MwM Author Spotlight: Candice Gilmer

Marketing with Mandy Author Spotlight: Candice Gilmer

Q: Tell us a little about your experience with Lyrical Press and Samhain Publishing.

A: Both companies really are a pleasure to work for. I’ve been fortunate enough to release four books with Lyrical Press, and two with Samhain, with more coming.

But, it is a job, and it is work. Just because you sell a book doesn’t mean the work stops. That’s actually when it begins, where your terrible habits as a writer get revealed. Me and homophones do not get along at all. Not to mention the “comma addiction” I seem to have.

And while I will admit a certain amount of protectiveness over my stories (read “babies”) I have found that editors really do have the best intentions with books, and they want to see the books do well, almost as much as I do. Fortunately, I have had pretty good luck with all my editors, and they have been as passionate about my stories as I have, and that always helps.

Q: What tips/tricks do you use for marketing or promoting your own titles?

A: I do whatever I’m told, lol. No, seriously, though, I use Twitter and Facebook quite a bit, trying to post regularly from my Facebook Fan page, letting people know what I have coming out and when. I keep all my book covers and blurbs available there, as well as on my website www.candicegilmer.com.

Also, I try to do signings when and where I can—Michelle Pillow makes me, she’s so bossy. J I’ve also done some promotions in conjunction with review sites like Bitten By Books, because they’re incredibly author friendly, and are terrific about working with you to do a great release on a book.

Q: What is one thing you’d want to tell a newer author, just coming into the game?

A: Write every day. Every day. Every single day. Selling is hard work, promotion is hard work, and editing is hard work. Writing is the happy, joyous part of being in the business. Savor that.

Also, I would remind them that publishing is the SLOWEST business in the world. Even with email, it still takes forever to hear from agents and publishers. It’s a hurry, hurry, hurry, wait game.

So write. Write as much as you can, every day. Set a word count or page count goal. And hit it, every day. Don’t take days off. The story will just go stale if you do. Just keep at it.

Q: Could you tell us a bit about your latest release?

A: My latest release, Rescuing Rapunzel, April of 2012 from Lyrical Press, started, actually, as a request from my 9 year old daughter. We had been reading the original Grimm’s fairy tales, and when we finished reading the original Rapunzel, my daughter turned and looked at me and said “Mom, you can write a better story than that.” So I did. It was supposed to be a short, ten page story about Rapunzel, but it wound up stretching far bigger in scope, because I wanted to know what happened to Rapunzel when she got out of the tower. There was so much more story that needed to be told.

As I worked on the story, I found that my hero, Nick, had two best friends, Penn and Bryan, and each one of them wanted their own story as well, and poof, The Charming Nobles series was born.

Q: Can you tell us a little about your current WIP’s?

A: Right now, I’m deep in my Charming Nobles series, working on both the second book, Catching Cinderella, and the sequel, Finding the Frog Prince.

Q: How did you get into writing?

A: I’ve always told stories. It’s like a requirement in my family. Everyone tells stories. There’s no short, one-liners in my family. Writing became a natural extension of that. Also, in school, I had a lot of bad grades, and I would be grounded from everything—tv, radio, books, my car, the phone, anything I enjoyed doing. So I would write my own stories to pass the time.

As I got older, I wrote fan fiction, trying to learn how to really craft a story and write dialog.  Eventually, I started writing my own stories, focusing on the relationship between my hero and heroines, and a romance writer, I became.

Q: How do balance family and writing?

A: I have a really supportive family. Granted, I heard the “you better not quit your day job” a LOT before I got published, and still do, to be honest, but I wouldn’t be able to do it without their understanding. Even my little three-year-old understands that “Mommy’s working now.” We put up the “force field” in the kitchen, blocking him access to Mommy, and that works. For now.

Also, I have probably the most awesome husband ever. He’s my biggest cheerleader, and my best supporter. He’s incredibly understanding when I have to work, and watches the kids when I need to hunker down and get my job done.

I wouldn’t be able to do this without his amazing support. And the fact that he goes ghost hunting almost every weekend, giving me the house to myself. That’s always a plus.

