Old Flame

That's the title of my friend, author, Annabelle Blume's latest work.  If you've read Frozen Heart or its sequel, Melted Tears, you know what a terrific writer she is.  For her latest, she moves away from dystopian.  This one is a New Adult contemporary romance. Here's the synopsis:

Hannah Sullivan has spent the past three months stalking her ex-boyfriend, lurking in the bushes and hiding behind fake social media personas, convinced she can eventually rekindle the love they once shared. But when she meets Marc, who is everything James never wanted to be and more, she begins to wonder if she’s got it all wrong. Hannah must come to terms with her own demons before she can decipher between her delusional mission the man of her dreams.

Excerpt

"Paula's Passions. What's your perversion?"

"If I didn't know you, I might have hung up."

"That's the point. Not for you to hang up, of course, but for people who don't know me to."

"Why would someone you don't know have your cell number?"

"That's a good question. But, see, this is the perfect way to weed those people out. If they have the wrong number, they'll never make that mistake twice."

"You're logic astounds me."

She decided that was a compliment. "My logic is pretty impressive."

"Are we still on for tomorrow afternoon?"

"Of course. Are you planning a picnic in the park? That would be really romantic, you know. Pro-tip. Girls like romance."

"It's December. And, fifty-two degrees outside."

"In Minnesota, that's damn near summer weather."

"Are you from Minnesota?"

"Nope. Born and raised Cali girl."

"Then, you don't want me to take you on a winter picnic?"

"No. Get with the program here, Marc. It's far too cold for a picnic. Where do you come up with these cockamamie ideas?"

"You actually used the word 'cockamamie' in a sentence," Marc replied.

"I'm a font of creativity. Prepare to be amazed."

"Already am."

Hannah stalled out, unable to come up with a witty come back for his flattering compliment. Her stomach flip-flopped, and she sat up straighter on the couch, tucking her feet under her.

Bio:

Annabelle is a best-selling Romance and New Adult author, that is, when she's not checking homework or begrudgingly cooking dinner. Wife, mother, and creator of alternate worlds, Annabelle has a penchant for that which is outside the norm.

Her degree in Sociology has given her the ability to construct worlds that exist only in her head and translate them passionately to the page. The time spent studying individuals, interpersonal relationships, and particularly, women, within the constraints of our society led to Annabelle's unabashed ability to talk about sex as it fits into our modern lives.

She's also the author/personality of The Bombshell Mommy at Vitacost.com where she helps modern Bombshells and their families live “green”. 

You can find Old Flame here: Amazon.    Goodreads

Click on this link for a chance to win a FREE copy of Old Flame: a Rafflecopter giveaway

As with Blume's earlier works, this, too is not a full length novel.  The novella logs in at 58 pages.  It's great for a fast,fun, evening read.  Please check it out.



Peace.

The Easter Egg Contest

My good friend and very first web designer, Tatiana, gave me a lesson in Easter eggs.  Not the kind I went hunting for at Easter when I was a kid, but media Easter eggs.  By the way, I was lousy at Easter egg hunting when I was a kid.  I never, ever found one.  But that's a story for another day... or my therapist.  In the media, an Easter egg is when the content creator hides something in plain sight, something that has hidden meaning for the viewer.  Back in 2009, when Tatiana and I were designing the original I Want You Back! book cover, she told me of her desire to place an Easter Egg on the cover.  Back then, I didn't have enough fans to appreciate the Easter egg, but I do now.


Flash forward to 2012.  When Jayde designed the cover and promo materials for my 2012 release, Heaven Sent, I included  Easter eggs.  They were secrets about the story buried in the photographs.  There's one on the cover and at least two in the promo piece. I've never mentioned the Easter eggs until now.  Concealed in the photos above and below are Easter eggs.  If you've read Heaven Sent they might be obvious to you. If you haven't yet read Heaven Sent, you probably will have no idea of what they are.  This contest is for fans who've read the book.  However, if you haven't read it, there's still time.

The Contest

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to discern the Easter eggs in the two photos. Find one on the cover and two in the promo piece. When you find them, send me an email telling me what they are.  Send the email to me at info@evanlowe.com with the subject heading: "Easter Egg Contest." The contest begins today and ends on Monday February 13th, 2014 (the day before Valentine's Day). I will place all the correct answers in a hopper and draw a winner, one month later, on March 13th.  To win, you will have to tell me the Easter eggs/ hidden meaning in both photos.   For instance, the Easter egg on the cover is the snake because in this book Harry discovers he speaks parseltongue. 

