It's Release Day For My New Novel!

It's Release Day for my latest novel F#@! BOMB -- and I couldn't be more excited! I have a nice number of guests attending tonight's Facebook party. Plus, I've gotten good feedback so far from people who've started reading it.

I always hope my work will do well and will sell, but even if it doesn't, I'm proud of this book. I put so much of myself into it and am pleased with the result. I'm also very grateful to my "team" for helping me. My editors Diane, Amy, Rachael, Tom and Elaine gave me great suggestions and my designer, Shane Morgan, made the novel look beautiful.

Tonight's FB event should be a lot of fun, so be sure to stop by! I'll be giving away Amazon gift certificates, copies of my book and some of my handmade wire wrapped jewelry:

I'm also having a couple of "guest stars" drop in to add a little more excitement. It will be an opportunity to connect with other readers, as well as to get to know me a bit better. :-)

I hope to "see" many of you tonight online. Meanwhile, please read and review F#@! BOMB, as well as REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD and LOVE NOTES. Thank you for your support!

My New Novel: Meet The Characters!

As we get closer to F#@! BOMB's release date, I've been posting little teasers about the book on the page for my upcoming Facebook Book Release Party. Each day, I've been sharing a "Meet The Characters!" blurb, where I introduce readers to the various personalities in the novel. This way, they'll know who everyone is when they read my book.

I'm trying not to give too much away -- just enough information to get people excited and to whet their appetites for my story. Hopefully, many readers of this blog will join the online party on March 30, 6-8 p.m. ET, but if you can't make it, here are a few of the "Meet The..." posts which I've shared so far. I'll include more in future posts! Meantime, be sure to check out F#@! BOMB, as well as LOVE NOTES and REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD, all on Amazon.

MEET THE CHARACTERS!

NAME: Sadie Abramowitz

ROLE IN BOOK: Narrator, female protagonist

AGE: 18 going on 19

OCCUPATION: College freshman majoring in English; plans to be a journalist and writes for the school paper, The Falcon.

TALENTS: Writing, singing, cooking

FLAWS: Eats to calm her emotions, has a bad habit of pushing people away

ABOUT SADIE: Sadie is smart, sassy, hard-working... and very overweight. Her size has caused her to withdraw from her peers and when we first meet her, she's a loner whose best friend is her mom. At college, Sadie befriends Griffin -- a track star, who is also one of her former high school bullies -- and he encourages her to get in shape so she can walk a marathon. As she trains for the event, she not only improves her health, but learns to come out of her shell, make friends and trust people.

MEET THE CHARACTERS!

NAME: Griffin Greenberg

ROLE IN BOOK: Sadie's best friend, coach and lead male protagonist

AGE: 18 going on 19

OCCUPATION: College freshman majoring in Bio; track star, marathoner and Olympic hopeful

TALENTS: Running, coaching, teaching younger kids

FLAWS: Has a quick temper, often acts without thinking, was a bully in high school

ABOUT GRIFFIN: Handsome, charismatic Griffin has always been a star. Being the oldest of four children and a talented runner, people have always looked up to him. Family is very important to him, as well as being Jewish. His father has his son's whole life planned and expects Griffin to run in the Olympics and then become a doctor. However, Griff has keeping a secret: he's gay. He's very reluctant to come out because he's afraid of how the reveal will impact his charmed life. Once he befriends Sadie, he slowly comes to terms with his sexuality and what it means to actually "be himself."

MEET THE CHARACTERS!

NAME: Veronica Miller

ROLE IN BOOK: Sadie's eccentric roommate

AGE: 18-19

OCCUPATION: College freshman majoring in art

TALENTS: Painter and sculptor; her specialty is creating 3-D pieces using "found objects," such as hair, dog poop or chewed-up gum. Is also extremely perceptive and has a talent for seeing through people's b.s.

FLAWS: Sometimes grunts instead of speaks, yells when frustrated, is extremely opinionated, swears like a sailor, is honest to the point where it's hurtful.

ABOUT VERONICA: Having been beaten down by Life, Veronica takes no sh-t from anyone. She favors a classic punk style with piercings and multicolored hair and is basically the exact opposite of Sadie. At first, Sadie thinks her roomie is psychotic, but Veronica often tells her some painful truths when Sadie most needs to hear it. *Side note* -- I originally meant for Veronica to be a minor character who'd provide some comic relief, but she ended up becoming rather integral to the story. She's also one of my favorite characters I've written so far!

