Big Book Sale

If you follow me on Twitter (and you should), you know that If It Was New York, Summer 2009 is on sale for just $0.99 the entire month of June. However, what you may not know is that all of my titles are on sale for $0.99 in June. A pretty good bargain*, if I do say so myself. Check out the links below to find your favorite ebook retailer:

If It Was New York, Summer 2009: https://books2read.com/u/mBro0O

Seeing What Develops: https://books2read.com/u/3k0WzL

Unfolding Life:  https://books2read.com/u/4DAAvQ

A Note on Amazon

To be clear, the $0.99 sale price point may or may not be on Amazon. If you wade through all of the advice like I did when it comes to price changes on Amazon without being in KDP Select, it's sometimes better to not change the price and let the market do it's thing. If you are dying to get it at this price and only from Amazon, you can always tell Amazon about a lower price (I believe there is a link on each book's Amazon page to report this). From reading through other experiences, I see that sometimes this gets Amazon to lower the price to match other stores, sometimes it doesn't. We shall see what happens.


*psst! You can get an even better bargain if you sign up to be a 2019 All-Star on Patreon. For just $1 a month, you can get access to digital downloads of all three titles, plus my three out-of-print Kindle Worlds novellas all bundled together.

Haunting Melody Now Available #newrelease

Great news! You can now get The Callaways: Haunting Melody (Melody of Love #2) from Amazon. Technically you could have purchased it yesterday--my schedule was a little heavy and this was the first chance I had to write a blog post. I hope if you've enjoyed Melody of the Love that you'll pick this one up as well. Book number 3 is in the works, and that will conclude Mel and Austin's story.

And that project I chose for October? It's going to be Verses and Vows, another one in the chick lit sphere. I'm reading over my first draft from a couple of NaNos ago, and I keep seeing one thing--I hurriedly write to get the story out, and it's always too short. I managed 30k (didn't win NaNo that year, did I?!). I seriously envy writers who can churn out 70k+ in their first drafts, then have to go in a cut. I always have to think of things to add.

Anyway, that's what I'm concentrating on. I've found a small press (more of an indie collective) that I would like to present this project to, so this one is getting all my attention for awhile. We'll see what happens...

A Valentine from Me to You

I told you I had a freebie coming up. And here it is:



Synopsis:
Lindley Neil is perfectly happy working as a photographer's assistant in her small, Midwestern town. As her boss Lexi LaPort starts getting bigger and better gigs, Lindley gets to follow Lexi around to L.A. and New York to photograph movie stars and models. What she didn't expect was to fall in love. Twice.
With a movie star and a prominent journalist vying for her affection, Lindley also knows that her job with Lexi won't last forever. Lindley has to choose her own path, even though it means she has to break someone's heart. Will it end up being be her own?

Get your ebook copy now through February 14 to enjoy it for FREE! Happy Valentine's Day!

Many Plans in Place

As you can see, I've planned out my next three and a half months of writing projects and some marketing stuff to go along with it. I've never been so organized about my own writing in my life. I usually save my organizational skills for my day job. I knew that if I just gave myself solid deadlines, it wouldn't work. I have to see the space between today and the deadline to make sure I stay on track. If all goes according to plan, Seeing What Develops will be released soon and I'll have plenty of drafts on the road to publication in 2016.

Of course all of this planning makes me think about my future, so I was looking for ways to supplement my income doing what I do best. I had the idea of offering services on Fiverr, but for the price of the work (and the service fee subtracted from price), it had to be something within my time constraints. I want to offer a book spotlight on this blog or Book Review Bin, but my biggest concern is my followers will think it's too many posts. I may have to limit the amount of spotlights I do per week, but I think it can be a great way to help other authors with exposure. I'll get back to you on this one once I have my job posted.

Until next time, Folks...

