Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Services for Authors

Instead of a Guest this week, I am featuring a new initiative from a fellow scrivener destined to help those of us who spend untold hours creating fiction for our readers. Ladies and Gentlemen...


Books Go Social


Services for Authors





My name is Laurence O’Bryan. I have been writing almost every day since the year 2000. That’s fourteen years.


I spent the first ten years learning the craft. When I was ready I knew that I needed promotion as well as a good book. That was when I decided to create my first blog and promote it through Twitter & Facebook. Twitter generated the hits from people I didn’t know and Facebook allowed me to reach people I did know.


Now I have over 200,000 followers on Twitter. 100,000 of these in the US and 60,000 in the UK. These are real readers who have followed me because I am a writer or because I promote other writers.


I started promoting other writers in 2012. I have over eighty guest posts from other writers on my site. This year I decided to promote other writers on a new site dedicated to first pages, BooksGoSocial.com. That site is attracting 1,000 visitors a week already.


It’s a virtual bookshop where people taste books and can buy it with two clicks if they like it. If you are interested in becoming a featured author then come on over to Services4Authors, where details of what we do for you are listed.


I believe in authors helping each other. A key component of BooksGoSocial is that each author promotes the site once a month on Facebook or Twitter to have their book rotated to the top of their genre listing. If you won’t share the site with your own followers your book will drift down the listing.


Sharing is what will keep your book near the top on this site. Most visitors will look at your first page only. 50% will look at one other first page.


You will benefit from others sharing the site, so please share it once a month after you sign up. There’s a small annual admin fee, but there is a long list of benefits too. Come on over to Services4Authors.com to see what they are. One benefit you should not miss out on is our 4 Step Book Sales Accelerator Model, which you will receive after you sign up.


Laurence O'Bryan is the author of several Thriller novels:


Laurence O'Bryan's Amazon Author Page

This is a great service; I'm already signed up and would recommend it to all.

Eric @ www.ericjgates.com

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

My Guest: Scarlett Flame

It is truly an honour to host the '2014 Blogger of the Year' as my Guest this week. Although her blog posts are known far and wide, did you know she is a multi-genre author too? Ladies and Gentlemen...


Scarlett Flame

Steamy Scarlett Unbound


I think you might all be a tad interested in just how I got myself into this world of writing and blogging (yes, I have a blog too).

Well, a little over eighteen months ago I was a mere tweep, a normal(ish) tweeter that had begun to use twitter to talk to others. Although, I have to admit the whole thing had me mystified for some time too. As I started to follow people, and be followed back in return, I fell in with a little gang of tweeps that included, my now good friend John Dolan. We all tweeted back and forth for some time and, (as John Dolan is a published author), the subject of writing came up. I mentioned that I had been writing for some time and, that I had hidden this writing in a bottom drawer, writing in secret. John suggested doing something to make myself known and that maybe writing a blog would be a good idea. John further suggested, that a good start would also be to decide on a pen name, especially as the genre I was writing in included erotica.

Amazon Link
So, the five of us tweeps bandied about with various names and, da da Scarlett Flame was born. As I had no clue what a blog was at that time, or even how to go about producing one, John very kindly Skyped me from Abu Dhabi and talked me through how to set one up. Another first for me, as prior to that I had never Skyped either. So, in February 2013 Miss Scarlett Flame the blog was also born. My twitter account of the same name was set up, and away I went.

I can laugh now when I look back to my first steps into the blogging world, as I got excited if even 10 people viewed my blog. Also, my first attempts at blogging were pretty poor too, an absolute beginner, and unable to do the simplest of things. Over time though I have begun to become more adept at producing my blog and my reward came on New Years Eve 2013, when I was announced the winner of The Blogger of the Year 2014 by the site Skelat.com. A very, very proud day for me as my good friend and author SeumasGallacher, was the King of blogging prior to this, and held the title Blogger of the Year 2013 from Skelat the previous year. My blogs are now all singing and dancing, (particularly singing) as I cover a variety of topics including gig reviews for the many fantastic Indie Bands that abound in Manchester, and Great Britain itself. I have been privileged to watch a wide variety of these Indie Bands and now consider many my personal friends. I also cover interviews, book reviews and much more.

