We're under attack!

by Ellie Heller

This has been a very odd end-of-year for us.

Over the past week or two gremlins seem to at hanging out at our blog.

Not trolls (thank goodness!), but mischievous little creatures, which seem determined to remove our cover art and replace it with exclamation marks.

Oh! It could be The Riddler, the punctuation marks, the randomness of the timing, the perversity of it all…but what would he want with a bunch of links to cover art by our members?

Nah, I’m sticking with gremlins. (no! don’t look over there at the side bar – apparently they redouble their efforts if you catch them in the act!)

So, while the admin is working diligently on getting the little buggers out of our system and keeping the images up, I thought I’d distract everyone from the missing covers and put up some of the funnier images I found during the past couple of weeks.

Enjoy and please don’t let them catch your eye wandering over to the edges, it’d take us weeks to recover! Heck, they might even wander over here to the middle and steal a couple of theses. :-)

Hopefully we'll have it all straightened out in the New Year. 

Vacation?

I, like so many writers out there, work a full time day job, come home to my family, and somewhere in the few hours left of the day find time to write. It's exhausting. So when the opportunity to have some time away from work comes around, I make plans to consume as much of that “free time” with writing. Of course, it rarely works out that way.

Before this vacation started, I had all of these ideas to begin and finish a story. All in two weeks of free time. For some reason I didn’t anticipate family time taking over and tending to all of the pre-holiday obligations. Why? I don’t know. Planning is not really my strong suit, I'm finding.

By the third day of my vacation without having been able to find the time or energy to write, I became pretty stressed out. How can I get this story done if I can’t get my butt in the chair to write?

My solution was counter-intuitive, but it worked. I walked away. I closed my computer and didn’t open it back up for a full day. Yeah, I had plenty to do to keep me away from the keys but I put in an effort to detach myself. In that down time I figured out my story line, calmed down about everything that was bothering me, and regained some sense of direction.

Even though my brain was still focused on my stories I didn't feel stressed out about it. I wasn't thinking about the 10 blog posts coming up, promotions, book sales, writing or editing. I was able to let go of some of the anxiety that was blocking me.

It’s easy for non-writers (can we call them Wuggles? Would that infringe on some other story’s copy rights?) to shake their heads and say, “This is your time off. You should be enjoying it, not working.” (ooh, I felt some of you out there cringe) It’s hard for me and folks like me to not want to make the most of their time when the opportunity arises. I have this passion that burns at my heels, and a seemingly endless path ahead – I have no want but to run.

That’s not to say that I won’t try to relax a bit. Over the next few days my house will be packed full of smiling faces (at least at the beginning) and lots of stories and jokes; I’ll have next to no time to think about writing. Next to no time.

I hope everyone has some happy holidays with lots of love and laughter! And for those like me, with more plans than time, I wish you success!

Visit R. Renée Vickers on her blog: http://museampoule.wordpress.com/

Face Book: https://www.facebook.com/muse.ampoule

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/MuSeAmpouLe

For a saucy tale about power and control, check out Sly’s Surrender https://www.nobleromance.com/Books/364/Sly%27s-Surrender

(No cats or carolers were harmed in the making of this post)

Feeling For Your Characters--by S.D. Grady

"Friday morning.  Meredith frowned and pulled at the coverlet, stitched by the sisters down the river.  She felt...how did one feel after such a horrid and wondrous week?"

I wrote that opening to a chapter about two weeks ago.  Then somebody called me away and now every time I read the damn sentence I realize I have no freakin' clue what Meredith is feeling.  Crap.  Writer's block.

It isn't so much that I don't know how poor Meredith is feeling--she's happy, afraid, sad, thrilled, a little in love, ticked off at her mother...you know, teenage angst in royal princess form.  What is really preventing my fingers from clicking out another chapter is the wrapping, the parties, shopping, cats who must be fed, car that's rattling a bit more than it should...I feel a bit like Meredith, sort of out of place and not quite in sync with the holidays.

Which if I'm planning Meredith's royal ball, you'd think the writer in me would want to deck the halls, pick out the dresses and straighten a few cravats here and there.  This would be a fine chance for the author channeling their life in their work.  Fortunately, my muse understands I'm "not in the mood" and is reminding me that if I don't feel like dancing, I probably shouldn't be trying to make my little princess do a jig, either. 

