Dianne Harman Talks Numbers

Please welcome my guest, Dianne Harman, who addresses the topic of a writer's self-worth. Morgan Mandel

ABOUT DIANNE HARMAN

Dianne Harman draws her stories and characters from a diverse business and personal background. She owned a national antique and art appraisal business for many years, leaving that industry and opening two yoga centers where she taught yoga and certified yoga instructors. Dianne has traveled extensively throughout the world, most recently dividing her time between Huntington Beach, California and Sacramento, California, where her husband was a Senator. A gourmet cook, she has entertained Governors, Congressmen and numerous other political figures in her homes. An avid reader, Dianne brings the richness of her life experiences to her novels, Blue Coyote Motel, Tea Party Teddy, Coyote in Provence, and Tea Party Teddy’s Legacy.

Web Site http://www.DianneHarman.com

Blog: http://dianneharman.com/blog/

Letting Go of Numbers

Do you start your day by checking to see how many books you sold while you were were asleep or what your author rank is on Amazon? Not to mention Kobo and Smashwords!

Often when we see the numbers, we know whether it’s going to be a good day or a not so good day. These numbers often determine our mood for the whole day! We become reliant on numbers to tell us how good we are as authors! And if we wake up and see that someone has given us a 1 * review? That can definitely affect your mood, particularly if you’re a first-time author. The first time it happened to me I felt like someone had just told me my firstborn was ugly. How dare they? What right do they have to do that? Don’t they know the hours I spent writing, re-writing, polishing, etc?

Now I’m a little more seasoned. I’ve published four books with another coming out in the next few weeks. I’ve learned not to judge my self-worth by numbers, be they author ranking, sales, or reviews. It’s kind of like some people say about the weather in certain places. If you don’t like it, come back in an hour. Ranking can change that quickly. For example, one of my books, Tea Party Teddy, was ranked 475,386 this morning and up until an hour ago. When I happened to look at it an hour ago it had gone to 93,461. I know it will change again in a couple of hours. That comes with some experience.

Let’s spend a moment on reviews – particularly the dreaded one and two star ones. I’ve learned that bad reviews may have absolutely nothing to do with the book or the author. I’m always amazed when a reviewer gives book a low review because they don’t like that genre. Why they would review a book in a genre they don’t like is beyond me? And if a book is well written I don’t think it matters what the genre is. It can be dystopian or romance. A good book is a good book. I’ve often wondered if these people want their fifteen minutes of fame as Truman Capote once wrote. Seeing their name in print may be the only time they achieve any kind of notoriety!

Certainly, there are certain things authors can do to keep the low numbers at bay. With all of the tools available today there really is no reason for a book to be sloppily edited. I highly recommend www.hemingwayapp.com. It points out when sentences are too long, if there’s too many adverbs, etc. Another important aspect of a book is the cover. Get a professional person to do it or ask for feedback from a number of people of you’re doing it yourself. Ask people for reviews. Get as much publicity for the book as possible. It doesn’t have to be paid publicity. Bloggers are always looking for people to interview or make their job easier. Book clubs and libraries actively seek authors. I’ve been the featured author at several book clubs and never went there. I did it via the telephone. I’m a firm believer that no one is going to look for my books under a rock. Give readers a reason to read your book.

I’ll close with one of the most important things you can do to insure that your books will be read and you won’t have to play the numbers game. Write, write, and then write some more. The more books you write, they more chances you have that someone will like one of your books and want to read other books written by you. If you’re like me and you find an author you really like, you’ll probably read at least one or two more by that author. I recently discovered Sandra Brown and so far have managed to read eleven of her books. On the flip side, I’ve read wonderful books and been very disappointed to find out that was their only book. Readers are fickle. If I can’t find more books by that author, I’m off to another one and the first one I liked will be long forgotten.

So, write, believe in yourself, and most of all, have fun! This has to be the best job in the world - the ability to create worlds!

ABOUT BLUE COYOTE MOTEL 

You'll never look at motel air conditioning the same way after you read Blue Coyote Motel.

