First, let me state that I suck at promotion. Really. The whole concept of pushing myself and my books on people gives me the willies. But I was always bad at that. When I worked at Borders, if someone asked me for recommendations I had them, but if they didn’t ask, I wasn’t going to hand sell. Frankly, I think if you are uncomfortable doing something, then you shouldn’t do it. So my list of stuff may not be your list of stuff and you should not take my recommendations as the end all be all.
In that vein, this is what I do.
I blog. Here and on my own faux website. I to do Amused Authors every Friday and here and my own site whenever the fancy strikes me. This is maybe an hour or two a week.
I belong to a couple of forums. Romance Divas has been very helpful. I’m pretty active there and it’s a very supportive group. I also belong to All About Romance. I Do Not just go there to promo. That is the best way to alienate readers. I do have my website in my signature, but mostly I go there to chat about books or whatever. I also go to a band forum. I post there extremely rarely, but 95% of my post have been unrelated to my writing. Then there’s my publisher forums. Both Lyrical and Liquid Silver have forums and I try to pop in there.
I made sure my books were tagged on Amazon. Surprise, you have a book on Amazon, but nobody can find it because there are no tags. When this came up in a workshop my publisher did I thought, you have to be kidding me. I thought that was automatic. Nope. I looked up One Ring To Rule and there was nothing. So I tagged it myself. I also checked the most popular tags on Amazon and found that Romance and Comics were pretty high up. Since both applied, I used them. Don’t stick tags on your book just because they’re popular tags. Fifteen minutes per book?
I attend publisher events. Lyrical is big on events. Recently, they did the End of Summer chats which were a lot of fun and the monthly chats are pretty entertaining. Thus far I haven’t seen that much from Freya’s Bower or Liquid Silver. Maybe a few hours over the course of a month and when I’m in a chat, I usually have something else going on the desktop.
I contribute to the Lyrical newsletter. (Most of the time.) Lyrical does a quarterly newsletter and it’s open for all the Lyrical authors to submit. It’s free to receive and there’s interesting stuff in there. For me, it’s a lot of exposure to people who already know about ebooks and I get brownie points from the publisher because they don’t have to beg for material. An hour or 2 every three months.
I should be posting to a couple of Yahoo groups. It’s pretty easy since I out together a promosheet that I can copy and paste from. It takes a couple minutes a day.
I want to teach workshops. At heart, I’m a teacher. (I bet you couldn’t guess that.) I would love to do workshops or seminars so I could give back to the community. Notice I didn’t say I wanted to promote myself or my books. Nope, if you plan to do workshops, you should focus on the lesson, not your titles. Apparently there was a workshop at RWA Nationals this summer where the host spent the entire time promoting her online fee workshop. I have a feeling that maneuver lost her more clients than she can imagine.
Now, there are about 100 other things I could be doing that I’m not. As I stated at the beginning, these are the things I’m most comfortable with and most able to do. All of these things can be done online too. Currently I’m an ebook only author. Later in my career, I’m sure I will expand to live stuff, but for right now, I’ve figured out where my comfort zone is and I’m in it. But this is also why you talk to lots of other authors because all of them will have ideas. One of my friends is a relentless promoter. She’s unpublished, but she is working hard to establish her name and she comes up with group opportunities frequently. My publisher also volunteers things which is how I ended up doing NovelSpot Behind the Scenes.
I’m going to tell you the very best promotion you can have. It is the best thing to do ad will get you more sales. I have read countless surveys, both from authors and readers. The best promotion you can do is write the best book you can. Then write another one. And another one. Three Alarm Tenant came out in May. First month sales are always good. June the figures followed the predictable downward curve. July I had freakishly good sales. I didn’t do anything. And I mean bupkis. I was busy controling the chaos that is my life, finishing a book and enjoying summer. I was not online promoting. The only thing that happened in July was Liquid Silver acquired Trio and started promoting it. Trio is written under my other pen name, Belle McClain, because it’s a very different heat level and I don’t want to freak anybody out. However, my website addy was posted and apparently folks followed the breadcrumbs and decided to see what else I did. Quite a few of them plunked down money. Neat.
Feel free to ask questions if you need more info on something.