LINKS:

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MwM Author Spotlight: Cat Johnson

Marketing with Mandy Author Spotlight: Cat Johnson

Q: Tell us a little about your experience with Samhain Publishing.

A: I find Samhain does a lot of effective things to promote their authors. Probably the biggest thing recently was when they made the first ebook in my Red, Hot & Blue series free on Amazon.com. That put TREY on a few best-seller lists on Amazon and bumped up the sales of my entire backlist dramatically, as well as gave me huge hits on my website.

Q: What tips/tricks do you use for marketing or promoting your own titles?

A: I try to interact with and spread my name to fans of the subjects in which I write (IE supporters of the military, fans of rodeo/bull riding) as much as I do with romance readers. I also signed on to be a blogger at a site owned by a chef who writes aphrodisiac cookbooks. I thought people who like sexy food might also be interested in what an author of sexy books has to say. So far, I was right. Thinking out of the box as far as marketing expands the pool of potential readers wider than your usual romance readers.

Q: What is one thing you’d want to tell a newer author, just coming into the game?

A: Never stop learning. This business is changing faster than anyone can keep up with.

Q: Could you tell us a bit about your latest release?

A: TEXAS TWO-STEP: COWBOY SHUFFLE is a February 2, 2012 exclusive release from All Romance eBooks (though it will also be available at the iBookstore). In 2011 ARe invited a select group of authors to write for their Perfect Strangers Valentines Day promotion and I was lucky enough to be one of those authors. My title from 2011, TEXAS TWO-STEP, was a site-wide top 10 best seller. For this year’s Perfect Strangers release, I’ve written the sequel.

Q: Can you tell us a little about your current WIPs?

A: I’m currently writing Book 5 in my Studs and Spurs series (with Samhain). I’m finding through this series that there are a lot of stories in the world of professional bull riding to be told.

Q: How did you get into writing?

A: I’ve written my entire life, but my first paid contract was 2 weeks out of college when I got hired onto a YA series. I was an English major so writing seemed like a perfect fit.

Q: How do balance family and writing?

A: Not well. I’m a terrible housekeeper. I take care of what really needs to be done—like feeding my animals so they don’t kill me and eat me in my sleep, and doing laundry so my husband doesn’t leave me, but things like vacuuming tend to fall by the wayside (a little cat hair on the carpet won’t kill anyone LOL).

LINKS:

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MwM Self-Publishing Spotlight: James Mace

Marketing with Mandy Self-Publishing Spotlight: James Mace

Q: Please take a minute to tell us a little about yourself.

A: I grew up in Meridian, Idaho, which is just outside of Boise. I spent three years in the Air Force and was stationed in Phoenix before getting out and moving back to Boise. I worked full-time as a federal technician for the Army Guard for fifteen years before recently resigning in order to focus exclusively on writing.

I am the author of four books in the series Soldier of Rome – The Artorian Chronicles, as well as a short novella based on one of the characters. Writers are often stereotyped as introverts, hence why one of my best friends told recently that he’s surprised it’s what I do for a living as I am the most sociable person he knows.

I work out religiously, hitting the weights, swimming laps, running, or bicycling five to six days a week. My goal is to compete in my first Spartan Race this year. I also belong to a rather insane running / social club called The Hash House Harriers.

Q: What prompted you to self-publish your book(s)?

A: After writing my first book in 2005, I made numerous attempts to go the traditional route. The perception was that you had to have an agent and go to a big publisher, otherwise you were a failure. I sent out approximately a hundred queries and received about twenty responses. I was told that was phenomenal, since the response rate was supposedly only about 2%. I shrugged it off, as even though I got twenty responses, none of them would take me on as a writer. No one said they didn’t like the story; what all of them said was, “There is no market for this”. Apparently they’d never seen “Gladiator”. A friend of mine had written a book a few years back and recommended that I try self-publishing.

Q: How has the experience been to date?

A: It was slow at first. I certainly was not writing in order to become rich. It was simply a hobby that I made a little bit of money at. The issue with self-publishing is you are completely on your own when it comes to marketing and advertising. You are also required to front the costs, though these are not too bad.

