Checking In- Potpourri

It’s no secret that I post sporadically here. Sometimes while I’m driving to my daughter’s high school to pick her up from her musical rehearsal, I’ll think of a great idea for a blog post. But then I get home and the next thing you know, the kids are in bed and it’s my writing time. I ask you, which would you rather me spend time writing: my next book or a blog post?

See? Priorities.

But still, things slip through the cracks. I forget to post little things like Chosen being free on Amazon for two days last Thursday and Friday. That would have been helpful information to someone who had read my other books and was considering reading Chosen. I’m sorry. Truly, I am. So then I feel like I can’t post that Chosen has broken the top 100 in the Kindle store again, this time dropping to #19 at one point. Or that Chosen has been in the top 100 for six days now. Or that Hunted is currently at #145.

Oh, wait. I just did.

Or I forget to post about how grateful I am that readers love my books and love my characters and email asking “When is the next book coming out?” I write first for me, but second, hoping others will love my stories, too. Every time someone tells me how much they love a story, my heart swells with pride and gratitude. Every. Time. I hope to God that I never take that for granted. There are over a million books on Amazon, millions all over the world, yet you chose to read MINE.

Thank you.

I haven’t forgotten this blog, it’s just that so many other things capture my attention. One place I DO post frequently, and gives a closer look into my life, is on Facebook. When I stopped blogging on my family blog, There’s Always Room for One More, I started posting things about my kids and life on Facebook. If anyone wants to friend me there, feel free! You’ll get more up to date information and perhaps a little TMI– like this status update:

Seriously, how can one consider going on with their life NOT knowing things like that about me?  You can find me as Denise Grover Swank. If you get the option to make a comment, tell me you friended me via this blog post.

Um, is there anything else???

Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes is getting a new cover and will be available FREE on Amazon Kindle for two days in March. I PROMISE to give some notice for that. I’m so excited about this cover! The talented Janet Holmes read the book and LOVED it. She’s very excited about coming up with a new cover that fits the book. I can’t wait to show you all– as soon as I see it!!! In the meantime, I start back on the first draft of Twenty-Nine and a Half Reasons tomorrow.

I’m still planning on a March release of Sacrifice, probably toward the end of the month. I’ll keep you updated on that too.  Have any questions for ME? Post them below and I’ll be sure to answer them!

Read more

Book Trailer for HERE

A fan of HERE, Jennifer Thomas, has made a book trailer for HERE and it is AMAZING!!! I’m so honored. There’s a million books out there but she chose to make a trailer for mine. I contacted Jennifer and she’s given me permission to post it on my website. I think she really captured the heart of the book. What do you think?

Read more

Picturing Characters in my Head

When I write characters I usually have clear pictures of them in my head. In The Chosen series, I can see Will, Emma and Jake perfectly.  The problem comes when I try to find pictures of models who come close enough to what I see in my head.  Sometimes I hit it exactly.

I found this picture of Jake two years ago while I was writing Chosen and nothing else has ever come close.

But Will and Emma are harder. Recently I found the PERFECT picture of Emma.

You have no idea how close this comes to how I see Emma in my head. I mean, it’s like I saw this picture before I wrote her. At the moment, I’m looking for photos to use for romance trading cards to take to RT Booklovers Convention. No, problem. I have the perfect picture! Awesome, right? Wrong. I found this photo on Tumblr and while I’ve contacted the photographer to see about purchasing rights to use it, I have yet to hear from him. So my search continues.

Will is also hard. The closest I’ve come is the picture I found when I made the book trailer two years ago– my reward for finishing my first draft.

Still, it’s not quite right. His face is a bit too round, his hair not long enough. I wish he didn’t have that giant boo-boo on his head. (There are other photos available of this model but let’s just say this is one of his most flattering pictures for the my purpose.) But after spending hours– yes HOURS–over the course of two years, sometimes you just have to cut your losses and move on.

Raphael and Alex were ridiculously easy.

 

 

 

Wait, are they supposed to be hotter than Will? See my problems, people???

 

 

 

 

But I’m also making romance trading cards for HERE. And while Evan and Reece are clearly pictured in my head, Julia is fuzzy. (As was Rose in Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes.) The problem is that both HERE and Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes were written in first person. I saw Julia and Rose’s world(s) through their eyes. If you’ve read the books, you know that Julia and Rose are girls who don’t spend a lot of time in front of the mirror. Also, both are going through an identity crisis of sorts. Rose starts the book dowdy and frumpy and transforms into a beautiful woman. Julia begins HERE in a deep depression. Her appearance is the last thing on her mind.  So while looking for pictures for both girls, it’s even more difficult that I don’t have a clear image of them.