Writing A Novel: Getting A Literary Agent

I've made a big decision about my latest manuscript: Before self-publishing this book, I'd like to see if I can get an agent -- and get my book published in a traditional venue.

I think I've written about this before, but just to recap, I've been through this process twice. In 2003, I received offers from two agents who were interested in representing BAND GEEK (at the time, I was calling the book WHO'S ON FIRST? because of the narrator's fight for first chair flute). I signed on with the bigger agent, who was based in New York City and had many connections. She was a wonderful agent; she helped me fix some major problems in my book and stuck with me for a couple of years. Two publishing houses came close to buying my book, but no dice, so my agents and I parted ways. Yes, I was basically dumped -- but I have absolutely no hard feelings. Business is business and she really took a chance on me. How can I be angry about that?

A few years later, my husband and I came up with an idea for a quirky travel guide. Again, we managed to get an agent and she sent our outline to about 20 publishing houses. The editors loved our work and were ready to buy it. I really got my hopes up and thought that there might even be a bidding war... but this time, it was the marketing people who canned our idea. They couldn't figure out where our guide would be placed in the bookstore because it combined several genres.

It was at this point that I became very jaded about the publishing industry. Then I broke my leg and got into making jewelry ... but that's a whole other story! Anyway, by 2012 -- 10 years after I'd written BAND GEEK -- I just wanted to put my writing out there and chose to self publish. I'm so happy I did so, too. I have all the respect in the world for independent authors. There are many talented writers whose work "doesn't fit" in the traditional publishing world, for whatever reason; sites like Amazon and Smashwords are giving them the opportunity to share their writing. Completing a book is difficult enough, but I've found that it's even harder to have to market your own work. I'm still learning how to do that.

I've always dreamed of seeing my book in a book store, though. I realize that the publishing industry is changing, but I'd still like to take a shot at having someone like my work enough that they actually want to pay me an advance (even if said advance is only three figures) and help me sell my book. This is why I'm going to see if I can get an agent for my latest ms. Third time's the charm, right? I have nothing to lose; if I don't find an agent or my book isn't sold to a publishing house, all I have to do is publish it on my own. Either way, I win.

Right now, I'm editing my work and hope to send it out to agents some time next month. Meantime, please read and review REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD.

Marketing An Indie Book: Blog Tour Disappointment

Part of being an indie author means that you have to do your own marketing of your book -- and in most cases, this means putting money into some things.

I don't mind making an investment if I feel as if the cost will be worth it and I realize that with marketing, as with selling most things online, it's kind of a crap shoot. You can pay to have the most popular blog in the world review your work, but that doesn't necessarily mean that people will buy your book. Still, I at least want the services for which I paid to be carried out.

Sadly, this does not seem to be happening with my latest blog tour, which is supposed to be an all-review tour. The first two days went as planned; both blogs had reviews posted right on time. One review wasn't as positive as I'd hoped, but she was what I asked for. That blogger did her job.

Unfortunately, the tour has since fallen apart. One blogger had to postpone her review due to illness. That's fine. I don't expect anyone to work while they are sick and she gave me a new post date well ahead of schedule. But the other two blogs just sort of flaked. One still hasn't posted a review; the other posted a blurb and excerpt, but no review ... which is well, specifically what I paid for.

I want to make it clear that none of my annoyance has to do with the host company. They've been great. They've kept me posted on my tour schedule and have sent me continual alerts about the review (or lack thereof) situation. I know that they've contacted the bloggers to find out what's up.

But I am upset with people for not honoring their commitment and not meeting deadlines. I understand that life can get in the way, that people have jobs, kids, doctor's appointments and a number of other things that can make a schedule crazy. But if you can't get something done on time -- something for which I PAID MONEY -- at least have the courtesy to tell me that you can't do the job.

I do want to say that I'm grateful to the bloggers who've hosted me or have posted reviews of BAND GEEK. Blogging does take a lot of time and it was generous of them to feature me on their sites. I hope that these other bloggers come through in the end and that the rest of this tour goes smoothly. I just want my money's worth and don't think that this is asking for too much.

Please read and review REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD, 4.5 stars on Amazon, now just 99 cents!

