Allie Boniface's Blog, page 34
March 4, 2013
Monday Mentionables: Reading, Writing, Reviewing...
Happy Monday, everyone! What am I mentioning today?
First, a lovely 4-star Amazon review over the weekend: "Nice story, well written and kept my interest to the end. A story about discovering what you have in life."
Short and sweet, right? If you enjoyed The Promise of Paradise too and feel like leaving a review, I'll be eternally grateful!
Digital Book Today has some great features for both readers and writers. One fun one is their 100 Top Free Books - a listing of the best free books available each day on Amazon's Kindle Store. They rank by number of reviews and the average review, too, so you can see exactly what others have thought.
Don't forget that I'm the Featured Author over at The Romance Studio all month long. Lots of trivia about The Promise of Paradise - and a peek into the soon-releasing Beacon of Love!
First, a lovely 4-star Amazon review over the weekend: "Nice story, well written and kept my interest to the end. A story about discovering what you have in life."
Short and sweet, right? If you enjoyed The Promise of Paradise too and feel like leaving a review, I'll be eternally grateful!
Digital Book Today has some great features for both readers and writers. One fun one is their 100 Top Free Books - a listing of the best free books available each day on Amazon's Kindle Store. They rank by number of reviews and the average review, too, so you can see exactly what others have thought.
Don't forget that I'm the Featured Author over at The Romance Studio all month long. Lots of trivia about The Promise of Paradise - and a peek into the soon-releasing Beacon of Love!
March 1, 2013
Friday Fun Facts: Is It Spring Yet?
What a winter it's been! Here on the East Coast, it's almost-warm one weekend, snowing the next. Flirting with freezing rain, icing up the driveway, then a balmy 40 degrees a few short hours later. My poor flowers are already starting to come up, though it's only March 1st and I have a sad suspicion that they'll be buried at least one more time before winter finally retreats for good:
Speaking of it being almost spring, though, I'm the March Featured Author over at The Romance Studio! Want a little insight to The Promise of Paradise? Have yourself a read...and dream of warm weather. You know, like sultry summer in a little town called Paradise, in a little state called New Hampshire, where anything is possible... ;)
Happy weekend!
Speaking of it being almost spring, though, I'm the March Featured Author over at The Romance Studio! Want a little insight to The Promise of Paradise? Have yourself a read...and dream of warm weather. You know, like sultry summer in a little town called Paradise, in a little state called New Hampshire, where anything is possible... ;)
Happy weekend!
February 27, 2013
Writers' Wednesday: Tracking Down E-Pirates
Today, a short rant on
e-piracy
. What is it? Basically, it's copyright infringement - offering electronic files (usually for free) that you do not own the rights to. You can find ebooks, audio, and video files all over the Internet that you can download without paying for them, thanks to "torrent" sites like
Why is it so bad? I mean, people share books/music with their friends all the time, right? If I want to read a book, and a friend has it, then why shouldn't I borrow it if I can, instead of buying it? I understand that, I really do. But think about: when you buy a book, how many people do you loan it to? 2? 5? On the Internet, piracy sites abound. Within a week of my new ebook, The Promise of Paradise, being available on Amazon, I found listed for free on at least 10 "torrent" sites.
To give an idea of how many freely downloaded books that potentially represents, and more important, how many lost sales, here's an excerpt from the article "E-Piracy: The High Cost of Stolen Books" by Karen Dionne:
"Lost book sales can't be quantified, making it impossible to calculate the full cost of e-piracy, but the sheer number of illegal copies available for download gives an idea of the scope of the problem. At one file-sharing website, users have uploaded 1,830 copies of three books by a popular young adult author. Just one of those copies has had 4,208 downloads. On the same site, 7,130 copies of the late Michael Crichton's novels have been uploaded, and the first 10 copies have been downloaded 15,174 times.
Even if only a fraction of the downloads from this and dozens of other file-sharing websites represent actual lost sales, they still translate into a staggering amount of royalties that have been stolen from authors."
Here's the thing: some people will say that hey, at least readers want my book. I should be glad it showed up on so many sites, right? And if people are reading it, maybe they'll buy the others because they like my work so much. Hmmmm.....how likely do you really think that is? Don't you think that, instead, they'll try to find the others for free as well? I'm not a best-selling author by any stretch of the imagination, but listen folks, every time someone buys my book from a piracy site, that's royalty $$ I'm not getting. I work hard on my books - writing them and marketing them. The few cents I get per sold title doesn't compensate me that time (yet!), but it's still payment for a job I've done.
