with that (since I've spent $0 on advertising it). Beyond that, I've sold an additional 30 books of Beacon of Love, my other new title, and I attribute those sales to the free downloads, since I do have an excerpt in the back of The Promise of Paradise and tell readers that they'll see a familiar character in Beacon of Love.

Another plus: I've gotten 4 new 5-star reviews on Amazon, which is terrific. That means that The Promise of Paradise is getting to people who have never read anything by me before and will hopefully want to read more.

It turns out the perma-free thing has more benefits than I would have thought. Certainly sales of my other books aren't through the roof, but they've definitely picked up. I'm reaching new readers. And I'm still in the Top 10 of both Free lists in Women's Fiction and Romance, which means many Amazon customers are seeing the title when they're browsing those categories. The fun thing is that I have control over all of this – another plus when it comes to indie publishing! 

Monday Mentionables: New Reviews and a Book Club!

Happy Monday, everyone! What's worth mentioning today? Well, let's see...

There's a lovely new 5-star review of Beacon of Love posted over at Sinfully Tasty Reads :) Big thanks to Debbie who said, "This was the perfect mix of romance meets classic who done it...I loved the chemistry between Sophie and Lucas. They just had a connection right from the start and loved it as the relationship developed. "

I attended a book club yesterday where The Promise of Paradise was the featured read and had a great time chatting about books and reading with the women there. Among the things discussed were that they LOVE series (good thing I have 2 coming out this year!), they love detail when it comes to character and setting, and they will definitely ask questions about a character's back-story and which character is getting his or her own story next. I always love hearing what other people enjoy reading and why they enjoy it.

One more week until the release of Inferno of Love! Don't forget that you can get a peek at Smashwords, where's it up for pre-order AND you can read the opening chapters for free!

Friday Fun Facts: Free & Upcoming Books!

Happy Friday! It's been a pretty exciting week in my writing world. Why? Here's the skinny in case you don't follow me on Facebook or Twitter:

The Promise of Paradise is FREE on Kindle (and Nook) right now, and between Tuesday and Thursday it went to the top of Amazon's free lists in both Women's Fiction and Romance! It's slipped a little since then, but I made sure to take a screen shot of when it was at #1:

It's always tough to tell if free downloads translate into sales of other titles, but hey, I figure that there are a few thousand people with my book on their Kindle who didn't have it before, so we'll be optimistic and hope that once they read the book, they'll love it and want to read more!

Also, Inferno of Love is now available for pre-order at Smashwords! It will officially release on March 18, but you can reserve yours on sale anytime between now and then. You can read the blurb and find out more by clicking here.

Have a great weekend!

Writers' Wednesday: Promo Sites!

Hey gang, it's a busy week here (Inferno of Love will be available for pre-order soon!) but I wanted to share a couple of promo sites with authors:

Ebook Soda - brand new email subscription service, similar to BookBub, and they're brand new so right now there's no charge to place a book ad with them!

A Girl and Her Kindle - she'll be reviewing Beacon of Love later this week, and she's gotten favorable feedback from other authors I respect, so check out her site for relatively inexpensive social media exposure.

Digital Book Today - has been around a while and although I haven't seen HUGE bumps when I run ads with them, they're reputable and have a lot of viewers, which is always a good thing.

There are many, many others of course, but I always like to share the newer ones I've come across. Happy writing!

Friday Fun Facts: Brrrrrrr!!!

Are you ready for Old Man Winter to give it a rest yet? Just when we thought we might be in the clear, the temperatures here in the Hudson Valley, NY, have dipped below zero yet again AND there's a storm coming our way Sunday. Enough! We still have over a foot of snow on the ground, and that's not even talking about the banks that have been snowplowed along the side of the road or in parking lots. Ten feet tall easily! It's a challenge to even go to the store today, because you don't know whether you'll find a parking spot.

With all that in mind, don't forget that an escape to a summer climate, to a seaside coast, is the perfect way to chase the winter blues away. The Promise of Paradise is all about summer heat in a small town, as is Beacon of Love. Guess I have a common theme of wanting to be warm! (in more ways than one)

And for those of you who are writers (or who are interested), Beacon of Love is just one little Amazon review away from 10, which is the magic number for some of the bigger marketing and promotion sites. I'd love to see that 10th review :) If you read the book and liked it, would you share your thoughts!

Thanks, happy Friday, and STAY WARM!!

Writers' Wednesday: Enter to Win a Signed Copy of a Hometown Heroes Book!

Hey readers! Today you can enter to win a signed print copy of either Beacon of Love OR Inferno of Love (this is a pre-release copy; you'll see it before the general reading public)! I'm giving away 2 copies of each book to lucky winners over at Goodreads. It's super-easy to enter, as long as you're a member.

This is the last week that Beacon of Love will be on sale for only $0.99, so grab your copy if you haven't had a chance yet. And remember, one of the loveliest things you can do for writers you enjoy is to leave them a review ;)

Have a great day!

