Where is your happy place?

You have to have one, right? Your 'happy place'. The place you go when the world seems to be caving in around you. The place you can escape the rigors of day-to-day life and just relax. Maybe it's a hike into the woods to a favorite waterfall. Or a cozy mountain cabin. Or a small sliver of beach not too far away.

Or maybe it's not that far at all, but a room in your house. Or even a little corner where you can kick back and read a book or listen to music. Whatever it is that helps you release the stress of the day.

I've had several of these over the years. My happy place seems to change depending on the demands of life, the age of the kids and all sorts of other factors.

In fact, I can be pretty happy anywhere. I've like people. I like trying new things. And I have to have light. As the kids have gotten more talkative (so since they hit age 3 and just wouldn't stop talking) I find myself craving silence too. Even though I know I should cherish these moment when they're talking to me, because there's bound to be a time in the not too distant future when I'll have to threaten them with the cat o' nines to get them to open up. But, sometimes, I just need to be alone with my thoughts.

So, I have a new writing nook. (Not the one above, though isn't it lovely?) It's removed from the main traffic areas of the house, but still accessible. No longer near the TV which seems to be on all the time (particularly if I'm otherwise occupied and unable to engage) and right in front of a big window which holds my antique cobalt bottle collection and several plants. I had visions of being able to light little tea light candles while I worked, but the cat has claimed a portion of the window for herself, so I don't see that happening anymore.

It's been a major redecorating project in order to create this little writing nook, but as I sit here this morning, watching the sunrise through that big gorgeous window, I couldn't be more pleased.

Tell me about your happy place!

Where to start with the swag

Since I pretty much told everyone that junk the paper product swag in my previous couple of posts, I've received some emails from authors asking for suggestions. What are some inexpensive ideas? Where should they look for them?

I want to say, again, that I'm far from an expert in the art of swag. All I can say is what I like, what catches my eye and what I would be excited to see in a goodie bag.

First off, everyone loves free books. There's just nothing better for a reader to find a pile of reading material at their finger tips. They will try new authors, new genres, new *anything* if you put the book in their hands.

I know that isn't feesable for all authors to do, especially in the number of attendees for some of the reader conventions. But what about doing a joint promo with another author in the same genre with a similar voice? Sort of a "If you like me, you'll like her" thing. This can be done in a number of ways that don't have to cost an arm and a leg.

Trolling for some ideas for authors I read a guest blog post by Jennifer Kacey who will be attending Ellora's Cave RomantiCon this October.  A couple of the comments offered some great, unique suggestions, one of which I fell in love with.

How about making a "Dreaming of <Hero's Name>" sleep mask? Or with an author's name, or series, or...the possibilities are endless. Wouldn't that be awesome? (I have no idea what the cost of making something like that would be, but if you're at all crafty, I bet they wouldn't be tough to make either.)

Another place to look would be to check out what brides are offering for wedding favors. They are one of the other groups of people that routinely give items away and are working with a budget. From the few minutes I've spent looking at a couple of wedding favor sites ideas like offering a small bottle of maple syrup with a label of your Vermont-based series on them, packets of Forget Me Not seeds (again with a book label), Sunglasses, Mints in a special tin...by looking for swag in this way it opens up a whole new world of possibilities to get your name noticed by readers. That first point of contact so when they see your name on the shelf (be it virtual or the actual book shelf) they are more likely to remember it. And, maybe they'll even buy the book.

If you have any thoughts or suggestions I'd love for you to share them! After all, we're all in this together.

Thanks for stopping by.

Where Are The Rea-...er, Authors?

It's a common phrase heard among writers. Where are the readers? I just want to find the readers. If I could get even a fraction of those readers.... You get the drift. The readers are out there. romance readers in particular are voracious and will read multiple books a month. I'm trying to remember where I read that the average romance reader will read between 5-7 books a month. Sometimes more.
That's huge! That's every author's dream demographic.

