I’m an Author Working On Life. After the publication of my last book and four years writing nonstop, I decided to take a couple of months off. Two months turned into several when some difficult personal and family issues came up, so I’ve been neglecting my social media sites, too. Yet through it all, a new romance story has been percolating in my mind–a story about a billionaire, narcissistic sexual predator and the woman who brings him down. FYI, it’s in the works!
There’s a little naughty in all of us…
Release day is always an exciting day, a day for me to celebrate. The reviews are coming in, too! Sugar Daddy’s Baby is available on Amazon, Kobo & B&N.
Amazon: US http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01L4VCVOQ, UK ttp://tinyurl.com/jdesds8, CA http://tinyurl.com/jhltmmp, AU http://tinyurl.com/zast3ap
KOBO https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/sugar-daddy-s-baby
B&N http://tinyurl.com/zkk3c7b
Find it here!
If you could be anonymous for one night, what would you do?
For Marley Williams, one fateful night of anonymity changes everything…
After ten years of hard work and sacrifice, she’s close to accomplishing her goal. She’ll never be poor or hungry again. Then one interaction, a bizarre story, an hour in her life set her on a new path. She discovers Cockaigne, a mythical-turned-real paradise where everyone gets whatever they want. She jeopardizes everything to experience it and gets more than she bargained for.
Join the tour!
Please note. Sugar Daddy’s Baby is a romantic thriller with adult themes. It contains sexually explicit scenes and some offensive language and is for mature audiences only.
Sugar Daddy’s Baby wasn’t offered a Kindle Press contract. Am I bummed? Yes and no. Here’s my KS story.
I received an email from Amazon with information about KS a year ago. I’d just self-published TwiSted Two-SteP, so it didn’t qualify, but I flagged the notice. When I finished Sugar Daddy’s Baby, I checked it out.
I couldn’t find much information about the program, which was weird. I spot-checked several of the books that had been published and contacted a few of the authors, but they didn’t respond. I started to feel like KS was a state secret or something, yet I thought I’d give it a try.
Why? Because IT’S AMAZON! They offer $1,500 up front and 50% royalties. Plus, they do all the marketing and who wouldn’t want Amazon behind them?
I didn’t expect the book to be accepted for a KS campaign in the first place. There are plenty of sex scenes, some offensive language and one adult situation in the story I knew would make certain readers uncomfortable. Yet surprise, surprise, two day after submission there it was in the queue, hot and trending some days, most days not.
Once I submitted the book, I was contractually obligated to KS for 45 days. If published, I’d be contractually obligated to Amazon for a minimum of two years, whatever happened. Like a lot of self-published books, I couldn’t find many KS ones that had taken off, but hey, it’s AMAZON!
In the end it was worth a try. No one knows how or why KS chooses the books they choose. I have no idea how many people nominated the book nor do I know if Amazon chooses books based on the number of nominations. I only know Sugar Daddy’s Baby was hot and trending about 15% of the time and most of the views came from Facebook. Here are the reports KS provides.
I spent $75 on marketing, all on Facebook ads. I think it was money well-spent. KS was the best cover reveal I ever had and a great promotional opportunity. Sugar Daddy’s Baby is now available to preorder on Amazon with a release date of October 17th. Thank you to everyone who checked it out on KS and nominated it!
Sugar Daddy’s Baby is available to preview through August 20th on Amazon’s reader-powered Kindle Scout. If you like what you see, please nominate it for publication. It only takes a few minutes, longer if you want to read the first 5,000 words. If Amazon publishes it, they’ll send you a free copy!
October is my author anniversary month. It’s been three years since I started writing my first book, an interesting journey to say the least.
Although it really isn’t the first. I wrote my very first romance novel in the mid-90s. Back then writers were dependent on the big publishing houses to get their books on the shelves, and few new authors were successful. The self-publishing revolution changed all that.
But there’s a lot more to it than I expected. After I finished The Vitamin D Treatment, I had no idea what to do next. Fortunately, a local adult education center just happened to be offering a class about formatting your manuscript for online self-publishing. I jumped on it. Now I can easily format an eBook and navigate the various self-publishing sites like Kindle Direct Publishing, Nook Press and Kobo, and I don’t have to pay someone to do it for me.