Because I Like a Challenge

I'm sitting here, day after day telling my lovely readers about the books I have for sale (Unfolding Life and Melody of Love, if you have forgotten) and about my upcoming project (Seeing What Develops). But I can tell you that my mind is miles ahead of all these things. I'm already editing, revising and working up the marketing for more projects to come. That's where I'm running into the most common problem a writer can have: staying in a single category or branching out to a new genre.

Right now, my work falls into the categories of romance and chick-lit, which often go hand in hand when it comes to sales and the type of reader interested in it. I like writing in these genres. They are fun and light. Personally, I like to read this stuff right after a heavy literary novel or a long biography to break things up on my reading list. But this isn't all I write. I have suspense novels in various stages of completion. I have also started something I still can't categorize but may end up in literary fiction, though it seems to have elements of an alternate world--just not alternate enough to be categorized as fantasy.

Like my reading list, I don't think my writing should have too much of one genre back to back. That, and I'm having a difficult time realizing I'm in a writing rut when it comes to assigning characters professions--I seem to use the same three in all of my romance/chick-lit. While I'm working that out, I'm going to get my first suspense novel ready.

Writers approaching a change in genre can do two things: they can hide it or they can embrace it. I'm choosing to embrace this change, even if it means having to build a whole new readership. I think the readers who like my romance would still enjoy my suspense trilogy, though they have to wait longer for the romantic payoff. Some writers hide a genre change behind a pseudonym and never mix their marketing between different types of readers. This is often the advice for readers who don't have a huge fan base in either category.

Nope. Not going to hide. I'm going to make that turn into suspense and hope my readers will follow me there. Of course, I'm also looking forward to picking up more readers along the way.

The Cover Reveal: Seeing What Develops #novel #coverreveal

Here you go. Let me know what you think!

Kindle Scout and Write On -- Can These Programs Help Indie Authors?

I pose the question in the title of this post for purely selfish reasons. I have two novels deep into the revision process and if I want to use Kindle Scout or Write On for either of them, now is the time to decide.

Kindle Scout
If you aren't familiar with either of these programs offered by Amazon to authors, here's what I know about them. Kindle Scout is is program where you can submit your manuscript (with cover art and all that other good stuff) and have a 30-day campaign to see if readers are responding to your book synopsis and cover. They nominate the ones they want to see published and at the end of the campaign, a select number of books are chosen by the Kindle Scout team to be given a publishing contract with Kindle Press. The terms include a 5-year renewable contract, a $1500 advance, an ebook royalty rate of 50% and marketing through Amazon. Sounds amazing, right?

There are plenty of drawbacks to this program too. First, if you have a huge following, you can get a ton of your peeps to nominate your book whether it's good or not. Although getting the most nominations doesn't guarantee publishing, it could sway the Powers That Be of it's potential sales. Then, you have to write to specific categories listed. They currently don't have categories beyond their bestsellers, such as romance, suspense and thriller.

Getting deeper into the guidelines and agreements, you have to give up exclusive rights to consider your manuscript for 45 days. And if chosen for a contract, Amazon has the discretion to shop the rights for foreign language translations, third-party licensing, any rebranded version of ebook and audiobook of your work, and other control you may not have known you had with your manuscript. The details provide a range of royalty rates that will be provided by Amazon for these other editions, but the terms of what they can do with these are not negotiable.

The biggest potential for any author considering this is probably the promise of Amazon marketing and promotion. Reading the fine print, your book may be eligible for this type of marketing, but nothing is guaranteed. Another part of this process that isn't getting quite as much hype is that if your manuscript is chosen, the Kindle Scout team does work with authors on editing to get the manuscript as great as it can be.

I've read plenty of first-hand accounts of the Kindle Scout process, and I think that the first book of my trilogy In Another Life would have the best shot at winning a publishing contract. And even though it seems small, that $1500 advance would go a long way in getting me back on track (and convince people that getting paid for writing does happen). I'm just not sure that I could rally a large enough group to nominate the book without totally spamming my social media accounts.

