Elle Casey's Blog, page 7

What I’m up to lately and some rambling / grumbling

Hello, readers. It’s been a while since I’ve posted any rambling thoughts, so I figured it was about time I go there again.  Weeee! Rambling thoughts!

I’m currently working on several projects. Number one is MacKenzie Fire, which is the sequel to romance Shine Not Burn that was published last summer. I expect this book to be finished sometime in March. I was originally shooting for February, but for reasons expressed below, it’s not going as quickly as I’d expected.  I’m also working on Mismatched, a romance I’m co-writing with author Amanda McKeon. If you like Irish guys and fun girlfriends, you’ll love this one! I’m also starting a romance serial that will be launching in February, title to be announced and cover to be revealed soon. I’ll be putting it out in parts, and the first couple will be available for 99¢ so you can try it and see if you like it for a low price. I like the idea of putting out a book in parts and using reader feedback to help build the next parts. Let’s hear it for crowd-sourced romance! Yay!

I’ve also been on a cover-making binge. Sometimes this happens to me, almost like a compulsion I can’t control. I come up with a very basic idea for a book and suddenly I find myself searching cover photo stock sites trying to find something that leaps out at me.  It’s possible this is writing-avoidance behavior, but at least it’s productive!  It’s very motivating to write a story when I have a cover sitting there on my desktop staring at me.

This week alone I made three different covers for different stories I have floating around in my head, and I just adore them! They turned out so well. [insert girly squeal here]  I was never trained to do any kind of art work, but I sure do love making book covers, especially when the concepts just sing for me like these did.

I know you probably want to see the covers now, and I really, really want to post them here for you, I swear!  But I can’t.  [sad face] Why? Well … sigh … because this really annoying thing has been happening lately, and I have to do what I can to stop it. Here comes some grumbling, y’all.  Grab a snack.

I posted a few of my covers really early before the books came out last year, and then suddenly noticed another author or two using the same title as my book or the same cover model with similar designs for their covers. Some of them published their books before me, and some after, but since I put the covers out so far in advance, I have to wonder if the earlier publishers copied or if it was just a coincidence. In any case, whether innocent or intentional, it was annoying.  I’m not the only one this has happened to.  It’s getting more and more frequent as new authors come in and some of them try to ride the coattails of those ahead of them.

Did these authors deliberately copy me?  Maybe not.  I’ll go so far as to say probably not. But I figured it was better off to be paranoid and wait before publishing my stuff too far in advance. I know imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but this felt more like trickery. I’m always up for helping my fellow indie authors (or any author, really), but I’m not cool with people trying to trick Amazon’s system into bringing up other people’s books with mine by using same title or by them doing other things like putting my name in their keyword searches.

My reason for not wanting this stuff happening to my books is because I worry that my readers will be misled and then have a less-than-enjoyable reading experience with my name somehow associated with it. Maybe I’m overthinking it, but I’m not the only one.  There are some grumblings amongst other authors about this kind of thing, especially those writing in the romance genre.  It seems like the more you hit the bestseller lists, the more people come after you and try to use your name to boost their sales.

That leads me to another subject that’s been on my mind.  Trolls.  You know those beasts who lie in wait under bridges and when you try to cross, they require you pay them some coinage?  I’m not talking about those trolls.  I’m talking about internet trolls.  They’re way worse.  I’d much rather deal with a beast I could pay a quarter to and then walk away from.  Internet trolls are mean little a-holes who stalk you relentlessly for the pure black-hearted joy of it, and unfortunately, I’ve had to put up with them for the last year way more than I ever did before.

What do internet trolls do to authors? They post fake 1- and 2-star reviews on our books so they can’t qualify for bestseller/highest rating lists at Amazon, thereby making our books less visible to potential readers. That hurts sales and income. They downvote good reviews which does the same thing. They accuse us of doing self-serving things when all we’re doing is trying to help people out or be kind. They post nasty comments on blogs and forums about us. They upload our work to pirate sites. The list goes on and on, but to say their impact is minimal is ignoring the facts. Trolls can destroy the writing careers and/or reputations of hard-working, talented authors.

