Book Promotion and Brand Establishment

The Enchanted Faerie is coming out soon. Real soon. So soon we can taste it.

We're terribly excited about it and want to make the world excited too. So our thoughts have turned to book promotion.

See, book promotion is more than just handing out flyers and cleverly-wrapped candies. Book promotion is more than just letting you know we've got a book out. (since you're reading this blog, there's a good chance you already know about The Enchanted Faerie.)

We want more.

We want our book to stand out from among all the others you might come across this year. We want not just for you to know about The Enchanted Faerie, but we want you to be interested in it.

We love the premise of The Enchanted Faerie. Love always comes at a cost. Gypsy Alishandra Orona has set the price at 100 gold pieces. That's a lot of money by today's standards and certainly not a small fortune in the Sixteenth Century.

Is love--true love--worth it? (Is Greggie MacDonald worth a hunnert?) Perhaps the price of a faerie is too high. Just because one acquires a faerie doesn't mean that one is guaranteed to find love. After all, one's heart can only stand so much stress before it breaks.

And yet, for some, the thought of dwindling and dying in lonely spinsterhood is the worst fate of all.

Oh, decisions, decisions. Can't anything ever be easy? Not every tale ends in the HEA every heroine dreams about. Who finds true love? Whose heart gets broken? And what is it about Lachlan the Blacksmith?

Now, before we started really promoting the book, we were establishing our brand.

We're the Romance Spinners and we spin tales of love, of sorrow and of the indomitable human spirit.

The Enchanted Faerie is only the beginning. Our next project is For Richer, For Poorer. Ah, the poor Deveraux family and their curse.

Meanwhile, we Spinners would like to show you the cool stuff we've discovered from research, our experience in the writing craft, the fun things we've encountered on the Internet and our obsession with actor Richard Armitage.

So pick a Spinner and ask three questions. They don't have to be serious (either the Spinners or the questions).

Meanwhile, I find the following very interesting:

I Can Has Cheezburger?, proving the third largest purpose of the Internet is to post pictures of cats.
Miss Snark, who'll lay the writing craft out in a brutally honest yet useful form.
Fourmilab, for all those really cool astronomical-ish stuff.
Google Earth. Dude, everyone's gotta check out Google Earth, even if only to find their house.

What is it about romance novels?

Romance novels are devoured by woman around the world. Even those who hate them, secretly read them. They have been called trashy, forbidden, inappropriate and not true literary works. But we all know the truth is that romance is one of the biggest selling genres around.

To be honest, I don't think their are many out there with the close minded attitude that romance novels are the gateway to sin anymore. (at least they have quieted down some) Sure, we run across the occasional naysayer, but what that naysayer doesn't realize is that she is missing out on a wonderful, heart enlightening journey of love to rival the ages. And what these protesters are really against is the sex. But if they read the book they would see that the sex is an escalation of love. A meeting of souls, right?

Why do I read romance novels? It's not for the happily ever after or the awkward meeting of two destined souls, but for the middle of the novel. Where attraction is intensely strong and undeniably there. The hero and heroine fight it, deny it, and try to avoid it. Yet, circumstances keep forcing them together. I love the pull and tug of hearts. The yearning for what (they believe) they cannot have or deserve to experience. It is the ultimate kick start to the heart.

Some of my favorite novels? Karen Marie Monings entire Highlander series. Why? KMM creates a world unlike any I've ever read and within this world one man and one woman defy the fates, traverse time and conquer the impossible just to savor one more minute with each other. He is the missing the piece of her and she is the reparation for his damaged soul. I think my favorite is Immortal Highlander where the bad guy (who really isn't so bad) turns good. He is a faery who feels the way humans feel. He is fighting to return to his position beside the queen, all the while he has already found his rightful place in this world, the human realm.

Other novels?
Pride and Prejudice is a classic. I love... love Mr. Darcy.
Kinley MacGregor's Macallister Series- these four brothers are the men of men. They are stubborn, arrogant and tortured souls who need the very thing they don't want. The love of a good woman.
Jude Deveraux's The Duchess- a book I could read over and over again. The heroine is to wed the fair-hared brother, a titled duke, but falls in love with his dark, exotic older brother (the true duke) who had been her childhood hero under another name. Obviously, the older brother has some issues and wants nothing to do with society or his title. She must make a choice, he must come back from the dead and learn to accept her choice. -- Love it!

