It’s not often you get good news two years after the fact, but today I received a review for Simply Irresistible from The Romance Studio and it was a beautiful 5 HEARTS!
Sandra at TRS said, “Ms. Storey has written a great book that I was hooked on from the first chapter. It kept me anxiously turning the pages to the very last.”
Thank you TRS for reviewing my first erotic book on bondage and domination, Simply Irresistible.
Last year the computer gurus were all about “The Long Tail” and especially how the computer and Internet have changed the lives of marketable products by finding specialty niches.
I mention this because in the book, the very sad information is revealed regarding the sales figures of novels. A mere 1% of the population sells more than 1,000 copies of their novels (figures subject to correction). Most of us aren’t Tom Clancy, Nora Roberts or Janet Evanovich (forgive me Janet if I misspelled your last name). It’s an awful, hard fact.
A lot of authors judge their success by the dollar income they receive both in royalties and advances. It is so easy to think that more is good. Afterall dollar figures in the thousands are part of why a lot of writers are in this business…they want to make money off their creative efforts.
Publishers want to make a profit. As many of their costs continue to rise, publishers have difficulty in assigning a firm profit forecast for any given book. Therefore publishers work with a Profit and Loss estimate. An editor works to determine if and how many copies a given novel will sell, taking into consideration the cost to produce the book and advertise it (and advertising is a direct impact on the profit margin and can and is easily adjusted). What cost do publishers encur? Paper, ink, shipping, a discount to the distributors (as much as 55% in some cases), taxes, royalties, editing, cover art, utilities, rent, employee salaries, and some for advertising.
This all impacts the profit a given title may or may not make. And the real bottom line is that no publisher knows if the novel he just contracted is going to be the next best seller. In other words, publishing is a huge gamble.
That gamble is part of what is used to determine an advance. In e-publishing, the risk overall is lower, but so is the return. That is why so many e-publishers are reluctant to play this particular brand of poker.
Recently I participated on a publishers panel at the Epicon in Virginia Beach. Every publisher represented revealed what their best selling genre was. Every publisher said something different. How can anyone make an intelligent wager against unknown odds?
Factor in other things like returns which run as high as 50% and you can see why a lot of e-publishers either don’t go to print or go with print-on-demand where the costs are more controlled.
So what should an author do? The only real thing an author has pure control over is the quality of his/her product. Do you write the best story you absolutely can, with little to no factual errors and little to no punctuation errors? Do you write consistently, get your name out in front of the public on a regular basis? Agents are now saying an author’s backlist is as important to a publisher as the novel they are purchasing. Name recognition and a finished product that they don’t have to put near as much risk money into.
Write your six hundred page opus. Then follow with something that helps brand you (similar style, characters, subject matter, voice) that is much shorter. Ever wonder why so many “name” authors are in anthologies? It keeps their name alive in the public eye and helps bring attention to newer authors.
Morgan Hawke (I love you Morgan!) once said to sell shorter things first so that you can keep something coming out on a very regular basis. Once a year isn’t enough. Jacquie D’Alessandro (USA Today Bestselling author) writes at least three works a year.
Everyone in the print world is fighting for shelf space. You don’t have that problem with e-publishing, but you still have to get your name out there and regularly. A solid, well-written, creative story is truly the only factor you can control. So, are you doing it?
Pirates of the Caribbean, the third installment opened with seven showings at our local movie theater last night. The release is timely as my own erotic pirate story, a part of The Collector series, is due out June 5th!
This is a hot cover for a hot, sexy read. Skylar is sent back in time to the pirate ship of Captain Rand Edward Jamison, but for what purpose she’s not entirely sure.
Rand sees in Skylar the women he loved, the wife who passed away in the grips of a painful illness. Could This Time be Forever for them?
Perhaps, but only if Skylar can survive life in the 18th century, her cancer, and the attack of Rand’s sworn enemy, Owain Cutler. It’s a race against time for Rand and Skylar.
This Time Forever is novel 7 in a series being issued by Loose Id. The series centers on a collector trying to amass artifacts from around the world which are famed for their abilities to unite lovers. And the Collector is on a mission all his own with his trustworthy assistant, Audra Phelan. Be sure to visit the Collector web site for an update.
Many times I’m asked by novice writers and non-writers where I get my ideas. The bulk of my ideas come from music but ideas for stories abound.
Here are a few:
I’d like to spend just a moment with number 10. From the earliest time I can remember, probably about 1st or 2nd grade, I had teachers who encouraged creative writing. Often these exercises centered around spelling words (remember having to put those into sentences?).