But I'm going to toss out a different question. Where are the authors? Where is my next 'auto-buy' author hiding? It's the second part of the equation that we authors generally overlook. With the explosion of e-books and self publishing we have literally thousands of books available to us. Even our favorite authors are putting out books that have long been out of print, or were never published in the first place, so we recognize the author but not the book.

And, frankly, it can be a bit overwhelming. How can we tell if we're going to like a new author? It's more difficult to loan books to our other reader friends and make suggestions. And some readers develop a personal relationship to an author (thank you social media) so it's not always safe to assume that they aren't on one of the ever growing street-teams authors are putting together, or that the author isn't their friend and that they really just think you'll like this book. Not that any of those things are bad things. Not at all. Just another part of the ever complex equation for readers and authors to find one another.

For my part-it's been a process of gathering friends that I trust when it comes to book recs. I've joined reader blogs and found some new favorites that way, I've talked to readers to figure out what they like to see if I'll like the same things. And I've needed to decide if reviews will factor into my decision about purchasing a new-to-me author.

What's worked for you when it comes to finding new authors?

Readers and Writing

This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending a reader event in Washington DC. I went, not as an author, but as a reader and friend. Since I use a pen name I try to separate the two a bit-although that line gets fuzzier as the days go by.

The view of "Nick's office" from the release party location.

I was busy doing my thing, but since I know the author I was hearing little details about the readers that were coming in. A few came in early to tour and look for locations from the books. (Hello authors, research is important!)

As you know, I'm chairing the Emerald City Writers' Conference this year and have attended for the past few years, but a readers event is much different than a writers event.  For one thing, as big as the romance industry is, everyone knows someone. Especially the readers. They connect with authors in a way that is impossible for us to connect with each other. And, at an event like this, they like to talk about who they know, who they read, who they don't care for, who wasn't so nice to them when they did meet them before...it all gets around.

But more than anything, I kept realizing that so many new authors see these events and think, "That is what I want." while missing the larger picture. The readers are there, first and foremost, because of the books. Because of the quality of work that they enjoy, that provides them a release-that little moment to escape from reality and take them away from their own troubles.  We, as writers, need to concentrate on the books and the quality of our work. Let's not rush that part, the most important part, in order to have a cool release party.  Because if we do, it may be the only one we ever have.

I had a fabulous time meeting everyone and hope to do it again soon! For those who want the dirty details, the party I attended was for Marie Force's FATAL MISTAKE, the sixth book in her FATAL series, which is set in DC. The first book in the series (FATAL AFFAIR) is free until the end of the month-as are the other first books in her other series.

Marketing...better known as finding the readers

There is a lot of buzz about marketing for authors. A lot of information out there telling us what we need to do, where we need to do it, who we need to connect with, tweet with (or is it tweet at?), Facebook, Goodreads, blogs, advertise...I'm sure I'm not mentioning several things that I should be doing.
I've noticed one major thing missing though: write. Don't forget to write. Every day. It's the only way to get published (I'm including self publishing in that 'get published' goal); create a product that you can sell. A product that people want to read. It's the only way to practice our craft.
Now, I'm not talking about writing a hundred thousand word piece right from the start. I'm realizing that setting smaller goals helps. A lot. Write that scene that just won't leave you alone, you might meet a character that you can use in your current book. Write a scene about something that happened in your character's past. Something that is part of his history, but won't actually be in the book. It's amazing how much that helps.
All the marketing stuff is good. It's needed. But don't lose sight of your product.

That being said, on my FB fan page (I have 'fans', can you believe it??) I post covers that catch my eye. Any and all covers are welcome. Feel free to offer suggestions and take part in the small conversations that happen over there.
https://www.facebook.com/authorcarmencook

Also, I'm going to have a guest blogger next Saturday, the wonderful Sabrina York! YAY! I can't wait to see what she's got up her sleeve...or tucked in her tiara as the case may be.

More soon,

Carmen