Vixenwriter

Just a quick note to say I’ll be scarce over the next week or so as I finish up INSIDE OUT – I’ll toss up some excerpts here and there but if you’re looking for an email back from me, it might be a few days!

Today’s theme is Dumped! So I thought I’d use an excerpt from LAID BARE when Erin dumps Todd ten years before…

LAID BARE by LAUREN DANE
Copyright 2009, Lauren Dane
All Rights Reserved, The Berkley Publishing Group

“I don’t know how to talk to you.” He scrubbed his hands over his face.

“Why do you make simple things so complicated? Maybe you should stop worrying so much and just talk to me. Be yourself. Why don’t you tell me about yourself? We’ve been, um, dating for a few months now, but you don’t talk about yourself much.”

He took a bite of pizza and watched her carefully. “Not much to tell. Seattle born and bred. Being a cop runs in the family. My dad, both brothers and my sister are cops. I’m single because I broke off an engagement about a year and a half ago. I’m dating around right now. It’s hard to find a woman who accepts the whole cop’s wife thing.”

Erin looked at him and thought over what she’d heard.

“Maybe you’re looking in the wrong place.”

“What do you mean?” He shifted uncomfortably. “Look, Erin, I like you and all, but this . . . thing between us is just fun. No offense but we’re not suited at all.”

It shouldn’t have hurt, but it did. He was delusional. “Bullshit.” She finished the first slice and leaned back. “I’m not asking you to marry me or anything. But we connect, Todd Keenan. You spend so much time trying to just be fucking normal, you get tripped up in it. Just be yourself. Yes, you like dirty talk. You’re kinky, big deal. Why do you fight so hard against what you seem to really like? I like it, I’m willing. You come hard. Why do you deny yourself this way?”

“It’s not who I am!” He stood and stormed into the kitchen. She heard the plate clatter and she wiped her mouth.

“Is it so fucking awful? It’s not like you want to wear a chicken suit while you fuck someone wrapped in plastic wrap or something. You don’t, do you?” She laughed but stopped when he growled and stomped back into the living room.

“It’s not who I am, damn you! Look, it’s you and me. I’m not like this with other women. I’m gentle and the sex is nice. I don’t know what comes over me when you’re near. It’s not right. I wasn’t . . . I’m not supposed to like it.”

She shrugged. What else could she do? Beg him to be who he was? When he thought being who he was, who she was, made them some kind of freaks? “The last thing I want to do is force you into talking dirty and begging me to suck your cock with my fingers in your ass, stroking your prostate.”

He winced and petty satisfaction settled in. He liked it. Got off on it. And it was her fault he was so damned repressed he hated himself over it?

She grabbed her bag. “I’ll spare you the it was fun talk and you can spare me the it’s not you, it’s me stuff. Okay?” Hesitating, she sighed and tiptoed up to kiss him quickly. “I hope you find a place in your life when you can let go and be happy. But I’m not a dirty secret. I’m not bad and wrong for being comfortable with myself, and I won’t let you make me feel that way.”

He slammed a hand against the wall next to her and then grabbed her around the waist, pulling her flush against his body.

“Damn it, Erin, I don’t lose control. I’m a controlled man. I make good choices. I don’t fuck women against alley walls. It’s offputting.”

“Really now? So who fucked me in that alley, Todd? Your doppelganger? Who shoved my mouth down on his cock in his truck three nights ago when we got back from the grocery store? You like it rough. You like it dirty. Why are you so ashamed of it? You didn’t hurt me. I was there with you every step of the way.”

“I don’t want to like it, damn it. Can’t you understand that? I don’t choose to like it. I don’t want to be the man who likes to fuck rough! I choose not to be him.” He shoved a hand through his hair.

Pain sliced through her. “I get it. You think being with me is a bad choice.”

“It’s not . . . I didn’t plan for you, Erin. I like you.”

“But you don’t like who you are when you’re with me. You blame this on me and I’m not having it. I won’t be responsible for your life. You’re a big boy.”

“No. Oh fuck, I don’t know. This is very intense. I have an intense job. I’m not sure if I need an intense personal life too.”