Blue Coyote Motel is a suspense filled thriller about six travelers who stop and spend the night at a remote California desert motel. Each of them leaves the following morning "feeling good," but unaware that they have inadvertently become addicted to a gaseous drug piped into their rooms.

Jeffrey, the owner of the motel, is a scientist who was recently fired by a prestigious Southern California drug manufacturer for giving an anti-aging hormone he discovered to his beautiful Latina wife. Spinning slowly into the depths of insanity, he decides to test the effectiveness of another of his drug discoveries on unsuspecting motel guests. He calls the drug Freedom because it frees people from depression, anger, stress, grief, and aggression. Jeffrey has grandiose plans to make Freedom available throughout the world in order to bring about peace and harmony, but instead it causes grief and chaos in the lives of the motel guests. The cast of characters includes a defrocked priest, a Native American pediatrician, a wealthy widow, a Brazilian couple who owns gold mines and a salesman intent on finding himself.

Blue Coyote Motel presents an engaging look at the human frailties present in all of us.

Amazon: http://ow.ly/s6pN5 

Smashwords: http://ow.ly/u4Fb2 

Please leave a comment to welcome Dianne Harman to Book Beat Babes.

Multi-Published Author, Marilyn Levinson, Gives Advice About Setting

I'm happy to welcome Marilyn Levinson to Book Beat Babes. She's got some great advice about Setting. Morgan Mandel

A former Spanish teacher, Marilyn Levinson writes mysteries, romantic suspense, and books for kids.
Her latest mystery, Murder a la Christie, is out with Oak Tree Press. Untreed Read has brought out new e-editions of A Murderer Among Us--a Suspense Magazine Best Indie--and Murder in the Air, the first two books in her Twin Lakes series. Her ghost mystery, Giving Up the Ghost, and her romantic suspense, Dangerous Relations, are out with Uncial Press. All of her mysteries take place on Long Island, where she lives. 

Her books for young readers include No Boys Allowed; Rufus and Magic Run Amok, which was awarded a Children’s Choice; Getting Back to Normal, & And Don’t Bring Jeremy.

Marilyn loves traveling, reading, knitting, doing Sudoku, and visiting with her granddaughter, Olivia, on FaceTime. She is co-founder and past president of the Long Island chapter of Sisters in Crime.   Website: http://www.marilynlevinson.com

And, now, let's see what Marilyn Levinson says about Setting.

Setting

The more I write, the more I value setting as an important element in my novels. There are hundreds, if not thousands of settings available to us writers: a submarine, Mars, an island in the Pacific, a small village in England. Your novel’s setting helps determine the pace of your novel. Setting conveys mood and theme. That said, my characters inhabit towns and settings that can’t be found on any map. Though I take this kind of literary license, I always set my novels in a general area I’m familiar with, even if I’ve only visited it once or twice. These days we’re able to go on line and view photos of a particular area or village we’re considering using as a setting. We can download information about the climate, the terrain, and the kind of business and industry that flourish there.

I consider the setting of my novels very carefully before I start to write. While many of my novels take place on Long Island, the home locations of each of my series are very different, one from the other. I consider the geography, the architecture, and the economic level of the town’s inhabitants. I generally create a town or village and place it in close proximity to real places and landmarks. This allows me freedom yet grounds my novels, something my readers like.

Old Cadfield, the setting of my latest mystery, Murder a la Christie, the first book in my Golden Age of Mystery series, is an upscale picture-perfect village, surrounded by multi-million dollar homes on acre or two-acre plots. I had an actual wealthy community in mind when I began writing the novel, but like all my settings, Old Cadfield took on a life of its own. The village’s rich lifestyle affects its residents, many of whom aren’t as wealthy as their neighbors imagine. As my sleuth, Lexie Driscoll, discovers, they often hide their peccadillos behind a wall of respectability. House-sitting in an award-winning Old Cadfield home, she often feels uncomfortable living in the lap of luxury. She’s disappointed when her best friend closes rank with the other Old Cadfield people to stop her from uncovering too many of their secrets.

