Penelope Fletcher's Blog, page 7
April 19, 2011
Book Trailer, ParaYourNormal Radio Show & Independent Author Network
What have I been doing? Stuff. :)
My Independent Author Network page is up. Isn't it lovely? I'm having a look at profiles and I'm loving the variety. What it's value is to me as an Indie, only time will tell.
I got more amazing feedback on Demon Day. One reader has sent me a three page PDF with her comments and insights into the story. I swear, my fans constantly surprise
My Independent Author Network page is up. Isn't it lovely? I'm having a look at profiles and I'm loving the variety. What it's value is to me as an Indie, only time will tell.
I got more amazing feedback on Demon Day. One reader has sent me a three page PDF with her comments and insights into the story. I swear, my fans constantly surprise
April 17, 2011
Author Interview with L.C. Evans
I do love Women's Fiction. As a girl I would read about the inner conflicts modern women had to face, and be so confused as to why it was such a big deal when the solution was obvious. The older I get the more I see it's not so easy :) Today, I have L.C. Evans joining me to talk about writing, and her book We Interrupt this Date.
Tell us all about the world of you in fifty words or less.It has
Tell us all about the world of you in fifty words or less.It has
Lunar Light for #SampleSunday
Available on Kindle for £0.70/$0.99
Released March 2011 Lunar Light is a bold novella, a glimpse into the mystery of the Wendigo.
****
Monsters should not walk the daylight, they should cower in the dark. When the full moon haunts the sky, Evangeline prowls the dark as a Wendigo; a fearsome mix of human and beast. The night an injured outcast falls into her claws she must defy her keeper,
Released March 2011 Lunar Light is a bold novella, a glimpse into the mystery of the Wendigo.
****
Monsters should not walk the daylight, they should cower in the dark. When the full moon haunts the sky, Evangeline prowls the dark as a Wendigo; a fearsome mix of human and beast. The night an injured outcast falls into her claws she must defy her keeper,
April 14, 2011
OMG OMG OMG Demon Day ARC Feedback!
The first of the feedback for Demon Day ARC has arrived. I just have to post it.
Hiya Penelope,
I just finished Demon Day, and it was AMAZING, seriously. I was like omg at the end. I thought this book would just be Breandan and Rae chasing Devlin, but it wasn't, it was awesome, and I can't believe [REMOVED]!!!
I thought this book was better than Demon Girl because of the
Hiya Penelope,
I just finished Demon Day, and it was AMAZING, seriously. I was like omg at the end. I thought this book would just be Breandan and Rae chasing Devlin, but it wasn't, it was awesome, and I can't believe [REMOVED]!!!
I thought this book was better than Demon Girl because of the
April 11, 2011
Author Interview with Todd Russell
Things go bump in the dark, and personally I don't think the bumps ever stop being scary. Horror is well horror ... the bloodcurdling screams, the skipped heartbeat ... (yup, I experience these things reading a good horror book). That being said I'm thrusting my hand in the fire again as I have bent the ear of Todd Russell, author of Mental Shrillness, and horror extraordinaire for an interview.
April 9, 2011
Author Interview with Jess C Scott
CyberPunk. I know what your thinking ... who, what, where, why? Well, ici avec moi aujourd'hui, c'est le très chic Jess C Scott to tell us more about the genre and her latest release The Other Side of Life.
Tell us all about you in one sentence.
I'm an author/artist/non-conformist :)
What's your Chinese Zodiac (example, I'm a water dragon)?
I'm a fire tiger (rawr!). That makes me expressive,
Tell us all about you in one sentence.
I'm an author/artist/non-conformist :)
What's your Chinese Zodiac (example, I'm a water dragon)?
I'm a fire tiger (rawr!). That makes me expressive,
110,000 Downloads, Eyeballs & Writing Randomness....
Oh, the last fortnight has been monstrous for me. I am certain I need glasses so have booked an eye exam. Sigh. It's a pain because the day job requires me to look at a screen all day then I come home and write (more screen time) then I might read (more screen time) … see the problem? I've always had great eyes, but I noticed things far away were blurry then earlier in the week things got really
April 6, 2011
Author Interview with Rose Gordon
I have a wonderful Indie Author interview to share with you today with Romance writer Rose Gordon. She talks to us about a few key Indie topics, and her Scandalous Sisters series.
Tell me all about you. :) Not much to say I started writing because I was tired of reading the same fortune hunter plot and thought to put a new twist on an old favorite. From there, I continued because I'd grown attached to the characters I'd created and wanted to discover and tell their stories, too.
If you could kiss anybody in the world who would it be? Oh, I better say my husband on this one. He's a jealous sort and wouldn't like it if I let it slip I'd like to kiss another man, especially the man who runs the bookstore downtown.