The biggest toll the internet troll’s activities take on authors is not limited to financial stuff.  Trolls cause massive emotional damage to authors and their families. I can’t quite find the words to express how it makes me feel to work as hard as I do and then see petty minds working so hard at breaking me down. ‘Disheartening’ isn’t sufficient to cover all the emotions that I’ve dealt with lately over this issue. This affects my work and my life at home, which then means it affects my family and their happiness too.

It’s so easy to be a troll online. No one can see you, find you, or manage your behavior. An author can’t respond to attacks because then the trolls recruit other trolls to punish the author and it gets worse. People who would never say a nasty word to a person face-to-face become the most vicious, mean-spirited jerks you could ever imagine. Being nasty makes them feel powerful and in control, smarter, better, more well-read, more educated, and a thousand other things that are just illusions. It’s so very sad that they can’t see this, that they can’t see it just shows how petty they really are, attacking while in hiding. Trolls are cowards.

I have thousands of really amazing, dedicated, loyal fans – absolute angels. They send me messages and hang around my social media sites to stay in touch. They invest their time and money in my work.  They support me in every way imaginable, and they waaaay outnumber the trolls. People tell me I should just ignore the minority and focus on the majority.  It’s great advice and most of the time I can follow it.  But sometimes I can’t.  Sometimes the person in me who believes strongly in the tenant “Do no harm” cannot fathom the meanness it takes to be a troll, and it makes me terribly sad to know there are people out there like that coming after me. I’m a nice person! I help people out all the time. I’m a mom and a sister and a mother and a daughter.  I work hard to support my family.  I give to charity.  What the heck did I do wrong to attract this kind of attention?  I ask myself those questions and get no good answers. Then I find it hard to do anything, least of all the thing that lures the trolls in, which is writing and being visible online.

Does this mean I’ve stopped writing?  No, of course not.  I write every day.  But I will say that I’m more distracted when it comes to my writing. I’m taking a little bit longer to publish a book than I used to – 6 to 8 weeks instead of 4. I also don’t go to my favorite online writers’ forums and post helpful tips and stories for other authors. That hurts me the most, I think. I love helping others realize their dreams.  I love giving people the benefit of all my mistakes so they can get on the right path faster than I did. I’ve had people tell me I helped launch their new career, helped them become a full-time writer, inspired them to reach for their dreams.  Now all of that has been taken from me; or at least it sure feels that way. Talk about a downer.

I’m not the only one this has happened to. I’ve seen several authors who worked their way up the ladder just disappear. If you search hard enough, you can usually find a farewell post from them online, citing attacks and other very unhappy circumstances that forced them into seclusion.  I just find that terribly sad.  I don’t want that to happen to me, but I can see the beginnings of it. An author came after me when I told an online forum that I was going to stop posting, telling me I owed the writing world my advice regardless of the harm it caused me and that I should just suck it up for the good of the many instead of the good of the few (‘few’ meaning: me and my family).  I’m sorry, World, but I will never put the rest of you before my family.  It just ain’t gonna happen.

I don’t know how long this situation will continue for me or what will happen next.  All I do know is that I love to write, I adore my readers, and I don’t ever want to let them down or stop living the life I have right now. I have a dream that someday people who wake up in the morning with angry thoughts will eventually either change their attitudes or find another target, but I know that’s not realistic. In the meantime, I’ll lean on my support structure of readers, fellow writers, friends, and family, and I’ll keep doing what I do best and that’s tell stories.

An interview! Meet the girl behind AESTAS, an amazing romance book blog

For those of you who don’t yet follow Aestas Book Blog on Facebook or her website, I highly encourage you to check her out. She is the most active romance book blogger I have ever seen.  She’s always on Facebook, reading, talking about books, sharing bargains and good reads, and hosting awesome giveaways.  She is one of the most indie-friendly bloggers out there, which makes her very near and dear to my heart.  She helped launch my career into romance writing and I’ll forever be grateful to her for that!