Where my real success has been is in the rise of the eBook. I tell people all the time that Amazon Kindle is my new best friend! Around the spring of 2011 I managed to get all of my books onto Kindle and the sales immediately took off. By summer I was making substantially more in royalties off Kindle alone that I was working full-time for the federal government.

Q: What do you know now that you wished you knew when you started?

A: I’ve gone through many hard lessons learned, foremost being don’t skimp when it comes to proof-reading and editing! Unfortunately, no one has written a “Self-Publishing for Dummies” guide, so I had to learn most lessons the hard way.

Q: What tips/tricks do you use for marketing or promoting your own titles?

A: This is still something I’m actually trying to learn more about. I’ve done the occasional blog tour, plus I have a fan page on Facebook, along with my official website.

Q: What is one thing you’d want to tell a newer author, just coming into the game?

A: Keep writing! Sounds clichéd, I know. Thing is, focus on what you’re good at and start getting a catalog of quality work out. Also, like I mentioned above, don’t skimp on the proof-reading / editing. You may think you can proof your own work. Trust me, you can’t. The brain will see what is supposed to be there, but it may not be what is actually printed. Also, if you don’t put your works onto eBook, especially Kindle, you’re only hurting yourself. Between my four books (my novella is eBook only), I sell maybe a hundred or so copies per month combined. Conversely, I sell several thousand a month on Kindle. And if you have short stories, you can publish those directly to eBook and sell them for $0.99, thereby giving readers a sample of your writing style.

Q: Could you tell us a bit about your latest release?

A: My latest release was my short novella, Centurion Valens and the Empress of Death. Though it has characters from The Artorian Chronicles in it, it is not a “military” story. I classify it more as a semi-erotic thriller involving a Centurion and the fallout that comes from his transgression with the notorious Empress Messalina. It’s about 26,000 words, so about a quarter of the length of one of my regular books. It has been well received and in fact is my best-seller in the U.K.

Q: Can you tell us a little about your current WIP’s (works in progress)?

A: I am currently working on the fifth installment of The Artorian Chronicles, entitled Soldier of Rome: Judea. This will be the second-to-last book of the series, so I am looking at branching out into other eras of history. That is why after Judea is released I will be working on another short novella before I jump into the final book, Soldier of Rome: The Last Campaign. This particular story will take place during one of the most brutal sieges of the Napoleonic Wars which took place in April 1812. It is called Forlorn Hope: The Storming of Badajoz.

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MwM Author Spotlight: Jenna Ives

Marketing with Mandy Author Spotlight: Jenna Ives

Q: Tell us a little about your experience with Samhain Publishing as well as self publishing.
A: Samhain is an awesome publisher.  They have great distribution and are very supportive of their authors.  I’m very happy with them, but I decided to self-publish my novella Snow White And Her Seven Lovers to “test the waters” of self-publishing, since some authors are doing really well in this new frontier of publishing!  My Snow White story came out on December 26.

Q: What tips/tricks do you use for marketing or promoting your own titles?
A: I try to think outside the box for promo tie-in opportunities. I always make a really big push at Christmas and Valentine’s Day, since romances are a natural at those times of the year.  I did a “Heat Up Your Holidays” book signing at a local lingerie store, and it was so successful they invited me back for Valentine’s Day!

Q: What is one thing you’d want to tell a newer author, just coming into the game?
A: My marketing advice for any new author is that even if you’re published with a traditional publisher, there’s always some additional publicity you can get for yourself:  pitch yourself as a “success story” to your local newspaper, college alumni magazine, or, if you happen to write about a particular thing (cats, knitting, martial arts, etc) pitch yourself to a magazine that focuses on those topics.  No one will work harder for you than you yourself!

Q: Could you tell us a bit about your latest release?
A: My new novella is called Snow White And Her Seven Lovers, and it’s an erotic twist on the classic fairy tale.  Here’s the blurb for the story, which is written in first-person from my heroine’s point of view:

What’s a girl to do when she wakes up poisoned in the ER and finds that she’s lost her memory, her family, and very nearly her life?

