New Release: The Love Shack 1: Blake's Home

Happy Release Day!!!!!!!!!!

The day before I'm off to my first Gay Rom Lit Retreat...I'm sooooo happy to share Blake's Home.

The Love Shack (cue B52's hit...it'll be in your head all day long!) is a barn/bar where hot stuff happens in the back room :)

This is M/M erotic romance about two ranchers/ cowboy types and one is a Shifter!

Here is the gorgeous cover by Valerie Tibbs:

Blurb: Plenty of men have tried to get ranch hand Blake Louis to The Love Shack but none succeed. At the White family ranch, Blake has found friends and a home. He desperately wants to stay. Yet he must keep his shifter secret and avoid his feelings for Jared White. This job has to work out. No one ever wanted him forever—none of his family did—so why would a rich successful rancher want more than a roll in the hay with a dirt poor ranch hand?

Screwing the staff is a bad idea but Jared White needs more than sex from Blake. The men are friends but he’ll risk it for a chance at more. Love has never worked for Jared and a childhood rival delights in sabotaging him. Jared can’t give up hope. He believes that Blake is the one.

The only smart place to start is The Love Shack, a neutral place where Jared isn't the boss and Blake isn't the hand. Determined to win Blake’s heart, Jared delves into Blake’s past. As amazing as the sex is, Blake resists sweet promises. Love, trust, and happiness are as crazy to Blake as the bobcat he can shift into.

Available Now at Loose Id! : http://www.loose-id.com/love-shack-1-blake-s-home.html

I'll share when it hits third party spots...

My Publishing Situation

First off...sorry for the slow down in publishing.
My summer got stolen by family stuff and now a nasty sinus infection...

So a lot of authors are talking about this thing with Ellora's Cave. I'll probably be lost in the fog...but that's okay. I'm not trying to cause a fight or say anything profound. I'm not even asking you to do anything... All of this is opinion (FYI) except for my plan which--heck, they're my plans!

What's the point of this blog?

Last year I wrote a Halloween short quickie (maybe 8k) and sent it in. Somehow it didn't make it through edits in time for Halloween 2013 so it got pushed to 2014. (Yep, I was NOT thrilled.). This quickie was fully edited the old/normal way. It's short, hot, and cute. It's supposed to release in October. I liked the story...now I want to forget it exists.

I'm not saying buy it or don't. I don't tell my readers where to buy or what. I honestly don't care about this book anymore. I hate having a release at EC under these circumstances. It's not that EC is having problems, businesses change. Things happen. 

It's how a business responds to bad things when they happen that tells you a lot about them. 

Just like people...Do they get real, hunker down and deal with the problem as early as possible? 

Do they ignore it until it's a true emergency? 

Do they lash out and get defensive?

Bottom line, I won't be sending them anything more. I have 2 contracts for books to follow up Savannah Secrets but they aren't started and I won't write them (ever. for anyone.). The first one didn't make money anyway. Failure to deliver will eventually void the contract. Problem solved.

I'm counting my lucky stars that I sell better elsewhere. Places more business minded than party minded...that's where I belong. I'm not a party girl, I'm the wallflower... :)

So...if you're looking for a MM shifter story in October, I'd much prefer if you check out this one instead. It releases 10/14.  Blake's Home:  http://www.loose-id.com/love-shack-1-blake-s-home.html

It's new, not Halloween themed but there are hot cowboys. 

It's much longer and there are two sequels that I will do!

Beyond October...I will be tinkering with some new genres and trying out self pub a bit...but my plans for new erotic romance releases via a publisher will happen at this epub (this is my page). 

http://www.loose-id.com/authors/a-f/cheryl-dragon.html

I'm sorry if I rambled on. I've had enough family stuff and sickness stalling me this summer and I won't let a publisher's problem drag me down.

Back in the saddle everyone!! I will be, once I finish these antibiotics and get my voice back! 

Vote for the Geek!

All Romance Ebooks is doing a fun contest call Hottest Heroes!
They pick heroes from different books and people get to vote for their favorite.
It's fun and free ( you just need to log into your ARe account -- or create one--so they make sure you don't vote more than once per round)...

My hero (Dr. Eric Ridgeway) from Geek in the Woods is up!

He's in pairing #10 and it's a close race already...

If you enjoyed the book or just love geeks :) Please vote! Even if it's not for Eric...I'll understand ;)

CLICK HERE TO VOTE: http://www.allromanceebooks.com/contest_hottest_hero.html

check out the ebook here: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-geekinthewoods-1478588-145.html

When you vote, you're automatically entered in a random drawing ARe is doing for a gift certificate!

You have until Sept 7th to vote in Round 1! Help Eric make it to round 2!!

Life Gets In the Way...and some Changes

I hate excuses and pity parties! I HATE them...because writing is a job. Yes, we all get sick. Take your sick days as needed and keep plugging along. I'm not suggesting we don't need time off or things don't happen to throw us off. Big illnesses, deaths in the family, and so on can derail us for weeks. But true writers write...we can't help it. We'll find a new routine and eek out the time to get something done.