Your One And Only Clue

There's a big twist in Heaven Sent.  The Easter eggs hint at this twist.

Heaven Sent is the third book in the Falling Angels Saga. For those of you who still haven't read it, the reviews have been off the chain.
One reviewer said: Readers who devoured "Boyfriend From Hell" and "Earth Angel" will be captivated by the third book in the Falling Angels Saga.  Another simply said: Heavenly.


Contest Rules & The Prize


The prize for winning is a $25 Amazon gift card.  There's only one prize and one winner.  Anyone anywhere can enter.  You don't even have to have read Heaven Sent to enter, although I think it will help if you want to win.  The contest is open internationally, so anyone anywhere can join in the fun.  The value of the prize is $25 U.S. Heaven Sent is a great read and a worthy investment for a chance to win.

The reason I chose March 13th for the drawing is March 13th happens to be the publication date of my newest book, and the final book in the Falling Angels Saga, Falling.  There will be a launch party held on the March 13th at Vroman's Books in Pasadena, California, where  I will do the drawing myself in front of a live audience.  You do not have to be present to win.

It's that simple (or that hard).  My first contest of the year.  If you haven't read Heaven Sent, you still have lots of time.  But if I were you, I'd get it now. (Kindle) (Nook) Time has a way of slipping away from us. If you enjoy puzzles, you're going to love this contest. Win a $25 Amazon gift card by finding the Easter eggs in both the cover photo and the promo piece.  And if you do decide to read it, please take the time to leave a review. Good luck.
Peace.

What Color Are You Under Your Skin?

"Buy this book, buy this book, buythisbooook!"

I’ve been a writer for a long time.  A long, long time.  I’ve been fortunate enough to have quite a diverse career, writing in several mediums.  I’ve even been lucky enough to have been nominated for some prestigious awards.  During my time as a writer I’ve observed one thing that remains consistent.  Whether you’re Robert Beck writing about Iceberg Slim, Charles Dickens writing about Tiny Tim, or Shonda Rhimes writing about Olivia Pope—character is developed from the inside out.  While a character’s social situation has an impact on how the character sees the world, their skin color does not.

I kept this in mind when I decided to become a young adult paranormal author.  Like most African American readers, I am widely read.  I don’t just read black literature.  As a boy I grew up reading James Bond and Dr. Fu Manchu.  As a young man I read The Lord of The Rings.  The adventure in these books moved me, influenced me.  I knew whenever I wrote professionally I wanted to entertain readers the same way the novels of my youth entertained me.

When I conceived my first YA novel, NeverSlow Dance With A Zombie, I envisioned the main character, Margot Jean Johnson, as black.  This was in the mid-2000s when ebooks were a little more than a thought.  Major book stores were where most books were sold.  I realized as a black author, if I made Margot black, my book would be relegated to the black book section.  Nothing wrong with the black book section.  I’ve spent many afternoons browsing there, and purchased some damn good books there.  But I wanted my book to appeal to a larger audience; I wanted my book to be in the general population of the store.  So when I described Margot in the book, I never mentioned race or skin color.  In my mind Margot was black, but I wanted each person who read the book to see Margot through their own eyes, judge her through their own experiences.

It didn’t matter what color Margot’s skin was.  While she was laugh out loud funny, she was also a self-centered user who needed to be brought down a peg.  She was flawed, and that’s what interested me most. When my editor at Tor asked (trying to play the innocent), “what color is Margot?”  My response was: “What color do you think she is?”  My ploy worked.  The book was slated for the YA section and wound up being minor hit, selling 70,000 copies in pre-orders, and going on to become a Scholastic Book Club selection, which helped sell many more copies. It’s still sold at Scholastic Book Fairs.  It also wound up being nominated for both a Cybils and an American Library Association Award.  In my mind I did the right thing, allowing reader’s imaginations to decide how they saw Margot.

I got a great vindicating treat when young actress, Keke Palmer, read the book and said if they ever made a movie, she wanted to play Margot.  How thrilling was that?  A star like Keke saw herself as Margot.  I even stalked her (I’m not too proud) and persuaded her to make a video about the book for me.  That video is here: http://youtu.be/QRJsoay8jP8

Since Never Slow Dance With A Zombie, I’ve gone on to write four more books, two of them (Boyfriend From Hell & Earth Angel) have become ebook Best Sellers.  I now write white characters, black characters, Asian characters and in my latest series, Hollyweird, I write about a young biracial girl.  I made Kris biracial because I wanted to write the feelings of an ethnic outsider, a girl who doesn’t feel a sense of belonging to any race.  This allowed me to covertly make a statement about race.  Kris is an ethnic outsider until a boy comes along and sees Kris as Kris… He’s a dead boy, but that’s a story for another post.  My point here is Kris’s skin color doesn’t matter.  She’s an outsider, and how she deals with her world as an outsider is what shapes her and makes her interesting.  So, authors, I ask you, what color are your characters under their skin?  It’s the only place that matters.

