eBook Reading and Writing

We warned you about about entrusting your romance writing dreams to Triskelion Publishing long before those other janey come latelys jumped on the bandwagon. Oh I forgot, we warned you back in March too.  

Well the latest rumor to hit the bits is Gail Northman is stepping down. I stress it is a rumor. Wouldn’t it be funny if it was a trick to smoke out which one of Gail Northman’s 200 best friends leaked the email about her family troubles?

We’ll have to wait and see. But remember you read it here first.

Phaze Books Writers Heat up the Chat Castle

This week the fun loving authors from Phaze Books join us for the weekly romance writer chats at Realms of Love.  Yeva Wiest, Monique Lamont, Victoria Blisse and Aurora Black chat with you, revealing their most intimate secrets and sharing the answers to the age-old mysteries of romance writing. You don’t want to miss this one! Be at Realms of Love, Monday, May 21 at 6 PM PDT/9 PM EDT. Be sure to register and/or log in,  

Monique Lamont’s Healing Hearts: Yasmine Sousa, a dietitian and co-owner of Healthy Fit, finally out of a bad marriage has sworn never to trust her heart again. Struggling to fill her empty life, Yasmine desires to adopt a set of twins from an orphanage, but with her single life the possibility of her dream becoming a reality is fading fast. Until she meets Jason Richardson, an overworked business executive who has a heart attack. Sparks fly at their first meeting and neither care to see each other again. Then Jason finds out he’s up for the position of vice president, but his boss has concerns about his health and tells him if he wants the job, he needs to get a life.

After repeated accidental meetings, with Jason’s career on the line and Yasmine’s maternal future hangs in the air, Jason convinces her they should marry. Reluctant, Yasmine finally agrees but in name only. Soon neither of them are able to fight the sensual pull between them. It’s one thing to give their bodies, but will either of them believe in what they could have permanently to allow their hearts to be healed?

Victoria Blisse will tell us about Masquerading Hearts: Laura craves revenge. After  Jacks betrayal with a bitchy blonde she can think of nothing but avenging her broken heart. In the drive for closure she moves from one night stand to one night stand fueling the pain not quelling it as her conflicting emotions for Jack still run riot within her.

Reluctantly attending a party she finds herself seduced by a sexy stranger but as they move to the bedroom, Jack enters…Will a foursome bring the closure she needs? Is Jack the only one who can fix the heart he broke? or is this all just another act in this erotic
masquerade?

Yeva Wiest teases us with Paybacks are Hell: What is the best way to get revenge on an ex-boss? Woo the boss’ sexy daughter. (F/F content)

Aurora Black gives us I Heart You. Rachel Malone has it all: beauty, brains and talent. She has brought the world of erotic romance to its knees, but something crucial is missing from her life: a man to play power games with. One night at a routine book signing, she finds the spice she needs in the form of Lucian Drake. Sinfully handsome and more erotic than any hero she’s ever written, he is the perfect man to help her live out her wildest fantasies.

When a copy of Rachel’s latest steamy offering finds its way into his hands, Lucian Drake can’t rest until he meets the woman behind the sensual words. He longs to experience her passion and lose himself in the enigmatic depths of her eyes. As their torrid affair deepens into love, danger lurks in the shadows as someone tries to tear them apart… literally.

Want to chat with other folks who enjoy romance reading and writing? Join us at Realms of Love each Monday at 9 PM EDT/6 PM PDT. It’s easy and it’s fun.

This article was reprinted from Realms of Love. You can find out more about the whirlwind we call Lena Austin at Lena’s website. 

How do I do what? Stay organized? It’s because of those 13 releases that I manage. I’ve had time to develop a system that works for me. It’s not perfect, but it works.

There are rules anyone can follow for their own system:

1. Handle it once- If you have a piece of paper, read it, do what needs to be done, then file it. “Pile-o-mania” develops due to procrastination. This is especially true for tax-related items. I have a pocket shoe organizer on the back of my office door. Receipts and other tax related items are filed in the pocket matching that deduction category the very day I bring them home. At tax time, I total each category, stuff the reciepts in a clasp envelope matching that category, and write the total on the outside. (My accountant loves me, because I can email her a report with all figures neatly totaled without an appointment.)

2. Learn and use the concept of prime real estate- Your desk surface is prime real estate. That’s where all the action takes place. If you don’t use something daily, it doesn’t belong on the desk. The further away from your desk, the less the item is used. For instance, I use my bell timer and my thesarus daily. They stay on the desk. I use my index card file at least once a week. It is on the shelf above my desk. I rarely (monthly or longer) use certain binders. They are in a bookcase in the closet in my office, out of sight but accessible. A giant wipe off calendar is above my desk for easy visual access.

3. Code/Label everything. I use color codes to mark everything, from my files in the file cabinet to my dayrunner. Pink for Personal, Blue for family, Yellow for Promo, Green for Business, Orange for Miscellaneous, and so on. I own a Brother P-Touch label maker for clear, easy to read labels even with my very poor eyesight. (I’m nearly blind, you see.)

