And the ride continues...

You know, when you have a dream or a goal, you build it up in your mind how it's going to be when you achieve it.  Part of what kept me working toward my goal of being an author is that I had envisioned how wonderful everything in my life would become.

Not really the case.

The reality?  It's been kind of anticlimactic.  Don't get me wrong, things have been exciting and honestly, it's like a roller coaster ride with amazing highs and terrifying drops and things speed up and happen faster than you thought possible and then it will slow down to a near stop.

I'm not a huge fan of the roller coaster.  

This has been my ride thus far:

November of 2011, I released/self-published my very first novel, "Jordan's Return".  It didn't do much sales-wise and I didn't do much marketing-wise but I was just happy to say that I had a book out there.  

November 2012, I released a little holiday novella called "The Christmas

Cottage".  It was a fluke.  I had planned on releasing it as a free read on Amazon to get my name out there until I released my next book.  A week after it was released, it was on the best-seller list on Amazon.  Now, here's the thing, I was so new to the game and so uneducated on the publishing industry as a whole, that I didn't pay attention to any lists other than Amazon because I honestly didn't think that anyone else paid attention to indie authors.  I can kick myself now because now I wonder if it had made it on to maybe the USA Today list or even the NY Times list because the sales were that high!

February 2013, I released the follow up to "The Christmas Cottage" with "Ever After".  I was still so uninformed with what the norm was for book sales that I just assumed that every book sold as well as the Cottage did and that was definitely NOT the case.  I was devastated by the numbers and although it did fine, it did not come close to the success that "The Christmas Cottage" had.
 
March 2013, I released "Catering to the CEO".  This book was a personal favorite of mine that I had written two years ago for NaNoWriMo and all I did was polish it up a bit and put it out there.  The sales on it were okay but again, certainly no competition for "the Christmas Cottage".  It's hard to say that I'm not disappointed because I am.  While I know not every book is going to be a bestseller, it's still a little disheartening when one book does so well and the next one doesn't.

May 2013, I released "Wait for Me" - book one in my first-ever trilogy, "The Montgomery Brothers."  I didn't do anything different with this book than I did with the others and yet it has been consistently on the Amazon bestseller list and hit #4 on Barnes and Noble!  Again, I could kick myself because I didn't think of the possibility of it hitting any other lists!

June 2013, I release "Trust in Me" - book two in the Montgomery Brothers set.  It didn't come close to the numbers that "Wait for Me" hit but it certainly held it's own out there on Amazon.  It wasn't a personal favorite of mine as a writer but overall the response to it was positive.

July 2013, I released "In the Eye of the Storm".  This book is KILLING me.  This was the book that was a top five finalist with an international contest through Harlequin (though they passed on publishing it), I had a New York literary agent sign me because of this book and then she couldn't sell it, I had a critique partner who just GUSHED over this book and yet commercially, no one wanted it!  So I got it back from the agent and released it myself.  It hasn't done exceptionally well; it didn't hit the levels of the first two books of the Montgomery Brothers series and barely eeked onto the bestseller list on Amazon.

July 2013, I also collaborated with four other authors on a contemporary romance box set called "Loving the CEO"; five books where our main characters are all CEO's.  This little set (which essentially is a collection of five books that have all been previously published as singe titles) has just taken off.  We have been on the USA Today bestseller list for three consecutive weeks and hit the New York Times bestseller list.  My book "Catering to the CEO" was my contribution and I cannot even begin to tell you how much I am looking forward to doing another set like this.  

August 2013, I released the final book in the Montgomery series, "Stay With Me" and in it's first week of release, I have hit the top 100 on both Amazon and Barnes and Noble .  I will be watching the USA Today and NY Times list more closely this time around because now I know that anything is possible!

I'm now in the middle of the book that I will release in September and working on the next box set that will be released in October.  I'm mentally and physically exhausted and much to my dismay, an Ed McMahon wannabe did NOT show up at my house the day that we found out about either the USA Today list or the NY Times list with a truckload of balloons or a slew of photographers.  The papparazzi are no where to be found.  I'm thinking that I'm all that and really, it's been like any other day.  

I've been nominated for THREE Indie Romance awards (but didn't win), I was interviewed by a local TV show (still don't know if it ever even aired!), had my book trailer for "Wait for Me" awarded an Oscar for best Indie Romance video book trailer,  and I've been able to essentially quit my day job and do what I love now as a career.
 
I'm sitting here now wondering if my appendix are about to burst, I have to go in to work tomorrow (I'm finishing up my office job - like the long goodbye) and life goes on.  In my fantasy version of my life when I hit these writing milestones, I whisk myself away on a vacation; I'm interviewed by the local paper and People magazine...and I'm about 25 pounds thinner.

The reality version is kind of boring...and not glamorous at all.

Bottom line is that it was silly to build it all up so much in my mind because while I'm not front page news, I am still proud that I have accomplished so much in such a short amount of time.  Why did I wait so long to start this???

Hello, yeah, it's been a while...

I know, I know...bad blogger.

