INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW: CHAT WITH JUDI FENNELL

My guest today is a writer who loves pop culture and manipulating language. Her writing comes with lots of fun one-liners, puns, and double entrendres. Her stories always make me laugh and leave the me feeling good. 

I'm happy to welcome romance author, Judi Fennell, back for a visit to Over Coffee.

                                                                

• So, inquiring minds want to know: what was your muse drinking when she came up with hunky men being maids?

I was at my friend's house and her housekeeper was a guy. A young, pretty good-looking guy. So I just started the thought process from there. Sadly, she doesn't have that guy anymore. I'm guessing one of his clients scooped him up since, seriously, who doesn't want a man who can clean a house? Lol!

• I really like Mac. She’s a woman after me own heart. I love the way she suckers her highly successful brothers in a poker game and the losers become maids. Priceless. This series had to be a lot of fun to write?

Yup, this series was a blast because of the characters. The timeline, however… not so much. The stories all take place within the same month and these siblings are close. So that means a lot of interaction between them which means scenes that get written and then published that can’t then be UNwritten so I have to fashion the next book around those scenes and so on through all four. 

But, yes, exploring the siblings’ relationships with each other and how they look out for each other was a lot of fun. It’s a very interconnected series since the opening of each book takes place at that poker game, but from the different sibling’s point of view, depending on whose story it is.

• You've written and been published mostly in the light paranormal genre. What drew you back to contemporary romance?

The stories are what drew me to contemporaries. I have a Beefcake, Inc series about male strippers and it was that story that came to me. The characters are the same, well, minus the merman tail and/or magic, but they’re still men we want to fall in love with. It’s just a different venue for sharing their story. But just as challenging—I might not have to make up a whole new world, but I have to fit the characters in the real world, so that’s a new world that I have to build. And it’s been fun with four siblings, each with their own place in this town I've created.

• You've been traditionally published for several years plus you've also had several indie published books. So you've been on both sides. What’s the advantage, in your opinion, of doing both?

The advantage to readers and to me of indie-publishing is that I get to write the stories I want without having to worry about traditionally publishing’s P&L statements. The downside is I’m the one who has to invest in editorial. The stories have to stand on their own and be as good as the ones published through a traditional NY publisher. The advantage there is the up-front money and distribution and mass market print books that keep the costs down for readers. The good news is, though, that with indie-publishing and traditional publishing, readers have a variety to choose from and a quicker delivery time between books.

• Given your success, what do you still struggle with?

I still struggle with making the story cohesive. Making sure I have all the elements my readers have come to expect with my stories. That doesn't go away. If anything, the pressure is greater because there are a lot of people reading them. You’re only as good as your last book; I don’t want to put out a bad book. That’s always in the back of my mind. Luckily, my characters like to talk over that seed of doubt and I've learned to trust them.

• Give me a triumph--something you're proud of accomplishing.

Writing-wise, winning the awards I've won (Prism and Golden Leaf), having ten books out with traditional publishers (as of February 2015 and hopefully more to come), and having a great fan base who keep clamoring for more stories. Life-wise: raising my kids and showing them that hard work and perseverance can make your dreams come true.

• Any words of advice?

Yup: read a Judi Fennell book. Oh, you mean to aspiring writers? Keep writing, join a professional writing organization and put your work out there for critique—and seeing this as the business it is. Oh, and of course, write the damn book. J

ONE COMMENTER WILL WIN A COPY OF BEEFCAKE & CUPCAKES

                                     

What happens when three irresistibly sexy brothers lose a poker bet to their enterprising sister? They get hired out for her housecleaning venture. Now, the Manley Maids are at your service. Satisfaction guaranteed. It’s what a woman wants...

Resort entrepreneur Sean Manley was all set to buy an historic mansion at a great price, making a name for himself while making millions, when the seller and a poker bet change the game. Now he’s in the place as a hunky male maid and there’s one more complication: Livvy Carolla.

The house is Livvy’s inheritance. Her plan? Unload it to the highest bidder and use the cash to start her own bakery business. One look at “the help” and she’s hot to take him with her. Until she finds out he’s got a secret agenda.

But when Sean falls for the free-spirited, strong-willed Livvy, he has new ideas for the estate—and Livvy’s part in it. If all goes well, they’ll both be getting what they want. And then some.