I love a good romance, can you tell us what the last romance book you read that made your heart flutter? Do my own count? No? All right, Guilty Pleasures by Laura Lee Guhrke.
Writing is an art, and each Author I know has a different way of producing their work. Do you write methodically from an outline, or is your process more organic than that? No outline for me. I am the biggest punster you'll ever meet. I mean, I have a general idea of how the book will start and end, but the events in between are completely up to the characters.
If you could go back in time and give yourself one piece of advice before clicking "submit" on your Kindle listing, what would it be? Make sure it's the right version! No kidding, after my book was out a week, I was told about a few typos and I felt I just had to fix them, and I fixed them all right. In the older version of my MS. Then, without realizing it, I uploaded it. No cover, no front matter, not About the Author, nothing but 380 double spaced pages of raw poorly edited first edition MS (but hey, at least those few errors I was worried about were fixed. That counts for something, right?). Thankfully the listing was only "live" for about 24 hours before I was able to change it. As a double blessing, that was during the days where I'd generally have one sale every day or so, and nobody bought it that day!
Have you tried submitting your novel to book bloggers? What are your thoughts on the process and a reviews effect on sales? I've submitted my books to a few sites: The Romance Reviews and Coffee Time Romance, not really book bloggers exactly, but close enough, review sites. Neither one has actually reviewed the book yet. A lot of other review sites I've heard of have been backlogged so much that I didn't even submit. Now, I have had my book reviewed on a blog by someone I did not solicit. She did it herself after she found my book on her own and decided to review it on her blog. Though this was very nice of her, I honestly don't know if it did anything for my sales or not. At the time the review came live, I was already in the middle of a rapid climb, so I can't really know just how much it helped.
You have two books in the Scandalous Sisters series. Book one titled Intentions of the Earl and book two Liberty for Paul. Can you give us a brief overview of the story arc, and the lead characters? The first book is about Brooke Banks, the eldest Banks sister who meets an impoverished earl named Andrew Black. Brooke's fun and rule-flouting personality lends way for her to fall victim to a scheme in which Andrew is out to ruin her reputation in order to gain back a deed to a much needed estate, thus bringing about a scandal. Andrew has no idea of the real motive for why he's being paid to ruin a young lady's reputation, but he's desperate enough that he battles his guilt and tries to get the job done, all without realizing he's losing his heart to her more and more with each passing day
The second book features two secondary characters from the first. The heroine, Liberty, is Brooke's youngest sister and the hero is her arch enemy: a vicar named Paul Grimes. The two exchange a few words and unpleasant encounters at a house party in the first book. But at the start of the second book, Liberty finds out Paul has seen her naked and decides to take revenge. Unfortunately, she didn't think things through and when the family butler goes to the press, she's forced to marry a man she hates. While married, they each slowly fall in love with the other, but refuse to acknowledge the feelings to themselves, let alone in front of the other. But when old, nasty secrets are exposed, the couple is torn apart and brought back together only when both are heavily disguised and attend the same masquerade.
Is there another Scandalous Sisters book in the works, or are you working on something else? There's one more Scandalous Sisters book, it's titled, To Win His Wayward Wife, and it will come out April 15. This book will feature the last sister, Madison, who will also marry due to a scandal. Her husband is a man who loves her from the start, but cannot figure out how to show it.
After these three books, I do have another series that will feature three men trying to find their wives, the first of which is the cousin to the three sisters from the Scandalous Sisters Series. This series will come out in the fall.
Thank you for taking the time to interview me.
Rose is well connected online. You can find her on Facebook and Goodreads. Also her blog or website. She has kindly given us an excerpt of Intentions of the Earl. Enjoy.
Out to download on Kindle, Intentions of the Earl by Rose Gordon.
Andrew leaned a little closer, so close Brooke could feel his warm breath on her face. "To me, you are far more beautiful than Madison." Then he lowered his head and very lightly brushed his lips across hers.Brooke almost melted on the spot. His kind words had softened her resolve, but his tender kiss was almost her undoing. "You have quite an unmatched skill, my lord," Brooke said weakly.Rather than responding to her words with words of his own, Andrew moved closer and kissed her again. This time his kiss was not a quick brush of the lips, it was a full on assault of lips. He started his kiss gently and just when her lips were used to having his on them, he became more aggressive. Her body relaxed and her lips started to respond to his. He moved his hands around to rest on her back and draw her closer while his lips continued to mesh with hers.Brooke's hands moved on their own accord up to his neck, and she dug into the soft black curls that rested against his collar. Her fingers twisted his hair as she felt his lips pressed harder to hers, moving on top and in between hers. Her body was giving up its fight to stay standing, and she would have sunk to the floor if he had not been holding onto her. She leaned against his chest and his hands tightened their grip to hold her in place.Andrew pulled back and looked down at her. "How do you feel about my skills now?" he asked with a ragged breath, his eyes even darker than they were a few minutes before.Even with the blood thundering in her ears she understood his question; yet she couldn't form a coherent response, she nodded instead. She knew she was flushed from the kiss and her body felt absolutely boneless in his arms, almost like she had completely surrendered to him.Andrew smiled and ran the pad of one of his thumbs across her swollen lips. "You are truly beautiful. I don't care what anyone else says; to me, you are more beautiful than your sisters."Her heart fluttered at his words; he truly thought she was beautiful. "We should probably return to Mama and Madison before they come looking for us," Brooke forced herself to say before stepping backward and out of his embrace. She wished she could stay in this moment forever, but that wasn't possible, and it really would not do to be found in this position. It could mean they might be forced to marry, which she didn't want to happen, did she?
