C.H. Admirand: I Will Conquer Or Perish

Western romance author, C.H. Admirand, is visiting with us today with her hot new contemporary romance series, The Secret Life Of Cowboys: Dylan.


One of the misconceptions about authors is the idea that they just sit and write their stories with ease and get paid big bucks. Cushy job, eh? Ask any author about that and you'll liable to reduce them to tears—of laughter. Getting published is hard, no matter how good your story is. Once you're published then comes the deadlines, the edits from hell, whole chapters, perhaps even several chapters need to be rewritten, the editor doesn't like the ending, the middle, the beginning, or the character or his/her name. Yikes!


C.H. talks a bit about her journey and her life of ease.


Welcome, C.H., I'm so glad to have you visiting!

Thanks for inviting me to blog today, Sia, it’s so wonderful to be here. It took me a bit of time to decide what to talk about today because I think my characters are far more interesting than I am. After attending Lora Leigh’s RAW in October, I know that readers do like a glimpse into the life of the author.

For those that don’t know me, I’ve been writing for the Library Market and Small Press for the last twelve years. I was delighted to publish my first book, The Marshal’s Destiny, in 2000, and devastated when I didn’t sell the second book in my Irish Western Series. More than once, I tried to quit, but the voices of characters demanding to have their stories told wouldn’t let me.

   

Nora Roberts is one of my heroes; it was her article in The Writer’s Digest that kept me going, she said that writers need the 3 Ds to succeed: Drive, Discipline, and Desire… To that I add Determination. While I wrote, I attended workshops and conferences, honing my craft—you cannot improve if you stop writing. But I also dug deep and kept my Purcell ancestor’s motto where I could see it every day: Aut Vincam, Aut Periam–translation: I will either conquer or perish! So I kept writing, submitting, receiving rejections, and six years later, I not only sold my second book, but five more!

I met Deb Werksman by chance at the NJRW Conference a few years ago after an unplanned trip to a ladies club during RT Booklovers Convention in Houston and a lesson well-learned—that I’m not the ladies club type—but helped me come up with the plotline for my hot cowboy trilogy and deal with my embarrassment at the time. I was there physically, but my mind was in the fictional town of Pleasure, Texas that my mind had just created. It was a blast writing about the Garahan brothers: larger than life, tall, dark, and gorgeous Texas cowboys.

This year had a really rocky start: our three-month-old grandson was hospitalized with a respiratory virus, but is finally home and recovering beautifully. The dog we adopted (after losing our 12 year old family member, Ginger, the day after my December 15th deadline) had fear/aggression issues and bit my husband and one of our sons. Although she didn’t break the skin, combined with the reality that she was terrified of my guys (they all wear black leather jackets and boots—and are not quiet), had us seeking help from a professional dog trainer (a first for us after 28 years of raising dogs) to evaluate the dog. She didn’t recommend having the dog around children, a red flag for us with our new grandson, and stressed that although the situation could be managed with her guidelines; the dog may not change and might always be afraid of my guys. She felt the dog showed bite inhibition by not breaking the skin, which is a good thing. We gave it a week, but the dog only grew more aggressive and fearful. It broke my heart, but after consulting with the trainer again, I called the shelter and they agreed that it would be best to return the dog before the situation escalated.

So right now, I’m surfing the internet for dogs in need of a good home when I should be working on the revisions for my November book. It’s hard to explain why I can’t seem to focus now that Ginger is gone, but at odd times, I hear her moving around the house and racing down the stairs when I open the door to feed the birds…it’s all in my head…or is it in my heart? I guess I won’t be able to concentrate until we fill that empty void in our lives with a dog that wants to be a part of our family.

I’m struggling, but optimistic that we’ll find the right dog for our at times busy (aka loud) and other times quite (aka tomblike) home. I need to get back in the groove because 2012 is going to be beyond busy for me. Dylan book two in The Secret Life of Cowboys, just released January 2nd, Jesse, book three, releases July 2nd, and A Wedding in Purity, the first book in my new Small Town USA series, releases in November. Then there are the 2nd and 3rd books in the Small Town series that are due in May and September…good grief I’d better get my head on straight now!

Thanks for letting me ramble on today, Sia. 

• For animal lovers out there, how have you coped with the loss of a furry family member? How long did you wait before filling that empty void in your life?