I read romance for the same reason I write it. It's captivating and refreshing. When I first started writing I never even gave a thought to what genre I would write. I just wrote what I loved. Just when I picked up my first romance novel. I didn't think about what genre I wanted to read, I was just gravitated toward it.

So why do you read romance novels? And if you haven't read one yet, why? What are your favorites or what can't you stand? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Romance isn't just for the past...

Of all the Romance Spinners, I must be the luckiest. In our next project, I get to write a futuristic romance.

You got it baby, I getta write Sci-Fi!

Now, depending on your point of view, my job is either easier or harder than Judy's or Zara's.

Easy: I don't have to do a lot of research. I don't have to make sure my historical facts, fashion, language, and more are historically accurate. I don't have to worry that "contemporary-isms" that don't exist yet are gonna slip in.

Hard: I have to compile, from nigh-scratch, an entire world. I have to invent (well, speculate) future technology (and its foibles). I don't just come up with gadgets and Google's grandchildren but I've got to postulate how that technology will affect the lives of my characters. I've got to come up with future events that would change the world as we know it.

Fortunately, something exists in the Speculative Fiction universe that means I won't have to re-invent the videophone, nor will I have to waste precious wordspace explaining how it works.

It's called the supertext.

Some criticise Science Fiction (and Fantasy too, to some extent) as being self-referential. I guess, in a way, it has to be. How else are we going to define the complexities of future technology, society, races and characteristics?

The supertext works something like this:

I mention I have a vampire in one of my stories. Our Heroine sees the vampire and she reacts with fear. I don't need to go on and explain that vampires are scary un-human monsters who will lure you in with seduction then suck your blood with fangs, because the information is available in the supertext and thus available as "general knowledge".

Now, everyone doesn't have access to all of the supertext. Sometimes bits of it are limited to certain readers of some fiction.

Take, for example, the Three Laws of Robotics. Read something of Issac Asimov's, (or click on the above link) and you'll have a good idea what the laws are and how they work. But if you haven't read any Asimov (nor seen Star Trek, nor anything else that has made, at some point, reference to the Three Laws), then you might not understand why Our Heroine, when faced with a really big nasty robot armed with laser cannons, would not be afraid of him, especially if I established earlier in the story that RoboMonstro With Dual Laser Action^TM was "governed by the Three Laws".

(Counts) I have summoned the supertext with a spell, sentence, fragment of five words.

Pretty powerful stuff.

So now I am faced with a different challenge: I'm not writing for the Skiffy audience. I'm writing for the Romance audience, especially one that prefers historical romance.

Yet I think I'll be okay. The Historical Romance audience has a skill that will enable them to read something from 1016 or 1586 or 1831 or 1923 or 1945 and that will also enable them to understand something from 2172. They are able to look to the past (or the future) and see a world that is different from their own. They are able to understand that Our Heroine won't be carrying around a mobile phone. She'll have other ways to communicate. Her clothes will be different, her language use will be different, her role in society will be different, her goals will be different.

Historical Romance readers will grok this. They may not fully understand the technology that surrounds Miss 2172, but they will realise she is a human with a heart yearning for love. They'll figure her out and come to love her, the way they love the Regency Debutante, the Gibson Girl, the Flapper, the WAVE.

So yeah. I'm looking forward to having Our Heroine's implant misfunction when she moves out of signal range.

What makes a good romantic hero?

For the Enchanted Faerie, each author was given a character and a situation (the Gypsy Alishandra Orona charging each heroine a hundred gold for the use of the faerie). As these are tales of romance, that meant we had to come up with a hero.

We had to consider what elements make for a good romantic hero:

1. In the end, he must love the heroine.

That is not to say he must start out loving her. He could start out hating her, and then come to the realisation that it's not hate but love he feels. Or it could be that he loves her from the beginning but needs to convince her. Whatever happens, by the time the story ends, there can be no doubt that he recognises and acknowledges that he loves her.