And we all NEED vacations. Take them :)

When my mom went into the hospital and I suddenly became a part time care giver and driver...my normally very productive writing schedule was tossed out the window. Everything has revolved around her needs and appointments. For a time she couldn't be left alone. A big chunk of time for writing has been very hard to get. Maybe I'll get one day off but I still need to clean and do laundry and other errands for myself.

So I've been editing, noting out story ideas, and promoting around my other duties. In a week or two, the doctor follow ups will be done and hopefully things can go back to mostly normal. Her recovery has been steady. I'm frustrated that I'm not writing a lot like before but I'm still finding ways to spend time with my writing.

I didn't share a lot or in detail about my mother because so many writers out there are guilty of whining or worse--lying. People are bullying them. Or life kicked them. How do you know what's true and what's not? (Maybe I'm really jaded but several writers have been caught lying about being bullied for sympathy sales and it's disgusting).

Plus, setbacks happen in life. Whether it's health or a book doesn't sell the way you hoped. Stuff happens. It's frustrating (oh yes, it is! I want to be writing all day!!!). But I wasn't raised to be 'oh poor me' and all that. You do what you have to do and get on with it.

Don't misunderstand. We all vent a bit at times. Life can be frustrating. If I let myself go negative, I can stay there for a long time and get really down. So I try not to put that on FB or in social media too much. Minor things like the dentist--we can all relate to that. But private stuff in detail, that's just not me.

Changes...

There was a time when I had a novella releasing a month but that time is over. Partly because I parted with a publisher who wasn't handling things professionally. This stuff happens too. You think something is working and whammo, someone lets the truth slip out. I like the truth but it radically changed my writing plan.

But that's neither here nor there.

I'm not playing the victim card because I'm not. But I feel I should share that there will be big changes from me. The last two months have hijacked my writing, more or less, and my publisher preferences have changed. Therefor, I won't have as many releases happening in the next six months.

The good news???? I'm going to be branching out to a new genre and longer books. Hopefully it's a success. A little risk can be scary but when so much is changing, why not dare to do something different?

Next release:
Blake's Home (MM rancher/ shifter) Oct 14th from Loose Id

More planned in the Men of Alaska series!

For now, I'll keep the new genre and that stuff to myself...until I have more concrete dates and so on.

The Writing Cave

I've been on a tangent in the last few days blogging about the business of writing...

It's been longer than that--as far as thinking. The playing field changes and we have to adapt. I've had too much time to think  lately.

On top of a surprise summer conference, my mother fell and has required a lot of help. Driving her around and helping her has splintered my routine and I haven't gotten much writing done at all. But there has been time to mull the changes I'm seeing...

In the next couple of weeks, hopefully the doctors will let her drive, work, and return to normal. The break from writing has been frustrating but given me time to reflect on the business side of things AND what I want to work on.

I've been a huge name or break out hit with my writing. Hopefully the old saying that everything happens for a reason is true! Maybe a little change can have a good result?

So Mid-Sept, hopefully, I'll be headed into the writing cave for a bit. Until then I have promotional stuff and edits plus mom duty...

Don't worry, there will be more Men of Alaska...at least 2 more to see how readers are liking them. But sometimes you need to throw in something different :)

The Pricing Game (hot buttons and not everything needs to be 99 cents!)

Whenever authors want to talk about pricing issues, extremes seem to pop up! Some people think you need to be at 99cents to move books. Or free! If all you want is to make a list or get a best seller tag on your name...I guess.

But this discussion isn't just about extremes. Price points matter in selling items. Many epubs have adjusted their pricing as competition grew and self pub added some pressure.

Sterling New Year is about 28k and priced at 3.99. This book did very well (for me, it's all relative)....

The next book was more like 35k (readers say they like longer books and this one had more to it) but it crossed a price level with the publisher and is 4.99. For a novella, that seems to be too much.

What did I learn? My novellas will be under 30k for this publisher going forward to maximize sales.

Pricing can be this sensitive for readers. They only have so much money and when you can buy full length novels for $4.99...believe me, I understand! Readers have tons of choices but one budget.

Some self pub authors do discount too aggressively. Full length novels for 99 cents or 2.99 permanently? That is devaluing the work. Now, a flash sale or book 4 in the series is out and you do a sale on book 1 for a week...sure.

Before self pub was a big thing, epubs could easily keep an eye on each others pricing levels relative to word count. They didn't stay lock step, that's for sure. Some are much higher than other epubs and now they're feeling that as readers and authors comment. But with so many self pubs wanting to see sales/ success--they are more willing to try anything for results.

For the record, I'm not against free reads. If you put up a short story or two for free, people can try it--that's not bad. But don't make every book free...

Plenty of well known musicians have videos up for free on youtube.com...so you can basically enjoy the song FREE. If you go to itunes to download it into your ipod/iphone etc...it's not free. So there is some good precedence for a free sample.