By the way, I’m no longer concerned about being relegated to the black section of the book store.  My books are now all on the internet where there is no black section.  On the internet, my books are accepted as books. How refreshing.

Peace.

 

This post originally appeared as a guest post In DiversePages.

What's So Good About Goodbye?

My publisher with an original BFFH Arc in 2011

When I was a kid my brother had a record (yes, there were records back then, 45s, in fact)  by Smokey Robinson and The Miracles with the above title. *Singing*  What's so good about goodbye, all it does is make you cry.  Today that song has new meaning for me.

Last week I turned in the final draft of the final book in The Falling Angles Saga.  And with it, I said goodbye to Megan, Guy, Maudrina and Aunt Jaz.  I've never written a series before so I never knew the feeling of finishing one.  From what I've read, some writers can't wait to get on with their lives, while others have a tear in their eye.  For me it was a little of both.  I'm happy to finish the series.  More than a handful of fans have written me asking about the last book.  For those who've hung around for the entire series, I want it to be a satisfying experience.  I'm happy to give this final book to them.  I'm also excited about what's next.  I've been doing notes on a new book in the horror genre for several months now.  I'm looking forward to this new and exciting challenge, and once again working with my horror writing alter ego Sal Conte (Read: A Few Words From Sal Conte)

But another part of me will miss this series. I really loved writing Megan and Guy.  I call these my growing up novels because I could see my writing improving, getting sharper as the series went on.  I started writing Boyfriend From Hell in 2008, just after I'd made my first young adult book sale with Never Slow Dance With A Zombie Tor/teen).  I've been with these characters for more than five years.  I've had a wonderful time with them.  I will definitely miss them. 

It took me so long to write the second half of the last book, partly, I believe, because it was hard letting go.  During the writing of the book (Falling) I thought of all sorts of spinoffs and ways to keep the series alive.  However, now that a week has passed, I'm ready to move on.  I may revisit one or more of the characters later, but for now, it's goodbye.

Those of you who've been waiting for the final book, I'm sorry it's taken so long.  It was originally due out this month.  I won't have an official pub date until some time next month, But I believe February is a fair guess.  I've poured my all into this book.  I hope you think it does the series justice.

So that's this author's take on ending a series.  Saying goodbye is difficult, but moving on is exciting.  And you know what they say about one door closing.  I'm ready.

Well if leavin’ causes grievin'
And to part will break your heart
Tell me what’s so good about it
I could've done without it
What's so good about goodbye

Peace.

Guest Post: Ashley Hill Author of The Harvesters

Frans, I've found another fresh, young voice to share with you. Ashley Hill is the nineteen year-old author of The Harvesters, an NA horror/thriller.  As you know, guest posts on E's Blog are rare, but Ashley is a friend and I really wanted to help get her career moving in the right direction.  Here's a little about Ashley's debut,  The Harvesters:

 

 

Summary

When she finds her boyfriend shackled to a white metal table Ashley feared for the worse.

On a small trip of dropping off a package for Jason’s father, the young couple never thought they would be running for their lives. Running away from supposedly friends whom in turned to be a family of harvesters.

Human harvesters and they are looking for something specific. And Ashley just might be the perfect match for that something.

Sound like fun?  And now, here's Ashley:

 

Homeschooling for High School was the best thing

My Mom gave me the chance to do homeschooling for High School and I took her up on it.  It was the best thing for me.  I finished school a year earlier than all my classmates, got a 3.4 GPA, and I found my passion in life. This then led me to pick the school I wanted to go to. Which led me to the love of my life (I met him a semester later). Now, if I went to my town's public school I know for a fact none of those things up there would have happened. I would be just as lost as my friend is now. I would have also gone to the school up north just like everyone in my town does instead of going to the school in the south, where I met the most wonderful people a girl can ask for.  I'm more confident than before, I go out without makeup even though I see flaws, all because of these amazing people that have come into my life.  They are a blessing for this girl who wants to get out of her shell.  It's crazy to think just one little decision can change so much in your life, for better or worse. This was for better and I've never been happier in my life than I am now.  I'm self-published because of this one independent decision I made years ago.