The photo I decided to use for Julia.

She’s not quite right in my mind, she’s a little too “pretty.” But since I don’t have a clearer mental image, this one will work.

Evan and Reece were much harder.

Evan’s face in this picture is too round and Reece… sigh.

I’ve searched so many photos of teenage boys on multiple stock photo sites that I’m positive I’ve been flagged on the internet as a cougar. The picture I have of Reece isn’t right . In fact, this photo is the farthest from what I see in my head of all the other pictures, but I just can’t find a ROYALTY FREE photo that works. If anyone has any suggestions, I’m all ears, er I guess eyes.

And the last photo I’ll leave you with:

While she’s really not in the book much, without her there wouldn’t be a HERE. She’s the catalysis that changes Julia’s entire world– in more ways than Julia anticipates.

So are these close to what you pictured when you read the books? Do you have suggestions of your own? Have you heard of romance trading cards? Would you be interested in getting some?

Read more

Sacrifice blurb

Sacrifice is getting closer to publication! I’ve hired a developmental editor, the awesome Alison Danso, who has been a tremendous resource– even if she suggested a few major revisions. But I loved her ideas. Her main suggestion was my original intent for the book but could never figure out how to make it work. Alison did. So I’m working hard on finishing revisions and still hoping for a March release, just late March now.

Still, some things are still on schedule, like the book cover. The cover artist, the talented Laura Morrigan, needed the blurb to work on the back cover of the print book. I usually find blurbs incredibly difficult, but I had this one within a couple of hours. Tell me what you think!

 

Sacrifice

The third book in the Amazon bestselling The Chosen series by Denise Grover Swank.

She was dead.
No. She only wished she was.

Everything Emma loves has been ripped away—Jake, Will, and her unborn baby. Within minutes of confronting her new reality, Emma is thrust in the middle of a war between two supernatural beings and she’s the prize. After convincing Emma that Will is dead, Raphael insists that he’s the only hope for saving her son, but she resents Raphael’s dangerous supernatural hold over her. After a revelation from Alex, Emma suspects the only way to escape Raphael’s control is to find the fourth element—Water.

He was losing his mind.
You can’t love someone you don’t know.

The Vinco Potentia thinks Will knows something about a woman he doesn’t remember.  Will’s only memory of Emma is their few minutes together in the forest, but he is consumed with emotions for her—love and belonging. When James shows up and helps Will escape, his story seems off and Will wonders what he’s hiding. So while James wants to find way to sever Will’s connection to Emma, but Will’s not convinced he wants to be free.

You are not bound to destiny.

The book stolen from the Vinco Potentia holds the key to a new set of rules and everyone involved will stop at nothing to get it. Torn between her destiny and her desires, Emma will face her biggest sacrifice yet.

Chosen (#1) was #1 in contemporary fantasy on Amazon.

 Hunted  (#2) was #1 in Hot New Releases on Amazon for both contemporary fantasy and romantic suspense.

Read more

Pricing in Self-Publishing

Here’s my  insight into pricing self-published books and one genre: romantic suspense

For a self-published author, romantic suspense is actually a very hot, well selling genre on Amazon, which is odd since it’s decreasing in print with traditional publishers. But let’s look at the top 20 in romantic suspense on Amazon:

#1 is currently Golden Lies by Barbara Freethy and ranks #21 in the Kindle store. Which means it’s probably selling about 3000-4000 (maybe 5000 it gets sketchy here) or more copies a day to maintain the rank. It’s price is $1.99. Self published

#2 Daddy’s Home by A.K. Alexander and ranks #51 in the Kindle store. It’s probably selling over 1000 copies a day. It sells for $0.99 self-published

#3 is Obsession (Faces of Evil) by Debra Webb #65 in the Kindle store It sells for $0.99 self-published

#4 A “boxed set” of four previously published High Heel Mysteries by Gemma Halliday. The author got rights to her previously traditionally published series and self-pubbed it. It ranks at #86 (and probably sells about 600 copies a day to maintain that rank) and sells for $2.99 self published

#5 Loose Ends by Terri Reid, #106 in the Kindle store. It’s probably selling 350-400 copies a day. Sells for $0.99 self-published

#6 Impulse by Debra Webb It’s #151 in the Kindle store and sells for $2.99 self-published

