Blood Score Book Birthday! Special Limited Discount Price

I've released my first full-length eBook novel through Amazon's Kindle Select, an exclusive program I've wanted to try. My indie book is called BLOOD SCORE and I've included a synopsis and an excerpt below. I'll be offering it for $2.99 through the end of August, in appreciation for the readers who have supported me and my publishers. I'm also doing a special promotion through Indie Book Promo on Aug 3rd for this launch. Details to follow.

Croco Designs did the stunning cover and here is a LINK to their portfolio on DeviantArt. I love working with the designer, Frauke Spanuth, out of Germany. She's amazing.

My dear Okie friends and fellow authors/editors, Alicia Dean and Kathy Wheeler helped with formatting and editing. They made that effort painless and fun.

This book was a long haul for me with plenty of soul searching. I worked on it between my YA contracts. I believed in it from the start and loved the voice of my two detectives, especially Gabe Cronan. My kind of guy. My agent and I got an offer to buy it from a major publisher, but I decided that self-publishing might be a better fit for me. I'm hoping to build my virtual shelf of offerings in between contracts through traditional publishers, but with this being my first self-published full novel, I'll be feeling my way through the promotion efforts.

I am updating a Self-Pub Resources tab on my blog at this LINK as I learn new things. Check it out and stay tuned for more.

Synopsis

A dangerous liaison ignites the blood lust of a merciless killer

When a beautiful socialite is savagely murdered in Chicago’s Oz Park, Detectives Gabriel Cronan and Angel Ramirez find her last hours have a sinister tie to two lovers. One is a mystery and the other is a famous violin virtuoso.

A child prodigy turned world class musician, Ethan Chandler is young, handsome—and blind. He’s surrounded by admirers with insatiable appetites for his undeniable talent and guileless charm. From doting society women to fanatical stalkers and brazen gold diggers, the reclusive violinist’s life is filled with an inner circle of mesmerized sycophants who are skilled at keeping secrets.

After Cronan and Ramirez expose a shadowy connection between Ethan and the victim with a private elite sex club, they discover intimate desires and dark passions aren’t the only things worth hiding at all cost. A vicious killer will stop at nothing to settle a blood score.

BLOOD SCORE Excerpt:

 When Angel Ramirez’s iPod changed tracks and another song started, her cell phone rang and made her heart jump. A call this time of night for a homicide cop was never a good thing, but when she looked at the display screen, she recognized the phone number.

She answered the call as her face flushed with heat.

“Hello?” Her voice cracked.

“Angel?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

Caller ID told her who was on the other end of the line, but she wanted to hear him say his name.

“This is Ethan.” His voice was soft and low. When he breathed into the phone, she heard the rustle of his bed sheets. “I couldn’t sleep…and I didn’t know who else to call. I hope I didn’t wake you.”

Angel shut her eyes and swallowed, hard. Ethan Chandler was a famous world-renowned violinist. With all the people in his life, she found it sad that he had to reach out to a virtual stranger when he needed to talk.

Had his dead girlfriend been that person for him? She didn’t feel like questioning Ethan’s motives for calling her at this hour, because she’d spent far too much time gazing into death’s never ending black mirror. She understood what it felt like to be lost and floundering in grief.

“No, you didn’t wake me. I couldn’t sleep either.” She pulled her blanket over her breasts and nestled into her pillows.

“Is that my music?” he asked.

Ethan had a smile in his voice and the intimacy of that made it feel as if he were lying next to her. She’d left her iPod playing. He must’ve heard it.

“Yes.”

Angel knew she should have asked why he’d called her cell this time of night. He was still a suspect in his girlfriend’s murder. She should have insisted he stop reaching out to her like this, but the truth was…she liked it.

Self-Publishing Promo Resources

 I've been accumulating links and resources for indie/self-published authors to promote their books. I have NOT had any experience with these sites, but on the many email loops I belong to for writers, I've collected their recommendations. I've broken down these links in categories for PAID PROMO, BARGAIN EBOOKS, and free listings for FREE Ebooks. Most of the links should take you to the actual submission pages.