“I see.” She looked into his eyes, wishing he’d wake up and see her. See them and what they could have together.

“You keep saying that, Erin. But how can you see? I don’t even see.”

“All I see is a man who can’t face himself. And it makes me sad, because you’re alive when we’re together and you’re not hiding who you are. You’re playing a game with this, a stupid game. Why I don’t know, because I like who you are. I won’t play this game with you. I’m worth more and so are you.” She leaned up, pressed her hand over his heart and kissed his chin. “Good-bye, Todd. I wish you well, I really do. If you change your mind, give me a call. Maybe I’ll be available.”

He watched her walk out the door and told himself it was for the
best, but he knew he was lying to himself. Just like she said he was.
Be Sure To Visit Today’s Other Snippeters!
Lissa Matthews
TJ Michaels
Ashley Ladd
McKenna Jeffries
Taige Crenshaw
Shelli Stevens
Eliza Gayle
Vivian Arend
Mari Carr
Lauren Dane
Shelley Munro

I’ve already announced this at my group and on twitter, but I forgot to say so here – I learned this week that I’ll be in an upcoming Berkley Heat anthology with Beth Kery, Megan Hart and EMMA HOLLY (I can name her now). She’s one of my writing idols and I’m thrilled!

I don’t have a lot of details yet, just that it’s contemporary romance and will have a menage/love triangle theme. My story (plotted it last night) will be a menage story. The antho is slotted for mid 2011!

As it’s writerly wednesday, I may be back later to post a snippet of something. Or maybe not! I plan on writing all day long because my deadline for Inside Out is coming fast.

- EDITED TO ADD: The unnamed author from above is EMMA HOLLY! I’m so beyond thrilled. When my agent called me last night to give me details (because she knows of my love of Holly’s books) I said, “No fucking way!” because I’m professional like that. Thank god Laura knows me well enough to understand this was a good thing, LOL.

Please welcome the fabulous Juliana Stone to the blog today! Jules is made of awesome and her very first book is out today from Samhain! Her next book, His Darkest Hunger, is out in April from Avon (you can check out her upcoming titles at her website!)

Back to the Future….Or not.

Interesting question, no? And one my heroine in Black Legacy deals with on a daily basis. How cool…to be able to travel either forward or backward in time. For Frankie Black it’s pretty much a family business. They are the time police! She and her sisters are the only thing standing between rogue jumpers, people like The New Order, who would manipulate time for their own evil purposes!

I had so much fun writing this short for Samhain and am totally pumped that it releases today! I’ve always been fascinated by time travel. The very possibility of it is intriguing and amazing to me. .

In this first installment in this series, Frankie has been ordered back 300 years, to present day earth in order to make sure that Dekkar James survives the night. He’s been targeted for assassination by The New Order. Little does Frankie know she’s about to meet the man of her dreams….a man who is perfectly, imperfect.

Here is an excerpt of their first meeting:

“Don’t say I didn’t bring you anything for your birthday. You owe me one, Dekkar.”

Frankie’s eyes shot up until they were caught, held in place with an invisible rope by the greenest, sexiest eyes she’d ever seen on a man.

Dekkar James stood a few inches from her, hands loose at his side, shirtless and ripped. His incredible torso was covered in an elaborate array of colorful tattoos that snaked up, caressing the hard abs.

Seconds turned into a long, slow silence, broken by the most devastating smile imaginable.

He didn’t speak, just held out his hand.

Frankie’s breath caught in her throat, and she felt as if she were coming apart, so intense was her body’s reaction.

She hesitated for one moment, and then her hand reached for his, a feeling of fire racing over her flesh as she made contact.

Everything faded away, and she let him lead her out the door, down yet another hallway, until the only sound was their heavy breathing. The air felt thick and it clung to her skin, like a soft caress. She glanced down to her timepiece. She had a little over an hour before the operatives from the New Order were scheduled to arrive.

She wanted to look up, but couldn’t meet his eyes. Her own pale blue orbs had stopped at the sight of the huge bulge that strained against the black of his leather.