4. Take the time to prioritize daily. I use a spiral notebook. Each sheet has been divided off into color codes (see above) using highlighter boxes, four lines per color. Each sheet has a day/date at the top. If I have a chat on the 5th, I put that task in the yellow box of that date. A crit partner meeting? The orange box. Need to turn in a cover art request? Green box. Every morning while I mumble over my first cup of java, I move the uncompleted tasks from the day before, then assign priority numbers for each task in each color code.

5. “Take 15″/Power Hour- Even the most hated task can be tolerated for 15 minutes. I set my bell timer for 15 minutes, and usually when it goes off, I’m done or so close I can finish up with a feeling of accomplishment. This works for almost any task, but some get a “Power Hour.” Writing gets a “Power Hour” where I shut off the browser and IM programs, turn on the CD player, and lose myself.

Do I follow these rules to perfection? No. Not by a longshot. Every month or so, the piles develop, junk accumulates, and I have to spend one of those Take 15’s cleaning my desk back to a pristine state, and filing things I should have done immediately. Hey, nobody is perfect. LOL!

Lena Austin

Here are some tips from Sandra Hicks, Editor and Publisher of Aspen Mountain Press.

Make no mistake; e-marketing is as hard as writing, maybe harder. It’s just different. You need to do your homework.

What is the assignment then? Who is your audience? What are your tools? How often do you communicate and do you communicate something of value to your fans on a regular basis?

Who is your audience?

Check your website statistics and see where your unique visitors are coming from. Having a large number of “hits” is misleading. You want a large number of unique visitors, visitors that stay and read your excerpts. Your web host or webmaster should be able to help you determine how long visitors stay on particular pages, where they connected with you from, and what pages they visited.

Ask your publisher what is selling the best at your company. They should be able to tell you if the bulk of the clientele is male or female.

Seek out those who write in a similar genre to yours, both in print and in electronic versions. Visit your local bookstore and ask the manager what is selling. Determine if the titles you hear are similar in nature to what you are writing. Take a look at the successful stories being sold at Amazon.com. The listings are ranked in order of sales.

Ask your readers to fill out a small survey. Ask their age, sex, location (country) and preferred genre. You might even include a generic bracketing for income or education levels. Ask readers how they heard about you and / or your release.

Join some of those e-community loops. A loop is a collection of individuals who send and receive email. You may get your emails individually, in a digest form, or from the loop website. Get to know the people there. You’ll be surprised at how many of these people are women, thirty and older who are reasonably web savvy. They may not post a lot, but they read the emails (called lurking).

You have a particular style of story you write. You may have a particular subject area that frequently shows up in your stories. Generally speaking, sticking to a particular style or including similar elements builds your reputation in that area and will attract a growing number of readers. By branding yourself, readers know what they are getting when they read your work.

What are your tools?

Website

The number one tool of an electronic author is a web site. There is no getting around it. You need one. Many authors also use MySpace, FaceBook and geocities free of charge. Websites can be as expensive or inexpensive as you want. Buy a domain name, using your name or penname if at all possible and keep it in force. Domain names run about $4-$12.00 a year. Some sites will also purchase other names that are similar to theirs in order to prevent knock-offs.

A website is hosted by an outside service that provides bandwidth and a server that holds your website pages. Some services are free but limit you in content or actual space. Paying a host can cost as little as $5. per month.

Blogs

Successful blogs have an “article” posted several times a week. Groups of authors have banded together to lessen the time commitment but these sites are still updated regularly. Blogging builds a community where readers have the opportunity to find out more about authors and their work. Free blogs are available at places like wordpress.com, blogger.com, and livejournal.com.

Banners

Banners at high visibility sites such as Fallen Angel Reviews (fallenangelreviews.com) and The Romance Studio (theromancestudio.com) help attract readers to you. They run approximately $15 a month.

Take a peek at other authors’ websites who write in a genre similar to yours. Where do they advertise? Who do they advertise with? Do they display books covers or banners at those places? Investigate and see if you want to pay for advertising at those other sites.

Loops

Usually your electronic publisher has a loop where readers congregate. Participate there.

Loops aren’t limited to publishers. Some are geared toward specific genres (do a yahoo search for your genre), while others are associated with review sites. Often these sites hold special days. Author days and days geared toward a specific publisher or a specialized theme are common.

Some loops are particular as to when you can post “advertisements”. Respect their rules. One loop with over 500 members is Romance Excerpts Only (romanceexcerptsonly-subscribe@yahoogroups.com). They have theme days as follows:

Monday - Paranormal/Fantasy

Tuesday - Suspense/Mystery

Wednesday - Contemporary (no para/suspense)

Thursday - Historical/Inspirational

Friday - Futuristic/Sci-Fi

Saturday - Grab Bag/Any Genre

Sunday - Anthologies/Short Stories/REO Recommended Reads

Most of these loops will tell you on their front page what they expect. For instance, Fallen Angels has this to say:

If you would like to donate to FAR Chatters or schedule an author/publisher day, you can contact us @ farchatters@fallenangelreviews.com. Please respect the forum and do not post promos during scheduled author/publisher days.