#7 Wild for You (Book one) by Sophia Knightly. Ranks #155 in Kindle store and sells for $0.99 self-published

#8 Deadly Desires by Ann Christopher Ranks #157 and sells for $1.99 HOWEVER it’s usual selling price is $5.99 and is published by Kensington NOTE: this the first book on the list from a traditional publisher AND it’s price has been slashed. traditionally published/price slashed

#9 Secrets, Love and Lies by Rosanne Dowell ranks #220 and sells for $2.99. Two things to note: Ms. Dowell has other published books AND this book just came off a Free listing. It was offered for free for an unknown number of days. When this happens, typically books jump from free to higher up in the ranks, then fall– sometimes quite quickly. (It has to do with Amazon algorithms) It would be interesting to check the rank of this book in a couple of days. self-published

#10 Silent Witness (Book two in a series) by Rebecca Forster ranks #222 and sells for $2.99. self-published

The first REAL traditionally published, full price book we find on the list is #12– The Witness by Dee Henderson. It ranks #302 and sells for $8.99. It was released in Feb 2006 by Tyndale Press. It was recently listed for free (you can see this in the “also boughts” most of the books in there are priced $0.00, a sure sign the book has come off a free promo.) Traditionally published

RS ranks #13 -#19 are ALL self-published and sell for $0.99 to $3.49 (Barbara Feethy)

Sidenote: #19 is Chosen by Denise Grover Swank >grin< and ranks #526 and sells for $0.99. I sold 150 copies of Chosen yesterday to maintain that rank. self-published

#20 Fearless in High Heels (part of High Heel Mystery series) by Gemma Halliday is #533 in the Kindle store. It sells for $4.99 and it’s interesting to note that this is the ONLY book $4.99 or higher on the top 20 to be there without benefit of a free promotion. self-published

So, what have we learned?

1) Romantic suspense on Amazon is dominated by self-published authors.
2) Almost all are low priced:

• Seven $0.99 books
• Three are $1.99
• Seven are $2.99
• One is $3.49
• One is $4.99
• One is $8..99
• The last three book are anomalies.

Most traditionally published books often peak on the list then quickly fall.One can hypothesize that it’s because of price given the above statistics.

But here’s the problem for self-published authors: On books selling less than $2.99, the author only receives 35%. So for every book I sell of Chosen I make $0.35. At $2.99 and higher, the author can choose to opt into 70% (I have no idea why someone wouldn’t, but it’s an option.) The author get 70% plus a small “delivery” fee for each book sold. I make $2.04 on Hunted and $2.05 on Here. (It has to do with the size of the file.) One exception to receiving 70%: when the book is sold to a few foreign countries, I only receive 35%.

So it’s obvious that I sell more books at a lower price, but I make more money at $2.99 or more. What’s the best price?

There’s no one price fits all solutions. The author has to decide their primary and secondary objectives. My primary objective when I published my first two books was to establish myself in the publishing world. I wanted readers to take a chance on an unknown, debut author. I wanted my name to be recognized. My theory was that I would gain readers and develop a core reader base. My secondary objective was to make a living selling books.

Some self-published authors say they won’t “give their books” away and price them $4.99 or more. And that’s fine. That’s their choice. Let’s say an author who sells an ebook titled Sunny Days on Amazon for $4.99 is making around $3.42 a book. I have to sell 10 copies of Chosen to make as much as one book of Sunny Days. But Chosen is #19 on the romantic suspense list and #7 on the contemporary fantasy list. Amazon is promoting Chosen and Hunted (it ranks #33 on the romantic suspense list and #24 on the contemporary fantasy list) and I don’t have to do a thing. It recommends it to buyers based on their previously purchased books.

My young adult book Here has only hit the top 100 in young adult fantasy/science fiction once and not long enough to catch onto the Amazon algorithms so it struggles to maintain sales. (I sell from 15-20 copies of Here a day.)

So let’s say that Sunny Days is like my book Here and sells 15 copies a day. For an unknown author, I would think that would be on the high side. Most higher priced ebooks I come across have overall rankings in the thousands, which means they are probably lucky to sell one or two books a week. But we’ll be generous to Sunny Days and give it 15 sales a day. And then we’ll say that Chosen sells 150 copies a day.

One day’s profit:
Sunny Days– 15 books at $3.42= $51.50
Chosen — 150 books at $0.35= $52.20
It’s nearly equal profit.

