Okay, so now that my books are gaining some traction, I've decided to build a dedicated website to my name and my books.
You can find everything about me, the books in the Three Rivers Ranch Romance series, and my blog on my new WordPress website.
And I'm moving my blog over there! I'm determined to talk about books, writing romance, and self-publishing on a more regular schedule, so I hope you'll join me in my new corner of the blogosphere.
Okay, so I have a new idea for this coming year. 2016 is going to be amazing! I have a TON of stuff coming out next year, and I'm happy about that. But I've decided that I'd like to have a group of readers to interact with and give my books to for reviews.
I have 4 full-length novels scheduled to come out in 2016, two self-published and two traditionally published.
3 of them are romance novels: A contemporary from Cleis Press in July 2016, and two more of my western inspirational romances under my pen name, Liz Isaacson, coming in February and May 2016.
My last novel is RIFT, a YA time travel thriller coming from Jolly Fish Press in the fall.
I also have 6 anthology collections coming out in 2016. All 6 of them are romance anthologies.
1. Sweet & Sassy Beach anthology (sweet and sassy romance): April 2016
2. Western romance anthology: April 2016
3. Hot & Haunted romance anthology: October 2016
4. City Christmas anthology (all written by me, contemporary romance under Elana Johnson): November 2016
5. Country Christmas anthology (all written by me, western inspirational romance under Liz Isaacson): November 2016
6. The Knight Before Christmas anthology (Knight Brothers contemporary romance, under Elana Johnson): November 2016
So here's how things will run -- in my head, it's this perfect system, much like Santa's workshop. Haha!
I'm setting up a private FB group where you can get these new releases for FREE! It'll run like a "book of the month" club, where a forthcoming title will be available each month. You can read as many of my books (for free!) as you wish, even if it's not their assigned month. I have a pretty large backlist. :)
What I need from you: Reviews!
Reviews are an author's best friend. They determine if advertising newsletters (like BookBub) will run ads for titles, if other people will buy the book, etc.
So for every book I give you, I'd love to have a review listed on Amazon. (I'm specifically looking for reviews on Amazon for 2016, not Goodreads.) If the book is a new release, I'd like the review to be listed during the first 5 days of the book's release. I will give you lots of reminders, of course, via the private FB group when the books are releasing. You'll have plenty of time to read the titles in advance.
You decide which books you want. You structure your reading around your life, vacations, etc. I'm excited to have more direct contact with my readers, and I'm willing to give my books away in order to get reviews.
If you're interested, please sign up in this form, and I'll add you to the private Facebook group!
My inspirational Western romance series has begun! Get the first book, SECOND CHANCE RANCH, now. Pre-order THIRD TIME'S THE CHARM, which will be released on December 1, 2015, and keep a lookout for the third, FOURTH AND LONG, coming February 24, 2016.
SECOND CHANCE RANCH: After his deployment, injured and discharged Major Squire Ackerman returns to Three Rivers Ranch, anxious to prove himself capable of running the cattle operation so his parents can retire. Things would be easier if the ranch wasn’t missing 1.6 million dollars, which forces Squire to hire Kelly, the girl who rejected his high school prom invitation, as his accountant.
She’s back in town with her four-year-old son, living in her parent’s basement until she can get her life back together. With fresh ink on her divorce papers and open gashes on her heart, she’s not ready for much beyond her new job on the ranch.
Squire wants to forgive Kelly for ignoring him a decade ago. He’d like to provide the stable life she needs, but with old wounds opening and a ranch on the brink of financial collapse, it will take patience and faith to make their second chance possible.
THIRD TIME'S THE CHARM: First Lieutenant Peter Marshall has never felt as safe and whole as he does at Three Rivers Ranch. With massive scars covering most of his upper body, he's self-conscious and searching for his life's purpose. He thinks he's found it in Courage Reins, an equine therapy program for veterans he's starting out at the ranch. He didn't plan on the beautiful Chelsea Ackerman looking at his deformities with admiration.
After her second failed engagement, Chelsea vows she'll never wear another diamond ring. But as she and Pete work together to train the horses and launch Courage Reins, she heals faster than she thought possible. Pete has a truckload of debt and no way to provide for a family, but Chelsea helps him see past all the obstacles, all the scars. With so many unknowns, Pete and Chelsea will have to develop the love, acceptance, and faith needed to find their happily ever after.
FOURTH AND LONG: Coming soon!
So it's no secret that I'm a huge fan of romance novels. I love reading them and writing them. I just released my first inspirational romance, SECOND CHANCE RANCH, a couple of weeks ago. My sister-in-law read it and texted me and said, "This is like a Hallmark movie! And I mean that in the best way possible."
This warmed my heart. Because I love those Hallmark movies. And then I found out that Hallmark is showing a new movie every Saturday night! All the way until Christmastime, when the movies will be on twenty-four hours a day.
