My cover art is complete for the first print release. The artist is Anne Cain. I think she did an amazing job! Here is the front of the cover. I may upload the full wrap here in a minute.

Today my kindle stats were the highest they’ve ever been. I’m now at 1,102 in the Kindle store for KEPT. (And I figured out how to do a screen shot finally. Click on the image to see it full size.)

I changed the product description which I believe has directly affected my stats. Since this is the highest I’ve ever been. I would love to get into the under 1000 mark. That would be awesome.

I’m working right now on Blood Lust, which is the first print release in this series. Doing the final edits right now and almost have final cover art to show off. yay! Soon I’ll change things up so that the KEPT free release is reworded as a sample from Blood Lust, so it’s clear to people that Blood Lust is what they want if they want to read the first full book. I have Blood Lust slated to release by the end of February (hopefully, depends on how long these edits and formatting takes), and then SAVE MY SOUL, which is book two (full-length novel in same verse), is slated for release in October of 2010 (because it’s already been through two drafts and is getting close to being done.) Book three I’m writing the rough draft of this month for Nanowrimo.

In My Publishers Weekly daily email update I got a link to the following: HCI Author Gets Own Imprint

So a publisher is now giving an author their OWN imprint. i.e. their own publishing identity. Interesting.

The lines are beginning to blur even more. Ebooks already blurred the lines, as has POD, since the line between the big boys and the small boys became non-existent. And now this. Very very interesting.

I’m trying to basically keep my head down, keep my eyes on my own paper, and do my thing. Stuff is changing in the world of publishing and if I just go about my business, by the time I get myself positioned where I want, stigma won’t even be an issue. And I’ll have been active, doing the things I know need to be done during the time while everybody else was still arguing over whether it should be done at all.

Screw that. Once absolutely everybody agrees self-publishing is a really great idea… it’ll be too much overwhelming competition. Right now we still have a few really talented people who self-publish, but mostly people who are decidedly unsavvy and shouldn’t be self-publishing. While I appreciate that the good self-publishers take away some of the stigma, I have my own imprint. The average reader just isn’t going to know or care I’m self-published, so all the crap out there has nothing to do with me.

I’ve posted a blog post over at Publetariat.com called: Running a Mile in Under Four Minutes.

It’s mostly for self-publishing authors, but really it’s about believing in yourself and the fact that if you don’t, you really cannot achieve your goals/dreams, even if you “take some action” toward them.

I am opening submissions for a print erotic short story anthology. Submissions will be open until December 31st, unless I don’t get enough strong entries, then I’ll hold it over. If you’ve written an erotic short story that you’d like to submit, please send it to: incubooks@gmail.com with the subject line:

SHORT STORY SUBMISSION

Please keep entries under 12,000 words (much higher and it starts creeping into novella territory and will make the formatting look weird.)

I’m looking for strongly psychological erotica. Not technical how-to manuals or lots of “porn for the sake of porn.” I want intelligently written erotica with some depth. Feel free to post this submission call anywhere you like and pass the word on.

You may submit more than one story.

Stories accepted for publication will receive:

A print copy of the book (If you have more than one story in the anthology you’ll receive a book for each story present.)
$25 upon publication (per story accepted)

No the money isn’t fabulous, but it’s a publishing credit and inclusion in an anthology which will be well-produced and have a professional cover done by a professional cover artist. This isn’t a vanity operation, so knowing me or being friends with me doesn’t guarantee inclusion in the anthology. (That’s just a vague disclaimer because I don’t want anyone to get upset if they know me and submit something and I don’t include it.)

I’ve been radio silent for awhile, but I’m back in the game now.

I’ve made some progress on the book. I was wanting to release it by Halloween, but I got distracted by some stuff and had to take some time off. Now it looks like the release date of this book will be February 2010. (By release date I’m hoping to have theriantype.com redesigned, as well as have my site itself redesigned. They may not be the “final” designs, but I’m hoping to upgrade my look a little.) And SAVE MY SOUL, the first full length novel should be out by next halloween. So that should get me back on track, because I want to make Halloween my normal release date if I put out a book a year. And SMS is pretty far along in being ready itself.

Though I “say” Halloween is going to be a normal release date, but I will delay a release to get it “right.” Deadlines are just a mental marker for me so I can keep stuff in my head and pace myself right. I’m not going to be a slave to a deadline. I’m just working til it’s ready, but it helps to map things out some tentatively at least.

I also named the book. I’m dividing the book into three “parts” Part One: Kept, Part Two: Claimed, Part Three: Mated. So each novella is it’s own “part.” It’ll make it feel more like “one thing” instead of “three separate things.”

I found the link, the MAJOR link in all the novellas, blood. Which helped me to tie them all together for the back cover copy, which I’m going to post under a cut here in a minute. The book is going to be called: Blood Lust and it’s the first in a series, though all future books will likely be full length novels instead of groupings of novellas.

I’ve also named the series itself. “The Preternaturals.” So on the spine it will say: “The Preternaturals – Book One” I really like when a series is labeled by book number for reader convenience. The books, since they all stand alone as full stories, can be read out of order, but people who read in order are more likely to catch the easter eggs.

