Ann Benjamin's Blog, page 237
August 13, 2017
Week by Numbers.
A bit early in the week, isn’t it? Still, as of this afternoon, The Queen of England: Coronation will be a week old. I believe I did this for Life After Joe, and think it’s a nice experiment for this novel as well.
Just in case you wondered how I’ve been spending my time…
1 review, thank Dan for being a friend who 100% ‘gets it.’ Now, only 4 more until I can start ads on Facebook.
10+ books sold, of course, this is A LOT less than I’d like it to be, and this is precisely the reason I didn’t want to publish because not even 15 books in a week feels like a GIANT failure. Just being honest over here — my self esteem can be directly tied to my book sales.
70, book bloggers contacted. I’m thinking it as a ‘DIY Book Tour.’ I’ve had more interest than not, or no response at all. Fortunately, two of the ‘yes’s’ are ones most suitable for my genre, so I’m excited to see where this goes.
3, book bloggers contacted for Life After Joe. A sort of knock down effect of trying to get reviewers for the Queen has led me to some appropriate potential reviewers for Joe. Who knew?
A lot, of book bloggers who don’t want to read self-published novels. My response is that I’ve had the book professionally edited and formatted. Doesn’t that count for something?
0, number of times I’ve opened The Queen of England: Grand Tour (Book #2) in the past week. Must market. Must finish food reviews…
Marathon, not the sprint. I constantly have to remind myself that I haven’t published a YA book in 4 years, so it’s going to take awhile to rebuild my audience.
Unrelated to all this book stuff:
1, approach from an Italian company who thought I was a Dutch Influencer (re: A to Za’atar goes to Amsterdam). Flattered, but no.
1, review I’m scheduled to write for the Ritz-Carlton DIFC.
4, days out of 5 with food reviews. That’s about 2 too many.
Overall:
August 12, 2017
Sunday Sentence.
Bringing it back! Well, for a week at least.
This was for several reasons, all of them focused around the infinitely superior and enviable lives of fictional heroines to real-life people. Take romance for instance. Fictional women in romance novels never get their period. They never have morning breath. They orgasm seventeen times a day. And they never seem to have jobs with bosses. These clean, well-satisfied, perma-minty-breathed women have fulfilling careers as florists, bakery owners, hair stylists, or some other kind of adorable small business where they decorate all day. If they do have a boss, he’s a cool guy (or gal) who’s invested in the woman’s love life. Or, he’s a super hot billionaire trying to get in her pants. My boss cares about two things: Am I on time? Are all my patients alive and well at the end of my shift? And the men in romance novels are too good to be true; but I love it, and I love them. Enter stage right the independently wealthy venture capitalist suffering from the ennui of perfection until a plucky interior decorator enters stage left and shakes up his life and his heart with perky catch phrases and a cute nose that wrinkles when she sneezes.
Penny Reid, Beauty and the Mustache: A Philosophical Romance
Yes, of course I’m still reading my beloved romance novels. I loved this quote about reading said books. (And yes, I would recommend the book this came from).
August 11, 2017
The Queen of England: Coronation, a playlist.
Some of these songs were important my obsession during the writing and editing process, others just remind me of Juliette or the cast somehow:
Royals, Lorde
Everybody Wants to Rule the World, also…Lorde
Trying to Throw Your Arms Around the World, U2
Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon, Urge Overkill
Englishman in New York, Sting
Only Love Can Hurt Like This, Paloma Faith
Daddy Lessons, Beyonce (although I like the CMA version with the Dixie Chicks)
Mess, Ben Folds
Closer to Fine, Indigo Girls
The Distance, Cake
One Time, Marian Hill
Mad World, Vitamin String Quartet
And of course, God Save the Queen
I’d put this on Spotify (or similar), but there are some restrictions living in the UAE. Recommendations are always welcome!
Book Club Questions for The Queen of England: Coronation.
Have you read The Queen of England: Coronation? If you have, here are some further questions to direct conversation and other topics you might find interesting.
What would your version of alternate history involve? What period in time would you like to see redone?
How would the book have changed if it were written in a modern timeline?
This novel approaches both steampunk and the gaslamp fantasy genres, which elements succeeded? Which failed?
What sort of mythology do you see for Excalibur? Do you think the sword exists somewhere in the world?