Tell me all about you. :) Not much to say I started writing because I was tired of reading the same fortune hunter plot and thought to put a new twist on an old favorite. From there, I continued because I'd grown attached to the characters I'd created and wanted to discover and tell their stories, too.
If you could kiss anybody in the world who would it be? Oh, I better say my husband on this one. He's a jealous sort and wouldn't like it if I let it slip I'd like to kiss another man, especially the man who runs the bookstore downtown.
I love a good romance, can you tell us what the last romance book you read that made your heart flutter? Do my own count? No? All right, Guilty Pleasures by Laura Lee Guhrke.
Writing is an art, and each Author I know has a different way of producing their work. Do you write methodically from an outline, or is your process more organic than that? No outline for me. I am the biggest punster you'll ever meet. I mean, I have a general idea of how the book will start and end, but the events in between are completely up to the characters.
If you could go back in time and give yourself one piece of advice before clicking "submit" on your Kindle listing, what would it be? Make sure it's the right version! No kidding, after my book was out a week, I was told about a few typos and I felt I just had to fix them, and I fixed them all right. In the older version of my MS. Then, without realizing it, I uploaded it. No cover, no front matter, not About the Author, nothing but 380 double spaced pages of raw poorly edited first edition MS (but hey, at least those few errors I was worried about were fixed. That counts for something, right?). Thankfully the listing was only "live" for about 24 hours before I was able to change it. As a double blessing, that was during the days where I'd generally have one sale every day or so, and nobody bought it that day!
Have you tried submitting your novel to book bloggers? What are your thoughts on the process and a reviews effect on sales? I've submitted my books to a few sites: The Romance Reviews and Coffee Time Romance, not really book bloggers exactly, but close enough, review sites. Neither one has actually reviewed the book yet. A lot of other review sites I've heard of have been backlogged so much that I didn't even submit. Now, I have had my book reviewed on a blog by someone I did not solicit. She did it herself after she found my book on her own and decided to review it on her blog. Though this was very nice of her, I honestly don't know if it did anything for my sales or not. At the time the review came live, I was already in the middle of a rapid climb, so I can't really know just how much it helped.
You have two books in the Scandalous Sisters series. Book one titled Intentions of the Earl and book two Liberty for Paul. Can you give us a brief overview of the story arc, and the lead characters? The first book is about Brooke Banks, the eldest Banks sister who meets an impoverished earl named Andrew Black. Brooke's fun and rule-flouting personality lends way for her to fall victim to a scheme in which Andrew is out to ruin her reputation in order to gain back a deed to a much needed estate, thus bringing about a scandal. Andrew has no idea of the real motive for why he's being paid to ruin a young lady's reputation, but he's desperate enough that he battles his guilt and tries to get the job done, all without realizing he's losing his heart to her more and more with each passing day
The second book features two secondary characters from the first. The heroine, Liberty, is Brooke's youngest sister and the hero is her arch enemy: a vicar named Paul Grimes. The two exchange a few words and unpleasant encounters at a house party in the first book. But at the start of the second book, Liberty finds out Paul has seen her naked and decides to take revenge. Unfortunately, she didn't think things through and when the family butler goes to the press, she's forced to marry a man she hates. While married, they each slowly fall in love with the other, but refuse to acknowledge the feelings to themselves, let alone in front of the other. But when old, nasty secrets are exposed, the couple is torn apart and brought back together only when both are heavily disguised and attend the same masquerade.
Is there another Scandalous Sisters book in the works, or are you working on something else? There's one more Scandalous Sisters book, it's titled, To Win His Wayward Wife, and it will come out April 15. This book will feature the last sister, Madison, who will also marry due to a scandal. Her husband is a man who loves her from the start, but cannot figure out how to show it.
After these three books, I do have another series that will feature three men trying to find their wives, the first of which is the cousin to the three sisters from the Scandalous Sisters Series. This series will come out in the fall.
Thank you for taking the time to interview me.
