Category Archives: e-publishing

CELEBRATION!

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A couple of months ago you might remember I mentioned that the lovely romance author, Nana Malone reached out to me, Stacey Joy Netzel, L.C Giroux, Liz Matis, and Kristine Cayne and asked us if we’d consider being part of a romance boxed set. And we jumped at the chance!

We titled the boxed set, Sugar and Sin. Working with the girls has been one of the best author experiences of my life. We bring many strengths to the party. During our on-line meetings we have plenty of laughs while we power through the decision-making and get things done.

And today we are officially Amazon best sellers by hitting number one in Kindle Deals. I never thought I’d ever see this day so I’ve taken a screen shot. We’re about (fingers crossed) to hit the overall Amazon top 100 best-selling books and if that happens the champagne will be opened in this house. There are almost 3,000,000 million books published on Amazon and to say competition is fierce is something of an understatement. By participating in the boxed set it has brought visibility to the rest of our books. It’s an amazing feeling to reach and hear from new readers. Every message saying a reader has enjoyed the stories makes our day.

So, we’re about to embark on another endeavour.

This time there will be seven of us because we’ve been joined by the awesome author/editor Dana Delamar and will be The Magnificent Seven when we publish our next Sugar and Sin boxed set.

And I have news of a thrilling and chilling paranormal romance boxed set too, so watch this space.

The fabulous thing about being independent authors is the way we can be nimble-footed in a rapidly changing business environment to give readers what they want more of and I’m thrilled to be a small part of a great team.

I want to take this opportunity to thank DeeDee Scott who began the blog WG2E, which has now finished, and Alicia Street who began the WG2E facebook Street Team, Rhonda Hopkins and Tamara Ward. It was through the street team that I’ve met fellow authors whose support and encouragement and sheer positivity has humbled me. They have truly caught me when I’ve fallen.

And the stupendous WANA group (We Are Not Alone) who are always there to share laughs and information, their names are too numerous to mention but they know who they are! I love you guys so much.

I hate blowing my own trumpet but can you tell I am utterly thrilled?

Christine XXX

 

NAUGHTY

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Well, well, well.

Is there something in the water? Something in the air?

Women, dear readers, are behaving badly.

Just look at that Darcey Bussell on Strictly Come Dancing.

Who’d have thought a Prima ballerina from The Royal Ballet who for years lived in a world of rigid discipline, devotion to her craft, with her hair pulled back in a vicious bun and tortured her feet would morph from this

into this!

a woman with a sexy growly purr, flirting and drooling over the, ‘Wonderful leg muscles, yah!’ of Lewis Smith.

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Yes, the man has amazing, er, leg muscles, Darcey.

Darcey recently confessed that the show had brought out ‘Her naughty side.’

And she’s not alone. There’s a global tsunami of women in their middle years discovering that age does not hold them back from being naughty. We’re a new breed - setting up businesses, self-publishing romance novels (shameless plug) taking up white water rafting, going on girlie weekends to the Bellagio in Vegas getting up to all sorts of naughty things (probably a tattoo - I’m looking at you, Mags, btw - good job your H doesn’t read this blog.) Check out your nearest Agent Provocateur store on a quiet afternoon if you don’t believe me; it’s filled to the brim with ladies of a certain age trying on corsets and talking about rampant rabbits and love eggs (you don’t want to know, guys, trust me.) We’re drooling over Joe Manganiello the werewolf in True Blood and enjoying our empty nests.

Most commenters are putting it down to THAT BOOK, which has become a bit of a clichè and seems to be responsible for everything from global warming to the trend of men in tight black leather trousers showing off their considerable, er … assets.

And look at that Hilary Boyd’s Thursday’s In The Park the tale of a sixty plus granny who encounters the man of her dreams in the park while she’s looking after her grandchildren. The runaway best seller of what The Times in London said, ‘Move over Mummy porn, it’s time for Granny lit.’ Isn’t it just fabulous? Go Hilary, I say!

But I don’t believe all this naughtyness begins in middle age. Nope. I believe it begins a lot earlier in life and just to prove it I give you one Naomi Wainwright in the Hamley’s toy store in London, messing about with Lego statues of the Royal Wedding. Naomi is a family friend and gave me full permission to use her photo in my blog - you’re infamous now, babe.

Look at that face and that hand! Can you just imagine what she’ll be like in her middle years?

God help us!

So, what have you done that’s naughty?

Please share your stories with us because we demand to know.

Hugs,

Christine xx

RECKLESS NIGHTS IN ROME - FREE!

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Hi guys,

Can you believe I didn’t mention here on my blog that Reckless Nights In Rome is FREE .

Smack me now!

Get your FREE copy from your preferred distributor as follows:

Amazon Kindle Kobo Barnes and Noble iBooks Google

 

GOALS! WHY OH WHY?

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Via Lynne Carmichael

Hello, my lovelies!

