Romance writers love boys. Bad boys especially. It's an occupational hazard. And I'm editing at the moment, so I'm spending a lot of time with boys.
Anboys.
An boys? If you have no idea who I'm talking about; you may be a vile user (like myself) of one of the most heinous (apparently) crimes against grammar in the known universe.
Yes, I'm talking about the comma splice.
I love comma splices, I could use them all day, they're great!
But they're not allowed.
Comma splices (which sounds like coffee slices, which I guess is why I like them) are instances where two sentences are incorrectly joined with a comma.
And this is where the boys come in. Yup, the international grammar hit squad, the anboys, will eliminate these pesky splices in less time than it takes to say semi-colon.
AND
NOR
BUT
OR
YET
SO
Stick one of these fellas between your splices, and you're good to go!
Or use a .!?;. Your choice.
Back to the usual programming when I've got this manuscript debugged!
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Friday, June 3, 2011
Getting published is only half the battle...
As regular readers know, my first book, Catch Me A Catch came out in July 2010. Since then, I've learned quite a lot about the business that I really wasn't aware of up until that point.
The hard truth of the matter is that it isn't enough to have written a good book, scored a good cover, and have it available on Amazon. All these things are vital, but not enough! After all, there are thousands of books available on Kindle and other ebook platforms, and the only way to sell decent numbers is to make yourself stand out in a crowded marketplace. Everyone has heard of the great sales of good writers who are powering through the bestsellers lists - but what is often absent is the fact that they are great marketeers, who have worked hard to build awareness of their product.
I find this difficult - as I guess many writers do. After all, we spend most of our time in the cave, rather than blowing our own trumpets!
So... here are some tips I've learned and applied....
1. Make sure you have an online presence before you sell. That means a blog, twitter, facebook etc.
2. Reviews of your book on Amazon are vital - both UK and US. The US version of Amazon sells ebooks into many countries (including Ireland), so you need to have reviews in both. Also, its worth remembering that most review sites take time to review your book (if they review it at all) so ideally need to have your book before it goes on sale, so that the reviews are done when your book goes live.
3. Good tags on your Amazon entries - and ask people to agree with your tabs, which will advance you up in the amazon listings.
4. Being shy and reticent to promote yourself doesn't work. You need to let everyone know when your book is out - shout it everywhere. If a few people buy it at the same time, you will shoot up in the listings, and appear on more lists, and this means more people will see your name and cover. Remember you are not so much promoting yourself as your book, and giving it the best chance to fly. Check out Kindleboards, accept every invitation, and blog tour you can find. The last thing you want to do is bore the pants off all your internet friends, or even worse, irritate with constant self promotion - but you need to let new people know about your work - so expand out!
Here's something I'm trying... I'll blog about results when I have 'em!
On June 10th Bound to Love is the featured book on Kindle Daily Nation. This means it will be mentioned on the site, which is automatically forwarded to interested readers, who receive the KDN newsletter on their Kindles. I haven't tried this before, but I'm hoping it will have a bump in my sales. The most important thing before KDN sponsorship is to have reviews of your book, because then people can see what others thought of it, which will help them in their decision to buy. These reviews don't have to be from professional reviewers, they can be from anyone who has read your book and has an opinion about it. KDN links to your US Amazon page, and I have 5 reviews there presently, which is just about the bare minimum. If anyone has read BTL and has been putting off doing a review, doing one before the 10th of June would be nice!
I'll report back on this in the week following June 10th to let you all know how I got on!
In the meantime, if you want to know how the big sellers are doing it, here are some good links to check out...
JA Konrath
Talli Roland
Catherine Ryan Howard
Amanda Hocking
The hard truth of the matter is that it isn't enough to have written a good book, scored a good cover, and have it available on Amazon. All these things are vital, but not enough! After all, there are thousands of books available on Kindle and other ebook platforms, and the only way to sell decent numbers is to make yourself stand out in a crowded marketplace. Everyone has heard of the great sales of good writers who are powering through the bestsellers lists - but what is often absent is the fact that they are great marketeers, who have worked hard to build awareness of their product.
I find this difficult - as I guess many writers do. After all, we spend most of our time in the cave, rather than blowing our own trumpets!
So... here are some tips I've learned and applied....
1. Make sure you have an online presence before you sell. That means a blog, twitter, facebook etc.
2. Reviews of your book on Amazon are vital - both UK and US. The US version of Amazon sells ebooks into many countries (including Ireland), so you need to have reviews in both. Also, its worth remembering that most review sites take time to review your book (if they review it at all) so ideally need to have your book before it goes on sale, so that the reviews are done when your book goes live.
3. Good tags on your Amazon entries - and ask people to agree with your tabs, which will advance you up in the amazon listings.
4. Being shy and reticent to promote yourself doesn't work. You need to let everyone know when your book is out - shout it everywhere. If a few people buy it at the same time, you will shoot up in the listings, and appear on more lists, and this means more people will see your name and cover. Remember you are not so much promoting yourself as your book, and giving it the best chance to fly. Check out Kindleboards, accept every invitation, and blog tour you can find. The last thing you want to do is bore the pants off all your internet friends, or even worse, irritate with constant self promotion - but you need to let new people know about your work - so expand out!