After I post this, I will keep it on a tab on my YA blog and update it when I have new links. 

If you have promo to recommend that you've tried and liked, please submit your suggestion in a comment. Thanks.


PAID PROMO:

1. Paid promotional Boost on Digital Book Today – est $30.00 http://digitalbooktoday.com/join-our-team/

2. Book Bub free day ad for $150  est. http://www.bookbub.com/advertise/

3. Author Marketing Club – est $15.00 http://www.authormarketingclub.com/

4. Kindle Nation Daily – est $29.99 http://fire.kindlenationdaily.com/about-kindle-fire-on-kindle-nation-daily/

5. Indie Book Promo – Ad pkgs http://indiebookpromo.com/submit-to-ibp-3/  



BARGAIN EBOOKS:

1. EreaderNewsToday – Submissions for Bargain Priced Ebooks - http://ereadernewstoday.com/bargain-kindle-books/

2. Books on the Knob – Submissions for Discounted Ebooks http://blog.booksontheknob.org/p/deeply-discounted-books.html

3. Free Kindle Fiction – Submissions for Bargain Priced Ebooks http://freekindlefiction.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_12.html

4. Free Kindle Fiction – Post New Releases http://freekindlefiction.blogspot.com/p/tell-us-about-new-releases.html

5. Book Goodies – Submissions for Bargain Priced Ebooks http://bookgoodies.com/bargain-books/

6. Book Goodies – Giveaways (like Goodreads, except you can list it by using a Rafflecopter form) http://bookgoodies.com/category/book-giveaways/

7. The ereader Café – Bargain EBooks http://www.theereadercafe.com/p/bargain-books.html  



FREE LISTINGS:

1. Pixel of Ink http://www.pixelofink.com/sfkb/ 2

. Ereader News Today http://ereadernewstoday.com/category/free-kindle-books/

3. Books on the Knob http://www.squidoo.com/today-s-free-kindle-books

4. Free Booksy http://www.freebooks.com/ebooks/

5. Bargain ebook Hunter http://bargainebookhunter.com/feature-your-book/

6. Free Kindle Fiction http://freekindlefiction.blogspot.com/p/tell-us-about-free-books.html

7. Free Book Dude http://www.freebookdude.com/p/list-your-free-book.html

8. Indie Book Promo http://indiebookpromo.com/free-days/

9. Free Kindle Books and Tips http://www.fkbooksandtips.com/for-authors/

10. Book Goodies http://bookgoodies.com/submit-your-free-kindle-days/ (List Free Kindle Days)

11. Ebooks Habit http://ebookshabit.com/for-authors/



Freelance Editor:

I've worked with Elyse and love her.
The Edit Ninja - Elyse Dinh-McCrillis
http://theeditninja.com/



Cover/Bookmark Design:

I've worked with Croco Designs for years. I find them fast, affordable, and easy to pay on PayPal. Love Frauke! They do lots of covers for publishers - of all genres. Don't let the sexy website header dissuade you if you're a crime fiction author. Croco Designs does it all.

Croco Designs - Frauke Spanuth
http://www.crocodesigns.com/

Podcast Interview & Audio Book Release!

Allison and Michelle the Authors Are Rockstars! site recently did a special edition to feature a cool podcast interview for the release of IN THE ARMS OF STONE ANGELS audio book with Audible. This is the finished digital audio book product of the process I went through on Audiobook Creation Exchange or ACX where I self-published my own audio book.

You can listen to the podcast HERE and learn more about the book, and hear from the amazing voice actor, Michelle Ann Dunphy on how she approached this project and got into character. Yes, she is THE Michelle mentioned at the start of this post. Check her out. She brought my character, Brenna Nash, to life. I love how the audio book turned out.

For anyone interested in reading more about the process of self-publishing your own audio book, you can visit my group blog THE KILL ZONE and link to that post.

