Retooling

Every so often in the life of an author, it comes time to take a breath, sit back and contemplate your career trajectory.

That's what I've been doing this year. As soon as I made the move from Ohio to North Carolina and got hooked back up to the internet, I found out Simon & Schuster decided to do away with the Crimson Romance line to focus on more mainstream fiction and non-fiction works. I sorted through my options, not ready to cut the chord and demand my rights back until I had a plan in place. I hired an agent, talked to my writing buddies, bounced ideas off anyone who would listen, and finally settled on a plan.

I could only regain the rights to four of the eleven books Simon & Schuster had. They turned out to be the first four in the Cotillion Ball series, so it made sense to me to start retooling them and spiff them up a bit. I finally decided to work with Prairie Rose Publications on them, since I didn't want the hassle of self-publishing. The first two books, The Reluctant Debutante and The Abolitionist's Secret, are scheduled to be re-released into the Amazon world in August. My past few weeks have been spent looking at stock photos and working with Prairie Rose's cover artist, the magnificent Livia Reasoner. We have this uncanny ability to home in on the same photos to use, so it's been a fairly painless process to create new, striking covers for the books.

There have been some issues, though, to deal with. Since six of the books remain with Simon & Schuster, I wanted to maintain some consistency for the series as a whole, so I couldn't steer off in a totally different direction with the covers. Crimson abandoned the sepia-tone covers along about book six, so I tried to match the new ones with the last ones in the series. A consistent font was necessary, as well as a few other elements.

That being said, I'm pleased to offer cover reveals for both The Reluctant Debutante and The Abolitionist's Secret. The real bang for the buck comes when you compare side by side the old and the new. Here, for your viewing pleasure, are the covers.

On the left is the original cover, which was released in March, 2012. Since it was my first-ever cover, I thought it was beautiful, and had it blown up on canvas and proudly displayed in my office. But the new one, on the right,  just knocked my socks off. I may have to update my wall.







The second book to be released in the series is The Abolitionist's Secret, about Ginger's younger, and less flamboyant, sister Heather. Here are the old and new versions of those covers. I'm loving the new looks of these books, and my career is once again on track. What do you think of them?

Fog

My favorite Carl Sandburg quote is about my favorite weather element–Fog. 

"The fog comes on little cat feet. It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on."

In my case, it's not the harbor but the golf course behind my house where the fog sat yesterday morning. As I stared out my window lost in my usual morning fog, waiting for the coffee to kick in so I could start writing, I stopped and focused the fog for a moment. It was moving gently across the ground, mirroring my thought pattern. I'm at the stage of my manuscript where I'm just reading the story and massaging it a bit, moving through the story slowly, beefing up the important scenes. My mind started thinking of ideas, possible scenarios that I'd live through if I was on a wagon train headed west. I climbed on board the wagon with my ladies and got to work.

When I got up to grab my second cup of coffee, the fog had moved on. As had my brain fog. I made it through half the manuscript by day's end. Lots done, lots still to go.

On a personal note, I'd like to say farewell to one of my Crimson Romance sisters. Peggy Bird was a bright light in the early days of the Crimson brand and will be sorely missed. She was always posting pictures of buff men in teeny swim trunks saying they had just washed up on her beach. This is for you, Peggy. I hope there's a beach where you are now.

The Waiting Game

Lately, it seems I've been playing the waiting game. As many of you know, Crimson Romance is no more, so I applied to get my rights back on my books. For those who are unfamiliar with traditional publishing, here's what happens: the contract stipulates the publisher retains the rights to your book for a specified period of time, usually from three to seven years.

If the publisher goes bankrupt or shuts down, rights revert back to the author automatically. In this case, even though Crimson is now defunct, the parent company, Simon & Schuster, is still in business and holds the contract. So in order to regain control of my books, I must send a request. The stipulation to getting the rights reverted to me is that the particular title has to garner royalties under a certain threshold for two consecutive six-month periods.

In my case, this is proving exceedingly hard to figure out, since the books are involved in various bundles. It didn't help my progress any to have the wrong email address for the man in charge of deciding who gets rights back, so I've been late to the game for some time. So, he's working on figuring it all out and I'm waiting.

But what happens if I have to wait until my books fall under the threshold of sales? Simon & Schuster has no interest in promoting my works and my sales have fallen off since the announcement. Do I continue to watch my declining sales and applaud the fact that I'll get the rights back sooner? What do I do with the hole in my bank account? What do I do with the books once I do get the rights back?

So many questions, and right now there are no answers. Some could view this as a setback in my career, but I choose to view it as an opportunity. In the immortal words of Ayn Rand–"The ladder of success is best climbed by stepping on the rungs of opportunity."