That's not to say that I can't write a sad scene without being depressed, but there is something to be said about letting the joy in your life slip through your fingers into your tales.  Does that make writing a symbiotic relationship?  I suppose there might be something to that thought. As to which direction the symbiosis runs is another question.  Do I draw my happiness from my characters or is it the other way around?

So, is it Meredith causing my holiday blues?  I doubt that.  However, in the natural course of the tale I am creating she has reached a moment of decision where understanding why she is feeling so lost is key to her further growth.  At this moment, I seem to be lacking the motivation to move her beyond this life's moment.

For everything there is a season...and so it seems this season is not meant to discern the difficulties of a teenage princess.  Perhaps instead it is a season for me to find the energy and determination to untangle Meredith's feelings before I put them to paper.

So, this week I will spend a little time wrapping, baking, scurrying and dispensing hugs--for there's magic in this season of giving.  When I spend a little time talking to those I hold dear in my life, I'll find the clues needed for Meredith to discover her happy ever after.  Lucky girl.

Visit S.D. Grady's Website:  http://sdgrady.info/

Follow Me on Twitter: @laregna

Love tales about Princesses?  Try "The Forgotten Princess"

Enjoy Your Holidays!

From a Reviewer’s Perspective - by Bobby D Whitney

I’m a reader, not a writer. Oh sure, like countless others, I’ve dreamed of writing a book “one day” and have even dabbled a bit at expository writing, but truthfully, I’m happiest when I have a book in my hand, not a pen.

When my wonderful husband gave me an e-reader a few years ago, I discovered the varied and colorful world of electronic books and indie publishers, and this appetite for reading became even more voracious. Since I refuse to participate in pirating reading material (or anything else), all of a sudden, my favorite pastime became an expensive hobby.

It was the lure of free reading material that initially attracted me to reviewing for another website (i.e. not BookWenches). Writing for them was fun but not earth-shattering. While there wasn’t much demand placed on me except to review what I requested, the politics of the group irritated me like fingernails on a blackboard; therefore, it didn’t take much for my friend Teagan to convince me to branch out with her and build our own review site. So after my arm healed from my friend’s twisting, BookWenches was born, and the real fun began.

You might ask what makes me think that I am qualified to judge the writing of others. My answer: I’m not. As a reviewer, I’m not passing judgment on anyone or anything; I’m merely sharing my reading experience with you. Assigning numerical “ratings” to books is an attempt to quantify my enjoyment of a story. I’m well aware that you may not share my opinion, because there have been numerous times in the past where a book that received a thumbs up from yours truly was panned by other readers. And stories that I felt were absolute crap have received accolades and squeals of delight from others. In fact, one memorably bad book sat at the #1 reader rated position in its category on Omnilit for several weeks in a row. Ugh, there was a tragedy I won’t ever forget.

In the early days of BookWenches, we would write and post one or two reviews every day, seven days a week. I know…crazy, isn’t it? But as time went by, we added features to the website like guest blogs and interviews, backed off on quantity of reviews and focused on quality instead. Because let’s admit it, you can find a review that basically says “it was HAWT” or “it SUCKED” or “it RAWKED” just about anywhere. We decided to take the time to be just a touch more thoughtful and encourage the writers we enjoy while still providing feedback.

What do I love about reviewing? Yes, free books are part of it, but I also buy quite a bit of my reading material. It has brought authors and publishers to my attention that I may never have noticed on my own. And while this has resulted in some truly painful reading, the opposite is also true, and I have discovered quite a few new favorites. It has forced me to develop a writing routine and to follow it even when I don’t feel particularly talkative or creative. But I believe that my favorite aspect of this entire thing is the interaction that I have had with authors and publishers and even some readers. The pats on the back are great, of course – wonderful, in fact – but equally valuable are the knowledge and insight that I have gained and the friendships I have made.

Of course, this reviewing biz is not all sunshine and daisies; there are a few drawbacks as well. First of all, although we’re not getting paid (except in review copies of books), maintaining the website, writing reviews, interviewing, and keeping the content fresh and hopefully interesting can feel like a full-time job with all the associated stress.