In my own defense, writing and promoting books is EXHAUSTING.  In this last month so much has happened and I'm still not sure how it all came to be.  So let's start with the basics:

Wait for Me.  I decided to not go with the Kindle Select program this time around and just published it on NOOK and Kindle and guess what?  My sales SKYROCKETED on NOOK!  I could not believe it.  It had been the complete opposite when I did it with The Christmas Cottage and that's why I shied away from B&N because it wasn't making any money for me.  Clearly I was wrong to jump the gun because it has been in the top 100 for weeks and peaked at Number Four!!!  I was a spot better than James Patterson!  Go figure!

Trust in Me.  This is the next book I'm releasing and is book two in the Montgomery Brothers trilogy.  So I've been writing, writing, writing and editing and helping design a book cover...and basically wishing that there were more hours in the day.

Ever After.  I released Ever After in paperback finally and that was a process that nearly brought me to my knees.  Formatting a book for publication is not something that can be rushed.  As I found out by the THIRD print proof that came to my house.  It's now available on Amazon for $7.49.  It's kind of fun having an entire bookshelf in my house that is being filled with books that I wrote!

I'm in the process of working with a group of indie authors like myself to put together a box set.  We have picked a theme and we will each contribute a title and do all of the marketing and promoting (oh, joy!) and see how it goes.  A lot of these sets have been making it on to the big bestseller lists like USA Today!  I would LOVE to have that happen.  So we'll see how it all comes together and I've got my fingers crossed that it will be something that builds my audience a little.

I did a marketing promotion that promised 2,500 likes on my Facebook page.  It was a $15 fee and I figured, why not?  Well, I ended up getting over 5,000 likes from it and was near giddy.  What they don't tell you?  Most of those likes don't last.  So even though I gained 5,000 likes from them, by the time most people un-like it (and why?  No one knows) I'll end up with the 2,500 that they promised.  

I hope.

I survived Mother's Day.  Barely.  I stayed in my pajamas through Memorial Day.  I'm still loving my new car and still feel pretty darn sassy driving it.  Yeah, me!  Frank's work schedule is crazy, Michael is finishing up the seventh grade and Nick is plugging onward with college and trying to find a job.  All in all, it's a busy time for us.

Some things that I'm considering to help me clear the way a little for more writing is closing down the blog.  I know, I know, I've been doing this for years but it's hard to maintain a blog, a Facebook page, an author website, a Twitter account and a Tumblr all while trying to write and promote a book so something's got to give.  I had someone leave me a rather nasty message not too long ago (which I chose not to publish) where they complained that my blog was spam.

Seriously?  It's my blog and I'm writing about ME!  I've been sharing the link to my posts on Digg, Reddit, Twitter and the like and this guy saw my stuff on Reddit and told me that my stuff was Spam.  I thought that Reddit was a way for people to promote their blog contents, articles and whatnot but clearly I offended this guy.  Not my intention, dude, seriously.  I'm just trying to get a little creative writing/venting done and sell some books.  I know you can't please everyone but sometime I just wish that people didn't feel the need to throw the hate around.

I'm still dealing with some issues with some people in my life who are convinced that I'm making a boatload of money from all of the books.  Seriously people, .35 cents a book.  That's it.  Do the math.  On average, I sell about 2,000 books a month.  Divide that by the .35 cents and you'll see, I'm not getting rich on this.  I'm not able to quit my day job.  I'm not hiding anything from anyone so quit complaining that I'm not sharing my money with you.  There is no money to share.  AND...while your bitching, how about maybe taking some of that energy and putting it into actually helping me SELL some books.  If you're that interested in me spending my money on you, how about helping me make some?

So that's it.  Not sure if I'll be doing this much longer.  It's a nice creative release and I've made a lot of really great friends here.  It's a lot to consider...

New Book Series Coming Your Way!

So let me start with an apology for stepping away from the blog for so long.  I have been wrapped up in a new book - which will be part of a series - and setting up an actual website for Samantha Chase.  I was pretty darn proud of myself because I managed to design it and set it up all by myself and it was NOT an easy job!  You can find it at Chasing Romance and it will have links to all of my books as well as news on upcoming releases.  Yeah, me!

Next up is my newest endeavor - a trilogy!  My very first one!  When I wrote "The Christmas Cottage" it was meant to be a stand alone book but people wanted to know what happened with the best friend so I wrote a part 2.  But this next book?  It was always meant to be a series and I am very excited about it!

"Wait for Me" is book number one in the Montgomery Brothers series.  First up is youngest brother, Lucas Montgomery.  Here's the blurb:

 There’s no time like the present…

Executive assistant Emma Taylor is desperate for a little time away; away from her job, her life and from thoughts of her boss’s son who doesn’t seem to know she even exists.  Tired of waiting for the time to be right, she takes advantage of her boss’s generous offer for a little weekend getaway to thank her for helping out with a difficult business deal.

Unless you’re still running from your past…

Former NFL superstar Lucas Montgomery is still suffering from a career-ending injury.  His self-imposed exile from life is exactly what he wants; a sanctuary where there’s no chance for disappointment or distractions and that’s exactly the way he likes it.  While his family has been patiently waiting for Lucas to come around and embrace life once again, they don’t realize that it wasn’t just his career that was lost, but his sense of identity.