I’ve also given all my info to my cover artist, and gotten a page count. I should have a cover to show everybody by the end of the month. Whoo hoo. And I have a GREAT cover artist. I’m really excited about her and am a big fan of her work. She’s done a lot of really great covers for Samhain Publishing, as well as covers for others, including some traditional print publishers I believe.

I have a pretty cool idea for my covers but I’m not going to tell it. I want readers/fans to figure it out on their own. But it’s cool, and people should figure it out by about book 5 if not a bit sooner. But, if you see it and raise an eyebrow and go hmmmmm. I just want to say… yes, it was intentional. And that’s all I’m saying right now. The cat will be out of the bag on it soon enough.

This is the great thing about publishing my own work, when I get an idea like this, I can put it into motion and make it happen. I think if I told this idea to a traditional publisher, they would laugh and say “hell, no. That’s crazy.” But I’m allowed to do crazy things.

I am getting my enthusiasm back for this as it’s starting to feel like a real book. I’ve even got an ISBN number earmarked for it. I’m not sure what I would do if I ever got a really “good” offer from a publisher, but for now, I LOVE being in total control of the complete process and knowing that EVERYTHING was what I wanted. Cover, interior layout decisions, fonts, front and back matter, every single edit, EVERYTHING I approved and is what I wanted. I am both A. A complete control freak where my work is concerned and B. A Publishing Geek. And I’m more sure than ever that I’ve made the right publishing decision for myself. I no longer second guess it. And wonder if I’m on the right path, cause I know I am.

I’ve also devised a rating system so people have an idea of what they’re getting sexually from a story. People get very persnickety about this issue but I refuse to write sex in any way different from what a story NEEDS. I’m not writing graphic sex just to titillate you. And I’m not going to write sex at all in a story where it doesn’t make sense. Example: While Claimed oozes sexuality in some ways, there isn’t a single sex act in the story. Because it would be ludicrous to fit into the timeline and I’m NOT writing epilogue sex. That’s just nutty.

Okay… onward for the back cover copy:

It’s all about the blood…

Kept:

As a cat therian (shifter), Greta’s blood is magical, but due to a quirk of her birth, her blood is potent enough to kill for. For centuries cat therians have sought shelter with magic users, giving rise to tales of the cat as the witch’s familiar. When her tribe plans to sacrifice her, Greta must ally herself with Dayne, the dangerous local sorcerer who is the only person strong enough to protect her.

Heat Level: NG = Not Graphic. Sexual content, but not a how-to.

Claimed:

For a vampire, Anthony isn’t a picky eater, but he’s drawn to Charlee’s blood more than any other. Like a fine wine saved for a special occasion, he’s denied himself this pleasure. But one night, high from the potent magical blood of another, he claims his prize and loses control. Ashamed of almost killing the one woman who means anything to him, he wipes her memory of the event. When Charlee awakens with complete amnesia, Anthony is the only one who can undo the mess he’s made.

Heat Level: FI = Fairly Innocent. You could read it with your mother.

Mated:

Because of the vampiric blood that has run through her veins since birth, Jane has been a target of abuse for vampires who resent a human being “kindred.” She’s forced to disguise herself as a vampire groupie to appease them and safeguard her life. When she’s abruptly given to Cole, the leader of the werewolf pack, to satisfy a gambling debt, she discovers that the blood running through her veins has a far greater impact on her destiny than she’d ever imagined.

Heat Level: RS = Romantic Sexual Content

www.theriantype.com
www.zoewinters.org

My Kindle Sales rank is back on track. After an influx of large publishers being allowed to give freebies more frequently on Amazon.com in the kindle store and the discounts being taken away from the indie books, my sales rank dropped all the way down to 8,000 in the kindle store, and was spending most days between 4,000 and 5,000. I’m thrilled to say that I’ve climbed back up, almost to where I was before, in the top 2,000 despite these changes!

Yay!

# Format: Kindle Edition
# File Size: 124 KB
# Publisher: IncuBooks (November 25, 2008)
# Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
# Language: English
# ASIN: B001M5TE1I
# Average Customer Review:
26 Reviews
5 star:
(12)
4 star:
(11)
3 star:
(2)
2 star: (0)
1 star:
(1)

› See all 26 customer reviews…
4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
# Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,211 in Kindle Store (See Bestsellers in Kindle Store)

Popular in these categories: (What’s this?)
#31 in Kindle Store > Kindle Books > Romance > Fantasy, Futuristic & Ghost
#54 in Kindle Store > Kindle Books > Fantasy > Contemporary
#67 in Books > Romance > Vampires

I’ve been Interviewed over at: Lori A. May’s blog.

There is a free e-books poll that KEPT has been nominated in, as a favorite read. It’s open to public vote.

Go Here

There are many sites out there, both regular social networking sites and sites meant for authors to promote themselves and their work. General sites would include Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace. Author Specific sites would include: Author’s Den, Red Room, Nothing Binding, BookBuzzr. There are many more, but I can’t possibly list them all. In addition to that there is the marketing power of Amazon itself. Where you can have an author page and blog as well as participate in many forums on the site itself.