New Book Tour Kicks Off Today -- New Review Of BAND GEEK!

Since my last blog tour was reasonably successful, I signed on for another one with the promotional company Goddess Fish. This particular tour is an all-review tour, meaning that the bloggers simply read and review my book. I'm not writing any guest blog posts or doing any interviews; I'm just commenting on posts that readers write in response to the reviews.

This morning, my tour kicked off with a critique from Long And Short Reviews. Overall, she really liked BAND GEEK. She related to Melinda and appreciated the growth that Josh goes through during the story. I'm glad that she "got" him as a character because I really worked hard to not make him a straight-up hero; I wanted him to be flawed with a chance to make some changes about himself. She said that she really got into the story and was anxious to find out what would happen.

She does take off some points for typos. She's not the only person who's commented on this so I'm wondering if perhaps I should hire a professional editor. I've read my work so many times at this point that I think my edits would be useless and I'd probably miss typos. I thought that I got them all, but you reach a point where your eye automatically corrects them in your head because you know your work so well. I had several writer/editor friends do reads ... but all have their own jobs, kids, etc. If this book were produced by a large publishing house, I'd have an editor on hand who'd spend months going over every sentence. So perhaps it's time for me to invest. In general, I've gotten very positive comments about the story and if this will take it to the next level, it could be worth it.

For now, I'm going to wait to see what the other bloggers on the tour have to say. I'm just glad that people are enjoying BAND GEEK and getting so into the story. I really do appreciate every reader and reviewer that I have!

Please read and review REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD, just 99 cents!

Kindle Direct Publishing: Pricing Your Book

I published my novel with Kindle Direct Publishing almost three months ago, but am still trying to figure out what the best price is for it. Thankfully, Kindle makes it easy to change your book's information, including its price, so self-published authors can experiment and see what readers are willing to pay.

I initially sold BAND GEEK for $2.99 because several other indie pub YA titles that I like sell at that price. However, what I didn't take into account is that these authors are more established than I am and have had their work up on Amazon for a while. Readers know what they're getting with these authors so they're willing to pay a bit more for their work. New authors, like me, still need to prove themselves. That said, I did manage to sell a few downloads at $2.99, but it was mostly to friends and family members. After that, sale died down.

I decided to lower the price significantly and repriced my book at 99 cents. Sales went up tremendously! I guess people are looking for a bargain, especially when it comes to unknown names. I ended up making more on my book at $.99 because I sold so many more copies. I also sold a bunch of books in the United Kingdom, Germany and France.

My last free giveaway was a success and gave my sales a huge boost. It was then that I decided to take a chance and raise my price back up to $1.99. And ... sales went down. I still did alright, but not as well as before. Plus, I didn't sell any copies overseas at that price.

I've kept my book at $1.99 for a few weeks just to see how it would do, but I've now decided to relist it once again at $.99. I'd like to eventually sell my work at a higher price, but as I said, I'm still a new author and I feel like I can make up for the cost with increased volume. It's now so easy for readers to get thousands of free books for their Kindles that I need to stay competitive and remember where I stand. I'm still at the bottom of the ladder in terms of author recognition. BAND GEEK is getting good reviews and readers are enjoying it, but it's not yet a bestseller. Until that time comes, I think I'm just going to keep it at 99 cents.

I'm not epxecting to get rich from my writing. I would like to make some money, but more than that I'd simply like to get my work out there. If pricing my book low is to way to do it -- for now -- then this is what I'll do to reach my goal.

Please read and review REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD, now just 99 cents!

Marketing An Indie Book: What ISN'T Working For Me

When an author self publishes a book, one of the most challenging things that he or she will have to deal with is actually marketing that book. And you know what? This is something that many traditionally published authors now have to deal with, too. Publishing houses will put a lot of money into publicizing a well-known author, but many newbies still have to do the bulk of their advertising and marketing on their own.

Since I'm still very new to the indie author game -- BAND GEEK hasn't even been out for two months at this point -- I'm still experimenting with marketing techniques and am finding my way. The great thing about publishing an indie book is that I can always change course and try something new .. and don't have to worry about angering a publishing house. The only one who has something to lose or gain is me.

So far, I'd have to say that my most successful marketing technique has been signing up for KDP Select and then using the five free days. My last run was very successful and I saw a significant bump in sales (about 500 percent!!!) over the next couple of days. The bump was short-lived, though, so I'm looking at other avenues that have worked -- and haven't worked for me.