Rose is well connected online. You can find her on Facebook and Goodreads. Also her blog or website. She has kindly given us an excerpt of Intentions of the Earl. Enjoy.
Out to download on Kindle, Intentions of the Earl by Rose Gordon.
Andrew leaned a little closer, so close Brooke could feel his warm breath on her face. "To me, you are far more beautiful than Madison." Then he lowered his head and very lightly brushed his lips across hers.Brooke almost melted on the spot. His kind words had softened her resolve, but his tender kiss was almost her undoing. "You have quite an unmatched skill, my lord," Brooke said weakly.Rather than responding to her words with words of his own, Andrew moved closer and kissed her again. This time his kiss was not a quick brush of the lips, it was a full on assault of lips. He started his kiss gently and just when her lips were used to having his on them, he became more aggressive. Her body relaxed and her lips started to respond to his. He moved his hands around to rest on her back and draw her closer while his lips continued to mesh with hers.Brooke's hands moved on their own accord up to his neck, and she dug into the soft black curls that rested against his collar. Her fingers twisted his hair as she felt his lips pressed harder to hers, moving on top and in between hers. Her body was giving up its fight to stay standing, and she would have sunk to the floor if he had not been holding onto her. She leaned against his chest and his hands tightened their grip to hold her in place.Andrew pulled back and looked down at her. "How do you feel about my skills now?" he asked with a ragged breath, his eyes even darker than they were a few minutes before.Even with the blood thundering in her ears she understood his question; yet she couldn't form a coherent response, she nodded instead. She knew she was flushed from the kiss and her body felt absolutely boneless in his arms, almost like she had completely surrendered to him.Andrew smiled and ran the pad of one of his thumbs across her swollen lips. "You are truly beautiful. I don't care what anyone else says; to me, you are more beautiful than your sisters."Her heart fluttered at his words; he truly thought she was beautiful. "We should probably return to Mama and Madison before they come looking for us," Brooke forced herself to say before stepping backward and out of his embrace. She wished she could stay in this moment forever, but that wasn't possible, and it really would not do to be found in this position. It could mean they might be forced to marry, which she didn't want to happen, did she?
March 31, 2011
I just have to say....
Here is a blog post worth mentioning; Compared to perfect: the price/value mismatch in content
To cut to the chase here is the bit that grabbed me;
In fact, I do think it's probably true that a low price increases the negative feedback. That's because a low price exposes the work to individuals that might not be raving fans.
Free is a valid marketing strategy. In fact it's almost impossible for an idea to have mass impact without some sort of free (TV, radio, webpages, online videos... they're all free). At the same time, it's not clear to me that cheaper content outperforms expensive in many areas. As the marginal cost of delivering content drops to zero (all digital content meets this definition), I think there are valid marketing reasons to do the opposite of what economists expect.
Free gets you mass. Free, though, isn't always the price that will help you achieve your goals.
Price is often a signalling mechanism, and perhaps nowhere more than in the area of content. Free enables your idea to spread, price, on the other hand, signals individuals and often ends up putting your idea in the right place. Mass shouldn't always be the goal. Impact may matter more.
This post was common (business) sense. However my view is if you write stand alone novels, don't offer free content/books unless you have an established backlist to rival Nora Roberts. It wont work otherwise (resists urge to roll eyes to make grandmother proud of manners). If you are a series writer, I am of the opinion free for xyz time is better than cheap forever.
Seriously, there is a key difference between free and cheap. He's mixed the two up; low price and free are not interchangeable in this context. With free you do get mass, and with the masses comes dead weight - people simply surfing for a free read, and ready to vomit thoughtless reviews all over the place. But ... there is a strong likeliness you will reach your target audience who you can (who has the answer ready?) ... upsell to. Here is where your backlist, or second, and third books, yada blah, comes in.
Cheap *shudder*. I dislike seeing Indie Authors marketing books using this word. Your work is NOT cheap. You are forced to undervalue it for a number of reasons, but it is not cheap.
Anyway, this was a bloody good post. Unbalanced in evaluating the free marketing model, but good, yes?
March 27, 2011
The Indie Book Review
The 'Epic' badge. Can't wait till I read a book and award this!I have a new thing I'm doing called The Indie Book Review.
I mentioned it on Kindle Boards, and got a few takers!The first two reviews are already done, and I am currently finishing up another for a book called The lost Book of Souls.
Basically, I love reading, and the concept of writing reviews does appeal to me, but quite frankly ... I need to save my typing energies for my own books. So, when I read an Indie Book I feel is worth spending five minutes recording a video for, I will. Simples.
I have separated these reviews out by creating a whole new blog since this is for the reader part of me rather than the writer. I'm also uploading these to Amazon (where I buy the books), since I never see anybody using that function, and it's so easy and nifty.
Do check it out and if you want to recommend a book mail me.