Meet Jamison, aka Jamie January 14th

As CH mentioned, she has a new furry baby. I asked for some pictures and she provided these. Isn't he a darling?

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DYLAN 

BY C.H. ADMIRAND – IN STORES JANUARY 2012

                                                                     

There was nothing he couldn't tame...

Dylan Garahan might be an old hand at lassoing fillies, but one night at the Lucky Star club, and he ends up wrapping his rope around someone that even his formidable strength can’t tame. She’s wily and beautiful… and she’s his new boss. Dylan’s had his heart broken bfore, but even an honest cowpoke has to wrestle with temptation…

Until he got his lasso around her...

Ronnie DelVecchio might be fresh off the bus from New Jersey, but she’s a hard-edged businesswoman and has had her fill of men she can’t trust—although she might consider getting off her high horse for that big handsome rancher with a Texas drawl. Excerpt (on amazon)

 Buy: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Chapters Indigo.ca

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C.H. Admirand was born in Aiken, South Carolina. She has published 9 bestselling novels for the library market. Her Secret Life of Cowboy series, published by Sourcebooks Casablanca includes Tyler (available now), Dylan (in stores January 2012) and Jesse (in stores July 2012). She lives with her husband, who is the inspiration for all of her heroes’ very best traits, in northern New Jersey. For more information, please visit http://www.chadmirand.com/ or follower her on twitter, @chadmirand. 

What Is Your Brand As a Writer/Author?

As writers, we know what genre we write but do you know your brand as a writer/author?

Recently, a friend and I had a rather lively discussion about this over drinks. Honestly, I hadn’t thought as much about what my brand was or even what a brand was, other than in general terms as applied to marketing.

So what is an author’s brand? The author's brand is his or her work. They’re known for writing certain types of books. Think Stephen King, Christine Feehan, Nora Roberts, Jayne Ann Krentz, or even Dan Brown. You know when you pick up one of their books exactly what you’re going to get. For the most part, we pick up books largely based on the authors’ brand.

Established authors do see themselves as a brand. They work to protect that brand and some even have trademarks attached to their names. Their brand represents a certain standard or identity readers recognize. In many ways every author is a brand, though they may not see it that way.

As one writing friend reminded me, when we were discussing this, branding is important as is the integrity of that brand. He cited how Nora Roberts has her JD Robb identity for certain stories she writes and that way she doesn't confuse her readers. Jayne Ann Krentz does the same, to a certain extent, with here Jayne Castle persona for her futuristic stories, Amanda Quick for her historicals.

Years ago, Disney realized that they had unused movie making resources (writers, producers, directors, studios, etc) and signed Danny DeVito, Bette Midler and others to multi-picture contracts (which relaunched their careers) producing such films as Ruthless People and Down and Out in Beverly Hills.

The Disney brand was so valuable, and these movies were not PG, they came up with a clever solution and distributed the movies under a new brand — Touchstone films.

From a marketing standpoint, having a brand is important. If someone says, Johnson & Johnson, Harlequin, Disney, Campbells, Revlon, Wilson, or Black & Decker you know exactly what the products are. So it’s not surprising that Publishers are actively cultivating the trend of authors as a brand. Publishers are the first to acknowledge that branding is becoming a more conscious marketing activity.

Lynne Brown, Dorling Kindersley's brand manager, made an interesting observation.

• “In recent years in an ever more crowded market, the consumer has come more and more to rely on brand identity as an indicator for purchase. We believe this is now true in all industries and no less so within publishing… this will continue to be a strong ongoing trend…”

I have a brand as Sia McKye Over Coffee. I have a logo and a tag line. I play up my Celtic roots. Judi Fennell, author of In Over Her Head, has a brand, Fairy Tales with a Twist. Whether she writes about Mers or Genies, you know her books are going to fit into that brand. While she incorporates darker threads within her stories, she never loses sight of her brand. They’re light, fun, and humorous.

• What are your thoughts on branding?

• What’s your brand? How do you present you and your work?