___

I enjoyed Ashley's post because it's so real.   It's not just about selling her book.  I feel I got to know a piece of Ashley through her post. Thanks for stopping by and sharing a little bit of yourself with us, Ashley.   The Harvesters is available now.  It's a quick read as it's not a full length novel. I read it about a year ago when it first came out. Click on the title to find this thrilling ebook at Amazon.  Don't be shy now.  Let's continue to support our fellow indie authors, especially one with as honest a voice as Ashley.

You can follow Ashley on her blog Paranormal Sisters or on Twitter

Peace.

 

Use The "Landing Page" To Pitch Your Book Pt3

In Part One of this series I explained what a landing page was and how it could be an important tool in your marketing arsenal.  In Part Two I showed you how to create your own landing pages in under an hour, and I gave you a few tips to increase its efficacy.  Now that you all have landing pages complete with awesome book covers and sparkling, effective copy, I'm going to give you some pointers on how to turn your pitch into book sales--which is why we're all here.

FREE STUFF

I've written a number of posts about giving books away for free, the first of which you can find here: FREE Your Ticket to Big Sales.  I'm not going to rehash what's in the post.  You can click on the link and read it for yourself.  Instead, I'm going to point you to one of America's top retailers as proof of how effective free can be.

Walk into any Costco any time of any day and you'll see customers roaming the aisles grazing on freebies.  I'm sure you've grazed on a few Costco freebies as well.  Ask yourself this: if freebies didn't sell product, would Costco continue to give them away?  Of course not.  Freebies are a successful marketing tool for Costco, used to get customers to try new stuff.  So, if one of American's top retailers is using this method, you should be, too.

Some of us aren't like author Michael R. Hicks with three books we can give away for free.  If you go to my landing page you'll see I don't give a book away at all.  Instead, I give away 4 chapters of my novel Boyfriend From Hell, the first in my The Falling Angels Saga.  If readers download my chapters and like them, some will purchase the entire book.  Many of those who like the book will go on to read the series.  You see how this works?

By the way, the free download on my landing page is longer than the one available on my Amazon page.  One caution: if you're planning to join Amazon's KDP Select program, they have limits on how much of your book you can give away for free to qualify.  Please checkout their guidelines before giving away a large chunk of your book.  If you don't want to give a way a piece of your book on your landing page, give away a short story, or a novella--any writing sample that will show off your skills and make readers want to purchase your book.  Giving away something for free is the most effective way you can monetize your landing page.

Now that your landing page is ready to monetize, where do you find customers?

Twitter

Anyone who has read me in the past knows I feel Twitter is your most effective marketing tool and it's FREE.  To use Twitter effectively requires some work.  If you don't have a tweet deck (like Hootsuite--also free) get one, because you'll want to schedule tweets touting your landing page so that they're sprinkled throughout the day.  Statistics have shown me that my tweet: No Clockwork, One Angel and a Demon from hell. Here's why The Falling Angels Saga is your next INCREDIBLE READ gets a number of clicks each time I use it. 

Alter your message so you're not saying the same thing all the time.  Start by looking at other tweeters tweets. When you find something you feel is catchy and has a pitch similar to what you're going for, adapt it to suit your pitch.  This isn't cheating.  All marketers copy success.  You should, too.  Come up with several messages to tweet throughout the day. Also, take some time to prospect for new Twitter followers, new readers to pitch your book to.  There are lots of books and blog posts on how to find new Twitter followers.  Google the words Twitter Followers.  Ignore the ads on buying followers.  They don't work.  Start by reading the posts on attracting new followers. And once you've identified new followers, you'll need to look at their profiles to qualify them as possible candidates for your book.  Lot of work?  You bet, but it can be very rewarding.

You can also try Blogads and Google Adwords to find prospects for your landing pages.  Personally, I haven't had much success with either, but I'm still experimenting with them.  But Blogads and Adwords costs money, and I believe if you do a little marketing work you can vastly increase your book sales for FREE.  The key here is it can never be on autopilot.  Some work is required.  But if you do the work, you'll reap the rewards.  That's how it is in life, isn't it?

One final thing, I chose "Incredible Reads" because it's more eye catching than just putting my book title up there:Want to find your next incredible read, go to INCREDIBLE READS.  That was the idea. 

Okay, that's it.  Now go forth and create a landing page, have fun doing it, make some money, and please write me any time.  And if you decide to purchase one of my books, that would be AWESOME. 

