I'm off to work soon, so I'll have to send the newsletter off when I get home. Too many things to be done, too little time to do them. But, this morning I did get the cover made up for Killing the Bloodlust. Don't you love this picture? I took it one morning when the sun was coming up. It makes me think of the sun taking care of the bad vampires...it's dark, ominous and fun. :)
KILLING THE BLOODLUST should be up on B&N and Amazon and Smashwords by tomorrow.
It was one of the first books I wrote about vampires... and my Rebel Romance Writer critique group said it was my niche--what I needed to write. And so that was only the beginning. However, it was my werewolf stories that really took off, although
DEADLY LIAISONS, one of my vampire romantic suspenses has done really well.
But before vampires were an every day commodity, I had written my first. And it was published by a now defunct Triskelion.
I've revised it a number of times, and now I'm happily making it available for sale, along with others like
HUNTRESS FOR HIRE, the start of a series, and
FORBIDDEN LOVE. One day, I'll finish the sequel to DEADLY LIAISONS--DANGEROUS LIAISONS.
So the vampire world is well and alive and thriving. :)
Why self publish? I have the freedom to make my own covers or have them made. The cover was awful the first time around. The moon showed through the woman's beak of a nose. I asked for the picture to be altered a little, and now that I know how to do a little in that respect, find it really easy.
It's like a cover I have for a current release for a publisher where I sell barely anything--it's an awful cover--and I asked for the title and my name to be larger so it could be read more easily--no. Then they put the wrong name up on Amazon...and changed it so it was another wrong name. So, control. I like having a little more control over my books when I can.
In Killing the Bloodlust, the publisher asked for a synopsis. Not a book cover blurb. The synopsis is supposed to give away the important stuff for a book. The book cover blurb is supposed to lend mystery. So they gave away the gist of the story and I desperately pleaded with them to remove the synopsis and I'd send them a book cover blurb. They didn't want to do it. Said it sounded fine like it was. They finally gave in.
So definitely it's nice to have a say in your work. You've spent months writing it after all!
And money! I made nothing on the first release. Distribution sucked...thought I'd throw in a nice vampire-like term there. But truly...it wasn't worth publishing for the amount of sales or the teeny weeny percentage authors received.
And--no waiting for months and months and months for a release date.
Sure, I LOVE my publishers that I'm published with, but publishing some of my shorter works or works that have been previously sold, or works that can't be sold because:
I need an agent.
Vampires are not selling. The market is now glutted. The market will die out soon. (Yes, I've heard this for years, and you know what? I've loved Dracula ever since I was a teen! Way, way, way before vampires could be the good guys in a dark sort of way.)
Historicals are not selling.
Fantasy is not selling.
Well, you get the picture. None of it is selling....but since I'm finding that's not true at all, I'm happily self publishing!!!
Have a super day! I'm off to work at the regular day job...and then? It's bear making and back to jaguars! The sexy shifter kind. :)
Terry
"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male."
www.terryspear.com