I was shocked out of my gourd when I realized that she’d never been interviewed by an author before.  When I sent the idea her way I was expecting a “no, I’m too busy” response.  Seriously, I’m pretty sure she never sleeps.  I see her Facebook feed going all day long and we live in different time zones!

She graciously agreed to let me interview her, though, so we all get to benefit.  Take a gander at her answers to my questions about blogging, reading, and where the romance market is headed…

————————————————

Hi Elle!!

First, thank you so much for having me here!

Hi, Girl-Behind-Aestas!  It’s my pleasure.  I’m so glad you agreed to be here with me and my readers.   I have about 100 questions for you, but I’ve cut them down to 10.  I’m afraid you can see by the ones I chose how much I struggled to limit myself.  So … let’s get started.

1.  I’ve read your bio on your webpage, so I know Aestas is not your “real” name. Care to share the meaning behind your choice of name?

About a year before I started my blog (or honestly even considered the remote possibility of blogging) I started a Goodreads account with the username “Aestas”. It was a name that had very special meaning to me. I was new to the online reading community and Goodreads seemed like an awesome way to get started and find new books. Over the course of that year, I built up a wonderful network of friends on there who all knew me as “Aestas” and called me that. So when I finally decided to start my blog, it just seemed natural to keep the name. And so…. Aestas Book Blog began

2.  You have one of the most popular romance book blogs/Facebook pages in the known universe with over 26,000 followers on Facebook (as of the time of this interview), and it grows bigger and more popular every day.  How long have you been blogging about books?  How did you grow your fan-base so quickly?

I’ve been blogging since April 2012. I didn’t really do anything in particular to grow numbers though so the growth has been entirely organic. I just love books, love reading, and almost as much as that, I love talking with other people about the books and sharing recommendations and such so the blog really gives a great platform to facilitate that and I’m really just lucky that there are so many other people out there who love chatting about the books they love as well.

3.  What got you started with your book blogging?  Was it something that just jumped out at you as an obvious thing to do for a bookworm or did someone push you in that direction or otherwise inspire you?

I honestly think it was the sheer volume of books. There were too many books to keep up with and I needed a way to organize everything. At the time I started it, I didn’t really think anyone would actually pay attention to my blog — I thought maybe a couple friends might check in every now and again but I never dreamed it would actually become something that people visited regularly. But my husband actually sort of nudged me in the blogging direction originally. He’d been suggesting I start one for a while and I guess the timing of everything just worked out here.

4.  You’re active on your Facebook page all throughout the day, seven days a week.  When do you sleep?  Do you have a family?  Another job aside from blogging?

Haha! Sleep?? I’m not sure I remember what that is! In all honesty, I don’t sleep much. I’m constantly thinking of just one more thing I need to do, or just one more book I need to finish, that sleep just doesn’t happen as often as I’d like. I’m married to my high school sweetheart who thankfully is extraordinarily supportive and understanding of my crazy reading addiction. He’s even written a few guest reviews for the blog! I also do have a job aside from blogging too so I’m on the go and traveling a lot — which all feeds into me not sleeping very much, lol. My phone and iPad are pretty much glued to my side at all times

5.  You have some guidelines that you ask authors to follow when submitting a book for review by you.  Tell us about those and how they came to be.

I’ve had many authors chuckle through my review request questions. I guess they came about because there are a lot of books out there and I needed to find a way to make sure that I was finding the ones that I would be most likely to love. At the end of the day, each reader is different — one person’s favorite book might be one that another person can’t finish. But that’s a huge part of the beauty of reading — we can all find something that we like. The trick is actually finding it. Personally, I don’t like to ever go into books blind. While I keep my reviews spoiler-free, I do actually like to know certain things about a book in advance of reading — and these things often will tell me how likely I am to love a book. This is the reason why most of my ratings are quite high — not because I just hand out high ratings, but more because I just do a lot of research before starting.