~Charlotte
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: writing, publishing, romance, fiction, reading, thanksgiving, book, author, Giveaway, contest, win, scavenger hunt, prize, paranormal, time travel, barnes & noble
Hello all. This being Thankgiving day, it feels like a great time to announce a special surprise I’ve been planning for my readers. A scavenger hunt! The rules for playing are explained below.
This is a Read, Play, and (hopefully) Win game. The prize is a $25.00 giftcard to Barnes & Noble.
Step #1. If you haven’t already, you’ll need to read all the way through my book Brought to Life. (You knew that was coming, didn’t you? I’m a sneaky, sneaky lady.) Brought to Life is a paranormal romance/time travel ebook that can be found here.
Step #2. Email me at: dara [at] daraenglandauthor [dot] com with the answers to these two questions (these answers can only be found in the book). *1. What is the name of the heroine’s roommate? *2. What famous author does the heroine meet at the end of the book?
Step #3. Wait. I’ll randomly select a winner out of those who answered correctly and will notify them via email on 1/1/10. If there are any questions, please post them below.
Happy hunting and happy holidays!
Cover for The Prescription Playboy
Using every weapon in her PR arsenal, Hunny battles her way through focus groups, the paparazzi, and old flames to rescue the reformed playboy who rescues her heart.
And so I introduce to you The Prescription Playboy my December 21 Lyrical Press release. Here have a tease:
Excerpt:
As she walked out of the airport newsstand, her cellphone rang Rule Britannia! She grimaced but managed to wrestle the phone out of the handbag just in time. “This is Huntington.”
“Good evening, Ms. Lewis. It’s Arthur.”
Hunny could read his voice as well as she could the magazine in her lap. Something had her boss tense. “It’s already been planes, trains, and automobiles, but it’s all right. I’m sure I’ll make it into the office for the meeting on time tomorrow. You know I don’t sleep much anyway.”
“Did you have an opportunity to peruse the file?” he prompted.
“Peruse? Yes.” When the other end remained silent, she continued. “I think I’m ready to do mock ups for the television and magazine campaign. I’ve also got some ideas for the web design. The only sticking point I have so far is the CEO. Normally not a big deal with a pharmaceutical company as long as he plays golf, gets his wife to head up a charity, and stays discreet with lobbying, but this guy…” Hunny took up her seat next to the older woman and thanked her with a quick winning smile. She set her drink and crackers down and started to thumb through the magazine as she talked. Arthur had a habit of wanting to talk to her non-stop when she was on large projects. She wondered absently if he did this to everyone else. Yes, probably. Hopefully he would get around to telling her what he really wanted.
She lost her train of thought, though, as what she was seeing began to register. Her mouth lolled open in a horrifying silent scream. A heartbeat passed, then two as she desperately skimmed the article. “You have got to be kidding me,” she said. Well, that’s what she meant to say, although she was pretty sure there had been some other not-so-nice words spliced into the sentence. She clapped her hand over her mouth and shot an apologetic look at the older woman who had watched her suitcase. Bad habit, that. Something about being away from the office gave her a foul sailor’s mouth. Her mama would have a heart attack if she knew.
“Arthur?”
“Yes, Ms. Lewis, I can only assume by your outburst that you’ve discovered our slight situation.”
“Slight?” Her tone was dry, incredulous. Arthur was uncharacteristically stalling. “Arthur Adam.”
“Yes, Ms. Lewis?”
“Did you call to discuss our slight situation?” For a moment he was silent. Her heart started to race in anticipation.
“I was hoping to get in touch with you before you found out,” he began. “However, you are—as usual—advanced in your information.”
“Not as advanced as I’d like to be, I assure you. For example, I don’t care that he’s featured in four photos with four different women. But, I’d like to have been there to tell that jackass to keep it in his pants before he got involved with someone who worked for the Food and Drug Administration and was, at the time of the indiscretion, the girlfriend of star running back, Devon McAteer.”