BUY: AMAZON, B&N, CHAPTERSINDIGO.CA, INDIEBOUND

                                                                                                                                                               

MONDAY MUSINGS—IT'S ALL ABOUT THE ANATOMY

Getting the book discovered:

   Write a good book

                           Invest in a good editor

                                             Effective packaging

                                                                  Cover art is a selling tool

                                                                         Branding

… of the book. J

Sorry, folks, to tease you like that, but I've been asked to talk about what it takes to bring a self-published book to an author’s readership.

Let me preface this by saying that I’m both traditionally and self-published, and I own a business where I help authors get their books to market, www.formatting4U.com. It evolved because I was listening to authors on my loops talk about paying astronomical prices to have someone else do what I’d figured out how to do on my own. I couldn't see paying for it; I also couldn't see paying what those authors were talking about to have it done. So, I popped in to the conversation, said that I’d do it for $XX and dontchaknow? A few people contacted me.

The business has grown from a part time, help-out-my-fellow-author-and-earn-some-cash-doing-so hobby, to a business that I’m hoping to make full time. It’s grown from formatting books for Kindle, Nook and Smashwords, to more platforms, to doing print-on-demand layouts, to covers (both electronically and print), to editing, to PDF-to-text conversion, children’s books, and text books, services all requested by my growing client base. (Testimonials are at: www.formatting4U.com/testimonials).

The hardest part, of course, is writing the book...

So what all is involved? First, you have to start with a clean MSWord document. There are numerous theories and practices out there where people say you shouldn’t use a Word doc as your source, that you should convert to Kindle from Mobi Pocketcreator or Calibre and Sigil, to using Smashwords’ nuclear method, to a whole host of other options. And you know what? Each one is right for that individual. Depending on your level of technological know-how, you can find different ways to get your book online. There’s no one way.

This is actually the easy part of self-publishing. The hardest part, of course, is writing the book. The second hardest part is having your book get discovered online. If only I knew the secret to that…

The landscaping is changing daily on what works and what doesn't  Prior to June 2012, free promos worked well on Amazon. But they've changed their algorithms supposedly and I know from first-hand experience (with a book I put up under a completely different name and a different genre), as well as from fellow authors, that the KDP Select free promo days don’t have the same impact.



One of the biggest draws is going to be your cover...

So we have to look at all the other packaging for the book. One of the biggest draws is going to be your cover. You want to invest in a good cover artist. This is not the area to skimp. Actually, none of the areas are areas to skimp. You've spent how many hours writing the book and while I’m sure you love that you have a finished product, most of us do want people to buy it so we can recoup our investment and make some money. Spend money on an editor: you may only get one chance to capture the reader if you can get them to download your book. If you have shoddy editing, you’ll ensure they won’t pick up your next book.

Find a cover artist if you’re not familiar with graphics programs, or if you don’t have a good handle on marketing. Because covers are your selling tool. They need to look good in thumbnail sizes, they need to show the genre, and show your target audience that this book is one they will want to read.

There’s the front and back matter. Do you want to include cover quotes? Review quotes? A dedication? A glossary? Author bio/photo? Acknowledgments, dedication, links for other books in the series or your website? All considerations that help the reader experience and the author experience (if you can get the current reader to click over and buy your backlist/sequels, it’s definitely a good experience for your wallet!)

Branding is a consideration as well. I have two pen names. My light-hearted contemporaries (both paranormal and straight contemporary) are written as Judi Fennell and they have a certain look to them to give the reader a flavor of what they’ll get inside. As Raven Morris, my pseudonym for an erotic series entitled Tied with a Bow series, (The first book, JACKED, is free on Kindle, Nook, Smashwords, Kobo and AllRomance eBooks, and that, too, was a marketing decision), I created a hotter, sexier look since it’s erotic. But I branded those covers with the same font, the same swath of satin (but a different cover) and the sexy images.

I could go on (and Sia is probably wishing I wouldn't), but I do have these discussions with my clients. www.formatting4U.com isn't just a static, put-the-manuscript-in-the-engine-and-it-spits-out-a-digital-book-on-the-other-end type enterprise. 

It’s an interactive, interdependent relationship between the author and me, with full consideration given to the reader as the ultimate beneficiary from a job well done.

You may only get one chance to capture the reader, make it count. 

• Invest in a good editor. 
• Don't skimp on creating a cover.

 

You want your book to stand up to the competition—not fade out of the reader's sight. 

MONDAY MUSING: CATCHING THE EYE OF THE READER

How do you get new readers to not only discover you, but also plunk down their hard-earned money to read your stories?

