Starting 2013 off right with a Liebster Blog Award

I received this nomination for the Liebster Blog Award from AJ Matthews and his AJ's Wargames Table blog. Thanks, AJ, my biggest supporter and bestest friend ever! ;)

Now, by the rules, I must nominate five others for the award. In no particular order they are:

1.)  The Log Line Blog -- Lynn Crain has put together a wonderful promo blog for her fellow authors. Short and sweet, your log line will sell your book!

2.) MFRW Authors Blog -- A great group of great romantic fiction authors.

3.) Paranormal Cravings -- Whenever you have an urge to read about vampires, werewolves and shapeshifters, this is the blog for you!

4.) Romance Excerpts Only -- To get in the mood, exactly the blog to check out for inspiration!

5.) Unstoppable Heroes -- Author Kayelle Allen shares writing tips, her new releases and other fun stuff.

My thanks again to AJ for the nomination. Here are the rules to follow if you're nominated:

Copy and paste the award on your blog linking it to the blogger who has given it to you. Pass the award to your top 5 favorite blogs with fewer than 200 followers by leaving a comment on one of their posts to notify them that they have won the award and listing them on your blog.

Sit back and bask in that warm fuzzy feeling that comes with knowing you’ve just made someone’s day!

50 Shades of Mr. Grey! More Midlist Author Greatness!

Why read the rest when you can have the best?

http://www.lsbooks.com/mr-grey-and-the-hotel-ghosts-p403.php

You never know when you're going to run into a famous author... This past month I discovered I'd been living with him!

Believe it or not, I'm living with the author of the original Mr. Grey series! I know what you're thinking: "You can't be married to the author of the 50 Shades of Grey...well, at least not in the state where you currently reside." You're right on both parts, but I'm not talking about the fan-fiction-based, pseudo BDSM story that's been in the news lately. I'm talking about the original Mr. Grey series--the one written by A J Matthews.

http://www.lsbooks.com/mr-grey-and-the-spirit-from-the-sky-p404.php

 Martin Grey in A J's series is a ghosthunter, a very sexy ghosthunter whose job is to help people rid themselves of obnoxious haunting spirits. Think of Ghostbusters meets a very sexy David Tennant or Ryan Reynolds (or whoever your current crush happens to be). The storylines are filled with suspense and intrigue, and the cover art is romantic and uplifting--not boring, sterile gray in color.

http://www.lsbooks.com/lady-in-white-p336.php

 Definitely this is an e-book series worth downloading on your Kindle or Nook this Halloween season. What could be better than hot, erotic-romance with the sexy Martin Grey while he solves a few mysteries and rids the world of a few bothersome ghosts?

http://www.extasybooks.com/rebel-hearts-2/

What's even better is that there are currently four books in the Mr. Grey series. A J penned a fascinating historical "prequel" to the Mr. Grey series, Rebel Hearts. In this story you can meet some of the people who will later haunt the contemporary stories. Very cool! Once again, A J's fascinating novel has been blessed with gorgeous cover art. It was even nominated for an EPIC Award this past year.

Can't figure out what the fuss is about in ebook-land over a poorly written fan-fic? Me neither! A J Matthew's Mr. Grey, Ghosthunter series is head and shoulders above that other series. Romance and action galore in well-written novels that you can be proud to tell your friends about! (Available at LSB Books, eXtasy Books and at Amazon.)

Part of the 50 Shades of Great(ness) Promotion.

Support midlist authors--buy and read their excellent fiction!

50 More Shades of Great(ness)

Since I have two scheduled book releases within the next two months, I thought I'd share a little secret with my readers. I could really use your help. I could really use your expertise with social media and the web. I need to sell books (not have them pirated) and I need to sell them today. 

Why? Because the rent  has to be paid in cash. I can't talk my landlord into taking a book manuscript in lieu of rent payment for some reason. He likes money--don't ask me why! So does the grocery store, the gas station, and the utilities. (I gave up buying non-essentials like medicine, make-up and clothing a long while back.) If the world ever went back to bartering, it might be feasible to get some creditors off your back with trading writing services, but at this time, they just look at you funny and start thinking about things like eviction notices.

As a reader, you can help me (and many other struggling authors out there--I know I'm not alone) by buying and reading our books. After you've read one of our books, you can post a short and honest book review on Amazon, Goodreads, our publisher's web site, or even your own blog. You can tweet a buy link to your contacts and pin the cover art on your Pinterest boards. Let us know that you've done so, and we'll gladly quote you on our blogs, book jackets, web sites, Google Plus, etc., and tweet and pin in return. By sharing your thoughts with other potential readers across the web, you are giving our work some much needed publicity that we can't otherwise afford.