One thing I’ve been personally guilty of is signing up for things like this as if that’s a mark of marketing productivity in and of itself. It isn’t. While it is true that the more places you can be found the better, and it is true that you will always have a trickle of people who stumble upon you and your work (especially if you use really good keywords and lots of description so people who search can find you)… Still… the big power of social networking sites both specifically geared toward authors, and more general sites, is using it.

This is where it gets tricky. You can spend an infinite time using all these various social platforms to socialize with people and get word about your book out there. And if you do spend infinite time doing this, you won’t get anything else done. I have eaten up whole days on Twitter and Facebook and I don’t see a giant surge of book sales as a result of this, mostly wasted effort.

I’m not sure exactly where the purchase point is for people, but the general idea behind social networking for authors isn’t to spam people with your book title. Really all people need to know is that you are a writer, and the genre you write in. Which can be obliquely referred to or spelled out on a profile. If someone likes YOU enough, they will seek out what it is you write. If they don’t like YOU, then it’s pointless to tell them what you wrote, because social networking is all about personal likeability.

That’s why it’s called SOCIAL networking. You hope that you say something funny enough or charming enough or whatever to start a dialogue, and that that dialogue fosters a sort of casual online friendship that may result ultimately in a reader gained. You hope this reader gained, because of the social networking exposure and your availability to them, becomes a TRUE FAN. A true fan will buy everything you write, and not only will they buy everything you write, but they will talk about your work, blog about it, tell their friends about it. They are what makes the word-of-mouth machine run.

1,000 TRUE FANS

There is a common idea of 1,000 true fans, that you need this many fans to be able to make a living as an artist, be it a musician or a writer, or whatever. Keep in mind that 1,000 true fans doesn’t mean only 1,000 people will buy your work. It means you want to cultivate 1,000 rabid screaming tell everybody they know and buy everything you create, fans. If you have 1,000 of THOSE types of fans, I believe you truly are set. Because those types of fans get the word out. Their enthusiasm for your work also is contagious.

While I agree with the math of 1,000 true fans, it’s almost impossible to measure such a thing. 1,000 twitter followers or facebook followers or even newsletter subscribers are not the same. I’m subscribed to some writers’ newsletters where I don’t buy everything they write. I don’t tell everybody and their brother’s cousin about it. I’m not a true fan, but I’m subscribed to their newsletter.

The 1,000 true fans concept may always only be a symbol of a truth, rather than something that can actually be literally measured. Meanwhile we’ll set our twitter follower and facebook follower goals, and newsletter subscriber goals, much higher than that, and hope that somewhere in all of that we connect with enough people to gain that magical number of true fans.

Which brings me back to this whole social networking thing. There are the two extremes: 1. Just signing up for a bunch of stuff but not doing anything with it. 2. Spending every waking second social networking. I don’t believe either is that productive.

So what’s the best way to deal with social networking for the best results? I’ve been throwing this idea around and here is what I have right now as far as a “plan of attack” for more effective social networking toward the end of helping you in your quest for true fans.

1. Sign up for everything. While it’s not enough to just sign up, and you don’t want to spend every waking second on all these different sites, if it’s free to sign up, you may as well. Some people will find you this way, and one thing I’ve learned from releasing KEPT is that you want your book in as many venues as possible, because not everybody goes to the same places. My book does much better at some sites than others, but I don’t really know the quality of those numbers. If I’ve gotten even one true fan from a smaller site, it was worth the effort of listing there.

2. Pick 3 sites that will get your primary focus. I can’t tell you how to pick your three sites (nor will I tell you you can’t just focus on one, or you can’t focus on 5. I’m trying to keep this simple to give people a starting point.) I wish I could analyze and say: “Okay this site is definitely worth your while and will draw to you a strong number of true fans if you work it, and this other site is trash.” But I can’t. Everybody is so different. Each person really has to figure out what works for them. But once you find 3 networking sites that seem promising, you’ll want to focus on consistently interacting in these three places and building relationships, hopefully with people who are likely to read your work.

3. While it’s important to interact regularly, you can’t “only” interact. There is a law of diminishing returns with social networking. You get to a point where it’s too much. Either you get to a point where repeated contact doesn’t help you, or it actually starts to hurt you. i.e. You know you’ve seen this person on the social networking sites, they post so often and usually but not always in the most self-promoting and obnoxious ways. You automatically delete emails from them, and after awhile you just stop following them all together. In the world of social networking, less can be more, as long as it isn’t so “less” that people forget who the hell you are.

It’s important to set a social networking limit. It’s easy to look at it as productive to your writing and use it as an excuse to procrastinate from other more pressing matters like writing and editing. Marketing is important, but you have to have something to market, and building a backlist is as important as building a strong core fan base.

Hopefully reading this has helped you to start to come up with a balanced way of viewing social networking and where it stands in the grand scheme of your marketing plan. I know writing it has helped me.