Sign up for Charity Sunday 26 July! #BlogHop #Altruism #Marketing

Image by John Hain from Pixabay 

  
This coming Sunday, the 26th of July, will be the next Charity Sunday.

Charity Sunday is a meme designed to give authors and bloggers a chance to give back to the world—as well as, hopefully, attract new readers. 

How does it work? Each participant selects a favorite charity. Before Charity Sunday, you should prepare a blog post that: 1) talks about the charity and why you support it; 2) provides a link to the charity; 3) includes an excerpt from one of your books; 4) includes the code to show links to other participating blogs.

It’s fun if you can make the excerpt relate somehow to your chosen charity, but this isn’t required.

For every comment left on your post, you commit to giving some amount to the relevant charity. The specific charity and the amount to donate are up to you. You can set an upper limit to your donation if you want.

If you’d like to participate in the next Charity Sunday, just sign up using the Linky List below. Please be sure that the link you enter will lead directly to your Charity Sunday post, not just to the home page of your blog.

For more detailed instructions, go here: 

https://lisabetsarai.blogspot.com/2019/08/sign-up-for-charity-sunday.html

You can get my Charity Sunday banner here.

For an example, check out last month's Charity Sunday post.

Blogging for Fun and Profit - #SocialMedia #Marketing #AmWriting

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

 

Sometime in the last few days, this blog hit a million views. That seems like a lot - until I remember that I created Beyond Romance more than ten years ago!

Still, an average of one hundred thousand views per year... not too bad for an obscure author of smut. Some people, at least, are paying attention.

I’m always trying to figure out, of course, how to attract more of them.

Blogging is my primary form of online promotion. I don’t do Facebook or Instagram, and spend only a few minutes per day on Twitter. This is partly due to privacy concerns, partly because I’m in a different time zone from most of my readers, so real-time engagement doesn’t mean much. The blog lets me accommodate my irregular work and travel schedule by setting up posts in advance. It also permits me to be as long-winded as I desire. No obscure, hash-sign-laden snippets for me!

These days I know that some people view blogs as incredibly antiquated. The typical attention span seems to have decreased to the point that nobody wants to read more than headlines. A few thousand words is just too much work. The Oh Get a Grip group blog recently shut down after more then ten years, because we felt like we were writing for nobody but ourselves, and I suspect that other authors are considering whether blogging is worth the effort.

For me, the answer is obvious. Aside from the convenience issue I raised above, blogging offers many advantages not provided by other forms of social media.

Blogs are persistent. If I post an excerpt from one of my books, I can link to that material in the future, for instance when I release the next book in the series. When I post a review, I can include references to previous reviews by the same author. It may seem like a lot of effort to create a blog post, but once it has been created, it doesn’t evaporate into cyberspace.

I can blog to suit my mood. If you browse Beyond Romance, you will find a wide variety of different material: essays reflecting on my life or my writing career; discussions of sexuality and society; articles about the writer’s craft or about publishing; humor and parodies; flash fiction, short stories and poetry; posts about my favorite charities; book reviews; and of course promotional posts highlighting my books. The blog is my personal notebook, my soapbox, my playground. The content and format are totally up to me.

The blog helps me network. I usually host two or three guest authors and promotional tours per week. This gives me the chance to connect with other writers, who are often willing to reciprocate by helping me promote my work.

Hosting other authors brings new readers. Every time I share information about a colleague’s books, that becomes an opportunity to draw her fans to my site and introduce them to my work.

Syndication increases the blog impact. A standard Internet protocol called RSS (Really Simple Syndication) makes it possible for other sites to easily republish blog content. In my case, I use RSS to feed my blog to my Amazon Author Page and my Goodreads Author Profile. I also use Triberr to extend the reach of my posts. This is a collaborative social media platform where “tribes” (in my case, groups of authors) commit to sharing each other’s content. Beyond Romance feeds to all my eight tribes, so my blog posts get liked and shared on many people’s Twitter and Facebook streams. As far as I know, no other form of social media provides this sort of syndication.

Blogging can earn you money. I don’t have ads or affiliate links on my blog, but many authors do. I have no idea how lucrative this might be, but if you couldn’t make some cash, nobody would do it!

Of course, blogging requires a certain level of commitment. You don’t need to post every day, but you have to post regularly. Go a week or two without any posts, and readers will lose interest.

Hosting other authors adds some stress. It’s awful to realize that you’ve scuttled a colleague’s tour by forgetting her post, publishing it on the wrong day, or messing up the format.

However, blogging allows more flexible time management than other forms of social media. As long as you plan ahead, you can set up your posts during the days when you have time, and let them do their work for you while you’re busy with other things. Since I’m quite busy Monday through Friday, I usually spend Sunday preparing the week’s posts.

Are there other, more effective ways for me to be spending my scarce marketing time? Maybe. If you know of any, I hope you’ll share! For me, blogging seems the most practical way for me to have a presence in the online world, while still managing the demands of my real world existence.

Join in the Charity Sunday blog hop - #CharitySunday #BlogHop #altruism #marketing

 Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay 

This coming Sunday, the 24^th of May, will be the next Charity Sunday. 
  

Charity Sunday is a meme designed to give authors and bloggers a chance to give back to the world—as well as, hopefully, attract new readers.  