Please, please don't download books from piracy sites. You are helping those sites rob artists of the rightful royalty money they have earned by doing a job - the same way you earn a paycheck by going to work each day.
And writers, if you're concerned about your own titles, do a search and see what you find. I subscribe to a service called Muso that, for $15.00/month, searches the Internet daily and sends takedown notices to all sites that are posting and offering my books illegally. An individual author can send takedown notices too (this is a legal first step in notifying someone/a site that they have violated copyright law and can be held legally responsible), but it's very time-consuming to find these sites and send the notices, especially if you have more than one title out there. For me, it's well worth the money to have a company do it for me.
OK, that's it for today! Go out into cyberworld smarter and savvier about e-pirates than you were before :)
Why is it so bad? I mean, people share books/music with their friends all the time, right? If I want to read a book, and a friend has it, then why shouldn't I borrow it if I can, instead of buying it? I understand that, I really do. But think about: when you buy a book, how many people do you loan it to? 2? 5? On the Internet, piracy sites abound. Within a week of my new ebook, The Promise of Paradise, being available on Amazon, I found listed for free on at least 10 "torrent" sites.
To give an idea of how many freely downloaded books that potentially represents, and more important, how many lost sales, here's an excerpt from the article "E-Piracy: The High Cost of Stolen Books" by Karen Dionne:
"Lost book sales can't be quantified, making it impossible to calculate the full cost of e-piracy, but the sheer number of illegal copies available for download gives an idea of the scope of the problem. At one file-sharing website, users have uploaded 1,830 copies of three books by a popular young adult author. Just one of those copies has had 4,208 downloads. On the same site, 7,130 copies of the late Michael Crichton's novels have been uploaded, and the first 10 copies have been downloaded 15,174 times.
Even if only a fraction of the downloads from this and dozens of other file-sharing websites represent actual lost sales, they still translate into a staggering amount of royalties that have been stolen from authors."
Here's the thing: some people will say that hey, at least readers want my book. I should be glad it showed up on so many sites, right? And if people are reading it, maybe they'll buy the others because they like my work so much. Hmmmm.....how likely do you really think that is? Don't you think that, instead, they'll try to find the others for free as well? I'm not a best-selling author by any stretch of the imagination, but listen folks, every time someone buys my book from a piracy site, that's royalty $$ I'm not getting. I work hard on my books - writing them and marketing them. The few cents I get per sold title doesn't compensate me that time (yet!), but it's still payment for a job I've done.
Please, please don't download books from piracy sites. You are helping those sites rob artists of the rightful royalty money they have earned by doing a job - the same way you earn a paycheck by going to work each day.
And writers, if you're concerned about your own titles, do a search and see what you find. I subscribe to a service called Muso that, for $15.00/month, searches the Internet daily and sends takedown notices to all sites that are posting and offering my books illegally. An individual author can send takedown notices too (this is a legal first step in notifying someone/a site that they have violated copyright law and can be held legally responsible), but it's very time-consuming to find these sites and send the notices, especially if you have more than one title out there. For me, it's well worth the money to have a company do it for me.
OK, that's it for today! Go out into cyberworld smarter and savvier about e-pirates than you were before :)
February 25, 2013
Monday Mentionables: Flu Season and Spring Break
Happy Monday! I'm glad (and relieved) to report that our household made it through a bout with the flu last week. My husband has never gotten the flu shot, and this year it caught up with him :( He did say, midway through the illness "I don't think I've ever had the flu before." (This was also his reason for never getting the shot)
For those of you who have suffered from it, you know one of the worst things is that the flu knocks you out, hard, and for those with weaker immune systems, it can turn into pneumonia or worse. We heard a lot of reports this season about how the flu shot did protect many people (even those who came down with the flu anyway had a much milder case of it) - so please, please consider getting the shot next year! (Note: I get the shot each year, and though I was living in a house full of the virus I didn't come down with it).
Having survived THAT, we are looking forward to Spring Break in Key West, Florida next month. We've never been and are really excited about going (my husband is also celebrating a birthday while we're there, too - even more fun!). So....any suggestions from those who have gone? Good places to eat/drink/visit? Must-sees? Of course the Hemingway House is already on our list!
For those of you who have suffered from it, you know one of the worst things is that the flu knocks you out, hard, and for those with weaker immune systems, it can turn into pneumonia or worse. We heard a lot of reports this season about how the flu shot did protect many people (even those who came down with the flu anyway had a much milder case of it) - so please, please consider getting the shot next year! (Note: I get the shot each year, and though I was living in a house full of the virus I didn't come down with it).