So much for keeping a low profile, golfing, giving to charity, showing a staid, conservative image. Hunny couldn’t stop staring at the picture of the gorgeous man with brilliant white smile and the elegant beauty pictured beside him. She was tall and rail thin with thin lips, brows, nose and brown eyes. She wore a champagne-colored dress that melted against her cinnamon kissed peaches and cream complexion. She wore her straight black hair in a fashionable, tidy French roll making her look like Lena Horne in her prime. The woman was looking at him with such longing in her eyes.
He, all bulky and charismatic, was looking at the camera. Hunny almost felt like his eyes were right on her. He was dark-skinned, clean cut in his fastidious black tuxedo. That he was tall and his body thick and muscled was undeniable even in print. And that smile, that face. His jaw was square to frame full, soft-looking lips parted over strong white teeth. His black eyes were large and expressive. She breathed once, twice. She would stay quiet until she trusted herself to speak again. He was probably the most handsome man she had ever seen.
She reread the caption beneath the picture of him and Nicole Davidson. Two weeks ago, this picture was taken only two weeks ago. “What was he thinking?”
“Well…” Arthur started. Hunny had almost forgotten him on the other end of the line. “We’ve seen this before Huntington. In some industries, executives don’t always understand their own celebrity. And even when they are in the limelight, in many instances, people like to think of CEOs as, well, bon vivants.”
“In this industry, this CEO does not have to be a celebrity. He’s turning himself into one, and not—might I add—in a good way. And as far as being a CEO who’s a black James Bond type playboy—not a bon vivant as you so tactfully put it—I’m sure we can get him to sell tons of birth control and male enhancement gel—”
“Ms. Lewis.” Arthur gasped. “Let’s not forget that this multi-million dollar company wants us to help it become a multi-billion dollar company. Let’s also not forget this enterprise provides something no other pharmaceutical company can offer. And finally, let’s not forget this is your career. Your job is to either tuck this CEO away or clean up his image.”
Hunny nodded, though Arthur could not see it. “Yes,” she agreed vocally. She had to pull it together. She’d had harder assignments. Besides, it was only a little part of a little column. Though, she didn’t subscribe to the theory that any publicity was good publicity, she had to admit this was the only place she’d seen the article.
“Besides, the ended relationship isn’t the big problem.”
With those words, the hair stood up on the back of Hunny’s neck.
–
Look for it at http://www.lyricalpress.com/the_prescription_playboy
Grayson Reyes-Cole
With One Ring, it was really an unconsidered decision. I saw the call for submissions, volunteered myself, and sent it in. Keep in mind that One Ring was: a novella, a sweet romcom and written by an unknown. Those three strikes alone would have made it hard to place from the get go and an agent wouldn’t have wanted to touch it. Agents are in business to make money and the money to be made off One Ring just wasn’t there.
I think the only question I asked was: Really? You want it? Not very professional, huh? The contract they sent me is the one I signed. I read it over carefully. I had my husband read it (as a freelance artist he’s signed several.) Over the years, I’ve had contact with a lot of writers and have heard their contract horror stories, but I didn’t find anything in the contract that set my alarm bells ringing. In fact, when Lyrical hit a bump a few months later and had send out an addendum to the original, I signed it without hesitation.
Essentially the same thing happened with my other contracts. Before I submitted to each of those publishers, I had a baseline on them. I knew other authors who worked with them and knew that they were essentially happy. They all had track records. Honestly, the only thing that threw me about any of the contracts was how to sign the one from Liquid Silver. With both Lyrical and Freya’s Bower, I had to print it out, physically sign it and mail it back to an address. Liquid Silver only wanted me to type my name in on the electronic document and email it back. Weird.
As a writer, you do hear a lot of horror stories about publishers stealing work or making unreasonable demands in their contracts. You also come across individual writers who get angry about something and making a big stink about it. I’ve read terrible things about all my publishers, but I have the personal history to dismiss those claims. That is why you need to have several reliable sources of information. One person’s affront is another’s so? This is where researching ahead becomes very helpful. Then you don’t end up with a contract in your hands that demands your first born. It’s up to you to do the neccessary legwork.
So why not take Three Alarm Tenant, The Rock Star’s Retreat and Trio to an agent? They’re full length, the potential was there to interest an agent.