How does it work? Each participant selects a favorite charity. Before Charity Sunday, you should prepare a blog post that: 1) talks about the charity and why you support it; 2) provides a link to the charity; 3) includes an excerpt from one of your books; 4) includes the code to show links to other participating blogs.

It’s fun if you can make the excerpt relate somehow to your chosen charity, but this isn’t required.

For every comment left on your post, you commit to giving some amount to the relevant charity. The specific charity and the amount to donate are up to you. You can set an upper limit to your donation if you want.

If you’d like to participate in the next Charity Sunday, just sign up using the Linky List below. Please be sure that the link you enter will lead directly to your Charity Sunday post, not just to the home page of your blog. 

For more detailed instructions, go here:  

https://lisabetsarai.blogspot.com/2019/08/sign-up-for-charity-sunday.html

You can get my Charity Sunday banner here.

For an example, check out last month's Charity Sunday post.

How to sell your sexy books - #Marketing #Erotica @KinkyLiterature

Image by StockSnap from Pixabay

I know quite a few of my blog followers are authors like me, in love with the written word and wanting to share the stories they spin. Like many of you, I’d write even if I couldn’t publish my work—writing is in my DNA and I’ve been doing it since I first learned the alphabet. Nevertheless, it’s incredibly validating when someone actually shells out money for your book. 

We shouldn’t measure our value by our sales—that way lies madness, or at least severe depression! On the other hand, it’s worth putting some effort into marketing, to try to increase your sales.

Selling books, especially erotic books, is getting harder all the time. Pretty much anyone can publish, and they do. There’s a lot of crap out there, a lot of noise, not to mention a good deal of spam. If you write erotica or erotic romance, how can you get the attention of the people who matter? I mean, of course, the people who really enjoy well-written sexy stories, and who are willing to shell out cold, hard cash (or the digital equivalent) to read them.

Allow me to make a suggestion: Kinky Literature. This is an affiliate-marketing site that features nothing but books with erotic content. The owners, Richie and Randi, have years of experience in adult marketing. They use it to help you sell your books, through their site and by promoting their supporting sponsors.

I’ve been a sponsor for more than a year now. Despite the fact that my publication rate is pretty low (I have a rather demanding day job), my sales over the past six to eight months have actually been improving. I give Richie and Randi the credit. They feature my titles several times every month. They also help me publicize contests and special events. I’m much too busy to do promo every day, but whatever they're doing really seems to help.

By the way, don’t be put off by the name of the site. You don’t have to write fetish or taboo stories to be featured on Kinky Literature. There’s plenty of steamy romance on their pages (as well as the most prurient stuff you can imagine).

KinkyLiterature.com – check it out! And tell Richie and Randi I sent you!

Author’s Karma - #amwriting #marketing #sharing #karma

Image by pixel2013 from Pixabay

If you follow my blog with any regularity, you might have noticed that I’ve personally been a bit scarce lately. Instead, I’ve been showcasing the books of my fellow authors. I hope you’ve been taking advantage of the chance to meet new writers and find out about their books. Quite a few of my guests have been offering giveaways, too. I’d love to see some of my regular visitors win!

But what about my own work? Shouldn’t this blog be focused on marketing Lisabet Sarai?

Well, I suppose so. It gets a bit exhausting, though, to keep shouting, “Buy my books! Buy my books!” Don’t get me wrong, I am very proud of my sexy stories. Still, I suspect you’d become bored if this blog offered nothing but my own promo.

The recent density of guest posts is partly due to my having made an open announcement on my writers’ lists that I had guest spots available. I got an enthusiastic response. More than a dozen of my colleagues contacted me – you’ll be seeing more of them in the next few weeks.

I really enjoy reaching out to my fellow authors and helping them get the word out about their new releases. This is especially true for writers who are relatively new to the publishing game. I’ve been doing this a long time. I’ve learned a thing or two, and I’m happy to share what I know.

I’ve also built up a small but loyal group of fans, most of whom are voracious readers. (In a survey I did a few years ago, I learned that several of them read more than a dozen books per week!) If I can introduce them to new writers, and vice versa, then it’s a win-win situation. Everyone benefits.

Meanwhile, it’s hellishly difficult to be an author these days. There are too many books, and too many scams, people trying to game the system and get rich quick. You can easily spend 100% of your time (not to mention money) on marketing, and even then there’s no guarantee anyone will pay attention.

When are we supposed to find the time to write? And how are we supposed to muster the creative energy, when promotion is such an all-consuming, mind-numbing, soul-sucking effort?

So I help, when I can, and trust that I’ll receive help in return. This is not a tit-for-tat transaction; it’s more like karma. The universe rewards you in unexpected ways for being kind, generous, polite, friendly and reliable. I’m personally grateful for all sorts of advice and assistance I’ve gotten throughout my twenty year career. It’s only right that I try to pass it on.

So – if you’re an author, especially a newbie – consider this an invitation. I’d love to get to know you and give you the chance to showcase your work here. I know how you feel about your books. I feel the same way about mine.

Let’s share.

Writing for the market - not! #market #smut #contrariness

Market? Do I have a market?

I suppose I must. I mean, not all the rows on my monthly royalty statements are zero. However, I suspect that the people who buy my work don’t fit easily into any category, because my writing doesn’t either. They don’t constitute a Market with a capital M. I’m not particularly popular with Erotic Romance Readers, or Suspense Readers, or BDSM Readers, or Science Fiction Readers, or Steampunk Readers, though I’ve written in all those genres. Actually about the only identifiable group who seems to consistently like my work is the community of other erotic authors.