Friday Fun Facts: The Hometown Heroes Series is Here!

TGIF! Of course, it's kind of a weird Friday here in New York, since we had Presidents' Weekend last week, combined with 2 extra snow days on either end, so for those of us who are teachers, we just got back to school and now we have a weekend again! Sure, sure, snow days SOUND good, but after awhile it just becomes clearing snow and sitting inside and thinking about how you're going to catch up and teach everything in the days that remain.

But anyway...

Have you gotten your copy of Beacon of Love over at Amazon? If you've already read the story of Sophie and Lucas, I hope you'll consider leaving a review on its new Amazon page. Readers love reviews for discovering potential new authors :)

It's also probably not to soon to mention that the sequel to this story, Inferno of Love, will release in just about a month, and I'm soooo excited for that one! It will be available on Kindle, Nook, and in print as well, so you can get whichever version works best for you. To whet your appetite, here's a link to the Tour Page over at Black Lion, which features the blurb and a short excerpt. Enjoy!

Writers' Wednesday: Beacon of Love is Now Available!

Woo hoo! I'm super excited to share the news that Beacon of Love, the first book in the Hometown Heroes series, is now available on Amazon's Kindle for the sale price of only $0.99! Now through the end of the month, you can pick up this story and re-familiarize yourself with Sophie, Lucas, and the town of Lindsey Point and its haunted lighthouse. Don't worry - it will also be available at Barnes & Noble, Sony, and iTunes shortly too. I'll make sure to share those links :)

If you already read (and enjoyed) Beacon of Love when it originally released last year, I would love for you to leave a review on Amazon. Reviews drive sales, and I'd love the re-release of this story to have a nice bump before the brand new, never-before-released sequel, Inferno of Love, comes out next month!

Thank You!

Friday Fun Facts: Pre-Order Beacon of Love Now!

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! Just in time for this lovers' holiday, you can pre-order Beacon of Love for the super-low re-release price of $0.99! Smashwords is featuring the pre-order, and it should soon be up on Barnes & Noble as well.

In other news, I'm going away for the long weekend to a place that has more snow....yes, more than is in my front yard, which after yesterday is about 2 feet. It's a Presidents' Weekend snowy getaway, and while the people I'm with will probably be doing all kinds of outdoor winter activities, I'm hoping to stay inside and get some writing done. No Internet or TV, so at least I won't have those distractions.

I'm hoping it will be cozy and quiet, more like The Holiday

and less like, well, The Shining

(not like I'm going away with a madman or anything, just that I'll be in an isolated hotel in the middle of a snowstorm).

Here's to getting a lot of new words written on a new book ~ I"ll give you the update next week!

Writers' Wednesday: The Re-Release of Beacon of Love is 1 Week Away!

Hello readers! I'm thrilled to let you know that the re-release of Beacon of Love is happening next week, so that means if you didn't get around to reading it last year when it came out, you'll soon be able to! Even better, for the month of February, it will be on sale for only $.99 - less than a cup of coffee! Want to know what readers thought of it? Reviews over on Goodreads if you're interested.

For writers, here are a couple of links to share with you today, courtesy of BookBaby. The first is a blog post about where to post your free/sale ebooks (always helpful info!) and the second is a pointed article about how to use - and not use - social media to your advantage when you're first releasing a book. Good stuff!

Now, to bunker down and prepare for the snow....more snow....always more snow....

Monday Mentionables: Why I'm Not Watching the Winter Olympics

"Be the change you want to see in the world." (Mahatma Gandhi)

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter." (Martin Luther King, Jr.)

Today's post admittedly has little to do with writing or my books that are releasing shortly, but I felt the need to vent today. So bear with me.

I am not watching the 2014 Winter Olympics this year. I have the feeling I am in the minority when it comes to this decision, being a person who would normally enjoy watching the opening ceremony and cheering for the figure skaters and oohing and aahing over the ski jumpers and rooting on the speed skaters and hockey teams. But this year, in the wake of not only the whole stray dog-killing scandal but also Russia's blatant anti-gay legislation, I feel that I can't watch the competition when it is supported, organized, and marketed by a country that goes against two of my greatest beliefs.

I know what I stand for. Human rights and the equal treatment of human beings, and ethical treatment of animals, are two of the biggest. I also know that my watching, or not watching, the Olympics as a single viewer will have little effect on the event as a whole. I also know that the athletes are not the ones to blame, and that their performance and preparation should have nothing to do with the political beliefs or practices of the country in which the competition happens to take place this year.

But, finally, I also know that I could not, in good faith, be a role model for my students, my friends, or my community members, or be the kind of person I want to be, if I did not stand up for my beliefs. I believe we should all be true to ourselves, whatever that means to us. That is why I decided to publish my Hometown Heroes as an indie publisher, (haha - got a writing reference in after all!) why I write sex scenes that take place behind closed doors, and, finally, why I will not be watching the Winter Olympics.

To each her own. Have a great Monday, friends.