Lolita Lopez's Blog, page 11
July 11, 2011
Maya Banks Gets Real
A few days back, Maya Banks offered to share some hard numbers about the realities of her publishing situation. Dear Author Jane jumped at the chance and the two compiled a nice, long and very candid interview. If you're curious about the possibilities in epublishing and tradition commercial publishing, take a gander at the post. There is a lot of back and forth in the comment section with loads of great info and clarification.
Now, obviously, what Maya Banks has accomplished isn't likely for the rest of us. There's a combination of luck and timing that goes along with talent, you know? That said, I think it's wonderful to see what kind of commitment and work ethic it takes to get to the point where you can earn 600K per year. She discusses her business plan and the way she makes decisions about what to write and for whom. Smart cookie, that one!
I also found it encouraging that she treats her writing as a business. When contract issues came up with one of her publishers (and mine,) she held them to the contract they'd signed and when it didn't work out, she walked. That's ballsy but also the mark of a good businesswoman. Sometimes loyalty and friendship are conflated with the business side of things, especially in epublishing where writers and editors tend to have more one-on-one contact than in the NYC arena.
So. Anywho. If you have time and you're interested, wander over to Dear Author and check out the interview and comments. Time well spent, I think.
July 8, 2011
The Big V
A few weeks back, I'd just finished slogging through the sagging middle of a new novel and was seriously sick of the book. I wanted a break. I wanted to write something fun and flirty and wild. I remembered a conversation I'd had with my fab editor, Kelli, at EC about a frat house, a virgin and Halloween. The muse awakened, and a week later, I had written The Big V.
This was one of those stories that just came naturally. I could not wait to sit down at my desk and pound out a few thousand words. Ashley was such a great heroine to write and I loved playing around with this wicked idea of a ritual orgy. Chris, the football god frat president, was a hoot to write. He reminded me of most of the "good ole boys" you tend to meet on Texas college campuses.
If you enjoy the blurb below, you can find an excerpt here. Happy Reading!
A night of wild partying with football god Chris at his frat's Halloween bash sounds like the perfect cure for Ashley's midterm blues. But her carefree night quickly takes an FML turn. Chris and his hunky frat buddies intend to use her as their virgin sacrifice!
She nearly faints as Chris describes the deliciously dirty ritual orgy they have planned, a ritual centered on giving Ashley multiple orgasms. Sensual massage. Spanking. Twelve sets of big, strong hands on her innocent body. A dozen soft mouths driving her wild. Could there be a more memorable way to lose the Big V than with these sinfully sexy frat boys?
Chris promises Ashley a night she'll never forget—and she plans to hold him to it.
Reader Advisory: Our heroine endures scorching sexual pleasure at the hands—and mouths—of a dozen horny frat brothers. Oh, what torture…
June 29, 2011
Plagiarism is bad, mmkay?
Wow. Just wow. Talk about some big, brass balls. To steal entire books from Moira Rogers, Shiloh Walker and Nora Roberts (La Nora!) and pass them off as your own? WTF is this woman thinking? And cover art too. She's swiped some of those too. What a peach, huh?
Some great lessons she's teaching those kiddos of hers. Stealing is cool, right?
*Head*Desk*
June 25, 2011
Not Going to Conference Conference
Not Going to Conference?
Attend Romance Divas' Annual Not Going to Conference Conference June 28-July 1
Romance Divas' annual virtual conference features workshops, publisher spotlights, pitch-your-book opportunities, fabulous doorprize giveaways and more.
It's FREE!
And nobody says you can't wear fabulous shoes while you're recharging your writer batteries from home.
LIKE the NGTCC on Facebook for future updates in 2012 and beyond.
June 24, 2011
Backlist Sale
Ellora's Cave has put some of my backlist titles on sale at Amazon! Sweet, right? You can nab the following books for a buck and change. There are also quite a few other EC books included in this sale. If you're addicted to that one-click button on your Kindle, now's the time to use it!
Books included:
Pressing the Flesh (older woman/younger man)
English Vice (BDSM)
Nocturnal Obsession (paranormal)
Illicit Bargain (paranormal/shifter/BDSM)
June 14, 2011
LA Banks
So author LA Banks (aka Leslie Esdaile) is very sick. She's battling late stage adrenal cancer and could use all the positive vibes, prayers and good thoughts you can spare. Also, if you're interested and/or able, please consider donating to this fund to raise money to cover her skyrocketing medical bills.
