Lee Welch's Blog, page 2

Dissecting book promotion

Do you want the nitty-gritty about promoting a book? Want numbers and details and bones and guts? I’m writing this post for new authors because when I was starting out, I was desperate to know what authors actually did to promote their books. I wanted to know what their sales were. I wanted all the gory specifics.

Wanna peer inside?

(Image shows a skeleton contemplating a skull).

Before reading, you should know I write m/m romance, in particular fantasy m/m romance (think: magicians fallin...

Is writing fun? On process and emotion

My new fantasy m/m romance Seducing the Sorcerer releases today (23 Sept), so to celebrate I’m blogging about how I wrote it and how I felt about writing it.

My topic was inspired by a recent flurry of indignation over on Twitter, when a big name author said something like ‘if you think writing is fun, your book probably isn’t very good’.

At the time I scrolled on by, but the sentiment—and the angry responses—stuck in my head.

There’s not a lot of nuance on Twitter (hollow laugh) so I h...

Seducing the Sorcerer: pre-order now!

Who doesn’t love an evil sorcerer? He’ll have the coolest lair, the most dramatic clothes and, of course, magic. Not to mention quick wits, political acumen, a devilish beard and, if we’re lucky, a penchant for glaring.

At least a million times sexier and more interesting (to me, anyway) than the young clean-cut hero type.

Seducing the Sorcerer, my latest m/m fantasy romance book, was born of my abiding love of the clever, scheming, (often) queer-coded, bad guy everyone loves to hate.

T...

The Seven Pillars of a New Book

I finished writing my third book!

Seducing the Sorcerer, a fantasy m/m romance, will be out in September 2021.

It’s been through the rounds of beta reading and editing and proofing. Next comes promotion. To start my promo process, I contacted five of the people I admire most in the fantasy/romance world, and asked if they’d consider reading my book and providing a blurb quote. Not nerve-racking at all.

Me, nervous? Nah.
(Image: tightrope walker on high wire)

But anyway, if I’ve finis...

Fairy tales mini interview

My French publisher (it still gives me a kick to be able to say that!) Éditions Bookmark is having a sale as part of their #OPAllStars event and the French translation of Salt Magic, Skin Magic is part of it.

So to help promote Le Lord, Le Magicien et la Malédiction, (as it’s called in French) they asked me to answer a couple of questions.

Gorgeous cover art for Le Lord, Le Magicien et la Malédiction

This mini interview will be appearing on their website in French, but here are their...

Drip, drip, drip: How I wore away writer’s block

I’m writing again.

Yes, after two years of being unable to put fingers to keyboard without an existential crisis, I’ve written over 60,000 words of a new high fantasy m/m romance.

And while I worry about the things writers always worry about (it’s crap, it’s dull, I’ll unintentionally offend someone and everyone will hate me) a lot of the time I’m having fun with it.

Yay, right?!

This post tells you how I did it; how I got through my writer’s block. Of course, your blocks might be d...

Beating writer’s block: The next experiment

[image error]That’s me on the left, clearly winning. That’s writer’s block having its throat bitten out. I hope. (Image is actually two damned souls fighting – it’s a detail from Bouguereau’s ‘Dante and Virgil in Hell’)

It’s no secret I’ve been having trouble writing recently.

I’ve been trying various things to beat the block. I’ve tried writing ‘something fun’ for myself alone. I’ve tried writing ‘morning pages’ (I’m still doing these. I don’t see how they make writing a novel any easier, but anyway). I’...

Making space for a story: A week without social media

[image error]Less social media. More writing (detail from Man Writing a Letter by Gabriel Metsu).

I wondered if a break from social media could help me get writing again?

Like many authors, I have complicated feelings about social media. On one hand, it’s awesome. You can connect with readers, book bloggers and reviewers, other authors, publishers, editors. People befriend you, help you, make you think and make you smile. You learn about trends, scandals and scams. You get spectacular book recommendations...

Writer’s block and the power of the UTY Vow™

[image error]Get your sword, it’s vowing time!

Lately I’ve been suffering from awful writer’s block / burnout / slump / custard / whatever you like to call it. But although I have nearly given up many times in the last few months I have never quite given up.

I’d like to tell you my secret because it might help you too.

BUT FIRST AN ASIDE (watch it, it’s a long one) for those people who don’t believe writer’s block exists.

I’ve seen your tweets, I’ve read your posts. When I read them, I felt a bit cross. I...

Salt Magic Skin Magic audiobook out now

[image error]The audiobook: Read by a man whose voice will melt your heart.

In the list of Things I Never Thought I’d Be Doing, announcing the release of an audiobook is pretty up there.

Yet here I am.

Yes, folks, the audiobook of Salt Magic Skin Magic is out now, published by Tantor Media and narrated by the multiple-award-winning Joel Leslie.

The audiobook is nine hours, fifteen minutes of glorious m/m romance and gothic shenanigans.

It features:

Dark deeds Mysterious curses An aristocrat who is not wh...