Today we’re talking goals. Losing weight, getting fit or accomplishing our writing goals isn’t as easy as it sounds otherwise we’d all be skinny, lean and mean writing machines.

First of all we need to decide about what we want, then work out how we’re going to get there. Sounds easy doesn’t it? But it’s not, especially if you’re new to attempting weight loss, getting fit or writing a sentence never mind writing a novel.

Via media-cen.pinterest.com

This week, I’ve fallen off the writing wagon and I’ve plenty of excuses as to why. A friend was buried. The brick wall my writing crashed into isn’t even cracked never mind damaged. My hero is being a stubborn B******d! And my heroine needs a smacked bottom - no, it’s not kinky (looking at you Myndi, Deborah, Rachel FH and Karen McF) so it’s been shoulder rolls and knuckle cracking time to sort this pair out. The emotional tension needs ratcheted up and he needs less simpatico and more edgy/attitude as well being empathic – not a lot, just a little (I don’t ask for much from my heroes, do I?) And this is at the end of the first draft so why I expect the thing to be perfect God knows – see what I mean about expectations? I know all first drafts are crap so why do I expect mine to be perfect? Why?

Having goals and working towards them is fantastic. But we need to prepare for the unexpected. So we need to constantly re-evaluate our goals and ask ourselves these questions.

  1. Are they realistic?
  2. Are they adaptable?
  3. Are they workable?
  4. Are they achievable?

We can never stay motivated 100% of the time. We need to block out our inner critic and it’s harping voice of negativity. We need to think about what we HAVE achieved and to do that we need to keep a log of what we write/research/mull-over every single day. Keep a diary, or jot it on a wall planner, of your progress and make a note of how what you’ve done, foods guzzled, yards walked, word count etc. Then, when times are tough we can look back and see what we’ve achieved already. Seemples!

And we need to build ourselves a team. Which those of you who are members of We Are Not alone (WANA) already know (link here for you guys who’ve never heard of the Queen of Blogland, Kristen Lamb.) Weirdly, she’s just been talking about teamwork - spooky or what - I think she could be a witch BUT DON’T TELL HER I SAID THAT.

Don’t underestimate the importance of having friends! They help you to celebrate the highs and hug/kick ass during the lows. Remember true friends do not envy you your success – they support you. Teammates can help you with the ‘sticky bits’ on our journey to weight loss, better fitness or publishing success.

And remember 90% of people give themselves IMPOSSIBLE goals, so make sure yours are baby steps. And once you’ve achieved your goals. Do Not Give Up. Keep Going. Set a new goal, even if it’s maintaining what you’ve already done. The wonderful James Scott Bell has written The Art of War for Writers and it’s brilliant for keeping us on track. I love that man.

Are you adaptable with your goals?

Are you part of a fabulous group of like minded people? If so, who are they and can we join too?

Do you wanna be part of WANA? Join here!

Do you celebrate the good times as well as the bad?

I adore hearing from you guys. Seriously, I get all warm and fuzzy when someone stops by and says hello. And sob heart brokenly into my pillow if you don’t. (I’m not above a bit of emotional blackmail.)

Christine

Catch the Wind of Change in Publishing - The Reader

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PUBLISHING IS CHANGING BEFORE OUR EYES, SO WHO DO YOU LISTEN TO?

Joanna Terrero, sent me this last year and it’s as relevant today as it was then. It’s an inhouse training vid lasting just over 2 minutes by the UK arm of Dorling Kindersley and it’s absolutely brilliant. What do you think?

The Reader And The Future of Publishing

Nothing worse than cold sweat trickling down your back, is there? Along with the accompanying chills and temperature spikes, this has not been a productive week by yours truly.

How I’m feeling reminds me of what’s happening to the
publishing world. For a new author this is a scary place. It’s always been a
scary place, but there are times when I’ve wondered if I’ve fallen into a
parallel universe.

You’ll be thrilled to know that I’m not about to debate what’s
happening – plenty of other people are busy doing that – change is upon us and
it’s no use spitting into the face of a hurricane.

The answer to the question, who do you listen to, is, THE
READER. Remember them? They’re the one’s who part with their hard-earned cash
to buy our stories. And in the debate, by and large, they’ve been totally
ignored. And that, in my humble opinion, is a damned disgrace. But does the
reader care if he/she is ignored? Nope, because now they’re able to decide by a
single click of a button what they like, when they want it, where to buy it and
how much to pay for it.

So our mission (should you decide to accept it, this blog
will self-destruct in ten seconds) is to write the best stories we possibly can
for our reader to escape into the peaks and troughs of a rollicking great
romance, with plenty of ‘good bits’ (do NOT forget the good bits, they meet
reader expectation) and a deeply satisfying HEA (happy ever after). So that’s it, easy? Well, no, but nothing worthwhile ever is.

The great Kristen Lamb, editor, agent & author, is talking about E-publishing today and has links here to a workshop run by Bob

Mayer & Jen Talty. I bet Kristen will love the vid too, it’s exactly what she’s been teaching.

Christine