An Indie Author’s Checklist – A Look Behind the Curtain of OZ (Post #1)

This is post #1 in a blog post series that I hope you will find interesting—things that I have learned on my indie author journey. Since I’ve been fortunate enough to be published by HarperCollins and Harlequin Teen, I can see and appreciate the differences in what I will be doing as I self-publish. I’m discovering what my houses do behind the scenes for authors on the e-book front and realize that when I become an indie author, I will have to make choices on how to expand my distribution and retail visibility—ways my traditional publishers did for me without me knowing it.

My first recommendation for any indie author is to do your research on what’s involved. It’s not simply writing a story, editing it well, spending some coin to format and cover it, and uploading it onto Amazon and expect readers to find you. You first have to put out the best book you can, because quality will help you build a readership. Secondly, there is a business side that detracts from your writing time and you must be aware of how time consuming this can be. You won’t be able to load your book up and have readers flock to find you. It takes time to build a virtual shelf of quality work and expand your distribution. That’s why I wanted to share my experiences so you can research what will work for you and not spin your wheels, trying to gain traction.

This series of posts are intended to jumpstart your research, but for the purposes of discussion, I will lay out the decisions I had to make as I began. I’d spent time researching and building service provider contacts. I already had an infrastructure in place where I had an online presence, blogs, twitter accounts, Facebook pages, and many other sites that I have grown my online presence. A new indie author would not start where I did. They’d have to catch up and that takes time and money to set up your promotional foundation. This post is not intended to start from scratch. I’m sharing my experiences, starting from a spot where I already had insights into the industry. I hope what follows will help any author build on their expertise.

For me, the process started with me making decisions on which service to upload my books into after I’d done my initial due diligence into self-publishing. I knew I would upload to Amazon and B&N. They provide comprehensive systems that make the process easy and their reach encompasses most of the e-books being sold today. So realize that if you upload to Amazon Kindle and B&N Nook, you are probably reaching 60-70% of the digital books being sold. In a quickly changing world, however, the shift in technology could change this dynamic, but for now I’m comfortable with my digital offerings being on these two sites. For many established authors, who want to step foot into the indie world, this might be enough. But it’s not enough for an indie author with dreams of finding another way to make a living and who might be starting from scratch.

A traditional publisher uses its name to aggregate digital books to retailers and provides the latest offerings in a bundle. They support and build an infrastructure to get their books into as many viable venues as possible, to get books into the hands of today's online readers. An indie author is on their own to figure out how to expand their reach and what to promote, but traditional houses have resources en masse with staff to support that effort. For an indie author to learn what works—and to grow what they know— they must navigate uncharted waters of Distributors and Retailers that are willing to allow self-published authors or small houses to have the same access as larger publishing houses.

I thought it would be interesting to break down what I’ve learned into five posts and create a future page of resource links on my FRINGE DWELLER blog for indie authors that I will maintain for myself and to share. My hope is to demystify the process of self-publishing so authors can make informed business decisions on how to get their work in the hands of readers directly. Ultimately, this will become a comprehensive “how to” book on author promotion that will cover various topics from branding and online presence, to press kits and resources, with practical tips on distribution. This indie process has educated me and will continue to do so.

But in doing this, I’m also realizing what my traditional houses have been doing for me and appreciate their efforts. I’m hoping to maintain a balance that works for me where I can still have projects through traditional publishers, but reap the benefits and gain experience with being an indie author for certain projects. Sustaining my online presence and growing my name recognition will hopefully be a benefit and a WIN-WIN for any house I work with as I self-publish. By expanding my reach, I can also give my agent more to represent.

Even authors who have no plans to self-publish can gain an appreciation for what goes on behind the scenes beyond your desk, your publisher, and your friendly retailer—because today's readers have many ways to discover books outside the brick and mortar stores.

Here are the bullet point topics I will cover in this blog post series:

1.) Introduction (Post #1)

2.) E-Book Retailers – A Checklist Place to Start (Post #2)

3.) Distributors & Library Sales (Post #3)

4.) Retailers with Volume Restrictions or Limited Access (Post #4)

5.) Conclusions & Introduction to My Resource Page (including review sites receptive to indie author books by genre) (Post #5)

Please share your questions and topic suggestions that you hope I will cover so I can target the focus of my series. I’d appreciate your input.

