My So-Called Writing Life ~ @oddlynn3 #LynnCrain #amwriting #amreading

Sorry for posting so late but this is week full of promotion, promotion and more promotion. It’s all part and parcel of being an author. I can’t go a week without doing something promotion wise and there are many days I want off this train.

I remember years ago, when I was first starting out, I had this vision of someone else doing all my promotion. I dreamed of the day where all I had to do was approve it and off it went. I suppose in some weird way, I saw my life sort of like the one seen in the 1989 movie, She-Devil, where the author just seems to float on air and everything gets done and she has scads of fans.

Not.

Today, I know that there are times when life doesn’t live up to the fantasy. I frequently say that it’s not all tiaras and limos. Matter of fact, I can’t remember ever when it was tiaras and limos at all. Sure, when going to some RWA conferences, I’ve ridden in a limo. Needless to say, that was really the only choice of vehicle available. In Hawaii, to get from the airport to the hotels, it was cheaper to reserve a limo than to take a taxi. Same for New York and New Orleans.

Here where I live in Vienna, most of the taxis are Mercedes or BMWs or some other luxury car. Does that mean I’m driven around in limos here? I suppose if you look at it in some weird way, yes. The fact is that those are the normal occurrences in those places and therefore, I go with the norm of where I’m at.

Did it make me feel special? Not really. Only one limo, and that was in New Orleans, was it a stretch with a bar and we laughed all the way there. We only got it because the driver’s fare didn’t show up and he had to go back to the airport anyway. He gave us a good deal and off we went. Most of the time in the States, the limos have been town cars and enough said there.

So, back to promo. In that other world where I dreamed that someone else did it for me, I suppose I just took it for granted. In this world, I take nothing for granted and work very hard to get the word out there about my books. I blog, I Facebook and I tweet. I also do newsletters, Pinterest and a few other things, like selected promo with places like eBookSoda and BKnights as examples.

All of this takes time and effort to coordinate it and while I do get help, it does take a big chunk out of my writing day. I write a lot of erotic content and this time, I had to find places that would boost sales while taking erotic content. And we’re not talking overtly erotic here. Most of my eroticism happens during love making sessions and I use all the big words. I’ve been told on a number of occasions that I write sweet erotic romance. Huh? How do I market that?

Even though I’m doing all this right now, I know as a writer that the best promotion of any book I write is word of mouth. That’s where a fan tells another fan and then another until it snowballs and suddenly you have good sales and if you’re lucky, a best seller on your hands.

Right now, I am lucky enough to have a few award winning books under my belt and I’m hope that eventually, they will translate into sales. Part of my problem is that I have been extremely slow in getting my next books out. It’s been nearly a year between them and I know that this is a problem. And it’s not a problem of me not writing fast. That I can do but being out of my normal environs sometimes takes it all out of me and all I want to do is retreat.

Yeah, like I’ve said, I should be living the dream because I’m in Europe and my time is my own and yada, yada, yada. Sometimes it isn’t that simple. Sometimes it’s just wrapping your head around your situation and learning to live with it. I’m a slow learner in that area and now it’s almost time for us to leave and return home.

What am I promoting, you may ask…the book is Night of the Blue Moon…and it’s the last book in the Blue Moon Magic series. It has a few fans already and is slowly getting some sales. You can find a lot of information right here on the blog as well as the series blog at Our Blue Moon World.

And speaking of books. I did buy the next Longmire book by Craig Johnson. It cost way too much and though it’s an enjoyable read, my topic next week will be regarding ebook pricing.

Until then…

Lynn 

Promoting Myself

Hi everyone!

Hope you had a great weekend. I know I did. One thing did come up during all my talks with my fellow RWA chapter members. Most of them love my blog and the fact that I try to make it for readers and writers alike. All them said in their honest opinion, I didn’t promote my own stuff enough.

Well – duh – it’s hard to promote when you have things coming out but nothing new since Christmas. Now, I’m really not complaining because I’ve had a full personal life with new grandbabies, computers crashing and the like. Things happen and I know this. My goals for the rest of the year are very high with me writing a book a week. If it’s a long book, maybe in two weeks. LOL!