I think the tricky thing though is to be aware of the fact that those answers can’t be the only thing I base my decision on. A lot of it is just my ‘feeling’ toward the idea of that story.  Several of my favorite books have stepped outside of my regular ‘happy’ zone and I’ve still loved them. So there are always exceptions to the rules. But in general, my questions are extraordinarily helpful to give me a feel for the story I’m considering reading.

6.  What do you see as the newest trends in romance writing?

Everything and anything. The romance world is been growing so fast that the possibilities are endless. We’ve got billionaires, Doms, rock stars, bikers, the guy next door, the unlikely underdog hero, the uber Alpha males, bad boys, military guys… you name it, it’s available. Literally every day, new books of every type are being released in each romance sub-genre and so it’s pretty much guaranteed that everyone will be able to find something that they’ll love.

It might sound weird, but I don’t want there to be any clear trends. The books that I love most and that I spend all my time searching for are the ‘different’ ones — the ones that stand out to me and make me go ‘wow, I have never read anything like this before’. Don’t get me wrong, I know that there will always be a measure of similarity between them since they’re all romance but personally I look for books that either put their own spin on a popular trend or even step outside of the trends entirely and show me something I’ve never seen before.

7.  Do you have any thoughts about where the romance genre is going or should go?  What would you like to see more of and less of?

You know… it’s funny, I’ve been sitting here thinking about this for the last few minutes and honestly for me, I just want to see good writing and good stories. I love how with all the books that have come out in the last several years, the selection of stories to choose from is nearly endless and new books are being released each and every day. It’s exciting, it’s thrilling, and I hope they just keep more and more books coming. It’s pretty much bookworm heaven to be honest. I feel like a kid in a candy store with all these choices.

Personally, I have to say that my favorite types of stories are either standalone novels with resolved endings, OR (and I love these equally) series of books withOUT relationship cliffhangers. I want to read a complete story — either that or a part of a completed story that leaves me in a good place. Honestly, with the volume of books out there, it messes with my mind too much to be left hanging in the middle of a zillion series with unfinished stories waiting for sequels. I mean, there are always exceptions, but I generally do prefer resolved endings.

8.  What’s your favorite part of being a blogger?

Without a doubt, it’s chatting with the readers who participate in the discussions. I love how we all share recommendations and share an enthusiasm for the same kinds of books. It’s so wonderful!! I also love the thrill of finding these brand new books that literally no one has heard about — it’s like treasure hunting! Also, connecting with all the talented authors of these beautiful books I’m reading — they’re all so kind and sweet and it’s exciting to work with them and publishers too to help bring more exposure to the books I love.

9.  You have people suggesting books to you every single day of the year, sometimes many in a day.  How do you keep up?  How do you decide which books will be read and which won’t?  How many books do you read in a month?  Tell us what you consider the perfect romance novel.

I go entirely based on my mood. I never schedule my reads and I don’t usually commit to deadlines for review. This allows me complete freedom to genuinely choose the absolute best book for me in the moment. In the end it’s better for everyone this way because chance are a lot higher that I’ll love it if it’s a book I want to read as opposed to a book I have to read. There are a lot of books though and I guess it can be overwhelming if you think of them as a whole. But I think the best any of us can do is just go through our reading lists one book at a time and enjoy each one to it’s fullest as we go

The book I end up reading is almost always a last minute decision. My friends often joke to me when I tell them what book I’ve decided to read that “Yeah, yeah, I believe it after you’ve started”. But I very rarely will fully reject a book unless it has things that I know I’ll hate in it. I’ve had times when a book didn’t interest me at the time I heard about it but then randomly a month or two later, it caught my eye. So I don’t like to say ‘no’ per se. I have a “top TBR” of about 25 rotating books but I mean, a brand new one is almost always popping up and, if it really catches my eye, it can often jump to the top of the pile, and then sometimes I’ll go back and pick one that I’ve had on my list forever. Honestly, there’s no system. In the end, it’s all about my mood and what book I find best suits it.