When she did manage to raise her eyes higher, his mouth was descending, and she felt her own lips tremble in anticipation.

What the hell was wrong with her? She was on assignment for Christ sakes, and was about to break one of the most vehemently enforced rules of a Black Opal.

No fucking with a target.

His lips were firm, with just a hint of softness that gripped the edges as he opened his mouth wide, and plundered her warm wetness with his tongue. Fire erupted, hot and raging; it was immediate and all consuming.

Frankie had never in her life experienced such a kiss. It was both passionate and brutal in its intensity. She knew she was lost. There would never again be such a first kiss.

Not ever.

Sigh…I love first kisses especially when they lead to one helluva a hot encounter!

I will give away a free copy of this book, but you must comment with an answer to this question…If you had the ability to time travel where would you go? To what time and place? I’ll check back tomorrow and announce a winner!

All eBooks are 50% off at All Romance eBooksand Omnilit this weekend! The ladies over at Smart Bitches have the details but the discount code is: SBTBARe1

If I might be so bold as to suggest some of my titles at All Romance ebooks and also at Omnilit

Both stores have an awesome digital book collection (I say this as I stock up on all sorts of books myself!)

This is a great way to go around the brewing war between Amazon and Apple and still get the ebooks you need! Thanks so much to Smart Bitches and All Romance Ebooks!

How about an excerpt from NO RESERVATIONS? Kate and Leah both have their own reasons for escaping the holidays back east and have headed to Vegas together for some girlfriend time…

NO RESERVATIONS by MEGAN HART and LAUREN DANE
Copyright 2009, Megan Hart and Lauren Dane
All Rights Reserved, Random House

‘You’re a bitch when you drink champagne,’ Leah snickered. ‘Do you think I have to keep it? You know, bring it out when they visit and stuff?’

‘So you’ve accepted they’ll visit? You’ve accepted you and Bingo have a capital F future then? You know you want to marry him, Leah. He’s young and eager and yes, he makes me want to ruffle his hair. If I could reach it without standing on a chair that is. But he’s a good dude. He loves you. He accepts you and respects your space. He gets you—in and out of bed. He has a job. He’s not a dick like Mike. He’ll apparently grow into a hot older man like his dad. And you’ll have a lifetime supply of doilies and BeDazzled shirts. Lastly and most importantly, he doesn’t have an ex-wife.’

‘Marriage? It seems like such a big step. I do not appreciate that he planned to do it there. He should have done it in private. He should have discussed it with me first!’

‘You know he did it because that’s how he thinks. He wanted to make a statement to you about how important you are to him. I bet asking women to marry them at Christmas with the family is important down in Hooterville. If you weren’t ancient, he would have given you his Four H pin or whatever the fuck.’

‘Hooterville, ha! You’re going to hell for making me laugh about this.’

‘You can sit at my table in the cafeteria.’

They paid and went outside, relaxed, mildly intoxicated, still full from an awesome sushi lunch and all prettied up. Kate hadn’t been so manicured and facialized in a while. Her roots were done, her pores were sparkling clean, her skin was soft and she smelled good. She wished Dix were there to get an eyeful.

Once they got in the cab heading back to the hotel, Leah got back to the subject. ‘We’re already living together, why isn’t that enough? And you’re one to talk. Dix wants to live with you and you keep putting him off.’

‘Of course I am. I would live with him if he didn’t have the whole daughter situation. I can’t be the slutty, selfish girlfriend who makes him think with his cock. I love him, Leah. He’s patient and kind, he thinks about what makes me happy. He loves to give oral sex and he’s damned good at it. He even had dinner with my parents at Thanksgiving! But I don’t want him to put his kids aside for me. I couldn’t live with that. He adores them. He’s a great, involved father. It’s only two more years. We can deal that long. I’m actually trying to see if I can take some of the cases further out of the city. There’s an entire division that deals with Lancaster and the surrounding environs. If I can do that three days a week, it might be a reality that I can move in with him and keep my place in the city.’

‘Have you told him about this?’

