Tuesday, 18 June 2013

TEASER TUESDAY

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by

http://shouldbereading.wordpress.com/

of Should Be Reading.

Anyone can play along!

Just do the following

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE ANY SPOILERS!
Make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away!

You don't want to ruin the book for others!

Frailties of the Bond (NEO Chronicles, Characters Revealed #1)

by Angela Brown
BLURB:
In Frailties of the Bond, it only takes one bite to change a life…

After a hiking trip gone wrong, sixteen-year-old Luca should have been dead. Since then, he’s drifted from one school day to the next, annoyed by the looks of suspicion. When a vampire attack claimed his mother and forced his first shift into animal form, Luca set out for Texas, vengeance bound, only to discover so much more when Aimee crossed his path.

Flesh-born of vampire parents sixteen years ago, Aimee shouldn’t exist. Magic, though, made dreams come true for an undead couple desperate for a child all their own. But this magic came with a price, a cost Aimee discovered after one forbidden bite.

Frailties of the Bond is the first in a series of Characters Revealed novellas/short stories for...

NEO – Network of Extraordinaires and Otherworldlies:

Those who answer the call from NEO play their part in maintaining balance in our ever-changing times. With power-hungry malcontents, jealous gods, and even those with misguided good intentions, the fate of our world has oft been held in the hands of unsung heroes such as those that are members of NEO.

But before NEO, these heroes and heroines had lives, loves, issues and interests that didn’t involve saving mankind.

MY TEASER:

Luca shot forward so fast he didn’t realize he was on the vampire until his teeth sank into the vamp’s arm. His mom tumbled free, lame on the floor. The vampire leaped to his feet. Luca clamped his jaw tighter. The crack of breaking bone drowned beneath the vampire’s scream.

Angela Brown (2013-03-04 00:00:00-07:00). Frailties of the Bond (Kindle Locations 272-273). Angela Brown. Kindle Edition.

Monday, 17 June 2013

WRITERS FOR WRITERS

Stephen Tremp Christine Rains

M.Pax and (myself), C. M. Brown

Writers helping other writers to succeed.
Twitter hashtag: #W4WS
Find us on Facebook

An initiative to promote writers and their books (that’s you)!

Our Mission:

• Help writers bring awareness of their book(s) to tens of thousands of new people

• Help writers reach Amazon Top 100 in at least one category (i.e., suspense, free, etc.)

• Increase sales of their book(s) after the promo is over

• Drive new traffic to their blog and increase following

• Create verbal and viral buzz.

W4W's is held the third Monday each month!

To sign up, join the Linky List HERE!

This month our selected author is:

Marta Szemi.

Visit Marta and pick up a free copy of her first book

And, tweet her posted tweets, make sure you re-tweet any tweets that come your way.

Visit #W4Ws to view other posted tweets!

Sunday, 16 June 2013

JUST SAYING HI!

HELLO EVERYONE,

Well I have been busy over the last couple of months and have not had the time to frequently visit my blogger friends as much as I would like, and I am taking this space to apologize! I hope, now that my life has settled down a bit to be able to spend more time visiting the sites I haven't been able to get to for a while.

So, this weekend I have spent the time updating my reviews and dropping by bloggers who have visited me during the week. I have also posted the reviews I featured during the A-Z Challenge to the sites I promised, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords and Goodreads.

Even updating my Shelfari reviews too!

So any authors books I reviewed during the challenge will be able to find my reviews on all the above sites.

Better late than never!

Tomorrow, 17th June is scheduled for the next Writer's for Writer's Meme. This month we are featuring Marta Szemi.

I hope you will join Christine Rains, M. Pax, Stephen Tremp and myself to help Marta to rise into the top selling charts!

You can do this by visiting Marta, who will post a number of Tweets, she would like sent, then tweet and re-tweet the tweets! Simple!

or/and

Visit the W4W's Facebook page and leave a comment and a LIKE on Marta's post!

If you have not signed up to join the ever growing list to be part of W4W's, and you would like to participate,

you can do so HERE!

Next month, we will be back with three authors

to support and promote!

Cheers!

Carolyn

Thursday, 13 June 2013

EXPRESS YOURSELF

HOSTED BY

Dani@Entertaining Interests

Jackie@Bouquet of Books

What were the last two movies you saw?