You want to give them something provocative to keep them interested for longer than three seconds (according to marketing research) so they’ll consider buying the book.

I'm a very visual person. One of my pet peeves, as any who have known me the past five years will attest, is shoddy cover art. I feel strongly about it and have written articles about the importance of professional and competitive looking cover art—especially self published authors. You want your cover to catch the eye and induce the reader to pick up your book.  If one goes through all the time it takes to write a good story, have it properly edited both for story content and grammar/typos, WHY would they slap a crappy(and obvious) photoshop picture on the front and call it a cover? 

Earlier this month, Kat Sheridan shared an interview with L.B. Beckett, author of Guild of Spies. The cover art was imaginative and eye catching. It's beautiful. It doesn't scream *amateur* or self-published. Judi Fennell, Formatting 4 U, designed the cover and I asked her to share the process of such a project and the importance of cover art from a marketing standpoint. 

One of the biggest start-to-finish projects I've worked on recently was L.B. Beckett’s Guild of Spies. This story is an epic steampunk-speculative fiction-action/adventure-thriller with some romance. As you can see, it doesn't fall into any specific genre, so when it came to doing the cover, we were dealing with a wide-open frontier.

But this also allowed us to combine the genres. L.B. Beckett wanted to have an Asian influence, as that is prevalent in the story. Looking at the back cover copy, reading through some of the chapters, and my own knowledge of online marketing (finalist spots in 3 American Idol-like competitions based on vote-getting) and branding, I started looking around for a steampunk feel.

A lot of cover generation is hours of sifting through images. Now, I can do that for a client, but my time is money, or a client can do that for themselves (with direction from me toward a few websites I like to use) and save themselves some cash outlay, though giving up that much time isn't always what people want to do when they could be writing. Up to the client.

To add to the scope of this project, because the book is so long (184,000 words), the author wanted to offer the book as either a full-length novel at one price, or two shorter novels at a lower price. Oh, and we were doing a print book as well. That’s four different cover steps.

We had to look at it from both a branding viewpoint and a marketing one because we didn't want reader to feel that there were three different stories in this series. It’s one story, just delivered in different reading options. Therefore, we wanted continuity across the books, but with a noticeable difference.

I found three different backgrounds all in the same color scheme and feel, so that was one hurdle overcome. I utilized the title and author name graphics across all of the books, and took that Asian element—the phoenix—and kept it, but moved it around. We could also add the Book 1 and 2 titles in a consistent place so readers would be able to identify which book they’d already read.

We had a tag line, too, something that summed up the story:

In a country of secrets, even a spy has her limits…

I tried putting that on the cover, but with all the gears and gadgets and words, it was too much. This was a tough decision from a marketing standpoint because you want to give readers that hook. You want to give them something provocative to keep them interested for longer than three seconds so they’ll consider buying the book. At least, that’s the though process for traditional publishing. But we’re in a new business model and what’s worked in the past doesn't necessarily work now.

Branding was a bigger focus for this story. Keeping those books identifiable for the readers. So we put the tagline on the back. Now, on the digital versions you won’t see it. That is, you won’t see it on the cover. You will, however, see it in the interior. So we've got our hook and it’s included in the online description.

When it came to marketing, we made sure to include “Book 1 of 2” for the half books. We looked at price point—what would encourage a reader to buy a bigger book at a bigger price when they could “sample” the first part of the story for a lesser one? We also included excerpts to the other half of the story at the end and a link to find out where to buy that other half. So now, if a reader finishes Book 1, The Open Hand of Tem, he/she can read what happens in Book 2, The Hand of Tem Closes, and then have a link to buy the book. One stop shopping made simple.

As you can see, there’s a lot involved in getting a book to the readership. But you know what? It’s the same thing for a print book traditionally published. Discoverability has always been a hot button—how do you get new readers to not only discover you, but also plunk down their hard-earned money to read your stories? And how do you keep them coming back?

$2.99 is the price point at which authors will earn 70% royalties. A lot of authors are using that price point to start out to see what happens with sales; I’m going to ask you to consider price point carefully. If everyone is putting something up for $2.99, where’s the differentiation in the marketplace?

More and more I’m finding my clients raising their prices as a symbol of quality. I've experimented with pricing and I can honestly say that my sales have increased with the price point. 

Perception is nine/tenths of reality.

