It's out!
I am thrilled to bits to see Cats' Eyes at LooseId!
http://www.loose-id.net/detail.aspx?ID=592
And look at that pretty cover!
Cats'
Eyes is about what happens when a sexy Norwegian shape-shifter meets
two devastating Brazilian strippers. It's my first Dept 57 book from
LooseID, and I am so excited!
I never lose the excitement of release
day, and I don't think I ever will. Not that I want to, it's one of the
best things about being an author.
Even better is someone mailing you hours after release to say she couldn't put it down!

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I think it's important to know what you want out of a crit group. I
belong to three, but on one of them we rarely crit these days. Still, I
wouldn't miss it for the world. We're getting on with our careers, and
a lot of what we do is to support each other.

Another is for erotic stories that go over the m/f not graphic rules
set up at the general crit list. Hugely helpful. Most of us there are about
the same level, and we pretty much know what we're looking for when we
ask for crits (eg does it flow, have I got the pov right, etc) And the
other is a large general romance group. A very good list, but there are writers at all
levels there.

I have found that if I crit a newbie and I'm less than kind, I'm
resented, as if it's my fault the work sucks. And when the writer finds
a publisher (you can pretty much get a publisher these days if you can
string a couple of words together) I get the 'nyah' response. So I'm
careful who I crit there. Because I crit to publishable standards, ie,
something that might have a chance with one of the bigger epublishers
or New York.



So decide what you want. And it's not a bad idea to ask for what you
want, the areas you find troublesome or you need help with. I think the
top of every sub should have the genre, the length of the book (ie
novel, novella, category, not a specific word length) and perhaps the
areas the writer wants critted. And if she wants to submit to a big
house, or is happy to start with smaller pubs (as I did, btw. Nothing
wrong in learning the ropes that way as long as you don't then think
you're God's gift to publishing!)



For a very long time I was happy to write for me and a few friends, it
was my hobby and my way of relaxing. Now it's very different, with a
new kind of emphasis. I'm asking people to fork out their hard-earned
for one of my books, so I can no longer afford indulgences I used to
enjoy (like long, lingering descriptions of scenery and the like).

I just got my edits for my first release with Ellora's Cave. I'm
telling you if you can't stand the relatively gentle heat of the crit group, you aren't going to last five minutes in the wider world of
publishing! This book is sliced and diced and it makes me so happy to
have an editor who will take the time to go through it in minute detail
to help me make a better book!

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Red flags
It depends if you're already with them, or you're looking at them for prospective publishers.
First rule - there is no such thing as a free lunch. Repeat to yourself ten times a day.
You get in fast? The editing might be poor, or the sales are low. You are treated like royalty? They're making money off you. You get a great advance? You have to keep up sales for subsequent books, or you're out.
You have to consider the risks, the checks, the payments, and remember - there is no such thing as a free lunch. One way or another, you will pay.
And you will get out of it, what you put into it.
You think SEP, Linda Howard or La Nora have it made? They worked their way up, through category romance, through building readership. I have a best-selling NY author as a friend. She works her socks off, even now. Maybe especially now. She started well, but she goes to conferences, book signings, she never, ever lets any aspect of her business slip, from writing to cover design, to conferences.
Balance the risks against the gains.
You never, ever get something for nothing. Hard work, luck and chance all have their parts to play, but you'd better be prepared for the hard work.

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It looks like two more publishers, Mardi Gras and Silk's Vault, are going out of business, or are at least in trouble.
I feel horrible for all the people involved, especially because of my own recent experiences, but this does look to me like industry fallout. I don't know the details, but it seems as if there were some shennanigans going on with all this.
Companies do this, especially the smaller, newer publishing companies. From my experience there are pros and cons, just like there are in any investments, or businesses, and authors are investing something - months of work, which if they wished, they could price up at an hourly rate. Yes there is a monetary value you can put on unpublished manuscripts. They are a writer's product.