Definitely not what you’d call a large market, though I’ll admit it’s one I respect and for which I’m grateful...

The funny thing is, to a very large extent, I understand what’s popular in the different genres where I dabble. I believe that I could write exactly what the market wants, if I set my mind to it. Another lusty virgin seduced by a dark, seductive, haunted dominant? I cut my literary teeth on that trope, in my very first novel. (Okay, Kate wasn’t exactly a virgin, but she was a total newbie as far as BDSM was concerned.) Been there, done that. Although tales of power exchange push my personal buttons more than almost any scenario, the world now has more than enough books with that basic plot. I have little desire to write another.

In fact, I’ll admit that when it comes to my writing, I have a contrary streak a mile wide. I love to experiment with different genres. When I do, my first thoughts involve ways that I can give the genre an original twist. For example, I wrote a feline shape shifter romance in which the hero was originally an ordinary cat. I wrote another shape shifter romance about Quetzlcoatl the feathered serpent. In The Gazillionaire and the Virgin, the bossy billionaire is a woman and the virgin is a guy (a nerdy professor who is borderline Asperger’s). In my multi-genre opus RajasthaniMoon, I challenged myself to include the classic elements of as many genres as I could. I ended up with a steampunk/ BDSM/ multicultural/ menage/ werewolf/ Rubenesque/ Bollywood tale that I personally think is pretty brilliant (or at least, a huge amount of fun), but which apparently left readers puzzled.

These narrative choices do not endear me to the capital M erotic romance market. What about pure erotica, though? There are millions of readers looking for stroke fiction and thousands of authors publishing it. I can write fuck-and-suck stories with the best of them (with correct grammar, spelling and punctuation, too!) Perhaps that should be my target market.

Alas, sex for the sake of sex bores me, almost as much as love for the sake of the happy ending. If I were desperate for money, I’d probably try my hand at hard-core porn, and I suspect I’d be at least moderately successful, but writing as I do mostly for the pleasure of the experience, I want more than just the mechanics. I’ve received reviews from folks who bought my erotica collections, complaining that the stories weren’t sufficiently graphic. Yes, I know. They had characters. Conflict. Plot.

On the other hand, I find myself struggling to tone down the raw sex in my romance. I make my editors squeamish. Then there’s the problem that my characters always want to have sex with the wrong people, instead of staying focused on their soul mates.

In my latest books (the Vegas Babes series), I’ve dabbled in the shallows of porn, but I’m not sure I’m going to continue in that mold. I’m starting to find the process of writing unmitigated smut a bit tedious. I also feel sheepish about these volumes, despite the fact that they’re selling well; I wrote them really fast and I know they’re not up to the standard, craft-wise, of my best work. So what, right? But that bugs me.

I could write popular erotic romance or utterly filthy smut if I forced myself to do it. I’m quite certain. Despite my contrariness, I’m actually good at taking direction. (I am a sub, after all.) The commissioned stories I’ve written for CustomErotica Source have been highly praised. Clients have written comments telling me how I brought their fantasies to life, exactly as they imagined.

I understand how fiction works and how language can manipulate emotion. I feel as though I have decent control over the tools of my craft – better than the majority of published authors today. I’m confident I could bring those tools to bear in order to construct, if not a best seller, at least a series of books that would sell much better than what I write now.

The bottom line, though: I don’t want to do that. I’m not trying to make my living at this. I can write what I like – even if only a few people share my tastes. My true market consists of the relatively rare individuals who care about originality in fiction and who appreciate the way a story is told as much as the story itself.

Instant Gratification

Okay, I admit it. I’ve been known to complain about the flood of self-published drek in the last few years. The mountain of poorly edited crap available in online stores has made it well-nigh impossible to be noticed as an author. It’s easy (and trendy) to blame one’s literary obscurity on the self-publishing revolution. If all those #%*$ authors actually had to find publishing companies to release their stuff (the argument goes), there’d be fewer books swamping the market, and the ones that did get published would be higher quality.

Well, I have to ‘fess up. I’ve gone over to the dark side. I’ve now self-published three titles, and I have to say, I can understand the appeal. Bringing a book to market by yourself is so fast, so easy, so close to painless, that I wonder why there aren’t a hundred times as many self-pubbed titles out there (though I’m certainly glad there aren’t).

I still see the appeal of working with a publisher. The more eyes that look at a manuscript before it goes live, the more chance there is to catch those nasty typos and grammaticos. The covers I’ve created for my self-pubbed volumes can’t begin to compete with the work of a professional graphics artist. Publishing companies already have a audience of readers looking for new authors in the genres they put out. Some publishers actually do quite a bit to publicize their authors’ releases, supplementing the inevitable self-marketing effort.

Furthermore, it’s not a level playing field. The big retailers give better deals and more visibility to publishers than to self-pubbed authors, and the bigger the publisher, the better the deal. There’s still some stigma associated with publishing your own books, largely due to the fact that a lot of self-published fiction is in fact pretty awful. (Then again, I’ve read some pretty terrible books from established publishers as well.)

Balanced against these advantages, there are definite downsides to the more traditional route. It can take considerable time—often months—to get your book out the door with a regular publisher, because you’re only one of many authors with whom they’re working. The bigger the publisher (and thus the larger its clout), the longer the typical delay between submission and release.