I've taken the first step by asking for my rights back, and am poised to take the next rung.

Finding Inspiration

Lately, my life seems to be a series of inspirational quotes. 

In the first three months of this year, I've moved five states away from Ohio.  It did take three months to get from one house to the next. Then, no sooner did I get my furniture delivered than I was told my publisher was shutting its doors and I was losing my connection to those editors and authors. So, where does that leave me?

As Terry Goodkind, best-selling fantasy author, so eloquently said, "If the road is easy, you're likely going the wrong way." 

So my publishing road has hit a few bumps. My latest book baby, the second in a new series, has been abandoned. Until I can figure out what to do about it, I've slid it under the proverbial bed and turned my attention to my Mail Order Brides book, which is halfway done. My road so far this year hasn't been easy, but I'm now at the picture-hanging stage in my house and I'm figuring out on a publishing level where to go from here.

My second favorite quote came via my nephew. "Throw me to the wolves and I'll come back leading the pack." Although the weather is more agreeable than the North coast, I miss my fellow authors from one of the better RWA chapters in the country. And with the closing of Crimson Romance, I miss my daily interchange with my fellow authors. I feel like I've lost my pack, my tribe, on two fronts. Thanks to the internet, Facebook and email, though, my tribe is only a click away. It may not be as good as face to face, but it'll do.

I'll meet other authors–there are a lot of us in North Carolina–and life's road will smooth out a bit more. My losses will turn into blessings and I'll wonder why it took me so long to make a move–on both fronts.

The End Of The Road

It saddens me to say this, but Crimson Romance is no more. 

I had great hopes for the line when it was bought by Simon & Schuster. And S&S did some nice promotion for my Cotillion series during the year Crimson was under their control.

But alas, on Monday a tweet came out announcing Crimson was being shuttered, effective immediately. The editors had no advance warning, nor did we authors. I guess S&S figured if Donald Trump can fire people via Twitter, so can they.

We're all just kind of spinning in circles right now, trying to figure out what our rights are and where to go from here. I had a book due April 15, which they no longer want, and I don't know quite what to do with it now.

This really took my breath away, as I'm sure it did for quite a few people. Crimson was my first publisher. They took a chance on me when I was green and we grew together. The editors were fabulous to work with, and the professionalism they showed was phenomenal. I hope our paths cross again.

In the meantime, I have a house to put together, which is fortunate, since the move is occupying my mind now instead of putting the finishing touches on my book. When one house opens, another closes. Cést la vie.

RIP, Crimson Romance.

The Calm Before The Storm

I was asked recently by a soon-to-be-published debut author what types of promotion work best for me. And since today is the day before my release of The Forgotten Debutante, the calm before the storm, I thought I'd share what I've learned in the four years since I was a soon-to-be-published author.

1. Make friends with other authors, both inside your local chapter, and outside. Follow them on the various forums, buy and read their books, write reviews and post them, if you have a blog, offer to host them, etc. You'll soon find an entire group who are following the same trajectory you are at the same time, and there's safety in numbers. Plus, it's fun to watch their successes. I know the conventional marketing wisdom is not to add these fellow authors to your twitter feed, or friend them on Facebook, but I think that's a mistake. Most authors are also voracious readers, too. And they have friends.

2. Work with your publisher or agent, if you're going the traditional route, to find promotional opportunities. Most publishers have a list of places where they'll send your ARC for review, but develop your own list that caters to your genre. A review from a legitimate review site is golden. It takes time to figure out which sites prefer your type of book, but the end result is worthwhile. If you know that a certain site likes your books, you can keep sending them and rest assured you'll get a good review.

3. Don't turn down any promotional opportunity, however frightening it may be. Participate in local author book signings, get your books in the local library or bookstore, even if you have to carry them in yourself, be on whatever radio show you can find (it's not as scary as it sounds), be interviewed for your local newspaper. A few years ago, USA Today was starting up an on-line presence for romance and asked for folks to help. I raised my hand immediately, and for months afterward, it was my job to find new releases in a specific genre. They since decided not to run the new releases on a daily basis and disbanded the group that was helping, but I made a valuable contact there, which I still use today. (See the coverage on April 6 for my new release.)

4. Join whatever offshoot group you can find that caters to your genre. Within RWA, you have the FF&P chapter for paranormal authors, Hearts Through History for historical authors, RWA Contemporary for, you guessed it, the contemporary author, and so on. Each of these groups provide a wealth of information, new friends to make and ways to get the word out about your upcoming work.

