J. Kenner's Blog, page 111

Celebrate Autumn with a Blog Hop, Naming a Character, and Dishing About Crisp Air, Falling Leaves and Fuzzy Socks

The air is crisp, the leaves are turning, and the scent of burning wood fills the air. It’s Autumn, folks! And even though I’m in Texas, where the change of the seasons isn’t very dramatic (we go from green leaves to dead leaves), I am loving the new hint of chill in the air–even if it does only last for the morning.

Beautiful! And I know this isn't even as colorful as it gets up north!

I’m jealous of folks who live in the Northeast. Instead of just feeling the change in the air, they can see it all around them.

We recently returned from a trip to New York, and the view of New Jersey from the Cloisters was amazing. And all the falling leaves and crisp air encouraged some serious skipping and dancing and playing!

Here's my youngest dancing in the leaves!

I’ve only lived in Texas and Southern California, and it’s just not the same. Though we do try. In Orange County, my husband and I once cranked up the air conditioner in November and lit a fire (why there was a fireplace in an OC apartment is beside the point). It was … nice. At least until the cats decided the next day to explore the ashes and got little kitty footprints all over the white carpet!!

Last year during this season, we had a little couch on our back patio, and every morning, I’d take our invalid cat outside and read while she explored the yard. She’d gotten too old and sick to jump the fence, but she would sit back on her haunches, lift her nose to the sky, and breathe in the smell of fall. I was right there with her. There’s something spectacular in the air when the seasons change.

This year, Tiger’s gone, but I still want to pull on my fuzzy socks and go outside in the mornings and read.

Do you like to read in the crisp air? If you do, be sure to check out my books, including Release Me, coming in January! In fact, in honor of Autumn and backporch reading and Release Me‘s upcoming pub date, I’m doing a book-oriented giveaway.

There are all sorts of things you can do to win! You can pre-order the book, or you can do fun things like cast Nikki or Damien for my imaginary movie, or you can even suggest a name for a character who will appear in both Claim Me and Complete Me!

Just check out the Rafflecopter below. BUT REMEMBER, the Rafflecopter is only for the prize for THIS blog. If you want to be entered to win the AUTUMN HARVEST BLOG HOP GRAND PRIZE, you must, must, must leave a comment on this blog entry which INCLUDES YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS. Remember, the Hop has THREE grand prizes. You as a reader can go to EACH blog and comment with your email address and be entered to win. Yep, you can enter over 200 times!

Now what are those prizes?

1st Grand Prize: A Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet

2nd Grand Prize: A $50 Amazon or B&N Gift Card

3rd Grand Prize: A Swag Pack that contains 10+ paperbacks, ebooks, 50+ bookmarks, cover flats, magnets, pens, coffee cozies, and more!

(everything but the swag prize is international!)

The contest runs through November 12!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

DON’T FORGET! If you want to be entered for the Autumn’s Harvest Grand Prizes, you must, must, must comment below AND leave your email address IN your comment!

So tell me … what’s your favorite thing about Autumn? Or, just say hi!!

Getting Set Up: Demystifying Goodreads, Part 1

See? It says I'm a Goodreads Author

Woot! I did it. My J. Kenner name now has a Goodreads profile!

Now, the fact is that I’ve already had profiles for Julie Kenner and J.K. Beck … I think. But I’m not entirely sure how they came to be, and I never quite figured out what to do with them (the J.K. Beck one actually says I’m not a Goodreads author!). I hate admitting that! I’m usually not a web/tech/social media dufas!

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I’m apparently not the only author who’s a bit intimidated and/or baffled by the process of getting set up on Goodreads. So this series of posts documents my process and, hopefully, will help other folks out. If you have tips or tricks or insight, please feel free to shout ‘em out in the comments!

Today’s post is specifically on getting your Author Profile set up. Keep in mind I didn’t read any instruction manual, as is my wild and wacky way. So all this is me bouncing around and figuring stuff out.

First, you need to have a regular reader profile. That’s pretty easy. Just go to Goodreads and sign up.