…And afraid to hope for the future

Lucas thought everything was fine until sweet, sexy and completely off-limits Emma Taylor comes crashing into his carefully constructed world one snowy weekend and turns his entire life upside down.

Was Mother Nature really to blame or did someone else lend a hand?

I am VERY excited about this book (as if I'm not excited about them all!) and I have to just say that I LOVE the work that my cover artist does.  I would be totally lost without her!  "Wait for Me" will be out this week and as soon as the link goes live, you will hear it here first!!!

If you don't like happy endings, find something else to read!

Everyone's a critic.

Honestly, I am having to learn to have thicker skin because as a writer, when you put your work out there, everyone has something to say.  Whether it's a 'well-meaning' friend, co-worker or family member, it seems that because you publically put your writing in print, that clearly means that you WANT to hear what they're thinking.

When my first book came out, I didn't market it very much so a lot of the people who reviewed it were friends who were just being nice.  I think they all thought "Hey, Stace wrote a book.  Let me cheer her on."

By the second book they were like "A second one?  Really?  Oh, good for you!" and they wrote very nice reviews.  But because "The Christmas Cottage" got a lot of publicity - mainly because it was a Christmas book at Christmas and everyone LOVES Christmas time, I was suddenly dealing with people I didn't know leaving reviews.  For the most part, people were nice but there were a few that were SUPER critical.  I was hurt but I moved on.  The biggest complaint?  Grammar errors.  I mean, they were completely right and it was an easy fix.  It was my own damn fault for rushing things so I couldn't be too terribly upset.

When the third book came out, it was not received very well.  The friends and family were like "Another one?  Already?  Well, I'll see if I have time to write a review".  Okay, fine, I get it.  You only want to help - to a point.  So most of the reviews on "Ever After" are solely from strangers.  The biggest complaint?  They didn't like Ava - the main character.  They said she was annoying.  Um...if you'd read "The Christmas Cottage" ("Ever After" is the continuation) you would have known how over-the-top her character was.

Then we got to "Catering to the CEO".  Seriously, for the first week or so, NO ONE wrote a review and I was a little devastated.  I didn't really ask anyone but I figured that since I was promoting it all over Facebook, SOMEONE would have gone and written one.  Finally, a friend of my in-laws (who has been my absolute biggest supporter!) wrote a wonderful review.  The others all came basically from strangers.  

Now here's the funny part and something that you need to keep in mind - I write romances.  Okay, when you THINK of romance, what comes to mind?  Love, relationships, sex...happily ever after?  Right?  Well, I had someone complain about the happily ever after!!  Ever romance I ever read consisted primarily of a couple getting together, having some sort of conflict, then someone apologizing and admitting their love and then, THE END!  

**SPOILER ALERT***  DON'T READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK!!  So when my character Adam (who had been a controlling jerk for most of the book) finally came to his senses and confronted Cassie about how wrong he'd been and tells her that he loves her, she forgives him!  Why?  Because what good would it have been if she had responded with "Um, yeah, that's great but it's too late" and walked away?  I would have wasted 170 pages building up to something that wasn't going to happen!  

For real, lady.  She said women were pathetic.  Clearly this woman had run someone off who never came back and said they loved her.  Sorry, mean girl moment, but when you read a romance book, you WANT the happy ending; you want the man to realize he's been a jerk and that he can't live without the woman.

Maybe I need to put the spoiler alert in my book descriptions.  Something like "Warning:  This book contains a happy ending.  If that doesn't appeal to you, go find another book".  

What do you think?

Getting Votes, Gaining Stats and What the Heck, Amazon!

It is a very busy time to be me.  Seriously.  I just released my fourth indie book (this time a full-length novel), I'm editing a completed novella, writing a follow-up to said novella, and trying to figure out which work-in-progress I want to finish up/polish to submit to my agent.  

As if that isn't enough, I am doing 95% of my own marketing and promotion on all of my books and just found out that I have been nominated for THREE Indie Romance Awards that I have to campaign to get people to go and vote for me!  It's exhausting.  All of this WHILE being a wife and mother, working a full-time job and just fighting to survive.

WHEW!

So how can one person with a VERY limited budget do it all?  It's not easy, I can tell you that!  Okay, the fourth book, "Catering to the CEO", is out on Amazon.  I went with the Kindle Select again just because.  Honestly, it's very time consuming to submit your file to multiple sites because they all want it in different formats and whatnot and I just don't have the time or energy.  I am trying a little bit different of a marketing strategy on this one and I'll see if it pans out for me.  Being that this book is a full-length novel, I was able to justify pricing it a little bit higher.  Again, we'll see if it pays off.

I'm guessing that the "Like" button on Amazon is a thing of the past because I have used multiple browsers on multiple computers and asked dozens of people and nobody seems to see the dang thing.  Why would Amazon take it away?  Probably because people try to manipulate results and do the "I'll like your page if you like mine" and so the results are kind of not an accurate telling of what people honestly think of the book.  I can admit that I am guilty of that.  But still, I wish there was a way that they could track traffic just to see if there is interest in your book!
 