JUDI FENNELL—MAKING THE ORDINARY MAGICAL

My guest is the magical Judi Fennell. I just finished reading Magic Gone Wild and I have to say it's my favorite of the Genie books. This story is a genuinely fun read. It made me laugh, go awww a time or two, and I really love Vana and Zack. The chemistry between them is hot but there were some great moments of bantering and laughter. I also genuinely liked Vana's sidekick, a colorful phoenix called Merlin. He was pithy, had some great one liners, but he also had some sweet moments and he added to the story rather than detracted. For sure I love how Judi took an ordinary place and made it mystical. Isn't this cover gorgeous? 

I'll be putting up the Review shortly but I can already tell you it's worth the read and it will make you laugh and feel good as you read it. I don't know if it's Vana's pink smoke or creating magic via a kiss, or her term "holy smokes", could be Merlin, but all the magical ingredients come together so well and make the story so very entertaining! My Amazon Review

Hi Sia, and thanks for having me back to talk about my August release, Magic Gone Wild!

For those of you who have read my other books, you know that you’re in for a trip to somewhere magical, whether it’s a hidden merman’s lair off the coast of NJ or Atlantis, or a magical city in the Sahara desert, you’re going somewhere exotic, right?

Not this time. This time you’re going to northeast Pennsylvania, to one of the old steel towns. Why? Well, it’s actually a place our family visits. We have family in the area and we go up to visit, hike the canyon, swim in the swimming holes and creek (pronounced “crick” up there), stay in the cabin, and eat at Mike & Mary’s. Great family time in the outdoors with lots of hiking, fishing, and kayaking.

What a place for a genie to end up, right?

That little town will never be the same again. Actually, it hasn’t been the same for a hundred years when her previous master took the fall for her, um, shall we say magical mishaps?

Vana, short for Nirvana Aphrodite, and yes, she knows that name is not only a mouthful but impossible to live up to, might have, you know, jumped the gun (er, bottle) a bit on becoming a genie back in the day and didn’t quite finish her training.

The magic… it’s off.

And it did a number on her previous master’s reputation, one the new hero, Zane Harrison, has been trying to live down his entire life. It’s not easy to grow up as the object of ridicule. There was the pink square window in the church his great-grandfather built, or the story of the grist mill that went rolling around town on its own, the flying blueberries, and of course, the infamous vanishing-staircase incident. Zane’s sick of dealing with it so when he inherits the home, he comes to town to get it ready for sale.

Then he meets Vana and his world is turned upside down. (Don’t ask.) She’s beautiful, she means well, but she can’t seem to do anything right.

Well, okay, maybe there’s one thing she can do right. But with the hide-and-seek-playing gargoyles, the anthropomorphic furniture, the crazy stuff that happens in her bottle, and Merlin, the gender-inquisitive, cross-dressing phoenix, who’s always bursting (literally) in and out with his pithy words of wisdom, Zane’s afraid that not only won’t he be able to sell the place, but that maybe he’s suffering from the same affliction his great-grandfather was: Genie-itis.

When I start writing a story, I usually have the opening scene and a basic outline of the plot. I usually know my characters fairly well, though they always surprise me. But as I started this one, knowing that we weren’t going on any fantastical journey, I was a bit worried what my readers would think. Would it be the same experience? The same fun?

And then I wrote it. OMG, I had sooooooooo much fun writing this! Because, in the end, the story is about the characters. For all that we put them in fantastical situations or magical cities, the story is all about the characters. Vana and Zane have the same sorts of problems to overcome on their path to happily-ever-after as my other heroes and heroines. The pursuit of love and happiness, that falling in love feeling…

And, well, yes, maybe I did throw in a wee, tiny trip to the top of Mt. Damavand for a visit with the Fates. Those three had me laughing while I was trying to type fast enough to keep up with them. Now THEY were some characters!

So how to make the ordinary magical? Have the characters fall in love. After all, isn’t that the best magic of all?

• I always love hearing people’s falling-in-love stories. Care to share yours below?

BUY: AMAZON, B&N, INDIEBOUND

MAGIC GONE WILD BY JUDI FENNELL – IN STORES AUGUST 2012

Every Time She Uses Magic Something Goes Terribly Wrong...

Vana wishes she hadn't dropped out of genie training. Now she's determined to get a grip on both her genie magic and her life. But the harder she tries to fix things for her intriguing new master, the more she drives him crazy...

Except There's Nothing Ever Wrong About Him...