Negative feedback is another drawback of writing reviews. As I previously mentioned, some folks won’t agree with us, even though we believe in putting a positive spin on what we have to say. (That is, if we have a negative, we think of a positive as well.) Some folks tend to think that the Internet gives them carte blanche to be as ugly as possible, and we have received a number of emails over the years that have taken our breath away. Of course, there’s a lot to be learned from negative feedback. I now proof and re-proof my reviews repeatedly, and if I’m not one hundred percent sure about the spelling or usage of a word or phrase, I look it up.

Finally, there is the sense of obligation that comes along with requesting a review copy of a book from a publisher. Although we try hard to review everything we ask for, there have been times that we just haven’t been able to get to some of them. Or the book was so very bad that we can’t find anything positive to say. Or we got distracted. Currently, I think I have about thirty titles on my Kindle that I feel an obligation to review. I don’t think I’ll ever catch up, and due to my over-developed sense of guilt, that drives me crazy.

I asked my fellow Wenches for their input on the pros and cons of reviewing, and I wanted to share their words with you as well. My bouncy, happy Teagan of the rose-tone glasses says that she loves reading, reading, reading, having the opportunity to “meet” authors, and being exposed to new genres, authors, and publishers. Her frustrations revolve around lack of quality in some books and being ignored by authors who specifically asked (begged, even) for a review.

Ever-thoughtful Clea has loved expanding her horizons and having the opportunity to read many new genres that she never would have picked up before. She also enjoys the responses she gets from authors about her reviews, saying “it often leaves me feeling giddy because I feel like I am making a small contribution to someone else’s life and dreams.”

“Writing reviews is a hobby for me,” Clea confides, “it is something that I enjoy doing because it's something that is all mine; I don't have to share with the hubby or kids. On a rare occasion, a writer will get overly possessive about their work and want to critique my review line by line and have full-on discussions about why I wrote something or try to give me ideas about what to say in my review, and that just makes me angry. It makes me want to stop writing my reviews because they're taking all the joy out of it for me. It makes me leery about writing my next review, because I am afraid I am going to get harassed again.”

Regardless of any quibbles on our part, my fellow Wenches and I adore what we do. Come visit us at www.bookwenches.com. Read a few reviews, comment on author interviews or guest blogs, and perhaps enter a book giveaway. We’d love to see you ‘round and hope that you enjoy your visit. If you see a book you’re interested in, go forth and purchase it and dive on in. Happy reading!

Zombie Poll!

by Ellie Heller
Coming in January, Noble Romance will be putting out a series of Lesbians vs Zombies titles. A not insignificant number of the authors of these novellas are also ERA members. The stories range the gamut from hot-hot-hot to sensual, contemporary to historical, humorous to, well, okay, I personally have not seen one without some humor, but then I have only seen snippets of the ones members of our group have worked on.

The zombies, though, have been the kicker. They range from…well, actually, I’m not going to say. Instead, I thought I’d do a poll, see what you all thought were necessities for zombies to be, um, zombies. We’ll find out later if the authors agree.

So here we go, three parts. Please put your responses in the comments, thanks.

A) Appearance. Zombies ‘should’ have:

1. Pale and/or decaying skin – definitely not glittering
2. Visible scars or blood spatters– which can be theirs or someone else’s
3. ‘Unseeing’ / white eyes – all the better to creep you with my dear
4. Any two of the above (clarify which)
5. 1, 2 & 3 
6. Other (explain in comments)

B) Physical abilities. Zombies ‘should’: 

1. Shuffle, not walk – rigor mortis, dude
2. Have super human strength – Clark Kent watch out
3. Be uber difficult to kill – um, dead already!
4. Be nocturnal – undead and daylight don’t mix
5. Any combination of the above (clarify which)
6. Other (explain in comments)

C) Mental capacity. Zombies:

1. Have no thoughts, you know ‘cause their brain died when they did
2. Act on instinct only – mainly the one which says they need to kill humans
3. Be unable to talk - see 1 & 2 for reasons why
4. Emulate lemmings, i.e. let’s all follow that dude off a cliff
5. All of the above
6. Other (explain in comments)

I look forward to seeing the results.

'Tis the Season by S.D. Grady

Ever feel lonely? As writers, it's a sensation that might be a little more familiar than to many other groups in society.  Part and partial of our craft is observing the world around us--watching.  And despite the requisite mantra of, "Use active voice, not passive.  Show us, don't tell."  It is in fact a passive life we lead--cataloguing the world's idiosyncrasies and then telling the rest of the planet all about them. 