Tag lines are the little phrases you have beneath your name when you sign an email. Some sites limit you in how many lines you can have. Three or four is really enough. Include your website address and the name of your latest book. Remember, if your website is up-to-date, the reader can go there and find the link needed to purchase your book.

Start your own loop. Go to yahoogroups.com and follow the directions for starting your own group. You can use your author name, or another name that more closely represents your brand. Build interest in your group by holding contests, or mentioning the loop on other loops being sure to follow proper protocol.

Chats

Several sites give authors a chance to talk about their books in a live chat forum. These chats can have as few as four or five people attending to twenty, thirty or more. Romance Junkies and Realms of Love are two places that hold regular chats. Some chat arenas are free while others charge. Yahoo groups also has a chat feature, but it tends be slow and frustrating.

Chats serve as the equivalent of a virtual book signing. They can be as successful or unsuccessful as the energy you put in to promoting the event. Frequently, authors will have a prize for a drawing, often a copy of their electronic book.

How often do you communicate and do you communicate something of value to your fans on a regular basis?

Readers love excerpts. Post them. And always, always, always, post them with the purchase link. Check your contracts to see how long your excerpts are allowed to be. Some publishers allow you to post 10%. Others have a word count. Still others have a combination of the two. Many authors have the first couple chapters of their work on their websites.

One such site to post excerpts is Romantic Observer Save a copy of your excerpts with the purchase link in notepad. Notepad gets rid of the funky squiggles and stuff that sometimes shows up in email. Pay attention to the words in your excerpt that are italicized as notepad strips that formatting. You may also need to separate paragraphs, but once this is done, you can use your excerpt pretty much everywhere with a copy and paste.

Be personable. Sales are made or lost by the salesperson…that’s you. Tell people about what you have to offer. Get them curious about your writing. For instance, in The Sacred Glade by Diane Charles Linford, the question is asked “What if you had a chance to see how your life would have turned out like if you’d made a different choice when you were younger?”

Newsletters, blogs, loops…readers like to read about you. Not necessarily the five loads of laundry you had to do, but some of the struggles you may face. Trying to lose weight? Taking care of an elder? What about character chats and blogs? Have you considered allowing readers to ask your characters questions about why they made certain decisions?

Provide interesting links. At Realms of Love, there is a collection of links different authors have used for their research.

Cross pollinate. Interview other authors and post those interviews on your website, in your newsletter, or on your blog. Frequently, they will return the opportunity by interviewing you. Have banner exchanges. Share blurbs. Work together on contests. Recently, a group of authors participating in The Collector series for Loose-Id just held a month long contest, set up a special website just for the series, and shared in creating the grand prize. To see an example of what they did, visit http://www.collector-series.com/

Give something away…for free! Many authors have a free story on their web site. It may be a story in progress that enables them to bring readers back time and time again. And, you guessed it…the only place they can get it is through the vehicle you choose.

There are as many ways to promote as there are books to read. This is intended to give you ideas, a jumping point in boosting your sales and career. Some ideas will work, others won’t and still others you will tweak to fit your personality. By knowing your audience, applying the tools at your disposal and using frequent communication you’ll go a long way in increasing your web presence and drawing additional readers to you.

It’s important to know who you spend your money with. Before you spend money with Hyatt Hotels or Romantic Times, please read the facts of Laura Baumbach at the Romantic Times convention.    

Here’s some of the story:

By Thursday afternoon my promo was gone. I write gay erotic romance and fiction. I write in a RWA accepted genre. I’m at a romance conference. My writing wins awards. My books are on best selling lists on both Amazon and B&N. My work is good! I own a small press that print publishes only gay erotic romance and fiction, MLR Press. But I couldn’t find my promo and that of the other gay work I represent anywhere. ..

Sharon (Murphy, RT staff) denied RT involvement but they certainly didn’t do anything to support an author attending their conference. Instead they willingly, immediately consented. I paid almost $500 registration to attend this conference and promo my work, $1325 to be part of a special promo event, and hundreds of dollars on flights and hotel expenses but my tame, tasteful promo was removed!

First Sharon tried to blame in on the promo being on boxes and not the table but I pointed out that EPIC promo replaced my promo and was currently still on the boxes, so the placement was NOT a legitimate issue.

Then she said it was thought that it was more risque that anyone else’s. Sandy produced other promo items that included a naked woman on her knees in front of a naked man, a woman with her naked buttocks pressed to a man’s naked groin and other items that had bared male chests, bared male thighs and such just like ours. None of our promo had male couples on it except a few bookmarks and since they are yaoi it hard to tell what the sex of the characters. The same bookmarks were not removed from further down the tables. So appearance wasn’t a legitimate issue.

Apparently at a loss for an explanation that would satisfy me she expressed an opinion it was gay related, but that didn’t explain all promo with my name on it being removed, even the postcards for my single mainstream thriller.