Most of the book review places these days are asking for money upfront (there's that cash fixation again!) to review books. Okay, if I can't afford to replace my sandals (after I accidentally ripped a strap off my ten-year-old pair), then I'm not able to pay hundreds of dollars to a book reviewer to read my book. I can't afford to pay for advertising online, either, since few sites give those away for free. So when readers freely share their book reviews and use their blogs, Twitter and Pinterest accounts to help advertise our books, they are truly helping out the little guys and gals. We appreciate it, too.

There's lots of talk about helping  "little people" survive these days, but there's little being done to actually do it or so it seems. If you want to make a difference in the life of a struggling writer, please buy--and encourage your friends to buy--his/her books and tell others how much you enjoyed them. 

We as authors don't expect that all of us will become the next J.K. Rowling or have a mega-bestseller like Fifty Shades of Grey (and why would we want to be copycats anyway?), but if we're given a fair chance, perhaps more of us will be able to support our families.

To put it simply, when writers can eat, they can live long enough to spin more tales of fun and fantasy for your enjoyment. It's a win-win situation.

My latest release, Blood Bond, a vampire erotic-romance from eXtasy Books: http://www.extasybooks.com/blood-bond
 (You can read an excerpt from it at my Celine's Dreams blog.)

Feel free to share the buy link and reviews of it wherever you're inspired to do so. Also, you can share ideas of how and where to promote our books in the comment section below. Thank you.

Fifty Shades of Great(ness)

This is the logo for my new campaign to promote e-authors.

 Readers are talking everywhere online about it. The recent buzz over Fifty Shades of Grey has brought a lot of attention to e-books, erotica/erotic-romance e-books in particular. While I’m glad to see the general reading public discovering the wide world of electronic books it does make me wonder: Do readers realize the e-book has been with us for more than two decades? Do they realize there are many thousands of unsung authors of e-literature that can write just as tantalizing—if not more so—a story than this relative newcomer on the scene?

 

Science fiction and romantic elements minus the handcuffs. 

If I were to list all the talented e-book authors I know personally, the list would be miles long. I’m not kidding! In deference to time and space, I’ll just mention that I’m associated with some terrific e-book authors via my publishers eXtasy Books/Devine Destinies Books and Mojocastle Press.

 (www.extasybooks.com / www.devinedestinies.com and www.mojocastle.com ) Yes, I’ll admit to being biased, but generally the quality of fiction of my publishers’ releases is many, many more than fifty shades above the average fluff that receives the majority of the new e-reading public’s attention. It does make me despair that these e-fiction creative geniuses don’t receive the consideration they so rightly deserve. And I want to do more to help sing their praises and raise awareness of their greatness.

A romantic-comedy that doesn't feature whips and chains. They do exist!

So my challenge to the e-reading public is this: Stop and check out the web sites of smaller e-presses like eXtasy Books and Mojocastle. Buy (don’t pirate) an e-book or two and give them a read. I know you’ll be pleasantly surprised. There is endless variety in e-books waiting for smart readers to discover and many are great reads. So, stop following the crowd and automatically buying whatever Amazon tells you to! Explore, browse, read and learn for yourself that your heart’s desire in fiction is available at the merest click of your mouse.

And I ain't goin' to promo no more! Hallelujah!

I've pretty much had enough. I've had enough of this idea that somehow writers are suppose to be their own P.R. company on top of everything else. That's why as of today, I'm giving up... Giving up being a "promotion whore" because, frankly, I suck at it and it's no fun.

You will still see me around at the various social media sites, as this is the only way I seem to communicate with friends and family these days, but I will not be promoting my writing. Uh-uh, not at all. I will strictly be myself (whomever she may be). Anything I say or do will be coming out of the mouth of Cindy A. Matthews and not my writing personas (including the one with that very same name).

This should please my publishers to no end, as everyone is saying we authors should be "pleasant, kind, entertaining and, above all else, NONCONTROVERSIAL in our bloggings and twitterings." Okay, now that I'm myself (and not a writing persona) I can freely express how I feel: 

I'm fed up with nonexistent sales and the millions of free ebooks giveways for the Kindle lately. Since I am giving up the promotion business, I will longer be in the vicinity of all these other authors' promotions, and, hence, my blood pressure will drop. I will be blissfully unaware of how lousy I'm doing promo-wise, and I will rejoice in my ignorance of all things of a promotional nature.

If you have had similar ideas of going "no-promo" or are a reader who is tired of endless authors sending out endless tweets, emails, Facebook postings, blogs, press releases, etc., touting their next free ebook giveaway for the Kindle (the majority which seem to come from the "indies" or self-published and not the professionally published), feel free to vent in my comment box below.

Now, what will I be able to do with all this "free time" I'll have on my hands? Should I actually... don't say it... WRITE?