So here's the very basic Lynne's Guide to Getting an Epub:
Be sure of what you want. If it's fame and fortune, forget writing and take up pop music. The odds of success are probably better.
If you go to a small publisher, you are increasing your risk. Most are new startups, and they won't really know if they're winning until after the third year of trading, when US Government tax breaks end and they really have to stand on their own. So check how long the company has been in business.
Check the goods. Buy some books, read them and decide if you want to be in company with these people. Don't buy the books of any 'big name' authors with the company, buy the newcomers, the ones the company has chosen for itself. Look at the editing, as well as the quality of writing, the cover art as well as the genres. And check how easy and secure the shopping cart is.
Check the staff. If there are no company owners or members of staff anywhere on the site, do a little digging. Find out who's behind the company and look into their past history. Run a whois search on the domain, see who owns that. It's nice to see a company that goes outside the family to recruit editors and artists, good to see a mission statement that reflects reality.
Check with the authors. Here's where you contact authors who have books with more than one house. They have a basis of comparison. Write to them, ask them in confidence if they enjoy working for the company. If you never, ever, tell anyone what they said, they can be completely frank with you. Don't tell your friends, don't tell fellow authors anything but generalisations (ie "I heard bad things about these people" and if they ask, explain the information was told you in confidence).
Publishing is a small world. A really small world. Editors move around, change companies, know each other. Names are sometimes exchanged. Don't get yourself a bad rep, because you'll never work again, or at least, not under your real name.
We all know that writers, especially new writers, don't have much clout in the publishing world. So make a name for yourself. A good one. Have something to offer.
When you are offered a contract, read it through. Read it through again. If there's anything you don't like, talk to the editor about it. Most houses will listen, give you and answer and be prepared to negotiate. But be realistic. Just don't sign your life away, and don't ask for things they can't give you.
Be polite and professional. Behave as you would in any place of work.
Make sure the business correspondence you send out, anything you put out in the public sphere, is properly spelled and grammatically okay. Yes, even emails and blog and noticeboard comments. I just read a blog post in which an "author" was complaining about someone, but there were so many spelling and grammatical errors, you just ended up feeling sorry for the person she was complaining about.

There are advantages and disadvantages. If you send a book to a small company, you'll get it out faster. But you might have to find another publisher in a few months. And a small publisher has smaller sales.
A larger publisher will demand a higher standard of writing. It will take much longer to be accepted, and longer for your book to be published. Editing will be tough. Sales will be higher than with a smaller epublisher.

So make your decisions, and let's be careful out there.

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So it's my birthday soon. And some friends come over to help me celebrate. I'm planning to count my drinks, because that way I don't get carried away.
Only because it's my birthday, some kind soul kept topping up my glass - when I wasn't looking. So by my count, I had 4 glasses of wine all night. But they were of the never-get-to-the-bottom kind.
Now I had a promotional event to attend today, so I really wanted to be up early and bouncy. Instead, I lay in bed moaning "my head hurts." How could that have happened on four glasses of wine?
I got up shamefully late, and only because if I hadn't my children would have starved to death, or so they claimed, and when I went outside to dump the kitchen trash, I see three empty wine bottles nestling coyly among the beer cans. Only two of us drank red wine last night.
Which explains why my head hurt so much.
Ouch.

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I sent my contract off today, for the Pure Wildfire series!
Ellora's Cave is going to publish the series about a hot rock band who also happen to be shapeshifters. I can't tell you how delighted I am that the series is going to see the light of day!

Rock music pays an important part in my writing. The energy and drive is invaluable for those scenes where you want the same thing and the slower ballads and blues are great for love scenes. My favorite track at the moment is Led Zeppelin's "Since I've Been Loving You," and that third album is magnificent. The more you listen, the more there is to hear.

Mind you, last week belonged to Frank Sinatra in our house, and he helped me finish the historical "Last Chance, My Love," so who knows what next week will bring?

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And yet another!
I sent off my Ellora's Cave contract today, for the Pure Wildfire series!
I am so excited that this series, so near to my rock-lovin' heart, is going to see a lease of life! The first book is rewritten and retitled Sunfire, and the three others will follow.
I've been very lucky with the publishing houses who have offered me contracts, and I have a lot to look forward to now.

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