‘He only recently began the let’s move in together thing. He suggested we move to Lancaster which makes it halfway between our jobs and we each commute. Which is great but it doesn’t get at the situation with his daughters still going to school. While I don’t mind him commuting an hour, why should they give up the house he’s lived in for all these years?’

‘Because they’re old enough to deal with that. For God’s sake, they’re not eight years old. You said they were with Pickles most weekdays anyway because she was way closer to the school and their jobs.’

‘Back to you. I just think you should take a chance on Bingo. He’s worth it. He’s like way hot and stuff. He folds your laundry because it makes you happy. Christ, Leah, what man does that? He’s like, well listen, if he were five or six years older and not your boyfriend and Dix wouldn’t kill me and I didn’t love him and all, I’d nail Brandon myself.’

They got out and let the doorman get the door for them as they sauntered through the lobby, through the atrium and back toward the elevators.

‘Whore.’ Leah laughed as they rode up to their floor.

‘You know it. So when are you going to call him? He has to be worried.’

‘I know. After dinner tonight I will. Maybe I’ll go home when you do.’

They got off and walked around the serene, luxuriously appointed corner and what should they see but Dix and Bingo looking like they slept rough and very unhappy.

Kate stopped, sheepish. ‘Um. Guess you found where I was staying.’

Mouth in a hard line, Dix took the card key from her hand, opened the door, handed it to Brandon who looked equally pissed off, and turned back to Kate.

‘Which one is yours?’

She pointed to her room. He swatted her ass and pushed her along the way. She cast a look over her shoulder at Brandon and Leah before Dix slammed the door and menaced her.

‘No offense or anything, but one, you look like you slept on the floor of a Greyhound Bus and two, why are you here?’

He stepped toward her and she wrinkled her nose. ‘There’s a three, you smell like pee. Did Bingo have an accident or something?’

He threw up his hands and began to laugh. ‘Damn you, Kate. Why can you always disarm me? I’m supposed to be mad at you. Bingo? And why the fuck do you look so good? Being away from me means you turn into some fucking supermodel?’

She shoved him toward the bathroom. ‘I wouldn’t have had four glasses of champagne if I knew you’d be here. Bingo is apparently what Ma and Pa Kettle call Band Boy. If you tell him, I will have to kill you before Leah kills me so keep that to yourself. Get out of those clothes and into the shower. I can’t say I’ve ever had a thing for homeless, urine stinky men, even ones who can blow me until I scream.’

He got in and she brought back a glass of champagne just as he was getting out of the shower.

‘Thank you.’ He drank it in two swallows, put the glass down and hauled her to him for a kiss that left her tingly, shaky and breathless. ‘That’s better. I looked like I slept on the sticky floor of a Greyhound Bus because we spent last night at the ever so lovely Penny Pincher motor court about five miles from here with hot and cold running hookers with two-day beard growth and fishnet stockings in the lobby. By the way, he offered us a freebie. They had hourly rates. Brandon’s feet hung off the end of the bed. Which crinkled from the plastic lining on the mattress. My skin is still crawling. And here you are staying in the motherfucking penthouse suite at the Palisades! Why do you look so good? You smell like mango. Your hair is all soft and straight. Your breasts are very fetching in that blouse. What the fuck have you been doing?’

‘A guy I saved from a very nasty legal situation a few years ago works here. They had a last minute cancellation. It’s swank, no? I look rested because I am. I slept until eleven the last two mornings and I had breakfast served at the table out there while Kate and I leafed through magazines. Yesterday we shopped and lunched and went dancing. Today we had a spa day which included a massage, a facial, skin treatments including mango body butter, a manicure and a pedicure. Oh and I got my hair done. In between those things, we had sushi for lunch and flirted with servers. I also masturbated three times for no other reason than I could and I knew Leah wasn’t going to burst in without knocking and pretend she forgot I was in here. Why are you here? And most importantly, is Pickles with you?’

‘You test me, woman. You wouldn’t tell me where you were. I wanted to be with you. You promised me this entire winter break and I’m here to collect. Take those clothes off.’

She grinned. ‘How did you find me?’

