Call for Submissions - Attention Self-Published Authors!

Successful Self Publishing: How We Do It (and How You Can Too!)
Edited by Shoshanna Evers, #1 Amazon Authorship Bestselling Author

Call for Submissions: Deadline May 21^th, 30th 2012


This call for submissions is open to any self-published author, including traditionally published authors who are also self-publishing.

How did you find success as a self-published author? The goal of this anthology is to give pre-published writers and authors considering self-publishing the inspiration and advice to help them start on their own path to self-publishing success.

There are many different ways to quantify success, and we are looking for all of them. While we are looking for bestselling self-published authors to submit essays, if your sales are modest but you finally realized your dream of having your story told, then that is its own form of success, and we welcome your submission as well.

Some questions to consider while writing your essay include:

1. Why did you choose to self-publish?
2. Have you tried publishing traditionally, or are you published traditionally as well? If you are also traditionally published, what are the benefits to self-publishing that drew you to it?
3. What sort of process did you put your book through before you published it? Editing, critique groups, beta-readers?
4. How much did it cost you to self-publish your book? What did you pay for cover art, for editing, formatting, etcetera? Did you do it all yourself?
5. How many books do you sell a day/month/since you started?
6. Is your book available for print? How did you go about doing that, and are your books selling better in ebook format or print?
7. How important are reviews for you? How do you get reviews for your book(s)?
8. What do you think is the future of publishing?
9. What’s the most important piece of advice you have for a writer looking to self-publish?

Payment:
Contributors whose essays are chosen for the anthology will receive a $20 payment plus a free Smashwords coupon to download the anthology upon its release.

The essays will be contracted on a non-exclusive basis, meaning the contributor retains the right to re-publish the essay as he or she pleases. Previously published blog posts or interviews on the subject of self-publishing will also be considered but original material is preferred.


Tell your story in 750 to 2000 words and include a 50 word bio with links to your website, blog, Twitter, Facebook, and Amazon/B&N/Smashwords pages.

Submit the essay as a Word doc or rtf and name the file Successful_YourName. Email the attachment to shoshanna.evers @ yahoo. com (no spaces) with Submission in the subject line.

About the Editor:

Shoshanna Evers edited and self-published the #1 Amazon Authorship Bestselling writing anthology How to Write Hot Sex: Tips From Multi-Published Erotic Romance Authors. In addition to being published by Ellora’s Cave, The Wild Rose Press, Cleis Press, and Berkley/Jove, Shoshanna has found success with self-publishing, hitting several Amazon category bestseller lists and quitting her day job to be a full-time writer.

Sexily *Evers* After... www.ShoshannaEvers.com

What's it like to Co-Author a Book?

Hello Fellow Writers!
Today one of my favorite authors from Ellora's Cave, Lily Harlem, is guest blogging about her experience co-authoring a book (with Natalie Dae). I've often wondered how writers do it - since for me, writing is such a solitary venture. Well... writing the first draft is solitary. Then the beta readers and the editors come into play... but I've always relished being the one with the final say in how my manuscript turns out. Still, hearing Lily's account makes co-authoring seem like it could be really cool....