And let’s be realistic. Chosen will fall. It is falling. It’s a fact of life. It’s expected. Sunny Days might maintain it’s 15 sales a day for eternity. My book Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes consistently sells an average of 30 books a day and has for four months. My hope is that Chosen and Hunted will do the same and by that time, I’ll have new books released that with any luck at all, will hit the top 20 of their genres.

But in the meantime, thousands of more readers will know my name. I’ve sold 18,000 copies of Chosen in four months. At 15 books a day, Sunny Days will have sold 1830. Authors are sick to death of hearing about branding themselves, but if the author wants to make a living writing books, they need to build a base of readers. The first way to do that is write a good book, and let’s hope at this point that’s a given. But the author has to get the reader to take a chance on their book.

All that being said, I plan to raise the price of Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes in March. I will debut a new cover and the book has 48 reviews on Amazon with an average rating of 4.7. It’s established and I think it will tolerate a price hike to $2.99. At the moment, I also plan for all my future books to be priced at $2.99. I believe that I will be able to make a living writing by pricing my books at this price point and still catch the eye of the price-conscious book buyer.

Bottom line: pricing books is subjective. It all boils down to the author’s objective.

Read more

Failure

Warning:  The author is blatantly honest in this post.

As December drew to a close and I spent every moment possible editing Sacrifice, the Goodreads 2011 Reading Challenge taunted me every time I signed on. “You have read 46 books of your 52 books. You need six more books to complete your goal.”

What’s a Goodreads Reading Challenge? At the beginning of the year, you can challenge yourself to read a specific number of books. I picked 52 last year. I probably read that the previous year anyway. I just hadn’t recorded it. Besides, if your a writer, you need to be reading. Since I can easily read a book in a day or two, it seemed easy enough.

Then I published four books in six months, as well as writing a first draft and editing TWO books in that time period.

(The fact that I’m insane has already been established in previous blog posts.)

No big deal, right? So I didn’t get those six books read.  Let it go. Only I couldn’t. I saw those six books as a sign of failure. I set a goal and I didn’t achieve it.

Plaster a scarlet F on my chest.

December was a huge month for The Chosen series. Chosen was in the top 5 of contemporary fantasy on Amazon the entire month. It was #1 for one and a half weeks. The rest of the time it was usually two or three. Chosen was also in the top 10 of romantic suspense the entire month, spending several days in the #4 position.  Chosen climbed into the top 100 of overall Kindle sales for three days, hitting as high as #81. The day Hunted released it debuted on both top 100 lists for contemporary fantasy and romantic suspsense. Hunted was #1 New Release for both contemporary fantasy and romantic suspense at the same time for a week and climbed as high as #5 in contemporary fantasy and #8 in romantic suspense.

Sounds like I’m bragging, right?

I’m so proud of those stats. Beyond thrilled. Yet I feel like a failure. If Chosen were better would it have stayed in the top 100 in overall Kindle sales longer? If it were better would it still  have gotten a few one and two star reviews? If Chosen were better, wouldn’t the sales of Hunted have been higher?

I’ve spent most of my life as an over-achiever, my own worst critic.  I compare myself to others. I sometimes hold myself to impossible standards. I make no secret of the fact that I’m driven. I wouldn’t be right here, right now if I wasn’t.

But sometimes I’m my own worst enemy.

Every book I write gets harder. The anxiety is overwhelming, the fear of failure taunts me with every word I put on the page. I thought that the more I learned, the more books I wrote, I would become more confident. My previous successful books would prove to me that I could do this. Instead, I wonder if this is the book that falls flat. If this is my personal version of season three of Battlestar Galactica.*

I took last week off, a much needed rest. I still did some business work but no writing or editing was allowed. I planned to start writing Twenty-Nine and a Half Reasons on Tuesday, but when I started writing doubts raced through my head. Is this scene too forced? Is this funny enough? Am I really in Rose’s voice?  I began to doubt my plot, doubt my voice, doubt my ability to write the book.

I was frozen with fear.

I wondered why it couldn’t be like writing Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes. That manuscript was pure joy from the moment I began to the day I wrote The End thirty days later. Rose took charge and plunged through that book so quickly I could hardly keep up. And I let her. I held on tight, rubbed my wrists when carpal tunnel began to set in, and let her go. What happened was pure magic. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes was like getting struck by lightning, in a good way if that’s possible.

And then last night I had a light bulb moment.

Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes was fun because I let it be. I gave Rose control with no agenda, no deadlines, no expectations. The book was barely plotted. Parts were as much of a surprise to me as they were to readers. Rose rambled. She’s a true southern girl, complete with run on sentences. And I let her. I let her say what she wanted to say, the way she said it. It’s no wonder I began speaking with a southern accent. A twenty-four year old Arkansan woman lived in my head. I let her go off on wild tangents, say the most random things. It was her story and she was telling it. My job was to put it on the page.  There was a time to clean it up, but first draft wasn’t that time. The multiple revisions and edits that came later would take care of that.

Last night I realized that in this one thing, I need to let go. I need to trust Rose and let her tell her story. I need to stuff my worry in a tin can and bury it in the backyard. The first draft is going to be messy and I need to let it be.

I need to have fun.

And so I made a pact with my crit partner last night. We are both going to write messy, beastly first drafts and we will read them without judgement. There is no wrong. There is no stupid. There is only ways to make it better.

For the first time in a very long time I feel like a weight has been removed. I can breath a little easier and I feel a little freer. I’m excited to get back into Rose’s head. Still, I know my doubts will return. I’m not naive enough to think this single proclamation will hold the anxiety monsters at bay. But it’s a start. I plan to take this one day at time. One step at a time. One word at a time. Until I write The End.

 

*I spent most of my week off watching Battlestar Galactica on Netflix. I LOVED the first two seasons but have spent the first eight episodes of season three asking, “What happened to this awesome show?”

 

Read more

Winter Indie Book Fair

Did you find a new Kindle, Nook, or iPad under the Christmas tree? Browse the Indie Book Fair and find a new ebook to break in that reader!

Read more

Chosen: Live Chat on Tuesday, January 3

On Tuesday, January 3 at 6:30 PST, Indie Elite is hosting a chat so readers of Chosen can chatwith me and ask questions about the book.  There’s no registration, but if you follow the link below, you can sign up to get a reminder sent to you a day or hours before.  I’d love for you all to attend! (Someone please show up! LOL) However, if you haven’t read the book, we will be discussing scenes from the book and spoilers will be flying.

Also, a word of warning: I’m pretty chatty.

The link to the room is here:  http://theindieelite.blogspot.com/p/live-chats.html

See you Tuesday night!

Read more

Jolyn’s Blog Blitz

A guest post from Jolyn Palliata

Did you ever get a song stuck in your head? Or part of one? How did you get it out? Did you avoid the song at all costs in the blind hope it would stop hammering you into submission? Or did you listen to the song over, and over, and over, until you were so obsessed that all you could think about was that delicious, devilish little laugh….er, what was I saying? (Right. Song stuck in my head. Ahh…I mean, your head.) Now, I know this has happened to every person reading this post, so I’m hoping you’ll relate to my little story here.

Let me give you some background. In October, I released Connected (Twists of Fate #1), and here’s a brief description of the story: A rock group’s rhythm guitarist, Rhys Alexander, dies and finds himself bound inside the body of a woman he’s never met. Can she help him move on to the other side, or will he end up finding the love of his life…after his has already ended?

For a time, I had this for free on Wattpad (where I posted as I wrote it). And several readers asked me how in the world I came up with the concept. The short answer was ‘By taking the longest route possible.’ The more involved answer is this…

It all started with a song—Imagine that, huh?—which began with a synthesized-sounding guitar and a sinful, maniacal laugh that made my gut quiver. (Yes, I do realize this may be an issue I need to fully address later.) It was Disturbed’s “Inside The Fire”. Add a little Framing Hanley (with that oh-so-sexy voice), and Tavion, lead singer of the band Persevere, was born. And what kind of woman would knock a strapping rock star to his knees? Why, a best-selling author, of course.

So here I had two people who worked in the entertainment industry, but were worlds apart. What could possibly bring them together? The answer seemed so simple, really: Fate. Then my next though was “What if Fate was a living, sometimes-breathing, entity? What an interesting point-of-view that would be!” And it spiraled from there. I dug deep into the protag, Devan (the name of the girl in Disturbed’s song), and put pieces of me and my personality into the mix. Naturally, then I had to mock myself and my works along the way. (i.e., Suddenly Impending Reprisals became Devan’s masterpiece, and guess what…it made it all the way to the NYT Bestsellers list! Way to go, Devan!!)

Now, the question was ‘What inspired me to write Connected’, and so far, I’m telling you how I started writing Twisted (Book 2). Yeah, well, I’m getting there. (Remember how I said it was the longest route possible?)