WriteOn
WriteOn is a bit different. I actually didn't know anything about this program until I received an email last week, although the program has apparently been around for a few months. The email was very short and kind of just said, "Hey, try this out." I looked and saw something that I've definitely seen before. WriteOn by Kindle looks a lot like Wattpad, however, it is a program that serves a different purpose. WriteOn is a place where you can essentially have a virtual writing workshop, but instead of trying to get feedback from other writers, you are getting feedback directly from readers. With Wattpad, what I have experienced is that people just want their stories read, not necessarily any criticism, no matter how helpful it may be. But to be fair, I don't spend a lot of time on Wattpad, so I may be wrong about that.

In theory, this is great--readers and writers are getting together to make the stories better. In practice, I still have a hard time showing what I think isn't my best work to a bunch of strangers to make it better. I also have a problem with anyone going to the site and being able to read it. Yes, there are protections in place so no one can copy it, but only the ability to comment requires a username and password. I do agree with this blog post that assigning the ASIN before publishing and connecting this service to Goodreads would make it much more helpful for writers and more accessible for readers.

I thought my currently untitled chick-lit novel that I'm revising would work well for this service. I still don't have much of a beta reader list, and this could be a great way to get feedback on the areas where I think a good beta reader could help. However, getting people to read it and give it well thought out feedback might be an uphill battle, especially since it still isn't a popular service.

As much as indie authors don't want to admit it, Amazon rules our world whether we use their services and programs or not. That is why I'm seriously considering trying both of these out because with my current book sales and promotional marketing efforts, what do I have to lose?

Have you tried either of these services? Would you put your novel to the test on either platform? 

Onto The Next Project

Yesterday I spend some time looking at half written manuscripts and first drafts. Guess what? There was something in the pile that didn't make me reconsider my whole career as a writer. The gem I'm talking about was last year's NaNoWriMo project--the only NaNoWriMo session I have completed so far (not counting the camps or the dearly departed Script Frenzy, of course).

Before I could change my mind, I put the project on the top of my revision list. It's getting the full I-love-you-I-hate-you-I-wish-you-would-die editing and revision process, and hopefully you'll be able to read it soon. I would love to tell you what the title is, but that's one of my major hurdles on this project. There's no title. There's already half of a cover design, but still no title. Yes, if you stalk my NaNoWriMo profile page there was a tentative title, but it sucks. Big time. However, if you are itching to get your hands on something, I can slip you a short synopsis. Ready?

Lindley Neil knows nothing but her small town. When her job as a photographer's assistant takes her Los Angeles and New York, Lindley is having the time of her life. She also meets a handsome man in each city who are both falling for her. Love is in the air, but which one will she choose?

Yes, clearly the synopsis needs revamped too, but I'm working on it.

It's really nice to have clearly defined goals. I'm glad I have one to concentrate on. 

Productivity is in the Eye of the Beholder

I've been quiet for a few weeks on this blog, and online in general. I've been trying to pull things together behind the scenes. This included taking projects to the next level and working on a variety of other tasks that aren't necessarily newsworthy, but are small steps to propel me forward in life. All a bunch of boring stuff, really.

The one thing that I am excited about is that NaNoWriMo isn't that far away. Just last week I wasn't sure I would participate this year. To be totally honest, last week I thought I would never write another word again. I was in a bit of a mood due to a range of people suddenly deciding to think that I only work for 10 minutes a day rather than 8-10 hours--and that this was the reason why I'm stuck and dreaming out of my league. Productivity, especially in writing, does not always have a lot of tangible results in the middle of the process. I'm making it my personal mission to get that through some thick skulls.

But thankfully over the weekend I had a very vivid dream that seemed to have such a good plot line I decided to use it for this year's competition. As with any other year, I'm hoping to win. I think I have a shot this year because once again, the plot falls deep into the category of chick lit. It's just something that's really fun to write and not super serious or has any highbrow meaning behind it.

I still have a month to go to get everything to fall in place--or as much as I can to get it the mindset for that lovely writing marathon.