Then the Indie Romance Awards.  I'm pretty excited about these but this offers a challenge all its own.  Getting votes.  Good grief, you'd think I was asking people to donate a damn kidney.  With 500 fans on my Facebook Author Page and another almost 900 on my personal page, do you know how many votes I have?  21.  TWENTY-FREAKIN-ONE.  I can't even get angry anymore but I'm still seriously annoyed.  This whole self-publishing thing is hard enough - with just the actual writing and editing.  Add marketing and promotions and then campaigning for votes?  There aren't enough hours in a WEEK! 

There's a site called "Get Online Votes" that you can submit your info too that will direct people to your site where you need votes.  It's not as sketchy as it sounds because people have to actually go to the site, click on your link and go and vote; it's not like it's hacking the site or anything.  And believe me, I don't know enough about computers or programming to even try to hack anything!   No, right now I'm seeing if I see any results from them to help me gain some votes and in return, I go and vote for other people's stuff.  We'll see.

Stats, Votes, Sales...Oh, my!

If you can, please vote for me on the Indie Romance Convention site.  I am nominated for Best Indie Contemporary Romance for "The Christmas Cottage", Best Indie Romance Novella for "The Christmas Cottage" and for Indie Author of the Year - Samantha Chase.

If you're looking for something to read, "Catering to the CEO" is out on Kindle along with "Ever After", "The Christmas Cottage" and "Jordan's Return".  

HELP A STRUGGLING INDIE AUTHOR MAKE SOMETHING OF HERSELF!!!  

Indie Romance Convention Nominees Announced

I'm not going to lie to you, friends, I did a bit of campaigning on this one and it looks as if my efforts have paid off.  At 8:00 p.m. this evening, I received official word that my book, "The Christmas Cottage", is nominated for Best Indie Romance Novella!!

OH...
MY...
GOSH...

I did a little dance, I jumped around a bit, then texted a whole bunch and then celebrated with a Milky Way ice cream bar.  Don't be jealous.  

So what does this mean??  I think it's a pretty cool thing to get nominated.  The Indie Romance Convention is a fairly new thing but that just makes it all the more fun to be a part of.  I can say that I was there from the beginning!

Voting will start April 1st and I cannot be any more excited!!!  Being an Indie Author can be so much fun!!!

Have you read "The Christmas Cottage"?  It's not just for Christmas!  Actually, Christmas is only a secondary theme so really, it's good to read any time!  You can get it on Amazon for only .99 cents for the eBook or $6.99 for the paperback.  It's still available on Barnes and Noble in both formats, too.

I honestly have to thank NaNoWriMo for this; if I hadn't made myself sit down to write for the competition, I don't know when this story would have been written and it certainly wouldn't have gone out with such amazing timing as it did nor would it have received such recognition.  I LOVE BEING A WRITER!!! 

Click HERE and order yours today and then come back on April 1st to vote for me so that I can go and walk the red carpet in October!!!

What makes a best seller on Amazon?

This whole indie publishing thing is a daily learning process.  Just when you think you've got it worked out, your formula doesn't work.  When I wrote "The Christmas Cottage", I did not set out to write a best seller.  It just happened.  Only I didn't realize that until about two months after its release.  

What does that mean?  Well, here I was thinking that I was doing something phenomenal with my cheap and free marketing.  The truth was that I released a romantic holiday novella at Christmas time and people enjoy a holiday themed book.  It was priced at .99 cents as an ebook and so basically, the planets lined up on that one and I had a best seller.  

When I wrote the follow-up, "Ever After", there was no hook; there was no holiday that it was tied into and so I was just hoping to ride the coattails of the success of "The Christmas Cottage".  I marketed the same way; utilized a lot of the same websites that offered free or low cost promotions.  And I got two VERY different results.  "The Christmas Cottage" went into the top 100 Best Seller List in the Kindle Store in eight days.  "Ever After"?  It has never gotten that high on the list.

Well, that's not totally true; let me clarify.  The Kindle Store is the listing of ALL Kindle books.  Then it gets broken down into genres.  So while "Ever After" has (just recently) been on the best seller list, it was in sub-sub-SUB genre categories.

I did the free promo option on "Ever After" and STILL didn't break the top 100 in the Kindle Store.  And I did not get the bounce-back sales that I've heard people talk about, either, after their free days.  

I have blogged, tweeted, Tumblr'd, Facebooked...everything I could to spread the word about BOTH books and lightning did NOT strike twice.  I've come to learn through multiple indie authors that what happened with "The Christmas Cottage" sales-wise, was not the norm.  What I am experiencing with "Ever After" is.  A month after it's release, some random romance web-site promoted it on their bargain e-book day and I sold almost 800 books on that day alone!  That was more than I had sold in the month!  That was pure luck.

I'm learning to not obsess about the numbers and to not rely on this income.  I thought that I was going to be a bit more on easy-street when I was seeing the sales from "The Christmas Cottage" but have quickly learned that that was a seemingly one-time deal and I was lucky to experience it.  

So what makes a best seller on Amazon?  There seemingly is no direct answer.  They took away the like button so there goes that.  You need to get reviews.  THAT is a biggie.  The more reviews the better (and even more so when they are GOOD reviews).  But I've seen well-known authors having to essentially beg for reviews so imagine how hard it is for little ol' unknown me to get them!  