Pro–football player Zane Harrison finally has control of the family estate and is determined to put to rest his grandfather's eccentric reputation. Until he discovers that behind all the rumors is a real, live genie who stirs feelings in him he's never known before. The more Zane tries to help Vana harness her powers, the more her madcap magic entangles his heart... EXCERPT

Judi Fennell is the award-winning author of six light paranormal romances, including a trilogy of Mermen-inspired love stories, and three genie-inspired romances. Wild Blue Under won the PRISM Award for Best Light Paranormal from the Paranormal Chapter of Romance Writers of America. A former corporate meeting and convention planner, Judi now writes full time around the hectic schedules of her husband and teenagers. She lives in suburban Philadelphia, PA. For more information, please visit http://www.judifennell.com. You can also find Judi on Facebook, Goodreads, and Twitter.

DIVING INTO SELF PUBLISHING—Part II

If you missed Part One, you can read it here.

One of my pet peeves is an author putting out a product that isn’t professional. Your name is your reputation and it’s hard to build a name and brand that represents good quality and all too easy to damage with shoddy work. 


There should be certain expectations that come with the name on the cover of the book. The reader has the right to expect to get as good a story as they would if the book was traditionally published in both content, copy, and cover art. Content editing: does the story work, does it start in the right place, is the POV correct, is there enough tension, conflict, and motivation to carry the story? A good story is so much more than having a manuscript written without errors and in perfect English (copy editing). It’s about writing to entertain a reader and that’s much more difficult. Content is everything and that’s true whether you’re a small indie publisher or self-publishing a book.

In part One, Judi spoke about the whys of self-publishing and the need for self-published authors to put out a professional story and some of the downside.

 “self-publishing isn’t all wine and roses. Self-published authors now take on the role of publisher as well as author. That means no advances and all the up-front costs: Editing (story, copy, line…), a cover, formatting, ISBN, copyright, marketing. You have to be your own editor, art department, publicist, and marketer in addition to being a writer and businessperson.”  

Judi Fennell continues her thoughts on producing a professional looking product. Especially when it comes to the cover art and the technology of producing a high quality book to sell. 

Covers are arguably the best marketing tool you have after word-of-mouth. If the cover is appealing, people will “pick it up.” How many times have authors complained that their cover looks nothing like the book? I actually had to change my heroine’s hair color based on a cover because the Marketing Department loved the image they’d selected for the cover. Okay, I went with it (heck, she was a genie—she could change her hair color at will if she wanted), but guess what?

They changed the cover.

Luckily, they used another model with the same colored hair, but there you go. My vision altered. (I do love the cover, though, don’t get me wrong. And I’m fine with the hair color change; it’s just part and parcel of the TP business.)

BUY KINDLE ADDITION

But when I set out to do my cover for Beauty and The Best I knew there were elements I wanted on there. Definitely the hot guy. He’s headless because, sadly the face doesn’t always match the body… But I got to choose him. (And, yes, it was tough. Seriously. Think about all the hours I spent scrolling through pictures of half-naked guys. It was rough.)

I wanted to show the humor and the guardian angel element. That would be the cat with the cockeyed halo.

I wanted a white background. My work has been compared to a lot of contemporary authors whose TP covers are white, and even though this book has the guardian angel slant to it, it’s essentially a contemporary romance.

I wanted to capture Todd’s art and the paint-splattered drop cloth that plays a nice part in the story. But I couldn’t put all of these elements together.

Enter my cover artist, Kim Van Meter.

I’d done research, looked at different cover artists’ work and their turnaround times, and Kim was the one I went with, but there are others out there who do work that is just as amazing. I love the cover and have gotten awesome feedback from readers.

And it looks FABULOUS in print.

Print, you ask? How do you print books if you’re self-publishing? Doesn’t that cost an arm and a leg? Don’t you need to store thousands of books in a warehouse somewhere?

No. You don’t.

I use Createspace for my print versions and, while the books are a little more expensive than TP print books, readers who want the books in physical form are getting an awesome product (if I do say so myself). It’s gorgeous.

So how does one actually self-publish?

Write the story. I can’t stress that enough. You can spend hours, days, weeks, on the other aspects, but if you don’t have the story, you’re wasting your time. Use beta readers to get the story as best as it can be. Then hire an editor. Edit your book. Make it the best it can be. Those people who do no promoting and their books skyrocket? That’s because they’ve done their homework on the most important aspect of this business: they wrote the best book they could.

