Looking through the July RT, I noticed that the July SPICE book is Enchanted: Erotic Bedtime Stories for Women. The following review made me want to buy the book:

“Using thirteen fairy tales and converting them into erotica tales, Nancy Madore provides an enchanting heated spin to popular stories like Snow White, Cinderella, The Ugly Duckling, Beauty and the Beast and Goldilocks, etc. The tales are fun to read especially when compared to the original (or at least your memory of such), Shelly Long’s Fairy Tale Theatre, and the Fractured Fairy Tales of R&B. Each story is fun with spicy alterations and twists into something ardent like kissing the dwarfs turn them into princes, Mrs. Fox and Mrs. Wolf discussing husband swapping, Beauty missing the Beast in her spousal prince or The Empress’ New Clothes. — Harriet Klausner”

I looked up the book on Amazon and found it has previously been self-published. Nothing wrong with that, but it seems I’m hearing about more previously self-published books being picked up by NY. I wonder if the self-publishing helped at all, or if the eventual sale to a NY house was inevitable.

In any case, I like the cover, and the stories sound fun and sexy, so I’ll be picking it up!

Check it out!

I’m working off a daily page count and actually trying to stick to it this time. It’s an interesting experience. I haven’t yet met my daily goal, but I’m far more productive than I have been lately.

And after the writing ADD I’ve been experiencing most of the year, it’s nice to wake up and see all the pages I wrote the day before. I’m still amazed when I finish a book and print it out. I look at the 400 pages and wonder where the hell all those words came from. Did I create all that? Wow!

That’s always a rush for me, the printing and mailing of my mss. Of course, then comes the nail biting while waiting to hear from my editors, but for a few days, the awe takes precendence. It’s one of the “little” things about this job that makes it all worthwhile.

Dance White Boy

I couldn’t see it in FireFox. I had to open IE. *g*

I’ve got a TON of pages to write in the next 8 weeks, so I’ll be in and out rarely I’m afraid. I’m hoping to hit a groove at at some point. Right now, I’m still a bit tired, but recovering.

We’re hard at work getting the Passionate Ink party ready (in Atlanta). It’s going to be AWESOME! For details, Inkers can check the PI message board. The party will be open to non-Inkers, too, and I’ll post that information when we get it together.

…but for some reason, my body clock got tweaked enough to make me sleepy early at night and wide awake early in the morning.

I’m not getting hardly any writing done. I may need to disconnect for a few weeks and get caught up. On sleep and work.

Do you find yourself more productive when you limit your online time?

The temperatures here in So. California have been in the mid-80′s this week. For some reason, I think it’s hot as hell. Summers here are usually in the 100′s, so it shouldn’t feel like an oven to me, but it does.

BTW, last night my cp sent me her latest chapter to crit and it blew me away. It’s rare these days that things get me hooked and tingly while reading. I think I’m just so frazzled that it takes being smacked upside the head to slow down and enjoy the ride. My cp’s work does that for me often. What a blessing.

…last night. I was so tired. I’m feeling better today. Awfully hungry, though. Like my body is protesting the horrible food in Daytona by asking for real food non-stop.

How bad was the food? Well, lunch the first day was a hamburger bun, with two slices of Oscar Mayer lunchmeat on it, covered in canned gravy with an ice cream scoop of mashed potatoes. I’m not kidding. Seriously. Bun, processed lunchmeat, and canned gravy. Desert was cookies that were set in baskets in the center of the table.

Another lunch was an ice cream scoop of tuna salad on a single lettuce leaf and two slices of melon. That meal at least had Red Velvet cake for desert, but I didn’t stay. I saw the tuna and melon slices, and left.

Today, I’m writing and mailing out promo packets for ASK FOR IT to the overseas booksellers on my list. If I want to save on postage, I have to send them out now, so I can take the slow boat and still get there 4-6 weeks prior to release. I’m mentioning this because I get asked about promotion a lot. There were several people who approached me at RT, just tell me how I seemed to be “everywhere”. I’m not sure how many authors get compliments on their promotion campaigns, but I do get a lot of them, which is super nice. I’m so glad they say something. How else would I know that it worked?

Anyway, my editor pulled me aside to introduce me to certain people. Overseas booksellers were telling her about how my mailings had encouraged pre-orders, which they rely on. It’s too expensive for them to stock US books, what with the shipping and all. (It’s also expensive for me to ship promo to them when you factor in postage and the cost of the items. But when the entire 40 person bookclub at the bookstore preorders your book and then tells their friends about it, I think the payoff is definitely there.)

I expanded my packets this time. With BBA, I sent out excerpt booklets (just one per store), a magnet (just one per store), and bookmarks. With AFI, I’m sending out a short bio and sales facts (how many books I have coming out next year, which publishers I write for, bestseller lists BBA made, newsletter subscriber facts, etc.), excerpt booklet (just one per store), 5×7 promotional cards I had made up, Allure Author bookmarks, my own bookmarks, and some pens (just 3 per store).

Now, a better rule of thumb is to start out with large promo and downsize with each subsequent release until you’re hardly promoting at all. I’ll be working on doing that eventually. But this is my first ST. I’ll have to promote heavily for my Avon series, too, since it’s a whole new genre for me. *sigh* However, I do hope that by this time next year, I’ll be promoting on a much smaller scale.