That was me. Three months ago. With no identity, no money, and nowhere to go on the day I was discharged from the hospital, I gratefully accepted my gorgeous ER doctor’s offer to move in with him and his equally gorgeous six friends – the ones who’d found me unconscious in an apple orchard. My plan was to stay until my memory returned, and I could figure out who I was and if someone really had tried to kill me.

Together with Doc, these were an amazingly diverse bunch of guys, but there was something about each of them that attracted me powerfully enough to want to explore it. The policeman with his clever handcuffs. The cunningly linguistic librarian. The disciplinarian teacher. The virgin computer whiz who loved to play sex games. The engineer who created shotgun orgasms. The wildly imaginative baker.

Becoming intimate with these seven men completed me in ways I suspected discovering my name never would. That is, until the fateful day a man showed up claiming to be my fiancé…

Conflict with lots of steamy love scenes! But by far, my most favorite part of this story was figuring out real-life jobs for these seven men.  Doc (of course) is the ER doctor who saves my heroine’s life after she’s poisoned, but can you guess which of the above are Sleepy? Dopey? Grumpy? Sneezy? Bashful? Happy?

Q: Can you tell us a little about your current WIP’s?
A: My Samhain release is called The Initiation Of Isabella, and believe me, you’ll be hot to join this sorority after reading this story! I’m currently working on another college co-ed and her sorority initiation…

Q: How did you get into writing?
A: Well, as the oldest child, I was always making up stories to keep my two brothers and sister entertained.  When I became an adult, the stories just kept coming!

Q: How do you balance family and writing?
A: Sometimes with the craziness of family life (plus a day job!) it’s very hard to find time to write, but you just have to sit your butt in the computer chair and do it. Writing is fun, but you also have to think of it as a job, or else you won’t treat it seriously.

LINKS:

Homepage

Amazon buy link

Barnes and Noble buy link

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Tags: Marketing with Mandy, Who Can It Be Now (Guest Blogger)

Make a Story Stronger: Mental Illness

Authors,

I put a call out on the web, asking people who work in various fields or who have certain hobbies to step forth and tell me what bothers them when reading a book that talks about what they do or what they know quite a bit about. Here is one of the responses to my call out. –Mandy M. Roth

*

Make Your Writing Stronger Series is professionals in varying fields giving their personal opinions on their area of expertise. These do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the blog owner.

Dealing with Mental Illness in Books by Jennifer Watts

I read a story once that was talking about the heroine’s brother who had some sort of mental disorder. That’s all fine and well until I read what the disorder is supposed to be versus what the brother’s actually doing. And what he was doing in no way fit his disorder in the book.
And here’s my gripe…if someone wants to include mental illness in their stories they need to do enough research to describe it accurately. Leaning only toward a mental diagnosis is referred to as the medical model of mental health. Looking at family history, current stressors, lifestyle, religious views, and behaviors that could lead to a diagnosis are more of the systemic and family therapy model of mental health. Either way is plausible and can be written very well if the author invests the time in it. I just wish authors would portray their characters accurately if they wish to use this as part of a story arc.

Q:How should an author handle this, what tips do you have to help them better their book?

A: Honestly, I think the easiest way for an author to get the most accurate research without diving into the DSM-IV-TR is to look up what type of mental disorder they want to portray. The DSM basically has a recipe list of each disorder…if the person doesn’t have the right behavioral symptoms they don’t have the disorder. You can get some great information online about what the traits and symptoms of a disorder are and then incorporate those into the book with the character. It would probably be best to check several sites just to make sure the consensus is the same if you want to go that route.
But to say a character has OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) and then show the symptoms as going into rages and not being able to remember them is only going to show the author didn’t take the time to do their research. And if an author wants to get really in depth they could ask a counselor or psychologist what would be the best way to display a certain disorder in a fictional character.

Jennifer Watts

Thank you, Jennifer for helping to make a story stronger!