Get a cover. Whether you do it yourself or you hire someone, make this cover PROFESSIONAL looking. I can’t stress that enough. Nothing says “cheap product” than a sub-par cover. Research other books in the genre you’re writing. Take a look at the best sellers. What is it about their covers that grab your attention? Who are the cover artists? What elements do you want on your book?

Deal with the technology. Or, if you don’t want to figure out formatting and uploading and ISBNs and Bowker’s site, and whether to do KDP Select or Nook First, or free books, or giveaways… hire someone.

*** Full disclaimer: I have a formatting site: http://www.formatting4U.com. Check me out. Many satisfied REPEAT clients and reasonable prices. Referrals for other services. Excellent turnaround time. And hand-holding all the way. ***

Self-publishing is a business all on its own in addition to the writing business. That’s very important to remember. You have to switch hats from the comfortable creative author hat to something that’s maybe outside your comfort zone. Join some indie and self-pub loops; the information you can find there FOR FREE is priceless.

But most of all, write. Having one book up is nice, but it’s the multiplier factor of having more than one, especially if it’s a series, that will bump up your sales to where you might be able to leave the Day Job and focus solely on your writing. I’m not there yet, but I’m hopeful.

Am I still pursuing TP? Yes. Why, if self-publishing can be the way to Day Job and artistic freedom? Because, as with anything else, having all your eggs in one basket might not be the best thing. Publishing is constantly changing; no one knows what will happen next. I’d hate to ditch the security of a Day Job for the Wild West of Publishing only to have a tornado come along and turn that Wild West into a dustbowl. But that’s my path; it might not be yours. I know other authors who say they’ll never traditionally publish again. Why give away 64% of their royalties? It’s a compelling argument and may change my mind as I bring the next books to market. (Look for If The Shoe Fits, book #2 in the Once-Upon-A-Time Romance series after Beauty and The Best, and Through The Leaded Glass, a RenFaire time travel romance coming soon!)

And a peek at Magic Gone Wild which comes out August first: 

You can read a short excerpt Here.

Judi Fennell has had her nose in a book and her head in some celestial realm all her life, including those early years when her mom would exhort her to "get outside!" instead of watching Bewitched or I Dream of Jeannie on television. So she did--right into Dad's hammock with her Nancy Drew books.

These days she's more likely to have her nose in her laptop and her head (and the rest of her body) at her favorite bookstore, but she's still reading, whether it be her latest manuscript or friends' books.

PRISM and Golden Leaf Award winner and ARe best-selling author, Judi loves to hear from her readers. Check out her website (www.JudiFennell.com) for excerpts, reviews, contests and pictures from reader and writer conferences, as well as the chance to "dive in" to her stories.

DIVING INTO THE SELF PUBLISHING POND

This is part one and I'll be running part two on Monday, June 4th.

A 'Round the cup discussion. 

Most writers, who want to be published, are reaching for traditional publication. That's their goal. These authors have worked long and hard to be traditionally published. Now, we have traditionally published authors who are self-publishing many books in addition to their traditionally published work. Why?


I asked a friend, Judi Fennell, to give me her thoughts on why she chose to also self-publish a series of books. What's the appeal? How hard is it? Now that she has books in both markets, I was curious about what conclusions she drawn. So she shared her thoughts on why she chose to dip into the self-publishing market. One thing stands out in these articles—these authors (I know many) have a different mindset when it comes to the business of writing. They have to be to make it a success.

Those of you who have seen my Tritone Trilogy (Mermen off the coast of the Jersey Shore), may recognize the “dive into the romance!” tagline. It was funny, punny, and tied the series with the romance, but now I’m using it to talk about the fact that I’ve dipped my toes into the self-publishing pond with Beauty and The Best. 

Why, you ask?  I mean, I’ve worked so hard to be traditionally published (5 books, #6, Magic Gone Wild, comes out August 1 and is available for pre-order I'll have a sneak peek of this one on Monday!), why go the self-pub route? 

I’m like a lot of other traditionally published writers, and those who haven’t yet been traditionally published (henceforth TP): we have books that NY just doesn’t know what to do with. Self-publishing gives us the opportunity to share our books with readers.

NY has big rents. They have overhead. They have salaries. They used to have marketing budgets and editors who could grow an author.

Not anymore.