June 10, 2011
Agents As Publishers
Publishing is changing. Some days it feels like the Wild effing West out there. There's traditional, commercial (aka "legacy") publishing ala Random House or Simon & Schuster. There's small/indie press publishing like, oh, Llewellyn, Eraserhead or Behler Publications. There are big, successful epublishing firms like Ellora's Cave and Samhain and Loose Id. There's self-publishing ("indie") where you control the whole show, and its close cousin vanity publishing (where you pay a shit ton of money) to publish your book with shady places like AuthorHouse or PublishAmerica. There are author co-ops like Excessica (great place for out of the box erotica!) and newish hybrids like Summerhouse Publishing.
Those options are all valid choices for a writer. Some writers want to go the commercial route. Others want to go it alone and give self-publishing a try. Some authors write niche books best published by smaller, indie presses well-known in the genre. Others, like me, write erotic romance or erotica so epublishing is the natural choice. The advances for erotic romance in NY have gone down and the slots are few and far between.
Lately agents have been throwing their hats into the ring, acting as publishers for their clients. Conflict of interest much? It's not just that. Some of them are doing a shoddy ass job of it. (Catherine Cookson deserves so much better than those crappy covers.)
There is just so much wrong with an agent working as a publisher. It skeeves me out. Seriously. I was burned once by an agent, way back in my literary fiction writing days. She was a good agent, well-regarded and all that but she didn't have my best interests in mind. We parted ways mostly amicably and I forged ahead with a career focused on the spicier side of writing. In the end, everything worked out okay. But what if she'd published my lit fic novel under her agency imprint. I'd be tied to her for the duration of that contract. Awkward much?
Every time you send a book to your agent are you going to have to wonder whether or not he or she is really going to give their all to sell it to a commercial publisher? Will you be ballsy enough to negotiate a good contract? Will you even know if you're being taken? I mean, this agent of yours never steered you wrong when you signed those deals with XYZ so she wouldn't start now, right? What about distribution and POD?
If I went on the agent hunt again (and who knows I might hop on the query-go-round another time or two,) I'd be awfully leery of an agent with a publishing arm to the agency. Actually, I'd say hell no. Thank goodness other agents are saying the same thing.
Hawking My Wares
It's no secret among my friends that I am terrible at promotion. Really. I stink! I'm just not very comfortable with talking about my books. I think it stems from the fear of coming across as one of those writers. You know the ones I'm talking about, right? Every Facebook status update, every Tweet, every visit to a forum is a link to their new book or an excerpt or whatever. That's not a great promotional strategy because it annoys readers.
I finally (yes, finally!) got around to making a Facebook page and a fan page. I make sure my blog updates to my page so readers don't have to visit multiple places for info. I have a Twitter account (@lowriter)…but I've never used it. I just don't get Twitter. I keep telling myself I'll figure it out some weekend but I haven't yet.
I typically have a signature linked to my website and use one of my book covers as an avatar on the various boards I frequent. Romance Divas, Kindle Boards, etc. I used to have a signature on Absolute Write but I nixed that after I received some really horrible emails and blog comments last year. I'd made a comment about my experience with a certain publisher (nothing evil, just a sales #) and I guess it ticked off a couple of writers. I don't need that kind of drama so the signature went away and I don't link my AW ID to Lolita.
In the past, I've tried purchasing banner or cover ads on some of the bigger review sites in the romance and erotic romance community. I didn't get much of a return on my investment. One or two ads led to a small uptick in sales but nothing to write home about, you know?
In my experience, the publisher of the books or the genre drives sales more than advertising, networking and promo. That may be changing now that more and more writers are going the self-pub route and ebooks are reaching a wider audience. I've noticed with a few of my books that my third party sales are skyrocketing and eclipsing my publisher direct (i.e. Ellora's Cave or Samhain) sales.
So I'm going to try and figure out this promotion thing. My plan is to study the writers I know who successfully promote. No reason in reinventing the wheel, you know? I have a feeling it's going to require me to go outside my comfort zone but that's okay! Growing and changing is part of life, right?