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Photos:
Lazy G (TM) Freeze Brand
Touchstone Pictures (TM) Brand

BEING A SUCESSFUL PUBLISHED AUTHOR—MAGIC OR WORK? (Part Two)

~Sia McKye~
As an author, nothing can be quite as exciting as receiving word you’ve sold your book and it’s going to be published. You are over the moon and flying high. Maybe even dreaming of the NYT Best Sellers List. Finally, you’re getting validation for all your work and hours of writing. Everyone you know hears about it. You’re discussing galleys, Arc covers, the artwork, blurbs, and author endorsements on your cover. Tossing terms around like Pub dates, Arc mailings, targeted print campaigns, web promotions and Reviews, library marketing, and author events. Your book finally hits Barnes & Noble and you find yourself going in just to look at a book with your name on it. You take pictures. You start being obsessed with Amazon figures on your book’s placement of the day or week. You’ve got it made, right?

Keep in mind that just having your book in print doesn't mean it will automatically sell—books don't sell themselves, even if they are listed on Amazon—or on the shelves of Barnes & Noble. As a friend of mine recently reminded me: “Over 195,000 new novels are published by publishers in the U.S. every year. Of those, 70% sell fewer than 500 copies.” A sobering thought.

Here’s another reason to aggressively promote yourself and your books and the importance in building a reader base.

Debuting authors are lucky enough to get a first print run of 10,000 for their book, depending upon the genre and your publisher’s confidence in your work (some can be as high as 25,000). You might think 10,000 is a big number until you start calculating book stores and Amazon. It’s really a small run and it’s not going to hit the best sellers list with that number. If they sell only 500 copies or less, then the publisher eats the cost of having the other 9500 shipped back to them, at full cost, and made into pulp. Publishers are not happy when this happens, but they have a contract with you, maybe for a three-book deal. Maybe they’ll recoup their losses on the second book? If they don’t will they take another three books from you? Or drop you like a hot potato? Can you see where active promotion and publicity is vital?

On the other hand, you’ve worked your butt off with promotion. You’ve built up name recognition on the Internet through Facebook, Wordpress, Twitter, and Gather, MySpace and other social networks. You’ve worked hard at blogging and building presence and attracting your consumers—readers. You started this long before your book was even sold. You continued even after your book was sold. You’ve written book reviews on books similar to yours, written anything and everything related to your books and also to you as a person. You’ve made yourself a personality, with likes, dislikes, and interests. In other words you’ve become a real person to your readers. They see you share the same interests as they do, you chat with them. You build characters in your books; surely it isn’t that hard to project yourself to your readers?

Because your potential readers like you and have gotten to know you somewhat, they do name-dropping about their “good friend, the author.”

“Oh yeah, I know Anna Campbell and she just released TEMPT THE DEVIL. Highlanders, honey, you have to look for it.”

“I just read the best suspense/thriller recently, A SPARK OF HEAVENLY FIRE, by my friend Pat Bertram. We’re talking danger and a story of ordinary people becoming extraordinary to survive. You’ve got to order it.”

“My good friend Judi Fennell wrote this cool series about sexy mermen and a kingdom under the sea. The first book is called IN OVER HER HEAD, you gotta read it!”

“Cheryl Brooks is just the nicest person evah. She writes some real sizzlers, we’re talkin’ hot and sexy. She writes The Cat Star Chronicles and just released ROGUE.

It’s that simple and any debuting or popular author’s name can be slipped in there. Why? Because you’ve worked hard to be assessable and real to your readers. Because once you knew your release date, you started building anticipation for your book. So now, your book is released and sells through at 80%, or 8000 books. Your publisher is very happy and is patting him or herself for their ability to find talented writers. They decide a second print run is good business. Because you’ve built a buzz you probably will do well on the second run. Your publisher decides for your next book (for a debuting author that can be as soon as two-three months later) to start out with a first print run of 25,000 and a much larger presence on the bookshelves of Barnes & Noble and more pressure for the staff to push your book.

By the way, to hit the NYT best sellers list? The book needs a first print run of at least 35,000 plus. Maybe Nora Roberts or Christine Feehan may get first runs in the 1-300,000 book range but look at all the time they invested in marketing and promoting themselves and their books. As a debuting author, you’re not going to get that with a first run.

This type of marketing/promotion also works for POD authors. True, you don’t have to deal with print runs and costly returns, but if your books are on the shelves in bookstores, the return cost are still a bite and one you as the author have to foot. In reality, most Print On Demand books are not on the shelves of National bookstores. You can order them from Barnes & Noble, or Borders, but due to the higher price for the average trade paperback, they aren’t always carried physically.