Co-Authoring by Lily Harlem

Thanks so much for having me here at the Writer’s Challenge. I am going to chat a little about co-authoring which is something I’ve had the great pleasure of becoming involved in over the last year. My partner in erotic writings is Natalie Dae (also known as Emmy Ellis and Sarah Masters to name a few of her personas).
Natalie Dae and I have our first co-author novel THAT FILTHY BOOK just out at Total-E-Bound.
How did it all start?
Well, we became friends as we have a mutual editor and got chatting on the loop. It wasn’t long before we realised that we lived within a few hours of one another which meant, at a UK writing event, we had the chance to meet up—enormous fun that included plenty of wine, tons of gossip and great entertainment!
By this point we had been beta reading each other’s work (Nat is also a whizz at anything arty so had helped me out with bits and pieces I was completely hopeless at), and we knew one another’s style pretty well.
One day, a month or so after finally meeting face-to-face, she sent me a first chapter. “I’m having a wobble,” she said. “Read this before I go any further and tell me if its complete poo.” I’m sure any authors reading this will know exactly what she meant, I certainly did!
Anyway, I read it and it wasn’t complete poo at all, it was bloody brilliant. Great characters, fab introspection, all in all a really wonderful set-up, but still she scratched her head, unsure of where to go with it, so I said, not wanting to waste any of her lovely words, “How about I write the next chapter?” The reply: “Go for it!”
So I did and it was raw, sexy—in fact, downright filthy! Nat loved it, and not only that, we both felt like we’d just put our characters on the biggest, most thrilling roller-coaster in the world and we were going to have to hang on for the seriously wild ride we’d sent them on.
We were off…
It was then writing together became a complete, chocolate-with-sprinkles indulgence. We would do a chapter length each and pass it on, amazing ourselves at the twists and turns in the plot as we wrote. Of course, we had an idea of where we were going, but it was very loose. But that was the beauty of ‘the book’—it went where our characters wanted it to go.
One thing I found amazing was how we both knew the hero and heroine so well. There was never a time either of us questioned, “Would he/she do/say that?” Everything was seamless, the decisions they made, their actions—even if heart-stoppingly shocking—worked perfectly. Sometimes, at editing, I would read it back and think, “Who wrote that? Me or Nat?” Which must ultimately be a very good sign.
What did I learn?
Writing with someone not only talented but also with a beautiful vibrant use of the English language was wonderful. I learnt a lot as we wrote, experimented too, because it was safe to. Also there was never a ‘writer’s block moment’ or a ‘bugger, now what?’ because Nat knew the novel as well as me so it was only ever a quick question and it was flowing again. We bounced it off one another, quite literally.
That Filthy Book was actually written over just a few weeks; we got into a routine that suited us and the word count romped up. It was then accepted by Total-E-Bound, and Nat, with her other head on as Head of Art at TEB did the amazing cover. I have to say, when she sent it to me I couldn’t stop looking at it. I blew it up to full screen and just stared and stared and stared. I even got up in the middle of the night and stared again!
I knew we had the characters running parallel in our heads, like they were real people we both knew, but when I saw the images she’d created I was staggered by how she’d brought to life what was in my mind’s eye. Everything about Karen and Jacob was right. From their expressions, to their hair colour, physique, and the way Karen is just undoing Jacob’s shirt while they both look shifty. Perfection!!
I feel very privileged not to be only writing with Nat, but also able to call her my friend and confidant. And I hope in years to come, when we have many more co-author titles, we will be able to look back fondly on That Filthy Book and say remember when…
Thanks so much for letting me chatter today. It’s always fun to come and hang out here. Below is a little more information about That Filthy Book.

Lily x

Check out That Filthy Book on Total-E-Bound here.

Lily’s website http://www.lilyharlem.com/index.html
Natalie’s website http://emmyellis.blogspot.com/

My new series is out now!

The Dominatrix Fantasy Series is here!

The series is available as a trilogy set which includes a bonus short story, but you can also buy the individual novellas for 99c each if you just want a taste ;)



SPANKED, DENIED & COLLARED, Trilogy Set: Dominatrix Fantasy Series (FemDom BDSM Erotica)

SPANKED, DENIED, & COLLARED is the trilogy set of the Dominatrix Fantasy Series (also available separately) and includes the bonus short story TAPE. These are adults-only erotic romance stories from Amazon Erotica Bestselling author Shoshanna Evers.

Trilogy set: Amazon, Smashwords, B&N

This series is too hot to even give you a blurb or excerpt on this blog, so go to the product page and download a free sample if you want to know more! ;)

I'm over at Publisher's Weekly Beyond Her Book Blog!

Hello Fellow Writers!

Book blogger extraordinaire Barbara Vey is hosting a huge event on her Publisher's Weekly blog, Beyond Her Book. I'll be giving away a prize (and so are tons of other authors!).