Here's something I'm trying... I'll blog about results when I have 'em!
On June 10th Bound to Love is the featured book on Kindle Daily Nation. This means it will be mentioned on the site, which is automatically forwarded to interested readers, who receive the KDN newsletter on their Kindles. I haven't tried this before, but I'm hoping it will have a bump in my sales. The most important thing before KDN sponsorship is to have reviews of your book, because then people can see what others thought of it, which will help them in their decision to buy. These reviews don't have to be from professional reviewers, they can be from anyone who has read your book and has an opinion about it. KDN links to your US Amazon page, and I have 5 reviews there presently, which is just about the bare minimum. If anyone has read BTL and has been putting off doing a review, doing one before the 10th of June would be nice!
I'll report back on this in the week following June 10th to let you all know how I got on!
In the meantime, if you want to know how the big sellers are doing it, here are some good links to check out...
JA Konrath
Talli Roland
Catherine Ryan Howard
Amanda Hocking
Friday, May 27, 2011
Brava's Writing with the stars contest!
Here's the skinny...
This year, we’re looking for original romance novellas of 15,000 – 20,000 words rather than full-length books. Submissions in any sub- genre will be accepted, providing they’ve never been published in print or ebook form and have a sensuality level suitable for our Brava imprint. (You know just how hot that is, because you’re our most loyal readers.) So that means historical romance, contemporary, paranormal or romantic suspense. We need your submission by midnight of August 15, 2011 – plenty of time for you to write the winning novella or polish up one you’ve already begun.
Once again, Brava authors and editors will narrow down the entries to our top eight contestants, and each of the writers selected will be given a Brava mentor to help her navigate the four challenges ahead. Romantic Times readers will be voting each month to narrow the field, and the winner will be announced at the awards ceremony of the RT convention in April, 2012. Here’s your chance to work with professional writers, publicize your story and win a contract with a New York publisher.
Sounds exciting, doesn't it? I'm not sure if its open to all, last years contest was open to only unpublished or those published by e-book, so check back to see. (I sure will be!) The link is here and there will be updates, apparently.
Fingers on keyboards.....
Update just in - contest for unpublished authors only : this is what the organiser said:
After a lot of hard thought, we’ve decided to limit entries to authors who have not published in either ebook or print form. We’d be happy to consider your project as a regular Brava submission though.
Check out the minxes on Friday, where I'll be doing a post rounding up some competitions!
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Back to life, back to reality...
I flew back on Thursday, and have been driving family here and there, supermarket shopping and catching up with the pile of washing ever since - ah, the glamour of it!
I also have edits in for the final third of Marrying Cade, which look completely do-able, although I need to rewrite one chapter....
So it's back to reality, and to work asap! Thanks for all the support and lovely comments through last week's excitement, everyone!
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Houseswapping with The Queen
Well, I'm getting packed and ready to fly over to England for the RNA summer party tomorrow. And the timing is quite good actually, because Her Majesty needed someone to mind her house for the two days that she's visiting Ireland, and so we're doing a house-swap.
It's not quite what she's used to...but her house is near to the party venue, and I'm very near to where she wants to be while in Dublin, so it seemed only sense.
I'm very excited, and dying to meet lots of blog friends finally, most especially lovely minx Lorraine.
I'll blog about it all when I get back.
In the meantime, there's an interview with me here, at To read, perchance to dream. Something I'll be doing a lot of tomorrow!
It's not quite what she's used to...but her house is near to the party venue, and I'm very near to where she wants to be while in Dublin, so it seemed only sense.
I'm very excited, and dying to meet lots of blog friends finally, most especially lovely minx Lorraine.
I'll blog about it all when I get back.
In the meantime, there's an interview with me here, at To read, perchance to dream. Something I'll be doing a lot of tomorrow!
Monday, May 16, 2011
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Who knows anything about audio books?
I don't listen to audio books. I guess I never really thought much about them, but today I've been listening to excerpts of romances read by a variety of people as teasers, and I noticed how different they can be.
I've also discovered that audio books can be unabridged or abridged. If they're unabridged, they are just as written, and if abridged sometimes 60% or as low as 30% of the story can be left after elements are tightened up, and in some cases, entire plot threads stripped away.
I'd love to know more from authors who've had experience in going through this process - I'm sure there are plus and minuses on both sides, and I find the whole thing rather interesting! If anyone's got anything to share, do comment!
On another note, I've had another lovely review just in for Bound to Love, this one from To Read, Perchance to Dream. You can read the entire here, or as usual, click on my reviews tab to read it.
I've also discovered that audio books can be unabridged or abridged. If they're unabridged, they are just as written, and if abridged sometimes 60% or as low as 30% of the story can be left after elements are tightened up, and in some cases, entire plot threads stripped away.
I'd love to know more from authors who've had experience in going through this process - I'm sure there are plus and minuses on both sides, and I find the whole thing rather interesting! If anyone's got anything to share, do comment!
On another note, I've had another lovely review just in for Bound to Love, this one from To Read, Perchance to Dream. You can read the entire here, or as usual, click on my reviews tab to read it.
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