Or even doing a free code to giveaway for a book at a conference that's good for a few weeks but it's not free for EVERYONE all the time. Specials and sales are enticing.

The pricing strategy continues to evolve and the smart move is to pay attention to sales/reviews and what's changed (like my price point example above). ALSO avoid extremes. Holding your price high because of history or because you're worth more (when the market is at another point) only hurts you.

Going cheap might look like it's working but are you more likely to buy a book that is 4.99 on sale for 2.99? Or a book that is always 2.99? People like sales! If you're always cheap or free, then they'll expect it.

Bottom line:

1-If you're with publishing houses....know the price levels and how they relate to the word count. It can hurt you to jump up $1 because of a few thousand words (That's from personal experience!).

2-If you're self pub, price fairly and put books on sale for a limited time rather than price cheaply. Have a reason for the sale as well. A new release in that series is fine. But don't do constant sales or or it'll be expected...

Writing is hard work and we need to earn a living at it...but ignoring the current market and going too high or too low isn't in your best interest.

Writing and keeping the readers happy!

My degree is in business (accounting was my day job for 15 years until I was able to afford following my dream of writing full time).

Business is a part of the writing life a lot of authors don't like. They want to write! Some enjoy promotion, some don't. Some love to analyze trends and numbers, others don't. We all love to meet readers who like our books but bad reviews sting. We're people but all business is made up of people.

I want to stay in business! I want to keep on writing and sometimes that means dealing with the less fun aspects.

Businesses change. Trends shift. Markets and tastes are hard to track at times. Epubs come and go. Business shifts with things like self publishing and how Amazon ranks books.

E publishing freed a lot of authors from the NY system and provided options. NY is slowly changing and learning what readers what, how they want it, and what is workable in the new marketplace. They have a huge structure that needs to be reorganized.

Still, people are creatures of habit. We get used to a routine and we like it. Sometimes epubs do this as well. It's good to be King of your realm and have it your way.

Here's another way to look at it. Henry Ford once said "they can have any color car as long as it's black."

At that time, Ford at the only reliable/ affordable car for the general population. So if you wanted one...you came to his company and bought what he had stock in or you waited for one.

Power Advantage = Ford.

Is that how it is today?? I drive a Chevy. My sister, a Toyota and the color choices are endless.

Great businessmen (and women) are GREAT because they see the new needs. The NEW opportunities. Ford could play the power game for a while but the competition would catch up. They'd offer more things to get customers to come to them. There will always be competition, problems, and new challenges.

When I was in accounting, I worked with A LOT of salesmen. As a company, we knew who our competitors were (domestic and foreign). You had to fight for business at times--China would undercut pricing etc...

In publishing, we don't want to think about competition. Readers want lots of books! We're all good. All warm fuzzies, hugs, and happy thoughts around. The competition here is very different.

Guess what? It's NOT! Competing salesmen are nice to each other. They don't take it personally if you get a sale and they don't. They just work harder to get it the next time. It's not personal, it's business. They don't go into denial that it's competition but they can be friends too. And if they're both getting screwed by foreign competition, they may even share some data to get that business back in domestic hands.

Friends/ Allies/ Enemies/ Competitors...those are some blurred lines!

Don't fool yourself--we do compete in some ways. Some readers have a limited budget so they may want your book but other authors rank above you. This is a good place to be. We're always trying to improve our writing. Move up to that next level. Strive for excellence...keep writing!

But there are other competing factors. Pricing and location are key and authors with publishers don't control either of those. Publishers need to to do their homework. To understand they (and we authors who self pub some of our work) CAN'T control the consumer. We can suggest/ encourage them to buy in one place over another...but do you want Coca Cola to tell you they'll only be at Costco, not Sam's Club too? Or the other way around? You're the consumer...you want it where you want it or you might buy an alternative. Whether you're Coke,  Pepsi, or Dr. Pepper...we all want to be in stock on the shelves everywhere we can (EXCEPT pirate sites--but that's another topic).

The customer (the reader) is always right. You want it at Amazon...buy it there. IF a publisher wants to entice readers to their site instead...they need to make it worth the effort. Bonus content free? Buy 10 get 1 ebook free (I know many readers who prefer All Romance Ebooks because of this deal and their rebate offers). Epubs can do incentive programs--some do and I don't know that it actually works. Not enough benefit? Or is it just that the readers value the convenience to buy all books in once place more than the individual epub incentives?

As an authors, I want my readers to be happy! That's the smartest business plan any pub (NY or small) can have. The hardest part is finding the info on what's changing and how I need to adjust to be positioned right to keep the readers happy. While I'm busy writing things can change. The market can shift quickly...so READERS, please tell your favorite authors what you want. Publishers don't always listen to us either...so if you have favorite publishers...tell them too :D Facebook and website with contact info give you the access! Comment and share your opinion! Vote with your reviews if nothing else.