So there I was, writing Twisted and having a hell of a time. And then the unthinkable happened (insert suspenseful music here)…I got writer’s block. I’m talking a stint of writer’s block that could only have originated from the deepest, most vile and sulfuric, bowels of Hell. And, man, was it stubborn! Over a year went by before I picked it up again, and even then it wasn’t because I came up with a grand master plan, or that my head was swimming with ideas. No. It was simply because I missed my characters. So I started to reread/revise/edit the 30K words I had written, hoping it would shake something loose. Enter: two new inspirations.

The first was the Demonica series by Larissa Ione. In the series, paired up mates can sense each other’s emotions and I got to wondering “What would that be like?”

The next piece of inspiration came from Avenged Sevenfold (A7X). I was studying up on rock bands for Twisted (and can A7X ever ROCK!!), and checking out the band members (*drool*) and it inspired a new character—Rhys.

From Ione and A7X blossomed Connected (finally!) where Rhys’ spirit was stuck inside Addison (my protag), and they could sense each other’s emotions.

But I had one problem. I absolutely REFUSED to walk away from Twisted again. Soooo…how could I use this? Well, first of all, Rhys couldn’t be a lead singer since that’s what Tavion is. And secondly, I wanted this to be a fast-hitting novella used to compliment Twisted’s story. What I needed was a supporting member of the band… Hello, Rhys, my luscious rhythm guitarist!

But then I had another problem. (Because I needed more, right?) I couldn’t picture Rhys in Tavion’s band, Persevere, which is a more mature, established group. No, he belonged with some just-making-it-big band that wasn’t afraid to play with the formula, to take chances, and was just enjoying the ride and what life had to offer. He belonged with the guys of Black Codex.

Then problem #3: How did Black Codex and Persevere tie in to each other? I mean, if Connected leads into Twisted, they have to know each other somehow, right? Well, as luck would have it, they’re all friends. (Who knew?!) Eh, okay, so actually two members from Black Codex are brothers and they grew up with a guy from Persevere, so, by association, they became friends. (It’s all in the details, right?)

All right. Now what? I didn’t want to introduce Fate (my sassy, capricious entity) in Connected even though he’s definitely hard at work behind the scenes. It would’ve been too distracting from the plot, and I had plenty to maneuver already! (Hello…dead rock star stuck in some chicks head!!) So what I did was plot Connected so it all occurs during the same timeframe as the first half of Twisted. Perfect! Then when people read Twisted, they’ll get all the behind-the-scenes-extras that were going on in Connected that either 1) I didn’t have time for, or 2) I couldn’t smoothly transition in.

At the end of my long-ass journey, not only did I have Connected, but I shook myself loose on Twisted…aaand came up with storylines for the other eight band members. (I’ll spare you the details on those. LOL) Thusly, the Twists of Fate series was born.

So, let me ask you again: Did you ever get a song stuck in your head…?

For more information on the Twists of Fate series: http://jolynpalliata.wordpress.com/romance/twists-of-fate-series/

Twists of Fate series Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Twists-of-Fate-Series/190217514383637

To purchase Connected (Twists of Fate #1): http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&sort=relevancerank&search-alias=books&ie=UTF8&field-author=Jolyn%20Palliata

Read more

Savvy Authors Chat: Self-Publishing Myths

Savvy Authors (www.savvyauthors.com) asked Trish McCallan to chair an online chat about self-publishing. What makes Trish qualified to lead this chat? She released her book Forged in Fire in September and hit #5 in the top 100 romantic suspense list on Amazon and stayed in the top 10 for four weeks. Trish’s first book has been so successful, she quit her job to write full time. This woman knows her stuff. She studied sales and rankings months before she released her book. Trust me, you want to hear what she has to say!

Imagine my surprise when Trish asked ME to co-chair the chat with her to discuss Self-Publishing Myths.

You can join us both on Thursday, December 29th 9:00 p.m. EST. Savvy Authors is taking registration for this event.

Read more

Author

Denise Grover Swank

Denise is a single mom who lives in Lee’s Summit, Missouri raising five of her six kids. (The oldest has gone off to live on his own.) She loves to embarrass her children whether it be spontaneous dance parties in the kitchen or making her teens’ friends think she’s funny/cool. *gasp* (Even if its in her own mind.) On rare occasions, she is known to post stories about her crazy life on her family blog There’s Always Room for One More.

She keeps her sanity by creating worlds to escape to and characters to hang out with.

Read more