And we're not talking that he's made her his lust puppy to be turfed out of bed the next morning without a second thought. We're talking the deep, abiding love. Agape, as well as eros. (Okay, maybe there's a lust-puppy moment, but we know he'll be coming back!)

2. He must have at least one quality that appeals to the readers.

And it doesn't have to be that he's extremely handsome. Rochester from "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë is a plain looking man who suffers some disfigurement later, but that doesn't stop us from wanting him to get the girl in the end. Dashing heroes may look well on the silver screen, but on the printed page, it's the other aspects of his character that come forth.

He could be deeply intelligent, he could be a risk-taker, he could be patient (or not, depending on how he is portrayed). He could have a rarely-shown sensitive side and be good to his mother. Perhaps his quality is fidelity, either longstanding or newly-discovered.

Now, we all know what makes for a good man in real life, the sort of man you want to marry and keep forever, but those qualities aren't necessarily found in a good hero. Often he'll use, abuse and lose the heroine sometime in the story, end redemption notwithstanding. You may find one or two (or ten or twenty) of your personal "Husband Qualification List" items absent in many a good romantic hero.

This is fiction, honey! We don't require that we'll know he'll be able to hold a steady job or that he'll be a good father to the children. He's just gotta catch our attention with his one good, redeeming quality and make our blood burn.

But if we can't understand what the heroine sees in him, we ain't buying it.

3. He must be ambitious.

You might not have considered this, but think back on all the romantic heroes you've read. How many of them were slack bastards? Not many, if that. Whether Duke or Doctor, Pirate or Politician, we like a hero with drive.

Our hero is a man who knows what he wants then he goes and gets is. (Hopefully one of those things is the heroine. If not, she'll convince him in the end.)

Part of that ambition is that he's off in the story doing stuff. He's not sitting around waiting for things to come happen to him. He's not a fop or a loser. We like a carpe diem-type of guy. He makes the plot move, provides conflict, intrigue and excitement.

4. He must not kick puppy dogs.

This is a given.

Holly's Questions and Answers

1: What are your favourite books from childhood?

The Littles by John Peterson. As I got a little older I read novels by V.C Andrews.

2: When did you start writing romance?

About three years ago. Unless the dramatic poems of my teenage years count...

3: If you ran the world for a day, what would you do?

That's a whopper of a question. :-) I'd plan a world wide conference for today's youths and do my best to encourage and instill a sense of confidence that they can do great things to better their futures. Too ensure it wasn't a wasted conference I find a unique way to make sure they walked away with that ever-lasting feeling of self importance.


4: Who is your favourite romantic hero - real or otherwise?

Mr. Darcy in the end of the "new" Pride and Prejudice movie when he says to Lizzy.. "I will have to tell you, you have bewitched me body and soul. And I love... I love... I love you."

And...

Matthew Perry in Fools Rush in When he says to Selma Hayek, "You are everything, I never knew I always wanted."

And Johnny Depp in Chocolat.... because well... he's Johnny Depp.

When it comes to novels, I don't think I've read a medieval hero I didn't love, my particular favorite is the MacKelter Brothers from Karen Marie Monings The Kiss of the Highlander and The Dark Highlander. And Adam Black in her The Immortal Highlander- Bad guy going good--- doesn't get any better than that.

Real life romantic hero- My hubby does a pretty descent job. :-)


5: Complete this sentence. There is nothing more important in life than......?

My children.


6: How do you find time to write?

Good question. I'll let you know when I figure it out. LOL!
Really, I usually stay awake until the wee hours of the morning when the house is quiet, TV is off and all I hear is the soundtrack I chose to listen to while writing. Other times I write bits and pieces through the day, when I can tune out the noise around me.

7: What book/books are you reading now?

Kingley MacGregor's Return of the Warrior.

Scotland: The History of a Nation (this is a "read a small section at a time" book. A lot of great info to take in.)

The Writers Journey: Mythic Structure For Writers by Christopher Vogler. (I've been milking this one for a while.- but it's a great book.)