5. Explore the various types of social media and find what works best for you. At a minimum, you need a website and Facebook page, but there are so many other outlets that you could easily spend your entire day on this task alone, instead of writing the next book. Play around with them all, and find what works best for you. Then pick three or four and use them daily.

6. Write the next book! You are only as good as your next one. How's that for pressure?

So today, I'll rest up, work a bit on the next book, and get ready for tomorrow's mayhem, which will stretch out for the next few weeks. You can glimpse where I am all month on the upcoming guest appearance tab of this blog, but here's an idea of what Monday brings.

I've got some gift copies to mail. I want reviews to start showing up on Amazon as well as on Goodreads, so I'll prod my beta readers. I have the BookBub ad running on Monday for another book in the series and hope to take The Duplicitous Debutante into the top 100 for historical romances, if even for an hour. And, I hope while people are there, buying The Duplicitous Debutante, they also will pick up The Forgotten Debutante. But that can't happen with just the ad. I must be active on social media all week, promoting on Twitter, Google +, Pinterest, Facebook, and all the rest. It'll be a fun, exhausting, time.

 

Buy Link: http://amzn.to/1V0b11r

Here It Comes!

Expressly Yours, Samantha will be released tomorrow, March 16. It's been a long time in the making and I'm so excited to have it out there, finally. What do I mean? Don't I write two historicals a year in the Cotillion series? Why was this one so long in the making?

Because of my contract with Crimson, I had to write the synopsis for the last five books in the series long before I wrote them. That was a first for me, the proverbial pantser. But it worked, since it made me look further down the road than I had for the first few books. I was able to insert little nuggets into my stories which may have seemed like an aside at the time, but which were helping to set the stage for a later book. For instance, if you go back and look for it, you'll see Valerian had a love affair with horses for years before he got his own story. Dropping those little clues into a story makes the idea that all the youngest Fitzpatrick boy wanted to do was ride horses more believable. It is fortunate that his story unfolds when the Pony Express is starting up. Coincidence? That's for you, the reader, to decide.

In order to write this story, I had to do a great deal of research, including a cross-country trip. All I knew about the Pony Express was that it was a romantic page in American history, it got the mail from the east coast to the west coast, and it involved horses. I had no clue how it was put together, or why. On my trip, I stopped at every place where there was something to do with the Pony Express and picked up on some of the local flavor. I ended up with three great research books on the subject, rode through the countryside in the middle of winter, and took pictures. This is the first book in the series that can be classified as a western, and a horse on the cover makes sense. I couldn't be happier. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

The Devil She Knew–Interview with Rena Koontz

One of my favorite people, Rena Koontz, takes time out from teasing us all with her pictures from Venice Beach (bare feet in the sand as we all shiver here in Ohio), to stop by for a visit today. Her book, The Devil She Knew, is on sale for only 99 cents until January 16. If you haven't snagged your copy yet, now's the time.

The research for this book deserves its own story. Here's Rena to talk about how she did it.

He’s dead now – the real Tony DelMorrie, that is.

Yes, the mob guy in my romantic suspense, “The Devil She Knew,” was a real-life Mafioso. A “made guy,” sometimes called a wiseguy, is someone who has been officially inducted, usually as a soldier, into a Mafia family. That was Tony in real life. And I met him.

My husband and I were out with a friend in downtown Cleveland one Saturday night, dropping in and out of various fun spots, when we wandered into Tony’s coffee shop – yeah, the same one depicted in the book. My husband, then an FBI agent, knew who Tony was but never expected him to be there, working the floor like a Las Vegas nightclub entertainer. Gold chains ringed his bulging neck and dripped down onto black chest hairs. I could see them because Tony had his shirt partially unbuttoned – a flashback to disco days.

Heavy, gold rings weighed down his fingers and dug into my own when he shook my hand. It was his pleasure to meet me, he said, adding that such an Italian-looking face as mine belonged in his café. I feared he would notice how sweaty my palms were or the crack in my voice when I thanked him.

And then Mrs. DelMorrie came to the table. The TV show depicting mob wives is not exaggerated. She was fake nails, fake lashes, fake boobs and a hair color that rivaled a Sherwin-Williams sample palette. She batted her eyelashes at the men and called me “hon,” insisting I sample a piece of red velvet cake, the house specialty. “It’s the best you’ll ever eat, Hon. With your figure, you don’t even have to worry about calories.”

Yes, they were both charmers. No, the cake wasn’t the best. The icing was so sweet I could feel my arteries clogging as I swallowed. But I wasn’t about to decline the offered piece. I chewed fast, anxious to make an exit.

I knew Tony’s reputation and was privy to inside knowledge about his character. It’s what helped me make him so real in my book – because he was real.