In addition, writing for a publisher can be constrain your creativity. You have to produce the kind of books they want to sell, the books they believe their readers will buy. You must follow their rules. Personally I’ve found this rather difficult with erotic romance publishers. My writing is frequently romantic, but violates a lot of the conventions of the genre. It has been a struggle at times for me to warp my stories into the shape required.

In contrast, self-publishing is instant gratification! You can submit your book in the morning and have it available for purchase by the afternoon. If you follow the formatting instructions (which are definitely not rocket science), it’s a snap. 

 

Meanwhile, as long as you don’t break any laws, you can publish exactly the book you want to write. What freedom! There’s no guarantee anyone will buy your books, of course. You have to market them like crazy, or they’ll simply vanish in the vast sea of self-pubbed titles, thousands released daily. But if you write for your own satisfaction—if you want to create stories outside the rigid boxes of genre—self-publishing is a breath of fresh air.

I haven’t yet produced any self-published novels. I’m a bit worried about the formatting issues in a full-length manuscript. And given how long it takes me to write a novel, I’m still nervous about throwing it into the self-publishing swamp if I can find a suitable publisher.

But then, I have a couple of novel ideas that I suspect no publisher would touch. If I ever write those books, self-publishing will be the only option.

For the first time, I am not dependent on somebody else to get my work out into the world. That’s comforting. Freeing. And slightly addictive.

Two Months of Twitter

 @lisabetsarai

So, I’ve now been on Twitter for roughly two months. Is it doing me any good? I’m really not sure. In fact, I still don’t really get how to use it, exactly, but it’s a weird kind of fun anyway.

I will admit that I get excited when I receive a notification that somebody new has followed me. I love hearing that someone has retweeted one of my rare posts. And I keep thinking of new people I want to follow. However, my original notions about tweeting have turned out to be misconceptions. I’d imagined the medium to be like texting, where all the tweets from people you’ve followed get pushed to your phone or web browser. In reality, it seems more like Facebook. You have to actively browse through a huge amount of activity to find tweets you want to reply to, retweet or mark as “favorites”.

It’s a more effective medium for sending out news than mailing lists because of the network effect—the fact that people following you will sometimes broadcast your news to their followers. Still, a tweet, or retweet, by no means guarantees that anyone will actually see your news. It’s just as much a crapshoot as any other marketing communication.

And I really don’t understand how to use hashtags. I mean, I understand them from a technical perspective. They’re labels you put in your tweets that are searchable and provide people in the Twittersphere with a method to find and aggregate tweets. But how do you pick good hashtags? And how do you avoid using up your precious 140 characters with them?

Some tweets are nothing but hashtags, handles and links. Total gibberish, as far as I’m concerned. When I tweet, there’s something I am trying to say. And I’m not known for being particularly concise!

One problem with my use of Twitter is that I’m in a different time zone from many of my followers and the people I follow. When I rev up Tweetdeck in the morning, most of the stuff I see is old. Meanwhile, people won’t see my tweets for hours, unless I schedule them for later (which I sometimes do). I think Twitter’s most effective as a real time medium, but for me it will never be. I don’t use my phone for tweeting, due to privacy concerns. Somedays I don’t get to log on at all.

Oh well. I’ll continue to muddle along. I’m moderately confident that I’ve gotten one or two new people to pay attention to me since I’ve signed up. I’m not sure what else I can hope for!

Now I’m off to tweet about THIS post...!

Market Musings, and a Funny, Free Book

My husband and I are starting a new company, and doing a lot of traveling as a result. That means I have barely had time to be Lisabet lately.

In particular, I haven't been able to do much marketing (though I'm more or less caught up with the blog). On the other hand, I'm feeling rather clueless about marketing these days.

I've had five new releases in the past two months, in four different genres. Only one (The Eyes of Bast) is erotic romance. The others are lesbian erotica/romance (The Witches of Gloucester and Her Own Devices), dark paranormal erotica (Fourth World), and speculative erotica (The Last Amanuensis).

I have some notion about where and how to market erotic romance. Most of the readers on my VIP email list are romance fans. But how do I reach the readers of these other genres? There are no big review sites (that I know of) for these different types of books. I can try to get my current romance readers to try something new, but I know from experience that this can be a hard sell.

Right now I'm trying to get reviews. I figure that a couple of five star ratings on Amazon are bound to help draw people's attention, regardless of genre. And I have to say, I've been really grateful for the positive reaction of most of my reviewers.

Anyway, if you're reading this post (which means you at least know something about me and my writing!), I hope you'll give some of my new books a try. They're all pretty inexpensive, so it's not much of a risk!

Speaking of inexpensive...I recently read It's 10AM, Why Am I Still Sober, a hilarious and highly opinionated travel log by my friend and colleague K.S. Augustin.

 
In her more serious moments, K.S. writes amazing sci fi thrillers and romance, which she markets through her own micro-publishing company, Sandal Press. (Check out her gorgeous covers!)

The book It's 10AM... does not actually qualify as serious. Although I believe that it's sincere...

Anyway, she's giving the book away free. Just go here. Warning: this is not a book for those who are easily offended!

Have fun! And if you have any advice for me on marketing, I'd love to hear it.

Who Needs Facebook?

Each month I hold a giveaway exclusively for people on my private email list. Often I will use the contest as an opportunity for a little research. I'll ask readers to enter by sending me email with the answer to a simple question or two.