But a passive life does not engender the active pursuit of goals and accomplishments.  Thus we must start walking the tightrope of balance if we want to avoid that hermit status--which can be an alluring call.  The ability to answer the siren song of the muse, block out the noise and interruptions of daily life and escape into the worlds of our imagination's making is something many of us dream of--but we mustn't.  It's not wise.

And so we look around and seek the support of friends and family to banish the lonely gremlins.

This is where we find success, as writers and people.  Once we hit that elusive status of "published author" somehow everybody thinks we've got all the answers.  Lordy, no. The uncertainty of acceptance still lingers in our hearts.  But, we must have learned something on that path...didn't we?

I know I did.  I couldn't do this seemingly impossible thing without friends--writer friends.  And for those of us in the erotica business, a group of writer friends who don't shy away from looking in the bedroom.

There is nothing so awkward as mentioning to a new acquaintance, "I write."  Followed by an interminable silence.  If I'm lucky, it's a, "Oh really!"  But then comes the, "What do you write?"  

Ummmm....yeah.  "The latest story I had published focuses on unabashed lust between two acquaintances in a very public place."  That's totally the kind of conversation to be had at the grocery store checkout line.

But there are places I can go where I don't have to feel awkward.  Where nobody thinks having second-thoughts about plots, characters or impossible contortions when unclothed are anything out of the ordinary.  When I cruise into my weekly writers group meeting or log onto my crit group, the lonely gremlins are banished.  I find the strength to do what my muse demands of me.

Before I embarked on the journey of being a writer, I honestly didn't think there were others out there like me.  The world looked very empty indeed.  I'm glad to report, that simply isn't so.  It's a world full of friendly faces. 

And so in this season of joy and sharing, I'd like to send out my thanks to everybody in ERAuthors and EWAG--the two groups of friends and fellow scribes who keep me on track--hopeful and productive.  Without you the world would be a very lonely place indeed, and my muse might have succeeded in locking me--the true me--away from the rest of humanity.

Here's an active hug full of gratitude and hopefully an equal share of inspiration to help keep all my fellow writers from simply watching the world go by.  It's an exciting place to experience and it's far more rewarding to be part of the great human equation than simply a remainder.

Thank you.

Social media, blogs and book marketing

by Ellie Heller

Okay, I fully admit I have no practical experience using social media and blogs for actively marketing a book. Right now, I’m sitting on the outside looking in. However, I’ve been reading up on social media trends, in the hope that my piece will be picked up by Noble Romance.

I’m trying to figure out what my marketing strategy should be since, in this day and age, even with a large bricks and mortar publisher, part of the responsibility of publicizing your book resides with the author. And since the publisher I’m hanging my hopes on is a small but solid e-publisher, almost all of the responsibility is on my shoulders.

After several hours over a couple of days, I think I have a grip on what to do. Now, I could be wrong, I could be sitting here with my thumb up an anatomically inconvenient part of my body to reach. So I’m sharing here what all I’ve found and getting input on what you think.

Because from what I’ve gleaned, the times they are a-changing.

Again.

First I went back and re-read a post I had come across earlier this year on Kommein by Deb Ng regarding changing trends in social media. As I went through it again with the prospect of marketing looming before me, one of her points resonated with my own experience:

 I think many of us are experiencing social networking fatigue.

She also talks about winnowing out people whom you don’t know and whose only tweets/posts seem to be about promoting their site/book/product. Certainly one of the things you could take away from this article is that bigger is no longer better. And for a good reason, having a smaller network, as she puts it, puts the ‘social’ back in social media. Why? Because having a smaller group which interacts allows for less “noise” and more meaningful conversations.(op cit)

Michael Hyatt, in his article The 20 to 1 Rule, further expands on the idea of ‘less noise and more meaningful’. He states:

Twitter and Facebook are relational tools not transactional tools. Contrary to what many think, social media rewards:
.        Generosity;
.        Other-centeredness; and
.        Helpfulness
It is a vehicle that appeals to people’s deep, God-given desire to connect. It works when there is trust. When it becomes just another form of spam (violating people’s trust), it fails to be effective.

Well, that’s pretty clear, I should not be using social media sites such as these as primary marketing tools.  I certainly can do some marketing, but not solely marketing via social networking sites. Of course there is the argument that any media exposure is “marketing”, but here I’m talking specifically about marketing a book.

