Wait, you pay for that?

When I talk about releasing my books, inevitably the conversation turns to promotion. “Well, since it’s your day job, you must be great at promoting your own books! That saves you money.”

Wrong! 

I have a publicist set up my blog tours! (The wonderful Roxanne at Bewitching Book Tours.) 

I know that book bloggers are important. They are a wonderful, dedicated group of people who sincerely love books. And I also know that there are a lot of them. And I just don’t have time to track down the ones who read urban fantasy and do outreach to each one (believe me, I tried). So I rely on Roxanne to get my shit into the hands of the book bloggers and, hopefully, they love the book and they do something. 

However, this is where my day job helps: I know that my book is not going to be covered by the NY Times. Or the NY Review of Books. Or People Magazine. Or Oprah magazine. So there is no point in Roxanne, or myself for that matter, pitching it. If I can find a compelling reason why one of these outlets should cover it, I may pitch it myself. But honestly, there is no compelling reason. I am one of a zillion authors writing Urban Fantasy. I have been fairly successful at it, but in no way am I able to make my living solely from my books. I am not an Amanda Hocking or a Hugh Howey outlier. However,  I am earning enough to give me hope that one day I could live solely off my writing. To me, that’s kind of exciting.

To the NY Times, not so much.

But here’s the important point. I don't think their audience is interested in my books. They have never once reviewed Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse books. The Times profiled her a year or two into True Blood, but never once did she get one of those coveted reviews. So, urban fantasy and paranormal romance is clearly not their jam. 

What does matter to me are the bloggers Roxanne knows. They are readers and they reach readers, and they are the rabid fans or urban fantasy and paranormal romance. Those are the outlets that matter to me. 

whirlwind

Phew. It's been a wild few months since Hell's Belle went exclusive on Amazon. A number of blog reviews landed, and they were amazing. I did a whole bunch of guest posts. And through the process I met a host of really wonderful, passionate bloggers from all over the world. It's been really fun. More promo coming in October, when Hell's Belle hits the other e-tailers. I am looking forward to the next round.

I am about 35,000 words into the Hell's Belle follow up. This one is moving a lot slower than the first, and according to my very wise Yoda-like editor, the second one moves much more glacial than the first. So I am trying to power through molasses, but every day I eek along some forward progress. I don't know that it will be ready for a June 2014 release, which is what I was hoping. But we'll see.

There are a lot fewer action sequences in this one, which I think is part of the reason why it feels so sluggish. I need to sit down soon and just write one punishing fight scene after another. Poor Nina. But she's a tough broad, she can handle it.

And I can tell you that the second book is tentatively titled Tainted Blood.

I am also working on a true horror novel. I have a few thousand words in and I am pretty happy with the characters I am creating. I am taking a horror writing class with Jack Ketchum too, so I hope to get this one sufficiently frightening by the time that one is over. 

And I finally found my YA novel idea two nights ago. I am crazy excited about this one, but feel like I have a bit of a learning curve with YA. But we'll get there.

So, all this and the work commitments with the day job have me spectacularly crazy. But I do hope to get my blogging rhythm back again. I have noticed a bunch of new traffic to the site, and want to hang out with you guys!