What would you do if you were suddenly made monarch of a country? Would you add any traditions of your own?
What do you think of Queen Juliette’s proclamation to make a ‘grand tour?’ Do you have any expectations for the next book in the series?
What was more important, the characters or the plot? Was the plot moved forward by decisions of the characters, or were the characters at the mercy of the plot?
Queen Juliette’s world is full of supporting characters, did you have a favorite? Why?
If you were given a unicorn, what would you name it?
In a world like Queen Juliette’s, is there room for both love and duty?
Why was the novel titled the way it was? Can you think of an alternative title?
Of course, I’d always love to hear any additional questions you might suggest!
August 9, 2017
Research for the Queen of England: Coronation, A Reading List
Although this list is fairly documented on Goodreads (I’d love to have you follow me!), I thought a selection was worth sharing here. And let’s just forget that there are still a TON of books in this category I have on my ‘to be read’ list (and will be referenced for the second and third installments in my series). The below books were chosen for a number of reasons — the time period, the world building, a strong female protagonist, or straight up history. Perhaps I liked how the pacing or supporting characters, or maybe I studied how my story might be different. Anyway, if you like my Queen, I would definitely encourage you to read any of the following.
Parasol Protectorate (series by Gail Carriger)
Finishing School (series by Gail Carriger)
Rebel Mechanics (series by Shanna Swendon)
Stoker & Holmes (series by Colleen Gleason)
The Infernal Devices (series by Cassandra Clare)
Steel and Fire (series by Jordan Rivet)
Queen of the Tearling (series by Erika Johansen)
Steampunk Chronicles (series by Kady Cross)
Almost everything by Sarah Maas
My Lady Jane
Karen Memory
Six of Crows (both books)
The Iron Duke (and other works by Meljen)
A lot of Victoria biographies
My research was not only in books, I also included graphic novels, movies, and television:
The Crown
Victoria
Lady Mechanika
Batman: Gotham by Gaslight
Belle
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword
The Young Victoria
The Queen of England: Coronation – now available!
[image error]And on a random Tuesday, I hit the ‘publish’ button. A bit anticlimactic, really, but the timing felt as right as it ever will and now I can begin the uphill battle of making noise for this novel in a very loud world. Should you be interested (and I certainly hope you are), feel free to purchase the novel here (available for the first month at only $0.99).
Even if young adult novels aren’t your thing, please consider adding it on Goodreads, your Amazon wish list, reading it on Kindle Unlimited (for free), sharing this post, linking to the novel, liking my author page (Courtney Brandt, Author), or mentioning it to someone who might enjoy the book. 
As always, reviews mean EVERYTHING. No, seriously. Amazon has all these algorithms and reviews are super important. If you don’t review this book, consider leaving a few words for your favorite author.
Thanks for the continued support!
August 8, 2017
Mood board, The Queen of England: Coronation.
The Queen of England: Coronation by cbrandtwright
Can you tell I uploaded my book to Amazon this morning and am waiting for it to go live? Oh wait… I just got the e-mail!
July 27, 2017
Week by numbers.
Lol, tricked you. My brain is a bit mush after trying to finish too many projects this week (for realz), so here is Taron Egerton as my spirit animal.[image error]
I’m in Amsterdam escaping the heat, eating some Michelin food, and looking forward to the U2 concert on Sunday. What are you up to this weekend?
SaveSave
July 24, 2017
The Queen of England: Coronation, a word cloud.
Ah, the fun and random part of my marketing process. I kind of like to do a lot of things that make sense to me, but probably do little to nothing in the way of marketing (see, yesterday’s post). Basically, it’s a way to kind of warm up the creative side of my brain (as it relates to selling a book, or maybe I’m just procrastinating on editing book #2, you be the judge). Case in point, I plugged the first two chapters of the book into a word cloud generator, just to see what would come up.
[image error]
July 23, 2017
The Queen of England: Coronation, Movie poster.
[image error]Y’all, when I have nervous energy, I guess I make things like this. I’m not entirely sure what purpose this serves towards my greater marketing goals, but it was fun to do. Either way, I somehow managed to create a tag line I’m pretty happy with, so I guess, wins all around?
Would you watch this movie? Or read this book?
