Liz Winters's Blog, page 7

More vacation pictures

As promised, here are more pictures from my recent vacation. And one the writing front - one last pre-read of the novel to go before it can be formatted for its November 1 release date!

Vacation photo interlude

I'm making final edits on my YA novel, which will be available November 1. In the meantime, I thought I'd (hopefully) amuse you with a slide show of photos from my recent vacation. (These pictures are from the first three days - I'll post more slide shows in the days to come.) Enjoy!

Lost n Found Youth Fundraiser Update

Before I get to the numbers and the announcement, I want to give you a little update of what I've been up to. Last week my husband and I went on a road trip through the Northeast. We had a great time and saw a lot of amazing things, but one that made the biggest impact on me was a Visit to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. This was a man who was born into privilege and led what most would consider a privileged life, yet he dedicated himself to public service and...

Daniel's Garden - New Story from Alp Mortal

You all know I love Alp Mortal and his stories. Today I'm doubly thrilled. Not only did he publish a great new gay romance, but I got to design the cover. Isn't this coverboy gorgeous? He's welcome to visit my garden any time!

Daniel's Garden is a lovely novelette about a cranky romance writer and his new gardener. What starts off as a two day a week garden maintenance gig turns into a major project as the two men deal with an infestation of Japanese Knotweed and Daniel's annoying, snobby nei...

Sharing good fortune with those in need

I've been reading a lot lately about authors contributing portions or even all of the proceeds from the sale of some or all of their works to certain causes. Kim Fielding, for example, donates 100% of the proceeds from her three book series: Stasis, Flux and Equipoise to Doctors Without Borders, and Alp Mortal donates 100% of the proceeds from the sale of his books to a charity that is raising money for a new school room for orphans in Nepal. Other authors contribute to causes as well,...

Merger of Equals - Free Download!

The story I wrote for the Goodreads M/M Romance Group's Love Has No Boundaries event, Merger of Equals, now has it's own page on the site where you can download it in PDF, MOBI or EPUB formats. Please review the content notice of the story before you read and enjoy!

Indie/Self-published author resources

As promised, I started my page of resources for indie and self-published authors. To get there click on the link in the left hand column or here. I will be adding links as I find them and/or time permits. Hope you find these resources as helpful as I do and, if so, pay it forward and share with others!

I'm an author, not a robot

Photo credit: Seemann from morguefile.com As a self-published author who, prior to last year, knew next to nothing about the publishing industry, I've been reading a lot of articles geared towards helping people like myself become better marketers. Although marketing, like everything else in "self" publishing, can be outsourced to expert, most self-published authors don;t have enough money to hire professional marketers and, therefore, they end up doing the marketing themselv...

Going Up

Like bargains? I know I do. Surprisingly, however, a lot of people are wary of prices that seem too low. While I adore free and discounted books, I've read comments on various book relates board from readers who simply will not consider buying a $0.99 book, on the assumption that it will be low quality. And I have been told by a successful author in the erotica genre that the "sweet spot" price for erotica stories, most of which are fairly short, is $2.99.

While I personally don't follow this...

Author Interview with Alp Mortal

Today I want to bring you something different. A first in what I hope will be a series of interviews with m/m authors. There are many authors whom I'd like to interview, but of course the first spot had to go to my good friend, Alp Mortal. Now, I happen to love Alp's writing, and did so before I ever had a way to contact him in order to rave about his work. When Alp finally posted a link to his web site and e-mail, we began a correspondence that turned into a genuine friendship. I learned tha...