In Giving Up the Ghost, Gabbie Meyerson comes to Chrissom Harbor in the dead of winter to teach English as the local high school. She rents a cottage situated on a buff above the Long Island Sound, and discovers she has a housemate—the ghost of Cameron Leeds, who used to live in the cottage. Cam’s body was discovered on the beach below the buff, supposedly of an accidental fall. But Cam knows someone murdered him, only he doesn’t know who. He nags Gabbie until she agrees to investigate. The lonely cottage, the surrounding woods, the blue collar town that doubles in size in the summer months when the summer people come all impact on the mood and feeling of my novel.

I set my YA, Getting Back to Normal on a large estate similar to an arboretum I’ve visited numerous times. Of course I changed the name and created a lake and a gazebo and made many other alterations to suit my story. Twelve-year-old Vannie Taylor’s mother has died, and her father can’t bear to continue living in their home. He moves Vannie and her younger brother to a dinky cottage on the large estate where he manages events and programs. Here Vannie meets a friendly ghost who has an agenda of his own. Planning the kids’ Halloween party in the mansion was lots of fun.

When creating your village add sites and landmarks that are unique and play a role in your novel.

As you can see, I often base my settings on places I’m familiar with and change them to suit my story.  Your setting should be working for you, creating atmosphere and mood. If you’re writing a mystery, let your victim be discovered in an interesting location. And don’t forget to include real towns and festivals. Your setting adds color to your novel and another dimension to your readers.

Marilyn's Website: www.marilynlevinson.com

Marilyn's Amazon page: http://amzn.to/K6Md1O 

Please leave a comment to welcome Marilyn Levinson to Book Beat Babes.

A Fire Within by Margot Justes

Art is her world…

Gallery owner Rebecca Standish’s life has finally returned to the calm and orderly existence that she prefers… until a charred body threatens her hard earned sense of well-being once again.

Protecting is his M-O…

Chicago Firefighter Kirk Adams has made plenty of mistakes, but he regrets losing Rebecca most. When he learns her life is in danger, he’ll do anything to protect her—including facing the fires of a woman scorned head-on.

Flames of revenge burn hottest…

After the victim’s identity is revealed, Rebecca is under attack. Kirk has little time to discover the identity of the murderer before he strikes again. And the love of his life is the next victim.

Can Kirk defend Rebecca from a killer bent on fiery revenge?

Cheers,

Margot  Justes

A Hotel in Paris

A Hotel in Bath

Hot Crimes Cool Chicks

www.mjustes.com

Final Fifteen in ILA Contest ~ Maybe you? by DL Larson

103 Illinois authors submitted to the first ever Illinois Library Association, 'Soon to be Famous Illinois Author' Contest. Many were from the Chicago area. The Illinois Author Project came about as an inspiration that libraries can and do help authors of all levels, including self-published writers.

Visit soontobefamous.info to view the final fifteen list. Authors are in alphabetical order, with the titles of their book, and home library. I was pleasantly surprised to see a few high school libraries participating.

Whether you invested in any contests this season, please remember your local library wants to support local talent. So take the plunge, walk in and introduce yourself, tell them your story and perhaps donate a book. They may want to purchase more.

If walking in is too intimidating, send a post card or letter. Mail your book to them as a donation. Explain who you are, what your book is about and whether you are available for book talks, etc. Libraries are always looking for programming and you might be what they are looking for.

The important message in this blog is that 103 Illinois authors stepped out of their comfort zone and tried something new. They discovered new readers, new marketplaces, and new possibilities for future books.

That's a good day's work ~ and everyone should feel like a winner for finding a new venue for promoting their name as well as their book!