Then came the really hard part–promoting my books. There are literally thousands of new titles self-published every day, which makes it difficult to stand out. I love to write stories, but I had no clue what was going on in the industry. In the beginning I hadn’t even heard of Goodreads until I googled my book one day and found out someone had reviewed it there!
Nor did I have a website or Facebook page. The necessity of using social media never sank in until I met a wonderful blogger who read and loved Vita D. She set me straight, and I’ll always be indebted to her. Verna at Verna Love Books, you know who you are!
So I forked out some dough for a GoDaddy website and taught myself to use it. Big mistake. I didn’t know at the time WordPress was free and it’s easier to use. Lesson learned and not the only one. It wasn’t until six months after I published Vita D that I finally set up a Facebook author page. Six months wasted!
Now I’m on Twitter, too, and if it wasn’t for social media sites and Verna telling me what to do, I would’ve never gotten this far, probably giving up long ago. And even though I haven’t hit the big league yet, no USA Today or New York Times Bestselling author glory for me right now, I’m selling some books and am encouraged by the positive feedback from the readers.
I’m still here!
(It’s complicated)
Fall is my favorite time of year. The end of summer means the start of La Liga, which is Spanish soccer, and September means the American football season begins. My favorite sports!
I’ve loved American football since I was a kid. My dad taught me the game, and I was a football cheerleader in high school and then became a big Iowa Hawkeyes fan in college. Still am.
I was even lucky enough to go to the Rose Bowl, which is a trip I’ll never forget. With just a hundred dollars in my pocket, I made it halfway across the U.S. in a small, rented RV with a group of friends. It was crowded. I didn’t sleep for three days.
When we arrived in California, we headed straight to the Iowa fan party. It was the night before the game, and so many Iowans were there, they ran out of alcohol. (That little fact always cracks me up, because if you’ve ever been to an Iowa game at Kinnick Stadium, you know the tailgating is world class!)
After the party, it was finally time for bed. We’d reserved one hotel room to be shared by all of us, but I never made it to the room. Instead, I fell asleep in the lobby and slept there all night. No one bothered me, not even management. I couldn’t believe it.
Iowa lost to Washington, 28-0. Not exactly the outcome I’d hoped for, but it’s a wonderful memory nevertheless.
Since moving to Denver, I’ve become a Broncos fan. But for me, football isn’t only about a favorite team. I love the game. There’s nothing more beautiful or athletic than a wide receiver leaping into the air, stretching his entire body and making an impossible catch.
Except for that perfect header into the goal.
I was introduced to the other fútbol–soccer–in 1996. My husband and I were visiting friends in Germany and the European Championship was going on. Germany was in the finals, and like most Europeans, our friends were glued to the TV, watching the match.
Germany won, and the residents in the quiet little Stuttgart suburb went nuts. One big street party ensued, all night long, all over the country.
That was when I became interested in soccer, the globe’s most popular sport with an estimated 265 million active players worldwide. Seriously, 265 million…
So I started following the World Cups and the Euro Cups, but it took another nine years for me to attend a match. Not in the U.S., where no one gives a shit about the sport (although that’s beginning to change), but in Buenos Aires. Boca Juniors vs. Velez Sarsfield, November 20, 2005.
It’s a day I’ll never forget, one of my most precious travel memories. The energy in the stadium was infectious. Fans chanting team songs, a whirlwind of confetti, the deafening roar of the crowd. I’d never been to a sports event like it. Not even the Rose Bowl could compare, and I got hooked.
What’s not to love? The rules are simple and there are no commercials during play. Speed and agility matter more than size, and during World Cups, the entire planet gets together, giving everyone a reason to party.
Plus, there are a lot of hot guys (and gals) who play the game. I love it so much, the hero in my novel, Tumbleweed, is a Spanish soccer player!
Since then, I’ve been to matches in Lisbon, Portugal and Guadalajara, Mexico. We subscribe to the beIN sports channel, which was a great find because it turns out the sport never ends. Besides our favorite Spanish La Liga, there are matches throughout the year. League cups, club championships and international competitions.
And what about those 0-0 matches Americans complain about? Obviously, they’ve never seen goalies Hope Solo or Tim Howard play. A blocked goal shot is a beautiful thing, too…
Congratulations to the USA Women’s World Cup Champions! Go Broncos! Go Barca! Go Ray Hudson, the fabulous beIN color commentator! And wish me luck with Fantasy Football. Last year I came in second and tied for most points, winning $300. I hope I win the whole shebang this year!