June 9, 2011
Congenital Heart Walk
Fifty years ago, my sweet little Nyx would have died a terrible death. She would have slowly suffocated to death over a period of weeks. In 1944, Dr. Alfred Blalock and lab technician Vivien Thomas performed the first B-T shunt procedure, rerouting oxygenated blood flow from the subclavian artery to the pulmonary artery. On September 17, 2009, Nyx had an updated version of that procedure performed to keep her alive long enough for a second, more complicated open heart procedure.
I had never heard of Tetralogy of Fallot before Nyx was diagnosed. It's not surprising, of course. I think the number is something like 400 in a million live births are born with ToF. 15% of those babies die in the first year. Each surgery carries a minimum 5% risk of death.
Unfortunately, Dave and I saw what that 5% looks like on the day of Nyx's first surgery. A young girl who was receiving a heart transplant didn't successfully come off of bypass and was rendered brain dead from lack of oxygen and other factors. At first, we thought it was Nyx who had suffered complications. We'd been told a few minutes earlier that she was out of surgery but when we tried to get onto the CVICU floor we were informed it was closed to all visitors and that someone would be out to speak with us soon. We'd read the brochure upon Nyx's admission. The only time the floor is closed is due to patient death.
Soon, though, we learned it was the other little girl. I will never, not for the rest of my life, forget the sound that poor mother made when they broke the news to her. You just can't imagine. It was heartbreaking.
Congenital heart defects aren't as widely publicized as other childhood diseases and illnesses. Raising awareness and funds for research is really important. Nyx was so lucky (yes, lucky) to be born with a more common heart defect. Palliative and corrective procedures for her defects have been practiced and perfected for decades. Research dollars lead to newer and better surgical procedures or amazing new cardiac drugs like Milrinone (used to treat heart failure and kiddos like Nyx post-op) and some old standbys like Propranolol.
If you live in the Austin area, please consider checking out the Congenital Heart Walk on Saturday, June 18th. The walk starts at 9 a.m. at the Mueller Lake Park. There will be food, fun and festivities to follow.
June 8, 2011
False Start
It's easy to get stuck in a weird, self-defeating mindset when you're having problems moving forward or finishing a book. Writer's block is annoying as hell. When you're mired in it, finding a way out may seem impossible. The never-ending stream of false starts just compounded my stress level which, in turn, made it even harder to get over the initial hump of starting a book.
Around December, I made the decision to just stop trying to force it. I focused on reading for pleasure. I worked my way through a stack of nonfiction, paranormal and futuristic romances, steampunk and urban fantasy novels. I finally caught up on all the episodes of Dr. Who, The Big Bang Theory and Flashpoint I'd missed. I discovered Downton Abbey and Monday, Monday on my streaming Netflix menu. I enjoyed some seriously guilty pleasure episodes of The Real Housewives of New Jersey too.
I spent a lot of time playing with my kiddo and not feeling guilty for not working. Without the pressure of that relentless stream of medical bills, I didn't have to choose between spending time with my munchkin and Dave or knocking out a handful of articles to earn some cash. We could go to the park or head out for a long lunch at Cracker Barrel (kiddo's favorite place) or just spend the afternoon stacking blocks.
I can't tell you how much those few months of doing very little writing related helped. Recharging my creative batteries, so to speak, helped reboot my writing interest. I finally feel like writing again, creating again, making up stories.
In early April, I got my groove back. May was a fabulous month for me. I knocked out two 4,000 word short stories, a 12,000 word (long) short story and 25,000 words of a novel. I'm back on track, baby! June looks very promising so far. I'm very confident I'll continue to reach my writing goals as the year continues.
The point to this post? It's okay to have writer's block. It's okay to take a break. I think we often get caught up in this idea that if we're not producing, if we're not selling, we're going to lose momentum or see our careers stall. Sure, maybe that happens sometimes. It's not as common as you'd think. Lots of my romance and erotica writing friends have to take breaks for all kinds of reasons. New babies, moves across country, divorce, death, burnout–it happens, you know?
Don't fret. Just recharge and jump right back in the game!