Interestingly, I used to read a lot more before I started blogging. I find that blogging slows me down in many ways because I post updates as I read, I have to make graphics to go with each review, and also even writing the reviews takes a while, so I used to read about 5-6 books a week but now it’s probably less.

My perfect romance novel? … oh gosh, that depends on a lot of things and there’s such a wide variety of them that I love. I think the tagline of my blog says it best: “Books that make my heart race, have a beautiful love story, and a happy ending.”

10.  How do you feel about movie adaptations of popular romance novels?  Are there any you’re looking forward to?  Do you have some favorites we can go rent on iTunes or Netflix?

I love that they’re happening!! I mean, I have the same fears and reservations as anyone else but I’m willing to reserve final judgement until I see the finished product and until then, I just love watching the process of them getting made. Right now, I’m most looking forward to Fifty Shades (movie) and Outlander (TV) but I know that several other of my favorite books and series have gotten deals so we have a lot to look forward to in the next few years. I’m excited for all of them!

I have to say though that a few years ago, I used to literally see tons of movies and watch many TV shows, but honestly since I started blogging I’ve barely watched one movie a month and really haven’t kept up to date on any shows so I don’t really have any movie recommendations for now. Hahaha, but ask me for a book recommendation and I can give you hundreds!!

********************

Aestas

Follow Aestas in these places:

Aestas Book Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Goodreads

Did you like The Hunger Games?

If you liked the Hunger Games, then you’re a fan of dystopian fiction.  I know a lot of my newer fans are romance readers, but I also know that romance readers sometimes like to dip their toes in other genres.  So here’s the good news … if you haven’t yet given my 4-book dystopian series Apocalypsis a try, now’s your chance!

I’ve put book 1 in a box set with 5 other authors’ full-length dystopian novels for a limited time so you can give it a try for a real deal of a price!  It will be on sale at all the regular online retailers in ebook form at the end of February.  Apocalypsis is one of my highest rated series out of ALL my books, and it’s really near and dear to my heart.  I hope you’ll give it a read.

In the meantime, enter to win one of the boxed sets and some other great stuff too. Here’s link to enter the giveaway:

Elle Casey’s Dystopian Fiction Giveaway

 

TROUBLE is published!

 

 

 

 

 

It took me a little extra time, but TROUBLE is finally ready for your reading pleasure.  If you do read it, I’d love a review on Amazon.

Links to TROUBLE on Amazon outlets:

US:  http://amazon.com/dp/B00I0ZF9VM/?tag=ellcas-20

UK:  http://amazon.co.uk/dp/B00I0ZF9VM/?tag=wwwellecaseco-21

Canada:  http://amazon.ca/dp/B00I0ZF9VM/?tag=wwwellecaseco-20

Germany:  http://amazon.de/dp/B00I0ZF9VM/?tag=wwwellecase03-21

France:  http://amazon.fr/dp/B00I0ZF9VM/?tag=wwwellecase0b-21

Italy:  http://amazon.it/dp/B00I0ZF9VM/?tag=wwwellecase0f-21

Spain:  http://amazon.es/dp/B00I0ZF9VM/?tag=wwwellecase07-21

Link to TROUBLE on Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Google Play coming soon. 

 

When is TROUBLE coming out?

Hello, readers!  I’ve been getting this question a lot. When is TROUBLE coming out?

Do you know who’s sending me this question? No?  Well, I’ll tell you … It’s readers who are not on my mailing list!  Because the ones on my mailing list have the scoop on my latest release and they got an exclusive excerpt of the story as a bonus. Oh, and a chance to win some prizes, too.  Sweetness.