Til next time ~

DL Larson
www.DLLARSON.com

Mystery Author, Jenny Milchman, Addresses the Age-Old Question of Promotion

I'm happy to welcome Random House Mystery Author, Jenny Milchman, to Book Beat Babes. She's addressing the hot topic of promotion. Morgan Mandel

Jenny Milchman is a suspense writer who until recently lived on the road with her family on what Shelf Awareness called "the world's longest book tour". She has come to settle in upstate New York. For now anyway.

Jenny's debut novel, COVER OF SNOW, was published by Ballantine/Random House in January 2013, earned starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist, as well as praise from the New York Times, San Francisco Journal of Books, the AP, and many other publications. Jenny's second novel, RUIN FALLS, will be published by Ballantine in April 2014 and is available for pre-order now.

Jenny hosts the Made It Moments forum on her blog, which has featured more than 300 international bestsellers, Edgar winners, and indie authors. 

Website: http://jennymilchman.com/  

Blog: http://jennymilchman.com/blog

And Now, Here's what Jenny has to say about Promotion -

To Promote or Not To Promote...Is That Even a Question?

The question I get asked most often by emerging writers is whether it's really necessary to...X.

"X" can be any number of things. Tweet. Blog. Appear at bookstores. Try KDP, and what is this Pinterest thing anyway?

Because we writers are stumbling around in search of an answer to this question: How do we become successful authors? And this one: How do we reach readers?

As the great William Goldman says, "Nobody knows."

But I don't think this wisdom means that we should just throw up our hands. And while there's not exactly a roadmap for figuring out what you should do once you've reached that land called Publication, whether traditionally or independently, I have accumulated a few thoughts during the long road to my own. Getting a book written well enough that it should be read by readers is one of the harder things any of us will accomplish in our lives. But then what?

First I need to back up and tell you a little about myself. While I’m traditionally published, it took long enough and the world changed substantially enough during that time, that I explored self-publishing very seriously as well. In the end, working with three agents, writing eight novels, and receiving fifteen almost-offers during eleven years on submission, I sold my debut novel to a team I’m truly thrilled with. This finally happened through a confluence of events that still feels mystical to me. And the dream of being a published author was such a long, long, long time in coming that, once it took place, I did the only logical thing.

I hired an independent publicity firm, rented out our house, withdrew the kids from school, and asked my husband if he would accompany me on a book tour that would cover 44 states and 35,000 miles. Not exactly in that order, but you get the point. The whole family's life would be subsumed by this dream, at least for the next seven months.

We wound up visiting over 400 bookstores, as well as libraries, book clubs and almost every place where people come together over books. I've been the inaugural author at a brand new mystery bookstore in Madison, WI and the newbie who drew the smallest audience at a bookstore that holds near-daily events. I stood up in Oxford, MS with a rockabilly band behind me and spoke for precisely fourteen minutes--we were being recorded live--to a house crowd of three hundred. I've done Sit & Sign's where only one person showed up, but that one person drove three hours to see me, and thus will always have a place in the Annals of my Becoming an Author, not to mention in my heart. And there have been events that hit almost every point between these extremes.

So, is this the point of my blog post? Is there a roadmap after all, a literal one that shows our route, or a message: change your whole life in service of The Book?

  

I'm hoping that writers will take something else from this description of what I've done. That it's not necessary to do any one thing as an author. Neither Tweet nor Tour.

Instead, figure out ways you will find joy in your book being out there, and in your great love of books in general. Things that will help you celebrate this shining accomplishment while connecting with those who want to share it.

To my mind, it doesn't matter what you do, it just matters that in today's increasingly crowded content space, you find something that allows your own voice to stand out. And that doesn’t mean sending daily newsletters to the people who have been kind enough to support us.

Say you're an introvert and the idea of meeting crowds of people face-to-face sounds as draining as a bathtub. Online social media might be a great outlet for you. Or perhaps you have an author platform, such as being a doctor who writes medical thrillers, or a biotech expert who wrote a book about GMOs. Maybe you can find a listserv or organization that will appreciate hearing your wisdom. There are more reviewers today than back when a daily paper landed on the curb at every house in the United States. Book bloggers are today’s word-of-mouth in action. So are booksellers. The net gives like-minded readers and writers ways to find each other virtually and face-to-face. There are more riches than we can ever spend, but that also means that there is more than enough to go around. It's just a matter of finding it.