This month I asked the following question.

Based on your personal reading and book buying habits, how important is it that an author have presence on Facebook?

As some of you already know, "Lisabet Sarai" does not have a Facebook account, because I need to protect the privacy of my author persona. I know that if I was a FB member, it wouldn't take more than a few days for FB's data mining algorithms to determine the linkage between my real identity and my pseudonym.

However, I've obviously been concerned regarding how seriously this is impacting my sales. Some of my publishers organize events solely on Facebook, and because of my concerns, I can't participate.

Hence, I was eager to see how my readers responded.

I received 18 contest entries - not a lot, but then, any contest that requires effort or thought is going to have a low return rate! Of these 18 only three told me they thought Facebook was essential

Some indicated that they tend to frequent blogs or Goodreads more than FB. Several readers indicated that they themselves are not on FB or do not use it very much.

I was relieved. Of course, this is far from a random sample. Obviously, these are the readers who have already found me - through some channel other than Facebook.

I'm curious about other people who might read this post. How would you answer this question?

Thanks!

Oh, and a big congratulations to Sara, who won a copy of The Ingredients of Bliss in this month's drawing!

And if you'd like to join in the monthly contests - just email me at lisabet [at] lisabetsarai [dot] com. I'd be glad to add you to the VIP list.

Getting Noticed

In the old days - by which I mean ten or fifteen years ago, before the ebook explosion -  getting published was tough. The number of slots available for new authors was limited by the costs of producing print books, as well as the cost of buying them (for readers). A typical reader chose carefully when a novel cost between ten and thirty dollars. Publishers were reluctant to gamble on books that weren't an obvious sure thing. They didn't want to lay out the cash for editing, proofreading, cover art, catalogs, promotion, sales teams, book fairs and of course, the printing of the book itself, unless they were pretty confident that they'd at least break even.

Slush piles were enormous. Author success stories were few and far between.

Ebooks and the Internet profoundly changed the economics of publishing. Most of the expenses listed above shrank dramatically or vanished all together, aside from editing and proofing (and, alas, some e-publishers don't seem to spend anything for those, either). The Internet made it cheap to advertise books, and its ubiquity justified pushing the marketing burden onto individual authors. Covers could be assembled from a $5 stock image with a couple hours of Photoshopping. Meanwhile, the price of ebooks dropped to a low enough level that readers could be comfortable impulse buying.

Book sales surged. Publishers needed to satisfy the reading public's seemingly insatiable appetite for fiction. As a result, getting published became much easier. Anyone with a halfway sensible story could find someone who'd publish it. Poor grammar, lexical confusions, spelling errors, were no longer a barrier to being an author. Many more individuals were able to fulfill that dream.

Then self-publishing arrived, and even the most minimal barriers to publication disappeared.

Now it's easy getting published. What's difficult is getting noticed.

You may have written a fantastic book, one you know could be really popular, but how do you let people know? How can you make your book stand out from the literally thousands of books that get published every day?

It seems like an impossible task. Indeed, it's terribly discouraging. I blog like crazy. I participate in email lists. I run contests. I guest at other people's blogs. And almost every time I get some comment like "This is a new author for me..."

I'm doing everything I can, given my other real world responsibilities. But it's not enough.

I'm pretty close to giving up. Not giving up on writing - that's too much a part of me to let go - but on pushing to market my work. I have a few fans whom I know will buy my books. Maybe I should simply be satisfied with that, along with the knowledge that what I write is better, at least from a craft perspective, than a large percentage of the books flooding the world.

The other alternative is to figure out some wild stunt, something totally off the wall that will get me some publicity. Since I'm a very private person - hey, I'm not even on Facebook - this is an unlikely path.

Of course, if I could get each of my regular readers to tell just one friend about my books, that would multiply my fan base by two. And then if those people would just tell their friends...

Maybe that's a ridiculous dream. Still, if you're reading this post, and you have a minute - why not send a link to my book list or free reading page off to one of your friends?

http://www.lisabetsarai.com/books.html
http://www.lisabetsarai.com/freereads.html

Thanks!

Answer my question - win a prize!

It's Tuesday at Beyond Romance, and I don't have any guest or burning issue to discuss. So instead, I'll ask you a question.

How often do you drop by this blog without getting a reminder,  just to see what is going on?

Leave your answer in a comment and I'll put you into a drawing for a $5 Totally Bound gift voucher.

Of course, I'm not announcing this... so if I don't get many comments, that will answer my question, won't it?

Have a great day! (Here's a bit of eye candy to help!)

The Long Game

By M. Christian (Guest Blogger)

I'm not too sure whose been spreading the rumors but, believe me, I'd like to get my hands on them.

Not that it's anything new, I admit. I'll betcha that for as long as human beings have been putting one word in front of another word for money there's been a whispering, a murmuring, a seductive allure that all it takes is just the right story, the perfect book, the ideal concept to launch the author from zero to bazillionare.

But that's all it is: rumor, hearsay, gossip... hollow promises. Okay, sure, it does happen but I'll betcha with what little money I've made with my own writing that the number of people who it has happened to would comfortably fit in an elevator... and a small one at that. In short, while fame and fortune can and has happened with just one book the odds are nightmarishly against you.