Having survived THAT, we are looking forward to Spring Break in Key West, Florida next month. We've never been and are really excited about going (my husband is also celebrating a birthday while we're there, too - even more fun!). So....any suggestions from those who have gone? Good places to eat/drink/visit? Must-sees? Of course the Hemingway House is already on our list!
February 22, 2013
Friday Fun Facts: Some Reflections on Indie Publishing
OK, The Promise of Paradise has been indie published (that's the new term for "self-publishing," since self-pubbing was getting a negative rap) for all of a week now, and I've discovered a couple of things:
~I'm very glad I had experience with the whole publishing process, through a couple different publishers, before I did it on my own. I know people who go straight to indie publishing, for a variety of reasons, but I think the learning curve must be so huge, everything from editing to designing a cover, to marketing, that I'm glad I saw the process happen through publishers and editors before I tackled it myself.
~Going along with the first observation, if you choose the route of indie publishing, make sure you do your research and know how to produce a good product. I've seen way too many covers that look unprofessional, as well as typographical errors from authors who edited their own work (tip: you'll never catch all your own mistakes), to know that the smallest error can make your book stand out as NOT something consumers will choose to buy.
~AND on that same topic, make sure you have a great cover. Really. They make such a difference when people are shopping. I love, love, love mine, but it was done by a professional cover artist who's familiar not only with the romance genre and e-publishing, but also with my own writing, since she had designed my cover for Beacon of Love. So we were a good match.
~It's really, really nice to be able to track my sales (through Amazon, anyway) and connect them to my marketing efforts. When you have a book out through a traditional publisher, you don't see your sales numbers until months after sales occur, so it's hard to know what advertising or promo really works. Over the last week, I've watched my sales bump after certain things I've done (sending out my newsletter, posting an announcement on The Romance Studio, [a website well known and frequented by romance readers] and participating in an online release party), so I have an idea about what to spend time on and what to avoid in the future. Very, very helpful!
~It can be a lot of work - but then again, so is all writing and publishing. Still, it can become very easy to be consumed with what marketing to do next, checking those sales numbers every hour, and getting off track from writing in general.
Will I do it again? Maybe. In the meantime, if you'd like to read my posts from yesterday's release party, click here, and then look for my name on the left sidebar. Click my name, and it will take you straight to my posts. Also, here's a great mini-course on the pros and cons of indie publishing, if you'd like to read more from an author who's done it multiple times.
Happy Friday!
~I'm very glad I had experience with the whole publishing process, through a couple different publishers, before I did it on my own. I know people who go straight to indie publishing, for a variety of reasons, but I think the learning curve must be so huge, everything from editing to designing a cover, to marketing, that I'm glad I saw the process happen through publishers and editors before I tackled it myself.
~Going along with the first observation, if you choose the route of indie publishing, make sure you do your research and know how to produce a good product. I've seen way too many covers that look unprofessional, as well as typographical errors from authors who edited their own work (tip: you'll never catch all your own mistakes), to know that the smallest error can make your book stand out as NOT something consumers will choose to buy.
~AND on that same topic, make sure you have a great cover. Really. They make such a difference when people are shopping. I love, love, love mine, but it was done by a professional cover artist who's familiar not only with the romance genre and e-publishing, but also with my own writing, since she had designed my cover for Beacon of Love. So we were a good match.
~It's really, really nice to be able to track my sales (through Amazon, anyway) and connect them to my marketing efforts. When you have a book out through a traditional publisher, you don't see your sales numbers until months after sales occur, so it's hard to know what advertising or promo really works. Over the last week, I've watched my sales bump after certain things I've done (sending out my newsletter, posting an announcement on The Romance Studio, [a website well known and frequented by romance readers] and participating in an online release party), so I have an idea about what to spend time on and what to avoid in the future. Very, very helpful!
~It can be a lot of work - but then again, so is all writing and publishing. Still, it can become very easy to be consumed with what marketing to do next, checking those sales numbers every hour, and getting off track from writing in general.
Will I do it again? Maybe. In the meantime, if you'd like to read my posts from yesterday's release party, click here, and then look for my name on the left sidebar. Click my name, and it will take you straight to my posts. Also, here's a great mini-course on the pros and cons of indie publishing, if you'd like to read more from an author who's done it multiple times.
Happy Friday!
February 20, 2013
Writers' Wednesday: Join the (Release) Party!!
Happy Wednesday, everyone! Just a very quick note today: tomorrow, all day (midnight to midnight!), I'll be one of the participating authors at The Romance Studio's Release Party! What does that mean for you? Lots of chatting with authors, sneak peeks at excerpts from a whole slew of new books, and best of all, tons of prizes! Click here (tomorrow) to join the party!