Social networking has been somewhat successful, as was my Virtual Book Tour. With the book tour, the days that I saw the most sales were the days where either a review of my book was posted or I wrote a guest blog post. I didn't see quite an increase on the days where a blog simply posted my book's summary or an excerpt.

Which leads me to report what HASN'T worked for me -- and that's static advertising. I've invested some money in a couple of sites where they simply post a photo of my cover, a blurb and a link to my Amazon purchase page. But that just doesn't seem to attract readers.

Now that I think about it, I almost never click on ads that appear on blogs or other pages that I use, like Facebook. I mostly ignore them -- and I imagine that this is true of many other readers, too. But when you post something ACTIVE -- like a blog entry or interview or review -- it gives viewers something more than just your book's cover. It lets them know about you, the author, and gives them a reason to invest in your book.

From now on, I'm going to stick with active marketing; I have another blog tour coming up in the new year, and this time, it's going to be all reviews of BAND GEEK. Hopefully, these reviews will be positive ones and will get the attention of even more readers. That would be a nice way to kick of 2013!

Please read and review REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD.

Countdown To My Virtual Book Tour!

My VBT is all set and kicks off in just a few days! It begins on October 31 and will run through November 23. During that time, I will be featured in guest blog posts, share excerpts from BAND GEEK and will be doing a few author interviews. Plus, I'm GIVING STUFF AWAY! In addition to giving away free copies of my ebook, one grand prize winner will receive my book, an autographed copy of my CD FLUTE PATH and a pair of my handmade treble clef earrings. So check in each day, download my book and leave comments, especially if you want a chance to win my grand giveaway prize.

Here are the details and dates for my tour:

October 31 - VBT Cafe' Blog

November 2 - Guest Blogging at Cindy Vine's Blog

November 2 - Guest Blogging at A Book So Fathomless

November 5 - Guest Blogging at The Official Blog-Zine of Terra Little

November 7 - Reviewed at Oh Chrys!

November 9 - Book Feature & Excerpt at Dream Big, Read Often

November 12 - Interviewed at Reviews & Interviews

November 14 - Book Feature & Excerpt at Blooding Book Reviews

November 16 - Guest Blogging at Wise Words

November 19 - Guest Blogging at Lori's Reading Corner

November 21 - Reviewed at Teena in Toronto

November 23 - Interviewed at Angels & Warriors Radio

November 23 - Book Feature & Excerpt at Library Geek Girl

Meanwhile, please read and review my novel REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD, now only 99 cents!

Thoughts About Self Publishing And Indie Publishing

When I started writing BAND GEEK in 2002, there was no way that I would've considered self-publishing my novel. At the time, I felt as if that were the last resort, a thing that a "writer" did if his or her work sucked and had no other choice. 10 years later, my very humbled older self knows how much more complicated the situation is -- and readily welcomes the changes that have taken place within the publishing industry.

When it came to getting my work noticed, I didn't do too badly the first time around. I received plenty of rejection letters, but was ultimately asked to sign on with two agencies -- and actually got to be the one who rejected one of them. I signed on with Jean V. Naggar's literary agency and had very high hopes. I was going to sell millions of copies of my book and be rich! BAND GEEK would be made into a movie! I even had an idea of who I'd cast for certain roles. Back then, I thought that a not-so-messed-up Lindsay Lohan would've made a great Kathy.

Well, things didn't work out as I'd hoped. My agent was great. She was very supportive and gave me some wonderful editing notes. She's the one who'd suggested that I change my title from its original name WHO'S ON FIRST? That's when I came up with REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD.

My manuscript was sent to a dozen houses that handle YA books and it got a lot of positive responses. Most publishers liked my general story. Two houses actually came close to purchasing it, but wanted me to make a few changes. But no one was on board with it 100 percent. Some editors didn't like the beginning. Some loved the opening, but hated the ending. Some thought Melinda was too immature. Some thought that she was too wise beyond her years. I kept making small changes in an attempt to please everyone, but it felt as if I were twisting my book into a pretzel. I was open to constructive criticism; I wanted to make my book as good as possible, but it just wasn't working out. It wasn't just the story that mattered; its earning potential and marketing abilities were also concerns. I wanted to sell that "perfect" story to them, but couldn't figure out how to do so.