But the myth – sadly – persists. The reason I'm writing this is perfect evidence: no fewer than four people recently asked me to be their book doctors, yet each and every one vanished when the reality of what it actually takes to make even a moderate amount of money as an author sank in. All of them had actually written a novel, each of them had put aside money to have it professionally edited, and they'd even started up the long social media ladder... but they all vanished in the space of a few months.

I'm a dreamer ... hell, half my waking life seems to be spent drifting from one fantasy to another: from super heroics to an immaculately imagined life as a pulp author in the 40s, I'm usually lost in the clouds. But while being able to support my very simple lifestyle with only my writing income is one of them I also really try to make at least that fantasy as real as possible.

Part of that is that I really want to make that happen. I know that it won't take one novel ... hell, it'll more-than-likely take dozens and dozens... and that it can sometimes take decades before my work gets noticed and, most importantly, purchased by enough people. Just look at how long it takes to build up a social media presence – and then to turn those numbers into people who actually care about what you say.

In short, I've always accepted that writing is a very, very, very long game. I just wish everyone else would ... not just because I feel for the pain of their expiring hopes but because it's making the world a lot damned harder for the rest of us.

For example, I hate NaNoWriMo – well, actually I loathe it. Okay, I accept the fact that a lot of people need an impetus to write and that some truly great works have come out of it. But for every great novel and each person discovering the glorious thrill that can come from writing there are hundreds of thousands of people who think that because they actually wrote A Novel In A Month (in case there are a few folks out there who don’t know what NaNoWriMo stands for) they can be the next J. K. Rowling, Stephen King, Stephenie Meyer, or [insert author of the moment here]. They take their book and hire (sigh) a book editor, set up a tweet feed, create a web page, sign up for Facebook, and Red Room, and [insert social media of the moment here] with expectations that they will Hit It Big.

As I said, this has always been a problem. There were probably more than a few Sumerian scribes who thought they were going to make more than a few [insert whatever money Sumerians used here] and retire to a little mud hut on the shores of the Euphrates – only to take what few coins they made and go into the sheep herding business like their parents wanted them to.

The problem is that this isn't Sumer – this is 2014 and we aren't writing on clay tablets. The good news about living in this day and age is that we have seen the death of death, at least where books are concerned. Sure, a few of my early books have crumbled to dust, reduced to a few tattered copies in a few struggling bookstores. But those that have been republished as ebooks will be there for as long as the Internet is.

Don't get me wrong, I love ebooks – hell, I absolutely adore working for two different ebook companies as a publisher right now – but the downside of this digital literary immortality, with the perfect storm of an exponential increase in the number of books being written and published, means that being noticed as an author has gone from unlikely to utterly impossible. Add to this the people who still think that the pot of gold at the end of the literary rainbow is there for the taking with just one book and you can see why things have gone totally and absolutely nuts.

Yes, I like to dream; but I when I want to actually make a dream a reality I know that it will take a lot of hard work, that there's no Leprechaun to capture, no social media lamp to rub. I'm not perfect – far from it – but I made a decision some twenty-or-so years ago that to live my dream of being a working writer that it wouldn't be easy ... as well as accepting the sad fact that it may never come to pass.

I have more than a few gray hairs, so I get to say "get off my lawn" now and again: write your novel, have fun, dip your toes into the lake of glorious creativity, know the giddy thrill that can come from creating a work that has never – in the entire history of ... history ... existed before, do the NaNoWriMo thing but, please, for the love of all that is good and wonderful, don't step into the world of professional writing unless you are willing to accept the facts of The Long Game.

Please don't waste my time as an editor and a publisher – and, most of all, do your readers a service and don't waste their time by writing just one book, expecting overnight success, before deciding that all this is – sniffle – too much hard work.

I've said it before and I'll say it again ... until I can't say anything else: the only time a writer ever fails is if they stop writing!

 

About M. Christian

Calling M.Christian versatile is a tremendous understatement. Extensively published in science fiction, fantasy, horror, thrillers, and even non-fiction, it is in erotica that M.Christian has become an acknowledged master, with more than 400 stories in such anthologies as Best American Erotica, Best Gay Erotica, Best Lesbian Erotica, Best Bisexual Erotica, Best Fetish Erotica, and in fact too many anthologies, magazines, and sites to name. In erotica, M.Christian is known and respected not just for his passion on the page but also his staggering imagination and chameleonic ability to successfully and convincingly write for any and all orientations. His short fiction has been collected into many bestselling books in a wide variety of genres, including the Lambda Award finalist Dirty Words and his novels include the queer vamp tales Running Dry and The Very Bloody Marys, the science fiction erotic novel Painted Doll, and the gay horror tale Fingers Breadth.

In addition, he is a prolific and respected anthologist, having edited twenty five anthologies to date. He is also responsible for several non-fiction books, notably How to Write and Sell Erotica.

M.Christian is also the Associate Publisher for Renaissance eBooks, where he strives to be the publisher he'd want to have as a writer, and to help bring quality books (erotica, noir, science fiction, and more) and authors out into the world. 

Are We Having Fun Yet?

By Spencer Dryden (Guest Blogger)

The day I received the acceptance letter from Breathless Press for my novella Bliss was one of my top ten days on the planet. Strangely, the day came sooner than I though and on a different work than I thought would be my breakthrough. There are some lessons there. On the other hand, there is no greater self deception than believing it was your magnificent plan and not dumb luck. There is some of both for sure.