I'm going to keep writing.  I'm going to keep marketing the way that I do and maybe someday I'll luck out and get noticed by a big review site or by someone who just likes my work and I'll be able to get on and stay on the best seller list again.
 

Why I Write What I Write

Being an author is a funny thing.  When people hear that you're an author their first question is always "What do you write?"  Depending on who is asking the question normally alters my answer.

I live in a Southern Baptist town.  Seriously, the Baptist Seminary is less than a half a mile from my house.  There are churches on every corner.  Now, I am a Christian; have been for almost 20 years.  And yes, I read and write romances.  Saying that in certain circles, will have people praying over me or throwing me out of church groups.  I've learned to lean more toward saying that I write women's fiction.  It's clearly a more acceptable response.

What kills me?  Is that most of the bible thumping people who gasp and look at me with disdain, are the same people who stand in judgement on those around them (though the Bible tells them not to), will gossip amongst one another about who is acceptable and not acceptable (though the Bible tells them not to) and are the ones secretly ready 50 Shades of Gray.

Which I have not read.  I have it; ordered it from Paperback Swap, but haven't brought myself to read it.

And you know who you are.  I've seen them in the aisles of Barnes and Noble looking at it and have heard of multiple book clubs in the area that many belong to promoting it.  Honesty should be what you're all about, not judgment.

But judgmental people aside, I enjoy reading romances.  Not erotica; romances.  I love the development of a relationship; I love the building of attraction.  I enjoy reading it and I enjoy writing it.  Relationships fascinate me and I don't think I'm too hideous at writing about them.  I'm not the best at it but I am certainly not the worst.  

What I have learned recently is that you have to write what is in your head and in your heart; not what other people tell you to write.  Case in point?  "Ever After".  I had no intention of writing that story when I did.  I wrote "The Christmas Cottage" and then was working on other stories but people wanted to know what happened next.  What was Ava's story.  So I went with it.  It's not a hit.  People don't like her very much and to be honest, she's not a favorite of mine either.  But I created a character who was flawed and had to stay true to that end.  

Do I regret writing it?  No.  Do I regret writing it too soon?  Yes.  Maybe in time, without the pressure to get that particular story out, I could have made her a little more likable.  Now I'm stuck with it and can only move forward.  

So the next book that I am releasing is called "Catering to the CEO".  I have to admit, I had written this one specifically for one of Harlequin's lines.  I never submitted it to them but I think that I met all of the criteria for it.  I probably could submit it, but I'm just not ready for more rejection right now.  I'd rather self-publish and deal with that.

Here's the new cover and here's the blurb:  Jaded CEO Adam Lawrence knew exactly how to get what he wanted in business and in the bedroom. When independent, sexy and impossible to ignore Cassie Jacobs dares to best him on a business deal, Adam vows revenge. But how far can he go when the two find out they about to become family?

Actually, my agent asked for another book and I have several in various stages of progress so I am having to go through them and see which of them I want to use for the next submission.  In the meantime, I'm having fun with the self publishing thing.  It gives me something to look forward to and to work toward.

So the quest to become an established author continues...

Life or Launch?

Okay, so I've been M.I.A. again and for that I apologize.  But seriously, it's with good reason.

Life.

I took my week off from work and yes, it was quite refreshing.  We did the Great Wolf Lodge, we went and visited Nick at school, I had breakfast with friends and read two FABULOUS books (thank you, Kristan Higgins and Jill Shalvis!) and did very little writing.

Bad author!

While we were visiting Nick at school, something very traumatic happened.  We went out to dinner Saturday night and while waiting for our table, I pulled Nick aside to talk to him.  I've been a little concerned about Michael and he won't talk to me or Frank but I thought he might actually talk to his brother.  So I had a very adult conversation with my elder child and asked him if he could maybe talk to his younger brother and just sort of see what was going on with him.  I had overheard a conversation Michael had with a friend while playing Xbox where he admitted that he'd asked a girl out and she said no.  I wanted to make sure he was okay.

Never send a snarky 21 year old to do ANYTHING.

Basically, rather than just talking TO Michael, Nick decided it would be better to talk AT Michael and dump on him everything that he doesn't like about it.  By Sunday afternoon, Michael had essentially been told that everything about him is...wrong.

Thank you, Nick.  Don't go in to motivational speaking.

We arrived at Nick's place to take him to lunch before we headed back home and he convinced Michael to basically shave his head.

Moms, are you as outraged as I am???

Did I mention that Michael has BEAUTIFUL curly hair???

Did I also mention that Nick essentially had some dull utility scissors and a fairly useless electric razor to take on this task???

I asked Michael if he was okay with it and he said that he was but I sort of feel like he was trying to save face here.  Then Nick and his fiance took him into the bathroom to get him ready.  When the razor turned on, I had to step in.  I told them they were NOT allowed to shave his head.  No buzz cut; I did NOT want to see scalp.  So they cut it really, really, REALLY short.  I don't recognize my child.  There was about three pounds of hair on the floor and the look on Michael's face broke my heart.

They aren't allowed near him any time soon.

I cried that night for HOURS.