“The Devil She Knew,” is my second romantic suspense released by Crimson Romance. If this blog has piqued your interest about the story, now is a good time to order. It’s discounted to 99-cents between Jan. 8-16  on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple iBooks, The Crimson Romance store and other e-book retailers.

For more about “The Devil She Knew” or me, check out my website, http://www.renakoontz.com.

Purchase Links:

 amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Devil-She-Knew-Crimson-Romance-ebook/dp/B00CJJWUGC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419894063&sr=8-1&keywords=rena+koontz

barnes&noble - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-devil-she-knew-rena-koontz/1115218299?ean=9781440567810

Apple iBooks - https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-devil-she-knew/id641768447?mt=11

crimson romance - http://www.adamsmediastore.com/ebook-devil-she-knew-epub

google play -https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Rena_Koontz_The_Devil_She_Knew?id=6_sagekPToQC

Thank you, Becky, for allowing me to share a tidbit about my book.

Stuff The Stocking Time--Week One

I'm recuperating from hip replacement surgery, so I've decided to turn my blog over to my chapter mates in December. We're a prolific group of authors, featuring three Golden Heart finalists in the past two years alone. And we've been published in a variety of ways–from traditional houses to self-publishing to small presses. One thing our books have in common is that they're the results of active imaginations that run the gamut–historical, erotica, contemporary, paranormal, romantic suspense. I'm sure every visitor to the blog this month will find something to load onto a Kindle for a gift, or add it to your own.

Historical Bundle--Time After Time, by Crimson Authors

From Regency England to the American Civil War, from the Wild West to Viking battles for territory, Time After Time delivers the gallantry, the color, the passion of yesterday that captures every historical romance lover’s heart. Fall in love with these ten titles from some of Crimson’s brightest stars:

Elf Ahearn – A Rogue in Sheep’s Clothing
Emma Barron – The Glass Orchid
Elizabeth Meyette – Love’s Destiny
Andrea R. Cooper – Viking Fire
Ivory Lei – How to Wed an Earl
Rachel Donnelly – Lady Broke
Emma Barry – Brave in Heart
Marie Patrick — A Treasure Worth Keeping
Becky Lower – The Reluctant Debutante
Elizabeth Boyce – Once a Duchess

Buy Link: http://amzn.to/1mXgHZt

Romantic Suspense--Wine And Spirits, by Nancy Kay

Carena McBride married a dedicated policeman, but when he's killed on the job, she's shattered. After five turbulent years alone, Cara returns to her hometown. The Wine Cellar, an upscale restaurant's new addition, needs a manager and she is a perfect fit.

A failed marriage has convinced State Police Corporal Zac Ramsey he's not good husband material. Now his career comes first...until he encounters captivating, resilient Carena. Despite Zac's marriage phobia and Cara's vow to never again fall for another policeman, they become entangled in a steamy affair.

As Zac investigates a series of murders, Cara pursues a pet project documenting local Urban Legends. But when he discovers the only link between four brutally murdered women was their interest in those legends, Zac advises Cara to halt her project.

She complies...almost.

Unaware the killer is watching, Cara innocently triggers his demented fury, and Zac scrambles to keep her alive.

 Website and buy sites:http://www.nancykayauthor.com
https://www.allromanceebooks.com http://www.amazon.com
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/wine-and-spirits-nancy-kay/1120532832?ean=2940150406971 http://www.desertbreezepublishing.com/wine-and-spirits-epub/

Regency Historical--The Whisky Laird's Bed, By Donna MacMeans

Lady of Temperance

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Laird of Temptation....

Claire Starke has no illusions about her future.  As her father repeatedly reminded her, her looks would never win a husband, and her poverty makes her an even less suitable wife.  Luckily, her comrades at the Rake Patrol have given her joy and comfort--enough to quell the dull ache for a family of her own.  So, when fellow member Faith runs off to the Highlands, investigating a whisky distiller advertising for an English wife, Claire sees no choice but to save her friend from this intemperate and lustful man.  But she didn’t expect the Highland laird to be so intriguing, or to begin questioning her own restraint...

Still reeling from the distillery accident which left him scarred and shaken, Cameron MacPherson has no plans to marry, even if his mother is determined to tie him to one of the British milquetoasts parading through his castle.  But when Claire bursts upon the scene, hurling accusations about alcohol and ruin, he finds the reformer fascinating.  The fact that she stands up to him when others shrink away is more than charming--this one has spirit and, to be honest, he wouldn’t mind drinking a deep draught of her

Here’s the buy link for Amazon:  http://tinyurl.com/ng4wsro  

For Nook:  http://tinyurl.com/nhx298v...