February 18, 2013
Monday Mentionables: Battling the Flu and Chatting about Paradise
Happy Monday, everyone! We've been battling the flu here at our house all weekend long (poor husband, not feeling very well), so here's a head's-up: it's a really good idea to get the flu shot each year. I got the flu once, the first year I started teaching (oh yes, those germy germs are everywhere in schools!), and ever since, I've gotten the shot. I never want to feel that miserable again :( It's a tough illness, too, since there's not much you can do except wait it out and try to rest and ease your symptoms.
Suffice to say that I am armed with Lysol wipes, rubber gloves, bleach, and matches (yes, some things will be burned) so I can rid the house of this virus once hubby is back in the land of the living.
While I wasn't washing my hands 100x a day and bringing chicken broth, gingerale, and tissues to Mr. Sick this weekend, I was sharing the news that my new release, The Promise of Paradise, is on sale over at Amazon's Kindle store for the super-low price of $.99 - today as well! And I'll grovel a little here and ask any of you who have read it (or bought it), to leave a review on Amazon too...since those stars definitely affect people's buying decisions AND since I don't have any yet :(
Finally, I do want to mention that I'll be blogging and guest-posting and doing giveaways around the Web for the next few months, and I'll keep track of them over there, on the right sidebar of this blog, so you can find me and enter for some of those giveaways as well! Hope to see you in cyberspace :)
Suffice to say that I am armed with Lysol wipes, rubber gloves, bleach, and matches (yes, some things will be burned) so I can rid the house of this virus once hubby is back in the land of the living.
While I wasn't washing my hands 100x a day and bringing chicken broth, gingerale, and tissues to Mr. Sick this weekend, I was sharing the news that my new release, The Promise of Paradise, is on sale over at Amazon's Kindle store for the super-low price of $.99 - today as well! And I'll grovel a little here and ask any of you who have read it (or bought it), to leave a review on Amazon too...since those stars definitely affect people's buying decisions AND since I don't have any yet :(
Finally, I do want to mention that I'll be blogging and guest-posting and doing giveaways around the Web for the next few months, and I'll keep track of them over there, on the right sidebar of this blog, so you can find me and enter for some of those giveaways as well! Hope to see you in cyberspace :)
February 15, 2013
Friday Fun Facts: The Promise of Paradise is Now Available!!!
Happy Friday, everyone! Hope you enjoyed a lovely Valentine's Day. And speaking of love and romance (we were, weren't we??), I'm thrilled to share the news that my re-released contemporary romance, The Promise of Paradise, is now available in the Kindle store!!!!
Even better, I'm offering it for the super-low launch price of $.99 - what else can you get for under a dollar these days? Maybe a small cup of coffee....to go with that full-length novel you just bought ! I'm running this price through the long weekend, so please hop over and download yourself a copy....and spread the words to your friends as well.
Finally, if you're a blogger and are interested in participating in a blog review tour of this book, Goddess Fish Promotions is handling all the details for that, which will happen in April. Click on the banner below for more information. And happy reading!
February 13, 2013
Writers' Wednesday: An Awesome Advertising Sale!
Attention writers! The Romance Studio is having a fantastic Valentine's Day advertising sale, now through 2/16/13!! Check out what you can get:
Ad Offer #1Single cover, banner, video and release party ads are buy 1 get 4 free for 5 ads @ TRS! No discount code is needed. Order your ad below and the bonus ads will be applied.Ad Offer #26 cover/banner ads -- 1 month duration each ($90 value)
6 video OR single day release party ads -- 1 week duration each video ad/1 day duration release party ad ($60 value)
3 newsletter ads -- 1 issue each ($105 value)
6 social media blitzes -- 1 week duration each -- TRS promotes your release for 1 week on our Yahoo groups, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and Pinterest
6 months featured membership at TRS ($60 value)
$50 - Featured members of TRS
$65 - General Public
Click here to find out more or to purchase an ad package. I highly recommend TRS; they're professional and super-easy to work with!