For those of you who have not read my precious yammerings, I am new to writing fiction, but arguably an old guy for a first time author. I had just turned 64 when Bliss was accepted in early 2014. I have been writing for about two years. Before Bliss I had placed two short stories in anthologies, one with my host today, Lisabet Sarai, who remains one of the goddesses I worship. We've even been between the covers together. Of all the erotic places in the world we both chose to use North Platte, Nebraska (USA) as the setting for our stories that appeared in the charitable anthology, Coming Together: Through the Storm. I wonder if the people in that tiny prairie town know.

Writing for anthologies was one piece of early advice I followed. For the most part I ignored standard advice and I think it's one reason I got to a contract faster than expected.

In real life I am an avid DIY'er. (Do it Yourself) I am a field editor for a prestigious DIY magazine-the title sounds much more important than it is. The editors use a bunch of us for story ideas and product testing. I don't mean to brag, but rather to say that my skill level has been recognized by seriously handy people. I also came late to that party. I was 41 when I discovered I should have been a tradesman and not the repeat failure of a white collar guy I had been. I learned my skills, and continue to expand and refine them by 'doing'. In all defense to the DIY media blitz, you can't learn all that much by watching DIY TV or reading articles. You gotta do it. I say a handyman is someone who screwed up enough times that they finally figured out how to do it right. When a friend encouraged me to try writing fiction, I decided I would take the same approach—just do it.

The standard advice to new writers is to read, read, read; to become familiar with writing conventions like the Chicago Manual of Style, study the proper preparation for a submission and to never do this or that or whatever. I ignored all that and decided I would simply write a lot, become comfortable with my voice and style, then compare my work to the field at large, mostly by making submissions. In place of agonizing over the fine details of submission, I followed the instructions provided by the anthology editor or publishing house.

Bliss was one of three different works I was peddling. It is very different from the main body of my writing. In all honesty I hadn't done nearly as much research as I do now before submitting material to a publisher or an anthology. That's no doubt part of the luck thing I mentioned before. No question in my mind, some part of success for an unknown author is your stuff hits the right editor at the right moment. But as Wayne Gretsky (The Great One) says, the scoring percentage on pucks you don't shoot is zero. I shoot the puck. I've signed contracts for two more stories since Bliss was published in April of 2014.

Quick success isn't sustainable unless you are fifty shades of something. After the pure delight of seeing a book with my name on it, reality arrived in the form of "marketing". Marketing is about making things happen. I used to be in marketing. I never made enough things happen fast enough. My bosses decided there was more more opportunity for me elsewhere. I think they meant food service. I'm not going there in this post. However, it's one thing to break through with editors and publishers, it's another thing entirely to break through with readers.

These days author marketing is about building a "platform", which is nothing more than a coordinated presence on all manner of social media. I joined Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Goodreads, built a website, I've balked at my own blog but it is a necessity. From this platform you have to stage events, conduct contests, giveaways, cover reveals, take over of others' Facebook pages, cross pollinating from one site to another. There is even an emerging trend to build video promos for your book. You help yourself by helping other authors, reading and reviewing their releases, hosting them on your blog, retweeting their posts.

The marketing people at Breathless Press arranged for a dozen guest blog appearances-each requiring a different post and they sent copies to countless review sites. Because of the way the social media sites funnel your subscription information, all of your contacts are other writers trying desperately to do the same thing. 

It's frankly a little off putting to see authors repeat posts ad infinitum on Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus. But we are all flapping our arms as fast as we can. It's a wonder that anyone succeeds in the marketplace. My wife bought a copy so I know I have sold one, but Charlie Rose hasn't called so I'm sure I haven't broken through yet.

It's hard to remember that real success takes time and consistent effort. When I was ten years old I fell in love with basketball and wanted to be a big star. By the time I was eighteen, a few people were beginning to say, 'you know that kid's got some talent after all'. I was always labeled as too short. (I am 5'9") By the time I was eighteen I had a 36" vertical leap, and could almost dunk a basketball. (Yes, some white boys CAN jump) I made all-conference as a senior, was captain, leading scorer and most valuable player for my high school. But it took the equivalent of half my life and rigorous training to reach that pinnacle. Why should publishing be any different? In is wonderful book, Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell says it takes 10,000 hours of time on task to achieve mastery.

I'm really just getting started. (Two words as authors we are advised to avoid, really and just). But really, I am just getting started.

Blurb - Bliss  by Spencer Dryden

Christina McArdle must cast out the demons of her past and present or lose the love of her life.

In the prosperous community of Bliss, New Hampshire, in 1995, Christina McArdle is living a feminist dream. In short order she has become the first female partner of the venerable, male dominated CPA firm of Driscol, Ryan, Jensen and Palmer. The honor followed by her selection as the first female member of the prestigious Maplewood Country Club.

But Christina fears that her career success has come at a terrible price. Her husband, Ben, has lost sexual interest in her. Unable to ignite his passion for her and desperate for understanding of her own inhibitions, Christina turns to Dr. Rachel Morrisey, a sex therapist, who helps her uncover dark secrets from her past. Christina's path to recovery is blocked by a misogynistic pastor who traps her and many other women of her church in a shame bind that serves his purulent interests.

Her path to freedom requires Christina to break bonds from past and present or lose the thing she loves most in life—the love of husband and family. 