Love is obviously in the air!
I've been busily working on the third book in my Three Rivers Ranch romance series. The second book, THIRD TIME'S THE CHARM, is at the copy editor and will be released in time for Christmas -- on December 1.
Between now and then, I'm going to be watching a lot of Hallmark movies...
So my western inspirational romance is out in the wild! It's been almost a week, and there's nothing quite like releasing a book, that much is for sure. It's been a fun journey, and I've enjoyed it.
I've learned some things along the way too.
1. Ask for help. I can't stress this enough. I can't make covers or do a lot of other design work. I hired someone to do that for me, and I asked friends for help with promotional graphics and such. There's no shame in this! I certainly am not good at every aspect of self-publishing.
2. Pay attention to what's going on around you. I'm in about five million Facebook groups. No, really. Okay, maybe only four million. I don't comment a lot, and sometimes I feel completely overwhelmed, but I pay attention. I see what other self-published authors are doing, and what they're saying works.
I take notes of these things -- literally. I have about 10 drafts in my email inbox right now with notes. Ad sites, promotions, boxed set ideas. The list goes on and on. I think that's one perk of self-publishing. There are unlimited ways to produce and promote your work.
3. Release the book! I have a game at school I have my 1st and 2nd graders play on the computer. It's called Seed Ball, and when I show it to them, I always say "Release the seeds!" in a really dramatic voice.
That's what you have to do with your book. And in more ways than one. You release it. I can't tell you how many times I changed the release date. And there were Reasons. But really, I was waiting for something I couldn't really put my finger on.
So I finally chose a date and refused to change it. Not only do you actually need to hit Publish, but you need to release your attachments to the book. We put so much work and time and effort and emotion into our books, so this is hard to do.
But it can be done, and it should be done. Release it. Let readers love it or hate it.
4. Write the next book. I've done this, and it's currently with my editor. It's called THIRD TIME'S THE CHARM, and I'm getting the cover made right now too, because it will be released on December 1. #yay
Anyway, I learned tons more, but that's enough for today. I hope you'll give SECOND CHANCE RANCH a try. You can read it for free if you have Kindle Unlimited.
Wow, summer has been so busy! The days flew by as I penned two more novels, revised a third, signed with an agent, and have been waiting on pins and needles for news from my submissions.
I mean, whew! It's a lot, and I suddenly realized I haven't blogged in months! But my schedule is normalizing again, so I expect to be around a bit more.
What have you been up to this summer??
This post first appeared on Thinking Through Our Fingers, a blog that I contribute to each month. To see the whole post, go here.
So I thought I'd talk a little bit about pitching. Not the baseball kind. The kind you can do in your pajamas, sipping apricot nectar, and scrolling through twitter. Have you seen the plethora of pitching opportunities that are available for authors these days? It is OUTstanding! (See what I did there? Did you??)
I could go through the many and varied opportunities over the course of the next six months. But John Berkowitz has already done that. You can see a pretty comprehensive list on his blog here.
Go see the advice I gave on preparing for and crafting your pitches.
What I really want to talk about is the opportunities that are out there now for writers. Yes, you can get discovered simply by querying. I know, because it's happened to me. But I have a #MSWL column in my tweetdeck that I check every day. If I see someone tweet that they want something similiar to what I've got, I submit it.
I've co-authored a book with a friend, and last week, I saw an opportunity to submit to a new editor at Carina Press. She was taking pitches on a blog post for that day only. If I hadn't checked, we would've missed the opportunity. She was offering feedback on your whole novel. And we were selected! So we got to send our MS in, and she's going to give us feedback on it. Free! A priceless opportunity.
So while I'm not hugely active on social media, I'm there, paying attention. I think it's a valuable skill all authors should use. Pay attention to what's going on out there. I've decided that the #PitMad and similar things aren't for my novel. I've participated in those before with my YA novels -- which seem to do better than my adult romance (which is what I'm focused on right now).
You don't need to blanket the Internet with your pitch. You don't need to enter every contest and opportunity out there. It's about playing smart. Swinging at balls you think you can hit. So I pay attention. I read the agent bios in contests. If I haven't queried them before, and I think they might be a fit, I add them to my list. Online contests are a great way to get noticed, but not the only way.
So be smart about it. If you have a novel in a genre that's hot, online pitches might be the way to get the attention you need. If you don't, you might do what I've done, and stick to querying privately.
Either way, you should be lurking on social media. You should be paying attention to the #MSWL feed, and check in with #PitMad and #PitchtoPublication and #QueryKombat. When you troll these threads, you'll see other hashtags that will lead you to more opportunities. It doesn't have to take a lot of time -- I get on once or twice each day and read until I'm caught up to what I've read before.
What are you paying attention to right now? Maybe I need to be watching that too!