Author, Michael R. Hicks (whom I've mentioned several times here) has a wonderful book The Path to Self-Publishing Success that's definitely worth a read.  Anyone who wants to make money off their writing efforts should check it out as well.

Peace.

Use The "Landing Page" To Pitch Your Book Pt2

In Part 1 of this series I explained that the landing page is an effective tool authors can use to pitch their books.  It allows you more time and space to make a solid pitch than say, Twitter. One of the important keys to a landing page is what is known as a 'call to action.'  While Twitter may no longer be a good forum to scream 'buy my book,' the landing page is.  The purpose of the landing page is to call readers to action, either to purchase your book, or if you have a series you might consider using the page to offer the first book for free.

Author Michael R. Hicks has some very effective landing pages offering free downloads.  In fact, he is one of the first successful authors I noticed who employed a landing page.

The screenshot above doesn't do him justice, but in it he's offering readers the chance to try three of his novels for free.  In his own words: There aren’t any catches or gotchas, you don’t have to fork over your email address or anything else. Just click on the link for the format you want and grab ‘em.

notice the 'buy button' below each book

call to action

Michael's is a straight forward, no nonsense pitch.  That's one of the things I like about using a landing page.  It allows you the time to make an honest pitch on why a reader should try your book.   Has your book won any awards?  Brag about them on your landing page.  If you have 1500 reviews or just 15 reviews, use what you've got to persuade readers why they should click on your offer.  There's a lot more you can learn from author, Hicks by clicking around his website GO HERE.  And while you're there, please take the time to download one of his amazing books.

Ready to build a landing page? Let's get started.  One of the things I'm going to tell you right now is that your books must have an eye-catching book cover.  A large part of the pitch is visual, and you'll need a great cover to make that work.  For my landing page I chose a Blogspot or Blogger blog template.  A Wordpress template is better for a number of reasons, but for those of us who aren't savvy in doing things on the internet (me, me, me), blogger is easier to navigate, and I built the rudimentary form of my page in less than an hour.  And if I can do it.. you know how it goes.

Before you begin there's one more caveat.  If you're not good at writing ad copy, surf around looking at ads and book pitches that you think deliver the kind of message you'd like, and COPY that pitch.  Copy it, and then tailor it to your message.  Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Take the time to imitate successful authors like Michael R. Hicks.  Your pitch is just as important as your visuals and your call to action.  You need all three working together to have a successful landing page.

I had my book cover designer design a header that I wound up using for my landing page.  The header makes my page look professional and not the DIY page that it is.  If you're paying a graphic artist to design your covers, negotiate a header into the price so it doesn't cost you any more.  My designer threw it in for free.  My designer is Adara Rosalie.  Here's a screenshot of my header.  Notice that you can tell before you begin to read that I've written a series and not just one book.  My pitch has begun visually.

 

Now that you've got a kick-ass book cover and have tinkered around with your copy, go to blogger, choose the perfect site name and begin.  And if you're handy with Wordpress, by all means do it there.  I chose Incrediblereads for my site name.  I also bought the incrediblereads.com  domain.  I'll tell you why I made this choice in the next post. 

Once you've gone through the blogger basics, it's time to choose a template. click on 'template' in the left hand sidebar.  I chose an 'awesome' template.  For color I chose black, but I must tell you, I've been told you should always choose a white background, but right now black works for me (my blog is white on black).  I think it makes my colors pop better than white.  After you've chosen your template, you can begin writing your copy into the landing page, just as if you were writing a blog post.  At this time you should also begin to add all the goodies on the sidebars like I have on mine.  You do this by clicking on 'layout' in the left hand sidebar menu just above template. 

Getting my page to where it is today took a lot of trial and error working in the layout--much more than an hour.  I'm no expert, so I can't even tell you how I did it.  But blogger has incredible tutorials to walk you through getting your book covers where you want them and even how to have your series covers fade-in like they do on my landing page.  One more thing, I disabled comments, followers and all things blog related that I knew I wouldn't use.  You should do the same.  Your page needs to look like a landing page and not a blog.  The page you create is going to be the only post.

Play around with it, and don't hesitate to come back to this post and ask me any question you might have (even if it's a year later) about landing pages.  I check my comments on all my posts regularly.  Even if I can't answer it, I'll comment back. And finally, don't get frustrated.  If something isn't working, put it aside and come back to it with fresh eyes.  Just like you do with your writing.

In part three of the series I'm going to share with you why I think you should always offer something for free ,along with where to prospect for new readers to send to your kickass landing pages.  Until then...

Peace.