It’s smart business; again it’s your business, to have these books sell through. You want to be successful and to do that you need a solid reader base as much as, or perhaps even more than, a traditionally published author. Collecting dust is not the image of your books you want in the bookstore management’s eyes or your own, especially if you want them to continue to carry your books. Shelf space is not a guarantee of sales any more than having a book with your name on it is.

Stirring up publicity and marketing yourself as an author and promoting your book is, many times, the least favorite task for an author. The point is if you want to be a success as an author then it’s going to take hard work. A third of your time is spent in writing the story and the rest is spent in selling it to a publisher and then promoting the book and yourself as an author. Building that all important reader base. It’s a necessary part of business.

Writing is a business. The author is the proprietor of that business. Products have to be promoted to be a success. It’s as simple as that. Once we realize that, we put ourselves in the right mindset to be a success.
There are no magic wands, treasure maps of shortcuts, or guarantees to be a successful author. Or to being published.

Just a dream and a lot of hard work.
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Sia McKye has spent over twenty years in marketing and promotion. She's written and published various articles on writing, marketing, and promotion. She's a Marketing Rep by profession and also writes fiction.

AS A WRITER, WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH YOUR PEBBLES?

I’m a reflective person by nature. I think about many things in life. Look for lessons and ways to make things better for me and mine. To me life is like a giant puzzle made of pebbles. Sometimes it’s comprised of hard labor. Other times, the fun is in seeing how to work all the pieces tossed at us, and make a picture of it. Don’t like those particular pieces, rearrange them. I’m also an optimist but with my feet firmly planted in reality. I know if I work at it hard enough, think it through, I’ll find a way. And so it is with my writing.

To be a writer is rather solitary. We pour our hearts and souls into our writing--our characters, our created world. They're part of us, aren't they? When someone rejects that, of course we feel it AND feel they're rejecting us. On one level that's true, but we have to learn to compartmentalize, or we're dead in the water. We have to have tough Rhino skin or we're not going to survive. And yeah, it sucks.

As with most of the entertainment/arts groups, publishing is a tough playing field to break into. A key element in being a success in any field is focus, working at perfecting your skills, and believing in yourself and your abilities.

I think about authors like Nora Roberts, Jayne Ann Krentz, and Catherine Coulter. They all started out with Harlequin and or Silhouette. Many curled their lips at books from Harlequin. Whether it’s a lightweight romance publisher, or POD and E-book publishers—who cares where you start, so long as you start? I believe these authors honed their story telling skills and learned what readers like and didn't like, and built a readership base in these forums. And who are we to curl our lips, or diminish the worth of an author that makes those choices? Now, these authors are regularly on the Best Sellers lists.

Singers start out playing local, market themselves aggressively, and get their names out there. How? Singers play for anyone that lets them sing. Bars, lounges, you name it. Actors do the same with local theatre, and work their way up. They network like crazy. Are you doing that as a writer?

Pebble in the pool effect. Think about American idol. These singers are looking for shortcuts and there isn’t anything wrong with that, but even the shortcuts come with fierce competition. As authors, we do contests too, so we can relate.

What’s important here is: if the pebble isn’t first dropped into a pool of water, no ripples happen. The pebble has to be dropped more than once. It’s the same with writing. Every time you write a story, you drop a pebble and every time you query, or enter a contest, you drop another one. Every blog, writer’s conference, and joining a writing group is another pebble.

Maybe only a few of us will make it big. The truth of the matter is; getting published is not solely dependent upon talent. There are many talented people. Sometimes chance, fate or whatever you want to call it, steps in. If we’re not putting forth the effort of getting our writing and our name out there, what have you offered fate or chance to work with?

There’s a quote I like and I’ll share it with you. "Opportunity dances with those already on the dance floor."

…or dropping your pebbles.

It’s something I think about frequently—what am I doing with my pebbles? Stacking them in a pile with no work or thought given them?
Am I hoarding them in a drawer where no one can see them?
Am I allowing fear of success or failure, hold me back?

By putting our work out there, we’re on the dance floor or to continue the metaphor, dropping our pebbles.

As a writer, where and how are you dropping your pebbles?