Finally, my agent exhausted all of her YA connections and basically dumped me as a client. But I have absolutely not hard feelings. She was just doing her job and had run out of options for me. I was disappointed, but didn't take it personally. As I said, she was great and really encouraged me.

I continued writing for fun and with the hope of finding another agent. Meanwhile, my husband and I came up with an amazing idea for a quirky travel guide. I'd rather not give too much information away because this is something that we're still working on, but we put together an outline and business plan. We then landed an agent (sorry, I forget her name) and she sent our outline to about 20 publishing houses.

The editors LOVED it. They went crazy over our idea and were all prepared to gvive us an advance. I was ecstatic. I seriously thought that our book would be part of a bidding war. Again, my head filled with dreams of riches, best seller lists and all that jazz.

This time, it was the marketing people who hated us. The marketing people! They couldn't figure out where our book would go in a bookstore since it straddled two categories and so they refused to take it. We were so disappointed!

It was at this point that I began to get frustrated with the publishing industry. Don't get me wrong, I think that traditional publishing is still very important. But it felt as if I had to cross one obstacle after another from landing an agent to pleasing the marketing people. Moreover, the number of people whom I was trying to please really isn't that large because the publishing industry is pretty incestuous. It may seem that you have a choice of many agents or editors, but only a certain percentage will even look at your genre. And then there are sub genres within that genre, i.e. "YA Paranormal Romance." In the end, it's only a handful of people who decide your fate. Do they really represent the opinions of the general public?

This is why I decided to become an indie author. Is it because I couldn't get my book sold to a traditional publisher? Yes. I wish it had been sold, but I gave it my best shot. However, the industry has changed and being an indie writer comes with so many exciting possibilities. I call the shots. I get to participate in my cover's design. I get to market my work. I get to plan my book tours and speaking engagements. I get to choose my own deadlines and release dates. I can write my story the way that I want to without having to worry about pleasing anyone else ... except, of course, all of my readers. Which is who we're all trying to cater to in the first place!

That said, I definitely take back any thoughts I ever had about self-publishers being "losers." There's some garbage online, but there are also many, many amazing and talented authors, many whom have "unmarketable" stories to tell. I'm so glad that we now have a platform where we can easily share our work.

I still think that there's a place for traditional publishing and I'm curious to see where it heads with ebooks growing more popular. I'm just thrilled that the Internet has provided writers, artists and musicians with so many thrilling opportunities.

Please read and review REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD, now only 99 cents!

My Free Kindle Book Promotion Results

Well, it's the day after my free Kindle book promotion and the results are well ... mixed. On the one hand, my book rank has gone WAY up in several important categories. If you do a search on Amazon under "Young Adult Romance," BAND GEEK is now on the top of the second page! And if you click again on the link for Young Adult Romance books published in the last 30 days, I'm now No. 2! So my promotion has definitely given me a lot more visability.

Unfortunately, it didn't translate into any extra sales -- and because I've been doing this special promotion for the past two days, my overall sales rank on Amazon has dropped.

I'm not yet discouraged, though. I mean, BAND GEEK was published less than two weeks ago and already hundreds of people have downloaded it. Now I just have to hope that they actually read their free book and review it. I'm also hoping that my novel will start appearing in those "customers who bought this book also bought..." lists that appear on the Amazon pages.

I have three more free days to use before the end of the year when my 90-day contract with KDP Select expires. Next time, I intend to be more prepared. This time around, I promoted my giveaway with blog posts and Twitter blasts, but apparently there are dozens of sites that advertise free Kindle books. I came across this really useful blog by Katrina Parker Williams that lists them all. So next time, I intend to promote my book on all of these sites -- and reach that audience that's specifically looking for free ebooks.

Meanwhile, I just bought advertising space on The Kindle Book Review and will soon be doing a virtual book tour with Virtual Book Tour Cafe. Both kick off on October 31. I'm really looking forward to the tour, not only because I could make more sales, but because it'll be fun writing guest blog posts and doing radio interviews. I've never done either, so to me, that seems exciting.

I did put some money into these things, but I'm confident that it will be worth it in the end. Part of being an indie author is being a business person. It took me years to get my writing to a point where I felt comfortable enough to share it with the world. Everything else will work out in time, too.

Please read and review REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD, now only 99 cents!