If you’d like to help authors make a story stronger by lending tips or suggestions from your field of interest please contact me.

mandyATmandyrothDOTcom

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Behind the Story: OohRah! by Tilly Greene

Behind the Story: OohRah! by Tilly Greene

The most straightforward description I can come up with for OohRah! would be that it’s an erotic love story with two people who come to love each more deeply after a stress filled separation.
Read more…

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Behind the Story: Blood Keep by Wend Petzler

Blood Keep is about a woman who has known only the ways of a warrior and the lengths she has gone to protect the people she loves and the castle she holds dear. Her world is disrupted when King Edward III decides it is time for her to marry again after he hears she was attacked and her man, the Demon Lord, was unable to protect her. He sends Nicolas Drago, the Red Dragon, to be her husband. He is a man of nobility and honor, a true hero. Isabella absolutely hates him. Blood Keep is a tale about the masks we wear to protect the ones we love and the courage to step up and be honest, to trust in love.

My first full length novel was Blood Keep, a medieval historical, set in 1334. I deliberately choose an unusual time period for this book due to my heroine, Isabella AdeMon. She is not petite, nor is she meek. She is a woman who wears armor, rides a warhorse named Lucifer and leads an army consisting of the Black Knight and the Demons. When I started this book I was heading for my second divorce from a very traumatic time of my life. Isabella and her Archangels’, Gabriel and Michael, saved me from cracking. Isabella was my way of shedding the mask I wore for ten, long, horrible years and gave me the courage to be me again. I will always be grateful to her and the awesome story that came from her and the dark castle, Blood Keep. She truly saved me from being bitter and Nicolas made me believe in love again.

There is no set schedule for posting the Behind the Story articles. I’ll be sure to email you and let you know when it goes live.

Wend Petzler
www.wendpetzler.com

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Behind the Story: FreeFalling by Mary Eason

Behind the Story: FreeFalling by Mary Eason

FreeFalling – Available now at Wild Rose Press Crimson Rose Line.

FBI Special Agent Rainie McClain is looking for a way out of the elite five-member team known only as The Agency. The only problem is getting out of The Agency could mean losing the only man she has ever loved. Her husband, Roc Branson. Not only is Roc her husband, he is also her commanding officer.

No matter how high the stakes, Rainie has to get out, because now there is more than just herself and Roc to consider. There’s the child she is carrying. The one they hadn’t planned on conceiving.

As founder of The Agency, Rainie believes that no matter how much Roc may love her, if he is forced to chose between The Agency or her, he will chose The Agency.

Before she can disappear into the shadow world in which she operates, someone claiming to be Rainie’s long-lost brother Justin appears from out of nowhere, warning Rainie her life is in danger.
Rainie must decide whether to trust the man insisting he is her brother or the glaring facts The Agency has uncovered that would lead her to believe Justin is none other than the notorious terrorist leader, Jeremiah Silvers.

Whatever she decides to do, she must do it quickly. Because what’s at stake now is more than just her marriage. It’s her life.

I hope readers have as much fun reading FreeFalling as I did writing it.

FreeFalling is a product of my overactive imagination and too much time spent watching Court TV and real life spy stories. I truly love a good spy story, so I think I may have missed my calling in life. I should have been a spy. But since that ship has sailed, the next best, not to mention safest thing to do is bringing spy stories to life in books.

Some Things About Me:

I don’t ever remember a time growing up when I didn’t have my nose in a book.
When I was in the second grade, I wrote an article about America as a class project. My teacher loved it and read it aloud to the class. It was then that the first seeds of writing took root.

When I was a pre-teen, I discovered Victoria Holt and Phyllis Whitney and was hooked! Although there have been many authors who have inspired me through the years, these two romantic suspense writers were my first mentors.

I attempted my first writing endeavor shortly afterwards. It’s hidden away somewhere in a drawer never to see the light of day.

As time went on, through marriage and raising kids, I still kept my dream of one day being a writer alive and I never stopped reading.

A few years back, I wrote my first romantic comedy, Thirty Lessons, which sold to Samhain Publishing. Since then, I’ve sold many books, but I never get tired of hearing from readers who say they enjoy my work. That makes it all worthwhile.

Mary Eason

You can learn more about my latest work at my website
Or you can drop me a line at maryjeas@netzero.com

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Behind the Story: Zandia by Tilly Greene

Behind the Story: Zandia by Tilly Greene

Being a fan of sports led me down a twisted path and into a series of erotic futuristic romances based on sexual equality, beginning with “Zandia”.