I know, I know, it's just hair but to me, those curls were Michael.  That was my boy's signature thing and a part of his childhood is now gone thanks to the dull-scissor-happy-duo.  Wait until they have children and I do something like this - take their first born for the first hair cut or get her ears pierced without their permission.  Ah...revenge.

Then there's our car situation.  We've known that we need another car and that we need to get rid of Frank's van.  We were kind of hoping to do it this summer when my car was paid off.

Best laid plans and all that...

The van died the other day.  Frank call's me from the damn interstate and is like, "The van died".  Well, okay.  We have AAA, call them.  No, no, no, it's just overheated and he needs water.  It's 5:00, I'm getting ready to leave work, okay, I can do it.  Where is he?  He's not sure.  He wasn't paying attention.  So I now have to head west while he was driving east and hope that I can see him on the opposite side of the side of the road!  

Wanted to KILL him.

Got there, we got the van home and essentially as we turned into the driveway it died.  Thank God we made it home.  But now there is no money from the sale of the car to help with a down payment on another one.  There goes my new computer that I desperately need and that my royalty check was going to get for me.

And speaking of royalty checks, there's me, the indie author.  Harlequin and Random House turned me down on the book my agent submitted.  I wasn't upset about Harlequin but I was pretty bummed about Random House.  It's still in with one other publishing house but they don't thrill me.  

I'm releasing another book on my own on April 2nd.  This one is called "Catering to the CEO" and it was originally written to Harlequin guidelines but I never submitted because basically it's been in the press a lot lately about how poorly Harlequin treats and pays its authors.  Thanks, I'll pass.  So I got my cover designed by the wonderful Gilded Heart Designs, I created my video trailer with Animoto and I will be releasing it with Amazon.  All in all, I'm not overly psyched like I was with "Ever After" which has been a bit of a disappointment.  I think I hyped it too much in my own mind and there was no way it was ever going to live up to those expectations.  

I should be doing some major pre-launch work right now but I just don't have it in me.  I've got work, a car to try and finance, Easter is right around the corner and just everyday wife and mother stuff to deal with.  

Are you as exhausted as I am?

Great Wolf Lodge

Let me start by saying that I am not usually a fan of the water.  I don't swim a whole lot, we don't have a pool and really, when we go to Disney I don't do the water parks.  But something about the Great Wolf Lodge appealed to me.  So with my vacation time and Michael being out of school I decided to give it a shot.

It's a 2 1/2 hour drive to the Lodge and it was completely doable for me.  So I booked a package on-line (a little expensive but I figured, why not?) that included one night in a family suite, unlimited access to the water park and dinner.  

For four people.

Now at the point that I booked it, it was only going to be me and Michael so we extended the invitation to some friends and so we had our foursome.  Yeah!  

I was pleasantly surprised by the whole experience.  We arrived a little after noon and our room was ready.  Our friends arrived about 30 minutes after we did and so we settled in to our room and went for lunch in the full service restaurant in the Lodge.  The food was excellent and the prices were more than fair.  We then hit the water park.  

WHAT FUN!!!

If you've never been to a Great Wolf Lodge, I highly recommend it.  There is something for everyone and let me tell you, by the time we left, I had come to enjoy ALL of the slides.  There are three pools (kiddie, wave and activity) and then there are four slides - each offers some serious fun and thrills.  

My main gripe with the whole thing?  The stairs.  My legs are KILLING me right now because today alone I must have climbed over 1,000 steps!  OUCH!  To get up to the two biggest slides took 100-110 steps (It's like four stories +).  Do that a couple of times and you are feeling the burn!  The whole thing is great but it's not very handicap friendly or friendly for the elderly.  I saw many older people there with the grandkids who were excited to do the slides but the stairs were a deal breaker.

The temp in the park is kept at 82 degrees and the water temp is at 84.  PERFECT for the whole experience.  

After three hours of water fun we went back up to the room and changed and got ready for dinner - which was included in our package.  It was an all-you-can-eat buffet at the restaurant on site and what a selection!  There was everything from chicken and waffles (which I still don't understand) to salmon and risotta.  Huge selection, something for everyone and your beverages were included as was dessert.  

The park closes early (8:00 pm) and so the boys hit the arcade and really, by 10 we were all asleep!  All that water fun is exhausting!  We were up and out of our room by 9:30 a.m., put most of our luggage in the cars and were back waiting for the park doors to open at 10 a.m.  We played until 1:30, hit the locker rooms to shower and change and we were on the road by 2:30.  

Oh, one more gripe:  No hair dryers in the locker room?  Really?

So here I sit at 8:30 at night and I am beat.  My legs are killing me and I feel like I could sleep for a week.  It was all so much fun and other than being a little pricier than I had hoped, it was still well worth it and we will definitely be going again!

On a side note, I was secretly hoping to run into some other moms who were hanging out and just watching the kids play while reading a book so that I could strike up a conversation about MY books, but that never happened.  I was a little bummed.  So my quest to find ways to market and promote my books continue!  

Marketing, Mayhem and Madness...

Today was one of those days when it probably would have been best for me to just stay home and stay in bed and not communicate with the outside world at all.  I felt like crap, I'm pretty sure I looked like crap and basically everyone around me annoyed the crap out of me.

Should have stayed home.