Gradually over time, the hits on my blog have increased and I am now closing on 23,000 hits which still amazes and delights me. I also began to write short stories, and was about to publish the first erotic one of my own, on the blog. The first draft of the story was duly sent out to friends in the twitter world, three of them. The first was Erotic Jake, an erotic writer and blogging friend of mine. Gareth Young another incredibly talented writer, and finally Nate Smith, a scriptwriter and producer from Australia. All good valued friends of mine, and they ALL read the story and without exception replied that, although the story was basically a good story, ALL said it was obvious that it had been written by a woman! I think I just sat there stunned with my mouth open, aghast for a few minutes, I then asked them all “Why so?” They ALL replied with a similar reply, it was my use of words, or, to be precise, my lack of the use of certain
Link to Scarlett's blog
descriptive words! That, as I was writing under a pen name, to use the words that were needed to bring the details in the story to life. I then asked each of them to send me three words each, to use in the story and it didn't take them very long to give me those words. I looked closely at the story and put these words in where I thought they would work best and, voila! My first story was ready to be published. Receiving a virtual pat on the back from each of them once they read the published post.

The greatest accolade a writer can receive for an erotic writing (or so I have been told!), is that people have read it with one hand ( if you know what I mean, nudge, nudge, wink, wink). Well apparently I have a LOT of one handed readers, be they male, or female.

I am still in the process of completing the first book that I mentioned to John. Hopefully this will be ready to be published soon in either May or early June, so look out for it. The book I so recently published at the very end of December 2013, now has five 5* reviews on Amazon UK and many more five stars on Goodreads, where I now have an author page. This novel is entitled 'Bound for Passion' and includes the first two stories that were published on my blog. The last story in the book was written especially for the book. I write across multiple genres including Steampunk, erotica, paranormal, romance, sci-fi, BDSM and finally children's books. A strange combination you may think, but as I am also a qualified Children's Nurse, not so strange as you may think.

As for advice to any budding authors amongst you goes, is just to go and write what inspires you, moves you, that you enjoy. Also, practice makes perfect so keep on writing, and perfecting your craft. Another big thing is to read others works, not just in your usual genres, step out of your comfort zone – you might just enjoy it, and learn a thing or two in the process. Writing is like painting a picture with words, so that people remote view in their own heads what you are trying to tell them. A novel rich in detail, and action, allows us to then fill in the gaps, bringing it to life. Making us cry, laugh out loud or sit and reminisce times gone past.


My next novel has a working title of 'The Prophecy Unfolds (Dragon Queen)'. This is the first in a series of books about Alexandra, and her adventures after her capture and kidnap on Earth, where she is taken to the Steampunk world of Syros. A world where fantastical animals and beings abound. There are magicians, werewolves, dragons and dragon riders that fight, love, die and go on to have amazing adventures that will have you smiling, crying and laughing as I walk and run you through their adventures. I hope to capture your imagination, and leave you wanting more, so that you continue to follow their adventures in further books. Later in the year a follow up to 'Bound for Passion' will also be released, in time for Christmas 2014.


BIO

Although born in Salford, UK, I was raised in the Manchester area and still consider myself a Lancashire lass. I am a qualified paediatric nurse and have a Bsc(Hons) and a PgDip (Masters level qualification) among other qualifications. Yet I choose to write, and hope to make this my full time occupation. Although I have always loved to read and write, I only recently began to write seriously. My first blog post was published in February 2013 and since then I have gone from strength to strength. This has resulted in my being voted as Blogger of the Year 2014.

My blogs aren't all erotica, far from it. On my blog posts you are just as likely to read about music gigs I have attended around Manchester, interviews, book reviews and much more. There is something for everyone on my blogs.

You can contact Scarlett and read about her forthcoming projects using any of the following links:




Goodreads


Thank you, Scarlett, for sharing your writing journey with us and wish you the very best of success with your new novel.