Goodreads walks you through filling out your profile information and asking you to rate books you’ve read or want to read. (For the record, I never do that for any site with 100% accuracy. Why? Well, for one my life is already pretty transparent. For another, I never do politics online, so if I’m reading a book with a political slant, it won’t go up. And I know too many authors whose books I want to read or have read, and because I don’t have enough things to think about, my mind gets all twitchy thinking that if I mention Janey Doe’s book and forget Sally Roe’s book, then poor Sally will think I didn’t like her book. Yes, we authors are angsty. I also don’t rate books I don’t like. I have a pretty thick skin where it comes to reviews of my own books, but I’m not going to post any bad reviews myself. That being said, I tend to enjoy most things I read, and I read a lot (when I’m not on deadline). So what I do put up is accurate. Whew. That was a long aside!)

So, anyway …

STEP ONE: Get your reader profile set up.

This is my Goodreads Profile (it's not the author profile)

STEP TWO: Find your book out there in Goodreads land. That’s pretty easy; just use the search bar at the top of the page. Or, at least, it’s easy if you’re traditionally published, as your publisher (or the mysterious behind the scenes powers that be) will already have it up for you.

If you’re indie pubbed, I *think* that the thing to do is to upload your book manually (I’ll do a post on this in a future Demystifying blog — I’m sure I’ll have to upload manually for some of the backlist I’m putting out myself).

In either case, once the book is in the Goodreads system, navigate to its page. Next to the image of your book (assuming your profile name and the book’s author are the same) will be a little box asking if you’re the Jane Author who wrote that book. (I apologize for not taking a screenshot. My bad.)

Click that link, and you’ll be taking to a verification box. I basically typed in that I was the author and I wanted a Goodreads Author Profile. I got a message back telling me that verification would take a couple of days.

I'm in! I'm in! My Goodreads "You have an author profile" letter

That was on Friday. On Monday, I got a verification notice in my inbox telling me I now had a Goodreads author! Yay!! (You can see that the email is chockfull of useful goodness; I’m still making my way through it.)

The first thing I did was complete the profile.

This is the form for the Author profile

Here’s what the J. Kenner Goodreads Author page looks like now.

I added my twitter link and the RSS feed for my blog (hello Goodread readers … are your ears burning?). That is really easy. Just go to your blog. Take the RSS address. Copy it into the place on your author profile that asks for it.

I added a bio.

Ta-da! My J. Kenner author photo

I uploaded an author photo (different from my reader one, but it doesn’t have to be). {Sidenote here … on the regular reader profile — which seems to have gone away once I added my author profile — there was a place to add more photos. I don’t see that on the Author side of things, but I’m hoping it’s there because I certainly think that would be a fun place to upload pics of your stacks of revisions, revisions, author copy boxes, cover flats, swag, and all sorts of other authorly stuff. And if it’s not there, surely I can find that original profile again? Hmmm. A point left hanging for later…)

I didn’t add a Facebook link because my Facebook account is already associated with my other Goodreads profile, so I need to experiment a bit there to see if I can make it work. More on that later.

I haven't done this step yet because I'm afraid of dual-account blowback. More to come. Wish me luck.

Right away I started getting friend requests (waving hi to my Goodread friends!). I went in and accepted … but I have yet to demystify how best to interact with friends/readers on Goodread. That’s coming, too. (Yo, Goodread friends, if you’re reading this, feel free to message me with suggestions!)

My next task is to insert the Goodreads author widget alongside the cover image of Release Me (once you have an author profile, you’ll see a link to get to the widgets on the right hand side of your profile) and also in the sidebar of my website.

After that, I’m diving into tackling the various options and opportunities set out in the welcome letter (including groups, giveaways and Q&As), as well as the Facebook issue noted above and the Goodreads iPhone app (which doesn’t seem to support the author profile, but I’ll investigate further).

So tell me, was this useful to you? What questions do you have that I can try to demystify? For that matter, what other platforms need demystifying? I have plans, but what do you want to see?

And don’t forget to friend me over on Goodreads!

Great blog post on New Adult books

Really enjoyed this post by lit agent Sarah LaPolla @sarahlapolla… if you write YA or NAL, check it out!

Putting the A in YA

Demystifying Goodreads … and more! Coming soon …

Just a quick post today to let you all know that I’m going to start a series of posts on demystifying the social media things that are in my writerly world. I’ll be starting with Goodreads. I’ve had an author page there for a while, but I’ve never utilized it fully and to be honest, despite the fact that most things on the web don’t baffle me, Goodreads overwhelms me. So I’m facing it this weekend, setting up my J. Kenner page, and learning the ropes.