Somewhere around middle school, I had an English teacher who had us create some lists. Five male names, five female names, five occupations, five locations, five events. For each category we were to draw one and then write a story around what we pulled. In the simplest of terms this is a one man brainstorming exercise. If you can do it with some critique partners or others, well then, you will hardly be able to stop the flow of ideas.
For a novelist, this might be a great place to start, but for me, it’s what I do when I need to prime the pump of my creative juices. Add the infamous, “what if?” question and you might really come up with something fun and unique to write.
If you feel you’ve hit “writer’s block” you might want to consider using this simple exercise.
Our dear encourager, Emma, from the UK, asked about writers and traveling. Her questions were as follows:
Have you done much travelling at all, if so where was the
a) best place you’ve ever been to and why?
b) the worst place and why?
c) the weirdest place and why?
d) did you incorporate any of your experiences with travelling in your books at all?
To answer Emma’s question I would have to say that Ireland was one of the most awesome places I’ve visited. I loved the countryside, loved the ocean, the green, the castles, the people. Wasn’t too fond of the food, but I suspect if you lived there you’d find a way to adjust!
I’ve also traveled to several of the former Eastern Bloc countries. I loved Prague, but I truly thought the area around Warsaw, Poland was stunning.
The weirdest place I’ve been? I’d have to say the Dublin, Ireland airport where I “witnessed” an armed robbery. That might be tied, though, with the taxi I was in when I visited New York City that backed up on the highway to get off on an exit!
The worst place? I can’t say there was really a “worst” place although I have no overwhelming desire to return to Berlin. It just didn’t impress me all that much.
So, do I use the places I visit in my novels? Absolutely! Watchtowers Water was set in western Ireland and so was Reynardine.
What are the biggest misconceptions people have about being an author?
There are several misconceptions people outside the writing community have about being an author. One is that we make oodles of money. Writing and selling is a lot like being an actor and acting. Most people aren’t mega stars and need to supplement their writing with other work. A few are lucky and have a significant other that enables them to pursue their dream.
Another misconception a lot of authors hear is “I could write a book too, if…” I think for a lot of writers this is a real burner. Writing a novel is not easy. It takes a lot of perserverance to finish a story, a lot of bravery to let another person read your work, even more guts to send it off somewhere, and then to survive rejections. Even those fortunate enough to miss being told their work isn’t right at this time have to go through the huge learning curve regarding contracts, edits, getting the next novel written and doing promotions. Writing takes a lot of time. And that’s when you have a clue what you’re doing. Terry Brooks, John Grisham and others, before they were “discovered” got up in the wee hours of the morning, wrote, then got ready for their 40+ hour work week. 
A third misconception is that of the life of ease and that writing itself is easy. Sure, maybe some writers have it easier than others; perhaps they dictate to a secretary, a tape recorder, or maybe their computer, but those writers paid their dues getting there. They had to learn like the rest of us; had to find work arounds for carpal tunnel, they read books about the craft, maybe attended seminars and workshops and conventions. Writers don’t sit at home eating bon-bons. Frequently, especially for beginning writers, the work is lonely. You don’t realize there are organizations to help you connect with other writers, people who can be your friends, mentors, and role models.
Make no mistake. Writers work hard. It takes guts and perseverance to finish a work and submit it and even more work to promote a novel.
Not often a leading man comes along and reminds you of what movies used to be about: love making you better for one. Eric Bana in Lucky You did that for me. The story is set around high stakes poker, the popular Texas Hold’em.
On the surface it would be easy to throw this movie away. Hey, who wants to watch a movie about poker? Then I remembered Cool Hand Luke, The Color of Money and a few other choice movies about gambling. In their own ways they have become classics.
So, why did I like Lucky You? A lot had to do with Eric Bana. He came across the sceen with the right amount of angst, the right amount of guilt, the right amount of charm, the right amount of anger toward his father, played by Robert Duvall.
Huck, named after the Mark Twain character is played by Eric, and he’s just the right kind of charm man. In the beginning he shows his quick wits and allure in trying to get more for a pawn loan from a hardened shopkeeper. She ups his loan as a way of saying “thank you” for the entertainment. Huck is desperate to get into the $10,000 stake poker tournament and if he has just a little money he knows he can turn it into the sort of winnings he needs to enter.
Enter Drew Barrymore, Billie, as the girl next door type, who wants to believe in everyone;who won’t lie, cheat or steal, even if it means winning or losing $10,000. She teaches Huck a lot about what is worth holding or folding and in the end Huck wins a lot more than he could have imagined. Truly.