But something weird happened today.  There is movement on the Amazon charts.  Yes, yes, it's true.  All weekend I offered "Ever After" as a FREE promo and I ended up essentially giving away over 13,000 (yes, thirteen THOUSAND) copies away.  It hurt, I'm not going to lie to you.  The promo ended last night and when I got up this morning and checked the stats, the book was back at $1.99 and had no ranking whatsoever.

I almost threw up.

I understand that at that point, they had no sales to go by because it had been free.  It had made it all the way to #3 in women's fiction in the FREE best selling (?) category.  So now it was time to start tracking again.  

I came in at 138,971.

And almost threw up again.

I mean, before the free promo I was at LEAST in the twenty thousand range.  I was panicking; I was frantic.  I was at work and couldn't do a damn thing.  As the day went on, something amazing  happened.  It started to climb the charts.  By 3:00 I was in the 6,500 range and now I am at 5,175!  I so don't understand how it all works but I am excited.  
 
What a difference a week makes!

So while all this great stuff is happening and "Ever After" is climbing the charts, I happened to go over and check out how "The Christmas Cottage" was doing.  It's back on TWO best seller lists!  I kid you NOT!  Last week it was in the 8,000 range and tonight it is at #727 in the Kindle Store (out of like a million books) and it is #74 in best selling women's fiction and #83 in best selling contemporary womens fiction.  Go figure.

So THEN...that had me going over to my first (and almost long-since forgotten) book, "Jordan's Return".  That one never made it ANYWHERE on a best seller list and pretty much never made it below 18,000 on the Kindle store list.  It's #24,804 in the Kindle Store and it's been out for well over a year!  It's madness I tell you!

I've done little to no marketing in the last two to three days, I had to let my assistant go last week because the book wasn't making any money and my son who is supposed to be helping me with some of this is knee-deep in mid-terms so he's not helping so that only leads to one thing...

PEOPLE MUST LIKE MY BOOK!

I wish I had confetti right now to throw.  If the damn LIKE button on Amazon would work, things would be perfect but it's not.  After all of their promises, people still can't find the like button on their Amazon page.  I am beyond frustrated.  Next up is getting people to post reviews on Amazon; you can do that without a like button!  LOL!

I may have to wreak a little havoc with Amazon tonight.  Wish me luck!!

The Amazon Publishing Game: Friend or Foe?

Well, here I am three days into "Ever After"'s release and STILL finding issues with Amazon.  I am NOT amused.

Don't get me wrong - I understand that this is a process and that when I wrote and published "The Christmas Cottage", it was a completely different beast.  Why?  I published a feel-god Christmas story and released it right after Thanksgiving.  As an avid reader of romances, I LOVE reading a good holiday romance at Christmas time.  So basically, the timing was beyond perfect.

"Ever After" is a new challenge.  There was no holiday that I wanted to tie in to (I don't want to write like that) and I released it just like every other author and now it has to compete like every other book with nothing to draw any particular attention to it.  It's frustrating to say the least.  What people don't realize is that, as an author,  you are ALWAYS going to want your book to be a success.  You write, you publish, you wait for success.

No one likes the waiting.

Ever.

So things are moving slowly right now and a HUGE hindrance to the process is that Amazon still has not figured out or fixed the problem with the "Like" button.  I chose to publish through Amazon's Kindle Select program and so the only place you will find "Ever After" is on Kindle.  Well, how does Amazon track traffic to your page or your popularity?  

Through the like button.

Basically, you don't have to have a boatload of sales to move up the charts.  Weird but true.  But you need to get traffic to the page and have people click like.  Hard to do that when the "Like" button isn't there!

So now here I sit with a book that is competing with a million other books and a missing marketing tool.  Not a good place to be sitting.  So what am I getting by being a part of this whole Kindle Select program?  No one knows.  There is the possibility of some higher profits from some special fund that they have but I'm not seeing them doing anything to move my book to get it to have higher profits.

Correct me if I am wrong but considering that they take a HUGE part of my profits, wouldn't it make sense for them to try and SELL my book???  I don't understand it.  I want to scream; I want to have an all-out hissy fit.  It won't do any good and unless you are a writer yourself, you probably don't understand what the big deal is.

Basically, I am marketing myself/my books.  Local advertising is a waste of time and energy.  I have to be all over the internet and not just on sites visited by people that live around me.  World-wide.  Global sites.  It's not a difficult concept but you'd be surprised.  Amazon is world wide and they are limiting my marketing.  I have a fan club base of almost 300 on Facebook (thank you, Nick!) and I have gotten multiple complaints that they can't go to Amazon and like the book!  I've gotten enough comments about it that it's sincerely and issue and all I get from Amazon is that they cannot identify the problem.

Why?  Because it's like the "Like" button is basically playing peek-a-boo; now you see it, now you don't.  Two computers in my house, one has the like button, one doesn't.  At work, there are 15 computers, half have the like button, half don't? 

What in the world is up with that?  Shouldn't an INTERNATIONAL company like Amazon do a little more to support the author's whose money they are taking?

Help me, readers!  Please go to Amazon and get your copy of "Ever After" - it's only $1.99 and if you can see it, click the LIKE button!  

