Tag: publishing

Posted on

#WednesdayWisdom – Fear of Failure

There are lots of things that can hold you back in life, but one of the biggest ones, at least for me, is fear of failure. A lot of that fear has to do with my writing life, I must confess. It can be draining to put all your heart and soul into a book and see it tank. It leaves its scars and it leaves its fears, namely the fear of failure. What if I write another one again and the same thing happens? It becomes a roadblock to your creativity until you tell yourself, “You can’t succeed unless you’re willing to fail.” It may feel like falling off a cliff, but do it to regain your creative freedom.

I think another part of the problem is that once writing becomes a “career” you start measuring your success based on sales which is probably one of the worst things you can do. Sales don’t necessarily mean you’ve written a good book and vice versa. What’s important is that you wrote the book of your heart and if even one person writes to you to say they liked it, you’ve succeeded!

So that’s my wisdom for today! I hope you won’t let fear of failure in your life keep you from reaching for your dreams.
fear of failure
Original Image by Stefan Keller from Pixabay

Posted on

#WriteWed – Playing Genre Roulette

Some people may know that I started out writing contemporary romance. Eight of them in fact for Kensington Publishing’s defunct ENCANTO romance line. I had written those novels over the course of about three years and I wanted to challenge myself by writing something totally new and different. Being a fan of The X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I wondered what I would do if I mashed the two genres — suspense and vampires — and tossed in some romance as well. That’s how THE CALLING IS REBORN series was created. Little did I know I would be sucked into a world of both regular and paranormal suspense for the next ten years. WOW! But like I had before, I felt myself craving doing some different and definitely something lighter. That’s how ONE SUMMER NIGHT and WHAT HAPPENS IN SUMMER came about as well as the TAKE A CHANCE Military Romance novellas.

It is a risk to mix genres like that. For an author it’s like playing roulette because you never know if you’re going to have a winner and make a reader happy. Ultimately, that’s one of the big end goals – happy readers. But there is also another goal: loving what you do as a writer.

Will writing in multiple genres work? It has for some people, but I always caution first-time authors to focus on one genre for at least a few books. Develop a following before you go off and try something different. If readers like you, they will follow. If not…

Publishing is a crap shoot for sure. If you’re going to be a winner in the long run the most important thing is to be passionate about what you write.

Posted on

#FreebieFriday – Rookie of the Year

I LOVE BASEBALL! Yes, I had to shout it because it’s so true. I love watching and I love playing! I was a catcher for my high school team and my daughter played Little League all the way until she was too old for the league. Some of my fondest memories are of watching her play and of attending baseball games with her. No wonder I decided to write a baseball series! Today I’m offering you a freebie for ROOKIE OF THE YEAR, the first book in the series. I hope to release A WINNING SEASON in the next few months. You can download your freebie at https://claims.prolificworks.com/free/j7l1p.

I’m also going to ask a little favor. If you read the book, please leave a review. It really does help authors when you do that. Thank you!

Posted on

Indie-Publishing 101 #WriteWed

As I mentioned the other day, I’m so excited to have gotten back rights to over a dozen books that I had written from Harlequin. Many of them are paranormals including quite a number of books in THE CALLING vampire suspense series. Since this is a series of my heart it’s a big woo hoo. My goal is to re-release them over the course of the next several months, but that will take planning and some thought on how to position them since THE CALLING has always been a unique series. A little bit vampire, a little bit suspense. A little historical with the vampire backgrounds and a little multicultural with Chupacabras, Chiang shis and a Latino FBI Agent and her Scooby Gang.

That kind of planning and the self-publishing avenues available to authors is what I will be chatting about at this year’s Liberty States Fiction Writers Conference. I’m so looking forward to sharing what I’ve learned over the last several years of releasing my own books and hopefully offering aspiring authors useful information about how to move their careers forward. For more info on the conference, which also has a wonderful readers’ track, please visit www.lsfwriters.com.

The one word that keeps on coming back to me as being imperative is “planning.” We just had an awesome planning workshop at our monthly meeting this month and I know many of the attendees came away with good ideas on not only planning, but using technology to help them be more effective writers.

Right now I’m in the planning phases since I have to write a new book for a traditional contract and somehow work in new projects for the future as well as the indie publishing for the books which have reverted to me.

2019 is promising to be an interesting year and I’m looking forward to sharing all that happens with you!

Posted on

#TuesdayTip – Why Should You Consider the Traditional Publishing Route Today?

There are a lot of people who don’t think taking the traditional publishing route today makes sense. I’m not one of those people. Ever since my first experience in publishing when the line I was writing for was closed down, I’ve always thought it makes sense not to have all your eggs in one basket. For that reason when it became possible for me to try more than traditional publishing, I did, but I also kept my foot in the door in the traditional area because the market is too volatile to turn down opportunities of any kind.

In addition, who doesn’t want to get paid in advance and have the assistance of experienced editors, cover artists, formatters and publicists to help you produce your work? I, for one, love working with seasoned veterans who bring out the best in my writing. I also want to spend more time writing and not running a business, especially since I still work full time and my free time is limited.

So how do you get together with a traditional publisher considering many of them won’t talk to someone without an agent? Going to a conference where agents and editors take pitches is one way. Putting on my President’s hat, the upcoming Liberty States Fiction Writers conference has over a dozen agents and editors who will take pitches for various genres. Taking off that hat, the national RWA conference is also a great place.

But like I said, not all the eggs in one basket which is why I’ll be doing a workshop at Liberty States about box sets and also joining some friends to offer a similar workshop at the National RWA Conference.