Well, Three Alarm Tenant had a sequel. (In fact, my editor recently told me I wasn’t allowed to make her wait long for the next installment.) Since I wanted to see all the books in the series published, I decided to go with the tried and true: Lyrical. I was dubious that an agent would be able to place all 4 of the books. (Um, there might be more. I have a couple of ideas for Arden’s police department too.)
The Rock Star’s Retreat didn’t have a sequel (at that time) and neither did Trio (it still doesn’t.) However, knowing I would have to put as much energy into my agent search as I had into my publisher search, I was a little hesitant to jump on that. It was much easier for me to do it myself. I do plan to start the agent search, but just haven’t yet. In the meantime I have projects I have written for epub.
~Charlotte
When you’re writing you fall under the spell of ‘Gee I hope some publisher will pick up my book.’ It’s very easy to fall into the trap of giving the publishers all the power and wasting a lot of time. There are a lot of publishers out there and you need to do your research. I do not – DO NOT – advise anyone to go with any publisher lightly or blindly. Ideally, you want to find a publisher you can build a relationship with. Don’t go with the biggest just because they are the biggest and don’t go to the smallest just because you don’t think you can get into the biggest. You wouldn’t buy a pair of jeans without making sure they were the right size and you shouldn’t pick a publisher that way either. To that end, I’m going to explain why I went with the publishers I have.
One Ring To Rule. I’ll admit that I didn’t research Lyrical before subbing to them. I made a comment to the publisher on a forum and felt obligated. However, everyone is entitled to a lucky break. One Ring is short so I never expected to get it published anyway. Lyrical has been amazing. The royalty statements are on time. The payments show up right when they say they will. Concerns are addressed immediately. They do a lot of promo work setting up events and sending out review copies. Communication is always open. It is a very small house so the sales maybe aren’t what they would be elsewhere, but they are already thinking like a big house, so over time I expect them to grow.
Three Alarm Tenant. I thought long and hard about this one. It’s my baby and it had some credentials. It also came with baggage as it turned into a series with a book and a half finished beyond the first one. I could have gone with a traditional publisher which would have taken probably close to 2 years before the book was out and they may not have taken the other books. I could have gone to another epub which would have taken over a year and may not have taken the other books. Or I could go with Lyrical who would gladly take the other books. In the end, I went to Lyrical because I knew I would have their promo engine behind me and because I already had a relationship with them.
Spark Of Desire. The second Arden FD book automatically went to Lyrical. Plus, I was ordered by Emma to sub something else because she liked Three Alarm Tenant so much. When the Editor in Chief demands, the writer fulfills. Had this been an unconnected title I probably still would have taken it to Lyrical because it is the same type of sweet romance as the other two giving me a catalog in one place. I know the cover will be beautiful and the review copies will be sent out promptly without my having to do the legwork.
The Rock Star’s Retreat presented a slightly different problem. I wrote it to practice writing sex scenes so it didn’t fit in perfectly with the other books. I created a short list of larger epubs based on what they put out and how big they were. From there I went with my gut. Freya’s Bower appealed most of that list based on their size, track record, other authors I knew who had worked with them and their other titles. They snapped up Rock Star in record time. I had a bit of seller’s remorse, but I think that’s normal and I’m still happy with the decision.
Trio I subbed based on a call for submissions from Liquid Silver. A call for submissions means the publisher has targeted an audience and needs titles to sell to it. I had a title on my harddrive that fit which I wrote simply because I wanted to know if I could get three people into a relationship with a happy ending. Liquid Silver is also very author centered. (They sent me an email on my birthday wishing me a happy one.) I know several authors who are happy with them.
As odd as it may sound to someone who wants to be published and isn’t yet, you pick them as much as they pick you. Do not start subbing with the attitude of “please somebody publish me!” You must think about where your book is going to do best. It goes way beyond what the submission guidelines say they will accept. If a house claims to take sweet romance, but mostly publishes horror, they aren’t going to have the audience for the same reason vegans don’t eat at Outback Steak House. Choose wisely.
~Charlotte
Me, Aubrey Leatherwood, of course!
Hi All,
As a part of Phaze’s 5 Year Anniversary, I have a free read offered up for your enjoyment, it’s short and sweet, and a very compact sample of what I do for you:
Here’s a bit about the story and the link if you’d like to take a peak! 