‘Bingo has hotel connections. My God your tits look good.’ His hands replaced her bra and she arched into his touch.

‘I have a suggestion.’

‘I’m all ears and erection.’

‘We both owe the other a blow job, let’s start with that first.’

Don’t forget to visit today’s other Snippeters!

Vivian Arend
McKenna Jeffries
Ashley Ladd
Kelly Maher
Shelley Munro
Taige Crenshaw
Lauren Dane
Shelli Stevens
TJ Michaels

Today’s guest is the most fabulous Denise Agnew whose book MAJOR PLEASURE releases today from Ellora’s Cave.

Several years ago, I proposed an anthology featuring military men to Ellora’s Cave. Within a short time I came together with Kate Hill and Arianna Hart to write the BY HONOR BOUND anthology. To make these stories even more interesting, we linked them together with family ties. The first story His Sister’s Kiss by Kate Hill features Vietnam veteran Master Sergeant Abraham Forbes. Major Pleasure, my story, features the son of Abraham, Major Blayne Forbes, Army Special Forces. The third story, Charming Annie features Major Annie Forbes, Blayne’s cousin. I’m very happy to say that MAJOR PLEASURE will be released again January 27 as an ebook only at Ellora’s Cave www.jasminejade.com. MAJOR PLEASURE features a theme I continued to touch on in my HOT ZONE series at Samhain Publishing www.samhainpublishing.com of a soldier coming home from war and how he handles the challenge of returning to civilian life and the woman that helps him find that courage.

I’ve always enjoyed series or linked stories, just as many other readers do. I believe authors can write a series to death, and I’ve stopped reading a series if I feel the stories are starting to sound all the same. It takes considerable work for an author to write a series and keep it fresh. Do you like series and if so, why? If not, why?

Click the “more” jump to read an excerpt to spark your appetite for more major pleasure.

He’s got the military command…

Army Special Forces Major Blayne Forbes has always desired Jemma Teagan, but knows she’s off limits for a casual relationship. The last thing he wants is involvement with a forever kind of woman. Jemma’s desire for the diamond-in-the-rough soldier has never faded, and when he tumbles into her arms, the tough guy sends her heart rate into orbit. She doesn’t want to love a man destined for danger, until he challenges her to a display of hardware she can’t resist.
Read the rest of this entry »

WORTH THE WAIT

Ella Tipton is a survivor. In the wake of an attack that left her nearly dead, she’s spent each day putting her life back together. Once vibrant and outgoing, she’s needed to reclaim the best parts of who she was while retaining the hard won lessons. There hasn’t been room for any romantic entanglements, even if she were ready. Still, it didn’t mean she had to stop sneaking looks at Mister Tall, Dark and Tattooed himself.

Security professional Andrew Copeland isn’t quite sure when his jones for the lovely and decidedly skittish Ella developed. He’s known her for years, has watched her triumph over the pain she’d been dealt. Cope is no stranger to women, but he knows the nervous flush he gets every time he talks to her is different than any attraction he’s had in the past. Determined to get Ella to let him in, Andy does the one thing he can think of to get close: he offers her hands-on training in self-defense.

While Ella’s sure he’s just being nice, the prospect of being able to touch him and gain the tools to push away the last vestiges of her fear is more than she can resist. Soon enough, Cope shows Ella his feelings are far more than friendly and re-ignites something deep inside her. Before long desire and love turn them both inside out.

Uber busy today with copy edits – so how about an excerpt from INSATIABLE? Carina and Daniel are on the run after he’s smuggled her away from her home ‘Verse and they’re getting to know each other…

PHANTOM CORPS: INSATIABLE by LAUREN DANE
Copyright 2010, Lauren Dane
All Rights Reserved, The Berkley Publishing Group
Releasing July 6

“Your metabolism is very fast.” She didn’t know if she could talk about her mother just then. Not without crying.

“I burn a lot of calories while I’m on a mission. But that’s not what you mean.”

His tendency to see right through her was unsettling. “Do you have bio enhancements, then? My father’s men have to take in more calories, too. They carry around special protein bars.”

