Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Cloaked Release + IWSG

Hello, writing friends! Happy New Year, if I haven't crossed paths with you yet this year! My official New Year's post is here if you're so inclined.

Today I'm celebrating with a friend on the release of her novella on January 4th - Cloaked by T.F. Walsh. I had the pleasure of reading an ARC and it's such a fun book, guys! Werewolves and romance in Romania. Good stuff, super steamy and saucy :) You can read my lengthier review on Goodreads here.

Check it out, only 99 cents!! Amazon B&N | Kobo | Google Play | iTunes

Publisher: Crimson Romance


Blurb: Raised by an overly protective wulfkin pack, Daciana leaps at the chance to venture into the human world for her one-year independence ritual. But after someone steals the endangered bear cubs she’s been assigned to protect, she must locate them or lose her job and return home in disgrace. The sexy inspector on the case isn’t making this any easier. He knows nothing of her kind, and wulfkin rules forbid relationships with humans.

Newly divorced Inspector Connell Lonescu trusts no one but himself. He’s convinced relationships are a waste of time and thinks burying himself in work will ease the pain. Yet he’s attracted to the gorgeous and mysterious Daciana, even if there’s something slightly odd about her. Can Connell learn to trust the sexy but secretive woman? 


Now, on to IWSG! I suppose what's been on my mind most the last month is book marketing. I released my first novelette in August, and I've learned a TON about marketing since then. What to do, and a lot more of what NOT to do (stuff that's a waste of money and time). I'm a bit bummed because things were plugging along pretty well until December, and then my sales dropped off to practically nothing. It was especially disappointing because I had just announced that ALL of my book proceeds from Thanksgiving to Christmas would be donated to Heifer International to fight world hunger. I was looking forward to raising some money for them, and that totally didn't happen. Luckily for them I'll give my usual annual gift anyways, but still, kind of a bummer. 

Early in December I emailed the lovely self-pub rockstar RaShelle Workman, who has sold over a million of her e-books, and asked her for advice. She said that her biggest piece of advice, and probably what my problem is, is that I only have the one novelette out. She said she suggests people have 5-7 books in a series, have at least half of them totally ready to go (edited, covers, etc.) and then release them two weeks apart to keep momentum going and build up a devoted readership. I had already guessed that having just the one was hurting me, though at the moment I can't do anything about that since my agent wants me to wait to release the subsequent novels in that series until we land a deal on my other series. So, I'll need to wait, but in the meantime I'm furiously working on finishing the second novel in the series, which should be done by mid month, and then I'll be on to the third. I'd also like to write another novella for the series, and release the first three novels and the novella later this year.

So, that's the plan, and that's my writing life at the moment! How about you? Oh, and click here to read other IWSG posts for the month.