This movie was a “happy for now” peek at how one person can affect and change another person’s life. There is no one truly “bad” guy, nor just one “good” guy, but ordinary people who have to face the truth about their pasts. A lot of women will like it for the emotional impact. A lot of men will like it because of high stakes gambling. Some will watch for Drew, others Robert, and others Eric. But however you are swayed into seeing this movie, you should be able to come away feeling good.
Even if you don’t enjoy the movie as much as I did, you will probably enjoy the music. Bob Dylan did a new piece for the movie, Kris Kristofferson, Bonnie Raitt, Madeleine Peyroux, even some old George Jones stuff.
I recommend “Lucky You”.
Aspen Mountain Press is launching a new paranormal series and is asking for submissions.
Word count: 15K–100K
Format: eBooks
Editor: Nikita Gordyn
Genre: Contemporary Paranormal Romance
Can be a heterosexual couple, GBLT, ménage, etc.
Mainstream with romantic elements will be considered.
Very sexy/sensual is what we’re looking for. Both graphic and non-graphic will be considered.
Story Guideline:
The main characters have to do something at the bar to tie it together. They know the proprietor, who is a vampire (Cody Warren was turned while in the military serving in Afganistan). Humans can go in to see the paranormals or two (or three) paranormal characters, meet outside the bar, etc, but at some point both the bar and Cody must be in a scene.
Bartending Tales
Stories from Del Fantasma in Vista Loma, California
Bible
Del Fantasma is a bar just north of Point Loma, California, known for its ghosts and other-worldly experiences. The owner and bartender, Cody Warren knows a thing or two about the supernatural. While stationed in Afghanistan, Cody was rescued and later turned into a vampire.
Not that he minds. He is the sole owner of Del Fantasma and the hours suit him just fine. He has both human and other-worldly clients, and a knack for matchmaking that would rival any bona fide yenta. After ten years of bringing couples together, not much surprises Cody. He’s certainly heard every tale of love gone right and wrong over the years. In fact, he can recall a tale for nearly every drink he mixes.
Examples: Sex on the Beach: a mermaid and her true love (general idea only), Kentucky Tornado: the city meets the country in a tale of horse-trading (general idea only), Harvey Wallbanger, White Russian, Kiss in the Dark, Fuzzy Navel, Tequila Sunrise, Three Wise Men, Stormy Weather, Sea Breeze, Long Island Iced Tea, Pain Killer, Singapore Sling, Alabama Slammer, Aztec Punch, or any other drink that the author would like to do.
Please submit complete stories or a synopsis with the first three chapters electronically only. Be sure to include your name, mailing address and contact information to Dragoness@cogeco.
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These questions were asked by Elisabeth Keatley early this morning
Q) What is the definition of a “Romance” book?
Q) Does there always have to be a”happy-ever-after”?
Q) What type of genre is the best for “Romance”………..
Chick-lit,
Sci-Fi
Horror
Fantasy
Historical
Contemporary
Shape-Shifter
Murder-Mysteries
Comedy
A Battle of the Sexes
Thriller………………….and does it matter?
First, I believe there is going to be a different answer for nearly every different writer out there 
For me a romance novel is about the course of true love. Two individuals that find each other and discover happiness by being together. But we all know the course of true love never runs smooth, and few of us are with the person we first fell in love with. So, does a romance story have to have a happy ever after (hea) ending? N0. But, I believe it does need a happy for now ending at the very least.
Any genre can work for a romance. This really depends on the interest and skill of the writer. Currently, even though I’ve been asked, I can’t write comedy, so that sort of romance novel would not be one I’d atttempt. I’m much more adept and murder, mayhem and life/soul threatening situations. Maybe its my military background, maybe its because I enjoy reading science fiction and fantasy, maybe it was because I thought Basil Rathebone as Sherlock Holmes was about as cool as you could get when I was a teen. But comedy is out for me…right now.
No writer knows quite where they will be taken in the future. I won’t rule out comedy forever, because you know as soon as you say you will never do something you have to.
Please take a look at the following livejournal blog…
http://l-prieto.livejournal.com/
One of Laura’s posters is there. An item if considered too risque according to some standards could easily have been moved or removed. However, other items like this were removed as well.
This is risque? It was removed as well. Here is a cover that was allowed to stay…
Or how about
I think the case is clear. There were a lot of suggestive photos, covers, and promo items readily accessible to any man, woman, employee, or child who walked by .