Nowadays, it’s all about the bottom line, especially with the new kids on the block: Amazon. To achieve those bottom lines, NY needs to make sure they’re going to make money on a book. It’s not always advisable, then, for them to take a chance on a new author, or a new subgenre, or a storyline they haven’t seen before, or finish out a lackluster series. Tried-and-true is pretty much the way they hang.

But publishing is changing. Reading is changing. And the reading public is changing with them. E-Readers are now on our phones. Kindles, Nooks, iPads are all over the place. I was one of those who thought I’d never give up on paperback books, but I have to say, that One-Click buy button makes everything sooooooo easy. Especially if I finish a really good book at 11 pm and just have to find out what happens in Book #2. I can get it instantly.

We were on vacation two years ago and on the plane, Kid and I were talking about a book I recommended. We opened up the eReader and downloaded that book before the “Turn off your electronic devices” call sounded. Kid was entertained the entire plane ride (which meant Mom got to enjoy her book…)

You can read more HERE

But back to the reason I self-published. My first book (and yes, there will be more) was my American Title III finalist, Beauty and The Best. This book had come this close to being picked up by TP, but two editors left the day I’d submitted revisions to them. Yeah, two at different houses at different times. I’d gotten that far and then nothing. My current editor has seen it twice, but she didn’t “know how to market guardian angels.”

Um, okay. I will.

Readers have seen this story for years. It was in the American Title contest. It was in the Gather.com/Simon & Schuster First Chapters Contest (the only Romance to make the Top 20 finalists out of over 2,600 manuscripts). Its won contests. The opening line is a keeper:

There’s a naked man in my kitchen.

Now, finally, I have the ability to bring it to my readers.

I’m on a lot of self-pub and indie loops and I see the same thing with other writers. Their editors didn’t know what to do with this new subgenre they’re writing. The editors didn’t want to change what was working. So the authors have put these stories up themselves and, finally, they’re able to make a living at being a writer. I say finally because a midlist TP author really can’t, not with one or two books out a year and a 6% royalty rate.

Plus, authors can now bring out more books a year, at a lower price, which is not only to their benefit, but also their readers’. Compare my TP book prices of $5.38, to the $2.99 I can offer Beauty and The Best at. Self-pub authors see sales figures HOURLY rather than twice a year.

What’s the appeal of self-publishing?

1. The ability to actually make a living as a writer
2. The ability to put out more books a year.
3. Self publish backlist rights to books the author has written 
4. Ultimate control over our story from editorial to the cover (something most TP authors have ZERO say in. 
5. See monthly income rather than twice a year—as TP contracts pay 
6. Self-published authors are paid 70% of the cover price (compared to 6% TP) 
7. Write the stories we've always wanted to write but no one “knew what to do with.”

Of course, self-publishing isn’t all wine and roses. Self-published authors now take on the role of publisher as well as author. That means no advances and all the up-front costs: Editing (story, copy, line…), a cover, formatting, ISBN, copyright, marketing. You have to be your own editor, art department, publicist, and marketer in addition to being a writer and businessperson.

Sure, there are stories of people putting a story up and doing nothing else and the book takes off, but that isn’t the norm. You have to get the word out. You have to have a good, professional product. Your story could be great, but if you don’t have a clue about spelling or grammar or leave plot holes wide-open, readers will call you on it.

Covers are arguably the best marketing tool you have after word-of-mouth. I’ll talk about that more on Monday with part two. How to choose the right cover, editing, and how to actually self publish a book.

• Writers, I'm curious to hear your thoughts on publishing—whether you've gone both ways or by passed traditional publishing altogether. What are you seeing?

NUDITY… IT’S WHAT’S FOR BREAKFAST.

JUDI Fennell is my guest today, Over Coffee. She's here to talk about her newest romance and how it came to be. Considering her topic I've decided to add Iced Coffee to today's coffee bar.

There’s a naked man in my kitchen.

(Don’t I wish!)

Sadly, there is no naked man in my kitchen at the moment. Which is probably a good thing, given all the teenagers milling about my first floor with their, “Mom, what’s for dinner?” “Is the laundry done?” “Can I have money for lunch tomorrow”-isms. Imagine their looks if there was a naked man in my kitchen. Especially one who looks like the cover model on my latest release.

Go ahead. Imagine. I’ll wait.

(You sooooooooo weren’t imagining the teenagers looking at him, now, were you? J)

Ladies, you were just perusing the fine form of Todd Best. Otherwise known as The Best. Name fits, doesn’t it?