He snorted. “Special protein bars? Is that what they call them? Let us be honest, shall we? They carry around bricks of chems laden with stimulants because your father’s labs have turned them into super soldiers. He’s created an army of addicts, and he’s their source. That’s not loyalty. It’s a dangerous line he walks. I’m not addicted to anything but good food. I work with my body; I need the calories. I’m not in the military because it’s the only way I can get my drugs.”

It had been the longest speech he’d given since she’d met him, and despite her offense and some shame, she found herself fascinated by the cadence of his speech. The way he spoke, like each word weighed a certain amount and they all had to fit, precise, and yet, there was wildness, too, just beneath the surface.

“I apologize. It wasn’t meant to insult you.”

“I’m not insulted by your question. You didn’t mean it to be offensive. I understand that. I told you I’d give you answers when I could, and I mean that. I’m insulted by the way humans are engineered to serve better, but in doing so, they’re unmade and turned into automatons. Automatons chemically dependent on your father. To live. That offends me. I serve willingly. Others should have the same choice. There should always be a choice.”

Shame made her skin hot. “I agree it’s not perfect. But to assume you had not been pushed into a place where you chose this life, but over something worse, is somehow free choice, is to underestimate how dependency works, does it not?”

He chewed, thinking. She sat back, sipping her tea and watching him, fascinated with the way he processed information.

“I’m not a chem-head, and I don’t serve tyrants because I’m a slave to a craving. However, you are correct that at the time I entered the military, it was a choice between that and something worse. But I choose to be here now. I choose to do my job. I don’t do it for more chems; I don’t do it for credits. I do it because it’s what I do. I do it because it’s what I’m good at, and I make a difference. I did not make a purely free choice when I entered, but staying? That’s my choice, and that is what makes me different from the Skorpios. It’s what makes you different, too, Carina.”

If someone had told me five years ago when my first book was published that I’d be mentioned in a NYT article, I may have had trouble believing it. I’m very, very blessed. Let me get that out of the way. It’s something I try to remember every day, no matter how craptastic the day is.

The NYT article entitled With Kindle, The Bestsellers Don’t Need to Sell – is on the front page of this morning’s New York Times and it’s about how free can be a great promotional tool. I think the title is a bit misleading – sure if you do a free giveaway you can rank at the top of the bestseller’s list in the Kindle store, but the point of a free giveaway is to expose a large group of readers to an author’s voice to hopefully bring a portion of them back as readers who will then pick up your other titles which aren’t free.

This happened to me, but the giveaway in October wasn’t the first time. I’ve always given my books away for free in contests. Before Triad came out I have believed that giving away my books is the most effective form of promotion. Other authors disagree, but as this is my blog, LOL, I’m saying it’s effective and that’s backed by five years of experience.

I not only give away my own titles, but I love to give away other people’s books too to hopefully hook readers on something I really loved. For me, the cost is not about – “I spent X and on this title I need to make Y in royalties” because promotion should never be about a single title. It should be about an author’s voice. When you’re starting out, you need to find a way to stand out, to give readers a reason to choose your title over the twelve or twenty also out that day. Banner ads can’t compete with word of mouth, IMO. Real people talking to their friends about something they loved. Of course you take a chance that people who read the book you gave them will hate it, LOL, but that’s a chance you always take as a writer. You do the best job you can and you set the book free out there. Some people will love it, some will hate it. You just hope the balance is weighted in the love it camp.

A free book is the absolute best way to show your work. How can it not be? How can a banner ad compare to that? Sure it gets your name out there if people visit whatever site you’ve placed the ad on and name repetition is important too (I do blog ads so I do obviously believe in the efficacy of ads as well). Digital books are even easier to give as prizes – you can send them immediately, there’s no trip to the post office and the cost to the author is lower just due to those facts alone.

Let me quickly distinguish this form of free from piracy – piracy is NOT free. Piracy is people other than the owner of the material offering up a download to everyone and their brother online to steal. Thousands of downloads at a time. This is not helpful. This is not “sharing” because you can’t share what you don’t own. And pirates don’t own those sorts of use rights. Piracy sucks. It hurts authors and my opinion of it is quite clear. Don’t do it and call yourself a fan or a booklover. You can steal an MP3 player from Best Buy and call yourself a fan, but you’re still a thief.