I’m going to keep a record of what I figure out and post it here!

I know I’m not alone, since when Goodreads came up at the NINC conference I just returned from, most of the authors sitting near me started to murmur similar comments about how we’re basically clueless. Which is a shame because it’s a pretty cool site, and I want to “get it”.

Wish me luck!

And don’t forget that The Cat’s Fancy is still on sale for Halloween from Nook and Kindle … and I’ve “stealth” posted Aphrodite’s Kiss on Kindle and Smashwords (Nook coming soon) and Aphrodite’s Passion for Kindle and Smashwords and Nook! The rest of the series is coming soon (along with an official “on sale” announcement)!

SEO tips and tricks

Currently on sale at Nook and Kindle for Hallo-week! See the sidebar for links!

I recently returned from the Novelists, Inc. conference and now I’m even more fired up about getting my website in shape (as you may have noticed, I’m currently migrating a lot of info, so there are gaps, unfinished pages, etc. etc. Sorry ’bout that, but it’ll all be pretty–and informative!–soon). One of the things that is even more important in this day and age, especially to bloggers, authors, and anyone who wants traffic to their site, is the “stuff behind the stuff”.

Here are some bits and pieces I’ve gleaned. The first is from Terry Odell, who I believe is going to do a series of posts on things she learned at the NINC con and at other conferences she’s been to:

1. The bots don’t see all caps. So, if your book titles are in all caps (as mine were), the bots won’t see them.

2.The bots see only text, not images. So if your web­site is full of graph­ics and pic­tures of your books, you have to make sure there’s text (alt tags) so the bots have some­thing to read. So many of us sim­ply upload an image from our com­puter, and what appears on a mouse roll-over is what­ever name we gave the file when we saved it. How­ever, David told us to go in and fill that alt tag with key­words. I started doing that imme­di­ately as well, at least on my home page images. Read more at Terry’s blog…

I also recently participated in a bootcamp with several other authors who are either deep into or getting into publishing some or all of our books ourselves digitally. One is Liz Maverick, who is not only a fabulous writer, but also really savvy about this stuff.

I’ll get more into what Liz shared with our group in further posts, but the really big takeaway is the importance of key words. As Liz said: “search engine optimization is really the art of balance. Too much tweaking for the win and Google will be able to tell and may dock you for it. Too little and you are missing out on traffic that is rightfully yours.

Keywords are the building blocks of good SEO, and I’ll be using that word quite a bit. Keywords are a word or words typed in to a search engine by someone looking for information. Conversely, they are a word or words written into copy as a means to draw readers looking for that same information.”

Fine, but how and where do you use those keywords? Well, one place is in your page/post URLs. Here’s more from Liz:

“URL OF POST

· Google is happiest with short URLs. Some suggest that the optimal number is about five keywords.

· Separate your keywords with hyphens.

· There is some disagreement about whether sub-categories are good, bad or indifferent for SEO. (By subcategory I mean “books” in this example: www.example.com/books/product-page-fo...) One school of thought says the closer the keywords are to the root, the better. Another says it doesn’t matter and that it’s better to use the folders for a clear hierarchy that makes it easy for the search engines to crawl, etc…”

Liz also shared tips on crafting the title and description of your post, and I’ll share that later. I’m sharing at the same time I’m digesting!

Another bootcamp participant (actually, one of the organizers) was Julie Ortolon, who has documented her very successful journey into the digital publishing world at Julie’s Journal Online. Not too long ago, she had a great post on promoting ebooks effectively, and in that post she discusses SEO. It’s definitely worth a read! Here’s a snippet:

“The #1 Rule to Effective Ebook Promotion is to Market to the Search Engines First, Human Beings Second.

Notice I said engines, plural. That’s because there are many and they each work differently, because each one was programmed with different algorithms. An algorithm is a mathematical equation that controls how the search engine will organize whatever it controls. I’m going to cover three groups of search engines that authors need to understand to promote their ebooks effectively. Read more here …”

Wow. That’s a lot of information to process when putting together a website. And my page URLs definitely need work.