And speaking of eggs and baskets, I’m trying something new with some fabulous writers – a story bundle! Here is the info on it and I hope you’ll take a moment to try it out.

A Little More About the Bundle

The initial titles in the Sorcery and Steam Bundle (minimum $5 to purchase) are:

  • Alchemy and Steam by Fiction River
  • Familiarity by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
  • Poison or Protect by Gail Carriger
  • Blood and Magic by Ann Gimpel

If you pay at least the bonus price of just $15, you get all four of the regular titles, plus SIX more!

  • Specters in the Storm by Pauline Baird Jones
  • Rare Stakes by Michelle Fox
  • Valkyrie’s Vengeance & Hunger Moon – Ragnarok: Doom of the Gods 1-2 by Melissa Snark
  • Ghosted – Nikki Ashburne – Book 1 by Dayle A. Dermatis
  • Alys of Asgard by Catherine Banks
  • For Love or Vengeance by Caridad Pineiro

This bundle is available only for a limited time via http://www.storybundle.com. It allows easy reading on computers, smartphones, and tablets as well as Kindle and other ereaders via file transfer, email, and other methods. You get multiple DRM-free formats (.epub, .mobi and .pdf) for all books!

It’s also super easy to give the gift of reading with StoryBundle, thanks to our gift cards – which allow you to send someone a code that they can redeem for any future StoryBundle bundle – and timed delivery, which allows you to control exactly when your recipient will get the gift of StoryBundle.

Why StoryBundle? Here are just a few benefits StoryBundle provides.

  • Get quality reads: We’ve chosen works from excellent authors to bundle together in one convenient package.
  • Pay what you want (minimum $5): You decide how much these fantastic books are worth. If you can only spare a little, that’s fine! You’ll still get access to a batch of exceptional titles.
  • Support authors who support DRM-free books: StoryBundle is a platform for authors to get exposure for their works, both for the titles featured in the bundle and for the rest of their catalog. Supporting authors who let you read their books on any device you want—restriction free—will show everyone there’s nothing wrong with ditching DRM.
  • Give to worthy causes: Bundle buyers have a chance to donate a portion of their proceeds to AbleGamers!
  • Receive extra books: If you beat the bonus price, you’ll get the bonus books!

StoryBundle was created to give a platform for independent authors to showcase their work, and a source of quality titles for thirsty readers. StoryBundle works with authors to create bundles of ebooks that can be purchased by readers at their desired price. Before starting StoryBundle, Founder Jason Chen covered technology and software as an editor for Gizmodo.com and Lifehacker.com.

For more information, visit our website at storybundle.com, tweet us at @storybundle and like us on Facebook.

Posted on

Wanted: Inspiration #WisdomWednesday #WriteWed

Now that I’ve got your attention . . . LOL!

I sometimes hear that a writer is waiting for inspiration or for the muse to hit to get started on a story. It makes me wonder what will happen if the muse is missing or that inspiration never materializes. It makes me wonder about what I write since I’m not the kind to sit and wait (for anything actually) and I just plopped my butt in the chair one day and decided to write.

Of course that was after a 5th Grade class assignment revealed to me that the stories in my head could become like one of the stories I loved to read. After writing my first book in the 5th grade, working on stories through high school, college and law school, it took a long time for me to say, “I’m finally going to do this.”

I haven’t looked back from that moment. I sat and I wrote. Every day. I didn’t sit and wait for inspiration and a muse because I’m the kind of person who believes that you make your own luck. That you control your destiny and that if you want something, you need to go for it full tilt like Don Quixote at the windmill.

Is it easy? Not always, in fact, most times not. There’s work and family and friends and a thousand other things that can pull you away from that story you want to write. You’ve got to want to write that story really bad and you’ve got to let the people in your life know that you want to write that story really bad. If they love you, they’ll understand and be supportive. They’ll celebrate with you when you say you’ve finished the story of your heart. They’ll hold you when you get that first rejection letter. They’ll be at your side when you get that box of books that says you’ve been published.

But that will only happen if you sit down and write, the muse be damned.

I’ll leave you now with a quote from a woman who was a friend, mentor, and most importantly, my mom: Nothing worthwhile is every easy.

Posted on

#ThrowbackThursday The Very First Book Signing & Thanks

It’s not possible to talk about reaching the ONE MILLION BOOKS SOLD mark (still can’t get over it) without talking about the very first one as well as some people who have been so very very instrumental in giving me the opportunity to write for you!

First of all, a big thank you to the fabulous Fern Michaels who took the time to read my first works and put me in touch with her editor. Her advice and support was invaluable in my deciding I might actually be able to write.

Another big thank you to the late Gwynne Foster who I sat with at one meeting and basically told me, “What are you waiting for! Just send it to them!” I did and got a call just a few weeks later from my very first editor, Diane Stockwell. It was such a pleasure working with her on the Encanto line and if it wasn’t for her support (and buying my very first book).

Things don’t always go smoothly in the publishing world and when Encanto disappeared, it took me a few years to sell another book. This time it was to the awesome Stacy Boyd who always brought out the best in my writing and who has been a wonderful advocate at Harlequin. Thank you, Stacy.

There have been many many other people and I don’t want them to feel left out, but I’ll share more thanks in the future (since I really really really want to milk this moment – LOL!).

To end today’s Throwback Thursday, here is a photo from my very first signing in Menlo Park Mall.
samMeFirstsigning

Proudly powered by WordPress