About Spencer

Some men are born great, others strive for greatness; still others have greatness thrust upon them. Spencer Dryden is none of these men. In fact, he is so unimpressive, he leaves no footprints on newly fallen snow. He was trained in fiction writing on the job with the many sales reports he produced for his managers, winning the coveted “keep your job contest” three years running. His expense reports are still considered masterpieces of forgery by the bankruptcy trustee of his former employer. He lives an unremarkable life in a suburb of a northern city. His friends and family would drop dead in horror if they knew of his secret life as a writer of erotica. He hates the family cat but still loves to pet his wife.

Visit Spencer's Fantasy Island.
Quick trips to adult fantasy. Leave your baggage behind!
http://www.fictionbyspencer.com/ 

Ten Reasons Why You Should Buy THE EYES OF BAST

I really hate marketing. I mean, I love interacting with readers, and I like giving things away, but I have real problems shouting out "Buy my book! Buy my book!" over and over. It just seems so crass and annoying.

Don't get me wrong. I believe you'll love my work, if you take the time to check it out. I'm very proud of all the erotica and erotic romance I've produced over my career. But I'm just not comfortable urging you to buy it, again and again and again. Of course, I share my covers, my excerpts, and so on, to give you the flavor of each book. Then, I'd like to imagine, everyone will want to read my stuff so badly that they'll just run right out and snap up their own copies.

Doesn't work like that, does it?

So today I'm doing my best to create a pure marketing post. Here are ten reasons why you should immediately click on the link to Amazon US or Amazon UK and buy a copy of The Eyes of Bast!

 

1. The cover is exquisite. Michelle Lee is a true artist. I adore all the covers she has created for me, but this one might well be my favorite.

2. Practically every chapter of The Eyes of Bast features a sizzling love scene.

3. My heroine Shaina is courageous, compassionate and street smart. Oh, and she has a real body - she's not model-skinny.

4. My hero Tom is gorgeous and tragic - not to mention exceptionally virile.

5. The book features a sleek, graceful black cat who will make you want to purr.

6.  You'll both hate and sympathize with the villain, Delphine Montserrat. By the end of the book, you'll understand why she's so evil.

7.  Magic sparkles throughout the book, but magic with clear limits. (Personally I can't stand paranormals in which the characters' powers seem unbounded.)

8.  You'll love my lyrical prose and rich descriptions.

9. The Eyes of Bast doesn't include any BDSM at all. So those of you who aren't that fond of that subgenre can rest easy. For those of you love a bit of kink - buy one of my other books, for example, Admit You Want It!

10.  Drama! Pathos! Passion! Terror! You'll find all this and more in this modest novella.

Are you convinced? I hope so. Because I doubt I'll write another sales pitch like this anytime soon! Too painful!

But every word is true!

The Eyes of Bast, available now in Kindle format from Amazon US and Amazon UK.

Only Myself to Blame

I'm feeling grumpy again. I got my monthly royalty statement from my main publisher. Let's just say it was disappointing. Once again, I'm asking myself why I bother to work so hard writing and marketing when nobody's buying my books.

Then I remember I have only myself to blame. I could boost my sales if I wanted to do so. All I'd have to do is write what's popular. A few years ago, that was vampire and werewolf tales. At the moment, the sub-genre de jour seems to be stories about a woman's initiation into BDSM by a mysterious, arrogant, dominant male.

Been there. Done that. That was my first novel, Raw Silk, more than a decade ago. For a long time, in fact, most of what I wrote was BDSM-flavored. I still love the genre. Well-written tales exploring the thrill of sexual surrender still push my personal buttons. After a few years, though, I started to worry that I was writing the same story over and over again. I wanted to branch out, to challenge myself. I didn't want to get stale.

I wrote a couple of erotic thrillers. Two M/M erotic romances. Some paranormal. Some science fiction. Just for the hell of it, I did a mash-up of  every genre I could think of, in Rajasthani Moon. Menage-BDSM-steampunk-shapeshifter-Rubenesque-Bollywood-interracial...That was so much fun that my next project is likely to be steampunk BDSM, too. 

So what kind of author am I? An erotic author, certainly, but beyond that, I don't fit into any pigeonholes. And that's at least one reason why my work doesn't sell better. I don't have a brand. Unlike some authors, I don't write one book after another with basically the same plot and characters. And okay, I admit it, when somebody tells me I should write the sort of book that's currently "hot", I feel an overwhelming desire to do exactly the opposite.

Call me contrary, but I don't like to be a sheep. And I figure the world doesn't need yet another take on the gazillionaire Dom and the virgin.

When I do tackle a popular genre, I find myself irresistibly tempted to turn the stereotypes on their heads. So in fact, I have been thinking about a gazillionaire and virgin book - one in which the hero is the virgin and the heroine is the filthy rich dominant.

Sigh. I know that won't sell at all....!

I can write to spec when I want to. I'm on the staff at Custom Erotica Source, a service that provides individually crafted sexual fantasies for its clients. You wouldn't believe the detailed scenarios some of our customers have given me. And somehow, I've managed to get into their heads and give them exactly what they wanted.

But otherwise, I want to surprise and delight my readers, turn their expectations upside down.

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to bet much of a market for originality - at least not in erotic romance.

I know I could analyze what's selling and write more of the same. I'm good at taking direction, as my Master will confirm. But I just can't stomach the prospect.

So if my royalties are a pittance, I have only myself to blame.