Yeah, this means that I have to really push myself but to be honest I have written three times more this month than the same period last month. Now this is a very good thing because I will be turning in two books to my publisher this week. Unfortunately, it’s not Merrick and Jenna because it went back to the bottom of the queue and I’m trying to stick to my schedule. I have two days for them this coming week and I plan to get it back in shape to also ship off.

Still that leaves my promo dilemma. So without further ado, I will give you something from my latest book...An Elf’s Love...enjoy!

An Elf’s Love

Available NOW!!!

Book 5 in the Santa’s Elves Series

www.extasybooks.com

http://tinyurl.com/AnElfsLove

He had never been one to run from a challenge and this would be no exception. Pushing himself up from the rail, he prayed he could keep his dick in his pants long enough to not frighten her away. Just the thought of what he would to her, what they could do together, made his dick hard. For a brief moment, his mind flashed with the thought his desire might just be an effect of this place. His senses told him otherwise.

He adjusted his cock and strode toward the woman of his dreams, wondering if she felt the same about him. At any rate, it didn’t matter. Maybe if he took her virginity, he could break free of this place. Maybe not, his mind told him. Deflowering virgins in this day and age was not in his agenda. Not that he had an agenda any more. No, he just had a playbook filled with mismatched references to people who weren’t what he thought.

Standing next to her chair, he leaned in closer to get a good whiff of her scent. He had a nose like a hound when in dangerous situations and he needed to know her smell. “Look,” his smooth baritone rumbled close to her ear, “apparently, I’ve been deceived on who you are and what you can do.”

Merna turned her head to him, her soft lips brushing his. Pulling back slightly, her eyes went wide as the sparks flew between them. “Apparently.” Her breath was like the wings of a butterfly against him, making him want to lean in to grasp her tight to him.

“Do you know what I want to do to you right now?”

See you all tomorrow!

Lynn

Writing Isn’t Easy

Today I’m going to explore the myth that writing is easy. If I could have a dollar for every time someone has told me writing is easy, I’d probably be a millionaire by now.

I kid you not.

People have this strange illusion you just sit down at the computer and the words flow. Now, I have to be honest, there are some days the words do flow but there are others where no matter what I do, nothing happens. The key is to make the days where nothing happens few and far between.

Now, there are many ways to do this and one I utilize quite often is to read industry books. Recently I found a new to me book called How To Write A Best Seller by Rob Parnell. Here’s one of the best quotes I have ever seen regarding rejects:

"The entire publishing industry is set up to say ‘no’ as a reflex. Have you noticed this? Of course. It’s self evident. Plus, it makes sense. If only one in a thousand published books ever sells more than 60 copies (did you know this was the shocking reality?) then saying ‘no’ does them little harm. In fact it saves them a lot of hard work, paper and money. The majority of publishers survive on re-printing books that have proved themselves first anyway – whether that be in the small presses or on other publisher’s lists. No-one, it seems, is prepared to stick their neck out anymore – if they ever were – and say ‘this is it’ – this is a potential bestseller. For good reason – it’s impossible to predict these things."

This is the hard, cold reality of writing and getting published.

In my mind, it all goes back to the fact that writing isn’t easy. You have to have a great product right out of the gate or it will languish and never sell a thing. This means to me every word on the written page must count. Every word must belong to the overall product. That’s hard in anyone’s book and it doesn’t matter whether you write scientific papers, white papers or the great American novel. Writing is hard work. Period.

Recently, I heard the lamenting of ebook writers who were saying they haven’t sold very many books over the short course of their career. One of things I have noticed in today’s world is the fact one must promote themselves daily. Matter of fact, I set aside a whole day to promoting and it’s usually Wednesday. So you all know if you see more of me on the loops on this day, you know why.

There’s also the fact, I belong to an unsightly number of looks. At last count, it was somewhere in the neighborhood of 175 of them. That’s right, 175 and it so explains the nearly 3000 emails a day. I’m sure you’re all wondering how I keep them all straight. Well, I can thank Outlook for this as I have tons of folders and archive weekly what I don’t delete. Then there is also the fact that on a yahoogroup, your messages are always there. So if you’ve missed something, you can just go back into the group and see what you’ve missed.

I’ve had to do that a lot with the number of times I’ve killed a computer. But that’s a story for a different day.

Today’s quote definitely goes along with the subject. Hope you agree:

Easy reading is damn hard writing. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne

I couldn’t have said it better. Hope you all have a great writing or reading day!

Lynn