Paranormal/Urban Fantasy--Mind Sweeper, by AE Jones

2013 RWA Golden Heart^® Winner, Mind Sweeper

An angel, a demon and a vampire walk into a bar. Sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, but it's just another day in the life of Kyle McKinley.

Kyle was born with the ability to erase memories, and the inability to keep her opinions to herself. She and her teammates – a vampire who looks like a sexy pirate with fangs, and a Shamat demon with a penchant for Italian pastries – provide supernatural damage control when humans see too much. Today’s problem? A sword-wielding angel and a demon had a supernatural smackdown during happy hour in a Cleveland bar, leaving behind a headless vampire and a dozen human witnesses.

This latest supernatural slip-up is attracting all kinds of attention. So much attention that the police step in, and Kyle has to deal with Joe Dalton, a know-it-all human with the sexiest turquoise eyes she has ever seen. Kyle has no room in her life for yet another human who will treat her like a freak. However, Dalton definitely makes her naughty parts sit up and take notice, and it’s more than mutual. But before they can act on their attraction, they must join forces to solve a dangerous puzzle. And when they uncover the truth, the apocalyptic ripple effect forces Kyle to make a choice. Learn to trust again, or risk losing everyone she cares about, including Dalton.

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Mind-Sweeper-Book-ebook/dp/B00MSTNHDI/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1409321466&sr=1-1&keywords=ae+jones

 Kobo:  http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/mind-sweeper-4

 Itunes:  https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/mind-sweeper/id914620470?mt=11&uo=4

 Barnes & Noble : http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/mind-sweeper-ae-jones/1120341800?ean=2940150516243

Contemporary Romance--The Betrayed Trilogy Boxed Set, by Mary Campisi

Save 40% when you buy The Betrayed Trilogy Boxed Set over purchasing the individual books! The set includes 2 novels and 1 novella.

Book One: Pieces of You

Book Two: Secrets of You

Book Three: What's Left of Her-a novella

*** Pieces of You ***

Will he risk his life and his heart for a chance at one true love?

Quinn Burnes's mother disappeared when he was only fifteen leaving him with a despondent father, a little sister who suffers panic attacks, and eight notebooks containing the truth about his mother. He guards this secret for eighteen years, until on an otherwise normal day, his mother re-enters his life, pleading for his help. She's in danger and the only thing that can save her is reclaiming the identity she shunned years ago.

Quinn is a master of emotional detachment, from his successful career as a personal injury attorney to his strings of meaningless relationships with beautiful women who possess uneasy temperaments; a sure formula to keep his heart safe and insure he's the first to walk away. Until he meets the mysterious 'Danielle' a woman with too many secrets who's on the run from the abusive, estranged husband she shot and may have killed. Danielle isn't like any woman he's ever met, but can he risk his heart for someone who's doing exactly what his mother did eighteen years ago? Someone who may ultimately leave him, just like his mother?

*** Secrets of You ***

He's not who he says he is...but neither is she...

Wealthy, privileged, the product of too much money and too little responsibility, Ash Lancaster routinely pretends he's someone else so he'll be valued for more than his bank accounts.

Talented, beautiful, tormented by a past choice she deeply regrets, jewelry designer Arianna Sorensen guards her heart and her privacy from the outside world.

When Arianna and Ash meet, the passion is real, though the rest may not be. She thinks he's a motorcycle-riding photojournalist with nothing but a camera and two saddlebags to his name. He thinks she's a blue-blooded, orphaned sophisticate with a fat trust fund.

However, lies have a way of catching up and causing their own damage. Fate forces Ash to perform the first selfless act of his life to protect Arianna from being blackmailed about her past. The price? He must walk away and forget about her. Two years later, the threat is gone and Ash returns, determined to win back the woman he's never forgotten and even more determined to get her to admit what she's been hiding. He reveals his true identity and pledges a future built on trust and honesty. But Ash expects the truth from her, too. Can Arianna open up to him when the last thirteen years have been built on a lie? And if she doesn't, will she risk losing him again--this time for good?

*** What's Left of Her ***

How could a mother walk away from her family?

This is the question many readers asked after finishing Pieces of You, Book One of The Betrayed Trilogy. They wanted to know the real story behind the disappearance of Evie Burnes. What's Left of Her offers an intimate glimpse into Evie Burnes's life before her disappearance--and after.

Note: While Pieces of You and Secrets of You are romances, What's Left of Her is not.

Amazon  http://amzn.to/1fa5TPF

i-Books  http://bit.ly/1yB8Vq0

Nook  http://bit.ly/SYqZfB

Kobo  http://bit.ly/UWzeuB