The Best Thing to be Doing

Mitch Mitchell wants us to read more.
I'm happy to write more books so you can.

"Is this the best thing you can be doing right now?"  I often ask myself that, but not as often as I should.

A few weeks ago I was chatting with our marketing team at the Day Job about the importance of marketing. I realised I'd let my marketing slip on my books. This was half-laziness and half-analysis. I'd been monitoring the marketing I've been doing for my books, weighing costs vs returns. My current methods were not the most effective at the moment. I wasn't getting as good a ROI (return on investment) as I wanted. After a bit more analysis, I noticed what I'd been doing wrong.

The best way to market a book is to have more books out there. I've currently got five standalones plus one permafree short story sampler. In my recent research, this isn't enough.  Even when the some of my books go on sale with promo, I get some nibbles, but not sufficient to compensate for the price of marketing.  Really, one should be getting a ROI colour other than red. (I accept black or green.)

Obviously I need to get more books out, preferably in a series.

Some author/marketers recommend you spend some of every day writing and some marketing. Fair enough, if you've got the inventory. I don't think I have enough inventory.

So I've decided I'll keep doing little bits of marketing here and there, but not the full-scale I really should be doing.

Instead, I'm going to devote that extra time to finishing more novels. This is the best thing I can be doing right now.  The more novels I get out, the more effective my promotional efforts will be.

I just finished "Currently Unsupervised", which is now aging in a printout on my desk. I'm starting the research for my Victorian Clockpunk Telescope Romance and I've applied for a developmental grant for "Of The Dark".  "The Charm of Truth" needs to sit a little longer before I tack another 20K to it, then it'll be ready to go.

If you ask me if I can do something and I say NO, this is why. These novels don't write themselves.

_____________________________
Her Grace encourages you to leave reviews for her work. That's one of the best things you can do for an author.

Hello Summer at All Romance Ebooks

The Northern Solstice is here. For you in the Northern Hemisphere, it's Hello Summer. For those of us in the Southern Hemisphere, it's time to curl up with a cup of Milo and let a good Romance keep us warm through the dark winter months.

Get "For Richer, For Poorer" and "As Good As Gold" at 25% off, one day only, 20 June (US Central, UTC -6:00).

Visit All Romance Ebooks and score yourself a hot deal.

_______________________
Her Grace is excited for the solstice, not only because the long dark hours make for excellent astronomical viewing, but that it now means we're on our way towards summer.

Head in the Game

I confess April burned me out a little when it comes to blogging. Fret not, I'll get back into a regular posting schedule in June. May is a very busy month for me, with the end of the Semester and about ten family birthdays and the onset of Winter (Makuru). The big rocks demand all my spoons this week.

The other day I was at work reading a manual. I got to the end of the page and couldn't remember a thing I'd read. It was just after lunch and my brain was drifting about. I couldn't stay focused. I kept thinking about my novels. I had to go back and re-read the page two more times. It took a lot of energy, but I got it done.

While daydreaming is a very important tool to the Artist, and it's good that a brain wants to sort out the WIP, doing it while I'm on someone else's dollar is not the done thing.

Most writers have the Day Job--that reliable source of income that enables a roof over our heads and food in our bellies and electricity to our computers. It is, essentially, our Patron. And as our Patron, you need to give it proper respect if you wish it to continue supporting your creative lifestyle.

And that means when you're at the Day Job, you focus on the Day Job. That's the etiquette.

But man, some days focus can be harder than others.

____________________________
Her Grace's marketing tip: If you're allowed to put up stuff in your cubicle, put up pics of your book covers. Also, a Post-it saying, "Buy my books!" doesn't hurt either. Otherwise, head in the game.

A to Z Challenge: M2 - Marketing

Today is one of several M posts because there are many M things I'd like to talk about, and I couldn't choose just one.


One of the necessary evils of being a professional author is the Marketing. Writing the book is the easy part. Getting enough people to know about it enough for them to want to buy it is another.

I thought about writing about how difficult I find marketing, or about various techniques I've employed, or a Top Ten of marketing blogs, how Word-of-Mouth is the best marketing technique around or even just a Link Soup to other people's marketing opinions, but I thought, no. I might as well use this blog entry to share what it is I'm trying to market. that would be the most effective use of a blog entitled "Marketing".

Go buy my books.  Isn't that what marketing is all about?  It helps that I've written some pretty good stories (my editor and publisher agree. So do other readers). If you enjoy Romance and escapist fiction, check them out. Even if you don't buy my books, feel free to Tell Someone About Them.

About the Author

I'm a novelist. I write books, full-length and novellas. I've written a good double-handful of them. Now I'm in the process of polishing the better ones for publication.

I love Escapist fiction. Reality gets me down more often than not, and a good book rescues me from the Black Doghouse. Because of this, I prefer Romance (escapist fiction with a happy ending), Science Fiction and Fantasy.