Back to the topic at hand – free as a tool. Because my numbers are quoted in the article and because I don’t normally discuss them in such detail, let’s break out what success means in this context:

Giving Chase is a title that released from a recent start up at the time, Samhain publishing, in 2006. The other three books in the series followed with the last releasing digitally in 2007 and appearing in a staggered fashion in print roughly 10 months after digital release. The books were not erotic romance, but highly sensual, small town romances, a total departure from what I had written before.

Samhain did a Kindle giveaway for Giving Chase once before and I got a nice bump but at the time, it was print that really pushed me into a whole new readership. At that point, Kindle wasn’t as widespread as it is now, not all my books were available at the kindle store and so that success was moderate, but still nice.

Some years later, with Kindle being far more successful, I began seeing increases in my numbers as my books began to list there. It was at this time that they asked me if they could use Giving Chase as a free giveaway for the whole month of October. I agreed.

Why did I agree? The book still sells well for a book that is now 4 years old, but it’s an old title. What did I have to lose really, from all that exposure? If it fizzled, I wouldn’t be out a whole lot and sometimes it’s good to take a chance.

Samhain promoted it. Kindle promoted it and I promoted it. The huge number of Kindle fans who’ve started blogs and lists of the free offerings at the Kindle store listed the books. The level of chatter about the free offerings was far greater than the last time we did a giveaway. This, IMO, was hugely important.

But in publishing, time moves at a different pace. Everything is a lot slower. I saw the ranks so I figured I was doing well, but pretty much forgot about it in the chaos of the holidays, having my family visiting and the kids being home. (I did just stop looking at the Amazon pages for the books because free also means people who don’t really read romance will grab the book and hate it. Hate is fine, but really, my skin is only so thick so it’s best for me not to read those reviews, LOL.)

So I got a ping from Crissy Brashear, the publisher of Samhain some weeks back wherein she told me what those numbers were and I nearly passed out. When she broke down how the other three books in the series did – I realized we’d achieved a 10% return on those who got the free download who then went and grabbed the other books.

10% is a big number. A really big number when you consider the age of the titles. My other kindle available books got a nice bump too. When I look at the numbers what I see are the small press books doing the best. Why that is I can’t say for sure, but I think several things are in play:

Am I a millionaire? No. I still get excited when I find a five dollar bill in a pocket of old jeans. Do I believe that in this case, free books have bumped up my name recognition and overall sales? Yes. Yes and it happened with something that’s an expression of who I am as an author. That’s priceless in an age where you can go into any bookstore and see shelf after shelf of books. I’m not a NYT bestseller (yet), I don’t get book tours or even free ads from my publishers. I’m scrambling and fighting to reach midlist and beyond.

Promotion is a fact of life for authors. Most of us find it time consuming and exhausting. Some authors don’t do any at all, but I can’t afford not to. What I have to do is think about promotion in a comprehensive fashion because like most authors, I have a thousand other responsibilities in my life and I still have to write the books I need to promote. Spamming a thousand people at facebook every day with comments about my book being the awesomest on the planet will not help, in fact it turns people off. Spamming twitter won’t help either.

To those who repeat the “just write the best book you can and they’ll come” mantra – I have to disagree. Unless you’re already established, what’s going to get that reader to grab your book over the one a shelf over? Each month you’re competing with hundreds of other titles similar to yours in some fashion. Those of us who aren’t at the Nora Roberts level (which is most of us because hello, it’s pretty rare to achieve that – and you know she works her butt off too to keep that) have to be smart about raising our titles above the rest, about standing out in a non-trainwreck way (and you all know who you are – all publicity is NOT good publicity in this case).

At the end of the day, something like giving away a book or a track from a new album IS important. Free won’t make you a success if your book or your song sucks, or if you can’t keep up pace and continue to put out good work. But it’s underrated. It’s totally simple, which is part of the beauty, isn’t it?