How’s the SEO health of your website? If you don’t have a website but are a surfer, do you use Google to search by keywords? What makes it easier for YOU to find US? Don’t forget that The Cat’s Fancy is on sale right now at Kindle and Nook!

Halloween: memories, a cookie recipe, and a black cat treat (yes! an ebook sale!)

Halloween is my favorite holiday, and has been for about as long as I can remember. I like the spooky mixed with the mundane of suburbia. I like the idea of ghosts and ghouls coming out for just that one night to walk among us. And, yeah, I like the idea of candy. Hey, I’m only human.

I don’t remember my first Halloween, but I do have some fabulous Halloween memories. When I was young (younger than 7 as I remember the house, so it was pre-divorce of the parental units), my elementary school had a Halloween fair. This was Back In The Day When Parents Let Their Kids Walk Around After Dark, and I walked the four or so blocks to the school for the carnival (mostly with friends) and then walked home again in the dark. But coming home, I was laden down with goodies. One such goody was a peanut butter cake. Now, I loved (and still love) peanut butter. I’ll take a peanut butter cookie (if it’s my mom’s recipe) over chocolate chip any day. But I had never had a peanut butter cake before, and I was thrilled beyond belief at what I was certain was going to be a taste-sensation.

But …

Yes, you guessed it. I tripped and–kerplop went that cake! (Of course, the truth is it was still tasty, if a little bit squished. Thank you Saran Wrap for keeping it covered!)

Ah, that first keen Halloween memory. And so many more to come…

The picture at the very top is of my oldest daughter at her first Halloween (well, actually her second, but her birthday’s just a few days before, so she wasn’t much more than an orange blob playing at being a pumpkin). Honestly, I think I missed the boat by not baby-modeling that kid. Can you say “college fund”? Not that I’m biased or anything.

Here’s the same little girl last year.

Yeah. Things change.

And here are my two little angels on two different years:

Back when those pictures were taken, we lived in a neighborhood with one acre lots, so that trick-or-treating was worth it (you burned off all those carbs just trotting to the next house). Thus the trick-or-treating in the shopping mall (see the Rue 21 sign?). Some shoe store gave the kids coupons. COUPONS!!! Helllllooooooooooooo? (picture me banging my head against a wall). Shopping mall trick-or-treating is not for the meek.

Now, though, we live in Bigtime Suburbia where the neighbors know each other and the kids get “booed” (someone leaves a basket of candy on your porch during the season and you’re not afraid to eat it!) and the neighborhood is so trick-or-treat oriented that folks actually don’t bother closing their doors and waiting for the ring. They just set up tables in their front yards and let the ghouls and goblins come grab the candy.

it. is. awesome.

And in celebration of that awesomeness, I have two treats (and no tricks!) for all of you.

First off, I can’t offer a peanut butter cake recipe, but I can help you out on those cookies I mentioned earlier.

Here you go:

Grease cookie sheet and sift together:

1 c. sifted flour

1/2 t. soda

1/4 t. salt

Beat the following 2 minutes, then add the above. Beat 1 minute.

1/2 c. shortening (soft)

1/2 c. brown sugar, firmly packed

1/2 c. granulated sugar

1 unbeaten egg

1/2 c. peanut butter

1 T water

1/2 t vanilla

Drop by teaspoonfuls on sheet and press lightly with fork dipped in flour – to flatten cookies and ridge the tops.

Bake: 325 degreesF for 15-20 minutes

makes 3 1/2 dozen yummy cookies

(and for those of you who have followed my eating adventures or who know me well, no, it’s not Paleo. But it’s pretty dang yummy.)

And, finally, did you know that THE CAT’S FANCY takes place right around Halloween? In fact, Halloween plays a pivotal role in the story because … oh, wait. No spoilers! And in honor of the Halloween connection, I’ve marked the book down at Kindle and Nook. So if you don’t already have a copy, grab one! (And if you do have a copy and are so inclined, I would totally appreciate tweets and/or honest reviews at Amazon or B&N.com or wherever you’d like to post. That’s always mucho appreciated!)

Happy Haunting Everyone!

New York Lust

I love New York City, but after spending the last few days there I have to say that it’s good I don’t live there. I would get NO work done! Honestly, there’s so much to do, so much to soak up! It’s a creative bolus…but how can I stop looking and start writing??

