Marketing with Mandy~Samantha Kane
Q: Tell us a little about your experience with Ellora’s Cave.
A: Raelene Gorlinsky, EC Publisher, “discovered” me in a RWA contest. She was the final judge in the spicy category, and I won. The rest is history. She bought THE COURAGE TO LOVE and we’ve never looked back. My experience with EC has been positive from the beginning. They are very author-centric. I’ve never had an email, to any person in any department, not answered within 24 hours. I’ve been encouraged to write what I want, gotten some incredible feedback in the editing process that has been extremely helpful, and my covers are, in my opinion, some of the best covers currently on the market. But perhaps the best thing about EC is the authors. I’ve met some wonderful people through EC, and they are all very supportive and encouraging. It’s one big happy family. Ugh, that’s so sweet it’s sickening. But it’s true. My one issue is how long it took my books to go to print, but unfortunately I arrived just as EC was revamping their whole print production process. It just couldn’t be helped. Now my first two novels are hitting the shelves, and it’s pretty exciting.
Q: What tips/tricks do you use for marketing or promoting your own titles?
A: Unlike you, and I say that with awe, I am not a marketing diva. I have a website which I update every four to six weeks. The website is pretty big with a lot of information and excerpts from my books, as well as fun stuff such as a Featured Hottie (Dario Franchitti right now), Author Suggested Books with guest authors, Sam’s Top Ten List, and my version of a blog, called BTW. I have a My Space page, and I’ve just finished my first book trailer for my BROTHERS IN ARMS series, done by Scrapfairy Designs. I also love to take advantage of opportunities like the one here, to do interviews or author spotlights.
I think the most important marketing tool an author can have is an interesting, regularly updated website.
Q:What is one thing you’d want to tell a newer author, just coming into the game?
A: Do not get discouraged. Do not wallow in the negativity that can be so prevalent in the industry. It’s a daunting business for newbies, I’m not so far removed from that now that I don’t remember. Hell, I still find it daunting. But in the end I remind myself that it’s about the books. That’s what started it for me. Focus on your writing, on writing the best book that you possibly can, and the rest will sort itself out.
Q: Could you tell us a bit about your latest release?
A: I actually have three releases in the next few months, but that’s counting the print release of my first two EC novels, THE COURAGE TO LOVE and LOVE UNDER SIEGE, books one and two in the BROTHERS IN ARMS series. For those who aren’t familiar with the series it is a Regency-set historical series about a group of veterans of the Peninsular Wars. For these men the close friendships that they developed helped get them through the horror of the war. These friendships included sharing women, or in some cases a sexual relationship between the men, and they are unwilling to end the friendships when they return to England. Instead, they search for a woman who can accept both men in a committed, three-way marriage.
My next new release is AT LOVE’S COMMAND, the fourth BROTHERS IN ARMS installment coming December 12 from Ellora’s Cave. In AT LOVE’S COMMAND Ian Witherspoon has decided to finally marry the woman he has been betrothed to for twelve years, Sophie Middleton. His lover Derek Knightly is not happy about it. Ian wishes to marry Sophie because he wants children and a normal life, but he wants to share these things with Derek. Derek is trapped in the past, unable to sleep through the night because of his nightmares of the war. Ian hopes that Sophie will help both men forget the war. She represents a new beginning for them. For Sophie, Ian and Derek also represent a new beginning. Emotionally and physically abused by her father and older brother, Sophie has never known love and acceptance. She will give anything, do anything, for this chance at happiness with Ian and Derek. Now Ian and Sophie just have to convince Derek.
Q: Can you tell us a little about your current WIP’s?
A: Oh boy, can I! I’m writing my first science fiction novel. The working title is TOMORROW, and it’s part of the new continuity series HUNTERS FOR HIRE from Ellora’s Cave. I am having so much fun working on this series. The series creator, Heather Holland, is brilliant. I’ve been working closely with her on the series bible, creating new solar systems and aliens and Super Soldiers. I’m like a kid in a candy store. The series premise is that each story must involve Bounty Hunters, Inc., an interstellar bounty hunting company.
In TOMORROW one of my heroes, Tie, aka Finnegan, is a bounty hunter. He is also in hiding, however, because he is a deserter from the Interplanetary Military Forces elite unit of Super Soldiers. Super Soldiers are genetically enhanced, lab-bred soldiers, and they are the scourge of the galaxy. When the story begins, Tie is chasing down his latest bounty, Princess Cerise Chessienne, the dethroned Carnelian princess who is the beloved leader of the rebellion against the Amalgamation, the intensely corrupt primary governing body of the galaxy. When Tie is ensnared by Cerise’s beauty and courage his capture turns into a rescue, and much to his surprise brings him face to face with the best friend he’s been searching for for the last decade. Also a Super Soldier deserter, Crogan is now a pirate who fights for the rebellion. Crogan must decide if he can surrender to his love for Tie and Cerise, or if he has to let them go for the good of the galaxy.
Q: How do balance family and writing?
A: Not very well! I have three small children, ages 7, 4, and 1. They have to be my priority, so I’m frequently up late, writing after the kids go to bed. I’m the clichéd soccer mom during the day, sorry if that disillusioned anyone, LOL. I joke with my husband that I’m not a multitasker. If I try to do more than two things at a time it turns into an I Love Lucy episode. But seriously, I have to set personal deadlines, and I have to make myself meet those deadlines in order to keep on top of things. Every spare minute is spent on my writing. Right now son 1 and son 2 are at school, and the baby is sleeping. So I’m answering your wonderful questions! But when I have to go pick the boys up, writing will go on the back burner until late tonight. When juggling family and writing, I think you just have to set realistic goals and do your best to meet them. I’m not afraid of giving myself an extension or two, but I try to keep the excuses to a minimum. Thank God when I bring home the bacon I have a husband who will gladly fry it up in the pan. He is the number one reason I have been able to achieve success as a writer. His support, both tangible and emotional, is the cornerstone of my writing career.
Q: Why do you like writing romance/erotica?
A: Because I like to write about love and sex. No, I’m serious. I’ve always loved romance. Like so many others of my generation the first romance book I read was my big sister’s copy of THE WOLF AND THE DOVE. Wow! I was only about thirteen, no my mom had no idea I was reading it, and I was floored! Love was like that? Sex was, you know, hot? Who’d have thunk it? There was no turning back. When I began writing, it was only natural that I write what I loved to read, romance. But I couldn’t seem to write it without my hero and heroine having some pretty hot sex. No matter how I tried, I couldn’t tone it down. I didn’t like to read romances where the lead characters had tepid sex, so why would I write one? When I read my first erotic romance I knew that was it, that was the genre for me. There’s just something about two, or three, LOL, people who are so crazy about one another they have just got to have it, NOW. I have more fun writing sex scenes than anything else. I love thinking, hmmm, can they do that? Will it fit? She’s not a contortionist, but if I bend her that way…See, it’s fun! It’s also hard. Get your mind out of the gutter, I meant writing sex scenes is hard. A lot of romance writers will tell you it’s the hardest part of the book to write. That is not true of me, however. As a matter of fact, most of my books start with an idea for a sex scene. Then characters and plot, etc., follow. So I like writing erotic romance because I like writing about love and sex.
LINKS:
http:// samanthakane.us
http://myspace.com/samanthakaneauthor