My novels reflect that.

I have two novellas out currently, with a third due for release in February. Before then, I am working on an indie novella I hope to have released before the end of the year.

Would you like to ask me any questions?

Her Grace's Current Releases

As Good As Gold

Daywen Athalia wants love--true and lasting. Fearing a future of bitter loneliness, she seeks help from a gypsy woman. The price: a hundred pieces of gold. Daywen's never had two shillings to rub together in her life. Where's she going to find a  hundred gold pieces? 

Bel MacEuros made a career of theft from fey creatures. When the cursed gold he rightfully stole from a gnome is taken from him by Daywen, the consequences could bless or break his life. 

It is not the gnome's curse or a gypsy's blessing but another magic, far deeper and more powerful, that will change their lives forever.

This was first published in a collection called The Enchanted Faerie. Later, our publishers The Wild Rose Press decided to release it as a standalone novella.

What I love about this is how Our Heroine Daywen does whatever it takes to find true love, even solicit magic. However, it's not so much the magic that does the work as Daywen herself. The little enchanted faerie she buys from a gypsy woman merely lets her know she's on the right track. Everything else that leads her to discover her love is purely of her own motivation. I like heroines that go after what they want.

Buy Links:
TWRP : Barnes&Noble : Kobo : Google Play :  AllRomance : Amazon

For Richer, For Poorer

The Deveraux line is famous...for a family curse. The rich must marry the poor or lose their prosperity. Peter Baring is the last of the Deveraux and sinking slowly into poverty. But will marriage to his icy business partner save him?

Beatrice Nottham dreams of leaving Earth for a fresh start. But only married couples are allowed to move off-world. Marrying a man she’s unsure she loves will solve that problem...but at what cost?

When Beatrice visits England to research her branch of the Deveraux family tree, she meets Peter and sparks fly. Both question everything they ever believed would fulfill their dreams. If they dare to be together, will the Curse follow them beyond the stars? The answer to breaking its power could lie in the heart of a crumbling tapestry...if they have the courage to try.

When I originally wrote this tale, it was to be the last story in an anthology about the family curse. Every single other story was historical romance. Me, I thought I'd take mine in the other direction--namely the future. I think it might be the only Historical Romance novel set in the future.

TWRP : Barnes&Noble : Kobo : Google Play :  AllRomance : Amazon  

Meanwhile, I'm plotting out my latest project tomorrow. Join me for "N" on the A to Z Challenge and have your say in what I write about next.

________________________________________________
Her Grace shall always love books.

The Next Big Thing

Many not-yet-published writers think that one of the things that will improve their chances of getting a novel published is a practice known as "jumping on the bandwagon". This is where they try to get in on whatever the hottest publishing trend is at the moment.

Several years ago it was wizard boys and religious conspiracies. Currently it's vampire romance.

However, jumping on the bandwagon is not a benefit to getting published. Quite the opposite--it is much, much harder to be published in a market glutted by vampires falling in love with wizard boys despite the warnings in St Mark 57:12.

Why? Because by the time a book hits the shelves, the "fresh and new" ship has long sailed.

For readers, sure, the trends are happening right now, and you can easily pick up a book on the current hot topic in the bookstore. But for writers, agents/editors and publishers, the trend readers see on the shelves this week happened two, three or even four years ago.

How does this happen?

An agent or editor has a novel come through that's well-written, hooky and has a fresh idea. "Cool," they say. "I think this might be a winner." Their professional instincts are right. The publisher picks this up in a nice deal and the book sells wonderfully on its first print run.

Now, sometime during this process another editor will come across a novel, also well-written and hooky, that deals with similar themes to the first novel. "Hmmm," they think. "I wonder if we have another winner?" It too, goes to press in a nice deal and does well on the first print run.

Perhaps it happens a third time, this time in a very nice deal, possibly brought on by the excellent sales records of the first two novels and the next thing you know, we have a trend!

Now, editors and publishers don't sit around and say, "I think we need a trend on fae-folk-in-captivity." The trends are arbitrary. They happen at random and nobody can really predict what will be the next big trend.

But if you wanna have a shot at it, Nostradamus, don't look at what's hot right now, but have a look and see what's not being published, and hasn't been published for the past twenty (thirty?) years. These are the areas that have the best chances at becoming the next hot trends because in the marketplace they will be seen as fresh and new.

Now, that's an awful lot of topics, and choosing the one that will be the next big trend may be a shot in the dark, but at least you'll be shooting forward instead of shooting backward at the dead rabbit that's already been skinned, hassenpfeffered and consumed.

However, hopping on the bandwagon is not what secures these nice deals or even very nice deals. It's writing well and being hooky. Books are published because of this, and only then do the trends follow.