I remember distinctly how the concept started to grow in my mind. A little snippet of Wimbeldon news was teased around the media, but no one did much with it other than read the headlines. Once again, officials of the All England Club denied raising the women’s prize money so it matched the men’s. The reason given was because men played a best of five set match, while the women only played best of three. Hence, men should have a larger prize.
Are you kidding me?

We’re in the 21st century and this type of thing is still happening?

A little grumbling took place and then it was gone, but not before I’d made a note on my story ideas page: men and women find equality.

Not long before this I had my first futuristic accepted at Samhain Publishing, a tale where I push the boundaries of politics. I’d been fascinated by how far a lie could go in society. The edit process hadn’t been started so I had some spare time to spend lazily with the cutie. This meant football. Not the American kind but the other one the rest of the world plays. As a kid I was never a big fan of soccer, but then I moved abroad and football was the sport to watch. To have something to talk about around the proverbial water cooler I made an effort to understand the game and became a fan in the process.

There I was, lying on the couch watching a bunch of guys run around a field in shorts, kicking the ball and my mind wondered. Team members that support each other. Possessing strength of character. Being open to change. Standing behind what you believe in. Everything started to fall in place and I liked how it looked.

Sui Erom makes the hardest decision of her short life and leaves everything she’s ever known behind to have a chance at being a useful person in society. This was all because she knew there was something more out there for her than what she’d find at home. Things hadn’t changed much on Zandia, the furthest planet in the known Universe. Women weren’t physically abused or mistreated, neither were they treated equally to men. The opportunities to be an active participant in society weren’t there. This wasn’t enough for our heroine. It came down to the fact that no matter how terrifying making such a leap was going to be, it would be worth it in the end to be necessary.

I like writing female characters that are confident and independent, who take on life and accept the challenge to come out on top. Sui Erom falls right in to that niche. However, she has a few surprises coming her way because she’d never counted on falling in love with a man who, on the surface, represented all that she’d left behind.

Perfect. A love story full of twists and turns that ends in happily ever after for the couple as well as men and women in the future.

Link to Book: Click HERE

Tilly Greene
Official Website: www.tillygreene.com

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Behind the Story: BloodHunter by Vonna Harper

BloodHunter by Vonna Harper

Story: Looking into the eyes of a magnificent jaguar stirs something in photographer Dana Mallon’s heart and heats the jaguar tattoo on her hip. The longer she studies the magnificent beast sentenced to a life within a wildlife preserve, the greater the sense that forces beyond her comprehension are at work. In her mind—only in her mind—the predator becomes a fierce naked man. Instead of fleeing his blatant sexuality, she walks toward him, her body afire and mind spinning.

Then the Aztec warrior Nacon pulls her against his body and everything she has always believed about herself and her existence shifts. A lifetime of loneliness and searching begins to fade beneath the power of their sexual union, but Nacon needs more from her than just her body. Freed from centuries spent in limbo, Nacon is determined to learn why this woman is responsible. There’s only one way to learn the truth, by having her travel into the past with him—and forcing her to embrace the incomprehensible.

But does she have the courage?

Inspiration: Coming up with story ideas is always an adventure. Sometimes they jump into my mind without my having anything to do with it. Other times, like with BloodHunter, a little priming of the pump is necessary. The process began when I grabbed a book about the Aztecs from my personal library. A fascinating people! Complex and intelligent, yet fatally flawed. The more I read, the more convinced I became that I wanted to explore their culture in an erotic story. And when I learned that a warrior group known as the Jaguar Society opposed the Aztec bloody sacrifices, the light bulb went off. And because I didn’t want to bury myself in research about that time in history, I pulled my hero into the present day as a time traveler for much of the story. To create the link between hero and heroine, I placed her roots in Aztec times, something wildlife photographer Diana Mallon didn’t know until Nacon steps into her world, first as a jaguar, then as a hunky sexy man.

I write erotica for Kensington’s Aphrodisia line, Ellora’s Cave, and Loose ID, but I aimed BloodHunter for Samhain because owner/publisher Crissy Brashear and I roomed together in Germany, and I really wanted to work with her.

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