Vampires, Sex and Romance

Posted on May 6, 2015 at 5:13 AM by Alex

Male and Female Gears

One of the issues I’ve personally wrestled with since I started writing is the question of sex.  Specifically, how much is too much?  While it’s true that it sells, I’m not sure I want to firmly establish myself as a writer of erotic fiction.  It’s not that I see anything inherently wrong with the genre; however, I recognize that being associated with topics that the mainstream considers “dirty” makes it harder to be taken seriously as a professional.  Sometimes, it can even cost one a job. Continue reading →

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Does Twitter Advertising Work?

Posted on May 5, 2015 at 5:13 AM by Alex

Twitter LogoAs I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been trying to put more focus on marketing my writing. So far, I’ve written two books, but I’ve had a hard time generating sales.  The reviews for my first novel, The Wannabe Vampire were good.  My second, Shampires, didn’t get the publicity or reviews it deserved, because my life pretty much imploded right after TWV was released.

Since then, I’ve been trying to play catch-up.  I decided to try a Twitter promotion, as offered by Books Go Social,  in the hopes that it would increase sales.

Continue reading →

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I am a Writer and a Parent (or Was)

Posted on May 4, 2015 at 5:13 AM by Alex

author-sharon-baylissSharon Bayliss, the author of The December People series, invited parents who are also authors to chime in on her Mama #bloghop today.  While technically I’m no longer actively parenting because I am an empty-nester, I figured I’d jump in and participate just the same.

On her invitation, Sharon posted a number of questions as writing prompts.  I’ve decided to talk about the following:

  • What impact (if any) do you hope to have on your children by being an author? Would you want your children to follow in your footsteps?
  • How old will your children have to be before you let them read your books (if ever)?

Continue reading →

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Review: Twitter Followers

Posted on May 3, 2015 at 2:00 PM by Alex

Twitter Followers: How to Attract 200+ Genuine and Targeted Twitter Followers Every Single Day – A Step-by-Step Twitter Formula: Twitter Followers – Strategies that are proven and guaranteed is an introduction into how to find followers on Twitter. The method is very simple and obvious once you know something about Twitter: find accounts that are already targeting your desired audience and poach their followers by following them. A certain percentage of Twitter accounts will automatically follow you, especially if your profile is aligned with their interests. That’s basically what you need to get started.

The book is extremely brief, but for $0.99 on Amazon or $0.00 if you have a Kindle Unlimited subscription, it is worth a quick look.

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars.

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The Wannabe Vampire – Kindle Countdown Deal

Posted on May 1, 2015 at 5:00 AM by Alex

The-Wannabe-Vampire-CoverThe first book in my series, The Wannabe Vampire, will be available on a Kindle Countdown Deal from today, Friday, May 1 through Sunday, May 3.

If you’ve been thinking about picking up the first book in the Michael Alexander/Kari Logan series, now’s your chance to grab it at a deep discount.

You’ll want to jump at this offer quick, since the discount only runs this weekend!

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Review: What We Do in the Shadows

Posted on April 29, 2015 at 12:43 PM by Alex

Last Friday, my sweetie and I headed out to the Palm Theatre in San Luis Obispo to see a screening of What We Do in the Shadows.  As I mentioned in my post last week, we don’t often go out to see films, preferring our living room sofa and our Netflix subscription to driving, crowds, and over-priced concessions.

I’ve noticed that there is often a long wait for indie films to make it to Netflix, so we decided to break down and make the drive.  A friend told me the film was playing in San Luis Obispo, which is only about an hour away. It turned out to be a great experience, not only for the feature itself, but for the theater.

Continue reading →

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Goodreads Gets a Thumbs-Up

Posted on April 27, 2015 at 10:20 AM by Alex

On Friday, I wrote about how Goodreads had incorrectly credited my books to another other.  I’m happy to report that they responded to my e-mail much more quickly than I had expected.  By late Friday night (the same day I’d written them) I’d received an e-mail saying the problem was corrected.

In this day and age, when customer service can be so difficult to track down, I’m really pleased to give Goodreads a thumbs-up on this one.  Good for them, and I’m happy to report that my listing there is finally correct!

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When Your Work is Attributed to Someone Else

Posted on April 24, 2015 at 6:10 PM by Alex

As part of my campaign to step up my marketing efforts, I’ve started to make a few forays into new types of social media. In addition to my author’s Facebook page, I’ve set up a Twitter account, signed up with BooksGoSocial (the jury is still out on that one), and I’ve done a little work on improving my Goodreads profile.

This morning, I realized that my second book, Shampires, wasn’t appearing on my list of Goodreads titles. “That’s odd,” I thought.   At first, I wondered if the problem was that I am still a relatively obscure writer.  Perhaps the title hadn’t made it into their database.  I started to enter the details for the book and realized it had to be in there somewhere.  The book was released last August, so there should have been plenty of time for it to populate. I decided to go looking for it.

I entered the title, clicked search, and there it was.  To my surprise, my work had been incorrectly attributed to another author with the same name.

Continue reading →

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A Mini Road Trip for a Movie

Posted on April 23, 2015 at 4:27 PM by Alex

Sometime this week, my sweetheart and I will be taking a mini road trip to go see a movie. Generally speaking, we don’t often see films in the theater, mainly because of the expense. I tend to exercise a little patience and catch new releases when they come out on Netflix. My sweetie appreciates watching films at home because we can turn on the closed captions, so I’m not constantly asking, “What did s/he say?”

For this movie, we are making an exception.  We’ll be making a trek to an indie theatre about an hour away so we can catch a screening of What We Do in the Shadows.

Continue reading →

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New Attempts at Marketing

Posted on April 16, 2015 at 6:36 PM by Alex

While the main point of my Web site and blog is to promote my own work, it occurs to me that there may be other writers who are looking for information and resources on how to improve their visibility.  With that in mind, I’m going to share my ongoing adventures in this arena.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, one of my goals for this year is to do a better job of marketing my books.  While most of the feedback I’ve received from readers has been positive, my sales haven’t been as high as I’d like.

When I’ve talked to people about this challenge, the universal feedback I’ve received is that I need to do a better job of promoting myself.  I absolutely agree, and the challenge is to figure out where best to spend my money and time.

Continue reading →

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