Some will find Twitter the perfect medium for self-expression while for others the idea of boiling something meaningful down to 140 characters will be anathema. Some will be on Facebook every day, others will start a charitable cause connected to their book. Some might give workshops at writers' organizations, or encounter terrific blogs that allow you to guest post, such as this one right here.

Some might even take to the road for seven months.

And when you do--whatever you do--please come find me. I'll be one of the connections that you make.

About Ruin Falls:
Liz Daniels should be happy about taking a rare family vacation, leaving behind their remote home in the Adirondack Mountains for a while. Instead, she feels uneasy. Her children, eight-year-old Reid and six year-old Ally, have only met their paternal grandparents a handful of times. But her husband, Paul, has decided that despite a strained relationship with his mother and father, they should visit the farm in western New York where he spent his childhood.

The family doesn’t make it all the way to the farm and stops at a hotel for the night. And in the morning, when Liz checks on her sleeping children, all of the small paranoias and anxieties from the day before come to life: Ally and Reid are nowhere to be found. Blind panic slides into ice cold terror as the hours tick by without discovering a trace of her kids. Soon, Paul and Liz are being interviewed by police, an Amber Alert is issued, detectives are called in. Frantic worry and helplessness threaten to overtake Liz’s mind.

But the children are safe. In a sudden, gut-wrenching realization, Liz knows that it was no stranger who slipped into the hotel room and kidnapped her children. Instead it was someone she trusted completely. And as the police abruptly wrap-up their investigation, Liz identifies the person who has betrayed her. Now she will stop at nothing to find Ally and Reid and get them back. From her guarded in-laws’ unwelcoming farmhouse to the deep woods of her hometown, Liz follows the threads of a terrible secret to uncover a hidden world created from dreams and haunted by nightmares.

Buy Link:
http://jennymilchman.com/ruin-falls/get-the-book

Please leave a comment to welcome Jenny Milchman to Book Beat Babes.

Celebrating Women in Horror Month - Special Siren's Call Ezine

I'm among a bunch of authors with stories in the special Women in Horror issue #13 of the Sirens Call Ezine.

I decided to have some yes, "gory" fun... and thought... hmm, what could Spence (from GIRL Z: My Life as a Teenage Zombie) be up to after he turned zombie?

Well... check out my new flash story, "The Perfect Gifts."

Lots to read from a bunch of great female authors in the new Siren's Call - Women in Horror Issue 13 -  OR download the PDF HERE free.

Final Fifteen in Soon to be Famous Author Contest! by DL Larson

Yesterday was a good day! I opened my email just as I usually do and found a message from the Illinois Library Association Committee regarding the Soon to be Famous Illinois Author Project. My book, Promises My Love, is one of the final fifteen. I did the happy dance right there in the tiny office of our library. My director was pleasantly surprised as well and gave a hearty yelp in response.

Back in November, I posted a blog about this contest where Illinois authors who have self-published in 2013 were eligible to participate. I hope many entered the contest. It's was a simple and exciting way to market one's book.

My book has now gone on to Round Two. I was to send three copies of my book in e-book format by February 16. My director and I did that yesterday, along with a scanned and signed copy of their Project Terms. The terms out-line what is expected of the winner, mainly attend events and speak when requested. It also verifies that my work is original and my own.

The top three finalists will be announced during the week of March 3rd.

I feel blessed that others recognize my book as a worthy read. That alone means so much to me. And I thank God for leading me, and guiding me as a writer.

The Final Fifteen will soon be posted at this website: www.soontobefamous.info I was told the authors and their book titles will be listed sometime this week. Maybe someone you know will be on that list!

If you are interested in my book, visit: www.amazon.com.Promises-My-Love-ebook/dp/BOOCZFGMEQ

Until next time ~

DL Larson
www.DLLARSON.com