Five winners will get their choice from my backlist, in any ebook format. Comment on the Beyond Her Book Blog post for a chance to win one of the many prizes! See you over there! :)

Best,
Shoshanna

Should You Change Your Self-Pub Book Cover?

Hello Fellow Writers!

the new cover!

I've been very blessed to have worked with publishers that have incredible cover designers, but when I set out to self-publish some books, I had to hire my own cover designer.

I love his work, and I think part of the reason Overheated is an Amazon Erotica Bestseller is because the cover is smokin' hot. (I hope the other reason is because readers like the story, lol). I also loved my cover for Snowed in With the Tycoon, but... it's not selling nearly as well as Overheated.

So I lowered the price from $2.99 down to $1.99 for a month to see if that helped, and it did not. Then it went back up to $2.99. Then I dropped it all the way down to 99 cents for a month. Sales tripled... but for the gamble to pay off my sales would need to be six times higher at the lower price point, not three. So back up to $2.99 the book went (which is a good price anyway since it's a full length book, more than twice as long as my Ellora's Cave novellas that sell for over $4). Interestingly, Amazon chose to lower it again to 99 cents on my behalf, on sale from $2.99. So I don't think the price is what's keeping the sales down.

Could it be the book? I don't think it is, because readers really seem to connect with the story, based on the 4 and 5 star reviews it's been getting, and the emails I get (thank you!!).

the "old" cover

Which makes me wonder... could the lower sales be due to the cover? The cover I love and that I paid for? *sob*

Only one way to find out. I had the cover redesigned by the same artist, and this time the hot guy is replaced by a hot *couple*.

I figure the experiment couldn't hurt - and hey, isn't it so awesome that we get to play with our self-published books like this to see what readers want the most? Because ultimately, what I care about is giving the reader what she (or he) wants - even if I thought my previous cover was hot stuff, people vote with their wallets - and I'm listening.

Bad Blogger! Bad!

Hello Fellow Writers!

I've been a very naughty blogger. I haven't been blogging nearly as much as I used to and/or should. Real life has gotten in the way, I suppose. I moved to Florida, and almost three weeks later I'm still surrounded by boxes. When I have a spare moment I want to write or edit... and the blog posts have fallen by the wayside.

I'm not sure how much of an effect blogging has on my book sales, to be honest. Actually, I am sure. There's been very little correlation between how much I blog and how many book I sell. I couldn't be sure of that before when I was only publishing through publishers, but now that I've added self-publishing to the mix I'm able to view my sales in real time, and I can see if I get a spike in sales or not based on my online efforts.

I've found, (and you may find something different, perhaps) that I'll sell books based on Tweeting a tagline and link on Twitter, but not if the same thing is on Facebook, and not if the same thing is in a blog post. Posting excerpts might result in a few sales, but it's hard to tell. Every sale counts, yes, and more importantly every reader counts.

Don't worry - I'm not giving up on blogging  - because I enjoy having a long-form communication with other writers and readers (and I'm definitely not giving up on Facebook because I love seeing you guys on there!) But I'm no longer frantic that if I forget to update my blog for a month (or *cough* longer, oops!) that everything I've worked for will go to waste. It's kind of a nice feeling! :)

Speaking of blog posts, I'm still posting once a month over at Flirty Author Bitches. This month I shared all four of my new book covers for my upcoming Dominatrix Fantasy Series! What do you think?

http://flirtyauthorbitches.com/2012/01/dominatrix-fantasy-covers/

I'm Moving!

Hello Fellow Writers!

Well, to my great dismay, NaNoWriMo didn't exactly work out for me this month. That's because life happened - we put our house on the market, which turned my writing time into decluttering and packing time. And my husband got a job in Port St Lucie, Florida - which means we are moving out of New York!

I'm going to miss all of my friends, and my son's wonderful school, and my RWA chaptermates. I'm also going to miss being near my parents, but when we move to Port St Lucie we'll be near DH's parents and more family as well, so it evens out :)

The best part is, we'll be leaving this:

 For this!