Also, for anyone who writes Christian Fiction, Lovely Christian Romance is holding a writing contest AND looking for submissions for their Christmas 2013 anthology. Here's more info:
www.lovelychristianromance.com is hosting a writing contest. First prize is $300. The theme is Christmas on the Frontier. We want Christian themed novellas between 15,000 and 30,000 words. Many stories submitted that are not winners will be asked to be put in our great line of novellas which sell in print and e-book at Amazon and at Barnes and Nobles. See our requirements at www.lovelychristianromance.com at the top of the page. Send us a pre-email and let us know you are planning on entering the contest at lovelycromance (at) yahoo.com
Ad Offer #1Single cover, banner, video and release party ads are buy 1 get 4 free for 5 ads @ TRS! No discount code is needed. Order your ad below and the bonus ads will be applied.Ad Offer #26 cover/banner ads -- 1 month duration each ($90 value)
6 video OR single day release party ads -- 1 week duration each video ad/1 day duration release party ad ($60 value)
3 newsletter ads -- 1 issue each ($105 value)
6 social media blitzes -- 1 week duration each -- TRS promotes your release for 1 week on our Yahoo groups, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and Pinterest
6 months featured membership at TRS ($60 value)
$50 - Featured members of TRS
$65 - General Public
Click here to find out more or to purchase an ad package. I highly recommend TRS; they're professional and super-easy to work with!
Also, for anyone who writes Christian Fiction, Lovely Christian Romance is holding a writing contest AND looking for submissions for their Christmas 2013 anthology. Here's more info:
www.lovelychristianromance.com is hosting a writing contest. First prize is $300. The theme is Christmas on the Frontier. We want Christian themed novellas between 15,000 and 30,000 words. Many stories submitted that are not winners will be asked to be put in our great line of novellas which sell in print and e-book at Amazon and at Barnes and Nobles. See our requirements at www.lovelychristianromance.com at the top of the page. Send us a pre-email and let us know you are planning on entering the contest at lovelycromance (at) yahoo.com
February 11, 2013
Monday Mentionables: It's Almost Release Time!
Super-excited to say that my re-released book, The Promise of Paradise, will be available this week, just in time for Valentine's Day! Stay tuned for all the details, and in the meantime, here's a sneak peek at a brand new scene from the story, along with a brand new character:
“Lucas, it’s perfect.” Ash wrapped her arms around Jen’s younger brother. “Thank you so, so much for coming up and helping out.” “Aw, didn’t do much,” he said gruffly. The six-foot-seven giant turned three shades of red as Ash released him. “Yeah, you did.” The porch still smelled of fresh paint, and all the loose boards had been fixed, along with the leaking toilet and the stuck window in Ash’s bedroom, which he definitely hadn’thad to do. Lucas ran one hand over a head full of curly dark hair. “It’s a nice apartment.” He leaned against the railing and stared at the street. Always solemn, he seemed quieter than ever today. Broken hearts tended to do that, Ash supposed. “Yeah,” she agreed. “Hey, you’re gonna stay for the party, right?” She was almost positive Eddie had some single friends she could steer in Lucas’s direction. “Naw, I gotta get back.” He pulled a baseball cap from his back pocket and stuck it on lopsidedly. “Mom an’ Dad are havin’ a barbeque later. Told ‘em I’d try to make it.” He grinned. “It’s always hit and miss with Dad and the grill. I’d rather see him keep his eyebrows tonight.” She laughed. Such a good guy. She still couldn’t believe his girlfriend had cheated on him. In another life, Ash might have considered letting Jen set her up with Lucas, the way she’d been trying tosince about the second week the two of them had lived together. Ridiculously tall, seriously built, and sweet down to the core – what woman in her right mind would cheat on someone like that? Ash straightened the tables in both corners of the porch roof as Lucas planted a kiss goodbye on the top of her head. Guess you never really knew the thoughts in people’s heads. Secrets hid, liesgrew, and sometimes the very people you thought you knew best were the ones burying their knives in your back. Or their hearts in someone else’s. She shook away the thought. Not tonight. No sadness, and no regret. She glanced into the street below. A few cars already lined the curb in front of the house, and the sun hadn’t even begun toset. Apparently, thanks to Eddie, half of Paradise had been invited to their housewarming party. A few minutes later, he poked his head through the window, looking out from the kitchen. “Ash? Everything good out here?” “I think so.” She and Jen had spent most of the afternoon decorating. Now red, white, and blue lights twisted themselves around the porch railing. Flags perched in buckets of ice, while picnicbenches and tables bowed under piles of food and soft drinks. “Jen’s brother’s not staying?” She shook her head. Eddie rested both arms on the sill. “Seems like a nice guy.” “He is.” “You and he ever…” He didn’t finish the question, but she read the look on his face. “Me and Lucas? God, no. He’s like – I mean, he’s Jen’s little brother.” “So?” “So nothing.” She propped one hand on a hip. “Are you jealous?” “Nope. Just curious.” She grabbed a handful of ice from the nearest cooler and tossed it in his direction. “Whatever.” “I’m gonna run out and get the beer,” he said. He picked up a few slivers of ice, already melting, and palmed them. “Like it wet, huh?”
Available soon!!