In the mean time, I hope you will indulge me in a little blatant self-promotion for my first ever self-published offerings.

ONE AUTHOR'S AHA MOMENTS (92-page POD, e-book) is geared toward aspiring authors and has an emphasis on the Young Adult genre. These writing tips may also be helpful to experienced authors and those who write other genres. My advice comes from my personal experiences on writing fiction for adult and teen markets and what has worked for me. Topics include: Young Adult fiction themes, voice, and characteristics; how to create characters editors look for & give them a unique voice; plot structure that even a non-plotter can love; how to hook your book; the writer’s life, goal setting, editing, book promotion and more.





My first anthology of short stories—SEX, DEATH & MOIST TOWELETTES (e-book)—is now available. It's a mix of stories from crime fiction noir to paranormal, with my brand of dark humor. As a teaser for anyone not familiar with my adult paranormal writing, I’m releasing DARK KISS (e-book) as a single short story from the anthology for a discounted price.

Another Coup for Self-Publishing

I saw an article in Publishers Weekly and wanted to share this very interesting deal.



John Locke is my hero.

No, not THAT John Locke! This guy…


Publishers Weekly reported on Aug 22nd that John Locke, the self-pubbed Kindle bestseller phenom, closed a distribution deal with Simon & Schuster. The deal, negotiated by his agent, is an exclusive arrangement where S&S will handle Locke’s eight Donovan Creed novels and get them into retail markets for print books. These novels are expected to start releasing in Feb 2012 with more titles to follow.


This seems like a really different idea, but a rep at S&S said this concept mimics the type of arrangements made between distributors and small publishers. Whether you consider this unorthodox or not, this is news, people. Locke still distributes his e-books and retains his rights as publisher on all digital fronts. S&S is only getting the right to sell print books to retail markets. S&S sees value in print and paid accordingly for that privilege, but Locke didn’t have to give up his lucrative digital rights.


If Locke hadn’t self-published, he never would have known his true value in the marketplace.


I see this as very encouraging for aspiring authors. The digital marketplace has become the new resume, a proving ground. It requires work to market your own books, but traditional publishers expect authors to do this anyway. Quality and author craft is still important to this process, but I believe if an aspiring author has talent and marketing platform to get the word out, this new digital world can be the best way to showcase work.


Published authors benefit from this development too. Striking a similar arrangement, they would get to focus on their writing, get their e-books into the public faster without all the approval and production schedule delays, and push the genres they write without NYC filtering the content for placement on shelves in retail stores. Established authors already spend time on promotion. Nothing new there, but there would be no more waiting to see if the publisher will spend money on promo or coop dollars for often limited time on the shelves. And the author retains control of cover art, book jacket summary, copy editing, and formatting, if they want it.


Even though S&S has limited access to Locke’s work, it can be looked upon as a WIN-WIN, in my opinion. S&S gets access to books that have a proven readership. They don’t have to “guess” whether a series will gain traction or not. They get exclusive print distribution rights for a known commodity. Not a bad thing to try in a changing world.


The author gets to take the risk of whether his or her book will find success, so they can push the genre or create a new trend—AND keep the rights that are most lucrative these days. The author would also free up time to write more, rather than spend time with the print side of the business—and gain access to retail markets he/she would not have reached on their own. PLUS a proven winner like Locke would also have the attention of NYC with his next project, opening more doors. Definitely a WIN-WIN!


I see this as a very positive arrangement—a healthy one for the industry. Both sides benefit from something they would not have tried otherwise. If a traditional bundled publishing deal can be broken apart for perceived value, how do you think this might change how deals can be negotiated in the future? Can digital rights be retained by the author for the right project? How would an agent’s role change? Would an author have to be a proven bestseller to have enough clout to negotiate a similar deal or does a deal like Locke’s foreshadow things to come for all authors?