So how does the naked man sentence above relate to Todd Best? Well, other than the fact that you probably wouldn’t mind seeing him naked… Todd is the hero of Beauty and The Best, the first release in my Once-Upon-A-Time Romance series. (And for the record, I came up with that title long before ABC put the show on the air. But of course I’m watching that show. It practically has Judi Fennell written all over it!)

Ahem, where was I? Oh, yes. Todd. He’s the hunky hero in the story, but when we first meet him, well, he’s not so heroic. He is however, hunky.

Naked and hunky.

Naked and hung over but still hunky.

Yeah, hung over. “What kind of romance novel hero is that?” you ask.

I’m hoping he’s one you’ll feel for. (No, not feel period, but feel for.) There’s a reason for his nudity and it’s a doozy. So please forgive him the hangover. Our heroine, Jolie, does.

Jolie Gardener is Todd’s new personal chef. The reason he has a personal chef is tied in with the hangover thing, but for the moment let’s just go with it. Jolie’s there, all ready to prepare his breakfast when Naked Guy walks in and gets her all flustered. Things start burning (read all the double entendres into that that you want) and breakfast is shot. So is Jolie’s composure. But from this, um, interesting beginning, a romance is born.

Beauty And The Best

Jolie Gardener, personal chef by day, aspiring romance writer by night,

likes to talk and does it a lot. She has to because if she stops, all the pain, disillusionment, and abandonment of her AWOL mother, question-mark father, and foster-care childhood will rise up like a chocolate soufflé on steroids, sweeping away the fragile infrastructure of her life.

But she's fine. Really. She is.

Or so she thinks. 

Todd Best isn't fine. He knows it. And doesn't care.

After his wife died—the woman who believed in him when he was a struggling artist—he put painting aside, moved from their home, and lost himself in the minutiae of daily life. 

Alone. Private. The way he likes it.

The last thing he needs is some chatty cook seeping into the perfectly bland canvas of his life.

Or so he thinks. 

So when Jonathan, a guardian-angel-in-training, turns himself into a kitten to help these two lonely souls find a happily ever after together, it ought to be a piece of cake.

Or so he thinks… Excerpt

Pick up Beauty and The Best at:

Amazon Barnes & Noble Smashwords 

This story holds a special place in my heart. I can’t say it’s my favorite story because, like my kids and my dogs (I’d say husbands, but since I have and only have had one, there’s no contest there), I don’t have favorites. But just as you like your kids for different reasons, so, too, do I have a special reason for liking this story.

It was in Romantic Times Magazine’s American Title contest. Then it went on to be the only romance in the Top 20 finalists of 2700 entries in the Gather.com/Simon & Schuster First Chapters contest. My writing got a lot of exposure (pun not intended, but I giggled, so you might as well, too) to the reading public, so much so that people have been emailing me for years asking me when this story would be published.

I can finally answer, “Now!”

Below is an excerpt from the story that you can’t get on Amazon or Barnes & Noble or any other online retailer, but if you want to check out the naked man in my kitchen scene, the links below will take you to the Look Inside/Sample feature on the sites.

What you won’t find out is why Todd’s naked. For that, you’ll have to read page—

Nah. You’ll have to read the whole thing because just like love scenes shouldn’t be read out of context, Big Reveal scenes shouldn’t be either. And, yes, I meant that pun.

Bon appétit!

CONTEST: JUDI FENNELL and DANA MARTON are doing a drawing for signed original manuscripts, tote bags, and a few other goodies for readers who LIKE both their FB pages. 

PRISM Award and Golden Leaf Award-winning author, Judi Fennell, has had her nose in a book and her head in some celestial realm all her life, including those early years when her mom would exhort her to “get outside!” instead of watching Bewitched or I Dream of Jeannie on television. So she did—right into Dad’s hammock with her Nancy Drew books.

These days she’s more likely to have her nose in her laptop and her head (and the rest of her body) at her favorite writing spot, but she’s still reading, whether it be her latest manuscript or friends’ books.

Author of “fairy tales with a twist,” pun-filled, tongue-in-cheek, contemporary paranormal romances, starting with the Tritone Trilogy about Mermen and the Humans who love them, her Bottled Magic Series about genies and magic and falling in love, and now her Once-Upon-A-Time Romances, those twisted fairy tales that were the inspiration for her tagline.

Dive into the romance on her website, www.JudiFennell.com, for excerpts, deleted scenes, reviews, contests, and pictures from reader and writer conferences, or check her out on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Judi-Fennell/325890415256