Then, um, newbie here, what should I do?

Blog tours seem to be popular once a book comes out. On the one hand, hosting other writers on your blog (and appearing on other people’s blogs) certainly meets Mr. Hyatt’s need for other-centeredness and helpfulness. Particularly since, most often, the authors who appear on each others blogs share similar or overlapping genres or publishers thus exposing their followers to other books they may like.

On the other hand, having a blog which primarily hosts other authors may not provide the social connection readers are looking for. And, yes, I’ve seen more than a few blogs that seem to primarily be marketing tools and have very little content from the ‘host’. Not to be confused with websites, which are more static and are very clearly marketing tools, everyone expects that.

So again, looks like I certainly can do some marketing on my blog, but need to be diligent that I don’t veer into solely marketing.

Given I’ve just kaboshed two of the big areas I expected to use, I wasn’t sure what I should do.

Then it struck me that I was going about this all the wrong way, so I took a step back.

Instead of worrying about how and where to market, maybe instead I should look at the goal of marketing. 

Okay, then, my goal is to drum up interest in my book so people will buy it.

Yes, but how many people am I trying to reach out to? 10? 100? 1000?

Or, perhaps, I should think of it this way, how many people am I trying to make a meaningful connection to? Because this is different, right? I want not to just tell people my book is out there, but make them interested in the story, connect with them. Which I’m more likely to do if I’m already connecting to people whom I know are interested in books like mine.

And this type of smaller exposure to a more likely to be interested audience works because, as KevaD says below, there exists what I think of as the Faberge effect (yes, I’m showing my age here).  I made a comment about how few readers there seemed to be at a yahoo group chat, and asked if that was typical. He assured me a lot more were lurking, then said:

I think the best results from these that I've encountered are one or two folks who buy my books, and then tell their friends about the books. Friends telling friends about books or an author they like is always good.

From my long ago retail days, I remember there was an adage, a formula if you will, which said something like in order to get Y number of people to buy whatever thing you were selling, you need to reach out to (100? 200? 1000?) times that number. So, if it’s one hundred (which I think was much lower than the actual number), that would mean you’d need to reach out to 100 people for one sale.  Again, not something I know a lot about, and these numbers may be totally off, but in the back recesses of my mind I think I recall something like this. (and I haven’t been able to reach my friend Cindy, whom I’m sure could easily tell me this.)

But, times have changed and I have to wonder if those crazy high numbers to get one sale I recall from my youth are still valid. Of course this is based on the assumption that if you’re already reaching out meaningfully to people whom you know like the genre you write in, you’ve already vastly improved the odds of someone buying your book. Which makes sense, doesn’t it? If I’m hanging out and cross blogging with a bunch of people who write Zombie and/or Lesbian and/or Paranormal stories, the people who read there are more likely to already be fans of Zombie and/or Lesbian and/or Paranormal fiction and, thus more likely to, possibly, buy my story.

So, then, my big conclusion: Because, by it’s very nature, social media is able to keep your focus on smaller but more likely to be interested groups, it can, and should be, a primary marketing tool. But it should never be used primarily for marketing. Keeping interactions helpful and useful and not just about whatever it is you are marketing is key.

Okay, now that I can do. Novice as I am, I think I can handle this far more social style of what might be termed niche marketing.

Fingers crossed I’ll have the need to do so.

After all this research, I’m curious what other people’s experience has been (or if anyone knows what that ‘standard’ retail formula is!). How are you currently using social media and is it working as a market tool for you? Have you seen any changes in people’s approach from, say, two years ago? Am I sitting here like a contortionist after all? ;-)

Ellie Heller, aka EllieWrites2, writes stories tingling with magic, romance and suspense. You can find her blog on her writing journey here or follow her on twitter @ EllieWrites2 .

Meet and Chat with the ERAuthors Members

Sunday, December 4th  - All Day

Love Romances Cafe: ttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/LoveRomancesCafe/

Many of the wonderful members of ERAuthors will be posting excerpts of their latest works and chatting live with anyone who cares to stop by at Love Romances Cafe.

Here's your chance to ask any question you've been secretly wanting to ask, or simply drool at some marvelously erotic excerpts.

Don't be shy. You know you want to come . . .