I think I’d spend all my time walking around looking at things. Just walking down Madison Avenue from Times Square completely captured my imagination.

I could live at beach and write massive amounts of pages … But a vibrant city? Man, that’s a hard one!!!

What’s your favorite city? Any place you’d love to live? Any place that raises your creativity? That drains it??

Awesome bookclub pick: Graceling!

I’m in a neighborhood bookclub, and tonight we’re hosting at my house. The book was one I admit I hadn’t heard of, though I believe it got a lot of advance buzz (yes, I do sometimes move into my cave and roll the boulder in front of the door!). It’s Graceling, by Kristin Cashore, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[continue reading over at the Whine Sisters!]

Romance is the spice of life

UPDATE: Congrats to Tracey D who won the drawing for the $25 gift card!!

Hey y’all!!!

The grand prize winners have been announced, but I’m going to leave comments open here for the gift card until 10pm CST tonight. I’ll draw a winner first thing in the a.m. and announce it on the blog. Thanks to everyone who participated! Hope to see you at the next hop!

Pretty much everyone has heard the saying “variety is the spice of life.”

And I think most folks are aware that romance is the bestselling genre fiction, making up mumblemumble of the market (because I’m too lazy at the moment to look up actual stats, but let’s just say it’s a big portion).

You know what? I know why. Because romance is variety.

Think about it. You have contemporary romance. Sweet romance. Erotic romance. Paranormal romance. Romantic suspense. Inspirational romance. And all those books that may not fall within the definition of genre romance but are still either love stories at their heart or include powerful love stories.

After all, what kind of story is more enduring than a love story?

I’m a person who likes variety. Ask me what my favorite color is, and I don’t have one. I don’t even really have a favorite movie (having outgrown my standard Star Wars response because, while I do love it, there are so many other brilliant films out there). I don’t even have a favorite book or a favorite author. I read pretty much anything anyone puts in my hands. And for that reason romance is very satisfying to write.

In my career as an author, I’ve written contemporary romance, historical romance (okay, two novellas and one was a time travel, but still), light paranormal romance, erotic romance, dark paranormal romance and romantic suspense. I’ve also written chicklit, urban fantasy, and what I like to call paranormal mommylit, all of which contain romantic elements.

At this actual moment in time, I have several dark paranormal romantic suspense novels on the shelf (the Shadow Keepers series I write as J.K. Beck, I’m a few months away from the debut of an erotic romance, RELEASE ME, that I’m writing as J. Kenner, and I have recently re-released my very first single title romance as an ebook, THE CAT’S FANCY, which is very light paranormal in the vein of Splash or The Little Mermaid.

But that’s the fun or romance. There’s something for everyone!

I’m so glad you visiting Romancing the Hop! Be sure to visit everyone for fabulous prizes, including one of the grand prizes!

I’m giving away a $25 Amazon gift card to one lucky commenter! So let me know what you think about romance — favorite sub-genre, favorite book, anything at all! And DON’T FORGET that the grand prize winner for the blog hop is coming from commenters across all the blogs, so be sure to leave your email address in the comment box! You don’t want to miss out on the grand prize drawing!

1st Grand Prize: A Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet

2nd Grand Prize: A $130 Amazon or B&N Gift Card

3rd Grand Prize: A Large Swag Pack

Each time you comment, you’re entered, so you can comment on all the blog hop blogs. But if you don’t leave an email addie, you’re out of the running, so don’t forget!

Romancing the Hop starts Friday!

What is your favorite thing about Romance? Well, we authors are ready to share our romantic tips and favorite romance reads! Starting on Friday and ending on August 31st, over 100 Authors and Bloggers will share their favorite things about romance, reading romance, and dating.

And while we do that, we are EACH doing a giveaway. Yep. There will be over 100 giveaways on each blog hosted by that Author or Blogger.

But that’s not all….

We have THREE grand prizes. You as a reader can go to EACH blog and comment with your email address and be entered to win. Yep, you can enter over 100 times!

Now what are those prizes?

1st Grand Prize: A Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet

2nd Grand Prize: A $130 Amazon or B&N Gift Card

3rd Grand Prize: The following Swag Pack!

Yep. ALL of that!

Be sure to come back here on Friday and over the weekend to enjoy some stories and facts about our favorite Romance events and reads and enter to win!