About “Direct Connect ” by Aubrey Leatherwood
Shawn has the hots for his boss… who just happens to be a tech genius. She’s only interested in her computers and keeping her distance. But Shawn has decided it’s time to make a Direct Connect.
Link: http://www.phaze.com/anniversaryreads/DirectConnect.pdf
Dime
©2009
Genre: Contemporary Erotica
ISBN: 978-1-60659-520-6
Blurb:
Never in a million years would Nicole Donaldson have imagined she’d become a rapper. But when the reserved middle-manager gets caught up in a lark with her Prince-obsessed brother, she’s offered a music deal by hot music producer, Baron Odom. Nicole doesn’t know what to make of her entrance into a world and lifestyle she’s disdained from afar. She also can’t quite wrap her mind around the quickly deepening attraction she has to Baron. Can she resist the call of the stage? The call of her heart?
Excerpt:
I needed to lie down.
Lorenzo seemed to find this amusing and said something about overindulgence once a year being fine by him as he followed me upstairs to let in a guest who’d buzzed. At the door,
But I kept it in check. Baron was a little bigger than life. Literally. He was a tall, broad fellow packed with muscle. He was handsome as hell, but not at all my type. He looked like a thug, and I’m not interested in thugs. Typically. True enough, I wouldn’t mind a physical match or two with him, but I knew this type of guy and there was nothing to suggest we might be anything close to compatible.
The men I dated tended to be more cerebral. I met a fellow who struck up a conversation with me in the Western Civilization section of the bookstore. Another while ordering coffee at the shop around the corner from the office. They were in professional jobs like mine. Middle managers, technology specialists. They wore khakis and button-downs and carried PDAs that were actually for business and not downloading forwarded porn. Or at least the downloading forwarded porn.
But I digress. I had certainly had a special moment or two alone thinking about Baron, but I knew better than even trying to get close to that.
I nodded a greeting. He nodded back even though his eyes seemed to follow me.
Buy Link: http://www.king-cart.com/Phaze/product=Dime/exact_match=exact
Aubrey Leatherwood
www.aubreyleatherwood.com
FaceBook * MySpace
Dime
Available today from Phaze Books
Imperfection
A tale of perfect commitment, perfect love… and perfect sex.
The People You Know, The Sex They Have
ROMANTIC TIMES NOMINEE FOR BEST CONTEMPORARY EROTICA 2008
ISBN: 978-0-9818905-0-0
Filed under: fiction | Tags: aubrey leatherwood, dime, erotica, hip hop, music, mysogyny, rap
I love asking this question! When I asked a little while ago I got the most creative and amusing answers. Here are some examples:
1) What you use in a payphone (uhhh, not anymore folks
2) What you drop when you rat someone out to police
3) A bag (don’t say it)
However, in my upcoming Phaze release, a Dime is a woman. A gorgeous, preening thing in the commercial hip hop world whose sole goal is to look her best so she has every man looking, wanting, lusting… and willing to pay. It comes from the value of the coin, 10. A Dime is a 10.
Nicole, however considers herself as far away from a dime as one woman can get. She is fed up with what much of commercial hip hop chooses to glorify about women.Too many times she hears the cycle in song: girl looks good, girl has great sex, girl demands money. Nicole is not tuning in anymore. She’s going to her nine to five and behaving herself determined to represent a woman who is attractive… but smart, who likes a nice shoe… but won’t shell out the mortgage on a pair.
Still, getting away from a dirty beat proves difficult for a girl born with music in her blood, and after a lark in her brother’s studio, Nicole finds heself embedded deep in the rap game. Before she knows it, she’s being billed as a body, a face, and she’s got one sexy producer ready to make dreams she didn’t know she had come true.
Now, what’s a Dime to do about that?
Check it out. This Dime drops on Novemeber 2, 2009 at www.phaze.com .
Aubrey Leatherwood
Filed under: new release | Tags: book, erotic fiction, Lesli Richardson, new release, Tymber Dalton
Woot! It’s release day! “Love Slave for Two: Beginnings,” (writing as Tymber Dalton) the prequel to my bestselling series, is now officially available at Siren-BookStrand!