Amazon Issues: Trying to Keep the Indie Author Down?

I am not an alarmist.

I don't "do" conspiracy theories.

But at this time yesterday I was spouting both of those things.  

Yesterday was the release day of my third book, "Ever After".  I chose to go with Amazon exclusively and utilize their Kindle Select program where they get the exclusive digital rights to the book for the first 90 days.  I was happy to do it because when I analyzed the sales from "The Christmas Cottage", 98% of them came from Amazon/Kindle.

So what about yesterday had me completely freaked out?  

The "Like" button was gone.

At first I thought I was seeing things but then I remembered how last week when I went to check my stats on "The Christmas Cottage" there had been no "Like" button then either.  So what was up?

Let me start by saying if you are suspicious of something, do NOT go onto ANY discussion boards because THAT is where you find all kinds of conspiracy theories.  There were customers who had written articles and blogs on how this was Amazon's way of snubbing Indie Authors and making room for only the "real" published ones and I have to tell you, after messaging Amazon and emailing Amazon and chatting with Amazon, I was starting to believe it.

No one had a reason WHY the "Like" button was gone!  How could that be?  I mean, they are one of, if not THE largest on-line retailers in the world and their IT department can't figure out this 'glitch'?  Seemed a little suspicious to me.

And why is the "Like" button so important?  Well, it is a way for Amazon to track traffic to your page.  It's not the only way but it's an important way and really, in order for my stats to go up on "Ever After", it would certainly help if people went over there and clicked the "Like" button!  But they can't do that when it isn't there!

I ranted and raved to their support people and one idiot sent me a lengthy email on the function of the "Like" button.  Really?  I KNOW THE FUNCTION OF THE LIKE BUTTON!!  THAT'S WHY I'M SO PISSED THAT IT'S NOT THERE!!!  What the hell???

By 5:00  yesterday afternoon, it was back on "Ever After"'s page.  How?  Well, for me I had to log out of my Amazon account, clear my internet cache, restart my computer and then log back in.  

That only worked on my desktop.  I still can't see the "Like" button my laptop.

Come on, Amazon!  For real??  Work this stuff out!  You keep the majority of my sales on MY hard work and you can't give me my freakin "Like" button???  How about in exchange, I get the majority of my sales profits and you can take your "Like" button and...

Well, you get the picture.

And if you get the chance, head on over and click "LIKE" for me!

"EVER AFTER" RELEASE DAY!!!

I am so excited.  Today is the release day for my newest novella, "Ever After"!  I thought this day would never come!  

For those of you who are new to the blog, "Ever After" is the followup to my holiday novella, "The Christmas Cottage".  In the new story, we follow up with Ava Callahan, who was the best friend in "The Christmas Cottage".  Though the two stories are related, they can each stand alone.

Here is the back cover blurb:

She walked away from her fairytale wedding in search of her true happily ever after.

She hadn't counted on it coming searching for her first.

Eight months after canceling her wedding, Ava Callahan finally has her life in order and sees nothing but blue skies ahead.  A chance encounter with the man responsible for ruining her wedding has her newly organized world in chaos.

Brian McCabe had persevered for eight long months seeking the woman he loves and his patience was about to expire.  Purposely putting himself in every path Ava was on might now always work to his advantage, but he wanted to make sure that she truly saw him for who he was.

Her happily ever after.

"Ever After" is available exclusively on Amazon/Kindle starting today for only $1.99!!!  Please go to the page HERE and get your copy and don't forget to click LIKE while on the Amazon page.  Share the link with your friends and on Facebook, Twitter and anywhere else you can.

Thank you for your support!!!

Countdown to "Ever After"

So we have less than five days to go until the release of my newest book, "Ever After".  I am learning so much about publishing and marketing and promotion and I'm hoping that it will get easier with each book because right now it is still exhausting!

I feel like we are all over the web and very easy to find and follow.  That is truly the best way to market your book.  I am still feeling no love whatsoever from the local community - bookstores, newspapers, etc.  It was kind of depressing at first but then I realized that I want a much bigger audience than they have to offer and so, really, they are doing me a favor.  Plus, they are missing out BIG TIME!  LOL

I was blessed this week by two great websites.  Riley Banks did a wonderful interview with my alter-ego and published it two days ago.  It's titled "Samantha Chase gets her happily 'Ever After'".  Pretty clever right?  You can read it HERE.

Then the wonderful blog, Book Addict Mumma not only is promoting me as the author but is doing a giveaway for the set (The Christmas Cottage AND Ever After)!  You can go to the site HERE and enter for your chance to win the ebook set.

Both of these sites are amazing and it would be greatly appreciated if you shared the links with your friends, too.

So if you're thinking about doing any book marketing and promotion, where should you go?  Well here's the list of where to find me on the web (besides here at All Stace - lol):

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/SamanthaChaseFanClub 
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/SamanthaChase3
Tumblr:  http://samanthachasewriter.tumblr.com/ 
Website:  http://samanthachaseauthor.com
Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/Samantha-Chase/e/B006CZWRGC/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1

I'll be honest with you, there is about another half dozen sites to go to but these are the main ones.  Check them out, like the pages and mark your calendars for Monday, February 25th, for the release of "Ever After".