Ruby Sparks

A novelist struggling with writer's block finds romance in a most unusual way: by creating a female character he thinks will love him, then willing her into existence.

Staring: Paul Dano, Zoe Kazan, Annette Bening
&

The Expendables 2

Mr. Church reunites the Expendables for what should be an easy paycheck, but when one of their men is murdered on the job, their quest for revenge puts them deep in enemy territory and up against an unexpected threat.

Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Randy Couture

Wednesday, 12 June 2013

INDELIBLES - INDIE LIFE

What is Indie Life?
How: Sign up on the Linky at the bottom of this page
When: Post on the second Wednesday of the month (starting 1/9/2013)
What: Write anything indie related: something that will inspire or help a fellow indie; something that celebrates a release or a milestone; something that talks about the ups and downs, joys and heartaches of Being Indie.
Grab: The banner above to include in your posts!

This month I thought I would give some advice on how Indie writers can improve their sales, simply by facing some cold hard truths.

(I have to be honest and admit that I am also looking at these things at present, to improve my published works and to help me to grow as a writer).

One of the hardest things to accomplish as an Indie writer is the process of publicizing your published work!

The most important fact to remember is it is vary rare for a book to sell itself. Unfortunately, as with most things today, this is one of the hardest things to acheive! Just publishing your work at one or more of the various platforms, (amazon, smashwords, barnes and noble, itunes, etc), is not enough. You may be lucky, but most likely your work will not sell itself.

Smashwords, recently sent an email to its authors, explaining that most published works will sit without a sale after the initial release date and that if you happen to be in this group you should take a good hard look at your published work. Only a small percentage of ebooks become best sellers, there is second group which sell quite well and a third group which sell consistently, but unfortunately the cold hard truth is that there is a large group of published works which sit at the end of these, not making a sale for years!

(Lucky for me, my work sits among the third group, which happens to be a good starting point for improvement.)

After publishing, reflect upon your reviews, listen to what your readers tell you, make changes!

Is the cover of your novel working? Does it stand out and grab your readers attention? Do you need to re-edit your work? Is there something in your storyline that your readers are finding difficult to understand? Is your title an attention grabber?

If you received 3.5 stars in your reviews, you are most likely in the third group I listed above, if so think about how you could change your work to bring the reviews to rate higher.

The beauty of publishing as an Indie writer, is that you are in control and by publishing in an e-book format, changes can be made at anytime and your work can be re-published, over and over again.

From experience, I would suggest to new writers considering publishing as an Indie to first publish their work as an e-book, hold off with the printing into paperback or hardcover until you have tried and tested the market and make any necessary changes.
(Something I have learned from experience).

You will surely benefit from testing your product first!

After publishing and you are satisfied, your work is still not done. It is important to be involved in your writing community, make contacts and colleagues, to help you with the process of publicity. Share and support one another, look out for opportunities which present themselves and become involved.

Tuesday, 11 June 2013

TEASER TUESDAY

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by

http://shouldbereading.wordpress.com/

of Should Be Reading.

Anyone can play along!

Just do the following

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE ANY SPOILERS!
Make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away!

You don't want to ruin the book for others!

1301: The Marquis

(The 13th Floor series #1)

by Christine Rains

Blurb:

Life after Hell isn't more exciting than watching football and fixing a busted pipe. Once a powerful demon, Marc enjoys his quiet existence and a good cup of coffee. With big ambitions to gain his master's favor, a trickster demon named Vetis shatters Marc's peace and vows to deliver Marc's head to the fires of Hell. Not before he destroys everything Marc cares about, of course.

Marc's power has diminished over the years. Heaven will never grant him absolution, and he refuses to return to Hell. Running isn't an option. The city of Carmine is his territory. It's also home to his favorite cafe owner, Mae Hopkins. The dame has a lovely smile, but it's her heart and soul that shine bright.

While his city burns and his love is captured, Marc must decide to surrender or let hate and anger fuel him to become the fearsome beast he so loathes: The Marquis. If the Marquis rises, Vetis can be defeated and Mae saved, but Marc would be lost to his demon forever.

My Teaser:

Marc kept his distance from the crowd and watched as the EMTs carried out the bodies. They moved like ants in a line, focused and with purpose. Though sheets covered the corpses, the stench still crept out above the throng of living people. Some bodies bulged oddly in places and others weren’t bumpy enough.
Christine Rains. The Marquis (Kindle Locations 258-260)