If you’re curious about my upcoming releases and news and maybe some prizes, sign up today!  I will re-send the newsletter out a couple more times for new arrivals. [link below]

http://eepurl.com/F7Pwz

Come meet me in Florida!

Next Tuesday, December 10th, at 5:00pm I’ll be signing books and talking about my publishing journey at the North Palm Beach Public Library on Anchorage Drive.  I’d love to meet you!

If this isn’t enough to tempt you to make the trip, let me just add that a very special guest might be making an appearance, and if you don’t come and this person does show up, you’re going to kick yourself in the pants for not coming. 

Hope to see you there!!

xoxo

Elle

HELLION. Book 2 of The Rebel Series

HELLION is Book 2 in The Rebel Series.  Book 3 will be published by December 31, 2013.

DESCRIPTION
Quinlan Torres has responsibilities – one more year of college, a brother who needs a lot of extra supervision, and a best friend in the middle of a hostile takeover of her late father’s company. The best thing for her to do would be to keep her head down, her eye on the ball, and her mind clear of any distractions. Problem is, her best friend’s boyfriend has this brother…







Amazon US: http://amzn.to/IzIjmR

Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/1gs8YgS

Amazon CA: http://amzn.to/1cGNhqC

Amazon DE: http://amzn.to/19ayCkU

Amazon FR: http://amzn.to/184JdRc

Amazon IT:  http://amzn.to/IxAZHo

Amazon ES: http://amzn.to/1bxXaKE

Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/1ai4bsJ

Kobo: COMING SOON!

HELLION is published! Kind of…

I got this sucker uploaded on Amazon very early on the 30th of November my time, but here it is the middle of the afternoon and nothing is happening at Amazon.  I think everyone is still on Thanksgiving vacation or something.  Argh!

If you want to receive an email as soon as the book is live, please join my mailing list right away!  CLICK HERE.

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Quinlan Torres has responsibilities – one more year of college, a brother who needs a lot of extra supervision, and a best friend in the middle of a hostile takeover of her late father’s company. The best thing for her to do would be to keep her head down, her eye on the ball, and her mind clear of any distractions. Problem is, her best friend’s boyfriend has this brother…

REBEL, Book 1 of The REBEL Series

NEW YORK TIMES and USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR, Elle Casey, brings you … REBEL … Book 1 of a 3-Book new adult romance series. No cliffhanger!

**CONTENT WARNING** Contains sexy adult situations, creative foul language, and some mild violence. May not be appropriate for younger readers.**Teagan Cross, college senior, rebel, and wiseass extraordinaire, goes from princess to pauper in a single phone call. Overnight, her life of privilege becomes one of survival, and no matter where she turns, it seems like the world is out to get her. She’s not going to fall apart, though. She’s a rebel and she’s strong … determined to live life on her own terms … and nothing’s going to stop her from getting things done and making things right. But when a twist of fate brings her to the doorstep of a different kind of Rebel, she’s forced to figure out when something’s worth fighting for and when something’s worth letting go.Purchase Links (Amazon): US, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Spain

Kobo    Barnes & Noble

Rebel

NEW YORK TIMES and USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR, Elle Casey, brings you … REBEL … Book 1 of a 3-Book new adult romance series. No cliffhanger!

**CONTENT WARNING** Contains sexy adult situations, creative foul language, and some mild violence. May not be appropriate for younger readers.**Teagan Cross, college senior, rebel, and wiseass extraordinaire, goes from princess to pauper in a single phone call. Overnight, her life of privilege becomes one of survival, and no matter where she turns, it seems like the world is out to get her. She’s not going to fall apart, though. She’s a rebel and she’s strong … determined to live life on her own terms … and nothing’s going to stop her from getting things done and making things right. But when a twist of fate brings her to the doorstep of a different kind of Rebel, she’s forced to figure out when something’s worth fighting for and when something’s worth letting go.

Purchase Links (Amazon): US, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Spain

Kobo    Barnes & Noble